HOW TO CREATE MASSES

Revit has built-in tools for creating overall building masses that can contain floors. Area, volumes, perimeters etc can be scheduled. and being Revit, change the mass, or number of floors, and the schedule instantly updates. You can also place tags on floors that show the same information, and of course update instantly.

Masses can also have actual walls (including curtain walls), roofs and floors applied to them creating a quick representation of an actual building.

CREATE A MASS

From Massing & Site tab select In-place Mass.
Give the mass a name that identifies it (this will be used in schedules).

Draw the mass.

The usual method is to draw the plan shape:

1. using Model lines,

2. draw on a level or reference plane rather than a face,

3. tick Make surface from closed loops,

4. use the drawing tools to draw the shape you want.

When done hit Modify or Esc key to exit drawing mode.

Go to a 3D view.

Select all the lines you just drew (hold tab key to select a chain of lines)

An arrow will appear on top and bottom, select the top arrow and move upwards.

The arrow will change, note a dimension may appear. That can be edited to get the height you want.

When done tick the Green tick.

Note that the size of your mass can still be changed. If you select it in an orthogonal view little blue triangles will appear which you can use to stretch the mass. If you place dimensions on it and select the mass, the dimensions can be changed to alter the size of the mass.