An introduction to Revit topography tools - Revit Tutorial

Before we get into the specifics of working with topography in Revit, I thought it would be important for us to discuss some of the things that are new in the software and that have changed since previous releases. So this course is recorded in Revit 2024. So if you're using Revit 2024 or later, then you will be using the toposolid tool in Revit. However, if you're familiar with versions 2023 and prior, then there you would have had the toposurface tool. So this is the most significant difference between the two releases. Now, I do wanna stress that it's one or the other. If you're in 2024, you will no longer have the toposurface tool. So anything that you knew about that tool in 23 and prior is no longer applicable or at least in general, is no longer applicable in 2024. You will need to transition over to the toposolid tool. Now, there are many other tools related to topography and site design that are still available and function largely the same. Those include things like the site components, the parking components, property lines, graded regions, and so on. So you can see that several of those tools are still there. they're just slightly reorganized on the ribbons of the two different versions. Now, in terms of some of the other tools that are either still there or changed, some of them have been relocated to entirely new areas. So for example, in Revit 2023, we had a split surface tool directly on the massing and site ribbon. Well, that function will now be accomplished with the split tool on the modify tab. and we'll look at that in a future video. Likewise, the sub-region tool was also right there in the Massing Insight tab, and now in order to get to that feature, it's been renamed to subdivide, and it occurs when you select an existing toposolid. So the functionality is still there, it's just in a slightly different location than you may be familiar if you're familiar with an earlier release of Revit. Now, some of the tools are no longer here. So the notable tools in question are the building pad and the merge surfaces tool. So these two tools have been eliminated. So you can no longer create building pads. And if you split a topo solid, there isn't any way to merge them back together into a single topo currently. Now it's possible that some of these things may change in future releases, but this is the way it stands at the time of this recording in Revit 2024. Now, there are workarounds to both of these situations. We have ways that we can replicate the functionality of building pads, and we have ways we can deal with the idea of merging surfaces. So I'll talk about both of those later in the course. So it's not as though we can't do those things at all. It's just that we won't be able to do them with dedicated tools like we're familiar with in previous releases. Now, another big change, and this is something that's completely new and unique to the toposolid tool is toposolid takes advantage of shape editing tools. Now, if you've used the Revit floor tool or roof tool in the past, then it's possible you're already familiar with how shape editing functions. It will function largely the same way with the toposolid, but this is how you're going to create points and give them elevation to sculpt your toposolid surface, top surface at any rate. And we will certainly be looking at this in future videos. So the shape editing tools will be our primary tool there. As far as any prerequisites to being successful in this course, there really aren't any. I'm assuming that you have a basic knowledge of Revit, of course, but you don't need to be an expert in Revit in order to watch this course. And you really don't need to have any prior experience with topography. I'm going to cover everything that you need to know about using the Topo and Site Design tools that are available in the software. And in fact, the earlier parts of this video where I talked about what was there in 2023, that's really for your information only. If you're brand new to Revit and 2024 or later is the first release that you've learned, you don't really need to know anything about the previous topography tools because it's all been changed. So really that's more of an informational kind of thing. It is certainly not required that you be an expert in those tools before you continue with this course. But I do want to stress that if you're gonna follow along with me in this course, you do need to be working on Revit 20, 24 or later. None of the exercise files that I'm providing will work in earlier releases. And of course the tool set is completely different in 24 than it was in 23 or prior.