topic Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions in Revit Architecture Forum

Drawing to exact external dimensions

steven.x.reader — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 17:20:04 GMT

Hi,

I'm taking my planning drawings (UK) which are hand drawn. External dimensions are therefore critical. I set up my wall as a custom ICF. I selected the measure from 'finish face exterior' and used the chain option. I entered exact wall dimensions which I assumed to be outside corner to corner. I entered 5000. What I get when I dimension is 5466. I even got one at 5233. It seems like it should be the simplest thing ever, but it's not. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

ToanDN — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 17:28:47 GMT

Place walls roughly and run dimensions to fix them to exact location. Unlike AutoCAD, trying to draw everything correctly from the get go is inefficient in Revit.

Also, set your dimension reference to your liking when placing them.

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

barthbradley — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 17:26:04 GMT

Revit pulls dimension to references. You cannot "force" it beyond the reference. You could edit the dimension and change the dimension value to a text value of your choosing. You could also place Ref. Planes and dimension to those instead.

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

barthbradley — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 17:53:03 GMT

I think I misunderstood you. Are you saying you placed your walls 5000 units apart, but when you pull a dimensions between them, the dimensions read 5466 and 5233?

Try this: select a wall. Does the dimension highlight in blue and allow you to enter a value into it? If so, enter 5000. If not, then the dimension is not referencing the wall.

One more thing...you can toggle the dimension witness line to a different wall reference point by tapping on those blue dots you see at ends of the dimension when you select it.

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

steven.x.reader — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 18:03:09 GMT

So Imagine I have footprint of house 18m x 11.5m with three bays at 5m. I plot my walls entering the values into the blue box. When I come to dimension they are not 5m and 11.5. they are 5.46 and 11.7. It makes no sense given I have selected exterior face. Not sure if that makes more sense

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

barthbradley — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 18:08:25 GMT

@steven.x.reader wrote:
So Imagine I have footprint of house 18m x 11.5m with three bays at 5m. I plot my walls entering the values into the blue box. When I come to dimension they are not 5m and 11.5. they are 5.46 and 11.7. It makes no sense given I have selected exterior face. Not sure if that makes more sense

There's an explanation here, but it doesn't involve the software. I assure you; Revit is dead on ballz accurate.

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

barthbradley — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 18:11:16 GMT

Can you post a short video showing us what you are doing?

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

ToanDN — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 18:12:38 GMT

@steven.x.reader wrote:

So Imagine I have footprint of house 18m x 11.5m with three bays at 5m. I plot my walls entering the values into the blue box. When I come to dimension they are not 5m and 11.5. they are 5.46 and 11.7. It makes no sense given I have selected exterior face. Not sure if that makes more sense

If you still want to draw walls that way, then use Line tool, not Box tool to draw.

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

ToanDN — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 18:39:53 GMT

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

steven.x.reader — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 19:10:16 GMT

that's what I did. Don't worry. Thanks anyhow

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

mhiserZFHXS — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 19:39:20 GMT

Is your wall flipped so the exterior is being drawn on the interior? Press the space bar as you're drawing to flip it.

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

ToanDN — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 22:37:59 GMT

@steven.x.reader wrote:

that's what I did. Don't worry. Thanks anyhow

You did the same as I showed in the video and the dimensions came out wrong?

Re: Drawing to exact external dimensions

steven.x.reader — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 08:52:22 GMT

I'll reply to myself on this one, having worked it out through logic. Although my walls were created to external face, the temporary measurements (blue) were set up to a default centre of wall. Go to 'manage'...'additional settings'...'annotations'...'temporary dimensions'... change to 'faces'. Now when I input my dimensions to create the walls they are the same dimension as when they are dimensioned.