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You are here: Home / Revit / Placing Exterior Walls

Placing Exterior Walls

June 19, 2009 by Edwin Prakoso 2 Comments

We have created new levels in our Revit project. Now we are going to place walls. Let’s start from exterior walls. If you are new to this site, you can see the Revit tutorial contents list here.

Open 1st Floor View. Double click 1st Floor under floor plan views, in project browser.

You will see an empty floor plan with 4 elevation views marks.
empty plan
On the ribbon, home tab, activate wall tool.
On the contextual bar, make sure your wall type is generic – 200 mm.
wall type
On option bar, change height to roof level. And make sure chain option is checked.
option bar

Start inside the 4 elevation marks. Start about in the middle of them. Click your mouse, move your pointer to the left. You will see a temporary dimension. This dimension called ‘listening dimension’.
listening dimension
Move until you see listening dimension show value 3500, then click your mouse. Now move your pointer up, until you see dashed blue line. Now you should see tool tip say ‘vertical and extension’ or you could check it on your status bar. Type 7500 then press [enter]. Typing it is easier and faster!
vertical wall
Continue to right. Type 3500 then [enter]. Down, type 500 then [enter]. Right once again, 3500 [enter].
Now your plan will look like this.
1st placed walls
Press [esc] once to finish at this point. Wall tool should be still active. Change wall height on option bar to 2nd Floor. Add more walls with height up to 2nd floor as you see below.
2nd placed walls
Now add more walls with height up to roof below.
3rd placed wall
Let’s take a look what we have done. Click 3D at quick launch bar on upper left, above the ribbon.
default 3d view
You will see your model like this. Exciting right?
3d view
Now open 1st floor plan again. Add more wall with height to the roof like below.
4th placed wall
Move your pointer to 2nd wall from north. Move it to the right. Pay attention that temporary dimension snap to wall face. We don’t want this. We want it snap to wall centerlines.
dimension to face
We will change Revit option a little bit. Open manage tab on Revit ribbon bar. Click settings>temporary dimension.
Change ‘temporary dimension measure from’, in walls group to centerlines.
wall centerlines
Now we can add more walls. Move your pointer above the previous wall again, until you see temporary dimension from left wall. Type 2500 [enter]. Create vertical wall up, 2000mm. Horizontal wall left 500mm. Then finally up until snap to northest wall.

Check your model in 3D view. Remember that we haven’t change the wall height? It created to the roof, instead of only to 2nd Floor… ouch! Don’t worry, we will change it.
Open the 1st Floor plan. Select the 3 walls. You can hold [ctrl] and pick them one by one, or drag a rectangle from right to left.
wall to edit
Click element properties>instance properties from ribbon bar. A dialog box will be opened. Find top constraint parameter, change it to Up to Level: 2nd Floor. Review your model in 3D view.
In designing with Revit, you don’t have to follow this workflow. You can edit the levels later, after you walls are placed. Or you can create all interior and exterior walls, then modifying it properties later. There are a lot of options!

Next we are going to finish our walls.

*You can purchase this tutorial compilation in an e-book. Find out the books in our E-Store .

About Edwin Prakoso

I work as a Sr. Consultant in PT Cipta Satria Informatika. I've been using AutoCAD since R14 and Revit since Revit Building 9. I occasionally write for AUGIWorld magazine and I am also active in Autodesk discussion forum. I'm a member of Autodesk Expert Elite, an appreciation for individuals who give contributions to the Autodesk community.
Connect with me on twitter or LinkedIn.

Filed Under: Revit Tagged With: Revit Architecture Basic

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Juanpablo87
Juanpablo87
13 years ago

Hi, awesome tutorial but the video doesn' t work!…and I don' t understand the last part about the world…can you upload the video again!? Thx…:)

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Juanpablo87
Juanpablo87
Reply to  Juanpablo87
13 years ago

Sorry…not "world"…I mean: "walls"…;)

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