Creating floors - Revit Architecture Tutorial

some floor elements, and I've started in 3D view here just so I can show you that, currently, there are no floors or really horizontal surfaces of any kind. Notice that we can kind of see right through the model. So that's what we're going to address here in this video. Now we're going to create two floors, and just kind of zoom in a little bit closer on the building geometry. So the Floor button is on the Architecture tab, and you can click the main button, but there's also a drop down. And if you do the drop down, just make sure you're choosing Floor Architectural, that first button right there. Now as soon as you do that, you're going to see the interface change a little bit in a few significant ways. The first is, like with a lot of commands, it takes us over to the Modify tab. So stay on the Modify tab, that's the correct place to be. Notice it says Modify, Create Floor Boundary on that tab. Then the tab tints in a greenish color, and then there's the presence of this Mode panel right here. And that's got these two very large buttons, a big green checkbox and a big red X. The green checkbox is how we finish creating the floor and the red X is how we get out and cancel if we decided that we didn't want to continue. Now there are several draw modes that are active here already. So on the Draw panel, the Boundary Line button is already active and lit up, the Pick Walls button is active and lit up. We're going to accept both of those, and then over here on the Options bar, there's an Extend Into Wall Core checkbox, and that's also already checked for us. Now a floor element is what we call a sketch-based object. And so that will become pretty apparent what that means as we build this first floor. So I'm going to accept all of those options that I just pointed out to you, and I'll click this top wall right here. Now notice that I just had to click the wall and it will trace the full length of the wall with this magenta-colored sketch line. Now, to understand fully what we've got, I'm going to zoom in a little bit right here, and notice that the location of that magenta line is actually at the face of the stud, which is the core of this wall. So previously in this view, I changed it to medium details so that you can see that. Now, Extend Into Core is what's allowing that to happen. If I click this little flip grip, I can flip it to the inside face of the core and if you look really carefully, you'll notice that there's still a little bit of space there between the edge of the core and the inside face of the wall. That's because there's a thickness of drywall there that it's allowing for. So I'm going to keep it on the outside face here, and then I'm going to do Previous Zoom. So that's the advantage of using Extend Into Wall Core. Now I'm going to keep selecting walls here around this side and then around this way, but across the front here, there's actually two walls here and here, and I don't want to pick both of them, so I'm only going to choose one. And it would be possible for you to pick both and let them touch endpoint to endpoint, but what I actually prefer to do is to just have the one and then trim it up, but before I do that, I'll click the Finish button to show you what happens if you don't create a valid sketch. So notice that there's a big gap here, and these two orange dots are indicating that we've got a problem here. So one of the really nice things about the sketch mode is that if you try and create a sketch that's not valid, Revit will tell you pretty sternly and usually give you a warning like this to let you know exactly what the problem is, and it's telling us here you need a closed loop. So I'll click Continue, and to close that loop, I'll just simply switch to Trim and Extend to a Corner, so we can see very clearly what it's asking about. And I'll say yes again. So now let me show you what answering yes to those two questions actually meant. So let's create a section. So I'm going to come over here to the Quick Access toolbar and click on the Section tool. I'll start out here outside the building to the left, click, drag horizontally across, and then click again. And if you pan slightly, you should see a little dash box indicating the extent of this section. Just click away from it to deselect, and then double click the blue symbol there to open up that view. So I want to focus in on this lower left hand corner here, so I'll do a Zoom In Region, and you can see a difference already between the way this floor interacts with its neighboring walls and the way this one does, and that's the difference between answering yes and no to the various questions. Now the first question in both cases said, do you want the walls that go up to this floor's level to attach to the bottom? So here's the level, in the case of second floor, here's the walls it was talking about, and notice that it actually pulled them back to the underside of the floor and made a slightly nicer connection there. Had we answered yes in this case, what would've happened is these walls would have actually stopped here, and you would have this little unnatural gap right there. So that's why I actually answered no there. I'm going to undo that. However, on this one, what it's done is merge that geometry together and made a nicer looking connection and that's the join geometry question that it asked us second. Now it didn't ask us that on the first floor Now it didn't ask us that on the first floor because it didn't have that kind of an overlap, because it didn't have that kind of an overlap, but actually that's really what I would like to have but actually that's really what I would like to have right here between these two. right here between these two. So you can do that manually by going to Modify, So you can do that manually by going to Modify, clicking the Join Geometry tool, clicking the Join Geometry tool, and then just simply selecting and then just simply selecting the objects that you want to join, the objects that you want to join, and that will create a similar condition there and that will create a similar condition there to what we have up here. to what we have up here. Now if you change this view Now if you change this view from coarse to medium detail, from coarse to medium detail, then it should be even more obvious then it should be even more obvious what the effect of some of the settings we chose what the effect of some of the settings we chose when we built the floor was. when we built the floor was. Remember that we chose Extend Into Core. Remember that we chose Extend Into Core. So now you can very clearly see So now you can very clearly see how this floor extends into the core of that wall, how this floor extends into the core of that wall, and then one more thing. and then one more thing. Remember that when we sketched the floor, Remember that when we sketched the floor, we said Pick Walls? we said Pick Walls? That's not just a trace command. That's not just a trace command. We weren't just getting the shape. We weren't just getting the shape. That's actually a relationship. That's actually a relationship. So if I took this wall and I moved it, So if I took this wall and I moved it, notice that it actually affects the shape notice that it actually affects the shape of both of the floors that are attached to that wall. of both of the floors that are attached to that wall. Now I'll do Control + Z to undo that. Now I'll do Control + Z to undo that. Now, there's one last thing I want to point out. Now, there's one last thing I want to point out. If I go back to the 3D view here, If I go back to the 3D view here, I've got this big gap over to the stair. I've got this big gap over to the stair. So it would make it a little difficult So it would make it a little difficult for the folks coming up to the top of that stair. for the folks coming up to the top of that stair. So if I click back to level two, zoom in on this area, So if I click back to level two, zoom in on this area, one of the things about a sketch-based object one of the things about a sketch-based object that you want to know is, that you want to know is, you can always go back and edit the sketch later. you can always go back and edit the sketch later. So if I select this floor, So if I select this floor, there's an Edit Boundary button right here. there's an Edit Boundary button right here. That just simply takes me back into sketch mode. That just simply takes me back into sketch mode. Now, in this case, I don't have any walls out here to pick, Now, in this case, I don't have any walls out here to pick, so instead, I'll just use lines. so instead, I'll just use lines. And I'll draw a line across the front of the stair, And I'll draw a line across the front of the stair, and then connect it back to the sketch. and then connect it back to the sketch. If you try and click Finish, it will fail If you try and click Finish, it will fail because this is not a valid sketch. because this is not a valid sketch. It doesn't form a closed loop. It doesn't form a closed loop. So I'll click Continue, So I'll click Continue, and I need to split out this chunk of line right there. and I need to split out this chunk of line right there. So I'll do that with the Split Element tool. So I'll do that with the Split Element tool. S + L is the shortcut. S + L is the shortcut. I do want to check the Delete Inner Segment checkbox, I do want to check the Delete Inner Segment checkbox, and then I will just click two points and then I will just click two points to split out that internal segment to split out that internal segment and now when I click Finish, it will complete the operation. and now when I click Finish, it will complete the operation. Now it will ask me these same questions again. Now it will ask me these same questions again. It doesn't really matter if you answer yes or no It doesn't really matter if you answer yes or no in this case because we've already done it once, in this case because we've already done it once, and it wouldn't change things. and it wouldn't change things. But now you can see that if I look at this in 3D, But now you can see that if I look at this in 3D, we now have some way to get from that stair we now have some way to get from that stair over to the floor. over to the floor. So, creating floors is a sketch-based process, So, creating floors is a sketch-based process, but if you're using things like Pick Walls, but if you're using things like Pick Walls, it's really easy to create valid floor sketches it's really easy to create valid floor sketches that are based on the actually geometry of your building. that are based on the actually geometry of your building.