Waldram Tools Revit FAQs

• Standard Revit windows and doors and curtain panels with glazing can be registered as windows.
• Open Register Dialog and go to Register Mode then Window tab.
• Detect All Levels button shows all the windows which can be registered. Users can also pick windows to register by using Select Manually button. Any windows which are already registered will not show up here.
• Register Windows button registers the windows which are selected on the data grid.
• Window Id
  • Building Name is read from the Building combo box.
  • Floor name is read from the Revit Level where the window is placed. If Revit Level is not defined then the centre of the window is used to detect the correct level name.
  • Window name is read from the Revit Paramter ‘Mark‘. If the Mark is empty, UnNamed will be used with a counter.
• Window Normal
  • The normal is decided by intersecting with room or floor in the direction of window facing orientation then on the opposite direction. It handles the situation when window/wall flipped are incorrectly.  If there is no room and floor then window’s facing orientation will be used.
• Shared parameters
  • Some of the window properties are added as shared parameters in the model and they can be updated via Window tags or schedule.
  • Building name, description, property type, glazing transmittance, adf, vsc and apsh offset values can be updated.

• Standard Revit Rooms which are placed in the model and are correctly bounded by walls can be registered as rooms.
• Open Register Dialog and go to Register Mode then Room tab.
• Detect All Levels button shows all the rooms which can be registered. Users can also pick rooms to register by using Select Manually button. Any rooms which are already registered will not show up here.
• Register Rooms button registers the rooms which are selected on the data grid.
• Room Id
  • Building Name is read from the Building combo box.
  • Floor name is read from the Revit Level where the room is placed.
  • Room name is read from the Revit Paramter ‘Number‘. If Number is empty, UnNamed will be used with a counter.
  • Room type is read from the Revit Paramter ‘Name’. If the Name is empty, Undefined will be used.
• Ceiling Height is set at time of registration based on ray intersection of the nearest ceiling or roof. If this method fails then value defined in the register dialog is used. It can be changed later by simply modifying the shared parameter property MBS_CeilingHeight  on revit room.
• Shared parameters
  • Some of the room properties are added as shared parameters in the model and they can be updated via Room tags or schedule.
  • Building name, description, property type, required adf value, adf reflectance values, ceiling height and grid spacing can be updated.

• The reference calculation point is on the Outside face of the wall for windows hosted on the wall and on the glazing itself for the curtain and door panels.
• Offset value should be positive to go towards the room and negative to go away from the room
• The VSC and APSH offset values are read from the textboxes but ADF offset value is set based on the type of the window and/or its host as below. The offset can be updated later on the Update mode.

• Yes. Register dialog/Create Groups

• Meters. If the model is in millimeters, Registration and conversion process would take forever and/or give error. Model must be scaled to meters.

Room point based calculation results such as Daylight Distribution, Daylight Factor and Climate Daylight, are graphics and NOT residents of the database – so they don’t add to the size of the Revit
model and they don’t persist.

If you want them again later you need to rerun the calculation or load back the saved results using Load Results dialogue.

The target area(as in the exported report) for Daylight Distribution, Daylight Factor and Climate based calculations might not tally up exactly with the graphical results visible in the model.

This is due to the fact that the Waldram Tools software uses Autodesk® Revit Analysis Visualization Framework to represent the graphical result on surfaces while the calculations are done in MBS.

The target area for

• Daylight Factor and Climate based is simply calculated by (equally weighted)averaging the calculation points result within the room area.
• Daylight Distribution(No Sky Line) the contour is interpolated from the points result(in the same way as in Waldram AutoCAD package).

• It would not affect calculations, such as VSC, where the sensor is located on the outer face of the window.
• The frame if presents blocks the view and daylight for all room point based calculations such as Daylight Distribution, Daylight Factor and Climate Daylight.
• For ADF where the calculation point is behind the glazing by a small offset the frames do not take part in calculating the Sky Component(and to eventually derive the theta angle) as there is a chance that the sensor gets blocked
  by part of the frame. The frame factor therefore is set to 1 automatically for registered windows. And (to compensate) the glazed area is exactly calculated as the sum of all the glazing elements in the window.

• Transparency: 0 = When overlapping, Proposed on top, Existing Hidden
• Transparency: 255 = When overlapping, Existing on top, Proposed Hidden
• Transparency :155 (or anything in middle) = Both visible

• Dark Blue dot indicates winter sun
• Dark Yellow dot indicates summer sun
• light Blue dot indicates blocked winter sun
• light yellow dot indicates blocked summer sun
• Dot with hole indicate that the dot is seen by more than one window.

• Select the required tab Window(s)/Room(s)/Amenity
• Tick Self Test option if the result is only for Proposed group
• Use a Group or Select items on combo box below the calculation name
• VSC and APSH results are shown together and uses VSC group
• Click Preview
• Note: There is no need select the tick boxes next to the calculation name for Preview

• Select the tick boxes next to the calculation name to be exported. (ROL, DD, ADF, VSC, APSH, Amenity or ALL)
• Tick Self Test option if the result is only for Proposed group
• Tick CSV Report option to export the results in csv format
• Use a Group or Select items on combo box below the calculation name
• VSC and APSH results are exported in same sheet for (default) report and uses VSC group. Bespoke reports may vary.
• Click Export to File

• Replaceable tags can be inserted in Excel template including header and footer. They should be specified as <tag> e.g. <Project Name> <Report Title>. The values can be defined in Project Settings dialog.

• Select entity type Window/Room
• Tick Existing, Proposed or both options as necessary
• Select the result to be added VSC/APSH/ADF/DD
• Tick Add to Active View option to place the tags on the current view. They are added to the plan view which correspond to the Level where the host Window/Room is placed.
• Click on Add Labels to add/update labels
• Modified version of Revit room tag is used as room label and shows Room number, name (used as room type), required adf and result labels.
• Modified version of Revit window, curtain panel and door tag is used as window label and shows Window mark, glazing transmittance and result labels.

• Select entity type Window/Room
• Tick Existing, Proposed or both options as necessary
• Select the result to be added VSC/APSH/ADF/DD
• Click on Add Solids to add/update solids.
• Both window and room results are added to the default 3D view as a window face with colours for pass, fail and nearly pass.
• The colours are best seen on Shaded mode.
• No solids will be added if the calculations have not been run.

• Window Orientation
  • Displays a line showing the window orientation detected.
  • Incorrect orientation detection causes wrong results.
• Calculation Points
  • VSC, APSH and ADF calculation points can be shown
  • A point offset (based on registered offset values) from the centre of the window face in the direction of orientation is drawn.

• Analysis Results
  • Contour results can be filtered for calculations  DD and DF
  • They appear on plan view respective to the level where the rooms exists.
• Solids
  • Solids results added from Label dialog can be filtered for calculations such as VSC, APSH, DD and DF
  • They appear on the default 3D view on Shaded mode.

• Window face
  • This command can be used to check the face used for adf calculations.
• Room face
  • This command can be used to check the face used for room.
• The faces are added to the default 3D view.
• Remember to delete them when not needed using Delete Inserted Face option.

• To visualizes the process you can try the “Highlight Room Interiors” utility on the Waldram Tools ribbon toolbar which paints the interiors of all the Revit Rooms in three different colors for floors, interior walls and ceilings.

• Select the faces to run the facade analysis and then press Register Facades
• They will appear as a group for calculations such as VSC and APSH.
• Run the calculation for the selected facade group.
• The facade face will show the results colors based on the color mode options in Settings-Legend.
• Results can be filtered using Filter Results commands and then Analysis Results

• The facade results are stored as Analysis results in Revit and are not saved after the Revit session closes.
• They can be saved as an Image. Right click the view and Save to Project as Image. The image will be saved under Views-Renderings.
• The full results can also be loaded to the view by going to Calculation dialogue – Tools- Load Results and then selecting the .Out file for the facade result.

Material Dialogue is possibly the easiest way to assign material to surfaces. The Layer name box is populated with all Revit Material Library including three MBS specific materials:

“MBS_InteriorWalls”

“MBS_Floors”

“MBS_Ceilings”

The indoor surfaces, ceiling and floors of all Revit Rooms(either MBS registered or not) will be detected and pick the assigned material from this table during the conversion process if any record exists.

To visualizes the process you can try the “Highlight Room Interiors” utility on the Waldram Tools ribbon toolbar which paints the interiors of all the Revit Rooms in three different colors for floors, interior walls and ceilings.

Another way to apply material is to select Revit elements and use Revit Paint tool to directly apply material to the face of the element. This way no material assignment is required through the Waldram Tools Material Dialogue.

• The Revit model groups don’t like if object within a group is modified without entering the Edit group mode. And Revit API doesn’t provide simple option to edit groups in order to modify objects.
• It is highly recommended to avoid putting Windows and Rooms in such groups to avoid errors.