How to create a floor in Revit differs from the wall command in one way: a wall exists as soon as you draw it, while a floor needs a closed outline before it becomes a slab. While you sketch, the drawing greys out and everything else is locked.
The most common confusion is the level: the top of the floor sits on the level, and the whole thickness hangs below it. Remember that and most mistakes disappear.
This article works through floors in Revit, plus the visibility checks, ordered the way you actually work. Screenshots come from Revit 2027, English interface. Ceilings have their own article, how to create a ceiling in Revit. To learn the documentation stage in full, see the Revit Architecture course.
Five steps to build the floor of a level
The next five sections set out how to create a floor in Revit in the order you click. The command is on the Architecture tab, Build panel, Floor button.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Floor: Architectural | An architectural floor taking a finish build-up. The one for architectural sets |
| Floor: Structural | The same geometry with structural parameters on. Usually modelled by the structural team |
| Floor by Face | A floor taking the face of a mass |
Autodesk documents the command on its Create a Floor page.
Step 1 — duplicate the floor type and set its layers
The Metric template holds one floor type, Generic 300mm, with no real material — a type for trying things out. Run Architecture › Floor › Floor: Architectural, then Edit Type.
| No. | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Family and Type | System Family: Floor. Floors are system families, present in every project |
| 2 | Duplicate and Rename | Click Duplicate before changing anything, or every floor of that type changes too |
| 3 | Construction | Structure opens the layer dialog. Default Thickness is greyed out because it sums the layers |
Click Duplicate, name it something like S-100-BTCT, then click Edit on the Structure row.
| No. | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Summary row | Total thickness 300. The thermal figures read zero because no material is set |
| 2 | Layer table | Core Boundary, Structure 300 thick, Core Boundary. The two Core Boundary rows are always 0 thick |
| 3 | Buttons | Insert, Duplicate, Delete, Up, Down. The last three light up once a row is selected |
The floor table has seven columns. Structural Material marks the load-bearing layer, which concrete schedules read. Variable lets a layer vary in thickness, so the underside stays flat when you shape-edit in step 4. A typical local floor runs to four layers: tiles, screed, reinforced concrete slab, soffit plaster.
Steps 2 and 3 — sketch with Pick Walls, then check the level
Click OK twice. Revit enters sketch mode and the ribbon switches to its own commands.
| Panel | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mode | The green tick finishes, the red cross cancels. Esc does not leave this mode |
| Draw | Boundary Line, Slope Arrow, Span Direction, the geometry gallery including arcs, and Pick Lines, Pick Walls |
| Set Offset | Extend Into Wall and the Offset field, to push the edge into the wall |
| Work Plane | Rarely needed for a flat floor |
Click Pick Walls and click the perimeter walls until the outline closes. The real advantage is not speed: each edge remembers the wall it was picked from, so when the wall moves the floor edge follows. For curved or angled edges, draw those segments with the Draw gallery.
The outline must close without crossing itself. Finish with a gap and Revit reports an error — click Show in that dialog to jump to the gap. To abandon the sketch, click the red cross and read the question carefully.
It says quitting cannot be undone: once you click Yes, Undo will not bring the outline back.
Click the green tick. If Revit asks whether to join the floor with the walls and cut the overlap, read it before answering. Then select the floor and check its level.
| No. | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Constraints | Level L1 and Height Offset From Level 0, so the top of the floor sits on the level |
| 2 | Dimensions | Seven greyed-out fields Revit derives: Perimeter 44000, Area 118.750 m², Volume 35.625 m³, Elevation at Top 0, Elevation at Bottom minus 300 |
The three figures must agree: 118.750 times 0.3 is exactly 35.625 — a quick check on thickness. The Slope field is blank because the floor is flat.
Step 4 — a Revit sloped floor, wet areas and a Revit shaft opening
Balconies, terraces and bathrooms all need drainage falls. Revit offers two ways to make falls and two ways to drop a wet area.
The first is a slope arrow. In sketch mode, click Slope Arrow and draw an arrow from the high edge to the low edge. The whole slab tilts as one plane.
| No. | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Specify | Height at Tail sets the slope by two heights; switch to Slope to enter the slope directly |
| 2 | Four height fields | Tail is the start of the arrow, the high edge; Head is its tip, the low edge |
| 3 | Slope and Length | Greyed out while heights are used. Length is the arrow length, here 3225. The Slope field is used only when Specify is set to Slope |
The second is shape editing, for outlets and ridges. Select a floor and the Shape Editing panel appears.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Modify Sub Elements | Click a vertex or edge and type a new height |
| Add Point | Adds a control point, used as a drainage outlet |
| Add Split Line | Adds a fold line, used as a ridge |
| Pick Supports | Uses beams as supports, so the floor follows their tops |
| Reset Shape | Returns the floor to flat |
An outlet in the middle of a bathroom takes four steps:
- Select the floor.
- Click Add Point and click at the outlet.
- Click Modify Sub Elements and select that point.
- Type minus 30 and press Enter.
The top surface dips 30 and falls evenly in every direction. The underside stays flat only when the floor type has a layer with Variable ticked. Without one, the whole slab sags 30 and the underside dips with it.
A dropped wet area of 20 to 50 mm is either a separate floor with Height Offset From Level at minus 30, or one continuous floor with an Add Split Line zone whose vertices are lowered. The parameter takes positive values too. Either way the Revit floor offset is counted from the level, so a negative value always means lower.
| No. | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Height Offset From Level | Reads 200 — this finish floor is raised 200 above 1F. Level still says 1F, so schedules place it correctly |
| 2 | Three check fields | Elevation at Top 200, at Bottom 150, Thickness 50. When all three agree the offset is right |
Floor openings come two ways. For a hole in one floor only, select the floor, click Edit Boundary, draw an extra closed loop inside and finish — the inner loop becomes a hole. For stair wells and risers through several levels, use Shaft on the Opening panel.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Boundary Line | The real outline that shapes the opening |
| Symbolic Line | Symbol lines, usually the cross on the plan. Cuts nothing |
| Offset and Radius | Sketch offset and corner radius. Radius lights up only with Chain on |
- Run Shaft and draw the Boundary Line.
- Finish, then select the new opening.
- Set Base Constraint, Base Offset and Top Constraint, as for a wall.
- Set Base Offset below the underside of the lowest floor, for example minus 200 for a 100 floor. Floors hang below their level, so an opening that starts at the level leaves the whole slab in place.
The rule: through several levels use Shaft; in one element use Vertical or edit the outline; square to a sloped floor use By Face. Esc does not leave the Shaft sketch either.
Step 5 — check the floors in a 3D view
Isolating one category is the fastest model check. Open a 3D view, select a floor and type IC.
| No. | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Temporary Hide/Isolate frame | The cyan border shows a temporary isolation. Undo it with Reset Temporary Hide/Isolate |
| 2 | Natural ground slab | The sample building's ground is a named floor, not a toposurface |
| 3 | Floors on each level | The finish slabs stack by level. Missing or overlapping floors show at once |
| 4 | Roof slab | The sample roof was also built with the Floor command |
Floor not showing in Revit, how to hide floor in Revit, and finish plans
A floor that exists but is missing from the plan is the most common question after modelling. The usual cause is the View Range.
Open it with Edit on the View Range row of the plan's Properties.
| No. | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Primary Range | Top, Cut plane and Bottom, each with a level and an offset |
| 2 | View Depth | The fourth, lowest plane. It defaults to Bottom |
Click Show at the bottom left and the dialog expands with Revit's own diagram of the four planes. Floors have their own exception: a floor up to 1220 mm below Bottom still shows in projection lines. Stairs and ramps behave the same. A floor lower than that shows only while it is inside View Depth.
But View Range is only one of three causes, checked in order: the element is hidden individually, its whole category is off in Visibility/Graphics, or it lies outside the view range. The light bulb button on the view control bar rules out the first.
To hide one floor in a view, select it and type EH. To hide or restyle the whole category, type VG. Both belong to the view display system, set out in how to hide elements in Revit.
| No. | Part | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Five tabs | Model Categories, Annotation Categories, Analytical Model Categories, Imported Categories, Filters |
| 2 | Column headers | Visibility on or off; Projection/Surface with Lines, Patterns, Transparency; Cut with Lines and Patterns |
| 3 | Object Styles button | Categories not overridden follow Object Styles |
Everything changed here affects only the view named in the dialog title. The tile pattern on a floor plan comes from the Surface Pattern of the top layer's material, and is toggled in the Patterns column.
A floor finish plan takes two steps:
- Duplicate the 1F plan with Duplicate with Detailing and rename it
MB-1F-LAT. - In the new view, open Visibility/Graphics and turn off Furniture, Doors and Windows. Keep Floors and Walls.
Try it: the floors of the sample house
Build floors on two levels and one dropped wet area.
- Open the 1F floor plan. Run Architecture › Floor › Floor: Architectural.
- Edit Type › Duplicate, name it
S-100-BTCT. In Edit Assembly set the Structure layer to 100, then OK twice. - Click Pick Walls and click the perimeter walls until the outline closes.
- Finish. If Revit asks whether to join the floor with the walls and cut the overlap, choose No and note the question.
- Select the floor and note Perimeter, Area and Volume. Check that Area times 0.1 equals Volume.
- Duplicate a
S-100-VStype for the bathroom and tick Variable on its Structure layer. - Draw an
S-100-VSfloor over the bathroom with Height Offset From Level at minus 30, and edit the main floor outline to leave that zone out. - Open a section through the bathroom, zoom to the junction and check the step.
- Select the main floor, Ctrl+C, then Paste › Aligned to Selected Levels onto 2F. Check it on 2F.
- Run Shaft, sketch the stair well, set Base Constraint 1F, Base Offset minus 200 and Top Constraint the roof. Check in 3D that it cuts both floors.
Common floor problems
Before looking anything up, read Level and Height Offset From Level on the floor — they answer most questions.
| Problem | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Outline not closed | Two segments nearly touch but do not meet. Click Show in the error dialog to find the gap |
| Floor overlapping walls | Answering no when Revit asks about cutting walls counts the volume twice. Pick Walls avoids it |
| Floor missing from the plan | Check the three causes: hidden individually, category off in VG, or outside the View Range |
| The underside sags after shape editing | The floor type has no layer with Variable ticked. Tick Variable on the Structure layer and the underside stays flat |
Frequently asked questions
Why does a floor at level 0 have its bottom at minus 300?
Because Revit puts the top of the floor on the level and hangs the whole thickness below — matching drawings, where level zero is the finished floor surface.
How do I make a sloped floor in Revit?
A slope arrow for a single tilted plane; shape editing with Add Point and Modify Sub Elements when you need outlets or ridges.
Which command cuts a hole through several floors?
Shaft, with Base Offset below the underside of the lowest floor. Edit it once and every level follows.
How do I hide one floor in a view?
Select it and type EH. For the whole category, turn it off in VG. The light bulb button shows everything currently hidden.
Related articles
- How to create walls in Revit — build exterior walls at the right levels before Pick Walls
- How to create a ceiling in Revit — the next step, ceilings sit above the level
- How to create a roof in Revit — flat roof falls use the same shape editing
- How to draw stairs in Revit — the stair well for your Shaft