Slope roof with vertical (level) equipment

[Anonymous]

How do I create a roof hosted family where the bottom matches the slope of the roof and top is level. Such a roof curb or platform. Or a flashing for a pipe thru a sloped roof?

I've tried locking the lower reference plan to the top of the roof and keeping selecting "always vertical" but it still makes the bottom piece horizontal.

[Anonymous]

Great question... I'm trying to do the same thing. Is there a way to model a
roof curb so that it displays correctly (in section view, for example).

Thanks in advance.
Matt

wrote in message news:5763540@discussion.autodesk.com...
How do I create a roof hosted family where the bottom matches the slope of
the roof and top is level. Such a roof curb or platform. Or a flashing for a
pipe thru a sloped roof?

I've tried locking the lower reference plan to the top of the roof and
keeping selecting "always vertical" but it still makes the bottom piece
horizontal.

[KyleB_Autodesk]

Are you working in the Architect's file? If so, you could do a Roof-Hosted family. Otherwise I would recommend that you create a Face-Hosted Family so it works through Linked files.

Here's what I think you could do to solve this:
* Create a Reference Plane to define the top of the curb. Be able to adjust it's angle relative to the Host Geometry via a parameter.

* I would create an extrusion that represents the Outside of the curb. Have its Profile be the side profile between the Host Geometry and the Top Reference Plane.

* Create a second Void extrusion to cut out the inside of the Roof Curb.

I'm not sure that you could make it automatically match the roof slope, but a quick dimension of the roof in the model will provide you the actual slope.

There is a lot more detailed steps to accomplish this, but bullets here really aren't going to paint the picture. I think this is a good one for my blog.

Cheers,
Kyle B
Revit MEP Product Manager
http://inside-the-system.typepad.com

[KyleB_Autodesk]

Okay, so it was a bit more difficult. I just messed around a bit and got the result. The key was using Reference Lines rather than Reference Planes.

I'll put the creation of this family onto my "blog posts to-do" list. In the interim, I've attached the family. It only slopes in one direction right now, and you need to manually define the angle of the roof.

I'd just do a quick dimension on a section of the roof to understand the slope, and then manually modify the angle value on the curb. works nicely, I think I'll try and get this into our catalog.

Cheers,
Kyle B
Revit MEP Product Manager
http://inside-the-system.typepad.com

[nmulder34]

So I am going to try to resurrect a really old post. Kyle, thanks for the roof curb family. Before I attempt to do so, I am wondering if you think it is possible to change the ref level (or hosting workplane) of the family to the sloped side of the curb? Or would it be better to pursue adaptive components now that they are available since you first created this family.

I think it would be a simpler and more user friendly approach for my designers to just be able to place the curb either on a sloped workplane or on the face of the roof (utilizing adaptive components) rather than creating a horizontal workplane for each piece of equipment on a roof.

Thanks in advance.

Nathan

[nmulder34]

I received a private message asking if I had been able to improve on the roof curb family. It is not as improved as I was hoping. I wasn't able to get it working as an adaptive component but haven't tried again in over a year. I still think it is possible. Regardless, I am attaching the family I have settled on using. It is version 2014.

It is face based so it can be placed on the face of the roof or a workplane. Once rotated as needed, the slope of the curb can be manually adjusted to match the slope of the roof. If the equipment you are placing on the curb is also face based it can be hosted to the roof curb to make moving both elements easier by just moving the roof curb.

Hope it helps somewhat.

[casquatch]

I have run into this before. I have come to the conclusion that it is simple to create an unhosted family for the curb, and apply a left and right parameter to the sides (could be all 4 if needed). Then just pull those down as needed to match the slope of the roof. The nice thing about having both on a parameter is that you can easily change the slope, just reverse the direction on the lengths.

Since things are always changing, a face based family will move around on you when the roof changes.

Just some thoughts to add to the discussion.

[john]

Could you expand on the adjustablility you suggested. Is this a dimension without any parameter control? It sounds like you are suggesting is to create geometry which would allow the bottom surface / edges to be adjusted with grips? would that be for the corners as well? The conditon we seem to encounter are roofs sloping in two directions at all four corners. Thanks for the post, John

[casquatch]

This is what I had in mind (see attached). I just threw this together quick but a problem arose when I introduced 4 control points on it, so the grips were removed by Revit. If you didn't have multiple slope directions you could get away with only 2 control points and then you'd have the option for the grips for each side.

Thanks,

Casey