Custom Revit Fill Patterns can be used everywhere your building models. They can be used on almost every surface regardless of form or function. The one thing that Custom Revit Fill Patterns have in common is that they tile along a rectangle at some point in their complexity. In this tutorial you’ll learn how to Create Custom Revit Fill Patterns that tile inside a rectangle. You will also learn how pentagonal tiling can be used in buildings, something that has gained a lot of popularity with the advent of BIM and our ability to adapt complex geometry to building forms and surfaces.
Firstly, download mathematician Jaap Scherphuis’s Tiling Viewer Applet. This little application has thousands of tilings with control sliders for tweaking angles. In this lesson, we are using the tiling found in the following directory : Pentagon Tilings (597)>15 convex pentagon tile types (15)>N5-15:Mann, McLoud-Mann, Von Derau, 2015.
Next, create a drafting view, replicating the geometry using data found in the three info panels at the bottom of the application. It may take a few sessions to develop steps that feel comfortable. For example, I like to copy and paste screenshots of the application into Revit using them as underlays. Drag the center of rotation to the end of each subsequent line as you make your way around the Pentagon. Practice makes perfect.
Then create a Detail Group of the pentagon from the previous step. Go to the Tiling Viewer Applet and check that the “Show Unit Parallelogram” box is on. Copy, rotate, and move the detail groups around to match the lines inside the rectangular parallelogram. Sketch a red rectangle to all four points of your future Custom Revit Tile Pattern. Again, I like to copy and paste screenshots of tilings into Revit using them as underlays for the creation of Create Custom Revit Fill Patterns.
Thirdly, sketch red lines that align with the detail groups lines. Trim the red lines around the edge of the rectangular parallelogram shown below. Always refer back to the Tiling Viewer Applet.
Finally, make a backup copy of the drafting view and delete the detail groups and rectangular parallelogram. Group and rotate the remaining red lines to be orthogonal. See the image below.
To test your Custom Revit Fill Patterns, copy the groups on all four sides. Note the missing lines in the image below. To correct it, edit the group to include the missing lines and recheck. Repeat this step until your tiles align on all four edges. Lines should be continuous across all the groups.
Once your Create Custom Revit Fill Patterns are complete, delete all but one group. Ungroup the remaining group and use Ehsan Iran-Nejad’s Pattern Making Tool to create model and drafting patterns. The Pattern Making Tool is part of the pyRevit add-in.
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