Ridge & Rake Tile Families

This article is based on 2 posts authored by Jay Holland and posted to his blog BIM Aficionado

Download sample Ridge and Rake tile families.

Line Based Tile Families -
When using Revit on small scale residential or commercial buildings, while we do not model individual roofing tiles, a more realistic appearance can be achieved by adding ridge, rake, and hip tiles to the model.
 

These families are derived from some very familiar ones which have been around for several years, their origin now obscure. The individual tiles are created using the geometry 'swept blend' with external profile families. This choice allows the profiles to be mirrored parametrically.
The tiles are nested into a line-based generic family and arrayed with constraints to the beginning and end. The tile spacing is variable


I modeled a Revit roof for each roof pitch that we normally encounter, then used sections and detail views to determine the appropriate angle for each hip and ridge type.
 

As the line-based family may be hosted to either face, a yes/no parameter is included to reverse the profile.


The roof tile material may be assigned in Object Styles > Generic Models > Roofing Tile.


With line based families, the Trim, extend and align tools are active and facilitate placement, as depicted in this short video...

Work on a mission style project led to further development of the families.

Download Spanish rake families.

The design drawings depict a Spanish rake treatment on the gabled ends of the building. As seen in the photo below, the exterior finish is warped (over a foam filler) to the bottom edge of each rake tile.

When considering how to achieve this in model form, it became apparent that the previous families would have to be modified. New families have been posted in which the tiles are larger in diameter and length, and also closer to the roof surface.
 

This modification also mandated a change in the method used to correct the rotation when the opposite face is selected as host. A conditional formula combined with a yes/no parameter is now used to reverse the orientation of nested tile families.