Modeling a complex shape - Family

[Anonymous]

I work for a pool manufacturer.  We mold our pool shells, and have been doing this for 15 years.  About 6 months ago we started using Revit to show customers potential layouts.  I did a basic Blend from the bottom of the pool to the top, and used it for a while.  However, our molds are much more complex.  

I have a CAD file with what are essentially contours, and I've imported that into a family, and set each contour at its appropriate elevation by using Reference/Work planes.  Now, I have a skeleton of what our pool looks like.  

How can I model this?  Our shells are approximately 1/2" thick, so I'm happy using that value.  I'm not trying to get it perfect, just better than what I've been using.  

I have access to AutoCAD 2014, Revit 2014, Inventor 2015 (sadly can't go from here to Revit, as we have not upgraded Revit yet...), etc...

[cbcarch]

Import the dwg into a Mass Family.

Then place Reference Lines (picking the contour lines in the imported cad) .

Then select all the reference lines and select Create Form.

This will create a Mass, which you can then load into your Revit Project.

Do a search on Massing in Revit.:

http://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2015/ENU/?guid=GUID-61BB31DA-A8AA-4F82-897F-9B9F168A095B

[Anonymous]

I tried that two ways:

1. Simply imported CAD file and selected the contour lines to add reference lines.  Then, selected these reference lines and clicked Create Form.  Got Error 1 - Cannot Create Form.

2. Importted CAD file and assigned each contour to a Work plane at the appropriate elevation.  Then, selected the contour lines and clicked Create Form.  Got Error 1 - Cannot Create Form.

Neither of these worked.  

[cbcarch]

There may be a part of the geometry that is too 'tight' to close a loop ( closes on itself) causing the error.

Can you post the .dwg file here? We can take a closer look.

[Anonymous]

Here's the dwg.  I've only been importing the plan view (TOP), but I included the elevations so you can see how it should look when complete.

I've also included the mass family with the reference lines.

[cbcarch]

Revit is VERY picky about this kind of geometry.

The linework must all be closed, there cannot be any "lines on top of lines", etc.

It may also be necessary to create more than one form, and then join and/or cut geometry to arrive at the final desired form--i.e

trying to select ALL the lines and Create Form may not be possible.

I took a quick stab at it, and I was able to select a few of the groups of lines and Create Form, but not all of them simultaneously.

So there is something that Revit doesn't like about the complex resulting geometry from the footprints of the line groups.

Just wondering--Do you normally use Acad to model these pools in 3d? If so, how would you do it?

And related to that, if you do have a 3d .dwg, you could insert it into a family and then load into youir project to see it in context.

You could even give it a material in Object Styles and render it, of course modeling the "water" infill would be a challenge as well!

[Anonymous]

I've got water down pretty good.

These pools are not currently modeled, hence my issue.  This dwg is probably 15 years old, and it is just a representation of our mold, which is at least that old.  By now, the mold has been patched enough that it's probably dramatically different by now.

The dwg leaves somethign to be desired, but short of actually scanning a finished pool, I'm not sure how best to do this.  

Thanks for your time.  I'll keep playing with it to see if I can get some combination of forms to work.