By Dennis Collin
Steel connection tools have been present for some time in Revit, but in the 2019 version we now have a dedicated tab for steel details such as bolts, plates, welds and cutting and chamfer tools.
New 'Steel' tab for Revit 2019
This new tab allows us to load in various connection rules which we had in previous versions. However, we also now have buttons to position plates, bolts, holes, anchors, sheer studs and welds. To do this we still need to select a valid work plane to position many of these items.
Placing a plate, by sketch
At the time of writing we cannot constrain these fabrication elements to regular Revit component families nor can we group them, but hopefully this will be addressed in a future release. Selection sets however can be used effectively should they need to be repositioned later. Views also need to be set to ‘Fine’ detail display to show bolts, welds and plates.
Placing & modifying bolts on selected hosts and then applying chamfer cuts to the plate
The cope and cut tools have been present in Revit for some years. However the 2019 release provides users with improved tools including a new notching (or coping) function and trim and cut tools making these tasks a little easier and more straightforward than the legacy commands. Editing these connections is also simple, just select the cut or connection detail and modifying the parameters like offset, length, angle cut, number of bolts etc.
Trimmed and notched members
Editing a steel connection component
Obviously these tools are just a starting point as they can only do one area of connection at a time but other add-ins and products make this task easier by linking to AutoCAD Advance Steel and Dynamo scripting should some automation be required.