Revit Wisdom

“If you keep in mind that there are no shortcuts in Revit, you will work on doing things right at first and not have to "fix" them later”

                                                 … Some dude on the internet.

A colleague of mine came across these words of wisdom in one of the forums years ago, when we first started implementing Revit into our office. We thought it was so true and effective in its message, it found its way onto the cover of our office Revit standards guide. 
I thought I would post it today, as I continue to reference it when trying to help those struggling with the step by step approach often needed when using Revit.  

Solid White Fill Region vs Masking Region

What is the difference between solid white filled regions and masking regions?

That's the question I asked myself a few days ago when I came across a solid white filled region on a project. So with a little trial and error and some forum research I have pulled up the following.

Firstly, filled regions: Usually used for fill or hatch patterns, be it a brick hatch or a simple diagonal line hatch. This is not always the case and sometimes we create solid hatches, greys, black’s and colour if the need arises. (You will notice I didn’t say white! We will come back to that).

Filled regions also allow us to change the colour of the pattern and we have the choice between an ‘opaque’ and ‘transparent’ filled region within the type properties.

When we export our Revit drawings, filled regions are exported as hatch patterns.

*Masking regions are always opaque, we cannot make them transparent and you can’t apply a fill pattern to them.

Most importantly, when exporting out of Revit, masking regions don't create solids. If your masking regions use invisible lines, then they won't even export. Any lines that cross the masking regions will not show, maintaining the graphic appearance of the view. Draw order also comes into play. elements must be sent behind the masking region to be cut. 

In short, I would recommend using these particular tools for their intended purpose to save you hassle later. Masking regions to mask objects & filled regions for patterns / hatches.


*This post was edited August 2015

Revit R2 Update - View Reference Search Missing

The recent Revit R2 update gave us the ability to quickly find the content you need by way of a new search feature in the Type Selector or in drop-down lists. It is also available when using the 'Reference other view' feature for callouts, sections & details. To use it you can click the Type Selector or a value field in the properties palette and enter keywords to search.

Interestingly though, this feature is not available when using the 'View Reference' tool. Another example of an unfinished tool? Fingers crossed its due for completion in coming updates!

Best Practices for Better Revit Performance

July issue of AUGI had an interesting article on Revit performance earlier this year. It recently popped up on Architizer website. Some useful tips, so if your looking to improve your Revit performance, here is the link. 

HP & Case took a look into Revit performance using HP's performance advisor tools & Case through the auditing of BIM models, these were the results. 

Link to AUGI

Exclusive Dimension Choice in Revit

I was dimensioning a recent project in Revit today and I was wishing away again. 

When dimensioning, in the options bar, we have the ability to prioritise our selection using the drop down menu. Our choices are; wall faces, wall centreline, faces of core, centre of core. 

This is only a priority selection though, not an exclusive one. I wish in the options bar next to the drop menu you could check to make that an exclusive selection, that way, no matter where you hover your cursor over the wall, you can only select that choice. 

I find it annoying that having chosen to dimension to 'face of core' that my cursor still picks up wall faces. When you have walls with layers of plasterboard and I am dimensioning setout, the layers of plasterboard are of no concern to me. It is the framing that I am interested in. I just think this would be a nice feature to improve productivity and reduce error. Less zooming & my middle mouse wheel would last longer too! 

A trip to AUGI wish list is in order!  

Browser Sorting, View Templates & Dependent Views.

*Updated 19th September, 2017. 
The following issue has been resolved after testing in Revit 2018.1. 

In Revit 2015, I have a view list sorted by a custom parameter we use for our Project browser sorting. All the views are sorted by there intended sheet series. ie: 100 Series Plans, 200 Series RCP etc etc. 

Some of the plans have dependent views. (We'll come back to this point shortly)

The other day I went through the process of renaming the 'sorting parameter' due to project scope changing. Fairly simple process as most views have view templates so I simply updated the parameter and all the views reconfigured themselves under the correct browser sorting names. ie: '100 Series Plans' changed to '1000 Series GA Plans'

BUT... when i went to the schedule view list which sorts by this parameter, I noticed some views were still using previous sorting names. eg: '100 Series Plans' was still being used by some views, even though the heading did not appear in the Project browser! I realised the culprit views were infact the dependent views! 

The parent view had the correct sorting name displayed as assigned by the view template, but this did not update the dependent views.

Parent View - Correct!                                      Dependent View -  Incorrect! 

This seems to occur because the dependent views were created after a view template was assigned to the parent view. Therefore the dependent view takes the same information. If you create a dependent view first, then assign the view template to the parent view, the dependent view doesn't update the sorting parameter.

This is quirky little thing, but there is a problem because the only way it appears you can fix this is to remove the view template from the dependent view, then manually update the parameter to the correct sorting title information, then reapply the view template. This is the only way I have managed to rectify what my schedule view list is displaying and to truly remove the old sorting names from the project. 

I'll keep you posted if I find a solution! 

Revit: Display Model (Can't believe it's not butter)

I discovered something today that has been starting me in the face this whole time & I never saw it. 

I was reading a post on a forum and noticed mention of the 'Display Model' parameter as a solution to the individuals problem. This is a graphics property that is available for most views. I asked myself, what is that? So I went to investigate. 
I created a 1:10 callout of the model I was working on and added some detail components. I then went to the properties of the view and changed the 'Display Model' property to 'Half tone'! That's when I had my moment. 

"No Way!" I felt like a kid with a new toy! 

I have been mimicking this property behaviour via use of a filter for a while now. This has worked fine, but this property is so much easier! You can turn off the model completely too when you are finished overlaying 2D detail, by selecting 'Do not display' leaving only datum objects, such as levels and grids and my detail items. Fantastic! Detailing just got even better!