Toposurface solid

[Danielmonsen303]

Before i was able to make solid toposurfaces with a sectionbox in 3D view.

Now i doesnt work anymore. 

Has something changed or have i forgott something?

See image

[RDAOU]

@Danielmonsen303 

If my understanding is right; you need to do the following:

1. Select the Section Box
2. Garb the side grip(s) and slide/drag them to intersect/cut the toposurface

then you should see the poche/fill in 3D (but not the bottom only the latteral sides) or is it something else you are asking about...Didn't get the meaning of the "Solid Part"

[chrisplyler]

His picture already shows the posche sides. I think that he thinks that he somehow had a bottom in the past. But of course he is wrong. Topo surfaces are exactly that...surfaces. They do not have a thickness.

[Danielmonsen303]

Hi.
Yes i did.
There used to be a bottom on the section box.
I have been 3printing models with solids before. Now its gone.

Maybe its an sevice pack update bug or removed feature in later revit
versions.

[chrisplyler]

Well that stumps me then. Of course the section box itself has a bottom. But I have never ever seen a Revit topo with a thickness. Maybe you had a building pad in there? Hmmmm...nah...I just tried that it doesn't work. I've been doing topos in Revit for a long time. Now you've got me really, really curious.

[RDAOU]

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@DanielMonsén7638 wrote:
Hi.
Yes i did.
There used to be a bottom on the section box.
I have been 3printing models with solids before. Now its gone.

Maybe its an sevice pack update bug or removed feature in later revit
versions.

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@Danielmonsen303

Chris is right...sorry to say Daniel but not with toposurface for sure (you must have done something else and forgot)...As far as I can remember (since 2009 till date), toposurface as stated in previous reply never had a bottom plate (ONLY latteral sides and only when cut with the section box) there are workarounds but definitly toposurface alone (the tool) cannot do it

Workarounds

• One way was to use a MASS for a topo and not a toposyrface (still trendy and many use till date)
• Another was to place a mass or extrusion below the building to cover whole site and change its mat to earth (just a cap for rendering)
• A third which came later was to convert a 3D extrusion or a Mass into a toposurface ...then the bottom face of the mass becomes wrapped with a surface just like the top
• And a forth was a building pad + Grading mayyyyy give a fake effect of a bottom closure to a certain extent However thats is cheating lol and you will have 2 duplicate toposurfaces so you have to watch the cut/fill schedules
  1. You need first to grade the whole site
  2. Hide the blue one temprarely and place a building pad over the whole site
  3. Unhide the blue topo and Reset it's demolished phase to NONE
  4. Now you have 2 toposurfaces one cut by the pad and the graded one on top of it
  5. adjust section box and you get the following:

I maybe used one once...but normally I don't render such views lol I would rather see whats going on on top

[Danielmonsen303]

Allright nice workaround ill try it.

However a project in my Revit 2008 Archive has this very feature.

I guess somebody took it away i later verions,

If autodesk reads this. Please put it back, we need it for 3D prints exports.

[angelica.rodriguez.3d]

You need to select the topo and in the top of the view you can see the options available, there is a thickness for every topo. You are right, just change the value to something big and you will see the bottom of the topo.

[Danielmonsen303]

Allright, can you screendump this? Where is the button?

[L.Maas]

The method of using the section box also works for the bottom

 

The difference between the left and the right is th height of the section box.

My terrain goes from elevation 0 up. On the left my section box starts below 0 (not cutting the toposurface anymore) on the right the sectionbox is slighly above 0 (cutting the toposurface)

[RDAOU]

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@angelica.rodriguez.3d wrote:
You need to select the topo and in the top of the view you can see the options available, there is a thickness for every topo. You are right, just change the value to something big and you will see the bottom of the topo.

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Angelica!!! you must have discovered something in Revit which people failed to see for the past 10 years!!! if you would please show us where this thickness button is!!!

@Danielmonsen303

Maybe you could share with us one of those old models you had...unless you had all your topos starting 0+ level  I'm just wondering how did you jump from pre2008 to 2016 and just figured there is no bottom!!

But you know what? you did get me curious especially that I've never used the ancient version in question,,,So I did some checking 🙂 and found several blogs, articles, reports and books on Revit 2008 ... It behaved back then just the same way it behaves now!! a Surface...Maybe you had an earlier version ???

Edit:

@L.Maas

Neat trick 🙂 but only worked for projects with considerably slopped sites ... in otherwords only if the topo is the tip of a hill or mountain so the box can cut it from all 4 sides and the whole site toposurface  still falls above 0 level ...any ditch or hole in the site falling below zero will be a hole to china

But it is still a nice trick

[Danielmonsen303]

Strange workaround.

Its seem to work if the section box bottom cuts the surface plan.

So if i make a new point way below the others i get the solid result iam looking for.

I can put this ponit in a lake or outside the cut frame.

How ever subregion will still mess upp the solid.

So its a still not recomnded way to do this. It was working smoother before.

[RDAOU]

@Danielmonsen303

Bottom line... Section Box was never able to cut the coarse fill below the toposurface not in any version of Revit. It shows the coarse fill only when it cuts the toposurface itself. You cut surface you get coarse fill; you dont cut surface you get a void blank. (Add to that; the coarse earth fill below surface is not a 3D object which is printable)

To do what you have in mind (IN REVIT) you need to go through a workaround like many others did before you.

[angelica.rodriguez.3d · Accepted solution]

My topos are always way bigger than they need to and when using the box, I cut the lower part so it shows a bottom. Also, you can try to give a value to the elevation of poche base, in theory that is the level where the material of the sectioned topo starts.

[RDAOU]

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@angelica.rodriguez.3d wrote:

My topos are always way bigger than they need to and when using the box, I cut the lower part so it shows a bottom. Also, you can try to give a value to the elevation of poche base, in theory that is the level where the material of the sectioned topo starts.

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Apologies but that is wrong...the elevation set for the section material/poch elevation level has nothing to do with the section box cut showing the backfill...

1. Section box does not cut the coarse earth fill...the fill shows only when the section box cuts the toposurface itself
2. Even if you extend the toposurface it way further/large than what is covered by your project; it doesnt make any difference to the bottom part unless you stretch the lower grip high enough to cut the surface...ie: what Louis has proposed which again will cut holes in the low points  of the project site
3. That being said; the only way to bypass that is to FAKE your site and add points around it at a level lower than that of the lowest level on your site (ie: to bluff the section box into cutting the toposurface before it reaches the ACTUAL site) - ie: no longer BIM

And that is... I'm not sure what to call it (it might work for 1 out of a 100 sites if they fit all the criteria) but in my opinion definitly not a workaround as it messes/alters the existing site survey  and it is not your site anymore...

If you are to provide a solution I think it would be best not to mislead forum users into wrong practices!!!

EDIT: MOREOVER...That cheat still doesn't resolve the issue of 3D printing...When exported from Revit to STL format which is currently the only file format (available via addin) to export Revit models for stereolithography use, prototyping and CAM (ie; to build 3D model)...Poch/Section Material below toposurface are not exported because  only geometric data is exported from Revit to ASCII and Binary STL files!!! So not just a worng practice in faking the site but a useless one as it doesn't serve the purpose!