Arced beams @ entry

It is pretty easy to make the needed arced beams in Revit, but it’s one of the things that would be difficult to stumble through without a bit of guidance. As I mentioned in lab, Revit 2013 has a much easier way of creating these beams than previous versions. Making arced beams in plan is very simple as there is an arc line tool for drawing the line the create the beam.

In theory, this same arc line tool would work in an elevation of section view but if you try using it you will likely get any number of error messages that basically refer to work plain or view angle.

So, basically Revit alludes to the fact that you can create these beams but other then give you error messages it does not guide you through the process. 

Here is what I did to create the beams for our project:

1.       Open an elevation (or section) that has the area we need to work in. I used the South Elevation.

2.       Revit has two types of line tools that you can use during your project. The first is Model Lines (Architecture>Model>Model Lines) and the second is Detail Lines (Annotate>Detail>Detail Line). There is an important distinction between the two. Model lines are basically model elements and will be visible in many views on your project, Detail Lines are simply an annotation tool and will only appear in the view you create them in. When we make our sections & details later, this distinction will play a big part. For these beams, we will want to use the Detail Line tool.

3.       Refer to B/S1.02 for the sizing and spacing of the beams needed. In the elevation view, I’m going to draw a few sets of reference lines. The first will be vertical lines that represent how wide the structure is (refer to the dimension on the top right of the B/S1.02 detail). Draw these lines parallel to the beams you should already have. The linetype can be anything you want since we will delete them soon and simply using them for reference; I choose Hidden line so that the dashed linetype would stand out from the drawing (shown in blue below).

4.       Next, use the arc line Detail Line to connect the top of the two columns. Typically, we would be given a radius or some sort of reference angle for the needed curve but I have not found this dimension yet in the drawings. If somebody finds an angle that references this structure let me know. For the time being, simply eye ball the curve and try to estimate its diameter to match the given elevation as closely as possible. Again, I’m going to use the hidden line.

5.       This arced line now needs to be connected to the vertical lines we drew earlier. However, since we can see from B/S1.02 that span from vertical line to vertical line is made from 3 separate structural members, we want three line segments that create a single plane.

6.       There are two options. 1, simply extend the existing curved line and use the Split Element (SL) tool to cut it into pieces (this works well when wanting to split a single wall into many segments). 2, Use the Detail Line tool to draw the two segments at either end of the main arc. I used option two simply because it was faster for me. If you use option two, you’ll notice that Revit will snap to the vertical line where the radius you’re matching would hit and also snap to match the radius when you need to click the radius.

7.       Now, select all five lines segments that you’ve drawn and Create Group

We do this to make it easier to delete ALL the lines when we are done. When grouped, if you delete one element, then everything will be deleted.

8.       The last step is that we need to change our work plane so that Revit will know which way to extract the beams with the Beam tool that we’re going to use. This is the only step in the process that can cause trouble, so be patient and try a few options if this first one does not work. The end result, is that you want to select the elevation you drew your arc lines in (mine happens to be the South Elevation). There are easier ways to do this, but this step almost always works which is why I want you to try this route. Go to a plan view. Pick the Set Work Plane Tool

In the dialog box that opens, make sure that Name is selected and pick one of your horizontal grid lines from the list.

Select OK, and another dialog box will open that shows you which views are perpendicular to the plane you selected and therefore able to be used as a work setting. Again since my end goal was South Elevation, I’m going to pick that from the list.

You should hopefully now see the view you created your Detail Lines  in and should see a blue background. This blue represents the work plane. Personally, I don’t like seeing it so I turn it off in the Architecture>Work Plane>Show option. If you don’t mind it, it should like similar to this:

9.       Now we’re ready for beams…  Select the beam tool.

10.   Refer to the structural plan (that you hopefully marked up) and select the correct the beam from the drop down list. Choose the Pick Line tool to place the beam.

11.   Now click on the three line segments we created earlier and Revit should give you an accurately arced beam.

12.   Finishing up, I would now go to a 3D view and select the three segments and group them (like you did earlier for the model lines). Since we need to copy these beams in this orientation to other spots, it will be easier to group them and paste everything as a single element. Refer to B/S1.02 for the placement of all the arced beams.

13.   Do not forget to place the HSS 10x2x1/4 beams that run North-South on B/S1.02. These can be placed like all the beams you have done up to this point. Check the Level Offsets of the arc beam segments to align these beams, also dimension the angle of the end plate of the arc beam so that these beams can be rotated to accurately fit into the beams we’ve modeled.

14.   Lastly, open the elevation you used to create the model lines and be sure to erase the 5 total lines that we made (or one group if you grouped the lines).