In this Autodesk Revit tutorial I am going to show you how to use the “Section” tool to create section views through your model. If you’d like to view the video version of this tutorial first, just click in the box below….
You can think of Section views as being like slices through your model. They help you to communicate the form of your building- as well as analyse how structure, services, etc; all come together. Traditionally (using 2D CAD systems) Section views (or “Sections” as they are commonly called) could be quite laborious to generate- as “you” had to determine what you could and could not see- depending on where your section was taken. With Revit, it’s really easy- you just place the Section Line in to the model and Revit will generate the Section View for you. It uses the 3D model database to do this.
Let’s take a relatively simple Revit model as an example…..
First of all select the “View” menu and then choose “Section” from the “Create”panel….
Now all you need to do is make 2 click in the active Floor Plan view….
The first click (1) places the start of the Section Line. The second click (2) places the end of the Section Line- see the image above. As soon as you make the second click, the section line (and associated Section View) is created…..
With reference to the above image, let’s take a look at the key components of the Section Line:-
The Section Reference Head (or marker): The filled arrow on the one side shows you which way the section view is facing
The Section Reference Head toggle- click on this repeatedly to toggle through different options with regards the display of the Reference Head.
The far-clipping plane: Use this to set the “depth” of the Section View
Width-clipping plane grips: Use these to set the width of the generated section view.
If you look in the Project Browser, you’ll see our new Section view listed under the “Section (Building Section)” group….
Double-click on the name (“Section 1” in this case) to open the Section and make it the active view…..
We can also create ‘staggered” (or “split”) section views- by adding “split segments” to our section lines. First of all create a normal straight section- as per the example above. Now select the section line you have just created. You will notice you now have the option (on the ribbon menu) to create “Split Segment”. Go ahead and select this icon from the ribbon menu. Now as you hover over the section line you will seer that Revit offers you the ability to “split” the section line with each click of your mouse…..
In the image below you can see that I’ve split my section line into 3 segments……
By splitting and staggering our section line, it allow us to cut through different portions of our building, all within the same view. You would never actually be able to see this view in real like (i.e. standing in the finished building), but it does often help to better communicate you design.
Key Points:-
Section Views allow us to slice through our design to see how the elements go together
Revit generates Section Views simply by you choosing where you wish the section to be taken through
You can create staggered sections using the “Split Segment” tool on an existing section