Fixed spacing for area reinforcement

[maurijnE]

Why cant we use a fixed spacing for area reinforcements?
If you draw an area on a wall for rebar and enter a spacing of 100mm, the spacing can end up with less than 100mm....

Not a soul alive is going to space the rebar 99mm apart in situ. Please add the ability to just enter a fixed distance, the functionality is already there when drawing rebar shapes. it doesn't make any sense to evenly divide area reinforcement based on the area height/width when the engineer wants a fixed spacing distance.

[maurijnE]

I just now noticed we cant even use a fixed spacing anywhere????
What's even the point of modeling rebar in 3D if you can't use a fixed spacing?

If the diameter and spacing is engineered as 16mm-100mm, do you think in situ people will space it out at 96 mm because the height of the wall doesnt allow for dividing by 100mm without rounding the number of bars?

[maurijnE]

this will never, ever happen like this on the jobsite.
A spacing of 100mm is a spacing of 100mm, not 98.

[alan.johnson7YLND]

Have you tried Number with Spacing?

[maurijnE]

This results in trial and error to get the area at exactly 100mm. 
You should just be able to draw an area and use a fixed spacing. Nobody in the world will space rebar not at a fixed distance.

[jay_colcombe]

I think the main issue here is that Area Reinforcement is usually more driven by the host as a way of throwing in rebar quickly based on predefined parameters/area of a Slab, Floor or Wall and unless you remove the Area System which then removes multi-rebar editing you have very limited Layout Options in Maximum Spacing or Fixed Number.

In reality an additional feature such as - Runout that could be applied at the Start/Middle/End would be required to ensure you could have Spacing and the last bar adjusts to suit and Spacing could be an additional Layout Rule possibility.  Another option could be to have a Spacing Layout Rule and Automatically Turn Off the Last Bar (Remove Last Bar Tick Box) if it is outside the Host?

There are Third Party Add-ins which offer additional features such as run out such as Sofistik or CADS RC3D/RebarCAD 3D which may be worth a look

[maurijnE]

Yeah i agree.
I don't think there's any 3rd party software that can solve my issue as they also are dependant on whatever spacing Revit allows. If they do provide  an actual fixed spacing/runout it will need to be adjusted every time something changes in the host (height/width) so this would also be a dirty work around imo.

[jay_colcombe]

Really then Area Reinforcement is not an option for you unless you initially place and then remove the system and edit as required the other option is to draw as a Rebar Set and copy to same place and adjust elevations within the same slab which takes more time but has more flexibility.

Not really as regards changes as you can now Constrain to start edges so it is a constraint or disable constrains so changes will not influence the rebar meaning it will not change if the element changes.

you should take a look at the Add-ins as they definitely expand on what Revit has to offer in this area.  CADS RC3D/RebarCAD 3D allows you to utilise the Area Reinforcement placement and Layering which is a great feature T1/T1 etc.

[maurijnE]

My point is, area reinforcement, or whatever rebar function revit has, isn't an option for anyone unless you go through trial and error to find the exact height and width to end up with the correct spacing. As nobody in the world will deviate from the fixed spacing dictated by the engineer. There has never, ever been a single job site where the reinforcing ironworker looks at their structural drawing and go: "The calculations state that our rebar should be 100mm apart, but the wall we are currently building is 27mm to short so we will space out all rebar evenly at a logical 93 mm.

The best part about this is that official autodesk employees now recommend overriding the rebar tag so that it shows 100mm while in 3d the rebar is spaced at 94mm. Is this the future of 3D modelling? We simply show something else in 2D because autodesk doesn't want to add a feature that hasn't been gathering support for at least 12 years?

The entire option for maximum spacing when doing area reinforcement or rebar sets is useless as nobody spaces rebar out like that. We are drawing in 3D but not as reality, and to prevent this, Autodesk tells you to change the rounding of the tags....