Module 6: Unit 9: Revit Architecture: Section Boxes Video Lecture - Design Softwares

the section box in Revit is a 3d
wireframe box that exists in a 3d view
each of the phases of the wireframe box
acts as a cutting plane now you can
adjust the position of each face using
the grips so you can determine exactly
where that cut happens so by
manipulating each face you can very
easily create cutaway views of your
model this is a great visual tool for
helping to better explain your design
quite often a little cutaway like this
can more easily explain the nature of
the space so maybe how the service is
integrated far easier than looking at
flat plans and sections so in this unit
I'm going to show you exactly how to set
up these type of views
before we start please note that section
boxes can only be used with 3d views ie
the sort of isometric or axonometric
views they cannot be applied to
perspective ie
camera views so the sort of 3d views
we've got here the default 3d view that
can be used with a section box but your
camera views cannot so make sure you've
got a 3d view acts if I'm going to work
with the default 3d view here and with
no objects selected you will have the
properties of the view itself presented
in the properties palette and if you
look down about halfway down in the
properties palette for the parameters
for the 3d view itself you will see a
parameter this section box a simple tick
box ticket and the wireframe section box
will appear once you can see the
wireframe box all you need to do now is
click on the wireframe itself now you've
got six faces on each side of the box
and each face has a pair of grips you
can see the little blue triangles there
those are the grips for each face that
control where the face and consequently
the cutting plane is so you just need to
hover over very carefully with your
cursor until the grips highlight
left-click and hold and drag now I will
warn you this can be very fiddly because
no matter how much you zoom in those
grips do not get any bigger and quite
often if you're not careful you'll
accidentally pick a part of your model
is that the grips themselves so say
highlight the box just be very careful
wait until they highlight in a bolder
blue and then you can change the cutting
plane to suit
you
once you're happy with your cutaway view
you may wish to hide the display of the
binding box itself the wireframe box I
think I can look a little bit messy on
your drawings a little bit confusing so
we can actually turn off the visibility
of the wireframe box while still having
the effect of the cutting planes to do
so we need to go into the visibility and
graphics override section now we haven't
actually covered that in the course yet
that's in a later unit so you may want
to totally jump to that you need to take
a look at that and then come back but
I'll show you exactly what you need to
change in those settings to say get rid
of the at the box for now so if I go to
visibility and graphics I can either
press that button or I can use the
keyboard shortcut V G or V V all gets to
the same place which is this panel here
this is where we control on a view by
view basis the display of our various
categories of objects now we need to go
to the second tab along annotation
categories I say don't worry about how
all this works I've got a dedicated unit
on visibility and graphics overrides but
for the purpose of this unit just be
aware you need to go to annotation
categories you need to look towards the
bottom of this right down till you find
section boxes and you need to uncheck
that entry there that category so what
we're doing by doing this is saying to
Revit we do not wish to display the
section box boundary in this particular
view so I'll turn off that checkbox it's
okay
so we're left with the effect of the
section box I either the cutting planes
are active but we can't see the
wireframe box so the view itself looks
neater and it's ready to be placed onto
a sheet
the final step I recommend you take with
regard to the use of section boxes is to
actually lock the orientation of your 3d
view once you're happy with it I'll
explain the reason for that now
so as we've just seen we've activated a
section box we've adjusted the cutting
planes we've turned off the visibility
the wireframe we're happy with that
we've put it onto a sheet what we don't
want is to come along the next day
either ourselves or somebody else
opening our project and accidentally
adjust this we might have taken there a
long time considering how that's best
orientated so we can see all the spaces
correctly only to have it accidentally
messed up we can actually lock this view
in place so it can't be adjusted so all
you need to do is when you are happy
with the orientation look down on the
view specific controls at the bottom of
the view the view control bar and
halfway along you'll see a house icon
with a padlock this tool here enables us
to lock the view so at the moment it's
reporting it's an unlocked 3d view click
on it save orientation and lock the view
click on that now you'll recall from the
unit on default 3d views that Revit
reserves the name 3d in curly brackets
hence now we want to save this view as
orientation it's asking us to rename
this to give it a unique name it's
different than the from the default one
so if you cut away zero one it's okay
save that in the 3d views group and it
means if I select the orbit tool I can
no longer pivot or orbit that view so
it's now Lott place it onto a sheet
knowing that it can't accidentally be
messed up
and that completes this unit to get the
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