Chapter 9 • Ceilings and Interiors 384 Creating Ceilings Placing a ceiling is quite easy; the hard part is finding the view in which to do it. As you have probably noticed, the Project Browser is broken down into catego- ries. The categories for plans are Floor Plans and Ceiling Plans. Whereas floor plans show the views standing at that level looking down, ceiling plans show the view standing at that level looking up. In Revit, you are looking at a true reflected ceiling plan. To begin, open the file you have been following along with. If you did not complete the previous chapter, go to the book’s web page at www.sybex.com/go/ revit2011ner. From there you can browse to Chapter 9 and find the file called NER-25.rvt. 1. Go to the Level 1 ceiling plan, as shown in Figure 9.1 (remember, this is a ceiling plan, not a floor plan). FIGURE 9.1 The Ceiling Plan category 2. On the Home tab, click the Ceiling button, as shown in Figure 9.2. 3. With the Ceiling command active, select the Change Element Type menu in the Properties dialog. You should see the same ceiling types as shown in Figure 9.3. 4. Choose 2 ′ × 4′ ACT System from the Type Selector. 5. Hover your mouse over the room shown in Figure 9.4. Notice the perimeter is outlined in red. This indicates that the ceiling has found at least four walls you can use as a layout. 6. When you see the red outline, pick a point in the middle of the room. Your ceiling should now look like Figure 9.5. Creating Ceilings 385 FIGURE 9.2 The Ceiling button on the Modeling tab of the Design bar FIGURE 9.3 The available ceiling types listed in the Type Selector FIGURE 9.4 The ceiling finds a home. Chapter 9 • Ceilings and Interiors 386 FIGURE 9.5 Placing the 2×4 tiled ceiling 7. Have at it! Add a ceiling to every room in the east wing except for the hallway, the bathrooms, East Radial Entry, and, of course, the eleva- tor shafts, as shown in Figure 9.6. FIGURE 9.6 Adding 2×4 ACT ceilings to the specified rooms 8. With the Ceiling command still running, select Compound Ceiling : GWB On Mtl. Stud from the Type Selector. 9. Pick the bathrooms (not the chases) and the hallway. 10. Press Esc. Creating Ceilings 387 NOTE If you notice that some of the grids are running in the wrong direction, don’t worry. We will change that in a moment. tr a n s Fe r r i n g pr o j e C t sta n d a r d s There will be times when you do not have the system families you need to carry out the task at hand. Ceiling types seem to be the number 1 system family that falls victim to being inadvertently deleted from a model before it gets used. If you find that you do not have the ceiling types shown in Figure 9.3, do the following: 1. On the Revit Application panel, choose New ➢ Project. 2. In the New Project dialog, click OK to start a new project using the default template. 3. On the View tab, click Switch Windows in the Windows panel, and select the Reflected Ceiling Plan from the fly-out to get back to the No Experienced Required project. 4. On the Manage tab, click Transfer Project Standards in the Settings panel. 5. In the Select Items To Copy dialog (see the following graphic), click the Check None button. 6. Click Ceiling Types. 7. Click OK. Chapter 9 • Ceilings and Interiors 388 That was just too easy! Too good to be true, right? All right, it is. You always have to make adjustments to this type of item. You probably noticed that you had no control over which direction the grids were running. Also, we have no clue how high these ceilings are. It is time to start modifying the ceilings. Modifying Ceiling Grids To be honest, a ceiling consists of nothing more than a basic hatch pattern applied to a material. Actually, everything in Revit is a basic hatch pattern applied to a material. That sure does make it easy to understand! The one unique thing about hatch patterns in Revit is that you can modify them on screen. That means you can move and rotate a hatch pattern. That also means you can move and rotate a grid pattern. Let’s give it a shot: 1. Press Esc to cancel the command you may be in. 2. Pick the ceiling grid line, as shown in Figure 9.7 (Make sure you’re zoomed in close enough to make the Rotate command active.) 3. On the Modify | Ceilings tab, click the Rotate button, as shown in Figure 9.7. 4. Rotate the grid 45° by using the two-pick method, as shown in Figure 9.8. FIGURE 9.7 Select one of the grids and click the Rotate button. Creating Ceilings 389 FIGURE 9.8 The Rotate process Your ceiling should now look like Figure 9.9. FIGURE 9.9 The ceiling at a 45° angle Now that the ceilings are in, let’s look at the ceiling’s properties before we go too far. As a matter of fact, it is a good idea to investigate the ceiling’s properties before you place it in the model. Rotating a ceil- ing grid is a good example of the hatch functionality in Revit. You can rotate and move hatch patterns whether they are ceilings, brick, or any other pattern you need to manipulate. O Chapter 9 • Ceilings and Interiors 390 Ceiling Element Properties As I mentioned earlier, ceilings are set up in a similar fashion as floors. So, it stands to reason we will see many similar properties. Before we get started, let’s make some modifications to the west wing. The objec- tive of this procedure is to add a hard ceiling with metal framing, gypsum, and a 3/4 ″ cherry substrate. To do so, however, you need to modify some of the walls: 1. Go to a 3D view of the model. 2. Select the sloped roof that covers the west wing, as shown in Figure 9.10. 3. Right-click. 4. Select Override Graphics In View ➢ By Element (see Figure 9.10). FIGURE 9.10 Selecting the roof, and right-clicking 5. In the View-Specific Element Graphics dialog, click the Transparent button in the upper-right corner, as shown in Figure 9.11. 6. Click OK. The roof is now transparent. FIGURE 9.11 The View-Specific Element Graphics dialog Creating Ceilings 391 We made the roof transparent because some of the walls have to be attached to the roof. It is much easier to attach the walls in a 3D view. But to do so, we need to see the walls that we will be working on: 1. Select the wall shown in Figure 9.12. 2. On the Modify | Walls tab, select the Attach Top/Base button. 3. Pick the roof. Your wall should look like Figure 9.12. FIGURE 9.12 Attaching the wall to the roof The next step is to constrain the partition walls in this area to Level 3. The ceil- ings we will add to these rooms will be much higher than the rest of the building. 1. While still in a 3D view, select the partitions shown in Figure 9.13. 2. In the Properties dialog, set the Top constraint to Up To Level: Level 3. 3. The walls are now constrained to Level 3. 4. Go to Level 1 under Ceiling Plans (if it is not open already). The next procedure is a tad off-the-beaten-path but it fits squarely within this process. Because we have specified the walls in this area to be of a greater height than the rest of the walls in the model, we are obviously adding ceilings higher than 8 ′–0″. This poses a problem in terms of the Level 1 ceiling plan view range. Chapter 9 • Ceilings and Interiors 392 FIGURE 9.13 Selecting the partitions Creating a Plan Region Sometimes you will need to set your view range in a specific area that differs from the view range in the plan as a whole. In this example, we will add a ceil- ing at 14 ′–6″ above the finish floor. If we do this with the current View Range settings, Revit will not display the ceiling. If you modify the View Range for the entire view, you will see the 14 ′–6″ ceilings, but you will not see the regular 8 ′–0″ ceilings in the rest of the building in that view. In the following procedure we will create a region where the view range is dif- ferent from the view range in the Level 1 ceiling plan: 1. In the Project Browser, make sure you are in the Level 1 Ceiling Plan. WARNING Double-check to be absolutely sure you are not in a floor plan. You want to be in the ceiling plan! 2. Zoom into the west wing. 3. On the View tab, select the Plan Views ➢ Plan Region button, as shown in Figure 9.14. 4. On the Draw panel, click the Rectangle button, as shown in Figure 9.15. 5. Pick a rectangle around the north portion of the west wing, as shown in Figure 9.15. Creating Ceilings 393 FIGURE 9.14 The Plan Region button on the Create panel of the View tab FIGURE 9.15 Defining the limits of the plan region by drawing a rectangle around a specific area Notice that the View tab has now switched to the Modify | Create Plan Region Boundary tab. We now need to define the view range for this region: 1. In the Properties dialog, click the Edit button in the View Range row. 2. In the View Range dialog, set the Top setting to Level 3. 3. Set Cut Plane Offset to 14 ′–6″. 4. Set Bottom Offset to 7 ′–6″ 5. Set View Depth Level to Level 2 with an Offset value of 16′–0″ (see Figure 9.16). . Level 3. 3. The walls are now constrained to Level 3. 4. Go to Level 1 under Ceiling Plans (if it is not open already). The next procedure is a tad off-the-beaten-path but it fits squarely within. Windows in the Windows panel, and select the Reflected Ceiling Plan from the fly-out to get back to the No Experienced Required project. 4. On the Manage tab, click Transfer Project Standards in. www.sybex.com/go/ revit2 011ner. From there you can browse to Chapter 9 and find the file called NER-25.rvt. 1. Go to the Level 1 ceiling plan, as shown in Figure 9.1 (remember, this is a ceiling plan, not