In this video, we’ll look how we create a post stressed tendon and anchor for Revit structures.
We start off by modelling the anchor as a metric generic face-based component. We use the face-based component because we are going to nest the component into a metric generic adaptive family that uses 2 adaptive points to orient the face-based component in 3D.
We show how to parameterise the geometry. While an actual anchor is quite complex in real life, we recognise that we only need a component that represents the 3D geometry as far as building information modeling is concerned. We therefore model the anchor simple geometry. We use named reference planes in an elevation to control the lengths of the relevant geometry. We label the distances between their reference plans with parameters, and we know that we can share these parameters into families which nest the anchor should we want to be able to manipulate the geometry within the nesting families.
The next step is to host the anchor within an adaptive component family. We place two points and turn them adaptive. Points are numbered in the sequence in which they are placed, and therefore we choose the first point as a reference plane to place the face-based component. The second point controls the direction of the component.
They align the component because there is a reference line that we create between them. If we wanted to control the nested family’s geometry, then we could use the parameters of the nested family if we choose to designate the nested family as being shared. The downside of this is that when we insert the family into a project, and we create a schedule that each component will be tallied independently. Remember, Revit does not have the ability to identify the hosts of nested families.
Now that we have the anchor, we need to create the tendon that is going to host it. We once again use a metric generic adaptive component family and now we must place as many points as we need to define the curve that the tendon must follow. It is not possible to increase the number of points parametrically as far as I am aware of, and so you may find a need to create multiple families, or to create one complex family and spend time placing it within your model.
We turn the points adaptive again and place an extra point on the curve joining the adaptive points. These points control the distance the tendon terminates from the end to make space for the anchor. We modeled the tendon and nest the anchors and then we insert that into a project and manipulate the adaptive points after we have placed them.
There also exists the possibility if we know the mathematical equation of the curve or if we must curve fit then Dynamo could be used to adjust the adaptive points to fit the curve.
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