Please Note: Our Discussion forums have moved. If you would like to discuss this article or any aspect of Revit, please do so at www.forums.revit.biz We will be more than pleased to help you with ANY Revit query. Welcome to part 13 of this 17 part series on creating your own custom model components using the Family Editor. If you have just stumbled across this article without reading the previous parts of the series, you may want to start here After solid extrusions, solid sweeps are the most useful tool for producing solid 3D geometry. The fundamental difference between Extrusions and Sweeps is the Path. Just like extrusions, Sweeps consist of a profile and a path. In both cases the profile is perpendicular to the path. But whereas an Extrusion’s path is linear, the path of a Sweep can be non-linear. A Sweep’s path can be either open OR a closed loop. Here are two examples of a path for a Sweep:- 
This is an open path. Notice that it can be made up of straight lines, arcs, etc. 
This is a closed path. Again, notice how you can make it up from different lines, arcs, etc. Also note that line segments can meet at acute angles, etc. Because you have to actually draw the path, this necessitates an extra step in the creation process, compared with creating a solid extrusion (where you can just type in the numerical length of the extrusion). Upon selecting Solid Form > Solid Sweep… 
You can see that the Design Bar menu has a button for sketching the 2D Path. Select the “Sketch 2D Path” button and proceed to draw out the path. THEN you can hit “Sketch Profile” and draw the profile that you wish to be swept along the path. 
Note that the path MUST be 2D. It can be as complex as you like (note my examples above to see how arcs, straight lines, etc, can be used) but it MUST remain in one plane. So when would you use a sweep? So when and why would you use a solid Sweep? A good example would be a window frame, a picture frame, etc. Below I have created an example to give you a flavour of what’s possible. For clarity, I have shown the Profile, Path and resulting 3D Sweep. Profile 
Path I Results in this Sweep 
Hopefully this article has helped you to understand what a Revit Solid Sweep is, how it is created and why you may use it. If you have any questions relating to this specific article please use THIS Forum to ask.
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