Creating lintel openings and headers

- Let's talk about Lentels, the structural element that spans openings to support the weight. Of course, we can make a Family for that. This video will start off with us using a door template then we're going to make the Lentel using the door opening. Let's go to Families and let's go New. Let's scroll down to where we find Door, and let's click Open. Now, you'll see a few parameters already built in but we're going to delete most of them. The first thing I wanna do, though, is go to the Properties panel and I'm going to click on the Family Category and Parameters button.

I don't want this to be a Door. I want this to be a Generic Model. So, let's scroll down the Generic Models, select it, and let's click OK. Excellent. Next thing I want to do is get rid of these door trims so I'm going to select this extrusion. I'm going to hit the Delete key on my keyboard and I'm going to do the same for this one up here. Perfect. Now, I'm going to zoom out. In my project browser under Elevations let's go to Interior. Just double click on it. Let's select these two symbolic lines.

Just click Delete. I'm going to grab this one and I'm going to hit Delete. Now, let's make some reference planes. I'm going to zoom in on this upper reference plane. I'm going to right click on it and I'm going to Create Similar. On my Draw panel I'm going to use my Pick Lines button and I'm going to give it an offset of 1/2 inch. I'm going to hover over this reference plane and I'm going to set that reference plane up 1/2 of an inch.

I'm going to hit Escape. I'm going to click my Aligned Dimension button. I'm going to dimension for my strong reference, which is my bottom one, to my weaker reference, which is my top one, and I want to pick a point right about here. I'm going to hit Escape a couple of times. I'm going to select this dimension. I'm going to lick my Label drop-down and now I'm going to Add a Parameter. I'm going to call it Plate Size. I'll keep the defaults and I'll click OK. Hit Escape. I want to make another reference plane.

This one's going to be for the leg of my angle. I'm going to right click on this reference plane. I'm going to Create Similar. On my Draw panel I'm going to use my Pick Lines button. On my Options toolbar I'm going to type in 6 inches, Enter. I'm going to offset this line up six inches. I'm going to hit Escape a few times. On my Measure panel I'm going to hit my Aligned Dimension button. I'm going to go from here to here and I'm going to pick a point right about here, and I'm going to hit Escape a couple of times.

I'm going to select my dimension. I'm going to Add a Parameter by clicking the label drop-down and selecting <Add Parameter>. I'm going to call it Leg Height. I'm going to keep it a Type parameter and I'm going to click OK. Let's hit Escape a couple of times. Perfect. Now, let's go to our Left elevation, which is basically like going to a section. Now I want to create a little gap between our angles. We're going to have an angle here, and an angle here, and a plate right here. So, what I want to do is right click on this horizontal reference plane and I'm going to Create a Similar.

On my Draw panel I'm going to use my Pick Lines button. I'm going to give it an Offset of 1/4 inch. I'm going to go to the left and to the right of this center line. So, let's go to the left, let's go to the right. Hit Escape a couple of times. Now, let's dimension these. So, let's click on our Aligned Dimension button and I'm going to click this one but let's be careful because on the center one see how we're picking the wall center line? I don't want that. I'm going to hit tab and I'm going to pick up the actual reference plane.

Now, I'm going to click the right reference plane and I want to place my dimension right about here. It looks like there's only one but there's two. Let's click on the EQ button and that equally constrains them. Let's hit Escape a couple of times. Let's click our Dimension button again. I'm going to the left mouse then the right mouse and put the overall dimension of 1/2 inch in there. Hit Escape. Let's select our dimension and add a parameter to it by clicking the label drop-down and selecting <Add Parameter>.

I'm going to simply call that Gap and I'm going to click OK. Now, let's go to our Interior elevation and we're going to create a sweep. I'm going to zoom into this area right about here. I'm going to go to my Create tab and I'm going to click the Sweep button. On my Sweep panel I'm going to click on Sketch Path. Now, what I want to do is select the inner section of these reference planes. Revit's not picking 'em up so I'm going to type in s + i for snap intersection.

Notice that the reference planes light up. I'm going to pick this first one. I'm going to do the same exact thing for the other side. Type s + i. It's going to pick up the reference planes. And we're going to pick it. Let's hit Escape. Now that we're done sketching our path let's go ahead and click on Finish Edit Mode. Perfect. Now, under elevations in the project browser let's go to our Left elevation. Zoom into this area and let's click on Edit Profile.

On the Draw panel let's click the Pick Lines button. Let's make sure to click Lock on the Options tool bar. I'm going to click on this line, this line, this line, and the outside face of my wall, and I'm going to hit Escape. I'm going to type t + r for trim. I'm going to trim these two together, these two together, and these two together. I don't care about this one. Hit Escape. Now, on the Draw panel let's click our Pick Lines button.

For an Offset let's go 3/8 of an inch. I'm going to offset this one to the left. I'm going to offset this one upward. Now I'm going to hit Escape. Now, on the Draw panel let's click our Fillet Arc button. Let's click on Radius and let's give it a 3/8 of an inch radius. I'm going to click this line to this line. This line to this line. I'm going to click this line to this line.

I'm going to hit Escape. I'm going to delete these two extra lines but for a level of caution, I'm going to align this line to this reference plane and I'm going to do the same for this one to this. So, I'm going to type a + l for align. I'm going to click this reference plane. I'm going to hover over this line but I'm going to hit Tab once to make sure I've got the straight line. Pick it, lock it. Let's do the same here. Let's hit Tab, pick the reference plane, hit Tab again, pick our line, and lock it.

Now, let's do the same thing for the other side. On the Draw panel we're going to use our Pick Lines button, make sure Lock is set, and I'm going to grab this one, this one, If you get an error, just close out of it. This one and then this one. Hit Escape, take t + r for trim. I'm going to trim out the bottom. We can unjoin elements if we get the error. That's fine. Let's click Pick Lines. Let's give them an Offset of 3/8 of an inch. So, I'm going to offset this line to the right.

I'm going to offset this line up. Hit Escape. On the Draw panel let's click Fillet Arc. Let's click on Radius. 3/8 should be the default. And go here to here. We can delete elements if line is too short. I'm going to click it again, Fillet Arc, radius of 3/8. Take this one. Let's pick this last one. Delete the elements. We can close out of that warning too. Now, let's align and lock, a + l, click the reference plane, hit Tab, click the straight line, lock it.

Now, hit Tab so we can click on this reference plane. Come down to this line, hit Tab, pick it, now let's lock it. Let's click on Finish Edit Mode and we've got it. Let's click on Finish Edit Mode one more time and there it is. Now, let's select our wall. Let's flex it out. Let's put it on Generic 8 inch. Make sure those legs go with it. Let's go to our Family Types and let's change our Leg Height.

Let's change that to 4 inches. Let's click Apply, let's click OK, we've got it. Let's save this now. So, let's click the Save button. Let's go to where you're keeping your Exercise Files. Let's save this as Lentil. Let's click on our Options. Let's make sure we only have one Backup. Let's click OK and let's click on Save. There. Now we have a flexible Lentil family we can do a lot with.