March 11, 2011

From the Revit Foundations Rises Custom Training Opportunities

In January of this year, we were approached by BLRB Architects in Seattle who were looking for a Revit Stairs class. Unfortunately, up to this time our stair training has been the fundamentals of stairs in our Revit Fundamentals class that we offer regularly. BLRB was looking for more in depth knowledge on how to work with the Revit stairs.

A scoping call was placed to determine the needs of our client – we decided the extent to which we could cover information in the agreed upon two hour time frame – and a custom training class was put together. For the class I did a quick review of the differences between creating stairs “By Run” vs. drawing the Boundary and Riser lines. We delved deeper into what makes up the Stair “Types” within the Stair family and talked about how to create an accurate curved staircase using reference planes as layout lines.

One issue that seemed to be a stumbling block was how to create a wall underneath the curved stairs. As Revit walls cannot be attached to stairs, we went into how to create an In-Place Wall family that was curved and followed the outline of the risers and treads of the stair.

We also looked into the makeup of railings, how to adjust the path of railing along a host such as a stair, and how to create custom posts for items such as rail returns at the bottom of stairs and transitions between rails at different heights.

Overall, as an instructor I was pleased with the material being presented and according to our client “…was exactly what we were looking for.” So I have to say thank you to BLRB Architects for coming to us for your custom training needs. I know I enjoyed helping you bring resolution to this issue.


Ron Palma, Ideate AEC Solutions Application Specialist
Ron has 23+ years of experience in the AEC industry as a designer, lead project designer, trainer and CAD manager. His instructional background includes Autodesk Certified Instructor, trainer, support technician, educator at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College, and a U.S. Army certified instructor. Follow Ron @RonPalmaAEC.

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