Ok. This is a quick one…In Revit 2020 we now have the ability to draw Elliptical walls. The full and partial ellipse shapes are now options on the draw panel. Just like circular walls, if you draw 360 a full ellipse the software will create 2 elliptical arcs, so watch those join points for patterns.
We tested grip editing of the ellipse and noticed some unexpected behaviors. The default grip for “drag wall end” only lets you “open” up the ellipse and not stretch the major axis. And don’t try closing the ellipse back up again…There doesn’t seem to be any way to do that precisely. There is a grip at the mid-point of the minor axis to change length of the minor axis. This will only change one half of the ellipse. There is also a grip to change the major axis hidden under the “drag wall end” grip…. but if you drag that you start to get some weird shapes, so you may want to stay away from that.
If you want to dimension the ellipse you can turn on the visibility of “center” and “focus marks”. You can dimension to them along the major axis. Along the minor axis its looks like you’ll have to draw reference planes that intersect to be able to snap to that location. Hopefully that will be addressed in an update.
You can also draw curtain walls in an elliptical shape. If you have a spacing rule set up in the curtain wall style it will segment nicely. At the junction between each half of the ellipse you’ll likely have to replace the mullion with a custom shape or corner mullion.
Here’s a video from Autodesk on the new feature.
If you need any help with any Revit feature just each out to us at info@mybimteam.com
