Delve deep into the nuances of Revit Structure as we learn how to place and define columns in our basement design. Get hands-on experience of using the structural element placement and understand how it impacts the overall structural analysis.
Key Insights
- The article defines two approaches to create columns in Revit Structure - defining the column at each grid and then setting its height or setting the height first and then placing it.
- After the column is defined, it's copied and placed at each grid intersection, which allows it to build into the wall and form part of the wall, an aspect critical for realistic structural analysis.
- Proper placement of defined elements is emphasized, as it affects how design programs perceive it as a structural element and direct loads to the appropriate areas.
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Hello, and welcome back to Revit Structure. In our previous video, we placed concrete walls to start our basement. Now we want to place columns.
So let's get started. The first thing we want to do is go to Structure > Columns, and we'll pick it. Here we have our Rectangular Concrete Column, which is the one we want to use.
Let's go ahead and place this one first. We're going to place it at the intersection of this grid set. Okay, let's press Escape to exit the command.
The reason I did that is because there are two approaches to creating these columns. The first approach is to place a column at every single grid and then define its height. Or, we can define it first—so again, we’ll go to Properties, go to the Top Level, and note that we’ll have the 9-inch concrete slab covered in a future video.
At this point, we want to offset the top of this column to -9 inches, okay? The Base Level will be offset to -1'-0", so we have uniform elevations for our foundations. We have the base offset at -1'-0"—let’s place that. Let’s go to a Section View to take a look.
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Let’s go to Section, tighten the view window a bit, and press Escape to exit. When we select it, we can see we have a column placed here.
It’s 9 inches from Level 1 to the top of the column and extends 1 foot below our Basement Level. Now what I’m going to do here is copy this column instead of drawing each one individually. I’ve already defined it, so now we’ll copy it.
We’ll make multiple copies, and again we’ll place them at each grid intersection. As you can see, when you place them, they build into the wall and join the wall. This is exactly what we want to see, because these columns will potentially be cast as a formed part of the wall assembly.
Alright, let’s continue and finish placing these. You’ll see that as we hover over the grids, it captures both grids as an intersecting point. You’ll find later on, as you develop models, these grid intersections can be used to create base structures for structural analysis programs.
So you want to make sure your defined elements are positioned in a way that structural design software recognizes them as valid structural elements and assigns loads accordingly. Okay, we’ve got our columns in. That’s all for this video.
I’ll see you in the next one.