OK, so if you didn’t know already, I am a student.¬† Earlier this week I had a huge project deadline in studio so I wasn’t able to get any tips up.¬† Now I’m going to make up for that with a double shot of tips!¬† These are some pretty good tips here, so pay attention now!

First, I want to start off with a very simple tip which is yet another typical result of not paying attention to what the dialog is presenting you for options.¬† Remember, the biggest tip anyone can give you is to pay attention to your interface!¬† It gives you what you need, you just have to pay attention to it!¬† I’ve been asked a few times in the RevitCity.com chat about adding a to/from parameter to door schedules.¬† This is a very simple procedure, as shown in this video.

This is as simple as noting the “Select Available Fields From” drop down in the fields dialogue for the Door Schedule.¬† Go ahead, try it out; you’ll be surprised how many To/From parameters there are!

The second tip I want to share with you today is a little more complex and ti delves outside of the realm of Revit for just a brief moment.¬† Google Earth is a wonderful resource for figuring out where that country is that’s in the news that you’re not really sure where it is. Did you know however that you can also use google earth to create a quick topo for your revit models?!¬† Let me show you how!

First, you will need a copy of Google Sketchup and Google Earth installed.  The free version of Sketchup will work fine.

1. Open Google Earth and find your site location
2. Ensure that the Terrain layer is turned on if you want the topo to be acurately contoured.
   
3. With Google Earth zoomed into your site, open Sketchup and import the geometry from Google Earth.
   
4. Once the site is loaded into Sketchup, be sure the Terrain layer is on there also.  Note, the Terain is placed at actual elevation above the ground place so you may need to zoom out to see it.
   
5. Clean up whatever you don’t want to be included in the Revit model (like the flat surface below the topo).
6. Save the Sketchup file.  If you are using Revit 2009 and Sketchup 7, be sure you save the file as a sketchup 6 file format.  Otherwise Revit can not read the file.
   
7. Import the sketchup file into Revit, et voila!
   

Some notes about Sketchup Topos:

1. You can not use Topo tools with SKP topos.  This means Pads, Split Surface, etc.
2. The geometry is very bulky in files size and not very smooth.
3. Geometry is rough and does not render very well, but is a very quick way to get accurate topo into the project.

I hope you enjoyed another edition of the Revit TotD.  If you enjoyed it please let me know so by leaving a comment and sharing with your friends and coworkers.  Thanks again and have a great day!

-Carl