Pages

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Fire Rating in Wall Types plus Existing Phase Overrides

I recently ran into a challenge with a Revit wall type not behaving the way we wanted or expected. Although the answer was staring us in the face, it was eluding us. Fast forward to later in the day, when I was on an Autodesk beta/sprint call and asked this question at the end, another customer on the call quickly pointed out the issue. I wanted to share the issue/solution and the (not so) hidden value of the Autodesk beta project:)


keep reading to learn more...

Autodesk Beta Program

First off, if you are not involved in the Autodesk beta program, you should be! It offers great access to the development team, the new features to test (and try and break them:)) and connects you with other amazing Revit users... like Bethany Pritchard from VMDO Architects, who solved the problem. Also, it is a small world as our new Director of Branding & Market Strategy, Mary Beth Lineberry, just came from VMDO!

The Issue

We wanted the fire "tape" to always show, even when the wall is existing. But, when a wall was set to existing, the fire tape disappeared. Ultimately, this had to due with a Phase Override material being assigned, which effectively cleared the fire tape definition.

The Solution

Simply delete the phase material being applied, as it was not really necessary for anything we needed.

The images in this post pretty much speak for themselves (click on them to enlarge). But, here is a simple description of each:

First image (above): A typical "new" wall with material (e.g. wood) and fire tape showing (i.e. one hour rating).

Second image: An existing wall where the wall's foreground/background patterns are overridden between the phase settings and the phase material.

Third image: An existing wall where the wall's foreground pattern makes it through, and the background is replaced with the existing shade.
FYI: Our code plans must be printed in color (as noted on code sheets) and the grayscale tone is adjusted for some contrast.





Fun stuff!




For BIM Chapters updates, follow @DanStine_MN on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn

Check out my video-based  courses on ArchSmarter.

I also write blog posts for Enscape - a new paradigm in rendering, animation and VR for AEC.