Discover how to create an opening in a roof and frame it using Revit Structure. Learn how to utilize the beam system tool, vertical opening tool, and other Revit features to create a detailed and accurate structural model.
Key Insights
- The article provides step-by-step instructions on creating an opening in the roof using Revit Structure, a technique that involves using the vertical opening tool and the pick line option to define the area of the opening.
- The article also delves into the process of framing the roof, particularly around the opening. This is achieved through the use of the structure panel and beam system tool to create beams and fill gaps in the roof.
- Utilizing the K-bar joist truss, the article demonstrates the process of setting beams around the high roof and aligning trusses to the slope of the roof, a more efficient way of laying out beam systems in floor systems.
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Hello and welcome to Revit Structure. Let's get started. Now that we've completed the heavy framing, let's put an opening in our roof.
Zoom in. Okay, what we're going to do is go to our Structure panel or tab. Let's go over here to our Opening panel.
What we want to do is we don't want a shaft because we're only working in our roof plane. So let's go to Vertical Opening*. Let's pick our Vertical Opening tool.
Let's pick our roof that we want to put an opening in. Now let's again use the Pick Lines tool and go to the inside of our model—of the architectural model. Let's pick these lines and zoom in.
We want the interior side of the curtain wall. Let's pick here. Okay, let's go to our Modify panel and use the Trim tool.
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Let's create the opening. Let's go to our Mode*. Let's go to Finish Edit Mode*.
Let's pick it, and there we have it. Now we have an opening in our roof. Let's check it—and there we have it.
Very good. Okay, now that we’ve finished our opening, let's finish framing around the opening. We want to fill in these gaps in our roof.
So the first thing we want to do is create a Beam System. Let's go to our Structure panel, Beam System tool. Let's pick it.
Okay, that takes us to a contextual tab, and what we want to do is create a Beam System by sketch, because the automatic system fills in the whole area and we only want this small area. So let's go to the Beam Sketch*, and again go to Pick Lines and sketch the surrounding area we want filled in at our existing beams and girders. Okay, let's trim them.
And again, this is our beam span. We want the beam span in this direction. So let's pick that.
Let's pick this direction and hit OK. There you have it. Now we have them identified as two-by-tens.
We don't need all of that, so let's create a window around them and delete them. Okay, let's go on to the next one. Let's do this area.
Again, Beam System*, and we do want our 3D justification on. 3D snap. We have everything in place.
Again, let's go to our Beam Sketch*. Let's go to Pick Lines and pick the area that we need to fill. Remember, pick our beams here.
Let's go to Trim here, and again let's change our beam span or beam direction to vertical. Let's hit Finish Edit Mode*. Again, we have some extra elements or annotations.
Let's delete that. Very good. Okay, we've done this side.
Now go ahead and finish out this side, and we'll see you when you finish that. Okay, now that we've finished placing our Beam Systems—or our joists—to complete the floor system, let's take a look at it in 3D. Let's go to our 3D model and pick it. You can see here—zoom in and rotate slightly—that through the clerestory of the architectural model, we now have an open space in our structure.
Let's clear the architectural model. Let's go to VV*, Revit Links*, and turn off its visibility and check out the structural model. And there you have it.
Let's turn it. Let's view it from the bottom, and there are our joists in place. Very good.
Okay, let's close this. Now that we've finished framing our roof, let's go to the High Roof and finish framing it. Let's go to our Project Browser, Structural Plans*, High Roof*.
Now here we have our High Roof. Let's finish framing it. What we want to do is first set beams around our High Roof so we can set trusses to carry our roof panel.
Okay, let's go to Structure*. Let's go to Beam*. What we want to do is use W shapes or wide flange beams.
We want to use a W12x14. So let's pick it. Okay, our usage is going to be Girder*.
Set it here. We want 3D snapping on and at the High Roof. We want our offset value to be zero because we are at a roof.
So let's set that. Very good. Let's get started.
I want it at this point. This point to this point, and let's just frame around this roof line. You notice we get a circle with an X in it.
That means our 3D snapping is working. Very good. Let's go here and here.
Okay, let's escape out of that. Now we want to go to our Beam System again, and what we want to do is look to see what type of beam we want to use. We don't see it here, because what we want to use are trusses.
Now that we've established we don't have the proper truss information in here, let's go back and load it up. So let's escape out of this command—the Beam System command. Let's go to Beam Framing*.
Let's go to Edit Type*, and we get the Type Properties dialog box. Let's go to Load*. Let's scroll down to Structural Framing*.
Let's go to our Steel Section*, and scroll down to our K-bar joist truss. Right here, we want the rod web as opposed to the angle web. It's a lighter truss, so let's select that.
And we want the 16K9 truss. Let's pick that one. It's 16 inches deep—or 1 foot 4 inches—and it's 10 pounds per foot.
Let's hit OK. Now that it's loaded, hit OK again. Now we see we have our K-bar joist loaded.
Let's go back and escape out of this command. Let's return to our Beam System*. With that picked, we can now come here to Beam Types and set our joist to the 16K9.
Let's pick that. Okay, let's check our parameters. We've got the right joist type.
*Justification is Center*. That means it will start the layout from the center of our window. We have a fixed distance of two feet on center.
We've got our 3D snapping on, and that's important because what it does is 3D snapping—if we look at our Beam System—allows our trusses to align to the slope of this roof without us having to go in manually and set the elevation of each truss one by one, which takes time. This is a more efficient way of laying out Beam Systems, truss systems, and what have you in your floor system. Okay, let's get started.
Let's pick our beam. This establishes our span direction. Let's pick it.
And there you have it. There are our trusses. Let's modify or escape out of that command.
Let's pull our section back and take a look at what we have. Let's pick it twice. Let's re-establish our view frame.
Let's take a look. Okay, there's a command that we can use that will help us thin out these lines to get a better look at our elements in this window. The command is TL (*Thin Lines*), and it thins out the lines of your elements.
Let's change our display level to Fine*, and there you have it. You see our trusses have aligned themselves with the roof system. Let's zoom out of that.
- Let's close this window. Let's go back to our High Roof framing.
Okay, let's do TL here and bring back the images to what we need to see on our plan, and we will come back in a later video and annotate each of these elements—the W12x14 beams, the K-series bar joists, and the roof type. Very good. Let's ZX (*Zoom Extents*).
Let's zoom out, and that's it for this video. We'll see you in the next one.