Transcript:
hey everyone this is Pete here at BIM Smith and today I want to talk to you about adaptive components that scary side of Revit that we all want to know how to use but we’re not sure if we should so I want to show you just basically how to build one of these Revit families.
I’m using points and they’re Association two lines and then adding some parameters to those and then applying it to a divided surface. I’m gonna start off with a four-point pattern based Revit family and this is a template that you can find when you select new family and I’m gonna start placing some points around the perimeter that I’m going to apply some parameters to. So if you select the point it’s associated on that line based on a few parameters so I’m going to make sure that they’re all equidistant from either the beginning or the end of that line depending on the way that’s oriented. I’m going to apply that parameter to each one of them so that they’re all equidistant from the end and this is using a number as a parameter from zero to one zero being at the beginning one being at the very end going to draw lines connecting those points so that we could use this to create that opening that we saw in the beginning little intro there I’m gonna change them to reference lines and then I’m going to just test it to make sure that everything’s moving accordingly.
The reason we’re using an adaptive component here is so that these associate themselves to those points no matter where those points happen to be hosted in a project next I want to select a point and host it at the intersection of those two reference lines. I’ll be using these points to control the geometry of the void at the center again we’ll draw lines connecting each one of those points so that we can eventually make it shape next we’re going to host a point at each one of the adaptive points and give it a Z offset this will determine our thickness of the panel that we’re creating today you now select each one of them and make sure that they’re offset parameter is all the same you.
Great, now again we’re basically going to be recreating what we did below and connecting lines between the points and hosting an additional offset square on the interior of this offset polyline right here. Okay, once we’ve completed creating the top polylines to match the bottom we are going to select both the bottom and the top rail and create a void form for the opening and then do the same for the exterior except this will be the solid form. Let’s go ahead and apply a material to that right off the bat now let’s use the cut tool to cut the opening out of the solid form so this should adjust as necessary.
So let’s go ahead and test it by applying a few different changes to our parameters, great! Now I’m going to add a constraint parameter so that we don’t actually make the opening larger or smaller than is possible therefore throwing an error in Revit so I’m going to type a simple formula that constrains its minimum and maximum size.
So let’s go ahead and test that out by testing its bounds so it goes no smaller than that and then it goes no larger than that so great now it’s time to test this out in a project to begin i’m going to go to a plan view and create a surface I’m going to draw three lines and I’m going to loft between them each line containing three points navigating to 3d view we can select each one of them turn them into reference lines and then select create form.
This will create a surface that is controlled by each of the nine points that make it up. Now I’m going to add a parameter to the center one so that we can see how to manipulate the surface once the components are placed now let’s go ahead and divide the surface once divided we can add some parameters to the U and V coordinates whether it be a number or a fixed distance is up to you, just go ahead and check out the instance parameters to manipulate how that pattern is shown now that we have our you grid and V grid set we can control them from the type properties. Now once we select the divided surface, we can apply a pattern based family to it we already created a rectangular one so let’s go ahead and select that and apply it to it, awesome!
Now let’s go ahead and test a few parameters to make sure that it’s functioning correctly you great so everything is working as necessary. So I’m gonna select one of the panels at its type properties and change some of those parameters that we added in the Revit family environment and test it out see if it works great let’s go ahead and try that again and test out the other parameter perfect so each one of them adjusted as necessary just for fun. Let’s go ahead and test that one more time and there you go. So that’s how you make a generic adaptive component in Revit with a few parameters attached to it and apply it to a divided surface.
