Revit as a Tool for Modeling Concrete Reinforcement

Figure 16: Rebar Shape family with three bar segments

In a Rebar Shape family, each Rebar Line has two References that the labels (length
parameters) that control the size of the bar segments drive. One of the Rebar Lines also has to
be defined as a Major Segment. This will typically be the segment that you use while placing
the bar.

Some shapes can be trickier to set up than others, especially when scheduling considerations
have to be made. I’ll provide some examples in the following section.

First, as always in Revit, it can be difficult to define overlapping sketch lines. This can be a
challenge in shape families when defining shapes like this:

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Figure 17: Rebar Shape with multiple identical bar segments

In this example two sets of bar segments have the same dimensions (labels a and b). There
are even three bar segments constrained by label b. This sort of situation normally produces
an error related to overlapping sketch lines in Revit. The problem in the illustrated example can
be solved by dragging the bar segments so that no one label has the same value (as you can
see; label a equals both 300 mm and 380 mm). This seems odd, as one is used to the
correlation between constraints and parameters in the Revit Family Editor, but for some reason
this is not a problem when working with Rebar Shapes. The default value of a parameter in a
Rebar Shape family can vary between dimension instances. Or, more precisely; there is really
no link between labeled dimension instances and the default value seen in the Rebar Shape
Parameters in the Rebar Shape family environment.

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Figure 18: Rebar Shape with overlapping bar segments

Another similar example, that cannot be solved the same way, is circular rebar shapes with a
parameter for overlap:

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