Enable true parametric modeling

[Hauk-Morten]

 

 

I very much like the idea of parametric modelling. The idea that you can assign a measurement to a variable in the beginning of a project, so that when you learn later on that a requirement changes, you can just update the variable and with that change the locations of 200 objects by a few millimeters with a single change. Revit has parameters and you can assign those to dimensions. But you try to change the parameter value, and you get an error "Constrains cannot be satisfied". Nothing moves. This isn't possible because Revit doesn't appear to understand that you wanted to move the radiator, and not the architect link containing the wall, despite the link being pinned. If you could introduce the constraint system and parametric modeling capabilities of Fusion360, my life as an engineer would become very much more pleasant! In Fusion360, you can simply decide that "Element A is pinned, and this is the distance between this face of element A and that face of element B. The distance is called "radiator_valve_clearance" and I decide that it will be 100mm". You can change that anytime you want. Fusion knows that only one of those is pinned, and so obviously, to satisfy that constraint, the other element has to move. If you get two dimensions which interfere, the user gets to decide which one is a driven dimension (only for information, indicated by enclosing parantheses) and which one is driving (user editable). It's also possible to refer to one parameter in another, Dimension2 = Dimension1*2. You try to do any of these things currently in Revit, you hit a wall pretty much immediately, which was incredibly frustrating to discover after having worked with Siemens NX and Autodesk Fusion360. They both have true parametric modellling.

Thanks to Product Design Online for example GIF and the image.

[ksmithBMBHQ]

I have been finding that the constraint system in Revit is not at all intuitive. Fusion 360 is a great example of a software that gets this right. I would love more constraint tools in Revit. Plus, Fusion does a good job of showing you visually which things are and are not constrained, as well as notifying when things are overconstrained. These would all be incredibly welcome additions to Revit.