Excavation, backfill and new fill
The steps and conditions below follow the current implementation. Runtime evidence is identified separately; availability of every command on the installed ribbon has not been verified.
Open BimSpeed.STR → QS → Đào đất in a Revit project. This guide describes the newer multi-source Excavation / Backfill window. The legacy Pick foundation / Pick filled region window is a different workflow.
Sources and roles
Preselect elements or use Add from model / Add from link. Finish completes selection; Esc cancels an additional selection while retaining previous sources. Unselected obstacles are not automatically included. Walls/columns are suggested as obstacles; other sources require explicit role confirmation.
| Role | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Excavation + occupied volume | Defines a pit and its occupied structural volume. |
| Obstacle | Deducted from fill without independently defining a pit. |
| Material layer | Bedding or other material included in deductions. |
| New-fill boundary | Defines new fill from ground to a suitable source underside. |
| Retained void | A region that must remain unfilled. |
| Needs confirmation / Ignore | Resolve roles before calculation; unconfirmed sources are not established quantities. |
Include toggles individual rows. Select rows using Ctrl/Shift, choose a role and apply it to selected rows. Remove Selected excludes rows. Check IDs, categories and link instances for duplicates.
Settings
| Field | Unit, effect and check |
|---|---|
| Scenario | 1–80 characters. The same code updates existing output; use another code to retain alternatives. |
| Flat ground elevation | Metres relative to the Revit internal origin; no automatic terrain or Project Base Point reading. |
| Backfill target elevation | Metres; cannot exceed ground. Use New-fill boundary for fill above existing ground. |
| Working clearance per side | Metres, nonnegative. Increasing it generally increases excavation; recalculate and compare geometry/m³. |
| Horizontal/vertical slope | Nonnegative dimensionless ratio; 0 means vertical. It is not an angle in degrees. |
| Extra excavation below source | Metres, nonnegative. No automatic 50 mm allowance. Select bedding solids when they define the required bottom. |
Pit sources require horizontal bottoms. Stepped/sloped or unsupported boundaries must be resolved from actual errors. Values must be finite; the parser accepts comma decimal input.
Calculate, review and write
Calculate / Preview computes results without writing the model. Changing settings or roles invalidates the result. Geometry & formulas shows a projection of result solids. Excavation / Backfill / New Fill toggles affect visibility only; hide excavation to inspect inner fill. Addition / subtraction ledger lists operations and m³.
Excavation is the union of pits up to flat ground. Backfill is the pit region below the target minus structures, material layers and retained voids. Deductions operate on the remaining region to avoid repeated subtraction. These are geometric volumes without bulking or compaction conversion.
Create / update DirectShape + Schedule is enabled only after calculation. It commits model elements and a schedule. The same scenario updates its group rather than always adding copies. Closing does not write geometry. Inspect a Generic Model DirectShape's BS_EW_Scenario, BS_EW_WorkType, BS_EW_Region, BS_EW_GeometricVolume and BS_EW_MaterialState. Compare the scenario schedule total, save and reopen the RVT before using quantities.
The newer window contains fixed Vietnamese text; English UI has not been established. This English guide does not present Vietnamese captures as English-interface evidence.
Saved geometry exercise
The educational model contains one flat floor; it is not a whole-building substitute. The floor has the excavation-plus-occupancy role. Ground 1.5m, backfill target 1.0m, working clearance 0.4m, slope 0 and extra depth 0 produced 70.386m³ excavation, 40.715m³ backfill and 0m³ new fill. A real project copy was exercised separately at different elevations and quantities; these educational totals are not project quantities.
The tool's current preview UI remains Vietnamese, so it is not presented as an English screenshot. If the yellow data-changed warning appears, recalculate before Create/Update. A visible old preview does not prove that current inputs were committed.
Change clearance, then inspect actual output
With other inputs unchanged, increasing 0.4 → 0.8m produced 90.249m³ excavation; reducing to 0.2m produced 61.366m³. A 2.0m backfill target above the 1.5m ground was rejected. The 0.4m scenario was retained. Updating DOCS-E-13 reused its two existing DirectShape IDs rather than adding another pair.
After saving and opening a result copy in a fresh process, select the excavation in Revit. ① Properties shows WorkType = Excavation, Region = H001, Scenario = DOCS-E-13 and GeometricVolume 70.386m³; ② is committed model geometry, separate from the tool preview. The actual schedule lists Backfill40.715 and Excavation70.386m³. Model-defined titles/material values remain Vietnamese in English Revit; they do not establish English tool UI. Open the matching scenario schedule and compare quantities/material state before QS export.
