Curve/ Spirals around the building

[amv1989]

HI everyone, 

I'm here as I'm kindda lost in Revit now! For my university project I need to simulate the building that is shown bellow with different dimensions in Revit. I have never used Revit before but so far used online resources and managed to simulate something similar to this building. However as the picture shows there are some spirals around the building, which I have no idea how to draw. 

I drew lines and then made a cross section similar to this and said follow the line but it acts very unmanageable around the top. It tilt to random direction as it shows on the bellow picture 

I need your help to make this curve follow the surface or manage to make something similar to the original picture. This is my final year project and I don't think if it is something difficult to fix for someone who is professional in Revit and I would appreciate any help and advices in advance. Please see the attached, Revit file contain this design. 

Regards,

[Paul_F_Aubin]

Hello Ashkan:

I got your email and read your post here. I took a shot at the problem and have attached a progress file. You will have to play with this much more I'm afraid to get a complete solution. So is the assignment to just replicate the building in the image? Did they give you any more information than that? Any dimensions, critical clearances? Etc? Going from that illustration isn't very much. 

For example, I assume from your RVT file that the structure is circular in plan. But in the image, it could just as easily be an oval. Also you show it as a donut/torus shape. It sort of seems that way in the image, but again, not completely sure. 

Anyhow, I think you need to solve the spiral first. Not the divided surface. Also, you do not need to divide all surfaces, only those that need a pattern grid. (so not the bottom for example). 

In my attached file, I started with some levels and on each level I placed a circle. I gave each circle a radius parameter so that they are easy to manipulate. I then make a solid form from these circles. This creates a lofted form. Since we are going for the torus shape, you have no control over the order that Revit will loft however. So in Family Types, make at least two types, one that is for creating the forms, and one or more for flexing. The one for creating I called "unfolded" and left all the levels stacked up in order. You build the loft form here first and then using parameters to control the locations of each level, you can reorganize them. 

Andy Milburn uses this trick quite a bit. Here is an example:

http://grevity.blogspot.com/2014/11/yet-more-toilets.html

His blog should be on your must-read list. 

OK. So that gives the ovloid form pretty convincingly. 

For the spirals, I hid the overall form and then added hosted points on each circle. Again, because Revit rarely places the profiles in the order we want, I went back to the unfolded type and made a parameter to control the location of each of these points. In unfolded, I se them to 0, .1, .2, etc. Later I will flex them to 0, .25, .5, .75 etc to get the spiral effect. These parameters are driving the Normalized Curve Parameter. 

Next, select all of the points. I had five total and click the Spline Through Points icon. This makes a 3D spline that is driven by these points. Since these points are located using parameters, you can flex and the spline will reshape. 

In the massing environment you cannot use profile families. Pity really. So we use nested Generic Model families containing Model Lines instead. They work essentially the same way. So, I made a face-based GM and in it drew a simple rectangle. You can try a more complex form if you like, but always best to start with a rectangle to make sure it works. Anyhow, I made this parametric too so we can vary its size once nested in. 

Using the reference point, add at least three (I used four) hosted points along the spline. Again I added parameters to them so I can control where they fall along the spline. When I am finished, I want the first one at .005, the end one at .995 and the two in the middle at around .2 and .8

Nest the Generic Model into your main family, click the Set work plane button, and pick one of the four hosted points 9the ones you placed along the spline, not the ones that drive the spline). This will be its work plane. Place the generic model. Repeat for each point. I did five, but you can do more or fewer if you like. 

Select the host points. They have a rotation property. You can drive this with parameters too. I did this. This makes it easy to rotate the profiles if needed. 

Select all generic model profiles and the spline. Create form and hold your breath. If all goes well, you will get a spiralling form. 

Begin flexing parameters. 

All parmaters are instance based to keep it simple. 

This is not complete naturally and has a way to go before matching your image, but I hope it will at least get you on the right track. Good luck. 

[arunag]

Hi, I had tried a similar dome using the following method which may work for you also..not sure if dimesions can be satisfied...

When finished editing, I could just use wall by face in project and have a solid with thickness.

Hope it helps!