Changing the length of an object

[mjlutz]

I have moved from my trail version to a full version of Revit.  I am very new to the 3D world and need to get some advise. 

Enlit was very kind to provide a finished soltion to an issue had with a file that I could not change the length on .  I need to change the length on three other objects that can scale from 2’ to 20’.  I am not sure how to redraw the objects as Enline suggested to acoomplish what I need to do. 

If someone could point me in the right direction it would greatly appreactied.  I need to include these items on a project and need to try to understand the process as quckly as I can. 

[Thomas]

I noticed that the 3D model in the families are an "Imported Symbol".  This makes me think that they were created in another software and brought in as a raw 3D block.  If that's the case then you can't really do much in terms of editing it.

The good news is it should be pretty easy to remake the models.  Go into the Front view and create an extrusion, then just trace the profile. (Use can use the pick line feature to save time.)  When done you will have an extrusion with the profile of the imported symbol.  Then in the Plan view you can lock the front and back of the extrusion to reference planes, put on a dimension, set the dimension to an instance based parameter, and you're done.  In the project you can change them as will.  If you only want set lengths just don't make it instance based and set it for each Type that you want.  Hope this helps.

[mjlutz]

Thomas,

Thanks for the quick reply.  I am not sure how to create an extrusion and how to trace the profile.  Could you point me to some good articles and/or books that could flesh out the details on how this would be done?  

Thanks,

Mike

[Thomas]

You're welcome.  

You can probably find beginner tutorials on Youtube pretty easily.  A quick search and I found this one for building a table. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m994Tr8RxNw

It should help you understand the basics.  Best of luck.

[mjlutz]

Thomas,

I poked around, and I believe that I understand the process of drawing over an object.  I have pinned the line to the attached.  But I do not understand how I manipulate it in the reference and how to link the left and right to make the #d model for the variable length.  

See the attached and let me know what I am missing.  

Thanks,

Mike

[mjlutz]

Thomas,

I think that I have improved on drawing the basic shape that I need.  I have pinned it; I am not sure how to join all of the lines to make a single object.  I m am also unsure of how to now make this a 3D model.  

Any help on these two points would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks again for your help to date. 

Mike

[L.Maas]

You made good improvements on creating the basic shape.

To make it in a 3D model you have to do it a little bit differently.

Basically you create an extrusion and then draw the profile (basic shape) you want to use.

In this case I made the extrusion by selecting it on the ribbon and then draw over the basic shape. Your object was a single closed loop already so that was easy.

After creating the object you can add a reference plan and attach the object to it and create a prameter to be able to control the length.

See the SCREENCAST to show what I have done.

Small clarification. I basically drawn over your obejct for creating the extrusion. By using the tab key Revit tries to guess which objects belong to the chain of lines. That is why I was able to select the whole object with a few clicks, preventing to redraw every single line of your basic shape. This chaining does not work always this well but can be a real timesaver.

[mjlutz · Accepted solution]

Enlint,

This was very helpful.  I was able to complete the project successfully.  Your direction on doing this is greatly appreaciate. 

Thanks,

Mike