Difference between architectural column and structural?

[jeanettephann]

Hi guys,

This might be a silly question but I'm modelling up a double story house.

Was wondering what the difference between 'architectural' and 'structural' columns is, and which I should be choosing? 

Thanks.

[ToanDN]

https://revitpure.com/blog/8-tips-to-understand-columns-in-revit

Architectural is decorative, structural is bearing load.  What are you trying to model?

[barthbradley]

 

....and Architectural Columns can't do this:

 

Wicked cool, huh?  Structural Columns rule!  Or maybe not. Just depends on what you need.  😉  

[HVAC-Novice]

I'm not structural engineer, and found the architectural columns work better for my purposes to just model for my mainly MEP projects. 2 notable features of architectural columns are they can be a bound for automatic ceiling placement, and they can be room-bounding. 

You can make structural columns room bounding by changing the "material for modeling behavior" to concrete or similar. 

You can place an architectural column in the place of a structural column to add the ceiling-bound feature. But that is added work. Like in the example you have a steel WW column surrounded by drywall column. But in some cases it is just a concrete column that is structural, but also architectural. 

I wish they would just have one type of column and you could toggle on/off ceiling- and room bounding as needed. I assume this is from the old days where they had one type first, and then added the other type. So for legacy reasons they keep both. Maybe the architectural columns use fewer computing resources, but I can't imagine the difference is significant.