Master the process of adding diffusers on a duct in Autodesk Revit MEP with the help of this detailed guide. Get insights into the use of lookup tables and understand how to select and load the correct types for your project.
Key Insights
- The article extensively explains how to add diffusers on a duct using Autodesk Revit MEP, starting from choosing the correct face of a round duct, through the process of loading the Autodesk family from the cloud-based content library.
- The tutorial emphasizes the use of lookup tables in Revit MEP. By using lookup tables, users can load only specific types they need into a project, keeping their files lean and clean. For instance, the tutorial uses a 36 by 12 connection 16 inch diameter duct for this task.
- In the process of placing air terminals and mirroring them over the center line of the duct, it's important to be aware of the hosting and color-coding of elements in Revit MEP. The article suggests the right method to avoid potential problems with mirroring and copying in the software.
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In the previous video, we went ahead and got our rooftop unit above the gym here. And we started to lay it out. Now we're going to go ahead and actually add the diffusers on the duct.
So what we want to go ahead and do is we want to use kind of this curved face, we know this is a round duct. We do have one in the in the project already if I go to air terminal, but it's kind of small. And we want to go ahead and load in another version of this family in a sense.
And what we're using is what is called a lookup table. So I'm going to go ahead and hit escape. I'm going to go over to my insert tab.
And I'm going to go to load Autodesk family. Here, I'm if you pop into it, you'll kind of see that I'm in all of the different locations here. I'm going to go down to mechanical.
And again, this load Autodesk family is the cloud based content library that Autodesk has produced. So I go mechanical, I'm going to go into the MEP side, I'm going to go to air terminals. Again, I have mine set up in kind of this list view as compared to this tile view.
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I kind of like that list view a little better, just because I can see the entire name. Let's go ahead and scroll down. See supply, supply diffuser and see supply grill, double deflection, curve face, rectangular neck.
We want that curve face. We can apply it to this rounded I'm going to go ahead and select that I'm going to hit load. Now what this is here is this is bringing in this is what's called a lookup table.
And I'm able to select which ones I want. Some families in Revit, sometimes with mechanical diffusers, a lot of times maybe with structural beams or other items, there are really a lot of different types within that single family. And by loading all of those types into the project, if you load every single type, first of all, it clogs up our type selector.
But then the other aspect of it is it actually adds file size to the Revit project, we want to keep our files lean and clean, we're not necessarily going to use every single one of these different variations here. We can go ahead, I'm going to scroll all the way to the bottom. I'm going to use the 36 × 12 connection 16 inch diameter duct, I'm going to go ahead hit OK.
There we go. Since I already have that family technically loaded into the project, but I don't have that type loaded into the project, it's asking me if I want to overwrite. So you know, overwrite the existing version.
And there we go. Now those lookup tables, you'll find them in different things, sometimes manufacturers build them for their families, so that you only load in the type that you particularly are going to be using or needing. So just make sure that you know what that is when it shows up.
Now I want to place my air terminals on this duct here. So I'm going to go to my systems, I'm going to go air terminal, since I just loaded that in, it's going to pop me to that family, but I don't have the right one here. I don't have the one that I just loaded in.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to look at my list here, I'm going to take that 36 × 12 connection. There we go. Now it kind of knows that it wants to be an air terminal on a duct.
If you want to put an air terminal directly onto a duct, up here in my contextual tab, you'll see air terminal on duct. Now if I uncheck that, I can't really place it. But if I check it there, there we go.
So I'm going to go ahead and place four. That one first one didn't place. There we go.
And just make sure that you can see it. So that's hosting to the duct there. I'll place four per side.
There we go. Now, if I want to equalize these and space them out evenly, it is a little bit of a different process. Sometimes Revit, we just got to sometimes do what Revit wants us to do.
If I do a dimension from here, and then if I zoom in, I can get the center line of that air terminal there, there, and just work my way down. And I'm going to go to the edge of this, hit TAB, select the edge. If I go hit EQ, it's going to give me this constraints is not satisfied.
And one way to kind of work our way around this is I'm going to set the location of my last one here and not have that dimension as part of the string. I'm going to delete the dimensions real quick. I'm going to establish a dimension from here to here first.
And I'm going to set that as a let's say three feet. So three enter. So again, I drew a dimension aligned from here to here, drag it out, I select the element that I'm dimensioning to, and then I can adjust this dimension to be say, three feet.
Now I'm going to set another type of I'm going to set another string of dimensions. So aligned here, here, going across out to there. Now I can EQ this.
So I've set that dimension. Now I'm going based on the center lines of those diffusers to the edge of the duct. And there we go.
I've EQ'd that. I can do the same thing on this side. So aligned, I'm going to go from the end of the duct to the center line of the air terminal and place it and escape a couple times.
I'm going to pick this here, change this to three feet, establish another dimension. So aligned, I'm going to go say from this edge to the center of the air terminal, center of the air terminal, center of the air terminal, center of the air terminal, drag down, hit EQ. And there we go.
So you can see those are all nicely spaced in that location. What I can go ahead and do now is I can go ahead and mirror these over the center line of the duct to get them on the other side. So I'm going to select these diffusers.
And I'm just going through and selecting the different diffusers, make sure you don't get the duct. There we go. Or if I wanted to, I could drag a window from over here, make sure I only have the air terminals.
And you can always double check here in the types properties, the properties palette of what you have selected. So I can see I have eight air terminals selected. I'm going to go to pick mirror access or MM.
I also want to make sure my copy, because I want to copy these. So I hit copy. And then I'm just like the center line of the duct.
And there we go. We've created our supply air system for that. Now, notice that it did not turn these blue.
And that's really because this really didn't put it on the actual duct itself. So since that's the case, and it didn't really create this as the hosted element, and I can't select it, let's see air terminal on duct. It does not want to do it, does it? We're going back it up.
And sometimes it may just be easier. I'm going to go ahead hit this hit CS for create similar, select the duct pick, and then I can just align and go notice how they're now blue. So sometimes mirroring and copying will actually kind of create problems in Revit MEP.
Because when I pick, I'm actually picking the host. So you always want to be aware of kind of what's happening when you do that. But since I already set the previous one, Revit knows that that can be a reference for it so that it aligns and I don't need to go through the process of putting in the dimensions again, I'm going to go ahead and escape to finish that out.
I'm going to go ahead and hit Save. And there we go. So that's just kind of one of those things with Revit MEP and the types of elements that we're using in this in this piece of software.
And for this task, that you really want to pay attention to make sure that the elements are being hosted correctly, and that the elements are being colored correctly. Great.