Revit Stair Path Arrows at Different Scales

My blog post on Revit Stair Path Arrows has had more hits than any other topic; and it continues to be near the top of the list each month - so it is obviously a problem issue for many people.

One thing I did not really cover in that post is how  to handle stair arrows at different scales.

Stair Arrows and Scale

Stair path arrow types need to be set up for each different scale that you want to use – because the arrowheads behave like symbols or tags (they change with scale); this is unlike the old arrows, which behaved like model lines (not affected by scale).

Arrowheads

First you need to set up the arrowheads for each scale:

• 1:50 or 1/4” to 1’0”

• 1:100 or 1/8” to 1’0”

• 1:200 or 1/16” to 1’0”

Text Size

Make sure you have suitable text types set up for each required stair path arrow scale

 

Stair Path Arrow Types

Then set up a different Stair path arrow type for each scale – these will reference the preset arrowheads and also text styles:

The important things to change for each scale are:

• Arrowhead Type (system families as described previously)

• Distance to Cut Mark – I usually make this a calculation of “Tread depth/ Scale factor”, so that the arrowhead stops on the first riser line beyond the cut mark, if that is what you prefer graphically.
      250/50 = 5mm
      10” / 1/4” to 1’0” = 27/128”
      250/100 = 2.5mm
      10” / 1/8” to 1’0” = 27/64”
      250/200 = 1.25mm
      10” / 1/16” to 1’0” = 7/128”
• Text Type – adjust this so that it is the smallest readable size (unless you want larger text). Set up from Text panel of Annotate tab on ribbon

Duplicate types for each scale, and change the 3 properties:

• 1:50 or 1/4” to 1’0”

• 1:100 or 1/8” to 1’0”

• 1:200 or 1/16” to 1’0”

Things that typically do not need to be changed include:

• Start from Riser &  End at Riser   - unticking these would cause erroneous locations for arrowheads if your stair starts or ends with a tread (but will not affect stairs that start/end with runs).
• Show Arrowheads to Cut Mark    - causes arrowheads to disappear on views where cut marks are shown (but they still show when the full run is displayed)

Properties that you might want to change include:

• Start Symbol Type   - if you want to put a dot or circle to indicate the start of the stair
• Full Step Arrow   - makes the arrow the full width of the run
• Line Shape at Landing Corner   - can be straight or curved on angled landings
• Draw for Each Run   -  creates a separate arrow on each run, which may be useful on unusual stairs such as 'T' shaped stairs where the path arrow is not created correctly:

Refer to Revit Stair Path Arrows for more information on using stair path arrows

Geometric Patterns from Parametric Revit Stars

In my previous post I showed how to make a parametric star in Revit - one that has a variable number of points.  Here are some examples of how that might be used in a parametric pattern.  I have shown something a little like this previously and also in my RTC 2012 presentation, but that was done using a fixed number of points in the star, although it changed shaped parametrically.

Repeater Star Patterns in Revit

Since the parametric stars are made as adaptive components, they can be placed on a node of a divided surface (in a conceptual mass or another adaptive component)

Once the star has been placed it can be arrayed using the "Repeater" command to form a geometric pattern

 

By changing the radius of the circular rig in the adaptive star, it changes the size of the star and hence the pattern

  Once the stars overlap it gives a completely different effect

 

Going back to the original size, the number of points on the star can be changed.  however, a five pointed star does not result in an interesting pattern once they overlap each other.  Likewise, 4 or 3 pointed stars don't look good (crosses and triangles)

Increasing the number of points to seven, does work reasonably well, although it looks a bit messy as the overlap increases!

  

 An eight point star works well on a square grid pattern:

You can also change the background grid on the divided surface.  In this example one of the grids is rotated by 30 degrees:

The resulting patterns can be triangular or hexagonal in nature:

 Just by changing the size of the star (radius of underlying crcle) you can get radically different patterns.

I hope that someone finds a use for this flexible way to create parametric patterns in Revit (2013 or later).