Chapter 6 • Floors 244 FIGURE 6.3 Clicking the Edit Type button to start creating a new floor slab FIGURE 6.4 Renaming the current floor. You will never have a Generic 12″ floor in your model, so it is a good idea not to keep this floor around. You are now in the Edit Assembly dialog. This is where you can specify a thick- ness for your slab. You can add layers of materials here as well. Placing a Floor Slab 245 FIGURE 6.5 Clicking the Edit button to access the structure of the floor In the middle of the Edit Assembly dialog is a large spreadsheet-type field that is divided into rows and columns. The rows are defined by a structural compo- nent, and include a boundary above and below the structure. It is the Structure row that we are interested in here: 1. You will see that the Structure row is divided into columns. Click into the Material column within the Structure row, as shown in Figure 6.6. 2. You will see a small […] button appear when you click into the Material cell. This is an indication that you will be given a menu if selected. Click the […] button. FIGURE 6.6 By clicking in the Material cell within the Structure row, you can access the Materials dialog. O The term layer may throw you off a bit. Revit uses layer here to describe a component of the floor. This is not to be mistaken with the AutoCAD layer. Chapter 6 • Floors 246 3. You can now choose a material from the menu. Scroll down until you arrive at Concrete - Cast-in-Place Concrete, and select it. Notice that to the right you can see that this material will display two different hatches. There is a sand hatch that will be visible for floor plans, and a concrete hatch that is visible for sections (see Figure 6.7). These hatches allow a filling region to graphically designate specific materials. FIGURE 6.7 The Materials menu 4. Make sure Concrete - Cast-in-Place Concrete is selected, and click OK. 5. Directly to the right of the Material column is a Thickness column. Currently there is a value of 1 ′–0″. Click into the cell that says 1′–0″, and change it to 6 ″. TIP If you just type 6 and press Enter, you will wind up with a 6′–0″- thick slab. Be sure to add the inch (″) mark after the 6. The value needs to read 6″. 6. Click OK. 7. Click OK again to get back to the model. Placing a Floor Slab 247 Now that the slab has been created, we can place it into the model. You will notice that your Design bar has changed to Edit mode. You will now proceed to sketch the slab in place. Sketching the Slab You will have to adjust to the way Revit wants you to proceed with the Create Floor Boundary tab; you are basically limited to the choices provided in this menu. Not to fear, you should have plenty of choices, but you will still need to get a “feel” for how Revit works. Here’s what needs to happen: you must draw the perimeter of the slab into the model. Because this is basically a slab on grade, we will pour the concrete to the inside finished face of the wall. We won’t worry about a control joint between the wall and the slab at this point. Picking Walls The best way to add a slab is to use the Pick Walls button as much as possible (see Figure 6.8). In doing so, you tell Revit that this edge of slab needs to move if this wall moves. Let’s start sketching the slab: 1. In the Modify | Create Floor Boundary tab, click the Pick Walls button, as shown in Figure 6.8. FIGURE 6.8 Pick Walls ensures that that edge of your slab will move if the wall moves. 2. With the Pick Walls tool running, hover your mouse over the inside face of the wall, as shown in Figure 6.9. 3. After the wall becomes highlighted and you are sure you are on the inside of the wall, pick it (see Figure 6.9). 4. With the inside face of the wall picked, you need to move on to the next wall. Pick the inside face of the north wall. Notice that as you pick the walls, a magenta “sketch line” appears on the inside face of the walls. This is another indicator telling you whether you are on the correct side of the wall. Chapter 6 • Floors 248 Wa t C h Wh a t yo u pi Ck ! As you pick the walls to place your edge of slab, be careful. If you do not pick the inside face, there is a chance Revit will try to extend the slab to the core of the wall. If you zoom into the area that you are picking, you will see an alignment line appear. Make sure this line is where you want it, as shown in the following image: 5. Keep picking the walls, as shown in Figure 6.10. You need to have a continuous loop— no gaps and no overlaps. 6. Apply some basic modify commands as well. For the right lower cor- ner, use the Trim command to clean the corner. For the bottom line where the jog occurs, use the Split Element command (make sure the Delete Inner Segment button is checked on the Options bar). 7. After you have picked the perimeter of the west wing, click Finish Edit Mode on the Modify | Create Floor Boundary tab, as shown in Figure 6.11. It may be a good idea to check out your model in 3D just to make sure nothing went wrong. (I constantly have to do that.) Placing a Floor Slab 249 FIGURE 6.9 Picking the inside face of the first wall FIGURE 6.10 Selecting the walls Chapter 6 • Floors 250 FIGURE 6.11 Clicking Finish Edit Mode to finalize the floor sketch us i n g Fl ip ar r o W s If you accidentally picked the wrong place in the wall, that’s OK. Press Esc, then select the magenta line, and a flip arrow will appear. Pick the flip arrow, and the magenta line will flip back to the correct face of the wall, as shown in the following image. Also, if other sketch lines are on the wrong face, this one flip will take care of any connected sketch lines. Placing a Floor Slab 251 When you finish the floor, you will have plenty of opportunity to practice add- ing floors in this model! We need to add a floor to the corridor as well as the west wing: 1. Zoom into the corridor, as shown in Figure 6.12. 2. On the Home tab, start the Floor command. Cl e a n up th o s e Co r n e r s ! Revit Architecture won’t let you finish if you have a gap or an overlapping line. If you get the error shown in the following image, you need to go back into your sketch and see which corner is giving you trouble. If you do get the error dialog, you can click the Show button to have Revit show you where the issue is. 3. In the Modify | Create Floor Boundary tab, click the Pick Walls button. 4. Pick the three north walls of the corridor. Remember to keep the magenta line to the inside face (see Figure 6.12). 5. To add the east edge of the slab, Revit will not really let you pick the wall. If you do, the magenta line will go either to the core center line or to the opposite face of the wall. At this point, click the Line button on the Modify | Create Floor Boundary tab, as shown in Figure 6.13. 6. With the Line button selected, select the Pick Lines button on the Draw panel, as shown in Figure 6.14. 7. Pick the face of the east wall as shown in Figure 6.14. 8. On the Draw panel, click the Pick Walls button. Chapter 6 • Floors 252 FIGURE 6.12 Picking the north walls of the corridor FIGURE 6.13 Sometimes you will need to click the Line button to draw the edge of the slab freehand. 9. Pick the south corridor walls. (Remember to keep the magenta line to the inside of the corridor.) 10. Pick the west wall of the corridor. This time you want to be sure that the magenta line is to the left of the wall. This will ensure that the two slabs meet. If not, you may need to use that flip arrow we were talking about earlier (see Figure 6.15). Now that you have the process of adding sketch lines to the model, you can start to look into how to clean up the sketch so we can finish. Placing a Floor Slab 253 FIGURE 6.14 Picking the face of the east wall. The line will run past the corridor. That’s OK. You will trim it in a moment. FIGURE 6.15 Adding the slab edge to the left side of the west corridor wall . choose a material from the menu. Scroll down until you arrive at Concrete - Cast-in-Place Concrete, and select it. Notice that to the right you can see that this material will display two different. throw you off a bit. Revit uses layer here to describe a component of the floor. This is not to be mistaken with the AutoCAD layer. Chapter 6 • Floors 246 3. You can now choose a material. floor in your model, so it is a good idea not to keep this floor around. You are now in the Edit Assembly dialog. This is where you can specify a thick- ness for your slab. You can add layers