Spaceframes

Recently I have been looking into spaceframes again. Some very good Revit people have gone over that before. I always like reading this blog buildz.blogspot.com from Zach Kron and this blog from David Light http://autodesk-revit.blogspot.com

Reading up on that I managed to produce (copy) this. 🙂 Sometimes understandiung a technology is best achieved by first copiën other peoples work.

Build from only this and a mass

To actually getting this to work I very much needed to know one tiny thing. That is how to make a seamless panel.

start a new family from a Metric Generic Model Adaptive template

create 4 reference points and make them adaptive
draw 4 reference points on top of the earlier created reference points
but set the ref plane first for each point you create. see image

When you place the point be sure to see the point snap lighting up. I also find it handy if revit has been set to draw on a workplane.

select all points and filter the reference points from the selection
go to the instance properties and add a parameter for the offset
choose your parameter setup

The points are now constraint!

set the ref plane to one of the 4 points (a horizontal one)
draw a reference line on top of the reference points with 3d snap on

it should look like this

Set the ref planes to draw two lines at the bottom
Move a adaptive point to see if the other geometry follows! (flexing)
draw the other reference lines
place a reference point on top of the reference lines
Here it matters how you place it. If you create the point with the command draw on a face you get a different point then when you create the point with draw on a workplane. See images and check the instance properties. Also notice the size differences of the two points!

I want the one where the reference point has a instance property that let me control the position along the reference line. (the little point)
Next you draw a reference line on those two points. The reference line you draw on a workplane with 3D snap turned on. (or at least I had to, to get the thing to work) I test the construction by moveing around points

Next is the point in the middle. (I want a small one)

Draw a reference line for the cross. (draw on face)

To add geometry to the frame I like to draw reference points. I need a lot of them. I use those points because they give me nice perpendicular workplanes on the reference lines I place them on.
draw geometry on the planes. Draw them big and set the dimensions to control the size. (circles are easier to start with)

Parametrize the dimensions
The bottom one was a bit of a pain. Adding circles on a ref plane at the end of the reference line did
eventual this worked, at first…

After a bit of trial and error I got the lower tube working this way

The trick is in getting the right reference plan, on both sides.
Be sure to flex the radius the tubes. Several times I didn’t get the result I wanted. Also change the position of the adaptive points.
Load this family in to a conceptual mass

Divide a surface
Click on the little arrow next to the name Surface representation
Turn on nodes!

Place the family you made, be sure to place the points in the order they are numbered.
I tend to not to place the family at the side of the surface. The edge points tend to make a mess of it