Create segments of building pads along a path

[michael.ocollinz]

Greetings. I am currently designing a canal excavation and the client needs to explore alternative routes … is it possible to generate building pads alons a trajectory given a width of say 12m and segments of 50m? path attached, i was hoping that something can be done in dynamo to allow for changes to the trajectory. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

[barthbradley]

Building Pad ? There's is no Topo to cut in this RVT, but sure you can create a BP from your linework.  Here's a Mass Form I created from it to cut a sloped  "earth" Floor.

The challenge would be getting the slope consistent from start of canal to end of canal. Modeling the canal as a Building Pad might NOT be the best approach in that case.  

...just to clarify: Building Pads can be Sloped in one direction.  You have multiple slope directions as the canal traverses the terrain.  You could get there with BPs, but it would be a nightmare - perhaps of epic proportions.  I would vote for modeling the canal using another method, such as Massing - perhaps as an Adaptive Family.  

FWIW

[michael.ocollinz]

The slope is about 1m per km (50mm per 50m interval) for the preliminaries and as estimates of overall earth works I was planning to ignore BP incline and compensate by incremental changes in the building pad elevation. You are right it was a nightmare to divide the canal manully into 50m segments especially without dynamo or python or any parametrics, only to find out that the client needed alternative routes. Repeating the process requires time we dont have so we are going with the Adaptive family for the canal itself. I am not so conversant with Dynamo ... is there a way to generate the required polyline segments of 50m intervals from the trajectory, simply by setting the offset, getting them to form loops and then using these loops to generate the building pad segments (that is ofcourse ignoring the slope of BP).

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

- Just use mass in lieu of topo and adaptive void family in lieu of building pads.

- If you insist on using topo and pads, you will need to update the pad sketch boundary based on the adaptive family, which might be as simple as using pick line tool.

[barthbradley]

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@michael.ocollinz wrote:

is there a way to generate the required polyline segments of 50m intervals from the trajectory, simply by setting the offset, getting them to form loops and then using these loops to generate the building pad segments (that is of course ignoring the slope of BP).

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Probably, since I could do it manually without Dynamo.   

I already told you how I would approach.  That's based on what I know I can do.   I have no idea what your skill level is, so advising you is difficult.  But Dynamo isn't a panacea. In order to write a routine in it, you need to first know what you want Dynamo to do.  That means doing it manually first.   

[barthbradley]

Another Revit tool you could possibly cross-purpose for this, would be the Railing tool. Railings will host to and follow the top of Toposurfaces.  Food for thought.  

[barthbradley]

Ah! Got one more for you from the great and all-powerful Marcello Sgambelluri.  I'm betting this will inspire you.  

Make Hardscape Follow Site Topography and Site Topography Follow Hardscape in Revit | Autodesk Unive...

[michael.ocollinz]

Marcello Sgambelluri rules!! We have brainstormed through the options ... Thanks for the idea of Mass in lieu of topo ... going with that method.