Create beams in Revit

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Beams are primary structural framing members that span horizontally between supports.

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In Revit, there are many ways to add beams to your building model, and there are also many types of beams that can be created.

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For example, you can add individual beams, chains of beams,

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or beams along grid lines—and you can do so in a plan, section, elevation, or 3D view.

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To create a beam, on the Structure ribbon, in the Structure panel, click Beam.

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Next, expand the Type Selector to see the beam types that are available in the project.

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Take note that in Revit, beams are structural framing elements and are loadable families.

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If needed, you can create different families and types for your project.

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Here, select the type of beam you want to place.

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The ribbon changes to the Place Beam contextual ribbon.

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In the Options Bar, you can specify the Placement Plane.

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It is currently set to Level 1, since the Level 1 structural plan is the current view.

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However, you can specify any level or work plane in your project.

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Beams are sketched using one of the options in the Draw gallery.

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For this example, select Line.

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Zoom in to the top left of the grid in the drawing window.

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Click to place the beam start point, and then move the cursor in any direction.

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Revit displays the listening dimensions for the length and angle of your beam.

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Click again to create the beam.

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After you place the beam, a temporary dimension appears for the length,

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with temporary dimensions at each end of the beam.

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These are for the start level offset and end level offset.

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Click any of these temporary dimensions to make them active in order to change the value.

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To place a chain of beams, with the tool still activated, in the Options Bar, select Chain.

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Click to place a beam start point, move the cursor to the right horizontally, and then click to place a second beam.

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Finally, click Modify to end the command.

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To place multiple beams along grid lines, first activate the Beam tool again.

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Then, on the Place Beam contextual ribbon, in the Multiple panel, select On Grids.

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When selected, you can place beams by selecting a span of grid lines.

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To see how this works, use a crossing window to select all the grids.

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A preview of the beams appears between the columns.

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When all the information is correct, click Finish to create the beams.

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Click Modify to end the command.

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You now know how to place beams in your building engineering design.