Configure Revit to Calc total Steel Tonnage Required

Steps to configure Revit to calculate total steel tonnage based on structural model.

If you need Revit to calculate the structural steel tonnage used on a project you can modify the projects schedule to automatically accomplish this as you model your steel structure. One way to do this is to modify the structural families to include a variable that can be used in a schedule formula for beam weight per foot. Note, this value is already in the family ‘W’ – see highlighted diagram below – but it isn’t a value that is schedulable so we must create a similar variable that can be used in a steel quantities schedule.

First select one of your steel beams and then select ‘Edit Family’.

Edit the Family Types – Select your beam size and follow the directions outlined below:

Configure as shown and select ‘OK’.

Select ‘OK’ to close all dialogs shown above.

Select ‘Yes’ and check Override parameter values of existing types.

Next create a quantity schedule for your structural steel beams. Then add fields you want to include on your schedule like: Family, Type, WtperFt, and Length.

Create a ‘Calculated Value’ for the Weight (Tons) field.

Make sure to enter your Formula as shown.

Select Okay to save and close all dialogs and check your schedule to make sure calculations are correct.

Note that you can hide columns if needed. For this example the WtperFt column has been hidden from view. It must be in the schedule in order to calculate each beams weight.

Additional steel beam sizes may now also use the WtperFt parameter we’ve created.