Forms: Creating an Extrusion
In this article we are going to learn how to use the solid form tools in the Conceptual Design Environment, to create a solid extrusion.
If you are totally new to the Conceptual Design Environment you may want to read this article before proceeding any further. The format of this article is a step-by-step exercise, that you can follow along with. The actual form that we are creating is relatively unimportant, it is the “process” (or “Work Flow”) that I want you to understand. Once you are comfortable with the process, you can use it create more ambitious forms. And PLEASE remember: If at any point you get stuck or you have a query, just use our Forums. Help is at hand to resolve any issues you may have with this exercise.
Right let’s start Revit and choose “New Conceptual Mass”, under the “Families” section of the Launch screen. Choose “Metric Mass” as your family template (you may have a different family template, depending on the localisation settings of your Revit installation). Once you choose to open this family template, the Conceptual Design Environment will launch…..
You will immediately notice the 3D Level and 3D reference planes in the main 3D view. (that’s a lot of 3D for one sentence!)
Let’s get straight down to business. We’re going to create a basic solid form by extrusion. Creating a form (be it solid or a void) is a two stage process. First you define the shape by use of lines, arcs, etc. Then you tell Revit to go ahead and create the form by selecting an option from the “Create Form” drop-down menu. So go ahead an use any of the line tools in the “Draw” palette……
….and define a profile for you extrusion. You can draw directly in the 3D view. (you can of course draw your profile in a plan view if you wish). You “must” ensure that your profile is a closed loop- ie, that it has no breaks in it.
So here is the profile that I’ve sketched out. You can reate parameters that will control all aspects of your extrusion, including the profile- but that’s for another article. For the purposes of this exercise, we’ll stick with a simple fixed profile. So all we have to do now is extrude it! Go ahead and click on the profile to select it…..
Now click on the “Create Form” drop down menu and select “Form”….
As soon as you select “Form” your solid extrusion is created…….
If you hover your cursor over the various faces of your form, you will notice how each face’s boundary highlights. You can click on any of the highlighted faces to select it- upon which you will be see the “X,Y,Z Drag Arrows”, which allow you to manipulate your form.
In fact you can select not only faces but edges and vertices too! Go ahead and click on an edge or vertice and drag it about with the “X,Y,Z arrows”….
Using these tools, you can modify your form in many ways. In separate articles we will look at the various methods of form manipulation.
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