Massing

[jfjacques]

I don't want to make a family or anything parametric, just a simple mass , the kind of thing which would take 2 seconds in any other software.

I'm looking to make something resembling an ikea shelf. Here are the issues: 

- if I create a square, then offset it, I can't use these two lines to make a solid form. I have to use the exterior line as a solid, then the interior offset as the negative - is this really the only way to do this? 

- I can't seem to be able to create more than one void form at a time...what? 

- The work plane seems to shift :  if I use a 3d view like right or left I end up drawing on different planes without any control. 

- Voids visually disappear if they go past the solid form - have to tab tab tab to get them. 

[ToanDN]

Draw a rectangle. Draw another rectangle with an offset value from the original. Set all the lines to reference lines (so that you can delete the form and they remain). Create a solid form from the outer rectangle. Create a void form from the inner rectangle. Void will automatically cut hole in solid. Draw other lines should you need more solids or voids. You can always set the workplane before draw lines by pick a face of any existing form or pick a reference plane you created manually. Having control over workplane is critical in Revit.

[jfjacques]

thanks toad, 

first off I use revit pretty often, but I don't do much massing - I have to say it's inexcusably awful. 

I can't believe you have to use both voids and solids and can't make a solid from the initial offsets. Conceptually it sounds ok, but in practice it triples the work and is extremely limiting.  Is there an actual reason for this concept?  

I'm running into other issues: 

1) Dimensions don't seem to be accessible in massing mode...why? 

2) I can't copy both a form and its void. This is just ridiculous as it means I have to repeat operations over and over. 

3) When I only select the mass form to copy and paste it snapping no longer works. I get pasted elements all over the place. 

4) If I want to tab through the lines, the tabbing system needs to be off and the squares I want don't seem to appear. I have to shift select line by line. This makes it impossible to create more than one form at a time- which may not be possible to begin with.

What a piece of **** process for such a simple thing. In any other software - cad,rhino,3ds,maya,archicad- this would be a straightforward and intuitive process! I get it, this process should of been done as a family, but that's overkill for this element. 

I actually went out of Revit to quickly model this in rhino, but when I bring in the DWG, the file crashes.

[ToanDN]

I actually find working in the massing environment is quite flexible. Can you show what you are trying to build?

[jfjacques]

hey toad, sry for the outburst, 

something like the ikea kallax,  compared to rhino modelling revit massing is just painful.

I now have other problems with it:

1)I'm moving one surface of the mass down, and it seems to push other surfaces, how are these linked? 

2) Here's an issue with the negative mass concept- how can I determine what it cuts out of?  I want it to cut out of one form but it's cutting out of all of them. This wasn't an issue when this cut was made before the new masses, but now it seems to be as it was created afterwards...do I need to create multiple separate mass objects to avoid this? 

3) so now I've modeled the mass and I can't move it freely - it's stuck as if constrain was on- unless I use disjoin but then elements get deleted?.

[jfjacques]

so now that I had to model two masses for the shelf, I want to make them a group so as to move them together and make sure that changes get propagated throughout their instances ....

but of course, once grouped I get an error if I try to move them.  

I also grouped a single mass, but copying it doesn't seem to work, it just shows up blank....what a nightmare