As you know a new version of Revit becomes available in the first half of the year around April or May. One of the new features is a tool called Path of Travel or Route Analysis. This tool allows you to create a path between two points taking in consideration the wall geometry as obstacles.
The process:
I’ve opened the sample drawing from the Revit 2020 software. Click on the floor plan Level 2.
Now click on the Settings button found on the on the Analyze tab, Route Analysis panel.
The settings dialogue box would open. Note that, by default, the Door category is set so that doors are not seen as obstacles. This is correct because you would need to travel through doorways to travel from room to room. Close the settings box.
Now click on the Path of Travel tool found in the Analyze ribbon tab and Route Analysis panel.
The first point Revit asks for is where the route starts. Click inside the Master bedroom for instance.
Now pick a point on the Observation Deck to the Southern side of the building for the end point of the route.
Once you have selected the end point, the green path line changes and runs along the inside of the building and through the Entry Hall door to the south as shown below.
Selecting the path line and looking at its properties you can see that the line is a Detail line which means it will only be shown in the particular view. Also note that the speed of travel is roughly 4.8km/h which is an average walking time. It then takes the length of the line in consideration and calculates that it will take 20s to walk from the Master Bedroom to the Observation Deck, in this example.
Conclusion:
The Path of Travel tool is very useful for the design of fire escape routes and general design analysis and its a great addition to the existing set of tools in Revit. In future we hope that the tool can be expanded to include travel in 3D and between levels for instance.