TechnicalSupport: Egress Path Options

In 2006 I demonstrated (at Autodesk University) the then new line based family type by explaining how we could use it to document egress path requirements also known as exiting plans. Since then a couple other options have come along.

One is the notion of using a railing type. They are also derived from a path and we can use a profile to represent the form of a person traveling through a corridor. That's not a requirement but it does make it easier to visualize it in 3d views.

Another is to use the newer adaptive point concepts in a family. Initially we could only use them in the massing category. As soon as they opened them up to more categories it made it more palatable to consider them for this purpose.

Defining the requirements for documenting exiting are naturally going to affect the success of any solution we try to provide. Ideal we should be able to provide a total length of travel from one place to an exit, identify the length of any segment of the path and provide a clear descriptive way to show how our design meets codes in plan views, at a minimum.

The new adaptive point approach requires building a family that provides however many segments are required in advance. It isn't possible to tag individual segments though a tag could display a summary of each segment as well as the total (Edit: there is nothing to prevent us from creating a two point family and using the chain placement approach, that would support tagging individual segments). Adaptive points don't permit nesting detail components so the annotation used to display special nodes at the beginning, end or at nodes along the path requires geometry that will take more work to scale according to a view scale.

Sean Burke shared a You Tube video of the adaptive point approach in action, check it out (embedded below). At least now there are more options to choose from. Pick the one you think best fits your requirements!

Sean Burke's example