It’s a new year and I thought it would be a good idea to kick off the year with a blogging bang! This is part one of a ten-part series of quick tips for Revit users. You probably know some of these, you may even know all of them, but they are little onesie-twosie tips that I try to cover when teaching new Revit users.
When you are creating a Plan or Elevation or Section Callout, you get the option to choose between “Regular” and “Detail.” The Autodesk help page has some information on this topic, but there’s a lot more to cover. My favorite tip is that you can use a Detail Callout to “cut” a plan view from a section. This might be useful for jamb details if you want them live.
View Names have to be unique among their specific view type. The View Name is also that view title when you add that view to a sheet. But maybe you want four “Wall Section” views on your sheet as opposed to “Section 1,” “Section 2,” etc. Use the Title on Sheet parameter to override the View Name. And better yet, the Title on Sheet parameter doesn’t have to be unique!
Don’t mess with View Templates settings, unless that is your specific job. A lot of folks are relying on the integrity and consistency of the View Templates so leave them be!
This view parameter is a great way to keep your views a little cleaner. It will automatically hide callouts in views that are above (below? you know what I mean) scales that you select in this dropdown.
There is a parameter in your views called “Display Model” that lets you quickly and easily either halftone or hide all your model elements in that view. I’ve seen folks use this to have a “live” view link but only show detail components (like for a standard detail), or when they quickly want to see what is drafted vs. what is modeled in a view.
Are you using View Templates? You should. If you aren’t, you are wasting time. Everyone’s time. Yes, everyone’s.
Your View has its own Detail Level that will start driving how things are drawn, but don’t forget that you can override that setting per element category by getting into the view’s Visibility Graphics settings and changing it in the far right column.
Constraints are a nice way to keep things where you want them. However, too many in a model can make modeling a challenge, and worse, it can slow things down. All those little toggles mean more math for Revit to do. Be sure to only constrain elements in your project model that are essential to be constrained.
Don’t forget you have quick access to a lot of view settings right at the bottom of each view in the view control toolbar.
Your model will get more and more views, as if by magic. Chances are, you don’t need all of them. New views won’t really impact a model size or performance, but they can definitely confuse users and slow things down.
We continue our dive into random Revit tips with the blog series, 100 Things Every Revit User Should Know – Part 2! Click here to take a peek at the other parts in this series for additional nuggets of Revit wisdom.
Tired of your model having “Section 14” through “Section 89” and not knowing what in the world it is? Get yourself a view naming convention. That’s the easy part. The hard part is using it! As soon as you create a new view you should rename it. A Machiavellian method for making sure renaming views happen is to give everyone free reign to delete any view that isn’t named properly.
Need to tweak the Visibility Graphics of a view for just a second? Don’t turn off that View Template, just turn on Temporary View Properties and then switch it back off.
Don’t duplicate your effort. In your Options bar, look for the “Reference Other View” checkbox if you are making a callout to refer to a view that you have already created. We see this a lot with wall sections.
A lot of folks like to save time by duplicating an existing view. If that view has a callout, the callout tag is going to be duplicated as well and it might look funny sitting on top of itself, with little dashes like you tried to censor it out.
Did you just place a keynote or piece of text in a callout and then it disappeared? Take a look at your Annotation Crop. That piece of annotation is probably just outside of it.
You know those callouts that aren’t on any sheet? And they have a bunch of dashes in the callout bubble? When you go to print, you can tell Revit not to print those tags. Just click the Hide unreferenced view tags box in the Print Setup dialog. We recommend to NOT use this during progress printing so you can see what callouts and sections are not on sheets yet, but for that final printing, this is a nice box to check.
Having too many DWG links can slow down that model. Don’t rely on them too much.
Granted, when I say “never” I usually mean “99% of the time.” But really, importing a CAD file just adds so much garbage to your model, you are almost always better off just recreating the linework natively in Revit.
Revit will center on and try to print everything in a view. So don’t “dock” random elements outside of your sheet border. Revit will try to print it.
Sheets are Views in the Revit model database. In fact, they have their very own Visibility Graphics settings. Just remember that these settings do not impact the views that are on the sheets. Meaning, if you turn off Walls in a Sheet VG settings, the Walls in the Plan on that Sheet won’t care at all.
We continue to crack the cornucopia of Revit delights with the blog series, 100 Things Every Revit User Should Know – Part 3! Click here to take a peek at the other parts in this series for additional nuggets of Revit wisdom.
Use your Close Hidden Windows button frequently to shut down all those randomly open views you cracked open “just for a second.” Your computer’s RAM will thank you.
Revit is close to a WYSIWYP (What You See Is What You Print) environment, and that means line thicknesses. Sometimes that fat lineweight 5 gets in the way of your precise detail linework. Hit the Thin Lines toggle (TL) to shrink all your lines down to 1 pixel and see where things are easier. Don’t worry, it won’t print that way even if you leave it on.
Watch out what you mirror. You are literally flipping something. Sometimes, this doesn’t matter, like for walls. But other elements, specifically MEP elements with connectors should not be mirrored. You are flipping the side those connectors are on and that can really cause issues.
I have seen Detail Groups murder models. I have heard stories from others who have seen the same. I don’t know why they do, but I am extremely reluctant to use them. Creating something as a Detail Component might seem like it’s extra effort, but try getting a model from the backup and telling your users they lost a day’s worth of work. Detail Components are cleaner, lighter and can be easily reused. It’s time to start using them!
Revit has tools to temporarily hide things. While nothing is really permanent (whoa, that got deep) the specifically designed temporary hide functionality is a great tool with a great visual reminder that your view is not exactly how it looks.
When you first cut a section, the callout size equals the size of the view, but you can always go back and “tweak” the callout line without impacting the view size.
You place Model Lines and Detail Lines in the exact same way. Remember that Model Lines are model elements and show up everywhere; Detail Lines are annotation and are view specific. Know where you want one versus another. Luckily, if you use the wrong type, you can use the Convert Lines button to swap between the two versions.
Your model’s datum elements (Grids, Levels) have a 3D and 2D toggle at each of their ends. The nomenclature is… challenging… but it basically means “Project Wide” for 3D and “View Specific” for 2D, so you can control the extents of their display either for your whole model of just for individual views.
Sometimes you start a model and draw your Levels (or Grids) and then you model somewhere “outside” of where you drew them. This means in certain elevations and sections you cannot see the level lines. Using the Maximize 3D Model Extents function will help “stretch” out your Levels and Grids so you can see them throughout your model.
Join Geometry is a nifty tool that can help clean up elements that aren’t cleaning up correctly. Inversely, sometimes Revit joins elements that you don’t want join. Use that Unjoin Geometry tool on those pesky fellas.