Creating Rooms

To get started, open the model you’ve been working on. If you missed the previous chapter, go to the book’s web page at www.sybex.com/go/revit2012ner. From there, you can browse to Chapter 15 and find the file called NER-26.rvt.

The objective of the following procedure is to find the Room & Area panel on the Home tab, and to configure and add some rooms to the model. Follow along:

1. 1. In the Project Browser, find the dependent view called Level 1 East, and open it.
   
2. 2. In the Room & Area panel on the Home tab, click the Room button, as shown in Figure 15.1.

   

   
   
3. 3. Hover your cursor over the southeast room, as shown in Figure 15.2. An X appears, along with the outline of a room tag.
   
4. 4. When you see the X, pick a spot in the middle of the four walls.
   
5. 5. Press Esc.

You’ve now added a room to the model. Of course, it’s a nondescript room name with a nondescript room number. The following procedure will correct that. The objective here is to change the room name and number on the screen:

1. 1. Select the room tag that you just added to the model.
   
2. 2. Click the Room text.
   
3. 3. Change the name to SOUTHEAST CORNER OFFICE.
   
4. 4. Click room number 1.
   
5. 5. Change the number to 101 (see Figure 15.3).

Now that you have a room in place and it’s named properly, you can start cooking in terms of adding more rooms. This is because Revit will begin to sequentially number the rooms as you place them into the model.

The objective of the next procedure is to populate the rest of the east wing with rooms. Follow these steps:

1. 1. On the Room & Area panel of the Home tab, click the Room button.
   
2. 2. Place a room in the adjacent area, as shown at lower left in Figure 15.4.
   
3. 3. Call the room SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE (see Figure 15.4).
   
4. 4. On the Room & Area panel of the Home tab, click the Room button again.
   
5. 5. Place a room in the radial entry area.
   
6. 6. Rename the room EAST ENTRY.
   
7. 7. Renumber the room 001.
   
8. 8. Place a room in the south elevator shaft.
   
9. 9. Rename and renumber it SOUTHEAST ELEVATOR and 010.
   
10. 10. Place a room in the north elevator shaft.
    
11. 11. Rename and renumber it NORTHEAST ELEVATOR and 011.
    
12. 12. Place a room in the corridor.
    
13. 13. Call it EAST WING CORRIDOR, and number it 100.
    
14. 14. Just north of SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE and SOUTHEAST CORNER OFFICE, place two rooms, each called GATHERING. Number them 103 and 104 (see Figure 15.4).

    

    
    
15. 15. Zoom over to the west portion of the east wing, where the lavatories are.
    
16. 16. In the north lavatory, add a room named MEN’S, numbered 105.
    
17. 17. In the south lavatory, add a room named WOMEN’S, numbered 106.

I think you’re getting the concept of adding rooms. Although you’ve added a number of rooms to the east wing, you need to begin adding some plain old offices. The next procedure will involve adding offices to the rest of the spaces in the east wing of Level 1. From there, you can look at a room’s properties and figure out how to alter the room information. Follow along:

1. 1. Make sure you’re in the east wing area of the model, on Level 1.
   
2. 2. On the Room & Area panel of the Home tab, click the Room button.
   
3. 3. Pick the large area to the right of the women’s lavatory, as shown in Figure 15.5.
   
4. 4. Rename the room OFFICE, and change the number to 107 (see Figure 15.5).

   

   
   
5. 5. Click the Room button.
   
6. 6. Add rooms to the rest of the vacant areas, renaming them all OFFICE. (Skip the kitchen area and the room to the right of it, as shown in Figure 15.6).

With all the rooms in (at least in this section of the building), you can begin examining specific properties to see how you can add functionality and further populate the database information pertaining to each room.

Configuring Properties

Each room has specific properties associated with it. There are floor finishes and wall finishes as well as ceiling types and finishes. It would be nice if Revit picked up this information by “reading” the ceilings, walls, and floors, but it doesn’t. And for good reason—imagine having to create a different wall type for each paint color, and then splitting each partition as it passed through each room. In Revit, you specify individual room finishes in the properties of the room itself.

The objective of the next procedure is to generate additional room information in the properties of the room. Follow these steps:

1. 1. Zoom in on the SOUTHEAST CORNER OFFICE 101 room.
   
2. 2. Hover your cursor over the room until you see the X, as you can see in Figure 15.7.

   

   
   
3. 3. When you see the X, pick the room.
   
4. 4. In the Properties dialog, scroll down to the Identity Data group, as shown in Figure 15.8.
   
5. 5. Add WD-1 to Base Finish.
   
6. 6. Add ACT to Ceiling Finish.
   
7. 7. Add PT to Wall Finish.
   
8. 8. Add VCT to Floor Finish (see Figure 15.8).

   

   
   
9. 9. Select the SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE room.
   
10. 10. In the Properties dialog, click into the Base Finish field. Click the arrow for the pull-down menu and select WD-1, as shown in Figure 15.9.
    
11. 11. Change the rest of the fields using the previous entries.
    
12. 12. Save the model.

Changing a room’s properties is a simple task. There is, however, one more item to discuss. It pertains to a room that spans multiple floors, such as the east entry.

The objective of the next procedure is to change the height of the east entry room’s properties:

1. 1. Zoom in on the east entry area and select the room, as shown in Figure 15.10.

   

   
   
2. 2. In the Properties dialog, change Upper Limit to Roof.
   
3. 3. Change Limit Offset to 0. Doing so sets the east entry room to extend from Level 1 to the roof.

Now that you have experience changing the properties of the rooms, it’s time to look at the properties of the walls that divide the rooms. Certainly you noticed that when you placed the rooms in the lavatories, the rooms didn’t fill the small entry areas. You can correct this by changing the walls’ room-bounding properties.

Room-Bounding Properties

By default, each wall you add to the Revit model automatically defines a room boundary, and this is what you want 95 percent of the time. In some situations, however, you don’t want a wall to separate the room. In such cases, you can modify the instance parameters of the wall to disallow the division of the room.

The objective of the following procedure is to turn off the room bounding in certain walls. Follow along:

1. 1. In the East Wing floor plan, zoom in on the lavatory area.
   
2. 2. Select the wall that divides the Men’s toilet area from the Men’s lavatory entry area, as shown in Figure 15.11.
   
3. 3. In the Properties dialog, scroll down to the Room Bounding row.
   
4. 4. Deselect Room Bounding (see Figure 15.11).
   
5. 5. Repeat the procedure in the Women’s lavatory.
   
6. 6. Save the model.

Having the ability to easily add rooms and manipulate the information in the Revit database gives you a tremendous advantage as you move forward with the rest of the model. Also, that information is relayed into the room’s tag, which is automatically added as you place rooms into the model.

This concept brings us to the next topic: how to change the tag to display the information you desire on the drawings.

Placing and Manipulating Room Tags

As mentioned earlier, the room tag is merely a vehicle to relay the room’s data to the construction documents. As a default, a room tag is added automatically as you place the room into the model. A default room tag is included, but you aren’t stuck with it.

The objective of the next procedure is to add an alternate room tag to the room, and to open the tag’s family editor to investigate the composition of the tag. Follow these steps:

1. 1. Zoom into SOUTHEAST CORNER OFFICE.
   
2. 2. Select the room tag.
   
3. 3. In the Type Selector, select Room Tag With Area, as shown in Figure 15.12.

That was way too easy! Let’s take a closer look at what you just did. A room tag is nothing more than the cover sheet you created back in Chapter 14, “Creating Sheets and Printing.” All you need to do is open the file and place a tag into the family.

To open the tag’s Family Editor, follow this procedure:

1. 1. Select the room tag for SOUTHWEST CORNER OFFICE.
   
2. 2. On the Modify | Room Tags tab, click the Edit Family button.
   
3. 3. With the family file open, click the Room Name piece of text that is visible. (These pieces of text are actually labels.)
   
4. 4. On the Modify | Label tab, click the Edit Label button.
   
5. 5. In the Edit Label dialog, the list to the left displays all the parameters that you can add to the room tag (see Figure 15.13). Don’t change anything; click OK.
   
6. 6. Close out of this file without saving any changes.

Now that you know what tag Revit uses when it places a room and how to manipulate that tag, let’s tie the tag into something more robust. A tag is just a reflection of the room data. You can add another Revit object that does the same thing: a room schedule.

Adding a Room Schedule

1. 1. On the View tab, click Schedules, and then click the Schedule/Quantities button.
   
2. 2. In the New Schedule dialog, select Rooms from the list to the left.
   
3. 3. Click OK.
   
4. 4. In the Fields tab of the Schedule Properties dialog that opens, add the following fields in the specified order (see Figure 15.14):
   
   
   
   1. Number
      
   2. Name
      
   3. Base Finish
      
   4. Wall Finish
      
   5. Floor Finish
      
   6. Ceiling Finish
      
   7. Comments
      
   8. Level

   

   
   
5. 5. Click the Sorting/Grouping tab.
   
6. 6. Sort by number.
   
7. 7. Click OK. Your schedule should look similar to Figure 15.15.
   
8. 8. With the schedule still open, click into the EAST ENTRY Base Finish cell, and type WD-2.

   

   
   
9. 9. Click into the Floor Finish cell, and type TER (for Terrazzo).
   
10. 10. Click into the Wall Finish cell, and type VINYL.
    
11. 11. Click into the Ceiling Finish cell, and type a hyphen (–).
    
12. 12. Click into the EAST WING CORRIDOR Base Finish cell. Notice the menu arrow, as shown in Figure 15.16. Click it. You have a choice between two base finishes: choose WD-2.
    
13. 13. Change the other values to TER, VINYL, and ACT (see Figure 15.16).

With the rooms in place and a schedule filled out, it’s time to move to a more colorful aspect of placing rooms in the model: adding a color-fill plan.

Adding a Color-Fill Plan

1. 1. Right-click the Level 1 floor-plan view, and select Duplicate View Duplicate With Detailing, as shown in Figure 15.17. If you get an error pertaining to the view references, click the Delete button.
   
2. 2. Right-click the new view, and select Rename.
   
3. 3. Rename the view Level 1 Color Plan.
   
4. 4. Click OK.
   
5. 5. Open the new plan if it isn’t open already.
   
6. 6. In the Room & Area panel of the Home tab, click the Legend button, as shown in Figure 15.18.

   

   

   
   
7. 7. Place the legend into the model in the upper-right corner of the view (inside the crop region).
   
8. 8. In the Choose Space Type And Color Scheme dialog, change Space Type to Rooms and Color Scheme to Name (see Figure 15.19).

   

   
   
9. 9. Click OK. You have a nice color plan.
   
10. 10. Select the Color Scheme legend.
    
11. 11. Click the Edit Scheme button on the Modify | Color Fill Legends tab, as shown in Figure 15.20.

    

    
    
12. 12. In the Edit Color Scheme dialog that opens, you can alter the color and the fill pattern for each room. After you investigate this area, click OK.

Pretty cool concept! You may notice that the two rooms you skipped are still white. It’s time to look at the situation you have here. The problem is, there are no walls dividing the two rooms; but it would be nice to have two separate rooms anyway. To do this, you can add a room separator.

Adding Room Separators

1. 1. In the Level 1 floor plan, zoom in on the area shown in Figure 15.21.
   
2. 2. On the Room & Area panel of the Home tab, click the Room button.
   
3. 3. Place a room over the top of the tile flooring (see Figure 15.21).

   

   
   
4. 4. On the Room & Area tab of the Home tab, click Room Room Separation Line, as shown in Figure 15.22.

   

   
   
5. 5. On the Draw tab, click the Pick Lines icon.
   
6. 6. Pick the edge of the flooring, as shown in Figure 15.23.
   
7. 7. Click the Room button.
   
8. 8. Place a room to the right of the kitchen area.
   
9. 9. Change the room to the left to KITCHEN.
   
10. 10. Change the room to the right to BREAK.

You’re really moving along. You now have a fully coordinated room schedule tied into a room color-fill plan that can be modified by simply changing a room tag. How did you ever live without Revit?

The next item to discuss is how to create a gross area plan. The process is similar but slightly more involved than creating a room color plan.

Creating an Area Plan

1. 1. On the Room & Area panel of the Home tab, select Area, and click the Area Plan button, as shown in Figure 15.24.
   
2. 2. In the New Area Plan dialog, choose Gross Building from the Type list, and choose Level 1 for the Area Plan Views.
   
3. 3. Click OK.

   

   
   
4. 4. Click Yes to automatically create area boundaries. You now have a new floor plan with a blue boundary around the perimeter of the entire building.
   
5. 5. On the Room & Area panel, select Area, and click the Area Boundary Line button, as shown in Figure 15.25.

   

   
   
6. 6. Draw a line, as shown in Figure 15.26, separating the corridor from the east wing.
   
7. 7. Draw another similar separator between the west wing and the corridor.
   
8. 8. On the Room & Area tab, click the Area button, as shown in Figure 15.27.
   
9. 9. If Revit says a tag isn’t loaded, click Yes to load the family. Browse to Annotation Area Tag.rfa.

   

   

   
   
10. 10. Place an area in the west wing, then in the corridor, and then in the east wing, as shown in Figure 15.28.

    

    
    
11. 11. Select the tag in the west wing.
    
12. 12. Rename it WEST WING.
    
13. 13. Click the Corridor tag.
    
14. 14. Rename it LINK.
    
15. 15. Click the East Wing tag.
    
16. 16. Rename it EAST WING.
    
17. 17. On the Room & Area panel, click the Legend button.
    
18. 18. Place the legend in the upper-right corner of the view.
    
19. 19. In the Choose Space Type And Color Scheme dialog, choose Areas (Gross Building) for Space Type and Gross Building Area for Color Scheme.
    
20. 20. Click OK.
    
21. 21. Select the Color Scheme Legend.
    
22. 22. Click the Edit Scheme button on the Modify | Color Fill Legends tab.
    
23. 23. For Color, change Area Type to Name.
    
24. 24. Click OK at the warning.
    
25. 25. Click OK to return to the model (see Figure 15.29).
    
26. 26. Save the model.

Great job! You now have experience with creating area plans. If you feel as though you could use some more practice before you begin a real project, there are five more floors in this model that you can work on. You can either work on your own or step back through this chapter’s procedures.

Are You Experienced?