Formula with Text Result

One of the things that is very frustrating when using formulas in Revit is that you can’t make the result text.

For example…..

If you have ‘Length’ and ‘Parameter A’ and you want the result of ‘Parameter A’ to be ‘TRUE’ if the Length is smaller than 1200mm and ‘FALSE’ if the Length is greater than 1200mm.

For this you would think the formula should be…..

Parameter A = if(Length < 1200, ”TRUE”, ”FALSE”)

But alas, you will be greeted with this error message…..

What Revit is telling you is that you cannot have the result of a formula being text…… :(

So in order for this to work we need to trick Revit by creating 2 additional dummy parameters, TRUE and FALSE, with their values being TRUE and FALSE respectively.

Now you can create your formula and all you have to do is leave out the apostrophe marks…… :)

Wall Sweeps (Weatherboards)

If you are creating wall types in your project model, and would like to show a finish like weatherboards to the outside of your walls, then adding sweeps to your wall could be the answer. This is not the tool in the Architecture ribbon but the tool located in the Edit Type, Structure area of your wall type.

This will allow you to add sweeps to the wall so that every instance of that type is the same.

(Make sure you duplicate the wall type before you edit it)

When you change the preview of your wall type to a Section View it unlocks a whole lot of handy tools to adjust your wall. You can see in the example above that all of the Modify Vertical Structure tools are greyed out until we switch to a Section Preview. One of the tools is the ability to add sweeps. (Keep an eye on the preview to see how you wall is progressing)

Firstly you need to draw a profile for the weatherboard you are going to apply to the outside of your wall. Then save it away so that you can access it later.

Then enter the Type properties dialogue box for your wall and edit the structure and switch to a section preview, this will unlock the Sweeps tool. Then you can set up the sweeps you would like to apply to your wall, just keep applying the sweeps and setting the correct distance and you will have your weatherboards.

The best thing about applying wall sweeps is that you will be able to automatically cut these when door or windows are applied to your model as they are part of the wall.