Creating a Paper Model (rendered)

These are great for presenting your models at an early stage where clients won’t get hung up on colours or materials.

Using a “Paper model” is a great way to highlight the design…

Here’s how:

We are going to use Phases to create the “Paper Model” this way it won’t impact your design process. 

Create a Future Phase called “Paper Model”.

Under the Graphics Overrides Tab set the Material for your “Paper Model” project phase to be Paper. Click Ok to close this dialog box.

Rename your 3D view to “Paper Model” and change the Phase to Paper Model and the Phase Filter to Show All.

When you now render the view either with Ray Trace, Realistic or Rendering all the elements will be overridden to show as Paper.

By setting the view to a fake future phase, the view is considered existing, thus the universal material applies.

You may need to adjust the 3D model to show some elements clearly such as turning off the subcategory for glass under Doors as well as Windows and Curtain Walls.

Here are some images of the before and after as well as Renderings:

Realistic, shadows turned off, Phase = New Construction

Ray Trace, shadows turned on, Phase = Paper Model

Thanks to Daniel Stine for first showing me how to do this. Check out his book on Interior Design and Revit.

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How to Create a Material Take Off

Here are the steps for creating a basic Material take off schedule in your Revit Project.

For this example I'll be using the components of an Exterior Brick on metal stud wall and quantify the amount of Brick in a project.

To start a Material Take off:

1.       Click View tab > Create panel > Schedules drop-down > Material Takeoff.

2.       In the New Material Takeoff dialog, click a category for the material takeoff schedule, (in this case Wall), then name your Schedule, and click OK.

3.       In the Material Takeoff Properties dialog, for Available Fields, select the material attributes. Such as Area, Description, Name (Volume if you require such in the case of Concrete. Sort the list in order accordingly.

4.       Use the filter to specify which material(s) you want to schedule.

5.       Sort by Material Name, specify a Grant total if you would like to itemize every Instance. By itemizing every Instance you can quickly and easily use the “Highlight” in Model tool to see the location of the material.

6.       Under “Formatting” you will need to check the “Calculate Totals” box where volumes or areas are required.

The material takeoff schedule displays, and the view is listed in the Project Browser under Schedules/Quantities.

Tip: When creating a flooring material take off create the floor finish as a separate floor, this way you can pull the material take off of the overall floor sub-assembly separate from the individual room or area floor finishes. For example typical wood frame floor assembly we can quantify the amount of plywood sheathing required as well as the area of carpet or tile on top of the subfloor.