Creating dormers in Revit Architecture

Today I am posting a small tutorial about creating dormer / dormer openings in Revit Architecture. It is a very simple process but has a few steps, so if you are having problems with dormers or interested in learning, continue reading.

The first step is to create some temporary walls as shown in the image below, indicated by the red rectangle. You should place these walls on the level under your roof, if you only have 2 levels, that’s fine, they will be cleaned up later and will not be visible. As usual take note of which wall type you are using. 

 You can now switch to a 3D view. You will see the walls protruding through the roof. I would recommend setting up levels to constrain the top of the walls, you can also define an unconstrained height. The next step of the proccess is to create a roof for these new walls you’ve created. Select ‘Roof by extrusion’. You will need to select a level to indicate which workplane you are working on. Choose the new level you have just created which is constraining the top of the walls as shown in the image below.  

 Once you’ve selected your work plane, you are ready to start sketching. This is another simple step. You need to create 2 lines as shown in the image below, each one connecting to the center point of the walls. Once you have created these 2 lines, highlight both of them, and use the blue node connector to drag up and create the angled profile that you desire.

You have now created a roof extrusion, but as you can see it doesn’t look as it should. What you need to do now is connect the new roof to the existing roof. You do this with the ‘Join Roof’ tool. Select the back edge of the roof, you can do this by pressing tab until the neccesary face is selected. Once selected, join the roof to the front face of the existing roof, again use tab to select the correct face. If you rotate the 3D view you will now see the roof is properly connected.

Now you need to connect the walls to the top of the roof. This is of course done with the ‘Attach top / base tool’. Select all 3 of the new walls you have created and click attach the TOP to the newly created roof. Once the walls are attached, reselect all 3 walls and attack the BASE to the main roof, this will resolve the problem of the walls being created on a lower level. 

The final step is creating the dormer opening in the roof. Right now in your model you have a new construction created on top of the roof, so a roof opening is needed. We do this with the ‘Dormer’ tool shown in the image below. Once you are in the dormer creation window select the lines of ALL edges of the new construction you have created. Use the blue arrows to position the lines on the inside of the walls. Trim / extend all edges to create a closed loop and create a group. Click the tick to finish.

You can now add a window or an opening to your dormer. Revit has many options to choose from, but if you can’t find something that fits then create a custom one from a generic window family template or alternatively search one of the online family databases where you may find what your looking for.

Hope this tutorial can help anyone who is having a hard time creating a dormer opening. As you can see it is very simple. If you have any problems or questions feel free to leave a comment.

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