Modeling Beams and Floor Systems in Revit Structure: A Step-by-Step Guide

Hello, and welcome back to Revit Structure. Let's get started. Since we've placed our columns in our model, we can start modeling beams and floor systems.

Let's go to level 2. And there we have our architectural background, and we're ready to proceed. First thing we're going to do is we're going to load the beams that our designer has outlined for us to use. So let's go to structure.

Let's go to beam. And here we have a wide planche beam, or a W shape, 10 × 12. Let's see what else we have.

We don't have anything that we need yet that our designer has given us. And by design he has given us a W24 at 94 for moment frames, a W21 at 50 for brace frames and girders, a W21 by 44 at drag girders and beams, and 18 × 35 at general joists. So let's load them up.

Let's go to edit type. Let's go to load. Again, we're going to go down to our structural framing.

Learn Revit

• Nationally accredited
• Create your own portfolio
• Free student software
• Learn at your convenience
• Authorized Autodesk training center

Learn More

And we want steel. Okay, since we are using wide planche or W shape beams, we will pick this one. And our dialog box comes up with our structural members.

Okay, let's scroll down and find the members we need to use. Again, we started with a 24 at 94 for our moment frames. A 21 at 50 for our brace frames and girders.

There it is. Press control, pick it, because we want to grab all of our beams at one time. We want to always be efficient.

Our next member was a 21 × 44 for drag girders. And our last member for general vertical loading was a W18 by 35. There it is.

Okay, let's hit okay. Okay again. We find now that our beams are loaded.

We are going to start with our moment frame beams, which are the 24 × 94. And what that means is that our beam is 24 inches deep by 94 pounds per linear foot. Okay, let's check our parameters.

We're at level 2. Our usage on this line is going to be a girder. We want it 5 1⁄2 inches below finish floor, because we have a floor system that will be 5 1⁄2 inches deep. We are a girder.

Now, with this girder, we're using it for a moment frame. We have conditions that we need to meet. What we want to do is we want to connect the ends and note that they are moment frame ends.

Okay, so we go to start connection. Hit moment frame. End connection.

And choose moment frame again. So let's place our first beam. We're at the midpoint of the column.

To the midpoint of the column. And as you'll notice, with this beam, we have a triangle at the end. This notes it as a moment frame girder.

Let's go to the other side. And we always want it to our columns in a strong direction. Let's again pick the beam.

And all of our parameters are set. Let's go ahead and place it. Okay.

Let's go ahead and place, on the vertical part of our plan, the other two moment frames here. And here. Okay.

Now what we're going to do is we're going to place our braced frame beams. Okay, and we have our braced frames around this core. And since we don't have to get out of the command, we can just come to our dropdown and pick our next one.

And at these, we have a 21 at 55. And since we don't have it loaded yet, let's go back and load it. Again, edit type.

Load. Again, down to structural framing. Steel.

And we'll go to our white flange beams. And we're going to scroll down to find a 21 at 55 or 21 × 55. Here it is.

Let's pick it. Hit okay. And at this point, where we have type properties, we can actually change and pick our beam that we need here.

And set it to go. Okay, let's check our parameters again. We're at level 2. These will be girders again.

And since they are braced frame, they are not moment frame. We do not need that notation, so we'll pick none for the start connection and none for the end connection. Okay, let's get started placing them.

Again, in the strong direction. Here. Here.

Here. And here. Okay, that's done.

Now what we want to do is, now that we've placed our beams and we're going to place a floor slab, let's look at some other things that we need to take care of. This is a stair shaft. What we want to do is we want to create a shaft so that when we place our floor slab, it is automatically blocked out and it will be blocked out at all levels.

So, again, let's go to structure. Let's go to shaft. Let's pick it.

And we need to create a boundary line. Again, we can do this any number of ways. I like to do pick lines because it gives us our lines we need to use.

Okay, here we have our shaft, our stairs out here. And this one. Now let's clean it up.

Remember, we can't have intersecting or open lines. We need a closed loop to create our shaft. And here, what we can do is we can create what is called symbolic lines.

That gives us the X in our opening. To note that this is an open shaft. Check finish mode.

Okay, there we have it. Now, let's check the parameters of this shaft. Let's get out of the command.

Pick it. Okay, right now we see we're at our base level is minus one. And our connected height is 20 feet.

It says our base level constraint is level one. We want it to be level zero. Now, our top constraint is our roof.

But do we want the shaft going to the roof? This one we do because it's going to access the roof. So what we want to do is take this to the top of the parapet to make sure that it breaks the roof line. And exit out of this.

Okay, let's cut a section and take a look at it. Okay, let's stretch this line up so we can get to our roof level. Okay, let's give it a little detail that we can see.

Again, cleaning it up. Make it fine. Okay, and what we'll do is we'll hover around.

There's our shaft. We'll pick it. And what it shows us is that our shaft is now going from the top of the parapet to one foot below our finished floor.

Well, we don't want that below our finished floor because it's not going to penetrate the base level. We'll come here and actually give it an elevation of one foot above that level. And there you have it.

The shaft won't penetrate the floor, but it will penetrate all the upper levels. Let's find the other one. Here we have the elevator.

Let's create a shaft for it. Again, shaft. Pick line.

And this is the elevator itself. What we want to do is we want to pick these exterior lines because the elevator has equipment in it that will be encompassed in this shaft. And this one.

Now let's clean it up. Again, the symbolic lines to show that this is an actual opening. Let's go to the finish mode.

Let's get out of the command. Let's check our parameters now. Okay, again, the base level.

Is it level one? We want it at zero. Now, an elevator does traditionally go through the lowest level into the ground for rams and other mechanical items. So let's pick the base offset.

It's minus five feet. Again, our unconnected height, we find that we do not want to use. We want our top offset, our top constraint, again, to be the roof.

Just the roof, not the parapet. And we want to take our top offset one foot above the roof line. This will create an opening for the overrun at the roof.

Let's X out of that. Let's zoom extents, ZX. And there you have it.

Let's get rid of this detail. We don't need it. Hit OK.

That's it for this video. We'll see you in the next one.