Topography Basics – Creating a recessed fire pit area and cutting toposolids in Revit

What You’ll Learn

In this tutorial, Corbin walks through how to model a sunken fire pit hangout area in Revit using the Toposolid tools. You’ll build a circular recessed seating bowl with custom concrete slabs, cut into the terrain using two different methods, and integrate stairs — all the way through to a clean, presentation-ready landscape feature.

This is part of the Topography Mastery Series and assumes you’ve already set up a basic Toposolid in your project. If you’re starting from scratch, see Learn the Basics of Revit Topography first.

What You’ll Need

• Revit 2024 or newer (Toposolid tools required)
• An existing site model with a Toposolid surface
• Basic familiarity with wall and floor tools

Step-by-Step Overview

1. Draw the circular wall boundary. Use the Arc/Circle wall tool to define the outer edge of the seating bowl. Set the radius to match your desired fire pit size, then offset inward to create the seating ring thickness.
2. Create a custom 4″ concrete seating slab. Duplicate an existing floor type, rename it (e.g. “Seating Slab – 4″ Concrete”), and set the material to lightweight concrete. Place it at the correct elevation to sit flush with the recessed grade.
3. Cut the Toposolid — Method 1 (Point Editing). Select the Toposolid and use Edit Surface to manually pull points down within the circular boundary. This gives you fine-grained control but takes longer on complex shapes.
4. Cut the Toposolid — Method 2 (Excavate Tool). Use the Toposolid Excavate command with your floor and circular walls as the cutting boundary. This is faster and produces cleaner edges — recommended for most residential projects.
5. Integrate the stairs. Place a stair component from the existing grade level down into the sunken area. Adjust the top and bottom constraints to match your slab elevations.
6. Clean up wall and floor boundaries. Review the Toposolid edge where it meets the walls. Use the Join Geometry tool where needed, and check the 3D view to confirm there are no gaps or overlapping surfaces.
7. Review in 3D. Apply a shaded or realistic visual style to confirm the fire pit reads correctly in context. The sunken bowl, seating slab, and stairs should all read as one cohesive feature.

Timestamps

• 0:00 — Intro & circular wall setup
• 1:30 — Custom concrete seating slab
• 4:00 — Toposolid cutting: points vs. Excavate
• 7:00 — Stairs integration
• 9:30 — Wall boundaries & final cleanup

Related Tutorials

• Revit Topography Basics — Creating Toposolids, Adding Points & Sloping Terrain
• Modelling Sloped Topography & Landscape Stone Steps with Toposolids
• Browse all Revit tutorials →

Want to go deeper? The Learn Revit Fast course covers all the core Revit workflows — floor plans, sections, sheets, and site — in 11 structured lessons for $9.99. It’s the fastest way to get solid foundations before tackling advanced topics like this one.