Finishing Foundation/Structure

I've made quite a bit of progress on the Foundation. I was able to complete the turn-down slab early this morning along with the continuous footings. I will have to join most of the geometry together once I ensure that everything is in place.

For the moment, I will finish up any Foundation work required such as the CMU wall I have near the stairs. A large majority of my foundation was created with "mass-in-place", which will require me to go back upon completion to ensure everything is labeled and detailed accordingly. I am unsure how it will affect my QTO later on, but I am trying to prepare for the issue preemptively.

CAD Files/Foundation

I finally received the CAD files for the project, which will help me out a great deal. Though I do not have it for the joists, just ensuring my foundation is in the correct place was nice. I had to move a few things around but finally have it in place.

I plan to finish the Foundation of the project by Tuesday, and the rest of the structural by Friday. If I can finish this up, I should be able to fly through the Architectural.

My main problem, is that the structure of the PEMB means there are no other real load bearing walls. I have a few columns in the interior to mess with, but a lack of structural walls means complications in establishing a continuous footing. I'll have to research how to go about that today.

UPDATE:

I was finally able to import the CAD files successfully. It was a good thing too as my footings were off a few inches. Those will help a ton in throwing together the architectural plans and MEP. For now, they act as a great guide.

I finished the sloped slab for the stairs and began work on the footing turn down edge. It is incredibly tricky with the given dimensions for the corner. I was able to edit together a profile for the exterior walls in between column placement. The varying dimensions per column is proving the most difficult thing to adapt, as I must create a Mass-in-Place for those instances.

I should have turn down slab completed by at least tomorrow, leaving the footings as my next big challenge.

Finishing PEMB

Yesterday and today will be the last days I spend most of my time on this thing. Without proper dimensions labeled it is proving difficult to match the structure exactly. I scaled off the wall size of the architectural to check and ensure the structure itself will fit.

The connections and details aren't exactly precise, but I cannot spend anymore time concentrating on it. Though a few parameters work, I will see if I can split the family into sub-groups corresponding to each grid line. Finishing this up will speed things along as I continue on to the foundation.

PEMB

Still struggling to get through this PEMB. Constructing it is proving difficult, especially with the plans given. Connections, but mostly dimensions, prove to be the most challenging in deciphering. I may end up having to get a "best I can do" structure thrown together.

The occasional breather was taken from the family editor to add in more columns/edits to the foundation itself. Hopefully I will be able to find a way to edit this to the best of my ability and move on to the foundation walls/slab. This is cutting into my time manipulating the model, what I want the focus of my thesis to become.

Aug 18th - Aug 24th

Since this is my first post in the blog, I will mainly be using it as an introduction to what has been happening for the past week. I will be updating regularly from now on as a guide for both myself and future students in this Thesis.

I have begun my thesis by first laying out the grid lines and establishing isolated footing families. I had to customize a few families to suit the criteria that the plans dictated. Elevations have also been set. I have been using the 'Getting Started' help option as a sort of guide in what order I need to complete each event.

Unfortunately the first task of putting the structure up is proving the most difficult, as I have a pre-engineered metal building. These include tapered columns and members not typically found by default Google library searches. Using Revit City.com I have been able to procure something close to what I need.

I'm finding that I need to utilize the Family Editor to create the exact element I will need. I'm basically teaching myself at this point in creating and putting the members in place. Though I have been successful in creating the column and establishing parameters, there are still a few hitches I have yet to work out like creating the diagonal top. Not to mention the dimensions given vary for each part and I am having difficulty deciphering plans and getting exact dimensions.

Hopefully I will be finished with the actualy pre-engineered metal building by tomorrow and the actual structure itself over the weekend. I have a feeling this will be the most difficult part of the thesis, so tackling this quickly will prove helpful at later stages of thesis of giving myself more time.