Monday, March 24, 2014

Mid-Term Project 1

Description:


In-order to model the high rise, which has unique shapes of walls at alternating floors, the mass model is first created with the required parameters. The parameters are related to each other so that the entire mass is controlled by these parameters. The footprint of the building that is modelled is as shown in figure 1.


                                             Fig 1. Footprint of the High-Rise

Modelling:

The parameters are pretty simple for this building. Before the boundaries are drawn, the parameters should be aligned to the references lines and not the boundary surfaces. If aligned to the boundary surfaces, constraint errors are going to pop up. Revit is not convenient to use when many errors of such kind commonly arise.



Fig 2. References Lines for the building
The smaller square at the 2nd level is drawn to create a void from the 20th floor to the 25th floor on the shorter leg of the L-shaped building. The final Mass Model is as shown below in Figure 3.


                                        
  Fig 3.  Parametric Mass model- Screenshot 1   
The various parameters assigned and their relation to other parameters are as follows:



           Fig 4. Parameters Used
Changing the above parameters we get the following screenshots:



Fig 5. Screenshot 2 _ Variation in Length



Fig 6. Screenshot 3_ Variation in Width



Fig 7. Screenshot 4_Variation in Height

                                                                                            
My goal for this project was to create curved walls for every floor, but with alternating frequencies. Since the curve and frequencies come into play, a custom made curtain panel is made using the formulae of a Sine Curve. That panel is fitted into the divided surface of a wall in the mass model and the parameters are assigned to it.



             Fig 8.  Custom Curtain Panel 



         Fig 9.   Project Envelope (Façade)

Up-to this point, all the models are made in the family files. Now this family is loaded into a new project, where the model is further worked on, where a site, walls, floors, roof, rooms, furniture etc., are placed in the building. With the mass form as guidance walls and floors are created and then the mass for can be turned off as per settings.


Fig 10. Building Exterior-Wire Frame Model

Renderings of the Building:

Exterior Rendering





Interior Rendering (Lobby)




Critics on Revit Modelling Application:
 Without coding, using on modeling tools of Revit becomes hectic, for example, custom and unique color for a 100 panels. This becomes too cumbersome if manually done. And also as stated before, Revit takes the constraints in modelling very seriously. If not parameterized correctly, errors pop up very easily. So the user has to have thought over all the necessary details.