Modeling timbrel / catalan / tabicated vaults

[nkosana.ndlovu]

Greetings,

I am researching timbrel vault structures as a low cost, sustainable alternative to concrete floor slabs. I have come across this paper by Carlos De Miguel from 1949. I need help on the following:

1. How do i model the flat tile bricks to follow the geometry of the vault?
2. How do I quantify the number of flat tile bricks necessary in order to complete the project?

Please help

[Alfredo_Medina · Accepted solution]

In Revit, it is very rare to model individual bricks. Except for a 3d detail perhaps. I suggest that you think of modeling the surface of the vaults, not the bricks that make the vault. The same could be said about the quantities. You would need to find the area of the surface, and then estimate the number of bricks by doing some arithmetic operations. 

[nkosana.ndlovu]

Thank you for your speedy response. I will try that approach. Do you have any guidance as to how to model the details? I was hoping to use callouts extensively but using this approach would i have to model that in a 2d environment like AutoCad? If you have any example files in revit or autocad that would help me learn as well. Thank you again.

[Alfredo_Medina · Accepted solution]

This is the link to a class about vaults in Revit, from the Autodesk University 2019 website: 

https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Parametric-Modeling-Vaults-Notre-Dame-Revit-2019

I just looked, and the format of the page is messed up today (Sometimes that happens. Then it looks OK later). Anyway, if you can find it, in that page there is a link to watch the video of the class, and there is a link to download a 80-page handout that describes methods for modeling vaults.

[nkosana.ndlovu]

This is a great resource. Thank you for your help. Have a great day.