In this video I'm going to be showing you
how to create complex brick walls. They're also known as terracotta jali walls.
I hope I'm pronouncing that right. And I'm just going to be showing you how this
can be achieved in Revit. We're going to be creating individual elements and then
we're going to be combining them together to create all sorts of interesting facade
patterns for an impressive facade wall. Let's go! Now quickly before we jump into Revit I
would just like to ask you to check out my website balkanarchitect.com. I'm going to link it
up in the cards above and then also down in the description of this video. If you're serious
about learning Revit, that's definitely the best place to be, with over 140 hours dedicated to all
of the interesting and complex topics inside of Revit. Now without any further ado, let's jump
straight into Revit. And here we are in Revit, and as you can see this is the building that we're
going to be using for this demonstration. And let's say I want to create kind of an accent facade
wall here in this area. Now what you can see is here I have this curtain wall. I have it here as
well, just kind of as an example. And we're going to be building this as a curtain wall, because the
curtain wall has the ability to use different panels. We can create interesting panels like the
ones that we're going to be creating right now. And then you can use those to create this wall. So
let's get started. Because this is a curtain wall made out of panels, we're just going to go here
to file, new and then create a new family, which is going to be structured as a curtain panel.
Now I'm just going to go here back and open up metric. So here I'm just going to find my English
metric curtain wall panel and then hit open. Once it opens up it's going to look like this. Now
what I want to do is I just want to open up the exterior elevation like this and then here I
just want to change this to 2500 and then this to 500 so we have a panel that's 500 by 500 mm. Now
also what you can do is you can add an additional reference plane like this in the middle, so we just
have that kind of middle line and then we can even add this dimension here and then make it equal,
just like so. Okay now I'm just going to zoom in the middle, so this is a square, 500 mm square. Now
I want to add an image as reference. So let's go here to insert, go to import image, and this is just
telling us that these images will not be seen kind of in the final family, which is perfect, I don't
want that. So I found this image. I'm just going to open that up and place it. So this is what that
looks like. So we're just going to use the move tool and then place it here in position, and then
just use the scale tool to graphically scale this down to our rectangle. Now I want to model both the
mortar and the actual kind of clay brick. So for that let's go then here to Create, go to Extrusion
and then I'm going to make the end at 70. So that's going to be kind of the thickness. Then let's use
a rectangle and make a rectangle like this. Now if the lines are a bit too thick you can just change
this to, let's see, let's change it to 1 to 10 or even 1 to 5 just to make it a bit easier
to see. Okay, next, let's do another rectangle at an offset and then let's go with an offset of
something like 10 mm so let's add 10 and create that. Now I'm just going to hit the space key to
flip this around and of course you can add these dimensions and then lock everything to in place
in order to make it parametric. We're just going to stick to this one in order to save time. So I'm
not going to go too much into locking everything in and so on. So let's now hit finish, there we go.
And then, for the material, instead of applying the material here, you can create a new parameter. So
I'm just going to create a mortar parameter and then click okay. Okay again. There we go. Now for the
second one, let's go here to create Extrusion and then we want a simple rectangle here, just like
that, over the existing one, then I'm just going to use an offset of something like 30 and then
you just want to create a rectangle like this. Hit the space key to flip it in and out. We want it
of course on the inside, then hit the Escape key a couple of times. And now it's time to model these.
So basically what I'm going to do is just start at the edge, like this, with a simple line and then
we can switch to an arc. So I like to use this tangent Arc and then go up to there. Hit the Escape
key. And then I'm going to use perhaps go like that then switch to tangent Arc and yeah, doesn't look
good. So let's let's make this smaller, so you can kind play around with what works for you, but
yeah, okay, this will be nice. And then just hit the escape a couple of times. Now we just mirror this so
MM is the shortcut to mirror. We get something that looks like this. Then I'm just going to select
these two and then go to mirror. Let's go with the Draw access and do a 45 degree angle, like this.
And now what we can do is we can actually go here to fillet arc. Let's go with the radius of
let's try 50, and do this, okay, it's a bit too much. So let's go back, let's try 20. So I just want
to have a small arc here in the middle. Just like that, perfect. Then again switch to Arc and create
a small Arc here as well. Looks nice. We also want a circle in the metal, so just like that. Hit
the Escape key a couple of times. And now again I'm just going to be mirroring this to the other
side and fixing all of the little arcs in order to finish. And of course we want to fix the edges
by using the split element, and I'm just going to go here with Delete inner segment. And then you
just go like this and you're splitting this and it's going to be creating those gaps exactly how
you want them. So like this and then just do the rest. And now we have the main shape. Also let's do
the material, so I'm just going to click here and then let's create a new parameter. Let's call this
one the clay and then click okay, okay again, and yeah, it's set at 70. Hit finish, and there we go. So
now we have this shape. We can also view it in the 3D view. Also make sure that you set the scale
or down a little bit so you can see the lines better. So there we go. Looks really really nice. So
now let's actually load this into the project, but before that make sure to save the family. So let's
go here to file, save and then I'm just going to save this as main panel. Hit save, there we go. And
now we can just load that into the project, okay. So now select the existing Curtain Wall, go into
edit type, and then here we have some options for the layout. So for the layout I'm just going to
change this. So let's make it fixed distance at 500 mm for the vertical grid. For the horizontal
grid you also want to re repeat that, just like this. And then the main one, the curtain panel, you
want to open that up, and then here what you'll notice is that we're going to have our main panel.
There we go. That's what we have created and then hit apply, click okay. And then this is what we get.
As you can see, we have applied that panel to this curtain wall. Now we also
want to create another variation in order to make this a bit more interesting. So for
that what I'm going to do is I'm actually going to start off with this existing panel. So let
me select it, go into edit family, and now what I'm going to do is just Delete the inner segment,
just like this. Let's go to, yeah, let's go to the exterior side, just like this. Okay, there we
go, so we just have this mortar on the outside. However I'm just going to change this from mortar
to clay, like this. And then I'm also going to go to save as and then let's save this as our kind of
second panel. Hit save, okay. Now the next step is going to be to create another kind of shape.
I want kind of a funnel shape going down. So for that what I'm going to do is open up one
of the sides, like this. Let's go to the left and then here I'm going to go to create, go to
reference plane, and then create a reference plane. Like this. Let's switch this down to 1 to 10, okay.
Hit the escape key a couple of times, select this reference plane, go to copy, and then I'm going
to copy it here. And then we're going to call this one 'profile one'. And this one 'profile two'.
Hit enter. Okay. So the next step is going to be to create kind of a shape here. So let's
go to reference level for example, like this. Then go to create, this will be a blend, so let's click
there. And then let's set the work plane. So I'm just going to set this to that profile one, click
okay, and then use lines. Again let's switch this to like 1 to 5. And then go from here, perhaps
like this, go off to the side here. Hit the Escape key, go like this, hit the Escape key a couple of
times. Then let's use pick line and then here I'm just going to give it an offset of something
like 10 mm. And let's go like this, hit the Escape key a few times. Go to Trim and extend to Corner,
fix this up, and then select it and mirror it to the other side around the center. Just like so.
Then let's go to edit top. So on the top here I'm just going to set the top to profile 2. Okay
and then here let's go and model this, let's see. I'm just going to model it like this, go down and
then just something like that. Hit the escape key a few times. And now let's just set the measurements. So
this will be 10, this can go down 20, this should be 10 so 10, and then this should be 20, and this
should be 10. Okay. So once we have this, let's hit finish. Let's see what this looks like in the
3D view. Okay so we just need to bring this in a little bit up until that line there. There we go.
And now we just want to select that shape and apply a material. So this will be clay, click okay.
There we go. So now we have this shape as well and now if you want to get a bit more variation, you
can select this, go to exterior, select this shape and then go to rotate. make sure Copy is checked
off, and then also make sure you place the center of rotation in the middle. But first if the
work plane is wrong, so you just want to select this, make sure you disassociate the work plane,
like that. And then you go to rotate and then we can just rotate it like this, off to the side.
And then we can go file, and then save as, and then let's save it as... let's call this one the
third panel, and then hit save. Okay. And now we can bring this one into our project. So let's load
this one and close. And then also I'm going to open up the second one, so let's go here to insert,
load family, find the second panel, double click load that in as well. And let's use the one
that's on the actual facade. We can just delete this one. Okay, and then here you can use
the Tab key in order to highlight individual one. You can then unpin them. And then we can change
this to a second panel, like this. And I think it's going the other way around, so let's go back
to level one, and here let's flip it to the other side. Okay, there we go. So this one now
looks correct. Then I can select this panel, unpin that and then let's see. So for this one I can
use the third panel, so it's going off to this side and you can simply continue playing around
with those panels, picking out different ones. Make sure you unpin them and yeah. So you
just keep on playing around and creating the facade you want to see. So there we go. If you
want to create complex yet interesting facades like this, it's not as complicated as you might
think. And the possibilities are endless with this approach. If you want to get access to all
of these Revit project files, as well as all of my other Revit project files, over 500 files so
far, you can find that on my patreon page, which I'm going to link up in the cards above and then
also down in the description of this video. Thank you for watching guys. Make sure to check out
my website balkanarchitect.com for more Revit courses. There I have over 120 hours of content
and I'm adding more each week. Make sure to subscribe for more videos and also I've added a
video over there that might interest you as well.
