Adding Ductwork and Exhaust Diffusers in Revit MEP Mechanical - Step-by-Step Guide

Adding Ductwork and Exhaust Diffusers on the Second Floor - Streamlining the MEP Mechanical Design Process

Dive into the intricacies of the Revit MEP Mechanical course as we explore how exhaust terminals are added and replicated across multiple floors. Understand how to select, copy, and paste these exhaust diffusers, and learn how they can be integrated into a system.

Key Insights

  • The article explains the process of adding exhaust diffusers to a layout in the Revit MEP Mechanical course, demonstrating how to select multiple diffusers using the control key and then copying them to the clipboard. This allows the diffusers to be replicated on different floors.
  • The process also involves aligning the diffusers to the current view, which places them at a specified elevation relative to the floor. Once these diffusers are tied into a system, they will adopt the color of the system defined for exhaust.
  • Finally, the article outlines how to layout the main lines using ductwork, specifying the dimensions and system type of the ducts. It is emphasized that connections to exhaust diffusers are typically hard connections, requiring specific changes in the duct command.

Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.

Welcome back to the VDCI course content for Revit MEP Mechanical. In the previous video, we went ahead and started talking about some of these other systems we're adding in. We also populated in our exhaust terminals on the first floor overhead for the janitor spaces and the bathroom.

Now, what I'm going to go ahead and do is I'm going to go to my second floor and do the same thing. Now, I can copy them up. So, what I could theoretically do is I can go down here to my stay on my ceiling one mechanical.

I could select by holding control. I'm going to add to my selection set. So, I select one.

Let me go ahead and do that again. I select one. I'm going to hold control and you see how I get the little plus sign next to my mouse cursor.

That means I'm adding to my selection set. If I hold shift, you see I have a minus sign, which means I'm removing from my selection set. So, I'm going to hold control.

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I'm going to select all of my exhaust diffusers. There we go. I'm going to go ahead up here to copy to clipboard.

There we go. You'll see that your paste icon will probably pop up and activate. What I'm going to go ahead and do is I'm going to go to my ceiling mechanical two working and I haven't done the same kind of thing where I add the space tags.

We could always add those, but I'm here to do a specific task. So, I'm going to do that first. So, I'm going to go ahead and hit paste.

I'm going to go aligned to current view and what that's going to do is it's going to paste those diffusers at that nine foot elevation relative to my second floor. Aligned to current view. There we go.

And you can see they populated in. They stay selected through that first time and then I hit escape and that will deselect them. Now, you'll notice that these are just a black color and that's because they haven't been tied into a system.

So, when we start to put in our ductwork and everything and tie these in, they'll take on the system that is or the color of the system that is defined for exhaust. So, what we want to go do is we're going to start laying out our main lines. So, we're going to use duct.

Let's go to our first floor ceiling mechanical. I'm going to go there. From here, now my exhaust fan is going to be somewhere in this area and we can always locate that a little later.

What I really want to do is I want to locate the duct that's going to serve these specific diffusers. So, I'm going to go duct. I want to use a round duct taps with short radius.

I'm going to go ahead for right now, let's just put maybe let's say 11 feet for the middle elevation of the duct. I also want the duct to be a 16 inch diameter. This is going to be my main kind of coming straight down.

So, it's going to be obviously be larger as we transition down, we will get smaller. So, I'm also going to check my system. So, you can see currently my system type is set to return air.

We're not working with a return air. I want to change this to exhaust air. And there we go.

So, I have exhaust air. I'm just going to go ahead, draw my duct. I'm going to come down here.

I'm going to go all the way down to about 11 feet. And there we go. So, you can see that that has that green color.

Now, typically exhaust diffusers, you really shouldn't do or you don't typically do the flex duct going to them. Typically, these are hard connections. So, our connection to our actual diffuser is going to be a 12 inch connection.

So, I'm still in my duct command here. I'm going to go ahead, type in or change it to 12 inches. And I'm just going to come straight off this.

So, I have it still at 11 feet. I'm going to come here, drag over, pick, and it makes that hard connection. Same thing, you can pick either on the edge here or the center line of the duct.

photo of Tyler Grant

Tyler Grant

Revit MEP Instructor


Tyler Grant is a BIM Manager a Delawie. A dedicated, goal-oriented, and experienced architect. Tyler has managed multiple design/build BIM projects from inception to construction completion, through all phases. Technology-driven and experienced educator to train and instruct users, both novice and advanced, in the workflow and processes of the modern architecture, engineering, and construction field. 

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How to Learn Revit MEP

Specialize in MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) systems within Revit for advanced design solutions.

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