3D rooms in Revit

By Stuart Tanfied

Unusually, I have recently had the same request multiple times. How can I show my rooms in 3D? This was something that used to crop up quite a bit, but did seem to fade as knowledge grew. However here it is again. Utilising a tool which was released back in 2016, the Energy Model. Using this for something it is completely not intended to be used for, makes for very satisfying visual representation of your rooms in 3D. My colleague Justin has previously written a blog around this and how to implement this on your projects.

He shared with you a very interesting “alternative” use for one of the newer features in Revit. The new feature is the 3D display of the Energy Model and how this is configured. Aside from the Energy tools, with this display we can now produce a 3D coloured view of Rooms and Spaces.

Below is the rough method he used, but you can always tweak the visuals afterwards: 

-Create the building and rooms as normal

-Go to Analyse>Energy Analysis>Show Energy Model

This will give you a 3D view of the Analytical Spaces (this looks similar to the gbXML export preview)

-Create your own project parameter, this could be anything Room Type/Floor Level etc.

-Give each of the Analytical Spaces a value under this new project parameter

-Setup a filter for each of these parameter values

-Apply to the view 

So creating a project parameter for “Floor Level” and assigning filters for each floor we get something like the below:

Or with a different parameter, filters and visual setup, we can create a 3D colour fill to designate Room Usage:

There are other methods of doing something similar, either with creating your own mass families, or with the use of something like Dynamo. However out of the box this is quite a simple method and when room sizes change, we just have to toggle “Show Energy Model” button to update the spaces to match.

https://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/203744682-Revit-2016-3D-Colour-Rooms