Have a Railing File

Every Revit user has probably experienced this at some point. you need to make a custom railing, but have no idea how the tools actually work.  You can draw it no problem in 2D, in ACAD, with your hand, but putting it in Revit seems like a daunting task for anything besides a simple railing.  Lets be honest, the railing tools in revit are rudimentary and don't lend themselves well to other designs that don't involve vertical pickets or horizontal bars. 

Another reason to copy/monitor

Just in case last week's post didn't convince you why you should copy/monitor grids from linked models instead of just creating your own, here is another reason.

Wrap text in view titles

Have a view title that is really long?  Is it longer than the view is wide?  Does it go out of the view's 'assigned' area on the sheet?  There is a way to wrap text in Revit!

Why Copy/Monitor Grids/Levels

A little tip for a commonly and sometimes overlooked step, and the repercussions it can have down the road.  This was something I always did when starting a new project, but as my experience working with different teams has developed, I have learned that not everyone does it.

At the beginning of your project, one of the first steps I always recommend and make my teams do (that is when I am in charge of a model) is to copy/monitor my grids and levels. (along with acquire coordinates from the linked model, but that is another post all together which I believe I have commented on in the past)

Strangeness

Strangeness... explain this to me if you can.  The grid on a curtain wall is of the 'wall' category, but the actual wall (mullions, panels, etc) are part of the curtainwall categories.

Void Sweep Productivity Tip

I can't claim any credit for this tip as it was passed on to me by a colleague, but I thought it was very good so I thought I would pass it on. 

When creating void sweeps most all of us have probably done it via some sort of rectalinear shape (the profile we wanted subtracted out of a rectangle, meaning the other sides have straight lines joined 90 degrees)  This means one line for the arc defining the void and four lines creating the “box.”  I know I have personally never seen it done any other way, and know that I never do it any other way.

Propegate Extents

You probably only encounter this issue at the beginning of a project when you are setting up your views and your sheets.  Ever run into the situation where you are configuring a sheet, moving the grids so everything fits then realize that you now have to do this for every other floor plan in the project?  If you said no then you are a liar.

Re-align origin for rotate command

A great feature when I have used a lot in the past.  When you select an object that you want to rotate and click on the rotate button in the Modify ribbon, you get a line that rotates around the center point.  Depending on the object or the family, that origin point that shows up by default could  be anywhere.  Sometimes it is near the object sometimes it is not.  Sometimes you have to search for it to find it.

Share tasks with other users

Do you use exchange server in your office?  Are you part of a team attempting to get a project done?  Use tasks in Outlook to keep track of who is doing what, what is done, and what needs to be done.

Set Default View Template

Included in the properties for each view is a field called 'Default View Template'.  You may (should) be using view templates in your project to control views, but did you know this parameter can be completely independent upon what is actually set in that particular view?

Horizontal Sections

Need to draw a horizontal section?  No, I'm not talking about a floor plan.  How about on your door details, or an interior elevation needing to cut a section through a jamb condition.

More uses of copy/paste

The previous post touched on how to do fireproofing, and the ability to copy linework from the editing command (in that case it was a revision cloud) and paste it back into your drawing as linework.  Here is another example of how you can use this ability.

Fireproofing on beams in sections

One major lacking feature of Revit is the inability to easily place fireproofing in sections.  Typically to increase the level of detail in a view, detail components are placed on top of model components.  The detail components then give a higher level of detail to the view, one with we are accustomed to seeing.

What do you do to place fireproofing around beams in the section views?

Use other view's settings...

I can't claim full credit for this post, because I ran across the idea on another blog hosted by The Revit Kid.  He talks about using a feature in the view templates dialogue box which allows you to use the settings of another view.   The added text below however is mine.

http://therevitkid.blogspot.com/search/label/revit%20view%20tempaltes

Quickly re-assign view templates to all views on a sheet

One of the drawbacks to view templates is that they do not automatically updates views when you change the settings.  It is common once you define a template and start working through a project to modify and tweek settings, but views you have already assigned the view template to are not changed. 

Applied ViewTemplate and Default View Template

A strong feature of Revit is the ability to add view templates to views, to unilaterally change the settings on a view to make it look like another.  Throughout the course of your project, you have probably set up several view templates for everything.  Plans, Elevations, Enlarged plans, sections, etc all have a template associated with them.  You can apply a view template as the default for the view, or separately from the view.

Saving to Central, it's a love/hate relationship

Save to central, that dreaded pop up that shows up at the most inconvenient times, and only when you click a button to do something else really important.  This is usually preceeded by a 'save locally' prompt which you choose to ignore (because whatever task you are trying to do is much more important than saving your work).  How important is it? Why does it pop up like that?

The power of Sub-Categories

Sometimes overlooked are the subcategories within each category.  Categories give you control over the visibility of objects in your views, but subcategories can take this even further.

Breaking and Squishing a Section

Ever have a giant section? Ever want to squish it  and only show the top and bottom, but don't care what is in between?  Well it is possible with Revit.  Usually by just breaking a section, you see the top, and you see the bottom, and a big space of white in between, not too practical if you want to put it on a sheet.

Visibility Settings in Families

One of my favorite ways to explain visibility settings:  "You can model a chair, have it show up in plan as a chair, front elevation as a smiley face, and side elevation as a frowny face".

How do you accomplish this? With visibility settings for lines as well as solid objects.  A simple yet powerful tool that can let you control exactly how something looks in every view that it will show up in, as well as with every detail level.  Here is a recent example, a fin tube grill in the top of a solid surface under a curtain wall.