Rhino. Inside. Revit: Allowing Design to Drive the Process

TECHNOLOGY

Rhino.Inside.Revit Allowing Design to Drive the Process I work a lot with young architecture

forms, we do so because they’re the

one might go about constructing

students, and one of my favorite

right formal gestures for the job and

them. That’s why discussions about

things about working with new

not because we’ve failed to consider

things like origami (where stiffness

designers is bouncing back and forth

the alternatives.

is achieved through the addition of

between considerations of formal

a crease) and ruled surfaces, which

gestures and material constraints.

Many young designers begin

permit the construction of curved

Re: the former, there’s a lot more to

their architecture careers with an

surfaces from straight elements

architecture than boxes, gable roofs,

understandably limited view of

(like light timber!) are really useful

and extruded floor plans; though we

what architectural forms can be

in school: they expose students to

may still frequently arrive at those

and even less knowledge of how

new formal languages while also

Image credit: Brian Wurst

prompting students to consider their construction through architecturallyanalogous materials (paper: sheet metal, dowels: 2x4s).

More often than not, there’s an unintentional followup challenge: now that we know how to make it, how do we make it in Revit?

I’m a big Revit fan, and although it would be wholly inaccurate to claim I’m an ace Revit user I do use it frequently and, I like to think, competently.Still, I sometimes find myself in circumstances where I struggle to use the software’s built-in modeling tools to achieve geometries that might easily be generated using another software.My preferred “other software”?It’s McNeel’s Rhinoceros 3D, which is why I was so pleased to learn about the recent collaboration between Autodesk and McNeel that’s brought us Rhino.Inside.Revit. (their punctuation, not mine).

Consider our test case:

The Mitosis Duplex, a design I’ve

got to miter all of those rafters.We

So how does it work?Well, like a

had kicking around for a while and

all suffer for fashion, though, right?

whole lot of things in the design/

which I’ve chosen for this example

production world, there are probably

because it contains a roof geometry

The Rhino.Inside plug-in made

a lot of ways to do it.I like this quick-

whose means of construction in

quick work modeling this roof.With

and-easy method:

Revit wasn’t immediately obvious

the walls already modeled in Revit

(to me, anyway) but which could be

(though these could also have been

generated in Rhino in a matter of

generated in Rhino or after the fact in

Getting the Reference Geometry from Revit to Rhino:

seconds.It’s a diagonally-symmetric

Revit, where one software ends and

Grabbing the reference geometry

duplex with a playful twist on a

the other begins is kind of up to the

from Revit is easy.It requires that

and select your Revit components.

and Grasshopper, so yes, of course.

3-faced gable roof.It’s all ruled

user), it’s pretty easy to bring in the

you construct a basic Grasshopper

Done!

Someone’s probably written a

surfaces so it can be constructed

Revit-generated reference geometry,

script (wait!Don’t panic!) that requires

using ordinary materials, though it

model on top of it, and then kick that

no knowledge of Grasshopper to

Can this be way “smarter” and more

what I usually need it for this gets the

might be a long day for whoever’s

modeled bit back out to Revit.

construct.Drop the pieces in place

sophisticated/complex! It’s Revit

job done, though. Simple as that.

master’s thesis on this one step. For

Getting the Goods Back to Revit:

(what’s not shown won’t be exported),

designers with different skill sets and

Ready to send your Rhino stuff back

then save the model as a DWG.

make it easier to quickly model design

to Revit?There are a lot of ways to

Here’s the really important bit: when

options and to conduct charettes.

do it, and you can choose your own

saving, pop over to the Solids tab and

adventure based on how Revit-y you

make sure the “ACIS Solids” option is

need your model to be.Just need a

selected.If it’s not, you’re doomed to a

shape that shows up in the model/

horrible mesh modeling experience!

rendering? The Geometry from Direct

So What?

Shape Component will get you there.

Here’s why tools like this are

Do yourself a favor, though, and at least give it a name and assign it a Revit category so that your VG filters will work properly.Modeled a bunch of components at once (like pavers) and want to bring them in as individual elements that you can manipulate separately in Revit after the fact? No sweat: just add a graft to the script.

Need it to be a real Revit component (like a system-recognized wall type)?

There are a lot of tools for that too that are beyond the scope of this piece.

This roof is a special situation, though, and can be (mostly) accomplished through a handy trick that’s almost exactly the same as the workflow described above, though with a little twist: use Revit’s Rooffrom-Mass functionality, then do all of this same stuff, but do it in the Conceptual Mass Template.

Using tools like this makes it easier

About the Contributor HARRISON FLOYD Assoc. AIA, PE, Emerging Professional

important enough to me to bother

Harrison Floyd, a graduate of

with a blog postpiece about

Clemson University with a Master of

it:sometimes, the tools and systems

Architecture and Digital Ecologies

that we make for ourselves to make

certificate, also holds a Bachelor of

our lives easier become restrictions

Science in Mechanical Engineering

themselves.Revit makes, like, 90%

from the University of South Carolina.

to achieve complex forms “within”

them completely separately and them

of our jobs way easier, but does that

Harrison’s strong foundation in

Revit instead of having to model

import them as a generic mass.

mean we shouldn’t lean into the other

engineering allows him to bring a

10% because we can’t do, or don’t

dynamic perspective to the projects

Of course, the old

know how to do, that part in Revit?It

with which he is involved.

Save-As method is

doesn’t, especially because that extra

still a possibility, too:

10% is probably on the design side;

While at Clemson, Harrison won

if there’s no plan to

if we turn our minds back to design

the AIA Henry Adams Medal and

bring the geometry

school, we know that there’s a big

the Edward Allen Student Award

back into Revit, then

difference between 90% and 100%.

in 2021 and the Martin A. Davis

saving the model as

Award in 2020, served as a graduate

a DWG and opening

Expanding on that point: this is

teaching assistant for Architecture

it in another software

a big firm, and there are a lot of

Foundations, and first worked at

works great.Just

talented designers herein the field of

LS3P as a summer intern. He is

open a 3D view, use

architecture.Not all of them use Revit,

currently teaching first and second

the section box in

and those who do aren’t necessarily

year studios and a portfolio class

Revit to crop the

power users; none of us should

at Clemson. Harrison also serves

model to the parts

have to be to make good designs

as a Clemson liaison for AIA

you want to export,

happen.Complementary tools like this

Columbia, and is a Board Member

use your VG filters

allow for more collaboration among

of the Southern Off-Road Biking Association and the South Carolina Architectural Foundation.