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Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I've been struggling a lot with finishes in Revit and I've been thinking a lot about how the software could be improved to help get what I need.

 

What I would really like to see is "Finish Categories"!

 

An important improvement should be a connection between the Finishes parameters of Rooms and this new to-be-created Finish Categories.

The Base Finish parameter would be a collection of Wall, Ceiling and Floor Finishes that are managed in a "Finishing Schema Builder": a menu where one can create a schema which has:

  • a code (text field)
  • wall finish type (to be selected from a list with the option to duplicate an existing type)
  • floor finish type (same)
  • floor finish placement method (on top of room base level or a given offset from the room's base level)
  • floor finish offset (grayed out if placement method is set to 'on top')
  • ceiling finish type (same as wall finish type)
  • ceiling finish placement method (follows room bounding elements, as specified in room's ceiling height parameter, or at a given offset from room's top level)
  • ceiling finish offset (grayed out if placement method is set to 'follow')

The Wall, Ceiling and Floor finish parameters will stay intact, but by default they will inherit the value as specified in the base finish and be grayed out.

 

The specified finishes will be placed automatically after the base finish is chosen for a room (from within the properties palette or from a schedule (or an add-in like Dynamo). The finishes will automatically be joined with the walls and floors they are placed on. Due to performance requirements you might need an override switch (like we have for the room volume calculation) or a postpone button, so you can select all base finish schemes first and then let Revit do the placement while getting coffee for the whole office crew.

 

About the finish families:

  • They all need some basic parameters of course: type mark, physical, thermal and acoustic properties, keynote, assembly code, description, etcetera. 
  • The wall finish family should have layers, optional sweeps (like in a wall), and an option to wrap inside an opening until it hits a window or door family. There should also be an offset from floor finish and an offset from ceiling finish (we are used to place tiles up to 100 mm above the ceiling level)
  • The floor finish family should have layers, optional sweeps around the edges (ignoring door openings automatically) and an alignment point that can be moved without having to edit a sketch.
  • The ceiling family needs two approaches. One has layers like the current compound ceiling family. The other one definitely needs an optional grid. Many of us are currently (ab)using sloped glazing as a substitute of the ceiling family. The curtain wall functionality works fine though, so it would be nice to have that functionality within the correct category. Keep in mind that in some cases you might want to include the ceiling as a whole within the base finish schema and in other cases you might only want to include some finishing layers like plaster and paint.

After the automatic placement of the schema's finishes, one should have the ability to unpin the finishes from the room's definition to make exceptions. Therefor you would need the possibility to manually place finish families. They could work a lot like walls, floors and ceilings/sloped glazing as we know them now, or like painting the family on top of a wall, floor or ceiling. Split Face would be a nice option too (I can see the possibilities with Dynamo using the Split Face command to insert a jpg-based logo or picture in a finish family).

 

Another issue is an easy to read 2D representation of vertical finishes. Back in the 2D-cad days we used to draw colored lines along the walls with a legend that explained what those colors represented. For readability, those colored lines had a certain offset from the wall. We have some projects where we added the wall finishes as thin walls by hand and we tried to use filters to give those thin walls a color like we were used to. But for readability the wall thickness was too small to give the colored line enough offset from the wall. I would like to see an integrated solution within the vertical finish families to solve this problem. Like selecting a line type and an offset from wall. Or a color coded wall finish tag that stretches along the tagged element.

 

I have not thought about everything yet Guiño, the next issues need some attention too:

  • some finishes need another subsurface than you might have included in the wall, floor or ceiling that it is placed on. So you need to be able to find the relationship between the finish and the sub element.
  • the combination of the finish structure and the structure of the sub element might have influence on the combined properties (acoustic resistance / absorption, thermal resistance, fire resistance, ...). How do you prevent tagging (and calculating) only part of the whole truth?
  • how will window and door families define the location of the finish wrapping at inserts (on both sides of the wall). Is the current wall wrapping reference plane sufficient?
  • how do you make window and door families 'see' that - after a wall finish is placed - the interior / exterior of the wall (as defined by the reference planes in the family) got an offset?