By John Flanagan
About tools in Revit that help you achieve Brick/Block Coursing of elements.
Introduction
There are a number of tools in Revit that help you achieve Brick/Block Coursing. Two approaches to achieving Brick/Block Coursing in Revit are outlined below.
Procedure 1: Setting a visible Workplane and specifying a module spacing.
As an early stage design aid, you can set and use the Workplane tool to draw and snap objects against.
Click the Show Workplane button on the ‘Workplane’ Panel on the Home Ribbon.
- Now select the workplane from the Options Bar . Resize the Grid by selecting a control on each edge and drag it in or out . You can even move the grid accurately to a chosen location.
- You may now draw elements that snap to this grid. By setting the spacing to 225mm you would be able to draw a wall at brick co-ordinating lengths.
Procedure 2: Using the Line Based Coursing Detail Component tool.
There are two ‘Line Based Detail Component Families’ in the UK library, one is for coursing in Section and the other for coursing in Plan views.
They are both located in the ‘Detail Components’ section of the Metric Library, under a folder called ‘Annotations’ and named -Coursing Lines in Plan.rfa and Coursing Lines in Section-Elevation.rfa.
Procedure (Using the Detail Components for coursing)
- Load from Library either of the two Families listed above.
- Open a plan or a section view that requires coursing.
- Pick the Detail Component tool
- Annotate Ribbon, Detail Panel
- Draw between two points, with the first point positioned on the corner of a wall, in the case of the image below; or where you wish the coursing to start from in a section view.
- It may be easiest to use the thin lineweights tool, so that you can see all coursing lines in the Line Based Detail Component.
- Zoom in, and you can now use the Align tool to select the coursing line that you wish to align your Windows/Doors in Plan and it could be your repeating details in section views. Note if you are trying to align Repeating Details, you can only align the ends of the Repeating Details not any of the individual components within it.
- Finally delete the Detail Component and create a new one to continue coursing accurately in another location.
Note: Also it may be beneficial if you amend the current dimension type units to display to 1 decimal place and Suppress trailing 0’s in the case of Brickwork coursing where you require your dimensions to the nearest 0.5mm.