Circular repeater geometry in Revit

In previous posts I have described how easy it is in Revit to use a circle as a rig to host regular geometric shapes like squares and hexagons.  It occurred to me the other day that circles would also be ideal hosts for parametric stars;  put that together with Repeaters and you get some interesting possibilities . . .

Here is how to create a parametric star:

• Create a new adaptive component;  
• Place a point at the origin; make its reference planes visible
• Set the horizontal ref plane as the work plane
• Place a reference line circle onto the point
• Make its radius dimension into a parameter

• Select the circle
• Divide Path

•  It will create a divided path on top of the circle with 6 nodes

• Create another Adaptive component
• Place two points, and make them adaptive
• Place a line between the points, remembering to enable "3D Snapping" first

• Save the second family (eg. as "AC 2pt Line")
• Load it into the first family
• Place one of the components onto two non-adjacent nodes

 

• Select the two-point component and click on the Repeat command

• You should end up with a triangle
• NB.  if you placed the two-point adaptive line component onto adjacent nodes you'd get a hexagon

• Actually, a triangle is only half of what we want, but we need to backtrack to get the correct result - so, UNDO the repeat command
• Place a second two-point adaptive on alternating non-adjacent nodes

•  Select both lines and click on Repeat

•   
•  You should end up with a six pointed star, which is now a "Repeater"

• Select the divided path, and change the number of nodes to 5, giving you a five pointed star

•  Change it to 4, which gives a cross (not so useful)

•  Change it to 3 for a triangle

•  Change it back up to 7

•  And then to 8 - this gives an eight pointed star that could be useful in tiling patterns when repeated itself on a divided surface

•  As the number of nodes increase, the shape becomes closer to a circle

• Now all you need to do is turn the number of nodes into a parameter to get yourself a one-point adaptive parametric star component
• Oh, one more thing - you need to make the nodes of the divided path not visible otherwise they will show up when this component is placed in a project or another family

How useful is this going to be?  We'll investigate that in a future post . . .
Here is one possible use - geometric patterns

Revit Rough Width/Height System Parameters

Making use of the Revit Rough Width and Rough Height System Parameters for Doors and Windows

Having heard lots of questions about how to control or remove the "Rough" system parameters, I thought I'd share a couple of tips I figured out for making them more useful.

Revit door and window templates provide several system parameters that cannot be deleted or renamed.  They are also Type parameters by default, which may not suit your purpose:

1. Width
2. Height
3. Rough Width
4. Rough Height

A lot of people don't use the "Rough" parameters, as the Width and Height are sufficient.  Here is a way to put the redundant system parameters to use:

Let's suppose that the overall sizes of your window families are controlled by type parameters Width and Height.  Most people have a naming convention for the windows that include the sizes in the name - eg.  WN_1800x1200
There is always a chance that a user will duplicate a type and name it wrongly, or make a mistake so that the name does not match the actual size.  This can be annoying or even dangerous if someone makes an assumption about the size without checking (which involves going into the Type properties dialog box).

There is a simple way to make it much easier to check on the fly.  Add a couple of basic formulas to the Rough parameters

• Rough Width = Width
• Rough Height = Height

Type to Instance

Now we want those Rough parameters to be instance parameters, but apparently you can't change them as the "Modify" icon is grayed out when you select one

• Go back to the plan view and select the Width dimension;  
• change it to "Rough Width";
• Check the "Instance Parameter" box in the options bar;
• Change the dimension back to the Width parameter;

Repeat this operation for the Height dimension in the front elevation view;

When you load the family into a project and place a window, the window instance properties will display the size (Rough Width and Height), but they will be grayed out so you can't change the size without going into the type properties.

Its a simple but effective way to make use of those annoying redundant system parameters.   It also shows an easy way to change system parameters from type to instance in the family.