RECONCILING TOPO AND LEVELS: And fixing site problems

[@miketaylor-fantastic]

Very odd behavior on the video... my face froze for the first 6min. I'm going to have to look into what causes that. Have a great day!

[@vasiliibogdan1291]

lol thought its my computer

[@Elisandro_]

Another amazing video. I would like to suggest how to calculate the volume of earth taken away due to foundations. Thanks!!!

[@miketaylor-fantastic]

Great suggestion! Revit does calculate the CUT and FILL when you have an Existing Toposurface and a New Toposurface. But I don't believe Revit does a calculation when you place a foundation. The best way to do this is to do a Foundation Schedule that calculates the SF of the concrete... and that way you would know how much dirt was removed.

[@Elisandro_]

@@miketaylor-fantastic Good hint! Hugs

[@AlwynStrauss]

Thanks for your video Mike. Could you maybe make video to obtain a retaining wall elevation that sits in a round excavated cavity meant for a 100m diameter 8 storey building. The topography is highly undulating. I need this elevation because I need to see at what section is the highest amount of earth that need to be retained.

[@miketaylor-fantastic]

You can place a Site 'PAD' on the topography (set it to the correct Finish Floor Elevation) and it will press down a nice flat construction surface for your building. Then you can add a perimeter retaining wall around the edge to hold back the dirt. Then simply cut a section anywhere you want and you will see how tall the retaining wall needs to be.

[@anthonyjohnston1618]

thank you sir for saving me time in the future, I always learn new things watching these video's

[@PhilipSkewes]

Excellent tutorial, great help - thank you Mike!

[@Funtime2890]

Thank you I’ve been looking for this

[@miketaylor-fantastic]

I know! Right? If you wait until later in the project it is much harder to fix! So check to make sure things are all set as soon as possible in a project. As soon as you get a confirmed Finish Floor Elevation for the first floor.

[@drvlive2023]

This method works best, despite me having to reset the values of my floor based roads and sidewalks (the only bitter pill of this part). Still, thank you for this video!

[@tonysterba7617]

Your video explained this in the best/easiest way…. Thank you!!! I had the same problem you started off with - where my actual “above sea level” topo was in the correct place - but my house was not. I tried moving my house & level upward - but there were about 75 constraints that were preventing me from moving everything properly. In a nutshell - what should my basepoint be set to; my survey point be set to? I am working in Meters above sea level (Canada). I have play around with the elevations of my base point and survey point… with no luck. When I move my level up to where they need to be - I get about 75 “Constraints are not satisfied” error warnings - and nothing works. Do you have a comment as to what I may be doing wrong?

[@miketaylor-fantastic]

You could copy the whole house to the new location rather than MOVE it. You can then simply move the sections and elevation markers. Just a thought. Or, look at the 75 errors.. can you live with them? Perhaps they are only on one family, like all the millions of a curtain wall.

[@tonysterba7617]

@@miketaylor-fantastic ---- Thanks for the response. I went through the errors - I have one reference plane that is a culprite - the others were various. I am new to Revit, and have been teaching myself ALOT in the last 6 weeks. Were I work (Alberta, Canada) - the econmy is dying from interest rates - so now is a great time to learn. There is no one in this City that can teach Revit - so I am online only. Having said that - I took your advice - and I can ignore about all errors - but there are three left (they are codes - I don't know what they mean) - and they do NOT allow me to procede - so I am stuck. I started a new project and drew a box house with garage - and started from scratch watching your video - and I was still having issues. I know it is something I am not doing properly - due to inexperience. Do you have any other recommendations or references I can look into? I appreciate your time in responding to this. Also - does your company offer one-on-one ttraining virtually?

[@tonysterba7617]

@@miketaylor-fantastic Thanks again Mike for taking the time to help me out. It’s funny that when I do more research - a lot of Revit users mention a “separate site plan” is the easiest way to do a sea level-based topo site plan - but in your video it all works in one. You obviously have this figured out. Quick update…. I still have not figured this out (for my specific project) - but I think I am getting closer. Here is where I am at: I deleted my topo and started over - using the survey grade points supplied from developer. Everything works when I check the elevation points - and my topo is in the correct location. When I moved my building upward… I had all those errors. What I did to move the building upward was - instead of the “move” command - I went to “manage” and “position” and “relocate project”… and moved my entire project upward 939.31 meters above sea level (939.31 is the top of my garage slab). This all worked great…. Until I viewed a 3D shot - and my topo is still floating way up above my building. I went back to my site plan and confirmed the topo elevation points - and they are correct. I went to my south elevation and checked my levels... they are correct. Just to mention - my levels are referencing the “survey point”, my project base point is set to 940.409 meters (which is the top of my main floor {approx.. 1.099 meters above my garage slab), survey point is set to 0.00 - which I am assuming is sea level and not to mess with that. When I look at my AutoCAD drawing (cross section and site plan) ALL these elevation points are correct… so I know I am on the right path. I deleted my topo surface (again) and restarted knowing that my location is vertically in the correct location… and my topo still is floating way above my building. When I enter the elevation points for my topo - it almost seems like they are referencing off the base point - and not the survey point. So here is my question…. Is there a way to change the reference point of the elevation points so that they reference the survey point instead of the project base point? I have looked this up all over- and can’t find a solution. Maybe it is impossible - and if it is….I guess I am hooped. I am hoping you can give me good news with a simple solution. Thanks again for taking time out of your day to look this over. I am sure you are busy - and your time and opinion is appreciated!!!

[@miketaylor-fantastic]

@@tonysterba7617 Yes.. you can tell the Level markers (type parameter) to reference the Survey Point and the Spot Elevations too.

[@eddy44944]

could you make a video about how to start to make a window from the beginning, thank you.

[@miketaylor-fantastic]

Eddie44944: I think you will benefit from one of my previous videos. This one is called 'Adding SETBACK parameter to a window'. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHmndoKqrJWbfNE If it does not answer your question... I will make a new one!

[@eddy44944]

@@miketaylor-fantastic thnx!!

[@JohnPschenica]

Hey Mike, I tried to move up the levels, as you demonstrated, on a project I'm working on and received an error message. REVIT wanted to delete numerous elements and views in the project. This is a renovation, so I have existing, demo, and new elements in the project. I tried turning on 'show all' in the view properties, but that didn't seem to make a difference. Any suggestions on how to move levels without Revit deleting a bunch of elements and views?

[@nikkylou]

Thanks... great teacher!

[@saidmonir9393]

Greater tuto I would like to ask you about the counter tag : why didn't change the value ( seem to levels ) even if you have changed the place of project based point

[@chilombe]

Very helpful!

[@charlesfield9286]

I'm a structural engineer (architect's archnemesis) and I believe that architect's have strict rules against even mentioning topo.

[@CJ-nk1tk]

Thank you!

[@harutanaka3647]

my company have all the building on 0-0 I just link building to the 3d topo site. but it create all kind coordination problem. If a complex giant project.need split project to many smaller pieces by buildings. What is the best practice? The way you are showing is one simple project on topo.

[@miketaylor-fantastic]

For large projects I like to make one file the site... and then link each building in from its own file. I keep each building separate for the drawing/construction set.

[@lettyserujo4796]

The crazy video mantra is so distracting and annoying, I couldn't focus on what you were trying to convey. I couldn't finish the video.