Ceiling Intro

Hope everybody is having a nice Spring Break and filling out your Billion Dollar Bracket for March Madness. A number of people during the break have asked about sloped ceiling and so I wanted to share a couple tricks to pull them off depending on what you are trying to do.

As you know by now, the automatic ceiling tool is Revit is capable of saving a lot of time modeling. However, it models the ceilings flat by default and you are not given a define slopeoption like when you model your roofs. So, how can pull these off?

Like many thing in Revit there are a couple ways depending on what you want the outcome to be. If you are simply wanting a slanted ceiling, we will use the ceiling boundary tools, but if you want a swept/blended ceiling than you have to spend a little time getting everything setup.

In an effort to keep it as clear as possible, the ceiling walk through have been split into two separate posts. Have a look at both, but be aware of which set of instructions you are referencing when modeling.

Swept/Blended Ceilings instructions can be found here.(Swept/Blended Ceiling)

Slanted Ceiling instructions can be found here. (Slanted Ceiling)

Swept/Blended Ceiling

This tool is best used if trying to get an unconventional ceiling fabricated. Of the two options, it is the most involved, but if you follow the steps, it will work. I would suggest trying it in a 3D view to get a handle on the tools/steps before throwing in into your model. I have included screen grabs at each step.

1. Go to Architecture>Component>Model In-Place

                                

2. …and select ceilings in the menu that opens. Name it whatever you'd like in the following box.

                                

3. What I would now do is create an extrusion that is my ceiling. Do this by going to Sweep.

                                

4. I would now draw a simple line that will be the path for my ceiling. In this example I am wanting a slanted ceiling swept across a Spline.

                                

                               

The dashed box represents the reference plain that will be extruded across my line. Click the green check when you are done drawing the line.

5. You now need to either draw the profile for the ceiling (Edit profile) or load one if you made the profile and saved it for Revit. Usually, I just draw it as I go.

                                

6. When drawing the profile, I usually change the view to put the reference plain square with me (just for ease of use). You can do this by clicking on the box in the top right corner. If you do that, the view now looks like this:

                                

Go ahead and draw your profile (keeping in mind the thickness of your ceiling)

                                

After you get the profile drawn and the path finalized, click the green check three times to accept everything (or take your time and look through the fields before accepting them). You should now have a ceiling.

7. Lastly, use the Paint tool to apply the ceiling material so that it renders out and looks correct in your various views.

                                

Sloped Ceiling

If you are trying to model a slanted ceiling you only have to know a couple of things for Revit to accurate make your ceiling. This method is straight forward but may require you to adjust a certain dimension a couple times to get it exact.

For this example, I will use a current model from our office that I am working with. Here, a hospital lobby has a butterfly roof and the ceiling is to match the slope of the roof (You can also see the Isis fans made by Big Ass Fans).

Worm’s Eye View Axo:

1.      Before you get started I would suggest drawing a section through the area you are planning on work in. After you created the section, I would tile your RCP and the new Section you can easily see them side by side.

2.      Now, using the Ceiling in your Reflected Ceiling Plan, draw the boundary of your ceiling using the Sketch Ceiling method (not Automatic Ceiling). Once your boundary is drawn, go ahead and click the big green check mark to see that your ceiling. It will default to flat, so we will visit that in the next step.

3.      This step is the most critical for this process: in your elevation, mark the highest point you want your ceiling to have, and the lowest. If it referencing something in the model, you can use those points for reference, I tend to drawn detail lines for reference. Here you can see my reference lines refer specifically to the slope of the roof:

4.      Revit is telling me that my height difference is 3’-9 ½”. Now that I know this information, I am going to click on the ceiling, and select Edit Boundary.

In the Modify|Ceilings tool that you are now in, there is an option call Slope Arrow.

Drag this arrow out from the highest plain of your ceiling and type in the dimension you got from the previous step (mine was 3’-9 ½”)

Once you’ve entered this dimension, choose the green check again to finalize your ceiling.

5.      You should now see this in your section.
With our ceiling modeled, you can change it height by modifying its constraint in the Properties Menu or by simply moving/dragging it up and down. Since we now have the same slope as our ceiling, we can put it anywhere we like. Once you’re happy with it, erase the reference lines and dimensions.

6.      Continue this process if needed to make your desired shape and use the boundary tool to create and voids you’d like to model.