By Garry Stockton
10 stages to Creating a Residential House in Revit
When you’re new to Revit, it can feel a little daunting creating your first model. The following will help you through the core components of Revit that you will need to design your project.
Below is a visual step by step guide on how all these elements come together, so you can start creating and documenting your own house designs!
And at the end – you’ll see some of the drawings/images that you can output directly from the 3D model.
Quick Guide
- Import / Setup your Topography
- Place your building Pads to setup the ground slabs
- Construct your ground level walls
- Introduce your second-floor slab with cantilevers
- Construct the upper storey walls
- Add in Columns and Structural Walls
- Introduce the Staircase and Feature Curtain Walls
- Add in a Flat Roof
- Finish off with some Retaining Walls and the Pool
- Import into Keyshot for rendering
Step 1 Import / Setup your Topography
This can be imported from a CSV file, DWG, DGN or created from scratch using picking points and setting their elevations.
Step 2 Place your building Pads to setup the ground slabs
Building pads can be found in the Massing & Site tab. These will create a slab but also cut into the topography and produce nice automatic cut graphics in your sections.
You can use multiple pads to represent different materials - for example the pool tiling or outdoor stonework.
Step 3 Construct your ground level walls
With the ground slabs in, you can now add in your walls. Use the wall tool and duplicate the family types to create different wall variations.
Step 4 Introduce your second-floor slab with cantilevers
Switch over to the upper-level floor plan and draw in your second floor slab. You can now reference the walls below to help you out.
Step 5 Construct the upper storey walls
Stay in the floor plan view and start drawing your external and interior walls for the upper storey.
Step 6 Add in Columns and Structural Walls
Feel free to add in any structural columns or walls to support any cantilevers or large spans as required.
Step 7 Introduce the Staircase and Feature Curtain Walls
Let's make a feature from the staircase with a full height curtain wall.
You will need to cut an opening in your slab by editing the sketch, so it does not show through the curtain wall. Add in a curtain grid and mullions to support the glass.
Step 8 Add in a Flat Roof
Cap off the top of your building with either a Slab or a Roof with no slopes.
Step 9 Finish off with some Retaining Walls
Place in some retaining walls where the building pads have cut into the topography to stabilise your site.
Step 10 Import into Keyshot for rendering
Whilst you can render in Revit you can also import straight into 3ds Max, Enscape or Photoshop to present to your clients.
Documentation
Now that the model is built, we have the added bonus that all the floor plans, sections and elevations are generated from the 3D model. With a few adjustments to the graphic styles, you can create varied visual effects, here are some additional drawings you can produce.
You have now seen the main elements you need to work with when designing a residential house. However, it doesn’t stop there, you can also create schedules for doors (see below), windows, rooms and many more elements.
The great news is that you can model intuitively in 3D whilst your drawings are integrated and ready to print, reducing time and effort across all drawings.