Revit LT 2024 Building Pads

[tyler_oneilF6KAD]

While the new toposolid feature looks like an improvement and would be to be able to cut voids using in-place mass in the full Revit, anyone have any suggestions on how to do a building pad in Revit LT which doesn't have an in-place mass tool? Autodesk is suggesting making building pads using in-place mass voids but that's impossible in Revit LT.

[Basam.Yousif]

You guys are creative. There are a few different ways of doing this. Yet, this is not the point. These are all WORKAROUNDS to a missing tool. The right solution is for Autodesk to bring the Building Pads tool back.

[mhiserZFHXS]

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@Basam.Yousif wrote:

You guys are creative. There are a few different ways of doing this. Yet, this is not the point. These are all WORKAROUNDS to a missing tool. The right solution is for Autodesk to bring the Building Pads tool back.

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I'm pretty sure everyone that is providing workarounds still wants building pads back. I haven't seen a single person say "good riddance". But until they are back, people need to know how to get the desired results, even if the process isn't ideal.

[biztrobill]

Agreed. We can use a mass to cut out a volume from the toposolid, but that doesn't always do the job. I have a house on the boards now with basement half-below and half-above grade. Cutting out a mass can lower the grade but it can't also raise the grade like a pad can. Sketch attached.

I guess I can add a third mass below the basement floor and join that to the topo? Haven't tried it yet but that totally sucks. I'm using LT but I'm guessing it's the same for full Revit?

I understand Autodesk doesn't monitor this forum... 'nuff said about whether they care. 

[ross_karp]

you can use a floor or similar and make the material Air to mimic a pad to cut the void because there is no mass family in LT and you can't create a void family inside Revit LT but you can create an independent family and you can manipulate points to raise the site etc. 

you can also schedule toposolids using phasing.

[mattRZKNA]

That sounds like an awful lot of work to fix a horrible, horrible "improvement" to Revit. The Toposolid is completely unusable. What are you doing to us? Why screw up a perfectly good and usable tool and create something that is completely and utterly worthless?

[kunze50]

The best solution would be a completely new tool/ "smart" option to connect toposolid to the underside of floors (sloping or not) Dealing with masses or pads has always been a constant battle..

[wisedrawing]

My need for the return of the PAD is a more simple approach: For a lot of my work I just need to slam in a pad level the area and move on with the job. There are comments here about additional tech features etc. and I totally appreciate that, but a lot of my jobs is just do as topo and put a cut and fill pad level in and start designing. For this pads are good.

[matthew_chan]

We are also struggling to find a best practice solution for this. The lack of a pad type function is not really working out for alot of us.

[richardnds]

Hello All i am still struggling with this i have got the void option to work. but i still get a projecting line which goes right though the building, does anyone have any idea? before i return to hand drawings 

 

[architects1]

Hi, When  I do this I create a void just above the floor to cut away any of the toposolid above the floor.
Then cut the wall, footing, floor and void form from the toposilid and you should get what I have sketched above
To make it easier to get hold of the void solid for editing I ususally hide a solid cylinder within the wall. That way you can switch the view to wireframe and select the cylinder to get at the void

[richardnds]

Thank you, i shall give it a go, just very frustrating for something that used to take a couple of minutes  

[rob-2112arch]

Using a in-place wall only cuts the toposolid if the in-place wall is completely with-in the toposolid. If it sticks out of the toposolid I get an error. So basically the in-place wall solution does not work for me.

[architects1]

That's curious, it works fine for me as long as part of the void extrusion intersects the toposolid.

Are you using a void extrusion within an in place wall to cut the toposolid?

[rob-2112arch]

Interesting, I just upgraded to 2024.2 and now it works.

[richardnds]

I spoke to auto desk, and they gave me the method below, which worked really well and was fast to do. The in place walls seemed to work well. 

Toposolids can be cut with various elements:

• You can cut toposolids with basic elements of the building structure, like floors, walls, structural foundations etc. When you use the Cut geometry tool, the volume of the intersecting element will be subtracted from the toposolid.
• The most flexible solution would probably be to use In-place walls. In this way you can achieve different cutting shapes by creating void forms within the In-place wall family. Please follow the steps outlined below:

1. On Architecture tab click Wall drop-down -> In-Place wall.
2. Go to Create tab -> Forms panel -> Void Forms.
3. Create the appropriate form (for example extrusion).
4. Adjust the form to match desired shape and dimensions.
5. Go to Modify tab -> Cut geometry.
6. Select the toposolid and then the void form to cut it out.
7. Finish the In-place wall model with the green check mark.

Later you can add additional forms inside the original In-place wall to quickly create other cuts in the toposolid.

[andtsad]

These are horrible work arounds for a tool that worked perfect and did not need fixing.

again taking a good product and making it bad so you have a job to do.

[wisedrawing]

This where our building PADs is heading for 2024. I have asked the question in the Ideas column on: "How long before we see it released and will it be available in Revit LT? Also what will that mean to existing building pads in projects?"

I cannot have any down time converting all my current works in process to update all the existing building PADs into something new! I feel that the position of many customers has not changed, simply put PADs back as well!

We also just need the PADs back as well, how hard can it be to put a feature in that was already working?

I put aside time to allay the fears by doing some intensive PD on the new 2024 options for Revit LT Topo Solids, however, in its current form,  going through all the alternatives for Revit LT 2024 without Building PADs and there is no viable option for my workflow (without a massing void tool which is able to be used as a cutting tool, but is not available in Revit LT) Therefore until this upgrade of being able to use a floor as an excavation tool (much like PADs already were) I cannot use my LT 2024, which I have paid for months ago, until this excavation feature is released.

I am asking for an update? The Road Maps are some small piece of information, but they do not provide a business with any timelines or ability to make decisions to a calendar.

This is how it shows in the Roadmap:

[pgubitose]

I spent hours trying to figure out a workaround since I converted a handful of projects to 2024 LT without prior knowledge of Autodesk's removal of Toposurfaces.  This works without Voids or Massings and may only work for simple applications.  But that is what I used the "Pad" for in prior versions.  I hope this works for you.

1. Use the Split command on the topo surface and snap to the outside walls of the foundation. This makes the toposurface under the structure separate from the other parts of the structure.  Side note: I also did this for sidewalks and roads since you can change the elevation of the split surface.

2. Select grade that was split, and in modify tab, "Reset Shape".  This will flatten out the split grade.

3. Lower the split grade to the desired elevation.  i.e., under slab or at crawl height.

4. Use join tool to join toposolid to footings and foundation wall and slabs.  You may have to switch join order for this to show up correctly.

[wisedrawing]

Thanks for sharing

[hanksteinhardt]

No, it really doesn't do anything to fix the ****ed up situation that your company has dumped on it's customers. You should just stop with the blithe answers.