Revit Architecture 2010

User's Guide

March 2009
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Contents

Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Network Deployment Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Standalone Licensing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Network License Server Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Install the Network License Manager Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Obtain Host Name ID Using LMTools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Obtain a Network License File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Set Up the Network License File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Configure the Network License Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Combining Network License Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Distributed License Server Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Redundant License Server Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Network License Client Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Licensing from Previous Versions of Revit Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Network License Cascading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
License Server Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Licensing Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
License Transferring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
License Borrowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Using Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Autodesk Training Programs and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Memory Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 GB Feature Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Enabling the 3 GB Feature on 32-Bit Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Verifying Virtual Memory Allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Start a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Set Up the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Create the Site Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

v
 Build the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Design the Preliminary Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Perform a Massing Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Add Levels and Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Use DWG and Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Add Basic Building Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
View the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Add More Elements to the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Stairs and Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Rooms and Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Refine the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Refine/Replace Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Manage the Relationships of Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Collaborate with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Add Team Members to the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Break Up the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Work on Part of the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Share the Model with Other Disciplines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Issue the Design to Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Document the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Create Drawings of the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Create View References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Adjust the Graphics in a Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Plan the Sheet Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Annotate the Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Add Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Add Text and Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Add Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Create Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Door Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Window Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Room Finish Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Add Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Add Detail Lines and Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Create Drafted Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Use a Detail Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Add Keynotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Refine Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Publish Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Print Views and Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Generate DWF or PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Track Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Present the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Create Renderings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Create a Walkthrough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 3 What's New? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

New in Revit 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
User Interface Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Learning Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
InfoCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Improved Spell Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Conceptual Design Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Form Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Drawing Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

vi | Contents
 Divide and Pattern Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Integrating the Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Interoperability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Exporting Building Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Project Base Points and Survey Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Importing Building Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Publishing Content to the Autodesk® Seek Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Export to gbXML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Worksharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Create New Local . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Set Default Worksets to Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Visibility and Graphics Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Details and Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Macros Development with Revit VSTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
New in Revit 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Rendering Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Rendering Workflow Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Render Appearance Enhancements for Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Lighting Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Plant and Entourage Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Decal Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Enhancements for Export to 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Migrating to Revit Architecture 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
What's Changed for Rendering? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Navigating 2D and 3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Dynamic View Tools in ViewCube and SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Project Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Conceptual Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Project Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Project Phasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Visibility and Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Rooms and Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Rooms in Section Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Room Volume Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Building Pads Are Room-Bounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Room Boundaries in Linked Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Tag Enhancements for Rooms and Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Unplace and Place Rooms and Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Color Fill in Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Modelling Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Preventing a Join on a Mid-End Wall Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Slope a Building Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Beam Cutback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Slab Shape Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Sketching and Snapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Details and Annotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Text Note Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Editing Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Revisions and Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Linked Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Interoperability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Worksharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Contents | vii
Chapter 4 Revit Essentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Using the Revit Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Parts of the Revit Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Ribbon Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Application Frame Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Using the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Keytips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Drawing Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Options Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Type Selector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
View Control Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
InfoCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Autodesk ® Seek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Opening Revit Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Opening a Revit Project File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Opening Families and Training Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Opening Files from the Conceptual Design Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Opening Files from the Web Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Opening Revit Files from Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Saving Revit Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Saving a File with a Different Name or Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Save Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Setting Save Reminders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Backup and Journal Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Refreshing the Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
What Is a Project? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Before You Begin a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Starting a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Starting a New Project Using Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Starting a New Project Using a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Building with Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Categories, Families, and Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Element Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Revit Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Chapter 5 Project Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Plan Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Creating a Plan View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Creating a Reflected Ceiling Plan View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Cutting a Plan View by the Back Clip Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Plan View Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Displaying a Plan View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Plan Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Creating a Plan Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Controlling Visibility of Plan Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Elevation Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Creating an Elevation View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Displaying an Elevation View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Changing the Elevation Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Changing the Clip Plane in an Elevation View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Cutting an Elevation, Section, or Callout View by the Far Clip Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Reference Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Placing a Reference Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Framing Elevation Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

viii | Contents
 Creating a Framing Elevation View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Elevation View Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Modifying Elevation Symbol Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Section Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Creating a Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Section Tag Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Breaking Section Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Controlling the Line Style of Broken Section Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Controlling Section View Width and Depth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Segmented Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Segmenting a Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Merging Segmented Section Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Reference Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Hiding the Section Annotation Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Displaying a Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Section Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Starting a Section Head Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Setting Parameters for the Section Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Changing the Section Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Tip for Creating a Section Head Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Section View Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Modifying Section View Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Callout Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Callouts Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Callout Tag Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Callout Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Callouts and Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Creating a Callout View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Opening a Callout View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Modifying a Callout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Changing the Callout Tag for a Callout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Changing the Boundaries of a Callout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Adjusting the Callout Leader Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Callout Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Creating a Callout Head Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Creating a Callout Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Changing Display Properties for Callout Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Visibility of Callouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Reference Callouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Reference Callouts Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Creating a Reference Callout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Changing the Reference Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Modifying Callout Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
3D Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Creating a Perspective 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Creating an Orthographic 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Specifying the Background for a 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Using a Section Box in a 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Rotating a 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Displaying a 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Specifying Camera Position in a 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Modifying the Camera Position in a Perspective 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Turning Off the Camera in a 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
3D View Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Walkthrough Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Creating a Walkthrough Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Editing a Walkthrough Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Editing Walkthrough Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Controlling Walkthrough Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Exporting a Walkthrough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Contents | ix
 Legend Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Creating a Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Dimensioning Legend Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Placing Components from a Legend into a Project View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Modifying Legend Component Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Schedule Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Creating a Schedule or Quantity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Key Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Creating a Key Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Applying a Key to an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Applying the Key to a Component Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Material Takeoff Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Creating a Material Takeoff Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Annotation Schedules (Note Blocks) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Creating an Annotation Schedule (Note Block) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Specifying Schedule Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Selecting Fields for a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Limiting Data Presented in a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Sorting Fields in a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Adding Grand Totals to a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Adding Column Totals to a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Formatting a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Applying a Phase to a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Modifying Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Editing Cells in a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Grouping Column Headings in a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Hiding Schedule Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Deleting Schedule Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Reusing Schedule Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Saving Schedule Views to an External Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Inserting Schedule Views from Another Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Foundation Footings Schedule Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Exporting a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Duplicate Dependent Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Creating Dependent Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Adding Matchlines for Dependent Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Adding a Matchline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Modifying a Matchline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Matchline Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Navigating Primary and Dependent Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Propagating Dependent View Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Making a Dependent View Independent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Deleting Dependent Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Visibility and Graphic Display in Project Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Overview of Visibility and Graphic Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Overriding Visibility and Graphic Display of Individual Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Overriding Graphic Display of Element Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Removing Graphic Display Overrides for Element Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Specifying Element Category Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Applying Transparency to Faces of Model Element Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Creating a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Applying a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Modifying Filter Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Modifying Filter Visibility and Graphics Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Hiding Elements in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Hiding Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Revealing and Unhiding Hidden Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Temporarily Hiding or Isolating Elements or Element Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Overriding Individual Lines in an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

x | Contents
 Overriding Host Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Override Cut Line Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Crop Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Cropping a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Showing or Hiding Crop Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Resizing Crop Regions Graphically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Resizing Crop Regions Explicitly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Rotating Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Rotating a Section View or Scope Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Rotating a Viewport on a Sheet View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Rotating a View by the Crop Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Navigating Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Overview of the ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Displaying the ViewCube Compass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
ViewCube Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Show or Hide the ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Reorient the View of a Model with the ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Navigation Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Navigation Bar Customize Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Overview of Steering Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Wheel Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Navigation Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Saving a 3D View Orientation as a Project View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
View Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Zooming Project Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Maintaining Line Thickness when Zooming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
View Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Detail Levels and Display of Structural Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Display of Hidden Lines of Structural Concrete Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Showing Hidden Element Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Section, Elevation, and Callout View Tag Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Editing Type Properties for View Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Selecting View Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Hiding Elevation Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Callout Tag Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Elevation Tag Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Section Tag Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
View Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Modifying the View Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
View Range Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Model Graphics Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Specifying a Model Graphics Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Setting up Shadow Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Applying or Removing a Line Style for a Silhouette Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Finding Referring Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Finding a View Symbol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Managing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Customizing Project View Organization in the Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Sorting Views or Sheets in the Project Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Creating a Project Browser Sort Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Editing a Project Browser Sort Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Adding a Filter to a Project Browser Sort Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Editing a Project Browser Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Using View Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Creating a View List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Adding a View List to a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Renaming Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
View Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Contents | xi
Chapter 6 Using Dimensions and Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Temporary Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Showing Temporary Dimensions When Multiple Elements are Selected . . . . . . . . . . 264
Changing Temporary Dimensions to Permanent Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Permanent Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Placing Permanent Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Locking Permanent Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Overriding Dimension Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Replacing Permanent Dimension Values with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Creating Custom Dimension Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Dimensioning to Core in Compound Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Spot Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Spot Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Spot Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Spot Slopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Listening Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Dimension Witness Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Moving the Witness Line for Temporary Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Moving the Witness Line for Permanent Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Controlling Witness Line Gaps for Permanent Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Adding Witness Lines to a Permanent Dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Deleting Witness Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Modifying Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Changing a Dimension Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Moving Dimension Line Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Changing the Dimension Line Tick Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Controlling the Display Behavior of Dimension Arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Rotating Spot Coordinates and Spot Elevations with Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Dimension Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Modifying Permanent or Spot Dimension Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Permanent Dimension Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Permanent Dimension Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Spot Elevation Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Spot Elevation Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Spot Coordinate Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Spot Coordinate Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Spot Slope Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Spot Slope Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Applying Constraints with Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Equality Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Applying an Equality Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Changing the EQ Label to the Dimension Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Controlling Visibility of Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Removing Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Constraints and Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Chapter 7 Sketching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Sketching Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Sketching Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Sketching a Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Sketching a Rectangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Sketching a Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Sketching an Inscribed Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Sketching a Circumscribed Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Sketching Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Sketching a Start-End-Radius Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

xii | Contents
 Sketching an Arc from the Center and End Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Sketching a Tangent Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Sketching a Fillet Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Sketching Ellipses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Sketching a Full Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Sketching a Partial Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Resizing an Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Rotating an Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Sketching a Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Best Practices for Sketching a Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Closing an Open Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Modifying Sketched Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Sketching and Work Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Setting the Work Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Making the Work Plane Visible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Modifying Work Plane Grid Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Rotating a Work Plane Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Elements Associated with Work Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Changing the Work Plane of an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Disassociating an Element from a Work Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Creating a Work Plane-based Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Flip Control for Work Plane-based Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Creating Solid and Void Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Creating an Extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Editing an Extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Extrusion Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Creating a Blend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Editing a Blend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Creating a Revolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Editing a Revolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Creating a Sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
Creating a Segmented Sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Editing a Sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Sweep Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Creating a Swept Blend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Editing a Swept Blend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Cut Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
UnCut Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Creating 2D Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Adding a Reference Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Chapter 8 Editing Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Selecting Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Basics for Selecting Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Selecting Multiple Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
How Many Elements Are Selected? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Selecting Elements Using a Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Selecting Chains of Walls and Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Selecting Part of a Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Modifying a Selected Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Selecting Walls or Lines Joined at a Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Selecting Multiple Curtain Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Restoring a Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Removing Elements from a Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Controls and Shape Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Drag Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Flip Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Pushpin Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Rotate Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Contents | xiii
 Dimension Text Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
View Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Spacebar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Shape Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Undoing, Redoing, or Canceling an Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Undoing an Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Redoing an Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Canceling an Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Editing Elements in Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Creating Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Creating a Group by Selecting Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Creating a Group Using the Group Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Creating an Attached Detail Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Duplicating Group Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Loading Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Placing Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Specifying the Position of a Group by its Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Modifying Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Adding or Removing Elements in a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Excluding Elements from a Group Instance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Editing a Group Externally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Renaming a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Showing/Hiding Attached Detail Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Detaching an Attached Detail Group from a Model Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Swapping Out Group Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Specifying Height for Model Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Draw Order for Elements in Detail Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Converting Groups and Linked Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Converting Groups to Linked Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Converting Linked Revit Models to Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Saving Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Deleting Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Group Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Using Arrays of Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Creating an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Creating a Linear Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Creating a Radial Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Copying an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Deleting Members from an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Changing an Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Moving Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Moving Elements by Dragging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Moving Elements with Arrow Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Moving Elements with the Move Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Moving Elements with the Offset Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Moving Elements with Cut-and-Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Moving End-joined Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Moving Lines and Components with Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Aligning Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Rotating Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Flipping Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Mirroring Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Preventing Elements from Moving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Using Pins to Lock Elements in Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Unpinning Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Resizing Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Resizing Elements with Shape Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Resizing Graphically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Resizing Numerically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Resizing Elements with Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

xiv | Contents
 Using Formulas for Numerical Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Valid Formula Syntax and Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Conditional Statements in Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Trimming and Extending Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Copying Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Copying Elements with the Copy Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Copying Elements to the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Pasting Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Pasting Elements from the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Editing Pasted Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Pasting Aligned Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Copying Elements with the Create Similar Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Modifying Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Changing Component Types Using the Match Type Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Changing the Line Style of Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Linework Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Using the Linework Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Changing Line Styles in a Linked Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Changing the Line Style of a Projection Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Changing Line Styles for a View Underlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Using Hidden Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Using Linework for Coincident Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Changing the Cut Profile of Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Measuring Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Joining Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
Unjoining Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Splitting Walls and Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Splitting Walls Horizontally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Splitting Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Applying a Material to the Face of an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Deleting Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Chapter 9 Revit Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Families Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Different Kinds of Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Family Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Opening the Family Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
The Families Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Working with Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Viewing Families in a Project or Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Viewing Elements with a Specific Family Type in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Creating an Element from a Family Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Changing the Family Type of an Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Modifying a Family Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Adding a Type to a Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Deleting Unused Families and Family Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
System Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Revit System Families and Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Workflow: Using System Families in Your Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Loading System Family Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Loadable Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Revit Architecture Standard Loadable Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Workflow: Using Loadable Families in Your Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Working with Modern Medium Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Loading and Saving Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Loading Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Loading Families with Shared Components into a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Loading a Family with a Type Catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Loading the Current Family into a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Contents | xv
 Saving Loaded Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Reloading a Family into a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Creating Loadable Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Modifying Families in a Project (or Nested Family) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Creating Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Creating Family Parameter Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
Family Category and Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
Working with Shared Components in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
In-Place Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
Workflow: Working with In-place Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Creating an In-Place Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Working with Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Placing a Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Selecting a Primary Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Orienting a Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
Linking Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Unlinking Connectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Deleting a Connector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Connector Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Chapter 10 Customizing Project Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Creating a Custom Project Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Creating a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Project Template Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Transferring Project Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Specifying Project Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Specifying Energy Analysis (gbXML) Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Project Location and Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Specifying the Project Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Rotating a View to True North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Rotating Project North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Custom Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450
Shared Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Categories Allowing Shared Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Setting Up Shared Parameter Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
Adding Shared Parameters to Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454
Shared and Family Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Exporting Shared Parameters to a Shared Parameter File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Tagging with Shared Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
Schedules with Shared Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Project Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Creating Project Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Creating Shared Project Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Fill Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Creating a Simple Fill Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Fill Pattern Host Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Creating a Custom Fill Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462
Applying a Fill Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Deleting a Fill Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Editing a Fill Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Working with Model Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Moving Model Pattern Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Creating Dimensions to Model Pattern Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Rotating a Model Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Aligning Model Pattern Lines to Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Custom Pattern Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Pattern File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466
Creating a Custom Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

xvi | Contents
Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Materials Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
How Materials Are Stored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Searching for a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
Applying Materials to Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Applying a Material by Category or Subcategory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Applying a Material by Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471
Applying a Material by Element Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472
Changing the Display Properties of a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Aligning the Surface Pattern on a Model Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
Changing the Render Appearance of a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
Texture Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477
Render Appearance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
Specifying a Render Appearance Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Specifying an Image File for a Render Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
Best Practices for Render Appearances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486
Changing Material Identity Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Adding a Material Class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Material Identity Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Changing Material Physical Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Creating a Material Physical Parameter Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Editing a Material Physical Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Material Physical Type Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Creating a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
Renaming a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Deleting a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490
Render Appearance Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Searching for a Render Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
Entering Search Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Object Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Creating Object Style Subcategories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Modifying Object Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
Deleting an Object Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Renaming an Object Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Line Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Creating a Line Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Deleting a Line Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Modifying Line Styles in the Family Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Line Weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Specifying Line Weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Adding Scales to Model Line Weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Deleting Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
Line Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Creating a Line Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Editing a Line Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Deleting a Line Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
Halftone/Underlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Structural Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Structural Settings Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Symbolic Representation Settings Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497
Annotation Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Specifying Arrowhead Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Specifying Text Note Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500
Specifying Dimension Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Loading Tag Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Specifying the Default Tag for an Element Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Project Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Setting Project Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Changing Decimal Display and Digit Grouping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Contents | xvii
 Setting Snap Increments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Enabling and Disabling Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Temporarily Overriding Snap Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Snap Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504
Object Snaps and Snap Shortcut Key Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506
Specifying Temporary Dimension Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
View Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Creating a View Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Specifying and Applying a Default View Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Applying a View Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Applying a View Template to All Views on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
Deleting a View Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
View Template Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Detail Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511
Setting Detail Level Scale Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Specifying the Detail Level for a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Managing Family Visibility and Detail Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Setting Family Geometry Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Cuttable Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
Non-Cuttable Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Setting Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
General Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516
Graphics Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
File Location Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
Rendering Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
Spelling Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
SteeringWheels Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
ViewCube Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522
Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Keyboard Accelerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Using the Windows Color Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Using the PANTONE Color Picker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

Chapter 11 Conceptual Design Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Conceptual Design Environment Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Exploring Conceptual Designs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Early Conceptual Study Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528
Integrated Study Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Intelligent Sub-Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Conceptual Design Environment Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529
Conceptual Massing Family Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
Switching between Conceptual Design and Project Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
Moving Loadable Massing Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Editing Loadable Massing Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Moving In-Place Massing Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
Editing In-Place Massing Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
Template Files for the Conceptual Design Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
Drawing in the Conceptual Design Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Drawing Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
3D Snapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
Drawing on a Planar Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
Conceptual Design Model Line Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535
3D Work Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
Setting and Showing Work Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
3D Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
Creating 3D Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

xviii | Contents
 Changing the Height Between 3D Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Changing 3D Level Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Changing 3D Level Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
Explicitly Changing the 3D Level Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
Switching between a 3D Level and its Corresponding View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
3D Level Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
3D Level Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
3D Level Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
3D Reference Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Free Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540
Hosted Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
Driving Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
Plotting Lines from Reference Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Modifying Reference Point Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
X-Ray Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Accessing X-Ray Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
Display of Elements in X-Ray Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548
Manipulating Forms in X-Ray Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Locked Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
Locking and Unlocking Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550
Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Solid and Void Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551
Creating Solid Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
Creating Void Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Accessing Create Form Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553
Unconstrained and Referenced-Based Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Converting Reference-based Forms to Unconstrained Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554
Selecting Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555
Form Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Surface Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Extrusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556
Revolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
Sweeps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
Lofts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Modifying Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
Adding Elements to a Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
Deleting Form Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Rehosting Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Dimensioning Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563
Loose-Labeled Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Labeling Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Associating Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564
Displaying Parameter Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Removing Parameter Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Locking Loose-Labeled Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Referencing Imported Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Conceptual Design Environment Model Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Manipulating Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566
Coordinate Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Manipulating Joined Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
Rationalizing Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Dividing a Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Understanding UV Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Enabling and Disabling UV Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570
Modifying the Spacing of UV Grids on Divided Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
Adjusting UV Grids with the Face Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
Rotating UV Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Adjusting UV Grid Belts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

Contents | xix
 Justifying UV Grids to the Surface Borders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
Patterning Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Editing the Patterned Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Pattern Component Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
Creating New Pattern Component Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
The Pattern Component Family Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
Selecting the Tile Pattern Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Drawing Component Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Loading a Pattern Component Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
Applying a Pattern Component Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
Modifying the Pattern Component Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582
Surface Representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Pattern Element Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Pattern Element Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Pattern Element Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
Conceptual Design Environment Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

Chapter 12 Massing Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Massing Studies Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590
Massing Studies and Building Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590
Creating a Mass Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Creating an In-Place Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Creating a Mass Family Outside of a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591
Mass Instance Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
Placing a Mass Instance from a Mass Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
Using Multiple Mass Instances in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
Joining Mass Instances in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
Overlapping Mass Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Mass Instances in Design Options, Phases, and Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Analyzing a Conceptual Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
Mass Floors Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594
Mass Floors at the Top of a Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Mass Floors at the Bottom of a Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
Creating Mass Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
Selecting Mass Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
Creating a Mass Floor Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
Tagging Mass Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
Assigning a Usage to a Mass Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
Examples of Conceptual Design Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
Area Analysis Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601
Analysis Example for Exterior Surface Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
Perimeter Analysis Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Volume Analysis Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609
Mass Floor Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Modifying Mass Floor Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Mass Floor Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Troubleshooting Mass Floors and Conceptual Design Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Cannot See the Mass in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Cannot See Mass Floors in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Cannot Select or Tag a Mass Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Exterior Surface Area Is Too Large . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Exterior Surface Area Is Too Small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Gross Floor Area Is Not Available for a Mass Floor Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Mass Gross Surface Area Is Too Small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614
Creating Building Elements from Mass Instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
Creating Walls from Mass Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
Creating Floors from Mass Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
Creating Floors Using the Floor by Face Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
Creating Curtain Systems from Mass Instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

xx | Contents
 Creating Curtain Systems by Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619
Curtain Systems on NURB Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Creating Roofs from Mass Instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
Creating Roofs Using the Roof by Face Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 622
Extending the Roof Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
Roofs on NURB Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
Updating Face Selections for Roofs and Curtain Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Updating Face-Based Host Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625
Selecting Face-Based Hosts from a Mass Instance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626
Controlling Visibility of Mass Instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626
Importing Massing Studies from Other Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626
Considerations for Imported Geometry in Mass or Generic Model Families . . . . . . . . . . . 626
Best Practices When Importing Masses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
Importing a Design to a Mass Family Outside a Revit Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627
Importing a Design as an In-Place Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629
Example of Importing a Massing Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630
Printing Mass Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

Chapter 13 Architectural Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
Adding Interior and Exterior Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634
Exterior/Interior Wall Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
Adding Retaining Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636
Arc Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636
Adding Arc Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
Resizing Arc Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
Cutting Openings in Arc Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
Embedded Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
Embedding a Wall into Another Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
Separating Embedded Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Vertically Compound Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
Accessing Vertically Compound Wall Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640
Sample Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
Modify Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
Split Region Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
Merge Regions Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643
Assign Layers Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644
Layer Assignment Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644
Sweeps and Reveals Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
Vertically Stacked Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647
Defining the Stacked Wall Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647
Breaking Up a Vertically Stacked Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
Vertically Stacked Wall Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
Attaching Walls to Other Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
Detaching Walls from Other Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
Detaching Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
Wall Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
Editing Wall Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653
Editing Complex Wall Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654
Changing the Order of a Wall Join . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654
Cleaning Wall Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655
Joining Parallel Walls that Contain Inserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
Creating Walls with Mid-End Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657
Joining Walls to Mid-End Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658
Preventing Wall Ends from Joining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
Preventing a Join on a Mid-End Wall Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660
Aligning Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Splitting Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Sketching Wall Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

Contents | xxi
 Defining Wall Shapes or Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662
Wall Sweeps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
Adding Wall Sweeps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
Changing the Wall Sweep Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Returning Wall Sweeps Back to the Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665
Changing the Wall Sweep Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Adding or Removing Segments from a Wall Sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Resizing Unconnected Wall Sweeps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
Dimensioning to a Wall Sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Changing a Wall Sweep’s Horizontal or Vertical Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Wall Sweep Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667
Wall Reveals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Adding a Wall Reveal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670
Adding or Removing Segments from a Wall Reveal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
Changing the Wall Reveal Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
Moving Wall Reveals Away from or Towards the Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
Changing the Wall Reveal Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
Wall Reveal Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671
Modifying Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Changing Wall Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Wall Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672
Wall Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673
Wall Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674
Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
Adding a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675
Adding a Roof by Footprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676
Adding a Roof by Extrusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678
Adding Sloped Glazing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 680
Joining and Unjoining Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
Joining Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
Unjoining Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681
Tips for Joining Roofs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
Modifying a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
Changing the Roof Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682
Editing a Roof Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Resizing a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Roof Ridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683
Roof Slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684
Roof Slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
Slope Arrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685
Eaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686
Creating a Plumb Cut, Two-Cut Plumb, or Two-Cut Square Eave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687
Eaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
Dormers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
Creating a Dormer Using Slope Arrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688
Creating a Dormer Opening in a Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689
Fascia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691
Adding Roof Fascia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691
Resizing or Flipping Roof Fascias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692
Adding or Removing Segments of the Fascia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 692
Changing Mitering Options for Roof Fascia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
Changing Horizontal and Vertical Offset of Roof Fascia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
Roof Soffits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 694
Adding Roof Soffits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
Roof Soffit Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
Roof Gutters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697
Adding Roof Gutters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698
Resizing or Flipping Roof Gutters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Adding or Removing Segments of the Gutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699
Changing Horizontal and Vertical Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699

xxii | Contents
 Roof Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
Roof with Intersecting Slope Lines at Different Heights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700
Four-Sided Gable Roof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701
Roof Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
Modifying Roof Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
Roof Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
Roof Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704
Roof Boundary Line Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706
Roof Fascia and Gutter Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
Roof Fascia and Gutter Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
Roof Slope Arrow Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708
Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709
Adding Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709
Changing the Floor Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710
Editing a Floor Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710
Sloped Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710
Creating a Sloped Floor by Sketching a Slope Arrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710
Creating a Sloped Floor by Setting Parallel Sketch Line Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
Creating a Sloped Floor by Setting Single Sketch Line Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
Floor Slab Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
Resizing or Flipping Slabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
Adding or Removing Segments of the Slab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712
Changing Horizontal and Vertical Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Floor Slab Edge Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Multi-layer Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
Floor Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
Modifying Floor Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
Modifying Floor Sketch Line or Slope Arrow Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714
Floor Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
Floor Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716
Floor Sketch Line Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717
Floor Slope Arrow Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
Ceilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
Creating Automatic Ceilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
Sketching a Ceiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719
Sloped Ceilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720
Modifying Ceilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Changing Ceiling Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Creating a New Ceiling Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Applying a Surface Pattern to a Ceiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721
Editing a Ceiling Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Ceiling Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Modifying Ceiling Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Ceiling Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722
Ceiling Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
Ceiling Sketch Line Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
Ceiling Slope Arrow Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Cutting Rectangular Openings in Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
Cutting Openings in Floors, Roofs, and Ceilings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
Cutting Shaft Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728
Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728
Creating Stairs by Sketching Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729
Creating Stairs by Sketching Boundary and Riser Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730
Creating a Run of Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
Creating Spiral Staircases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732
Creating Arced Landings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733
Specifying the Railing Type for New Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
Stair Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734
Using the Stair Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735

Contents | xxiii
 Rule-of-Thumb Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Modifying Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Boundaries and Riser and Run Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Modifying Stair Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 735
Moving Stair Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
Changing the Stair Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
Zero Tread Thickness for Monolithic Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737
Stair Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
Modifying Stair Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
Stair Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
Stair Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741
Ramps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
Adding a Ramp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742
Specifying the Railing Type for New Ramps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
Changing the Ramp Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
Editing a Ramp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743
Ramp Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744
Modifying Ramp Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744
Ramp Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744
Ramp Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745
Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
Adding a Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746
Changing the Railing Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
Modifying Railing Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
Modifying Railing Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Modifying Railing Height and Slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748
Controlling Placement of Balusters and Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Creating a Custom Baluster Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749
Overriding the Main Baluster Pattern for Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Baluster Pattern Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
Specifying Start, Corner, and End Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752
Post Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
Deleting Balusters and Posts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
Railing Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
Modifying Railing Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
Railing Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754
Railing Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756
Architectural Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756
Adding a Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757
Attaching Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757
Cut Column Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758
Cut Target Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
Detaching Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763
Coarse-Scale Cut Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 763
Modifying Architectural Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
Changing Column Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
Moving a Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
Architectural Column Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
Modifying Architectural Column Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
Architectural Column Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764
Architectural Column Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765
Curtain Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766
Curtain Walls, Curtain Grids, and Mullions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766
Creating Rectangular Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768
Non-Rectangular Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769
Adding Curtain Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770
Selectively Placing Curtain Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771
Type-Driven Curtain Element Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772
Mullions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775
Changing the Orientation of Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779

xxiv | Contents
 Wall Panels in Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779
Modifying Curtain Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 781
Curtain Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785
Curtain Systems by Face . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
Adding Curtain Grids to a Curtain System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
Adding Mullions to a Curtain System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
Curtain Element Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
Curtain Wall Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
Common Mullion Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Circular Mullion Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Rectangular Mullion Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
Corner Mullion Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792
Mullion Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793
Model Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793
Adding Model Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
Editing Model Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
Moving Model Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
Model Text Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794
Modifying Model Text Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
Model Text Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
Model Text Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796
Hosted Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796
Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 797
Adding Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
Door Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
Changing the Door Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798
Modifying the Door Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799
Door Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 799
Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802
Adding Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802
Window Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802
Changing the Window Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
Modifying the Window Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
Window Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803
Model Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
Adding Model Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
Modifying Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807
Model Line Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808
Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809
Work Plane-based and Face-based Component Placement Options . . . . . . . . . . . . 810
Rehosting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Rehosting Doors and Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 811
Rehosting Work Plane-based and Face-based Elements and Components . . . . . . . . . 812
Rehosting Level-based Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 812
Compound Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
Materials in Compound Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
Layer Join Cleanup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
Applying a Function to a Layer of a Compound Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813
Inserting Layers into a Compound Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815
Layer Wrapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815
Setting Layer Wrapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816
Previewing the Compound Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816
Layers as References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 816
Compound Walls Joined to Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817
Editing Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817
Flipping Orientation of Compound Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817
Uniformat Assembly Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 818

Chapter 14 Structural Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819

Contents | xxv
 Structural Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819
Starting a Project with the Structural Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819
Loading Structural Component Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 819
Loading Structural Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820
Loading in the Instance Properties Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820
Dragging from Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820
Structural Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 820
Creating a Structural Column Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
Starting a Structural Column Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822
Specifying How a Structural Column Displays in Plan View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
Structural Column Family Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824
Placing a Vertical Structural Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825
Placing Multiple Columns by Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827
Locking Columns to a Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828
Adding Structural Columns Inside Architectural Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829
Modifying Structural Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830
Modifying Slanted Structural Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830
Modifying the Slant of Placed Structural Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 832
Adding a Splice Symbol or Plate Symbol to a Steel Structural Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834
Structural Column Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834
Structural Column Type Properties - Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834
Structural Column Type Properties - Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836
Structural Column Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 836
Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840
Structural Usage of Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 842
Beam Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843
Creating Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843
Sketching Individual Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843
Using the Grid Tool to Place Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844
Sketching Beams with the Chain Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 847
Sloped Beam Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848
3D Snapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848
Editing Beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849
Beam Graphical Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849
Beam Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850
Changing Beam Geometry Using Shape Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851
Moment Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 852
Beam Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853
Structural Framing Tag Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853
Beam Annotations Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853
Beam Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857
Modifying Beam Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858
Beam Type Properties - Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858
Beam Type Properties - Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859
Beam Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860
Joins and Cutback on Framing Elements and Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863
Bounding Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863
Beam to Column Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 864
Cutback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 865
Bounding Box Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866
Modifying Beam Instance (Medium/Fine Level of Detail) Cutback . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867
Beam to Beam Cutback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867
Beam to Column Cutback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868
Beam to Wall Cutback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869
Column Cutback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 869
Beam Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870
Square-off Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870
Miter Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 871
Adjusting Cutback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872
Creating a Miter Join . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873

xxvi | Contents
Beam Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 874
Creating a One-Click Beam System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875
Creating a Structural Beam System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876
Defining the Boundary of a Structural Beam System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 876
Specifying Beam Direction in a Beam System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883
Beam System Layout Rules and Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 884
Creating a Cantilevered Beam System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885
Creating a 3D Beam System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 886
Tagging Beam Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888
Tagging Beam Systems on Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888
Resetting Structural Beam Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889
Modifying a Beam System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891
Modifying Beam System Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891
Beam System Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892
Beam System Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892
Braces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893
Loading Structural Braces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 894
Adding Structural Braces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 895
Modifying Braces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 896
Controlling Brace Attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 896
Brace Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 898
Steel Brace Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 898
Steel Brace Instance Properties (When Attached to a Beam) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899
Brace Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 901
Openings in a Structural Beam, Brace, or Structural Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 904
Structural Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906
Creating a Structural Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907
Modifying Structural Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908
Modifying Structural Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908
Defining Structural Wall Shapes or Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 908
Arc Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 911
Structural Wall Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 912
Structural Wall Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 912
Structural Wall Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 913
Wall Foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915
Creating a Wall Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915
Modifying Wall Foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 918
Default End Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919
Doors and Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 920
Wall Foundation Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 920
Modifying Wall Foundation Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 920
Wall Foundation Type Properties - Retaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 921
Wall Foundation Type Properties - Bearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 922
Wall Foundation Instance Properties - Retaining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923
Wall Foundation Instance Properties - Bearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 924
Isolated Foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 925
Adding Isolated Foundations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 926
Isolated Foundation Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 927
Modifying Isolated Foundation Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 927
Isolated Foundation Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 927
Isolated Foundation Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 928
Structural Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 929
Adding a Structural Floor or Deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 930
Span Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932
Sloped Structural Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933
Cutting Openings in Structural Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 934
Drop Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935
Modifying Structural Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937
Structural Floor Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938
Foundation Slabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 940

Contents | xxvii
 Adding Foundation Slabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 941
Foundation Slab Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 942
Shape Editing for Structural Floors, Roofs and Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 944
Using the Modify Sub Elements Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946
Using the Add Point Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 946
Using the Add Split Line Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 947
Using the Pick Supports Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 948
Using the Curved Edge Condition Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 948
Using the Reset Shape Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949
Deleting Shape Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 949
Variable Layer Thickness for Roofs and Structural Floors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 950
Structural Component Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951

Chapter 15 Site Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953

Site Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953
Defining Site Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 953
Site Settings Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 955
Toposurfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 955
Creating a Toposurface by Picking Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 956
Creating a Toposurface from Imported 3D Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 956
Creating a Toposurface from a Points File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 957
Simplifying a Toposurface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 958
Toposurface Subregions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 958
Splitting a Toposurface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 959
Merging Toposurfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 960
Graded Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 960
Toposurface and Subregion Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 961
Property Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 962
Sketching Property Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 962
Converting Sketched Property Lines to Table-Based Property Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 963
Creating Property Lines with Survey Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 963
Reporting Cut and Fill Volumes on a Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 964
Viewing the Cut/Fill Volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 964
Cut and Fill in a Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965
Cut and Fill Reporting with Building Pads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965
Building Pads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965
Adding a Building Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 966
Modifying Building Pads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 966
Modifying the Structure of a Building Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 967
Sloping a Building Pad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 967
Building Pad Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968
Modifying Building Pad Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968
Building Pad Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 968
Building Pad Slope Arrow Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969
Building Pad Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969
Parking Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 970
Site Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 970
Contour Line Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971
Labeling Contour Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971
Modifying the Label Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 972
Changing the Appearance of Contour Line Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 972
Contour Label Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 973

Chapter 16 Rooms and Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 975

Rooms and Areas Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 975
Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977
Creating a Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 977
Selecting a Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978

xxviii | Contents
 Controlling the Visibility of Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 979
Room Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 979
Rooms in Plan Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 980
Rooms in Section Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 980
Room-Bounding Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 981
Making an Element Room Bounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982
Room Separation Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982
Room Boundaries in Linked Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 984
Rooms Spanning Floors or Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985
Room Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985
Tagging a Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985
Tag Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 986
Tagging Rooms on Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 986
Moving a Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 986
Rotating a Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 987
Room and Room Tag Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 987
Room Schedules and Room Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 988
Room Tag Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 988
Room Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
Computation Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 989
Changing the Room Area Boundary Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991
Room Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991
How Room Volume is Computed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
Enabling Volume Computations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993
Defining Room Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993
Sharing Room/Space Information Between Revit Architecture and Revit MEP . . . . . . . . . . 997
Workflow: Linking an MEP Model to an Architectural Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 997
How Revit Architecture and Revit MEP Share Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 997
Phase-Specific Rooms and Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 998
Scheduling Phase-Specific Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999
Copying Rooms Between Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999
Phase-Specific Rooms and Linked Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000
Removing Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000
Unplacing or Moving Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000
Placing an Unplaced Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001
Viewing a List of Unplaced Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001
Hiding Unplaced Rooms in a Room Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001
Deleting Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002
Rooms and Areas as Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002
Exporting Rooms and Areas as Polylines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002
Room Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003
Modifying Room Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003
Room Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1003
Troubleshooting Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1004
Can't Create Any Energy Analysis Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1005
Energy Analysis Model Does Not Contain Any Roof Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1005
Highlighted Room Separation Lines Overlap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1005
Multiple Rooms Are in the Same Enclosed Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1006
Not Computed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1006
Not Enclosed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1006
Redundant Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1006
Room Is Very Short . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1006
Room Tag Is Outside of Its Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1007
Room Tag Was Deleted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1007
Room Volumes Overlap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1007
Room's Lower Offset Is Above the Computation Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1007
Setting for Areas and Volumes Is Not Checked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1008
Area Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1008
Area Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1008
Area Schemes and Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009

Contents | xxix
 Creating an Area Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009
Deleting an Area Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009
Area Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009
Creating an Area Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1010
Area Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1010
Creating Area Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1010
Areas and Area Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011
Creating an Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011
Adding an Area Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1012
Deleting Areas and Area Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1012
Area Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1013
Area Tag Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1013
Removing Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1014
Unplacing or Moving Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1014
Placing an Unplaced Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1015
Viewing a List of Unplaced Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1015
Hiding Unplaced Areas in an Area Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1015
Deleting Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1015
Showing Areas and Area Boundaries in Linked Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1016
Area Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1016
Area Type Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1017
Color Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1019
Color Scheme Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1019
Opening the Edit Color Scheme Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1020
Creating a Color Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1021
Adding Values to a Color Scheme Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1022
Applying a Color Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1022
Using a Color Scheme in a Section View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1023
Modifying a Color Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1024
Applying the Host Model Color Scheme to Rooms and Areas in Linked Models . . . . . . . . 1024
Applying the Linked Model Color Scheme to Rooms and Areas in Linked Models . . . . . . . 1024
Removing the Color Scheme Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1025
Color Scheme Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1025
Adding a Color Scheme Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1025
Modifying a Color Scheme Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1026
Color Scheme Legend Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1027

Chapter 17 Preparing Construction Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029

Construction Documents Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1029
Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1030
Sheets Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1030
Digital Cartoon Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1031
Sheets in Project Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1032
Adding a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1032
Adding Views to a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1033
Hiding Parts of a View on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1034
Applying Standard Settings to a View on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1035
Aligning Views on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1035
Locking the Position of a View on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1036
Renaming a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037
Specifying Title Block Information for Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037
Entering Project-Specific Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1037
Entering Sheet-Specific Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1038
Modifying a View on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1038
Dividing a View Across Multiple Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1039
Rotating a View on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1040
Creating a Title Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1040
Adding a Legend to a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1042
Adding a Note Block to a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1042

xxx | Contents
 Using External Information on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1043
Adding Text from a File to a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1044
Adding a Spreadsheet to a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1044
Adding an Image to a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1044
Sheet Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1044
Modifying Sheet Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1045
Sheet Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1045
Title Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1046
Title Blocks Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1046
Creating a Title Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1047
Modifying a Title Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1047
Logos and Images in a Title Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1048
Loading a Title Block into a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1048
Changing the Title Block Used on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1049
Revision Schedules on Title Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1049
Adding a Revision Schedule to a Custom Title Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1050
Rotating a Revision Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1051
Defining the Height of the Revision Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1052
Building a Revision Schedule from the Top Down or Bottom Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1053
Adding Custom Fields to a Title Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054
Importing a Title Block from Another CAD Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1055
Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1056
Viewport Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1057
Creating a Viewport Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1057
Applying a Viewport Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1058
Modifying Viewport Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1058
Viewport Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1058
View Titles on Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1059
Modifying a View Title on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1059
Removing a View Title from a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1060
View Title Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1061
Modifying a View Title Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1061
Loading a View Title Type into a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1062
Applying a View Title Type to a Viewport Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1062
Schedules on Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1062
Adding a Schedule to a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1063
Formatting a Schedule on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1063
Splitting a Schedule on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1064
Moving Schedule Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1064
Joining Split Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1065
Adjusting Schedule Columns on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1065
Displaying Vertical Headings in a Schedule on a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1065
Drawing Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1066
Creating a Drawing List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1067
Omitting Sheets from a Drawing List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1067
Adding a Drawing List to a Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1067
Including External Sheets in a Drawing List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1067
Organizing a Drawing List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1068
Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1069
Revision Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1070
Entering Revision Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1070
Merging Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071
Changing the Order of Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1071
Revision Cloud Numbering by Project or by Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1072
Specifying Revision Cloud Numbering by Project or by Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073
Numbering for Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073
Assigning a Numbering Scheme to a Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074
Defining an Alphabetic Sequence for Revisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074
Revisions with No Numbering Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075
Revision Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075

Contents | xxxi
 Adding a Revision Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075
Assigning a Revision to a Revision Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1076
Modifying a Revision Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1076
Tagging a Revision Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1077
Hiding a Revision Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1077
Revision Cloud Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1078
Revision Schedules on Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1078
Specifying the Revisions to Include in a Revision Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1079
Issuing a Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1080
Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1080
Printing Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1081
Print Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1081
Saving Print Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1082
Print Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1083
Printing Views and Sheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1083
Selecting Views to Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1084
Printing to PDF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1084
Changing Your System’s PDF Print Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085
Batch Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1086

Chapter 18 Annotating and Detailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1087

Text Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1087
Adding Text Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1088
Modifying Text Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089
Changing the Text Note Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089
Editing the Text Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089
Checking Text Note Spelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089
Adding a Special Character from the Windows® Character Map® . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1090
Adding or Removing Leader Lines from a Text Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1090
Text Note Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091
Modifying Text Note Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091
Text Note Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1091
Text Note Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1092
Leader Arrowhead Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1092
Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093
Adding Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093
Modifying Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1094
Changing the Grid Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1094
Changing Grid Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1094
Offsetting a Grid Line from Its Bubble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1094
Showing and Hiding Grid Bubbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1095
Adjusting the Center Segment of a Grid Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1096
Customizing Grid Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1097
Grid Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1099
Modifying Grid Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1099
Grid Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100
Grid Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101
Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101
Adding Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102
Modifying Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102
Changing the Level Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102
Editing Level Lines in an Elevation View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103
Moving Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103
Offsetting a Level Line from Its Bubble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103
Level Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104
Modifying Level Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104
Level Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104
Level Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1105
Reference Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1106

xxxii | Contents
 Adding Reference Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1106
Naming Reference Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107
Hiding the Annotation in the View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107
Reference Plane Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107
Reference Plane Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1107
Datum Extents and Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108
Example of Datum Visibility in Project Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108
Visibility of Non-Perpendicular Datums in Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1109
Visibility of Arc Grids in Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1110
Resizing Datum Extent Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111
Maximizing 3D Model Extents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1111
Propagating 2D Datum Extents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1112
Controlling Visibility of Datums Using Scope Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1112
Creating a Scope Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1113
Applying a Scope Box to Datums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1114
Controlling Visibility of Scope Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1116
Keynotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1117
Differences Between Keynoting and Tagging a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1117
Keynoting Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118
Keynote Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1118
Placing a Keynote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119
Keynote Placement Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119
Expected Keynote Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119
Types of Keynotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119
Assigning Keynote Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1120
Assigning Keynote Values to Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1120
Assigning Keynote Values to Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1120
Assigning Keynote Values Using Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1120
Keynote Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1120
Filtering Keynotes by Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1121
Filtering Keynotes by CSI Heading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1121
Adding Additional Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1122
Keynote File Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1122
Keynote File Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123
Resolving Keynote File Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123
Keynote Tag Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123
Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1123
Tag Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1124
Multiple Tags for Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125
Applying a Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125
Changing a Tag Instance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125
Aligning Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125
Tag Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1126
Tag Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1126
Tag All Not Tagged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1126
Material Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1128
Modifying Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1128
Changing the Tag Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1129
Rehosting a Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1129
Sequential Tag Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1130
Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1130
Placing Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131
Modifying Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131
Annotation Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132
Creating an Annotation Symbol Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132
Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1133
Adding Insulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1133
Increasing the Insulation Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1133
Resizing the Insulation Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1134
Resizing the Bulge Between Insulation Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1134

Contents | xxxiii
 Detailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1134
Types of Views for Detailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1134
Detail Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1134
Drafting Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1139
Creating Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1142
Detailing Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1142
Inserting a Detail Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1142
Repeating Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1144
Detailing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1146
Detail Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1155
Sorting the Draw Order of Detail Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1156
Saving Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1156
Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1156
Editing Multi-parameter Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1157
Building a Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1157
Shared Label Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1158
Label Parameter Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1158
Edit Label Unit Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1158
Label Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1159
Label Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1160
Applying the Label to a Tag in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1160
Applying the Label to a Titleblock in a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1161

Chapter 19 Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1163

Rendering Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1163
Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1164
Lights Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1164
Lighting Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1165
Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1166
Photometrics and IES Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1166
Lighting Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1167
Use IES Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1167
Leave Connectors in Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1167
Adjust Light Sources Before Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1168
Creating and Modifying Lighting Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1169
Creating a Lighting Fixture with One Light Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1169
Creating Lighting Fixtures with Multiple Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170
Specifying an IES File for a Light Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1178
Modifying a Lighting Fixture Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1179
Defining a Light Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1180
Parameters for Lighting Fixtures and Light Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1182
Using Lighting Fixtures in a Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1190
Adding a Lighting Fixture to a Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1190
Displaying a Wall-Based Lighting Fixture in a Floor Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1191
Changing a Lighting Fixture in a Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1192
Displaying Light Sources in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1192
Aiming a Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1193
Controlling the Brightness of a Light Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1196
Light Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1197
Opening the Artificial Lights Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1199
Creating a Light Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1199
Adding and Removing Lights in a Light Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1199
Turning Lights On and Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202
Renaming a Light Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202
Deleting a Light Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202
Plants and Entourage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1203
Plants and Entourage Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1203
People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1204
Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1204

xxxiv | Contents
 Cars and Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205
Office Clutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1205
Creating an RPC Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1206
Specifying a Render Appearance for an RPC Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1207
Render Appearance Properties for RPC Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1207
Creating an Entourage Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1210
Using the ArchVision Content Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1212
Configuring Revit Architecture for Local RPC Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1212
Configuring Revit Architecture for Networked RPC Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1212
Using Additional RPC Content from ArchVision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1213
Placing Plants and Entourage in a Project View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1213
Changing the Size of Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1214
Decals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1215
Creating a Decal Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1215
Placing a Decal in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1216
Modifying a Placed Decal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1217
Renaming a Decal Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1217
Duplicating a Decal Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1217
Deleting a Decal Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1217
Sharing Decals Between Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1218
Decal Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1218
Modifying Decal Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1218
Decal Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1218
Decal Type Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219
Decal Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1219
Rendering an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1220
Defining Render Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1221
Opening the Rendering Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1222
Defining the View Area to Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1223
Specifying the Render Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1224
Controlling the Size of the Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1228
Controlling Lighting in a Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1228
Specifying the Background for a Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229
Creating the Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1229
Adjusting the Exposure of a Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1230
Exposure Control Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1230
Saving the Rendered Image as a Project View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1231
Exporting the Rendered Image to a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1231
Changing Render Settings for a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232
View Templates for Render Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232
Creating a View Template for Render Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1232
View Properties for Renderings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
Rendering Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
The Rendering Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234
Render Performance and the Building Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234
Render Performance and Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1234
Render Performance and Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1235
How Colors and Patterns Affect Render Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1235
How Reflection Types Affect Render Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1236
How Refractions and Reflections Affect Render Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1236
Render Performance and Image Size/Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1236
Troubleshooting Issues with Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
Press Render to Update the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
Missing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
Not Enough Memory to Create the Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238
Disk Space Insufficient for Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238
Rendering Process Is Taking Too Long . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238
Rendered Image Is Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238
Rendered Image Is Washed Out or Faded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239
Elements Are Gray in Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239

Contents | xxxv
 Entourage Did Not Render Correctly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1239
Plants and Trees Are Missing from Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240
Glass is Too Light or Too Dark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240
Rendered Image Is Poor Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240
Rendered Image is Wrong Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240
Light Source Shapes Do Not Display in Rendered Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240
Solar Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1241
Creating Views for Solar Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1241
Creating a Solar Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1241
Specifying Settings for a Still Solar Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1242
Still Solar Studies Based on Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1243
Still Solar Studies Based on Azimuth and Altitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1243
Specifying Settings for a Single-Day Solar Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1244
Specifying Settings for a Multi-Day Solar Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1245
Previewing a Solar Study Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1245
Exporting a Solar Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246

Chapter 20 Working in a Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1249

Worksharing Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1249
Enabling Worksharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1250
Setting Up Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1252
Default Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1254
Considerations for Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1255
Creating Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1255
Adding Elements to a Workset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1256
Reassigning an Element to a Different Workset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1256
Changing the Editable Status of a Workset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1256
Renaming Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257
Deleting Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257
Using Workshared Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1257
Creating a Local Copy of the Central File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1258
Creating a Local Copy of a Central File from the Open Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1258
Creating a Local Copy from an Open Central File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1258
Editing Workshared Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1258
Borrowing Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259
Using Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1261
Filtering Non-Editable Workset Elements from Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1264
Controlling Workset Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1265
Saving Workshared Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1265
Synchronizing with the Central File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1265
Closing Workshared Files without Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1266
Opening Workshared Files Independent of the Central File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1268
Editable Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1268
Relinquishing Ownership without Synchronizing with Central . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1269
Loading Updates from the Central File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1269
Working Offsite and Offline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1269
Upgrading Workshared Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1270
Workshared Project Rollback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271
Rolling Back Workshared Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271
Saving a Specific Backup Version as a New File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1272
Viewing Workshared File History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1272
Creating a Central File from an Existing Workshared File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1272
Moving the Central File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1273
Worksharing Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1274

Chapter 21 Working with Linked Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1277

Linking Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1277
Linking Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1278

xxxvi | Contents
 Showing or Hiding Nested Linked Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1279
Phase Mapping Linked Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1280
Dimensions and Constraints in Linked Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1280
Displaying Linked Revit Model Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1281
Copying Linked Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1281
Copying Elements from a Linked Revit Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1282
Visibility for Linked Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1282
Controlling Visibility and Graphic Override Settings for Linked Revit Models . . . . . . 1283
Controlling Visibility and Graphic Override Settings for Nested Linked Revit Models . . 1284
Controlling Visibility of Linked Models in Schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1285
Linked Model Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1285
Managing Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1286
Identifying and Re-establishing Unresolved References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1286
Manage Links Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1287
Link Management Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1287
Linking and Worksharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289
Multi-Discipline Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1289
Coordination Review on Element Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1293
Interference Checking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1294
Shared Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1296
Defining Named Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1296
Seeing and Creating Named Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1297
Repositioning Named Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1297
Modifying Linked Model Location Through Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1298
Acquiring and Publishing Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1298
Acquire Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1298
Publish Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299
Acquiring or Publishing Through Linked Instance Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299
Relocating and Mirroring a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1300
Relocating a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1300
Relocating a Project by Entering Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1300
Mirroring a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1301
Reporting Shared Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1301
Project Base Points and Survey Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1302
Making Project Base Points and Survey Points Visible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1302
Moving Project Base Points and Survey Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1302
Pinning Project Base Points and Survey Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1303
Tips for Working with Project Base Points and Survey Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1303

Chapter 22 Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1305

Design Option Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1306
Design Options Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307
Best Practices for Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1308
Creating Design Option Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1309
Adding Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1310
Working with Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1311
Editing a Design Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1311
Determining the Active Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1312
Promoting a Secondary Option to the Primary Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1312
Moving Elements from the Main Model to a Design Option Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1313
Moving Elements from One Design Option to Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1314
Selecting Elements in Design Options and the Main Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1314
Duplicating a Design Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1315
Annotating and Detailing Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1315
Deleting Design Options and Option Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1316
Deleting Views Associated with Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1317
Incorporating a Design Option into the Main Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1318
Viewing Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1318
Dedicating Views to Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1318

Contents | xxxvii
 Viewing the Main Model Without Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1320
Viewing Multiple Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1320
Checking the Design Option Settings for a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1320
View Tags in Dedicated Views for Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1320
Changing the Visibility of a View Tag for Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1321
Considerations When Using Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1321
Unsupported Elements for Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1321
Referencing Elements in Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1321
Interdependent Elements in Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1322
Design Options and Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1322
Room Areas and Perimeters for Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323
Room Schedules for Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324
Room Tags for Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324
Room Volumes for Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324
Design Options and Worksets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324
Design Options and Area Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1324
Design Options and Wall Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1325
Troubleshooting Issues with Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1326
Elements in Main Model Will Be Deleted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1326
Highlighted Elements Overlap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1326
Incorrect Wall Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1326
Inserts in Design Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1327
None of the Created Elements Are Visible in This View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1327
None of the Selected Elements Can Be Added to This Option Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1327
Option Conflict Between Rooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1328
Room Option Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1328

Chapter 23 Project Phasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1331

Phase Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1331
Creating Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1332
Combining Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1333
Phase Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1333
Creating Phase Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1334
Applying Phase Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1334
Defining the Graphic Display for Phase Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1334
Defining the Graphic Display for Phase Statuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1335
Infill Elements for Phasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1335
Viewing Infill Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1336
Changing the Structure of Infill Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1337
Demolishing Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1338
Using the Demolish Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1339

Chapter 24 Interoperability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1341

Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1341
Exporting to CAD Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1341
Limiting Model Geometry Before Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1342
Exporting to DWG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1343
Exporting to DXF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1344
Exporting to DGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1345
Exporting to SAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1345
Creating View and Sheet Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1346
Exporting to CAD Format Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1349
File Names for Exported Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1353
Exporting Part of a 2D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1353
Exporting Part of a 3D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1354
Exporting Intersecting Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1355
Exporting to Design Web Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1355
Object Data and Exported 2D or 3D DWF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1356

xxxviii | Contents
 Viewing Object Data in a DWF file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1356
Exporting to DWF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1357
Exporting to DWF Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1358
Linking DWF Markups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1358
Exporting Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1360
Creating or Modifying a Layer Mapping File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1361
Custom Layer Mapping Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1361
Exporting to ODBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1362
Supported ODBC Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1362
Exporting to an ODBC Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1363
Exporting Multiple Times to the Same ODBC Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1363
Editing the Database After Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1364
Table Relationships Within the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1364
Exporting a View to an Image File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1364
Exporting Project Views to HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1365
Creating Room/Area Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1366
Exporting a View as a Room/Area Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1366
Exporting to Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1367
Supported IFC Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1368
Loading and Modifying an IFC Mapping File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1368
Exporting a Project to IFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1369
Specifying IFC Entities for Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1370
IFC-Specific Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1371
Exporting Your Design to gbXML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1372
Specifying the Building Type and Postal Code for a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1373
Exporting to 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1373
Before Exporting a 3D View to 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1374
Exporting to FBX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1375
Troubleshooting Exports to 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1375
Exporting Building Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1376
Preparing the Building Site for Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1376
Export Settings for a Building Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1378
Reviewing the Export Report and Delivering the Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1381
Publish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1381
Publishing to Autodesk® Seek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1382
Publishing for Manufacturers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1382
Preparing Content for Sharing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1382
Sharing with Autodesk Seek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1383
Publishing to Buzzsaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1384
Publish DWG to Buzzsaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1384
Publish DWF to Buzzsaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1385
Adding a New Buzzsaw Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1385
Import/Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1386
Suitability of Imported Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1387
Importing or Linking CAD Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1387
Implications of Importing vs. Linking for Xrefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1388
Importing or Linking CAD Files Using the Import CAD and Link CAD Tools . . . . . . . 1388
Importing CAD Files Using i-drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1389
Importing Files from SketchUp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1389
Importing ACIS Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1391
Import and Link Options for CAD Formats and Revit Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1392
Setting Scaling for Imported DWG or DXF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1394
Setting Line Weights for Imported DWG or DXF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1394
Mapping AutoCAD SHX Fonts to TrueType Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1395
Setting Constraint Parameters for Imported Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1395
Moving a View-Specific Import to the Foreground or Background . . . . . . . . . . . . 1395
Importing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1396
Modifying Imported Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1396
Deleting Raster Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1397
Opening Industry Foundation Class (IFC) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1397

Contents | xxxix
 Selecting a Template for IFC Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1397
Loading an IFC Class Mapping File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1398
Overriding Categories and Subcategories for IFC Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1398
Importing Building Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1398
Building Component ADSK Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1398
Working with Building Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1399
Tips for Working with Building Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1399
Building Component Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1400
Linking AutoCAD Files to a Revit Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1400
How Linking to AutoCAD Files Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1401
Linking to an AutoCAD File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1401
Location of the Linked File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1402
Linking DWF Markup Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1403
Modifying DWF Markups Created in Design Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1403
Exploding Imported Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1404
Managing Layers in Linked and Imported Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1404
Querying Objects in Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1405
Hiding and Deleting Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1405
Changing the Graphic Display of Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1407
Troubleshooting Problems with Linked Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1408
Changes in the DWG File Are Not Reflected in the Revit Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1408
Changes to the Layer Color and Line Style Do Not Display in the Revit Project . . . . . 1409
Layers in the DWG File Do Not Display in the Revit Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1409
File Operations (Open, Save, Synchronize) Are Blocked or Slow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1409

Chapter 25 Print Troubleshooting, Diagnostic Tools, and Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1411

Print Troubleshooting Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1411
General Printing Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1411
Graphics Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1412
Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1412
Plotting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1412
Diagnostic Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1413
Selecting Elements by ID Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1413
Finding an Element's ID Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1413
Error Handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1413
Getting More Information on Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1413
Viewing Elements Involved in Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1414
Viewing all Errors and Warnings Associated with an Error Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1414
Messages and Warnings You Can Ignore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1415
Reviewing Warning Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1415
Warnings for Selected Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1415
Exporting Warnings to a File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1416
More Information on Errors and Warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1416

Chapter 26 Creating Macros with Revit VSTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1421

Getting Started with Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1421
Upgrading from Revit VSTA 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1422
Revit VSTA Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423
Using Macro Manager and the Revit VSTA IDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423
Basic Workflow for Revit VSTA Macro Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1425
Creating Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1426
Creating Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1427
Macro Source Code Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1430
Building Macros in the Revit VSTA IDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1432
Modifying and Removing Modules and Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1433
Running Macros in the Macro Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1433
Using the StepInto Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1433
Macro Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1434

xl | Contents
 Revit SDK, API Reference Documentation, VSTA Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1435
Using the Revit VSTA Samples from SDK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1436
Revit API Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1437
Integrating Macros into Revit VSTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1439
Restoring Revit.Proxy.dll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1443
Migrating SDK Samples to Revit VSTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1443
Revit Macros FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1445
Related Information about Revit Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1448

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1451
Glossary Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1451

Chapter 27 Appendix A - gbXML Schema Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1555

gbXML Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1555
Campus Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1556
DocumentHistory Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1557
Location Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1558
Building Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1559
Space Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1559
ShellGeometry Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1560
SpaceBoundary Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1561
Surface Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1561
Opening Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1565

Contents | xli
xlii
Welcome to Autodesk
Revit Architecture 2010 1
This section includes licensing information and other information pertinent to this release of Autodesk Revit®Architecture.

Network Deployment Installation

This procedure describes how to set up a Revit Architecture installation for deployment from a network
location. Revit users can then access the network location to run the Revit Architecture installation program
to install the software on their client systems or workstations.

NOTE Creating a network deployment does not install Revit Architecture locally. If you want to install Revit
Architecture on the computer used to create the network deployment, run the resulting client installation using
the shortcut.

Before starting this procedure, see Licensing on page 5 for information about software licensing and
instructions on how to set up one or more network license servers, if you plan to use them.

To set up network deployment

1 Start the Revit Architecture installation program.
If you are installing from a Revit Architecture DVD, the installation program starts automatically
when you insert the DVD. (If you need to start it manually, navigate to the root directory of
the DVD, and double-click Setup.exe.) If you have downloaded the installation program from
the Internet, double-click the file to start it.

2 In the Installation Wizard, click Create Deployments.

3 In the Begin Deployment dialog, do the following:
a For Specify the Administrative Image location, indicate where the administrative image for
the deployment will reside. Click Browse to navigate to the desired network location.

b For Specify the new deployment name, enter a name for the shortcut to the client installation
program.

c Ensure that the correct type of operating system is selected (32-bit or 64-bit) for the
deployment.

1
 NOTE You select the type of operating system on which you intend to deploy the client. For
example, if you are creating the deployment on a 64-bit operating system, but you will deploy
the client to a 32-bit operating system, select 32-bit deployment.

d Click Next.

4 In the Select the Products to Include on the Deployment dialog, select Autodesk Revit Architecture
2010, and click Next.
5 In the Accept the License Agreement dialog, do the following:
a For Country or Region, select the appropriate value from the list.

b Read the agreement. Click Print to print a copy, if desired.

c Select I Accept, and click Next.

6 In the Product and User Information dialog, do the following:

■ Enter the serial number and product key. You can find them on the label of the product
DVD or from an electronic fulfilment message.

■ Enter the first name, last name, and organization of the user creating the deployment.

7 In the General Deployment Settings dialog, do the following:

■ If you want to create log files for the deployment creation, select Create Network Log, and
specify the directory where the log should be created.

■ If you want to create log files for client installations, select Create Client Log.

■ If you want client installations to run in silent mode, select Silent mode.
When silent mode is active and a user initiates the deployment, the installation proceeds
without any explicit user input. Users will not be able to change any of your installation
settings.

■ If you want to allow users to participate in the Customer Involvement Program, select
Customer Involvement.

8 Click Next.
9 In the Review–Configure–Create Deployments dialog, review the settings in the Current Settings
list. If desired, click Print to print a copy of the deployment settings.
Change settings for the deployment

If you want to change the settings for the network deployment, perform the following steps. If the deployment
settings are correct, skip to the steps for Create the Network Deployment.
10 Click Configure.
11 In the Application Preferences dialog, do the following:
a Select appropriate values for Language, Default Units, and Default Usage.

b If you do not want the installation to create a desktop shortcut for Revit Architecture, clear
Create desktop shortcut.

c For Set the installation folder, specify the location where Revit Architecture is to be installed
on client systems. You can click Browse to navigate to the target folder.

d Click Next.

2 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

12 In the Content Selection dialog, do the following:
a Expand the content areas in the list, and select items to install, or clear items that should
not be installed. (For most installations, accept the default settings.)

b If you do not want Revit content to be installed on client systems, select Skip content
installation.

c For Set the Content Folder, specify the location where Revit Architecture content is to be
installed on client systems. You can click Browse to navigate to the target folder.

d Click Next.

13 In the Select the License Type dialog, do one of the following:

■ To use stand-alone licenses on client systems, click Stand-alone License, and click Next. (For
more information, see Standalone Licensing on page 5.)

■ To use a network license, do the following:

a Click Network License.

b Specify the type of network license to use (Single License Server, Distributed License
Server, or Redundant License Server), and provide the server information requested.
For more information, see Distributed License Server Model on page 13 and Redundant
License Server Model on page 14.

c Click Next.

d In the Serial Number dialog, enter the Revit Architecture network license serial number,
and click Next.

14 In the Define File Locations dialog, specify the search paths, file names, and locations for project
templates, user files, family templates, and libraries.
15 In the Include Service Packs dialog, do one of the following:
■ Click Include Service Packs from local drive or local network, and then click Add to add one
or more service packs, or click Remove, as applicable.

■ Do not include Service Pack.

Select one of the following for each service pack added:

■ Append the service packs onto the deployment. This option is used for most deployments.
It applies the current deployment only. Multiple service packs can be appended to a
deployment. The service pack file is included in the deployment, and the service pack is
applied after the product is deployed.

■ Merge the service packs into the administrative image MSI file. This option is for general
deployment only. Once merged, a service pack cannot be removed from the administrative
image. Multiple service packs may be included in a single administrative image.

16 In the Configure InfoCenter Communication Center dialog, select the desired options.

NOTE This step is optional. You can configure the Communication Center using the CAD Manager
Control Utility at a later time.

a Specify whether to enable Live Updates.

Checks whether product updates are available when a Web connection is established. Select
one of the following:
■ Receive Live Updates from Autodesk.

Network Deployment Installation | 3

 Allows users to receive product updates and support announcements from Autodesk
servers.

■ Receive Live Updates from local server.

Allows you to maintain a patch list on a local server. A patch list is an XML file that
specifies a list of patches available for installation. If you select this option, the Local
Patch List Location is available. Use the Browse button to locate the path to a server
location where you want the patch list. More information, see the help for the CAD
Manager Control Utility.

b Specify whether to enable Information channels.

Information channels notify users with different types of information such as product
support information.

c Specify whether to enable CAD Manager channel.

Controls the display of CAD Manager channels in InfoCenter. You can specify the following:
■ Feed Location. Defines the location of the CAD Manager channel RSS feed. RSS feeds
are in XML format.

■ Display Name. Specifies the display name of the CAD Manager channel.

d Specify whether to enable users to add RSS feeds.

17 Click Next.
18 In the Configure Access to Online Resources dialog, select the desired options, and click Next.

NOTE This step is optional. You can configure the Access to Online Resources using the CAD Manager
Control Utility at a later time.

a Specify whether to allow users access to the following online tools:

■ Enable DesignCenter (DC) Online. The DesignCenter provides access to pre-drawn
content such as symbol libraries, manufacturers' content, and online catalogs.

■ Allow access to the Subscription Center. The Subscription Center provides

announcements and subscription program news, as well as links to e-Learning Lessons,
if you are an Autodesk subscription member.

b Select the following Customer Error Reporting (CER) settings as desired.

■ Allow users to receive notification of resolution, so they are aware of resolutions to
issues and can download applicable updates from Autodesk.

■ Include computer name in error reports. The computer name is included in notifications
to the user and in reports available to subscription administrators.

c Specify whether to allow users to customize their InfoCenter search settings.

19 In the Configuration Complete dialog, click Configuration Complete.

The Review–Configure–Create Deployments dialog displays again. Review the settings to make
sure they are correct.

Create the network deployment

20 In the Review–Configure–Create Deployments dialog, click Create Deployment.

The installation program creates the network deployment, as specified. This process may take
several minutes.

4 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

 21 Click Finish.
To install Revit Architecture on a client system, double-click the shortcut in the network location. This is
the shortcut name and location you specified on the Begin Deployment dialog.
If you need to modify the deployment settings:

1 Double-click the Tools folder (located in the directory you specified for creating the deployment).

2 Double-click Create and modify deployment.exe to open the Begin Deployment dialog.

3 Click Modify an existing deployment on the Begin Deployment dialog.

Licensing
There are 3 options for licensing with Revit Architecture:

■ Standalone. A standalone license is associated with one machine. In addition, you can transfer a license
from one computer to another with a standalone license. For more information, see License Transferring
on page 16.

■ Network. A network license is not associated with one computer. It can be installed on a network server
and multiple computers on that network to run Revit Architecture. In addition, you can borrow a license
from the license server and use it outside the network environment for a specified time. For more
information, see License Borrowing on page 16.

■ Demo. A demo license allows you to use Revit Architecture as a viewer. You can open projects, export
them, and print them. However, if you make changes to the project, you cannot export or print it.

Standalone Licensing
Follow this procedure to obtain a standalone license for Revit Architecture. If you have not already run Revit
Architecture in trial mode, the Product and License Information dialog displays when you first start Revit

Architecture. If you have already run Revit Architecture in trial mode, click ➤ Licensing ➤ Product
and License Information.

To enter a standalone license

1 In the Product and License Information dialog, select Standalone-Locked.
2 Click Register.
3 In the Product Activation dialog, select Activate the product, and click Next.
4 In the Register Today dialog, enter your serial number.
5 Select Get an activation code or Enter an activation code. If you select Enter an activation code,
select Paste the activation code or Type the activation code, and enter the code using the selected
method.
6 Click Next.
7 Indicate whether Revit Architecture is registered to a company or an individual.
8 Select your country.
9 Specify whether the product is an upgrade, and click Next.
10 Enter your information, answer the questions, and click Next.
11 Verify your information, and click Next.
12 When finished, click Finish.

Licensing | 5
Network License Server Setup
If you already have an Autodesk License server set up, skip to Obtain a Network License File on page 7.

IMPORTANT Revit Architecture supports redundant or distributed server configurations.

Install the Network License Manager Tools

If an existing version of the license manager is already installed on this computer, you must remove it by
using Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel before reinstalling. Revit Architecture requires Network
License Manager version 11.5.0 and is not compatible with previous versions of the Network License Manager.
If you have a version other than 11.5.0, you will have to reinstall it after completing this procedure.

IMPORTANT If you are running the network license manager on Windows XP and have upgraded to Service Pack
2, a new software firewall is enabled. When using its default settings, this firewall disables the Autodesk License
Server installed on the same computer. For more information, contact Revit Architecture Client Support.

To install the Network License Manager

1 On the Revit Architecture DVD, start the Revit Architecture installation program.
2 Click Install Tools and Utilities.
3 On the Select the Products to Install page, select Autodesk Network License Manager, and click
Next.
4 Review the License Agreement dialog. You must accept this agreement to proceed with the
installation. Click I Accept the License Agreement, and click Next.

NOTE If you do not agree to the terms of the license, click Cancel to cancel the installation.

5 On the Review–Configure–Install page, review your product selection and the current settings.
If you do not want to make any changes, click Install; otherwise, click Configure.
If you click Configure, on the Select Installation Type page, select either Typical or Custom.
Accept the default installation folder C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager\,
or click Browse to specify a different path. If you enter a path that does not exist, a new folder
is created using the specified name and location. Click Next.
If you want a copy of the configuration settings, click Copy to Clipboard, and paste the settings
into a text file.

WARNING Do not install the Network License Manager on a remote drive. When you install the
Network License Manager files, you must provide a path to a local drive. Specify the drive letter. The
Universal Naming Convention (UNC) is not supported.

6 On the Configuration Complete page, click Configuration Complete to return to the confirmation
page.
7 On the Review–Configure–Install page, click Install.
8 When the Installation Complete page displays, click Finish.
For more information about the Network License Manager, see the associated documentation in the Network
License Manager installation directory.

TIP Revit Architecture recommends that you create a folder under the Network License Manager directory called
Logs for storing any log files that are generated from license server reporting.

6 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

Obtain Host Name ID Using LMTools
1 Do one of the following:
■ In Windows XP, click Start menu ➤ Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Network License
Manager ➤ LMTOOLS.

■ In Windows Vista, click Start menu ➤ All Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Network
License Manager ➤ LMTOOLS.

The LMTOOLS utility opens.

2 Click the System Settings tab.

3 Click Save HOSTID Info to a File.
4 Save the file. You provide this file to Autodesk to obtain a license file.

RELATED If you do not have LMTOOLS installed on your machine, obtain the host name by opening a Command
Prompt window and entering ipconfig/all. This provides both host name and host ID information for your machine.

Obtain a Network License File

A license file identifies important license information, including license type and behavior, and the number
of seats available for use. You must obtain a license file from Autodesk for each license server.
With the Network License Activation Utility, you can obtain licenses over the Internet. In addition, this
utility registers your product, provides automated support through e-mail if you cannot obtain a license
over the Internet, and saves and migrates license files.

To install your Network License Activation Utility

1 In the Autodesk Installation wizard, click Install Tools and Utilities.

NOTE Each installation of the Network License Activation Utility is product specific. If you have more
than one Autodesk product, and you want to install the Network License Activation Utility on all of
them, you must install it once for each product.

2 On the Select the Products to Install page, select Autodesk Network License Activation Utility,
and click Next.
3 Review the License Agreement dialog. You must accept this agreement to proceed with the
installation. Click I Accept the License Agreement, and click Next.

NOTE If you do not agree to the terms of the license, click Cancel to cancel the installation.

4 On the Review–Configure–Install page, review your product selection and the current settings.
If you do not want to make any changes, click Install; otherwise, click Configure.
If you click Configure, on the Select Installation Type page, select either Typical or Custom.
Accept the default installation path C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License
Manager\Network License Activation Utility\enu\, or click Browse to specify a different path.
If you enter a path that does not exist, a new folder is created using the specified name and
location. Click Next.
If you want a copy of the configuration settings, click Copy to Clipboard, and paste the settings
into a text file.

5 On the Configuration Complete page, click Configuration Complete to return to the confirmation
page.
6 On the Review–Configure–Install page, click Install.

Network License Server Setup | 7

 7 When the Installation Complete page displays, click Finish.

To use the Network License Activation Utility (online request)

1 Do one of the following:
■ In Windows XP, click Start menu ➤ Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Network License
Manager ➤ Revit Architecture Network License Activation Utility.

■ In Windows Vista, click Start menu ➤ All Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Network License
Manager ➤ Revit Architecture Network License Activation Utility.

2 On the Obtain a Network License page, make sure Direct Connect (over the Internet) is selected,
enter your product key, and click Next.
3 On the Server Information page, enter the following data:
■ The product serial number.

NOTE If you are modifying an existing license file or obtaining a new license for an existing
product, your previously entered information might be displayed. Make sure that the serial number
displayed is the one you want to license. If not, enter the correct product serial number.

■ License server model. For information about each license server model, click (Help).

■ Server host name. If you do not know the host name, enter the following at the command
prompt to locate the name of each server you plan to use: <prompt> lmutil lmhostid
-hostname

NOTE In a distributed server model, you are limited to a maximum of 20 servers. After the
20-server limit has been reached, the Add button disappears.

■ Host ID. This value must be specified for each server host name you entered in the previous
step. Enter the host ID manually, or click Lookup to have the utility locate the host ID for
the server.

NOTE If your server has more than one network adapter, select the one that corresponds to a
physical network adapter. To determine which adapters are physical, enter ipconfig /all at a
Windows command prompt and view the Description field above each physical address. If there
is more than one physical network adapter, you can use any one of them, as long as it was listed
when you ran ipconfig /all. Logical devices such as VPN adapters, PPP adapters, and modems
may be listed but are not usable for licensing.

■ Seats. If you selected Distributed Server as the license server model, enter the number of
seats for each license server in the Seats field, and click Next.

4 In the Confirm Server Information dialog, review the server information that you entered, and
click Next.
5 On the Log In page, enter your user ID and password, then click Log In.
If you do not have a user account, click the Create a User ID Now link, and follow the instructions
to create a user account.

6 On the Choose Account page, select an account, and click Next.

7 On the Licenses Received page, in the Save License File for <computer name> field, enter the
location where you want to save the license file, or click Browse to navigate to the location.

NOTE It is recommended that you save you license file to C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License
Manager\License.

8 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

 Other content on this page differs depending on which server model you selected.

8 Click Next.
9 On the License Activation Successful page, click Print to save a printed copy of the license
information, or click Done to complete the transaction and exit the Network License Activation
Utility.
After you receive your license file and save it locally, to configure your license server, see Configure the
Network License Server on page 10.

To use the Network License Activation Utility (offline request)

1 Do one of the following:
■ In Windows XP, click Start menu ➤ Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Network License
Manager ➤ Revit Architecture Network License Activation Utility.

■ In Windows Vista, click Start menu ➤ All Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Network License
Manager ➤ Revit Architecture Network License Activation Utility.

2 On the Obtain a Network license page, click Email, fax, phone, or send request by postal mail,
enter your product key, and click Next.
3 On the Server Information page, enter the following data:
■ The product serial number.

NOTE If you are modifying an existing license file or obtaining a new license for an existing
product, your previously entered information might be displayed. Make sure that the serial number
that is displayed is the one you want to license. If it is not, enter the correct product serial number.

■ The License server model. For information about each license server model, click (Help).

■ The Server host name. If you do not know the host name, enter the following at the command
prompt to locate the name of each server you plan to use: <prompt> lmutil lmhostid
-hostname

NOTE In a distributed server model, you are limited to a maximum of 20 servers. After the
20-server limit has been reached, the Add button disappears.

■ The Host ID. For each server host name you entered in the previous step. Enter the host ID
manually, or click Lookup to locate the host ID for the server.

NOTE If your server has more than one network adapter, select the one that corresponds to a
physical network adapter. To determine which adapters are physical, enter ipconfig /all at the
Windows command prompt and view the Description field above each physical address. If there
is more than one physical network adapter, you can use any one of them, as long as it was listed
when you ran ipconfig /all. Logical devices such as VPN adapters, PPP adapters, and modems
may be listed but are not usable for licensing.

■ Seats. If you selected Distributed Server as the license server model, the Seats field is displayed.
In the Seats field, enter the number of seats for each license server.

4 Click Next.
5 In the Confirm Server Information dialog, review the server information that you entered, and
click Next.
6 On the Product Registration page, specify the following:
■ Whether the product will be registered to a company or individual.

Network License Server Setup | 9

 ■ The country or region where the product will be used.

■ If the product is an upgrade. If it is, you will need the previous serial number.

Click Next.

7 Enter your personalization data on the Customer Information page, and choose how you want
to receive your activation code: Email, Fax, or Postal mail. Click Next.
8 Review your personalization data on the Confirm Information page and choose the method
you want to use to submit your request. Your request can be sent by email, fax, or phone.
Your activation code will be sent by the method you specified on the Customer Information
page.

9 If you want to print a copy of your registration information, select the Select Open Activation
Request Form option. When you are finished, click Close.
After you receive your license file and save it locally, to configure your license server, see Configure the
Network License Server on page 10.

NOTE It is recommended that you save your license to the file location where you installed the Network License
Manager.

If you cannot register the product using the Network License Activation Utility, go to the Autodesk Services
and Support web page at http://www.autodesk.com/servicesandsupport.

Set Up the Network License File

After you receive a license file from Autodesk, you set up the file to configure the license server.

NOTE If you already have a license server running for another Autodesk product, such as AutoCAD 2010 or
AutoCAD Architecture, you need to combine your Revit Architecture license file with the existing license file. Skip
this procedure and the procedure on Configuring the License Server, and go to Combining Network License Files
on page 12.

To set up the network license file

1 Copy the contents of the license file (supplied by Autodesk in an e-mail) to an ASCII text editor,
such as Notepad.

WARNING Do not copy the contents into a word processor. A word processor can add hidden
formatting that a text editor cannot read.

2 Save the file to the \Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager\License folder.
You can use any name for the license file, but you must save the file with an LIC extension.

NOTE If you use Notepad as your text editor, for Save As Type, select All Files so that a TXT extension
is not added automatically.

Configure the Network License Server

Use the LMTOOLS utility to configure the license server so that you can manage the Revit Architecture
product license you received when you ran the Network License Activation Utility.
You should be logged in with Administrator rights when using the LMTOOLS utility.

10 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

 1 Do one of the following:
■ In Windows XP, click Start menu ➤ Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Network License
Manager ➤ LMTOOLS.

■ In Windows Vista, click Start menu ➤ All Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Network License
Manager ➤ LMTOOLS.

2 Click the Service/License File tab.

3 Select Configuration using Services.
4 Click the Config Services tab.
5 For Service Name, do one of the following:
■ If a service name is selected, verify that it is the one you want to use to manage licenses.

■ If no service name exists, enter the service name to use to manage the licenses. Autodesk_nlm
is recommended for the service name.

NOTE If you have more than one software vendor using FLEXnet for license management, the Service
Name list contains more than one option. Make sure only one Autodesk service is listed.

6 In the Path to lmgrd.exe File field, enter the path to the Network License Manager daemon
(lmgrd.exe), or click Browse to locate the file.
By default, this daemon is installed in the \Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager
folder.

7 In the Path to the License File box, enter the path to the license file, or click Browse to locate
the file.
For more information, see Set Up the Network License File on page 10.

8 In the Path to the debug log file box, enter the path to the debug log, or click Browse to locate
the file.
Best practice is to save the debug log in C:\Program Files\Autodesk Network License Manager.
The log file must have a LOG extension. For new log files, you must enter the LOG extension
manually.

9 To run lmgrd.exe as a service, select Use Services.

10 To automatically start lmgrd.exe when the system starts, select Start Server at Power Up.
11 Click Save Service to save the new configuration under the service name that you selected in
Step 5. If you want to save the settings to the service, click Yes when prompted.
Start the license server

12 Click the Start/Stop/Reread tab.

13 Click Start Server to start the license server.

IMPORTANT If you need to stop a server, it is not recommended to click Stop Server on this tab.
Other processes might be running on this server. Best practice is to schedule a reboot instead.

14 To ensure that the license manager has started correctly, wait 30 seconds after starting the license
service. Then, on the Server Status tab of LMTOOLS, select Display Everything, and click Perform
Status Enquiry.
15 Scroll to the bottom of the results, and look for a line similar to the following that displays the
feature code and number of licenses:
Users of 48400REVITS_2_OF: (Total of 10 licenses issued; Total of 0 licenses in use)

If you do not see a similar line displayed in this part of the dialog, review the installation steps.

Network License Server Setup | 11

 16 Exit LMTOOLS.

Combining Network License Files

If you already have a license server running for another Autodesk product (such as AutoCAD 2010 or AutoCAD
Architecture), you need to combine your Revit Architecture license file with your existing license file.
Before attempting this procedure, see Obtain a Network License File on page 7.
To add licenses to the license server, you can either combine the license files into one file, or put all of the
license files into one folder and then point the license server to that folder, not to a specific file.
To combine license files for Autodesk products into one license file, edit the existing license file, adding
lines from the new license file to the existing license file. To edit the existing license file, copy all of the
lines from the Revit Architecture license file, starting at the line beginning with "INCREMENT", into the
existing license file.
When adding licenses of the same Autodesk product to your license file, you must obtain a new license file
for the total number of licenses for that feature code, not just the new ones. For example, do not combine
2 different Revit Architecture license files into one file. Obtain a new license file that contains the required
total number of Revit Architecture seats.
If the server computer has more than one network adapter installed, all Autodesk products should be bound
to the same adapter.

Example
Existing License File
SERVER PCS770 0012340f10c2
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 41100ACD_2002_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 5 \
VENDOR_STRING=commercial:permanent SUPERSEDE DUP_GROUP=H \
ISSUED=27-mar-2009 ck=213 SN=3XX-XXXXXXXX
SIGN=123456ABCDEF

New License File

SERVER PCS770 a1b2c3d4e5f6
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 48400REVITS_2_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 10\
VENDOR_STRING=commercial:permanent BORROW=720 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UH ISSUED=10-Mar-2009 SN=339-12345678
SIGN="1037 \
7E66 6695 2D57 47D9 C59D FAAB DC45 CC51 1414 A8AB 29F4
2773 \
CE33 59EC 0397 B326 29FE 16EC 5C95 8213 BE5C A88F 25F5 3FC1 \
8CB4 C0CD 65D4 C7E5 40BB" SIGN2="1261 B3BF 7D54 0CF4 C84D
9EFD \
B041 D91A A56D 015B 9A30 20B7 BF73 0766 3674 019F 5D8B 36EE \
5B75 86B2 D219 6C86 9900 B297 DD3C C34B 5303 DB46 2533 2222

Combined License File

12 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

 SERVER PCS770 a1b2c3d4e5f6
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 41100ACD_2002_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 5 \
VENDOR_STRING=nfr:permanent SUPERSEDE DUP_GROUP=H \
ISSUED=27-mar-2009 ck=213 SN=3XX-XXXXXXXX SIGN=123456ABCDEF
INCREMENT 48400REVITS_2_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 10\
VENDOR_STRING=commercial:permanent BORROW=720 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UH ISSUED=10-Mar-2009 SN=339-12345678
SIGN="1037 \
7E66 6695 2D57 47D9 C59D FAAB DC45 CC51 1414 A8AB 29F4
2773 \
CE33 59EC 0397 B326 29FE 16EC 5C95 8213 BE5C A88F 25F5 3FC1 \
8CB4 C0CD 65D4 C7E5 40BB" SIGN2="1261 B3BF 7D54 0CF4 C84D
9EFD \
B041 D91A A56D 015B 9A30 20B7 BF73 0766 3674 019F 5D8B 36EE \
5B75 86B2 D219 6C86 9900 B297 DD3C C34B 5303 DB46 2533 2222

Rereading the Network License File

To initiate the license server, open LMTOOLS, and on the Start/Stop/Reread tab, click ReRead License File.

Distributed License Server Model

In the distributed license server model, licenses are distributed across more than one server. A unique license
file is required for each server. To create a distributed license server, you must run the Network License
Manager on each server that is part of the distributed server pool.

Advantages
■ Servers can be distributed across a wide area network (WAN). They do not need to exist on the same
subnet.

■ If one server in the distributed server pool fails, the licenses on the remaining servers are still available.

■ The distributed license server model is supported on Windows XP® Professional and on the workstation
and server editions of Windows® 2000 and Windows® 2003.

■ If you need to replace a server in the distributed server pool, you do not need to rebuild the entire pool.

■ Server replacement is easier than using a redundant server pool, where you must reactivate the entire
pool.

Disadvantage
■ If a server in the distributed server pool fails, the licenses on that server are unavailable.

Sample Distributed License File

The following is sample code from a distributed license file.

Network License Server Setup | 13

 SERVER Server2 2a34567f90d3
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 46300ACD_2005_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 3 \
VENDOR_STRING=commercial:permanent BORROW=720 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UH ISSUED=22-mar-2009 SN=339-12345678 SIGN="1707 \
9EAC CBCB 2405 692E 4A89 FC45 C009 E360 944A 14BA E99C 9B24 \
5A1B 4A44 083A BE5F 3827 AA26 30CC 2AC2 D6B3 A61B AB5E 492E \
3EBD 0B48 4E75 193A DA82" SIGN2="004A FC90 AB47 3F6B 59BC 0E6D \
6681 6971 A76A BA52 98E2 5671 26B3 0E78 791B 109F 0591 7DC3 \
F09F 4D8D 4FB7 E341 4A03 CD68 1D77 27F8 8555 9CF7 DEDD 9380"

Redundant License Server Model

In the redundant license server model, you use 3 servers to authenticate a single license file. One server acts
as the master, while the other 2 servers provide backup if the master server fails. With this configuration,
licenses continue to be monitored and issued as long as at least 2 servers are functional. The license file on
all 3 servers is the same. You must install the Network License Manager on each server.
In the redundant license server model, all servers must reside on the same subnet and have consistent
network communications. (Slow, erratic, or dial-up connections are not supported.)

Advantage
■ If one of the 3 servers fails, all licenses that are managed in the server pool are still available.

Disadvantages
■ The redundant license server model is supported only on Windows 2000 Server Edition.

■ If more than one server fails, no licenses are available.

■ All 3 servers must reside on the same subnet and have reliable network communications. The redundant
server pool does not provide network fault tolerance.

■ If one of the 3 servers is replaced, you need to obtain a new license file from Autodesk. Also, on the client
machines, the Licpath.lic file should be modified to include the new server name.

■ If your Autodesk product supports license borrowing, and licenses are borrowed from a redundant license
server pool, you must restart the license server after you stop the Network License Manager.

Sample Redundant License File

The following is sample code from a redundant license file.
SERVER Server1 1a34567c90d2 27005
SERVER Server2 2a34567f90d3 27005
SERVER Server3 3a34567b90d4 27005
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 46300ACD_2005_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 3 \
VENDOR_STRING=commercial:permanent BORROW=720 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UH ISSUED=22-mar-2009 SN=339-12345678 SIGN="1707 \
9EAC CBCB 2405 692E 4A89 FC45 C009 E360 944A 14BA E99C 9B24 \
5A1B 4A44 083A BE5F 3827 AA26 30CC 2AC2 D6B3 A61B AB5E 492E \
3EBD 0B48 4E75 193A DA82" SIGN2="004A FC90 AB47 3F6B 59BC 0E6D \
6681 6971 A76A BA52 98E2 5671 26B3 0E78 791B 109F 0591 7DC3 \
F09F 4D8D 4FB7 E341 4A03 CD68 1D77 27F8 8555 9CF7 DEDD 9380"

14 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

 Network License Client Setup
After you have set up a license server, follow this procedure in Revit Architecture to license a client machine.

NOTE Client Setup is usually completed during product installation or network deployment.

To license a client machine

1 Click ➤ Licensing ➤ Product and License Information.

2 Select Network.
3 Enter the network server name.
4 Click Apply.
5 Click Close.

Licensing from Previous Versions of Revit Architecture

Each new release of Revit Architecture requires the current version of the standalone or network license.
Standalone or network licenses from previous versions do not work with the latest release of Revit Architecture.
If you do not have a current license, Revit Architecture runs in demo mode. See Licensing on page 5.

Network License Cascading

For products purchased separately or as part of a Revit Architecture Series package, a network license server
can be set up with combinations of license seat counts. The cascading mechanism employed by Autodesk
first uses the single product license (non Series), and then cascades as needed to the Series licenses.

License Server Reporting

For more information about license server reporting and license server configuration, see the associated
documentation on the SAMreport-Lite utility that you can install with Revit Architecture.

Licensing Extension
If you have network licensing, and a license outage occurs, you can extend your licensing long enough to
save your work.

Outage Examples
■ You were using Revit Architecture, left your computer for over 2 hours but forgot to save, and all the
floating licenses, including yours, are now assigned to other users.

■ The machine that hosts the license server went down.

Saving Your Work in an Outage

If an outage occurs, you can save your work by using the Use Extension feature. You use an extension each
time you issue a command. For example, you click a tool on the ribbon, the dialog is displayed, and you
click Use Extension. This cycle repeats up to 10 times.
When you connect to the license server at the beginning of a Revit Architecture session, you get a set of 10
extensions.

Network License Cascading | 15

 If you use up all 10 extensions before saving, you must enter demo mode; however, you cannot save your
work in demo mode.

License Transferring
If you are running Revit Architecture with a standalone license, you can transfer that license using the
Transfer License Utility. This transfers a product license from one computer to another and ensures that the
product works only on the computer that has the license. To access Transfer License Utility, do one of the
following:

■ On Windows XP, click Start menu ➤ Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 ➤ Transfer
License Utility.

■ On Windows Vista, click Start menu ➤ All Programs ➤ Autodesk ➤ Autodesk Revit Architecture
2010 ➤ Transfer License Utility.

For more information about the Transfer License Utility, see its online help.

License Borrowing
If you are running a network-licensed version of Revit Architecture, you can borrow a license from a license
server so that you can use the software for a specified time when your computer is not connected to the
network. The license is returned to the license server automatically at the end of the day on the return date
that you specified when you borrowed the license. You can also return a license early.

NOTE If you have a standalone version of the software, you cannot borrow a license. To view your product license

type, click ➤ Licensing ➤ Product and License Information.

To borrow a license

1 Click ➤ Licensing ➤ Borrow License.

2 Click a return date on the calendar in the dialog.

Be sure the date is within the valid range as shown in the dialog.

3 Click Borrow License.

NOTE There is a limit to the number of licenses available for borrowing. If you try to borrow a license and
are notified that no licenses are available, all network licenses might already be borrowed by other users. If
you are unable to borrow a license, contact your network administrator.

License Returning
When the license-borrowing period expires, the borrowed license is returned to the license server
automatically. When you reconnect your computer to the network, you may start Revit Architecture normally.
Successful startup of the software indicates that you have acquired the usual (online) network license. At
that point, you can borrow a license again.

NOTE To view the expiration date for the borrowed license, click Help menu ➤ About ➤ Product Information. In
the Product Information dialog, under License expiration date, view the license return date.

16 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

 To return a license early

■ Click ➤ Licensing ➤ Return License Early.

Using Help
This section provides information about navigating the online help.

To access online help

Do one of the following:

■ In the InfoCenter box, click (Help).

■ For context-sensitive help:

■ In a dialog, click or Help.

■ Move the cursor over a tool on the ribbon. When its tooltip displays, press F1.

NOTE If you turn off tooltips, context-sensitive help (F1) for ribbon tools is also turned off. If you want
context-sensitive help to be available, set Tooltip assistance to Minimal. See Tooltips on page 92.

Help Viewer Tabs

■ Contents. The Contents tab resembles a Table of Contents in a printed book. Instead of chapter and page
numbers, there are books and pages with headings. Click a closed book, and it opens to display sub-books
or topic pages. When you click an open book, it closes. When you click pages, you select topics to view
in the right-hand pane of the HTML Help viewer. Note: Opening a book or page requires only a single
click.

■ Index. The Index tab displays keywords for quick information searches in Revit Architecture. To open
the topic associated with a keyword, double-click the keyword, or select it and click Display. If the keyword
is used with more than one topic, a Topics Found dialog box is displayed so you can select a specific
topic to view.

■ Search. Use the Search tab to search for words in the Help system and locate associated topics. After
typing the words you want to find, click List Topics.
The Search tab also includes advanced search capability. You can search for topics using wildcard (*,?)
and boolean characters (AND, OR, NEAR, NOT). To use Boolean searches, click the right arrow button
next to the search-string field.

■ Favorites. Use the Favorites tab to bookmark topics that you visit frequently.

New Information Markers

On the Contents tab, red markers identify new chapters and topics .

Autodesk Training Programs and Products

Training programs and products from Autodesk® help you learn the key technical features of your Autodesk
software and improve productivity. For the latest information about Autodesk training, visit
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Using Help | 17
 Autodesk Authorized Training Centers
Be more productive with Autodesk software. Get trained at an Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC®)
with hands-on, instructor-led classes to help you get the most from your Autodesk products. Enhance
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Autodesk Official Training Courseware

Autodesk publishes many courseware titles each year for users at all levels to improve their productivity with
Autodesk software. The preferred training materials of Autodesk partners, these books are also well-suited
for self-paced, standalone learning. All courseware simulates real-world projects with hands-on, job-related
exercises. Autodesk Official Training Courseware (AOTC) is developed by Autodesk. Autodesk Authorized
Training Courseware (AATC) is developed by Autodesk partners, including titles in a growing number of
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Autodesk Certification
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and skills on Autodesk products. Autodesk provides an end-to-end solution for assessing your readiness for
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Autodesk e-Learning for Autodesk Subscription customers features interactive lessons organized into product
catalogs. Each lesson is 20–40 minutes in length and features hands-on exercises, with an option to use a
simulation or the software application. You can also use an online evaluation tool that identifies gaps in
skills, determines which lessons will be most helpful, and gauges learning progress.
If you are a member of Autodesk Subscription, you can access e-Learning and other subscription services
from your Autodesk product. For more information about Autodesk subscription resources, visit
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Memory Usage
To minimize possible instability in Revit Architecture when its uses operating system memory, you can:

■ Restart Revit Architecture regularly.

If you receive a message that the current session's memory usage is approaching the operating system
limit, save your work as soon as possible and restart Revit Architecture. If you are using a workshared
environment, save your local file, restart Revit Architecture, and then synchronize with central.

■ Enable the 3 GB feature on your Windows® operating system to improve performance on 32-bit machines.
See Enabling the 3 GB Feature on 32-Bit Machines on page 19.

■ Run 64-bit Revit Architecture on a Windows 64-bit operating system.

■ Reduce the number of loaded DWG and RVT links. See Managing Links on page 1286.

■ Reduce the number of loaded RVT and RFA files. See Deleting Unused Families and Family Types on page
421.

■ Limit the number of views open. If you have multiple views open, you can quickly close all hidden views
by selecting View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Close Hidden.

18 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

 ■ Limit the number of worksets that you open when using a workshared file. In the Open dialog, from the
Open drop-down list, select Specify, which lets you select the worksets to close before opening the local
file.

NOTE In some cases, antivirus software solutions can lock files or slow data transfer, giving the appearance of
memory limitations. See File Operations (Open, Save, Synchronize) Are Blocked or Slow on page 1409 for more
information.

3 GB Feature Considerations
Before deciding to use the 3 GB feature, review the following considerations:

■ This feature is supported only on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista running on 32-bit machines.

■ When the 3 GB feature is enabled, your operating system has less memory space. It is not completely
clear what implications this may have on Windows, so be cautious with regard to the total application
load placed on Windows while running in this mode. If you do not require the larger address space, it
is recommended that you do not enable this option.

■ At least one graphics card driver version (ATI Fire GL 8800, driver version 6.12.10.3035) is known not
to work with 3 GB. If you experience a crash, restart your computer without the /3GB option and check
whether upgrading to the latest graphics card driver resolves the issue.

Enabling the 3 GB Feature on 32-Bit Machines

Revit Architecture is a 32-bit application, which is limited to 4 GB of virtual address space. Typically, on a
32-bit machine, Microsoft® Windows® reserves 2 GB of the 4 GB virtual address space of any process for the
operating system and leaves the remaining 2 GB for the application process (including the space for the
code pages, the stack, and all dynamically allocated memory). The 3 GB feature divides the virtual address
space differently on 32-bit machines, providing 3 GB for the application and 1 GB for the operating system.
On 64-bit machines, the 3 GB switch does not apply because Windows does not reserve virtual address space
for the operating system, allowing Revit Architecture to use up to the available 4 GB.
Before enabling the 3 GB feature, see 3 GB Feature Considerations on page 19.

To enable the 3 GB feature on Windows XP

1 Open the boot.ini file.
This file is typically located in C:\, and it is a protected operating system file. To see it, in a
Windows Explorer window, click Tools menu ➤ Folder Options. On the View tab, clear Hide
protected operating system files, and click OK.

2 In the operating systems section, copy the original line containing the boot path, then modify
the copied line to add the option (/3GB) and the display string that identifies the boot option.
Examples of the line to copy and the modified version of the line are shown below. The modified
portions of the copied line are in bold.
■ multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect

■ multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB"

/3GB /fastdetect

3 GB Feature Considerations | 19
 When you start your computer with the modified boot.ini file, you see the following options
to select from:
■ Microsoft Windows XP Professional

■ Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB

To enable the 3 GB feature on Windows Vista

1 Click Start menu ➤ All Programs ➤ Accessories, and run the command prompt.
2 Enter BCDEDIT /SetIncreaseUserVa 3072, and exit the command prompt.

NOTE If you are not able to set this value, when you run the command prompt, right-click, and click
Run as Administrator.

3 Reboot the computer.

The switch is now set. It is not necessary to make a selection when you reboot the computer; it
is automatically enabled.

After you enable the 3 GB feature, you should verify that you have sufficient virtual memory allocated for
your purposes. See Verifying Virtual Memory Allocation on page 20.

Verifying Virtual Memory Allocation

To verify virtual memory allocation on Windows XP

1 Click Start menu ➤ Settings ➤ Control Panel.

2 In the Control Panel, double-click System.
3 In the System Properties dialog, click the Advanced tab.
4 In the Performance field, click Settings.
5 In the Performance Options dialog, click the Advanced tab.
6 In the Virtual Memory field, click Change.

To verify virtual memory allocation on Windows Vista

1 Click Start menu ➤ All Programs ➤ Accessories, and run the command prompt.
2 To change the virtual memory allocation back to 2 GB, enter:
BCDEDIT /SetIncreaseUserVa 2048

NOTE If you are not able to set this value, when you run the command prompt, right-click and select
Run as Administrator.

To verify the virtual memory allocation, enter BCDEDIT.

In the boot entry option list, the value displays with the IncreaseUserVa option.

Your system should have at least 3 GB set aside for the paging file size to take full advantage of the available
address space. Every concurrently running application is sharing the available paging file size, so setting it
to something more than 3 GB (such as 4 GB) is recommended.

20 | Chapter 1 Welcome to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

Architectural Workflows
2
Use the following topics to learn how Revit Architecture supports typical architectural workflows and tasks.

Start a New Project

At the beginning of a new project, use the following workflows to get started.

Before You Begin

Consider whether the following options will be useful. If so, learn about these options, and determine how
and when to implement them during the project cycle.

Project templates provide initial settings to

Use a project template. ----- streamline project setup and implement
standards.

Link models together, for example, to specify the

Link multiple projects. ----- relative locations of individual buildings on a
campus, or to coordinate efforts across disciplines
(architectural, structural, and engineering).

After the initial design phase, you can set up

Work in a team. ----- worksharing so that multiple team members can
work on the project at the same time.

21
Set Up the Project
To design a building model, first create a project in Revit Architecture, and then enter project-specific
information.

Create the project. ----- Use a project template provided by your CAD/BIM
manager, or use a default template.

Specify project information. ----- Enter the client name, project name, number,
and address.

Specify the project location. ----- Indicate where the building resides by specifying
the nearest city or a latitude and longitude.

By default, Revit Architecture defines an Existing

Create construction phases. ----- phase and a New phase. It also indicates the
demolition of existing construction. If you need
additional project phases, create them.

Create the Site Plan

The site plan provides context for the building model.

Define contour line intervals, select section cut

Define site settings. ----- material, and specify the poche depth for
topography elements.

Create the toposurface. on page In a site plan or a 3D view, create a topographical

----- surface by picking points, importing 3D data, or
955
importing a points file.

Rotate the project to True North. To provide the proper context for the building in
----- relation to the building lot, specify True North in
on page 448
relation to Project North.

22 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

 Specify property lines. on page 962 ----- Sketch property lines, or create them using survey
data.

In the site plan, add a building pad to the

Add a building pad. ----- toposurface. Then modify the structure and depth
of the pad.

Grade the toposurface. ----- Grade the toposurface of the building pad,
indicating changes to existing contours.

Define existing roads and other site elements with

Create parking lots, roads, and
----- toposurface subregions. Add placeholders for
sidewalks. on page 958 parking lots, service roads, and sidewalks. You
can refine these elements of the site design later.

Add site components. ----- If you will retain existing trees or other site
components, add them to the site design.

Build the Model

Start with the general building components (walls, floors, roofs). Then slowly refine the design, adding more
detailed components (stairs, rooms, furniture) as you proceed.

Design the Preliminary Layout

Establish the larger context of the building model by starting with a massing study or an existing design,
and defining levels and grids.

Perform a Massing Study

(Optional) To explore design ideas for the initial shape of a building, you can use masses.

Create or import a mass. on page

----- Create or import a mass to define the shape of
589 the building.

Build the Model | 23

 Create floors, walls, and roofs from
----- Convert faces of the mass into walls on page 615,
mass faces. on page 615 floors, curtain systems, and roofs.

Add Levels and Grids

Levels and grids are finite planes that help to define project context.

Add levels. ----- Create a level for each known story or other
reference needed for the building design.

Add grids. ----- Place column grid lines to help plan the building
layout.

Use DWG and Image Files

When creating the preliminary layout, you can use existing DWG files or raster image files as underlays on
which to sketch your design.

Import a DWG file. ----- To base the new building model on an existing
AutoCAD drawing, import the DWG file.

Import a raster image. ----- To base the new model on a raster image, import
the image.

Resize the raster image. ----- If the image imports at the wrong size, resize it
as needed.

24 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

Add Basic Building Elements
Place generic elements in the building model to plan the layout. You can assign specific element types later
when you refine the design.

Add walls. on page 634 ----- Add interior and exterior walls to the building
model.

Add doors. ----- Add doors to the design. Specify the types of
doors and their sizes.

Add windows. ----- Add windows to the design. Specify the types of
windows and their sizes.

Add openings. on page 725 ----- If needed, add openings in walls or floors, roofs,
and ceilings.

Add roofs. on page 675 ----- Add a roof based on the building footprint. Adjust
the slope of the roof, if needed.

Add floors. ----- Add floors using wall boundaries or by sketching

lines.

Add ceilings. ----- Add ceilings using wall boundaries or by sketching

lines in a Reflected Ceiling Plan view.

Add structural columns. ----- Add columns to the building model.

Add Basic Building Elements | 25

 Add beams. ----- Add beams to the structure.

View the Model

You can create different views of the building model, such as sections, elevations, and 3D views. When you
change the building model in one view, Revit Architecture propagates those changes throughout the project.

Create elevations. ----- Create elevations to show the building model

from different directions.

Create sections. ----- Create sections to show more details of the

building model.

Create a 3D view of the building model in which

Create an orthographic view. ----- all elements are the same size, regardless of their
distance from the camera.

Create a 3D view of the building model in which

Create a perspective view. ----- elements that are farther from the camera appear
smaller.

To change the orientation of a 3D view or

Navigate a 3D view. ----- navigate through it, use the ViewCube or
SteeringWheels.

Add More Elements to the Model

After creating the preliminary layout, add more details to the building model to further develop the design.

26 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

Stairs and Railings
Create simple or complex stairs and railings in the building model.

Add stairs. on page 728 ----- Add stairs by sketching the run or boundary and
riser lines.

Create a railing. ----- Add a railing to the stairs.

Modify the rail structure. ----- If needed, change the height, number of rails,
and other characteristics of the railing.

Rooms and Areas

Use rooms, areas, and color schemes to plan occupancy and usage of a building, and to perform basic analysis
of the design.

Create rooms. ----- Place rooms in a floor plan, and tag them if
desired.

Add room separation lines. ----- Use separation lines to add and adjust room
boundaries.

Create an area plan to show spatial relationships

Create an area plan. ----- based on area schemes and levels in the building
model.

Apply color schemes. ----- Apply color schemes to area plans and to rooms
in floor plans and sections.

Add More Elements to the Model | 27

 Components
You can add components such as furniture, casework, and plumbing fixtures to the building model. Many
components are standard items that can be delivered on site. Some components must be built in place to
meet project-specific requirements.

Place a component. ----- Load a family into the project, and place instances
of that family in the building model.

Create an in-place element. on

----- Create a custom component designed for a
page 435 particular context in the building model.

Refine the Model

After planning the basic design, refine the building model by specifying component types, adding details,
and creating parametric relationships to constrain the model.

Refine/Replace Components
With the basic design established, you can now refine the building model to specify different element types,
build curtain walls, and create other details.

To refine the types of walls, doors, and other

Refine types of building elements. ----- components used in the building model, select
the elements to change, and specify the
appropriate types.

Modify the structure of basic

----- If needed, modify the structure of walls, floors,
elements. roofs, and ceilings.

Create and refine curtain walls. on

----- Create curtain walls. Modify the grid layout.
page 766 Adjust mullions. Change panel types.

Add sweeps and reveals. ----- Add wall reveals, and add sweeps for walls, roofs,
and floors.

28 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

 Manage the Relationships of Elements
To ensure that the building model maintains relationships among elements, apply constraints. For example,
you can specify that a door maintains a certain distance from a wall, that all windows remain equally spaced
on a wall, or that 2 collinear walls should stay aligned with each other.

Apply constraints based on

----- Place a dimension, and lock it in place to apply a
dimensions. constraint.

Apply constraints based on Align elements (such as a wall with a reference

----- line), and lock the alignment to create a
alignment.
constraint.

Collaborate with Others

Revit Architecture provides several ways to share project work or information with other team members.
The point at which you perform these tasks will vary by project and by organization.

Add Team Members to the Project

If you plan to divide the design work among multiple team members, use the Revit worksharing feature
after creating the basic design.

Break Up the Model

When you enable worksharing, you can break up the building model into worksets. In addition to the default
worksets, you can create more worksets based on functional areas, such as interior, exterior, and site.

Learn best practices. ----- Review best practices for dividing a building
model into worksets.

Share the project. ----- Enable worksharing so that multiple team

members can work on the model.

Divide the project into shareable

----- Divide the building model into worksets, and add
parts. elements to each workset.

Collaborate with Others | 29

 Work on Part of the Project
The following is the typical sequence of tasks for each team member working on the project.

Create a local copy of the project. ----- Create a local copy of the central file every day
to make sure you have the latest changes.

Open worksets. ----- Open the worksets with which you want to work.

Borrow elements. ----- If you need to modify elements that belong to

other worksets, borrow the elements.

Other team members may need to borrow

Manage editing requests. ----- elements in your worksets. Grant their requests
and manage your own editing requests.

Synchronize your changes with the central file,

Save your changes ----- so that team members have access to your
modifications to the project.

Share the Model with Other Disciplines

You can set up a project so that relevant information about the Revit model can be shared with engineers
in multiple disciplines.

Link projects. ----- Link to Revit projects used by engineers.

Copy elements from a linked Copy common elements (such as grids, levels,
----- and columns) from a linked project into the host
project.
project, and establish relationships between them.

30 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

 Monitor changes to copied
----- Review warnings about project changes.
elements.

Coordinate Revit models. ----- To prevent conflicts, check for collisions between
elements in linked projects.

Issue the Design to Consultants

If you need consultants to review or work on parts of a design, use the following options to share the project
electronically.

Export one or more views, sheets, or entire sheet

Export to DWG. ----- sets to DWG for electronic review by consultants
or for sharing with remote team members.

Publish DWG or DWF files to Buzzsaw when your

Publish to Buzzsaw. ----- organization uses this online collaboration service
to share design documents with remote team
members.

Export a 3D view to FBX, so that a rendering

Export to FBX. ----- specialist can use visualization software to create
sophisticated renderings of the building model.

Document the Model

Prepare the construction documents that builders and engineers use.

Create Drawings of the Model

To share design information with builders and engineers, you can produce detailed drawings from the
building model, or create a drafted drawing to show specific details.

Create View References

Create elevations, sections, and callouts to provide design details about the building model.

Revit Architecture provides north, south, east,

Create an elevation. ----- and west elevations. If needed, create additional
exterior or interior elevations.

Issue the Design to Consultants | 31

 Create a section. on page 138 ----- Create a section of the building, a wall, or a detail
area.

Create a callout. ----- Create a detail callout or a view callout for a plan,
elevation, section, or detail.

Adjust the Graphics in a Drawing

Change the appearance of a drawing to help communicate design details.

Specify the scale and detail level. ----- The scale and detail level determine the size and
detail of geometry in the drawing.

Change the graphic style. ----- Specify the graphic style of the drawing
(wireframe, hidden line, or shaded).

If needed, hide an element or an entire category

Adjust the display of elements. ----- of elements in a drawing, or specify the line style,
color, and pattern for the display of each
category.

Change the line style of edges. on

----- To differentiate or hide edges of the model in a
page 400 drawing, use the Linework tool.

In a plan view, vary the cut plane using a plan

Change the cut plane. ----- region to accommodate split levels or other
atypical designs.

32 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

 Plan the Sheet Layout
Determine which sheets you need and which drawings they will contain. In a later step, you will refine the
sheets to add title blocks, title marks, and a sheet index.

Create sheets. ----- Add sheets to the project.

Place drawings on the sheets. ----- Place drawings on the sheets, and position them
as desired.

Annotate the Drawings

Add dimensions, text, and tags to provide detailed information.

Add Dimensions
After adding dimensions, you can change their appearance, add dimension text, and adjust witness lines.

Add dimensions. on page 267 ----- Add dimensions to a drawing.

Override dimension text. on page

----- Add text to a dimension, or replace a dimension
264 value with text.

Adjust witness lines. ----- Move a witness line, or control the gap between
a witness line and elements.

Change the appearance of

----- If needed, change properties of the dimension
dimensions. on page 290 family.

Annotate the Drawings | 33

 Add Text and Leaders
Add text notes to drawings, with or without leaders. Change the text style, if needed.

Add text. ----- Add text notes to document the design.

Add leaders to text. ----- Add leaders to the text, if needed.

Change the appearance of text. ----- If needed, change properties of the text family.

Add Tags
Add tags to identify elements in views. Change the appearance of tags to suit your needs and conventions.

Tag multiple elements. ----- You can tag all untagged elements of a particular
category (or several categories) in one operation.

Tag one element. ----- You can tag a selected element.

Change the appearance of tags. ----- If needed, change properties of the tag family.

Create Schedules
Create schedules to determine quantities and estimate costs.

34 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

 Door Schedule
Create a door schedule to determine quantities and estimate costs.

Create a door schedule. ----- Create a schedule that itemizes each door in the
building model.

Filter the door schedule by level. ----- By filtering the schedule, you can list the doors
for each level of the building.

Window Schedule
Create a window schedule to determine quantities and estimate costs.

Create a window schedule. ----- Create a schedule that summarizes windows by

type.

Room Finish Schedule

Create a schedule of room finishes to estimate costs and quantities of required materials.

Create a schedule that specifies the type of

Create a room finish schedule. ----- flooring, wall covering, ceiling, and trim for each
room.

If desired, create fields to store additional

information about rooms, such as the style of
Add custom parameters to rooms. ----- décor, finish, or trim for each room. This
information can display in the room schedule,
and you can use it for sorting and filtering.

Modify the appearance of the If needed, change the layout, formatting, or sort
----- order of the schedule. Modify the schedule to
schedule.
hide a column, delete a row, or edit cells.

Add Details
Add detail lines and components from a detail library. Add keynotes to identify equipment and materials
required.

Add Details | 35
 Add Detail Lines and Components
You can sketch detail lines, or insert detail components from a library.

Add detail lines to a view. ----- Sketch the desired detail lines, drawing directly
over the model if needed.

Add detail components. ----- Select from a large library of detail components.

You can specify whether a detail view displays the

Specify the model display. ----- model normally, displays it as an underlay in
half-tone, or hides it. Use the Display Model
parameter of the view properties.

Create Drafted Details

In Revit Architecture, most views of the building model show elements from the model. If you want to draft
details that are not based on the building information model, use a drafting view.

Create an empty drafting view. ----- Create a drafting view that is not associated with
the parametric building model.

Draft the details. ----- Use detailing tools to draw the desired details.

Link a callout to the drafting view. ----- Create one or more callouts in other views to
point to the drafting view.

36 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

 Use a Detail Library
If your organization has an existing detail library, you can re-use these details in Revit drafting views.

Import a DWG file. ----- Import details stored as DWG files into drafting
views in the Revit project.

If your organization has created a Revit project

Transfer drafting views from a
----- that stores standard drafting views, you can insert
standard project. one or more of these views into the current
project.

Add Keynotes
Use keynotes to provide information about building details.

Add keynotes. ----- Tag elements or materials with standard CSI

keynotes or custom keynotes.

Refine Sheets
After you have created sheets and placed drawings on them, you refine the appearance of the sheets.

Customize the title block. ----- Create or modify a title block to include
information about your organization.

Modify title marks. ----- To change the content and appearance of title
marks on sheets, modify view title types.

Create a sheet index. ----- Create a sheet index (drawing list) to include on
the title sheet.

Publish Construction Documents

Print construction documents, or publish them for electronic sharing.

Refine Sheets | 37
 Print Views and Sheets
When you need hard copies, you can print check plots, individual sheets, or entire sheet sets.

Print a sheet. ----- Print one or more sheets in a construction

document set.

When printing the current view, under Print

Print an area (check plot). ----- Range, select Current Window or Visible Portion
of Current Window.

Generate DWF or PDF Files

When you are ready to archive the construction documents, you can generate DWF or PDF files.

Export to DWF. on page 1355 ----- Export a sheet set to DWF to preserve project
information with the drawings.

Print to PDF. on page 1084 ----- Print to PDF to store the designs in electronic files.

Track Revisions
Enter revision information, mark changes with revision clouds, and specify the revisions to display on each
sheet.

Enter revision information. ----- Enter information about the revision in the Sheet
Issues/Revisions dialog.

After you update the project to implement the

Add revision clouds. ----- change, draw revision clouds to indicate the areas
that changed.

By default, the most recent revision is assigned

Assign a revision to each cloud. ----- to a new cloud. However, you can change the
revision that applies to a cloud.

38 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

 Tag the revision clouds. ----- Tags identify the revisions assigned to clouds.

Specify the revisions on a sheet. ----- Check the sheets to make sure the revision
schedules show the desired information.

Issue the revisions. ----- Issue a revision when it is ready to be shared with
team members.

Present the Project

Prepare the design for presentation to clients or other stakeholders.

Create Renderings
Generate a photorealistic image of a building model, and present the design to clients or share it with team
members

NOTE You can perform the first 4 steps in any order.

Create an orthographic on page 157 or perspective

Create 3D views. ----- on page 157 3D view of the building model.
To render a 2D view, create a 3D view that is
oriented to an existing 2D view on page 161.

Change the render appearance of Specify render appearances on page 475 for
----- materials, and apply materials on page 471 to
materials.
model elements.

Define interior and exterior lights for the building

model:
■ If the rendered image will use artificial lights,
Add lights. ----- add them on page 1190 to the building model.
■ If the rendered image will use natural light,
define sun and shadow settings on page 253.

Present the Project | 39

 To enhance the rendered image with realistic
Add plants and entourage. ----- details, add decals on page 1216, plants, and other
entourage.

Render settings control aspects of the rendered

Define render settings. ----- image, such as render quality, resolution, lighting,
and background.

Render the Image. ----- Render the image. To improve the performance
of the rendering process, follow best practices.

Rendering is often an iterative process that

Refine the rendered image. on requires several attempts to achieve the desired
----- results. Adjust lighting, render quality settings,
page 1237
exposure settings, and other parameters until the
rendered image meets your needs.

Save the rendered Image. ----- When you are satisfied with the results, save the
image as a project view or export it to a file.

Create a Walkthrough
Create a virtual tour of the building model to share the design with others.

Create a walkthrough path. ----- Draw a path through the building model, placing
key frames along the way.

Test the walkthrough. ----- Play the walkthrough to review the results.

Edit the walkthrough. ----- Refine the walkthrough by editing the

walkthrough path on page 166 and frames.

40 | Chapter 2 Architectural Workflows

Export the walkthrough on page
----- Export the walkthrough to an animation file or a
168 series of still image files.

Create a Walkthrough | 41
42
What's New?
3
This topic describes new and enhanced features for Revit Architecture.

New in Revit 2010

The following topics describe the new and enhanced features for Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010.

User Interface Enhancements

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 includes major changes to the user interface, as described in the following
topics.

User Interface
In Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010, the user interface has been completely redesigned to be more intuitive.
The 2009 toolbar, menu bar, and Design Bar have been replaced with a single point of access for all tools:
the ribbon. The ribbon is organized into task-based tabs and panels that align with typical workflows and
reduce the learning curve. When you select an element in the drawing area, the ribbon displays a contextual
tab of tools that apply to that element.

NOTE Revit Architecture 2010 does not provide a way to switch between the 2009 menu-based interface and
the 2010 ribbon-based interface.

See Parts of the Revit Interface on page 86

43
 Learning Tools
Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 provides the following learning tools to aid the transition from Revit
Architecture 2009 to Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010.

■ User Interface Overview: Intended for all Revit users, the User Interface Overview is an interactive display
that describes parts of the user interface as you move the cursor over them. To access the User Interface
Overview, click the above link, or click (Help) drop-down ➤ User Interface Overview. The English
edition of the User Interface Overview provides a link to a printable PDF version of the overview.

■ User Interface Tour: Intended for all Revit users, this tool provides an animated tour of the new Revit
interface. To access the User Interface Tour, click the link located on the User Interface Overview page.

■ Where Is My Command?: Intended for existing Revit Architecture 2009 users, Where Is My Command? is
a help file that lists all commands by previous 2009 menu location and displays their current location
on the 2010 ribbon. To access Where Is My Command?, click the above link, or click (Help)
drop-down ➤ Where Is My Command?.

Tooltips
Tooltips display when you move the cursor over a tool in the ribbon. They provide a description of the tool,
and help you learn how to use the new interface.
You can adjust the level of information provided in tooltips, and turn them off when you no longer need
them. For instructions, see Tooltips on page 92.

InfoCenter
The InfoCenter toolbar is a collection of tools that help you find information about Revit Architecture.
InfoCenter consists of the Search, Communication Center, Subscription Center, and Favorites tools. Revit
Architecture Help is also located on the InfoCenter toolbar.
See InfoCenter on page 100.

Improved Spell Checker

The spell checker included with Revit Architecture has been replaced with an improved product. You can
specify a language for the main dictionary, and you can create custom dictionaries.

To set spelling options, click ➤ Options, and click the Spelling tab.
See Spelling Options on page 520.

44 | Chapter 3 What's New?

Conceptual Design Environment

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 introduces a new conceptual design environment. Use the conceptual
design environment to explore early design concepts before creating a more detailed BIM model in the Revit
project environment.
The conceptual design environment is a type of Family Editor that provides sophisticated modeling tools
and techniques for designers to create new massing families. These design concepts contain intelligent model
data, eliminating the need to re-create a design from the beginning whenever a change is required. This
capability makes it easy to iterate through a series of designs during the conceptual design phase.
The masses that you create in the conceptual design environment can be integrated into the Revit project
environment and carried through to the final construction phase.
You can use the conceptual design environment to create a conceptual massing family (which can be loaded
into projects), or to create an in-place mass in a Revit project. (See Forms on page 551.)
The conceptual design environment provides the following features:

■ flexible geometric form-making and manipulation tools

■ an enhanced drawing environment that allows drawing directly on surfaces and reference planes

■ tools to divide surfaces, apply patterns, and create flexible parametric components

■ an integrated workflow with the Revit project environment

For complete details, see Conceptual Design Environment on page 527.

Form Creation
Create accurate solid or void forms using the Create Form tool. Directly manipulate the forms by selecting
a line, vertex, edge, or surface and dragging it to create the desired shape. You no longer need to enter sketch
modes in order to change the shape of a form. (See Forms on page 551.)
Parameters and constraints are defined directly in the 3D view. They can be interactively tested so that you
can immediately determine whether a design is ready for the Revit project environment.
You can create 3D curves using the traditional spline tool, or using the new Spline Through Points tool,
which uses control points that you can drag in any direction.

Graphical Controls
New 3D graphical controls allow you to directly manipulate a form by selecting one of its elements (surface,
edge, line, or vertex) and dragging the control until the form has changed to the desired shape. Press the
Spacebar to change between local and global coordinates.
See Manipulating Forms on page 566.

Conceptual Design Environment | 45

 Inspect Form Geometry
View the geometry of a form using X-Ray. This display mode helps you better understand how a form is
constructed and allows you to easily select and manipulate geometry elements.
See X-Ray Mode on page 547.

Add Edge or Profile

Modify forms using Add Edge and Add Profile. These tools provide simple and accurate ways to modify your
form.
See Adding Elements to a Form on page 562.

Drawing Forms
When you start drawing in the 3D view, Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 determines the work plane for
you. Because you are already in the 3D view, you do not need to rely on multiple views to see what you are
developing. You can draw on reference planes, levels, or the faces of other forms. You can also use 3D
snapping to enhance the ability to snap to levels, grids, and other form elements.
See Drawing in the Conceptual Design Environment on page 533.

Reference Points
Reference points can host lines, curves, and splines in the conceptual design environment. You can plot
points to create splines and lines using the Spline through Points tool, and then use them to parametrically
modify the geometry of the line.

Reference points can be placed along splines, edges, or surfaces to supply additional planes of references
that are anchored to its host. See Reference Points on page 540.

46 | Chapter 3 What's New?

Divide and Pattern Surfaces

The conceptual design environment allows the ability to divide and pattern complex surfaces and then add
building detail that can later be fabricated. Divide Surface allows you to separate surfaces by levels, reference
planes, or model lines, and add patterns to them. Then you create and apply parametric components that
automatically conform to the divided surface of the complex form.
You can schematically study curtain system designs or structural framing layouts, or begin to apply curtain
panels to your form with Divide Surface. These designs have a persistent relationship to the BIM model at
all stages of the project.
See Rationalizing Surfaces on page 569.

Integrating the Concept

Designs created in the conceptual design environment can be integrated into the Revit project environment,
where you can perform analyses and scheduling using the Building Maker tools.
You can calculate and schedule floor perimeters, areas and volumes, and exterior surface areas to analyze a
mass.
See Massing Studies on page 589 and Analyzing a Conceptual Design on page 594.

Conceptual Design Environment | 47

Interoperability
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for interoperability among Autodesk products using
Autodesk Exchange files (ADSK), as well as sharing content online using Autodesk® Seek.

Exporting Building Sites

Architects can design buildings using Revit Architecture, then export the digital design geometry (including
the BIM data) to civil engineers who are designing the building site using AutoCAD® Civil 3D® or applications
that accept Autodesk Exchange (ADSK) files.
See Exporting Building Sites on page 1376.

Project Base Points and Survey Points

In Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010, a project base point and a survey point are now available in Revit
projects to support the export of building sites to civil engineering applications.
The coordinates of the survey point are exported from the building site to the ADSK file. They correctly
orient the building geometry in the coordinate system of the civil engineering application.
By default, the project base point and the survey point are hidden in views. To turn on their visibility:
1 Open the view in which you want to see the project base point and the survey point.
2 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics.
3 On the Model Categories tab under Visibility, expand the Site category.
4 Under Site, select Project Base Point and Survey Point.
5 Click OK.
See Project Base Points and Survey Points on page 1302.

48 | Chapter 3 What's New?

 Importing Building Components
Architects using Revit Architecture and MEP engineers using Revit MEP® can import building components
from Autodesk ® Inventor® or other mechanical applications that create Autodesk Exchange (ADSK) files.
See Importing Building Components on page 1398.

Publishing Content to the Autodesk® Seek Website

In Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010, you can publish Revit families, products, or design information directly
to the Autodesk Seek website, so it can be shared with others who are searching for manufacturer-specific
or generic building products online.
See Publishing to Autodesk® Seek on page 1382.

Export to gbXML
In Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010, you can examine an analytical model of a project before exporting the
model to a gbXML file. The new Export gbXML dialog lets you ensure that surface types and openings are
correctly identified and verify that the entire volume for the building is being exported.

Worksharing
Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 includes the following improvements for worksharing (See Working in a
Team on page 1249.)

Create New Local

A workshared project file can be opened as a local file from the Open dialog. A copy of the central file is
made and renamed as a local file. If a local file already exists, Revit will prompt you to overwrite the existing
file or rename the new file.
See Creating a Local Copy of a Central File from the Open Dialog on page 1258.

Worksharing | 49
 Set Default Worksets to Open
For a workshared project, you can specify which worksets will open by default when the project is next
opened. For example, for a project with a small team, you may want all worksets to open by default. For a
large team, you may want users to specify the worksets to open each time.
To set default worksets, use the Open workset default option. When you save a new central file, this setting
will be applied to all users. If the change is made when saving a local file, it will be valid the next time the
local file is opened.
See Save Options on page 115.

Visibility and Graphics Enhancements

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 includes the following improvements for visibility and graphics.

Gradient Backgrounds for 3D Views

You can define gradient backgrounds for 3D views, including orthographic views and perspective views.
You can specify colors for the sky, horizon, and ground. You can also specify where the horizon occurs by
indicating the ground plane level.
See Specifying the Background for a 3D View on page 158.

Halftone/Underlay Settings
In Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010, you can control the line weight and pattern used for underlays, and
the brightness of halftone elements. When printing views or sheets, you can specify that halftones print as
thin lines to retain print fidelity.
See Halftone/Underlay on page 497.

Visibility Filters for Sections, Callouts, and Elevations

When you use filters to control the visibility and graphic display of elements, you can include elevations,
sections, and callouts in the categories to use for filtering.
See Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters on page 204.

Anti-Aliasing
You can enable anti-aliasing for 3D views, so that curved lines appear smoother.
See Graphics Options on page 517.

Hardware Acceleration for Graphics

You can enable hardware acceleration for graphics display to improve performance when Revit Architecture
refreshes the screen, changes to another window, or displays annotations.

50 | Chapter 3 What's New?

 See Graphics Options on page 517.

Highlight Color
You can specify a highlight color, in addition to a selection color and an alert color.
See Graphics Options on page 517.

Hide by Filter
In addition to hiding selected elements in a view, or elements based on categories, you can hide elements
in a view using filters.
For example, suppose you want to be able to hide interior walls, doors, floors, stairs, and ramps in a view.
To do this, you can set the Function parameter for those family types to Interior, and then apply the
predefined Interior filter to the view. As a result, the view hides all elements whose Function parameter is
set to Interior. This feature can be helpful when preparing a view for export.
Floor plan showing interior and exterior walls
and doors

Floor plan with Interior filter applied to hide

interior walls and doors

See Hiding Elements on page 208 and Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters
on page 204.

Details and Annotations

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 offers the following new feature for detailing and annotating.

Spot Slope
Spot slope is a new type of spot dimension, similar to spot elevation. A spot slope displays the slope at a
specific point on a face or an edge of a model element. You can place spot slopes in plan views, elevation
views, and section views. The following illustration shows the 2 spot slope types.

Details and Annotations | 51

 See Spot Slopes on page 282.

Macros Development with Revit VSTA

Revit VSTA 2010 has been enhanced in the following ways.
Before using Revit VSTA 2010, see Upgrading from Revit VSTA 2009 on page 1422.

Improved Workflow
The Macro Manager has been redesigned to streamline the workflow for creating macros in the Revit VSTA
IDE and implementing them at the document and application level. The new Macro Manager increases the
visibility and organization of your API macro development while you work.
See Basic Workflow for Revit VSTA Macro Development on page 1425.

Macro Security
New macro security features have been implemented to protect your workstation from running unknown
malicious code. Macros can be disabled at the application and document levels, or can be set to prompt the
you to allow them when they are detected.
See Macro Security on page 1434.

Documentation
In Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010, the documentation has been improved as follows.

Architectural Workflows
A new chapter in the documentation provides a high-level introduction to Revit Architecture by mapping
typical architectural tasks to software features and functionality. This information is useful for new users of
Revit Architecture.
See Architectural Workflows on page 21.

New in Revit 2009

The following topics describe the new and enhanced features for Revit Architecture 2009.

IMPORTANT Command names, locations, and instructions in these topics reflect the user interface for Revit
Architecture 2009. In Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010, many of the names and their locations have changed.
To find 2009 commands in the 2010 release, click (Help) drop-down ➤ Where Is My Command? or see
Learning Tools on page 44.

Rendering Enhancements
In Revit Architecture 2009, the AccuRender® rendering engine has been replaced with the mental ray®
rendering engine. With this change, Revit Architecture provides an overall higher quality of rendering.

52 | Chapter 3 What's New?

Improved lighting effects and more accurate render appearances for materials result in more photorealistic
rendered images.
For details on specific improvements related to rendering enhancements in Revit Architecture, see the
following topics.
Image generated using the AccuRender rendering engine

Image generated using the mental ray® rendering engine

Rendering Workflow Enhancements

The user interface for rendering images has been completely redesigned. Fewer dialogs, a simplified workflow,
improved defaults, and clear terminology make it easier for users to generate realistic images with a minimum
of effort, even if they have limited rendering experience.

Rendering Enhancements | 53
 Improved user interface for rendering

For more experienced users, Revit Architecture offers control over advanced settings to refine a rendered
image and achieve the desired result.

Related topics

■ Rendering Workflow on page 1163

54 | Chapter 3 What's New?

■ Rendering an Image on page 1220

■ Render Quality Settings on page 1225

■ Rendering Best Practices on page 1233

Render Appearance Enhancements for Materials

In Revit 2008 and previous releases, the software provided default materials, many of which used AccuRender
definitions for render appearances. When you rendered a 3D view of a building model, these AccuRender
definitions were used to provide a realistic representation of the model elements.
In Revit Architecture 2009, new render appearances provide more accurate results in rendered images. A
dynamic user interface presents different properties for each type of render appearance, allowing more
control over textures and visual effects. When working with materials, you can enter search text to locate
the desired material or render appearance quickly, based on its name, description, keywords, or other
information.
Material definitions are stored as part of the project file. Render appearances are stored in a local, read-only
library. If you change settings for render appearances, many changes are stored as part of the project. If you
specify image files for render appearances (for example, for custom colors or textures), you can store the
image files in a directory, and point Revit Architecture to that directory. (See Additional Render Appearance
Paths on page 518.) To share custom render appearances with team members, you use File menu ➤ Transfer
Project Standards. Also send the directory containing the image files.
See Materials on page 468, Render Appearance Library on page 491, and Transferring Project Standards on
page 446.

Lighting Enhancements
Lighting fixtures are now photometric and can be described by IES files. (Many manufacturers provide IES
files for their lighting fixtures, which you can download from their Web sites.) When you render an image,
Revit Architecture uses information in the IES file to determine the intensity of light at various points in
space. If you do not use an IES file to describe the light source, you can specify real-world lighting variables
based on manufacturer information. These improvements provide more accurate, realistic lighting in the
rendered image. See Lights on page 1164.
During the rendering process, daylighting is performed automatically. For advanced lighting quality in
interior views, you can enable daylight portals, if needed. See Daylight Portals on page 1227.

Rendering Enhancements | 55
 Plant and Entourage Enhancements
Revit Architecture 2009 provides an improved library of RPC (Rich Photorealistic Content) files from
ArchVision®.
The library has been expanded to include the following:

■ Over 100 trees and plants

■ More ArchVision realpeople™, as well as updates to realpeople that were shipped with previous releases

■ Additional office furnishings and fixtures

The new RPC content offers more photorealistic render appearances. It is stored in a local, read-only library.
If your organization has purchased additional RPC content, you can use it in building models to enhance
rendered images.
The user interface for RPC content is simplified to improve the workflow. See Plants and Entourage on page
1203.

56 | Chapter 3 What's New?

Decal Enhancements
Revit Architecture 2009 provides a more accurate rendering of decals. The user interface has been enhanced
to provide more control over the appearance of decals in rendered images.
See Decals on page 1215.

Enhancements for Export to 3ds Max

When you export a 3D view to Autodesk® 3ds Max® to use its higher-level rendering capabilities, Revit
Architecture 2009 passes rendering settings to 3ds Max. The information includes render appearances
(material assignments), lights, and related settings defined in the project. By preserving this information
during the export process, Revit Architecture maintains a high degree of fidelity and reduces the amount of
work you must perform in 3ds Max.
See Exporting to 3ds Max on page 1373.

Migrating to Revit Architecture 2009

After you upgrade from a previous release to Revit Architecture 2009, Revit families and projects may need
to be migrated to make them compatible with the new rendering functionality.
Some migrations are performed automatically when you upgrade the Revit software. Other migrations are
performed automatically when you open a Revit family or project. Some migrations must be performed
manually.

To migrate... Do this... For more information, see...

Render appearances for materials

default render appearances Open the project in Revit Architecture 2009, and save Migrating Render Appearances for
for materials it. Materials on page 58, Changing
the Render Appearance of a Mater-
ial on page 475

Rendering Enhancements | 57
 To migrate... Do this... For more information, see...

modified render appearances Open the project in Revit Architecture 2009. Click Set- Migrating Render Appearances for
for materials tings menu ➤ Materials. For each material that used a Materials on page 58, Changing
custom AccuRender definition, assign a new render the Render Appearance of a Mater-
appearance. Save changes to the project. ial on page 475

Lighting

a lighting fixture family Open the family in Revit Architecture 2009, and save Migrating Lighting Fixtures on
it. page 60, Lights on page 1164

lighting fixture families in a Open each lighting fixture family in Revit Architecture Migrating Lighting Fixtures on
project 2009, and save it. Then reload each family into the page 60, Lights on page 1164
project, overwriting the existing family. Save changes
to the project.

daylighting No action required. The mental ray rendering engine Daylight Portals on page 1227
performs daylighting automatically. For advanced
lighting quality in interior views, you can enable day-
light portals, if needed.

To migrate... Do this... For more information, see...

Entourage

default RPC content provided No action required. When you render an image in the Migrating Entourage on page 60,
with Revit 2008 project, Revit 2009 updates its render appearance Plants and Entourage on page 1203
automatically.

additional RPC content that Configure the ArchVision Content Manager (ACM) to Migrating Entourage on page 60,
you licensed or downloaded work with Revit Architecture. Using the ArchVision Content
Manager on page 1212

AccuRender procedural plants Do either of the following: Migrating Plants on page 61,
■ Open the project, and manually replace each 2008 Plants and Entourage on page 1203
plant family with a 2009 plant family.
■ Open the 2008 plant family in the Family Editor.
Select Settings menu ➤ Family Category and
Parameters. For Rendering Appearance Source, se-
lect Third Party, and click OK. In the Family Type,
for Render Appearance, specify an RPC file for the
plant. Save the plant family.

decals No action required. Decals are automatically upgraded Migrating Decals on page 61,
to work with Revit Architecture 2009. Decals on page 1215

Migrating Render Appearances for Materials

In Revit Architecture 2009, some materials migrate automatically to use the new render appearances. For
other materials, new render appearances will need to be assigned manually.

58 | Chapter 3 What's New?

NOTE Glow, smoothness, and shininess are no longer supported for Revit materials. However, render appearances
for materials may have similar properties. When you upgrade a project to Revit Architecture 2009, all materials
from earlier Revit releases are converted to have no glow, no smoothness, and no shininess.

For more information, see Materials on page 468.

Render Appearances that Migrate Automatically

In Revit Architecture 2009, new render appearances have been assigned to all materials that are used in Revit
families or templates and that previously used AccuRender definitions. When you upgrade a project that
uses these materials, the materials are updated to use the new render appearances.
For these materials, each 2008 render appearance is mapped to a new 2009 render appearance, based on a
match of the AccuRender definition name. If you modified an AccuRender definition without changing its
name, the modified AccuRender appearance is updated to use the 2009 render appearance.

NOTE Revit Architecture 2009 does not change the names of any existing materials in a project.

Render Appearances that Require Manual Updates

Revit Architecture 2009 assigns a default render appearance to the following:

■ Materials that are not used in Revit families or templates

■ Materials that use custom AccuRender definitions in Revit 2008 or prior releases

In rendered images, this default render appearance displays as gray, and the material’s Comments field
displays the following text:
Rendering appearance not upgraded
You must update these materials to assign new render appearances to them. See Updating a 2008 Render
Appearance on page 59.
If a Revit 2008 project makes extensive use of AccuRender definitions, you can edit a text file to map the
AccuRender definitions to new render appearances. For instructions, go to the Autodesk Support Knowledge
Base and search for the technical solution TS1081106.

Updating a 2008 Render Appearance

Use the following procedure to assign a new render appearance to a 2008 material whose render appearance
was not upgraded automatically.

To update a render appearance for a material

1 In Revit Architecture 2009, open a project.
2 Click Settings menu ➤ Materials.
3 In the left pane of the Materials dialog, under Materials, enter not upgraded in the search field.
The materials list displays the names of all materials whose Comments field contains the specified
text.

4 Select a material from the list.

5 On the Render Appearance tab, click Replace.
6 In the Render Appearance Library, select the desired render appearance for the material, and
click OK.

Rendering Enhancements | 59
 See Searching for a Render Appearance on page 491.

7 If desired, modify properties for the render appearance.

See Render Appearance Properties on page 478.

8 Click Apply.
9 Repeat Steps 4 through 8 for other materials whose render appearances were not upgraded.
10 In the Materials dialog, click OK.
11 Save changes to the project.

Migrating Lighting Fixtures

In Revit Architecture 2009, all 2008 lighting fixture families (including spot lights and linear lights) display
and render as spherical light sources with intensity control.
To migrate a lighting fixture family, open the lighting fixture family in the Family Editor. Revit Architecture
adds a new light source definition to the family, using default settings. Make desired changes to the light
source definition and its parameters. (See Defining the Geometry of a Light Source on page 1180 and Defining
Parameters for Lighting Fixtures and Light Sources on page 1182.) Save changes to the family.
To migrate a lighting fixture family in a project, first migrate the lighting fixture family as described above.
Then save the family and reload it into the project, overwriting the existing family. (Override parameters
in the project if desired.) Save changes to the project.
After migration, the light sources for the lighting fixtures render photometrically, and they have more
photometric properties. For more information, see Lights on page 1164.

Migrating Light Groups

In a Revit 2008 project, you may have created light groups to control light settings (on/off or dimming) in
rendered images.
When you migrate a Revit 2008 project to Revit Architecture 2009, the light groups are maintained. However
their settings (on/off or dimming) are not preserved. As a result, you must redefine the settings for each 3D
view that uses a light group. See Light Groups on page 1197.

Migrating RPC Content

Revit 2008 provided several RPC files from ArchVision® as entourage (such as plants, cars, and people) for
rendered images. Revit Architecture 2009 provides updated files for the same RPC content, as well as additional
RPC files for new entourage.
For more information, see Plants and Entourage on page 1203.

Migrating Entourage
When you render an image in a migrated project, Revit Architecture 2009 uses new render appearances for
existing RPC content (provided with Revit 2008) automatically. You do not need to perform any manual
steps to migrate the default Revit 2008 RPC content.
If a Revit 2008 project contains RPC content that you licensed or downloaded (not provided with Revit
2008), configure Revit Architecture 2009 to use the ArchVision Content Manager. See Using the ArchVision
Content Manager on page 1212.

60 | Chapter 3 What's New?

Migrating Plants
Many Revit 2008 plant families were defined using AccuRender procedures. In Revit Architecture 2009,
render appearances for plant families are defined using RPC files. There is no one-to-one strategy for mapping
Revit 2008 plants to Revit 2009 plants.
When you open a Revit 2008 project in Revit Architecture 2009, existing AccuRender plant families will
have their Rendering Appearance Source parameter set to Family Geometry. When you render an image,
the plants do not display.
If you plan to render images containing plants, you must do either of the following:

■ Manually replace each 2008 AccuRender plant family with a 2009 RPC plant family. See Placing Plants
and Entourage in a Project View on page 1213.

■ Open the 2008 plant family in the Family Editor. Select Settings menu ➤ Family Category and Parameters.
For Rendering Appearance Source, select Third Party, and click OK. In the Family Type, for Render
Appearance, specify an RPC file for the plant. Save the plant family. See Specifying a Render Appearance
for an RPC Family on page 1207.

Migrating Decals
When you open a Revit 2008 project using Revit Architecture 2009, any decals in the project are automatically
upgraded for Revit Architecture 2009. If you specified any special attributes for the decal using Revit 2008,
those attributes are not retained. Instead, Revit Architecture 2009 provides a more accurate rendering of
decals.
For more information, see Decals on page 1215.

Migrating Rendered Images in a Project

Revit Architecture 2009 does not automatically re-render images in a migrated project. To update a rendered
image using the new rendering functionality, you must re-render the image.
Before rendering an image, verify that the following conditions are met:

■ Materials use the desired render appearances. See Migrating Render Appearances for Materials on page
58.

■ Existing lighting fixture families have been migrated. Migrating Lighting Fixtures on page 60

■ Existing light groups have the desired settings (on/off or dimming) in the view. See Migrating Light
Groups on page 60.

■ Any exterior lighting scheme uses the desired sun position. See Controlling Lighting in a Rendered Image
on page 1228.

■ Plants are updated to use new RPC render appearances. See Migrating Plants on page 61.

For instructions about rendering an image, see Rendering an Image on page 1220 and Rendering Best Practices
on page 1233.

Performance of the Rendering Engine

In Revit Architecture 2009, the mental ray rendering engine is designed to produce more photorealistic
rendered images than in Revit 2008. It provides renderings of comparable quality to AccuRender in a similar
amount of time.

Rendering Enhancements | 61
 However, in Revit Architecture 2009, you have more control over the quality settings for rendered images.
For example, you can generate a quick draft quality image to check material settings, or use a higher quality
setting to generate a presentation-quality image. Higher quality rendered images require more time to
generate than lower quality images. Other characteristics of the building model can also increase rendering
time. Regardless of the quality setting you choose, however, the resulting rendering will be more accurate
and more detailed than the corresponding AccuRender image.
See Specifying the Render Quality on page 1224 and Rendering Best Practices on page 1233.

What's Changed for Rendering?

The following table lists rendering features and functions in Revit 2008, and describes how these have
changed in Revit Architecture 2009.

Revit 2008 Feature In Revit 2009... For more information

AccuRender radiosity and Revit Architecture 2009 now performs similar Rendering an Image on page 1220
raytracing functions automatically when it renders an image.
You no longer need to perform these functions
as separate steps.

AccuRender environment set- When you define render settings, you specify Controlling Lighting in a Rendered Im-
tings, sun and sky settings whether the sky is cloudy or hazy (or both), or a age on page 1228, Specifying the Back-
solid color. For the sun position, you can select ground for a Rendered Image on page
from predefined settings, or define a sun position 1229
based on date/time/location or azimuth/altitude.

Daylighting For rendered images, daylighting is performed Daylight Portals on page 1227
automatically. For advanced lighting quality in
interior views, you can enable daylight portals, if
needed.

Render scenes You define render settings for each 3D view. To Defining Render Settings on page 1221,
apply defined render settings to other views, View Templates for Render Settings on
create a view template. Then apply it to the de- page 1232
sired views.

AccuRender backface culling, Revit Architecture 2009 now performs these

view culling functions automatically when it renders an image.
You no longer need to specify these settings.

External material libraries Material definitions are stored as part of the pro- Materials on page 468, Render Appear-
ject file. Render appearances are stored in a local, ance Library on page 491, Transferring
read-only library. If you change attributes for Project Standards on page 446, Render-
render appearances, many changes are stored as ing Options on page 518
part of the project. If you specify image files for
render appearances, store the image files in a
directory, and point Revit Architecture to that
directory. To share custom render appearances
with team members, use File menu ➤ Transfer
Project Standards, and send them the directory
containing the image files.

Revit 2008 Feature In Revit 2009... For more information

AccuRender procedural trees ArchVision RPC trees Plants and Entourage on page 1203

62 | Chapter 3 What's New?

 Revit 2008 Feature In Revit 2009... For more information

Seasonal settings For many plants, you can now select a render Specifying a Render Appearance for an
appearance that shows a standard version of the RPC Family on page 1207
plant or a fall version of the plant. You specify
this in the plant family. The plant season is no
longer a render setting.

Navigating 2D and 3D Views

ViewCube and SteeringWheels are navigation tools that allow you to navigate 2D and 3D views in Revit
Architecture. These tools replace the Dynamic View commands that were available in 2D and 3D views in
previous releases of Revit Architecture.

ViewCube
The ViewCube is a 3D navigation tool that indicates the current orientation of a model and lets you adjust
the viewpoint.

The ViewCube displays by default when you open a 3D view. You can show or hide the ViewCube using
Window menu ➤ ViewCube.

SteeringWheels
SteeringWheels are tracking menus that allow you to access different 2D and 3D navigation tools from a
single point. SteeringWheels are divided into different sections known as wedges. Each wedge on a wheel
represents a single navigation tool. You can pan, zoom, or manipulate the current view of a model in different
ways.
There are several SteeringWheels; wheels are specific to the context that a model is being viewed in.
Full Navigation Wheel

SteeringWheels can be accessed from the toolbar. Click (in 2D views) or (in 3D views) to access
the SteeringWheels.
For more information on ViewCube and SteeringWheels, see Navigating Views on page 217.

Navigating 2D and 3D Views | 63

 Dynamic View Tools in ViewCube and SteeringWheels
The following tables indicate where Dynamic View tools can be found in the ViewCube and SteeringWheels.
For some tools, behavior has changed and is noted.

General Navigation Options

In Dynamic View In ViewCube/SteeringWheels

Scroll Pan
In a 2D context, pan scrolls the view. If you are using pan
with an active view on a sheet, pan scrolls the sheet view,
not the active view on the sheet.

NOTE In a 3D context, primarily when you are using 3D

SteeringWheels, pan dollies the camera left and right.

Zoom Full Navigation Wheel: Zoom

Tour Building Wheel: Forward

3D View Navigation Options

In Dynamic View In ViewCube/SteeringWheels

Spin SteeringWheels: Orbit

ViewCube: Click and drag the ViewCube

64 | Chapter 3 What's New?

In Dynamic View In ViewCube/SteeringWheels

SteeringWheels: Rewind
Undo view orientation changes ( ) Rewind offers enhanced undo options for view orientation
changes. See Rewind Tool on page 237.

Right-click SteeringWheels or ViewCube, and click Save View.

Save View ( )

Orient to a Direction Click faces, edges, or corners on the ViewCube, or right-click

the ViewCube, and click Orient to a Direction.

Orient to a View Right-click SteeringWheels or ViewCube, and click Orient to

View.

Orient to a Plane Right-click SteeringWheels, and click Orient to a Plane.

Perspective View Navigation Options

In Dynamic View In SteeringWheels

Walkthrough Tab Options

Dolly Pan

Forward/Back Full Navigation Wheel: Walk

Tour Building Wheel: Forward

Turn Look

Field of View Tab Options

Navigating 2D and 3D Views | 65

 In Dynamic View In SteeringWheels

In/Out Right-click SteeringWheels, and click Increase/Decrease Focal

Length.

Slide Right-click SteeringWheels, and click Move Crop Boundary.

Recenter Right-click SteeringWheels, and click Re-center Crop Bound-

ary.

User Interface
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for the user interface in Revit Architecture 2009.

Recent Files
When you start Revit Architecture, it displays the new Recent Files window in the drawing area instead of
opening a default template. This window shows the projects and families that you worked on recently in
descending chronological order. To open one of these, click it. If you hold the cursor over the image, a
tooltip displays the path, size, and date the project or family was modified. To open a file that is not listed

in the Recent Files window, click (Browse for additional project files) or, click (Create new project).
The Recent Files window provides fast access to your recent projects and families. After you have worked in
a Revit file, you can return to the Recent Files window by clicking Window menu ➤ Recent Files, or press
CTRL + TAB if the window is still open. See Opening Revit Files on page 112.

Selection Count
When you select multiple elements, it can be difficult to determine whether you have selected the intended

elements. The right side of the status bar now includes a selection count to indicate how many items
are currently selected.
If you click the selection count icon, the Filter dialog displays, indicating how many elements are selected
in each category. In the Filter dialog, you can select and clear categories to select or deselect those elements.
See How Many Elements Are Selected? on page 341 and Selecting Elements Using a Filter on page 341.

66 | Chapter 3 What's New?

 Warnings for Selected Elements

To review warnings related to elements you have selected in the drawing area, click on the Options Bar.
See Warnings for Selected Elements on page 1415.

Export Warnings to a File

Warnings that relate to elements selected in the drawing area can be exported to an HTML file by clicking

on the Revit Architecture 2009 dialog. See Exporting Warnings to a File on page 1416.

Ground Plane at Level Field

Ground Plane at Level, located in the Sun and Shadow Settings dialog, is used to cast shadows in shaded
views when you are creating a solar study. This option no longer affects rendered images. See Solar Studies
on page 1241

Project Settings
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for project settings in Revit Architecture 2009.

Suppressing Trailing Zeros and Spaces

You can format project units to suppress trailing zeros (for example, 123.400 displays as 123.4) and suppress
spaces (for example, 1’ - 2” displays as 1’-2”). See Setting Project Units on page 502.

Decimal Display and Digit Grouping

The decimal display option for project units has changed. When you select the decimal display type, you
can also select how to group the digits in the unit value. See Changing Decimal Display and Digit Grouping
on page 502.

Conceptual Design
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for conceptual design and massing studies in Revit
Architecture 2009.

Analyzing Conceptual Designs

The ability to create mass floors from masses has been enhanced to enable analysis of conceptual designs.
(In Revit 2008, mass floors were called floor area faces.) The software now calculates the area, exterior surface
area, volume, and perimeter of each mass floor you create. This information is stored in the instance properties
for mass floors. You can include these values in schedules and tags.

Project Settings | 67
 You can then use this information to determine the following:
■ The best mix of uses (such as retail, residential, and office space) for the building

■ Rough cost estimates for the exterior of the building, based on linear dimensions or surface area

■ HVAC (heating/ventilation/air conditioning) requirements for different levels of the building

See Analyzing a Conceptual Design on page 594.

Related topics

■ Swept Blend

Project Views
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for project views in Revit Architecture 2009.

68 | Chapter 3 What's New?

Formatting Currency in a Schedule View
You can format currency fields with the appropriate currency symbol in a schedule. See Formatting Currency
Fields in a Schedule on page 185.

Cutting a Plan View by the Back Clip Plane

You can cut a plan view at the back clip plane. You activate this feature using the Depth Clipping parameter
for the plan view. The back clip plane is defined by the View Depth parameter, which is part of the view’s
View Range properties.

NOTE Plan views include floor plan views, reflected ceiling plan views, detail plan views, and callout plan views.

See Cutting a Plan View by the Back Clip Plane on page 127.

Cutting an Elevation, Section, or Callout View by the Far Clip Plane

You can cut an elevation, section, or callout view at the far clip plane. See Cutting an Elevation, Section, or
Callout View by the Far Clip Plane on page 133.

Custom View Scale

The view scale is the proportional system used to represent objects in a drawing. You can assign a different
scale to each view in a project. In Revit Architecture 2009, you can now create custom view scales. See View
Scale on page 243.

View Template Enhancement

Using the new Include option in the View Templates dialog, you can specify which view properties you
want to be included in a view template.

Properties that you exclude from a template do not require a value and are not overridden when you apply
a view template. See View Templates on page 507.

Applying a Color Scheme to a View

In plan views and section views, you can specify whether the color scheme displays in the background or
the foreground of the view. This option is a property of the view. (See Applying a Color Scheme on page
1022.)

Project Views | 69
 Mirroring a Project
Mirroring a project allows you to mirror (reflect the position and shape of) all elements in a project around
an axis you select (North - South, East - West, Northeast - Southwest, or Northwest - Southeast). When you
mirror a project, all model elements, views, and annotations are mirrored. Orientation of annotations is
preserved when necessary; for example text does not mirror to retain readability. See Mirroring a Project on
page 1301.

Rotate Project North

You can rotate project north for the entire project. See Rotating Project North on page 450.

Families
Swept Blend
Modeling complex geometry can be achieved using the Swept Blend tool. The tool allows massing or family
geometry to be defined by 2 different profiles placed along a 2D path containing an arc or a spline.

See Creating a Swept Blend on page 331.

Families Guide
Documentation for family creation has been restructured, revised, and enhanced with more detailed
conceptual information and tutorials.
See The Families Guide on page 418.

Project Phasing
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for project phasing in Revit Architecture 2009.

Graphic Overrides for Phase Statuses

For each phase status, you can now specify new graphic overrides from the Graphic Overrides tab of the
Phasing dialog.

■ Cut lines and projection lines:

70 | Chapter 3 What's New?

 You can specify a separate value, or no override, for line patterns, line weights, or line colors.

■ Cut and surface patterns:

You can specify a separate value, or no override, for fill patterns or colors, and specify whether a pattern
is visible.

■ Halftone:
You can specify a halftone for any phase status.

See Defining the Graphic Display for Phase Statuses on page 1335.

Visibility and Graphics

This topic describes the new and enhanced features for visibility and graphics in Revit Architecture 2009.

Hiding an Element in a Join

In Revit Architecture 2008, when you hid an element that was joined to another element in a view, the
joined-to element that remained visible might look incomplete. For example, when you hid a wall that was
joined to another wall in a view, the other wall displayed an edge with some gaps in geometry. In Revit
Architecture 2009, such a wall displays an edge with clean geometry.

Rooms and Areas

This topic describes new and enhanced features for rooms and areas in Revit Architecture 2009.

Rooms in Section Views

In Revit Architecture 2009, you can select rooms in section view. You can also use grips to adjust the upper
and lower boundaries of rooms.

When volume computation is turned on, Revit Architecture shows the actual boundaries used to compute
the volume of the room. These boundaries can include sloping elements, such as the walls, ceiling, and roof.

Visibility and Graphics | 71

 Related topics

■ Rooms in Section Views on page 980

■ Changing the Room Height Graphically on page 995

Room Volume Enhancements

When an existing project is opened in Revit Architecture 2009, it may show different numbers for room
volumes. These differences are due to enhancements that provide more accurate room volume calculations.
The software is now more flexible in the shapes of rooms for which it can compute volumes, and room
volumes are now computed to the wall face.
See Room Volume on page 991.

Changes to Room Computation Height

The computation height is a defined height above the base level of a room. Revit Architecture measures the
perimeter of the room at this height, and uses this information when computing the room area and volume.
In previous releases, the room computation height was a project-wide setting. In Revit Architecture 2009,
the computation height is now a parameter of a level family. If needed, you can change this parameter. You
can also create multiple level families that use different computation heights. For example, you may want
to define one level family for stories and another level family for plenums. See Computation Height on page
989.

NOTE Changing the computation height can affect the performance of Revit Architecture.

Building Pads Are Room-Bounding

When calculating the area or volume of a room, Revit Architecture now considers a building pad to be a
room-bounding element. If desired, you can turn off this element parameter. See Room-Bounding Elements
on page 981.

72 | Chapter 3 What's New?

Room Boundaries in Linked Models
In previous releases, when you linked Revit models together, Revit Architecture did not recognized
room-bounding elements in the linked model. As a result, you were not able to place a room between walls
(or other elements) in the host project and walls in the linked model.
In Revit Architecture 2009, you can now make the software recognize the room-bounding elements of a
linked model. See Room Boundaries in Linked Models on page 984.
Placing rooms in a host project (building exterior) using walls in a linked model
(building interior)

Tag Enhancements for Rooms and Areas

In Revit Architecture 2009, you can do the following:

■ Use the Tag All Not Tagged tool to simultaneously tag all rooms or areas that have not yet been tagged.

■ Change the orientation of a tag to be horizontal, vertical, or aligned with walls or boundary lines in the
building model.

■ Rotate the tag using the Rotate tool.

See Room Tags on page 985 and Areas and Area Tags on page 1011.

Unplace and Place Rooms and Areas

You can remove (unplace) a room or area from its current location in a building model. The Revit project
retains information about the room or area. The room or area information still appears in schedules. You
can then place the room or area in another location in the building. You delete a room or area by deleting
its row from a schedule.

Related topics

■ Removing Rooms on page 1000

■ Removing Areas on page 1014

Rooms and Areas | 73

 Color Fill in Section View
You can now apply color schemes to section views (in addition to plan views). In Revit Architecture, this
feature applies to rooms and areas. In Revit MEP, this feature applies to rooms, areas, spaces, and zones. See
Color Schemes on page 1019.

In plan views and section views, you can specify whether the color scheme displays in the background or
the foreground of the view. This option is a property of the view. (See Applying a Color Scheme on page
1022.)

Modelling Enhancements
This topic describes the new and enhanced modelling features for architectural and structural components
in Revit Architecture 2009.

Preventing a Join on a Mid-End Wall Face

Now, you can explicitly disallow a join to a mid-end wall using the join icons that appear above the end of
the wall.

To explicitly disallow or allow a join on a mid-end wall

1 Select the wall.

2 Click (Disallow Join) or (Allow Join) above the mid-end wall face.

Slope a Building Pad

You can slope building pads using the Slope Arrow command on the Design Bar, if, for example, you want
to add drainage for your building. See Sloping a Building Pad on page 967.

Beam Cutback
The new beam cutback tools apply beam join types and priority. You can use these tools to adjust visible
cutback to beams in an end-join relationship.
You can create miter joins for elements of the same type. Using the miter lock tool allows you to keep a
physical representation of the miter join in the Medium/Fine levels of detail while changing the symbolic
cutback representation in Coarse detail.
See Cutback on page 865.

74 | Chapter 3 What's New?

 Slab Shape Edit
You can modify the split lines that Revit Architecture 2009 creates in the slab when it is warped. See Shape
Editing for Structural Floors, Roofs and Floors on page 944.
Slabs containing arc segments can be modified with the slab shape editing tools. The curved edge slabs can
be set to have either concave or flat surfaces. See Using the Curved Edge Condition Tool on page 948.

Sketching and Snapping

This topic describes the new and enhanced features for sketching and snapping in Revit Architecture 2009.

Access to Temporary Snap Overrides

You can access temporary snap overrides from the right-click context menu when you place an element or
component in the drawing area, or while moving, copying, rotating, or arraying existing elements.

See Temporarily Overriding Snap Settings on page 504.

Closing an Open Loop

You can use the Close snap to close valid open loops when sketching. If there is more than one option to
close the loop, you can move the cursor or press Tab to see other snap options. See Closing an Open Loop
on page 315.

Details and Annotations

This topic describes the new and enhanced features for details and annotations in Revit Architecture 2009.

Baseline and Ordinate Dimensions

You can create and place baseline and ordinate linear dimensions in your project. Baseline dimensions are
multiple dimensions measured from the same baseline. Ordinate dimensions measure the perpendicular
distance from an origin point (called the datum) to an element.
Baseline and ordinate dimensions are exported to CAD formats.
For more information, see Baseline and Ordinate Dimensions on page 269.

Formatting Permanent and Spot Dimensions

You can add bold, italic, underline, and width formatting to permanent and spot dimensions. Access these
formats in the Type Properties dialog for the dimension.

Sketching and Snapping | 75

 Permanent Dimension Placement Enhancements
You can dimension to the following:

■ Intersection points of lines, grids, reference planes, and location lines (for walls).

■ The center of arcs, when placing a linear dimension. The center mark of the arc does not need to be
visible to dimension to it.

Adding Text to Dimension Values

You can add supplemental text above, below, or to the left or right of a permanent dimension value. You
can also replace permanent dimension values with text. See Overriding Dimension Text on page 273 and
Replacing Permanent Dimension Values with Text on page 274.

Spot Elevation Enhancements

■ You can display the top and bottom elevation of elements with a definite thickness. Top and bottom
elevations are available for elements in plan views. See Spot Elevations on page 277.

■ You can place spot elevations with a leader, a leader and a shoulder, or without a leader. See Placing a
Spot Elevation Dimension on page 278.

■ You can add supplementary text to spot elevations. See Adding Supplementary Text to Spot Elevation
Dimensions on page 279.

■ The Rotate with Component type property is now available for spot elevations. This allows spot elevations
to maintain their location relative to the referenced element when the element is rotated. You can specify
this type property in the Element Properties dialog for the spot elevation.

Spot Coordinate Enhancements

■ You can display the elevation of the selected point with spot coordinates. See Spot Coordinates on page
280.

■ You can add supplementary text to spot coordinates. See Adding Supplementary Text to Spot Coordinate
Dimensions on page 281.

■ The Rotate with Component type property is now available for spot coordinates. This allows spot
coordinates to maintain their location relative to the referenced element when the element is rotated.
You can specify this type property in the Element Properties dialog for the spot coordinate.

Grid Bubble Enhancements

■ You can control whether grid bubbles display at either end of a grid line. You can do this graphically for
individual grid lines in a view, or for all grid lines of a particular type by changing type properties.

■ In the grid type properties, you can specify default locations of grid bubbles for horizontal grid lines in
plan views and vertical grid lines in elevation views.

See Showing and Hiding Grid Bubbles on page 1095.

Creating Grid Gaps and Grid Segments

■ When defining a grid type, you can specify that grid lines display a center segment or a gap. You can
specify the default length of end segments. For a center segment, you can specify a different line color,
weight, and style. See Customizing Grid Lines on page 1097.

76 | Chapter 3 What's New?

 ■ You can adjust the length of the gap or center segment in an individual grid line. For example, you may
want to adjust the gap so the grid line does not display through the middle of a model element. See
Adjusting the Center Segment of a Grid Line on page 1096.

Tag Label Enhancements

A new Edit Label dialog replaces the Select Parameter dialog in the Annotation Family Editor. You use this
new dialog to create multi-parameter concatenated labels.
See Tagging with Shared Parameters on page 455.

Beam Tags and Spot Elevations

You can place structural framing tags and spot elevations anywhere above or below a beam using new tools
that specify the location and offsets of the label. You can place tags individually or on all beams currently
in view. See Beam Annotations Tool on page 853.
You can set tags and spot elevations to rotate in reference to a beam's location and rotation. This allows the
placement of a tag that moves and repositions with the beam. See Structural Framing Tag Families on page
853.

Text Note Styles

You can now create or modify text note styles using Settings ➤ Annotations ➤ Text. See Specifying Text
Note Styles on page 500.

Editing Elements
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for editing elements in Revit Architecture 2009.

Linework Enhancements
You can use the Linework tool to change the line style for selected edges of model elements in a view,
including the following:

■ Projection edges of model elements

■ Cut edges of model elements

■ Edges in imported CAD files

■ Edges in linked Revit models

See Changing the Line Style of Elements on page 398.

Revisions and Sheets

This topic describes the new and enhanced features for revisions in Revit Architecture 2009.

Editing Elements | 77
 Rotating a View on a Sheet
After placing a view (a drawing or a schedule) on a sheet, you can rotate it 90 degrees in either direction.
See Rotating a View on a Sheet on page 1040.

Rotating a Revision Schedule

You can rotate a revision schedule 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise on a title block. See Rotating a
Revision Schedule on page 1051.

Defining the Height of a Revision Schedule

You can limit the size of a revision schedule on a title block. See Defining the Height of the Revision Schedule
on page 1052.

Building Revision Schedules from the Top Down or Bottom Up

Revision schedules can display information in various ways. Some design firms use a top-down approach,
with column headings and revision rows starting at the top of the schedule. Other design firms use a
bottom-up approach, with column headings and revision rows starting at the bottom of the schedule. A
new feature allows you to specify how Revit Architecture builds revision schedules. See Building a Revision
Schedule from the Top Down or Bottom Up on page 1053.

Numbering for Revisions

Previous versions of Revit Architecture used numeric numbering for revisions. In Revit Architecture 2009,
you can specify numeric numbering, alphabetic numbering, or no numbering for each revision. For alphabetic
numbering, you can specify the characters to use in the sequence.

78 | Chapter 3 What's New?

Related topics

■ Numbering for Revisions on page 1073

■ Assigning a Numbering Scheme to a Revision on page 1074

■ Defining an Alphabetic Sequence for Revisions on page 1074

Revisions Listed in the Revision Schedule

On sheets, the revision schedule includes information about revisions that are identified by revision clouds
and tags. In this release, you can specify that the revision schedule is to include revision information that
is not represented by revision clouds and tags in the sheet’s views. See Specifying the Revisions to Include
in a Revision Schedule on page 1079.

Revisions and Sheets | 79

Printing
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for printing in Revit Architecture 2009.

Batch Printing
You can use Batch Print for Revit 2009 to print many drawings at one time unattended. See Batch Printing
on page 1086.

Linked Models
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for linked models in Revit Architecture 2009.

Phase Mapping
You can set up a correspondence between phases in the host Revit model and phases in the linked Revit
model. To do this you set up the phase map in the properties of the linked file, and then apply the phase
map in the host model. See Phase Mapping Linked Revit Models on page 1280.

Visibility and Graphic View Settings

You can control visibility and graphic view settings (such as filters, workset visibility, and display of
annotations) for section, elevation, and 3D views in linked models.
When you select By Linked View or Custom on the RVT Link Display Settings tab of the Visibility/Graphics
dialog, you can select any elevation, section, or 3D views that are available in the linked model.

80 | Chapter 3 What's New?

 See Visibility for Linked Revit Models on page 1282.
Related topic:
Editing Elements on page 77

Interoperability
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for interoperability in Revit Architecture 2009.

IFC Export Options

The default file format for IFC export is now IFC 2x3 (previously it was IFC 2x2).
You also have the following export options for all IFC file formats:

■ Current view only: This option allows you to export elements that are visible in the current view. Visible
elements include those that are hidden by hidden line or shaded mode, any underlays in the view, and
elements that are cropped from view by the crop region. Elements temporarily hidden using temporary
hide/isolate will not be exported. Categories marked as Not Exported in the IFC Export Classes dialog
will not be exported.

■ Split wall and columns by level: This option allows you to divide multi-level walls and columns by level.

See Exporting a Project to IFC on page 1369.

DWFx
The meaning of the term DWF has expanded to include DWFx. DWFx is based on the XML Paper Specification
(XPS) from Microsoft, making it easier to share design data with reviewers who do not have Design Review
installed. DWF and DWFx files contain the same data (2D and 3D); the only difference is the file format.
DWFx files can be opened and printed using the free Microsoft XPS Viewer, which comes pre-installed on
computers using the Microsoft Windows Vista™ operating system. (For the Windows XP operating system,
the Microsoft XPS Viewer can be downloaded directly from Microsoft.) Unlike DWF files, DWFx files include

Interoperability | 81
 additional information to display design data in the Microsoft XPS Viewer. As such, DWFx files are larger
than corresponding DWF files.
See Exporting to Design Web Format on page 1355.

Related topics
■ Enhancements for Export to 3ds Max on page 57

Worksharing
This topic describes the new and enhanced features for worksharing in Revit Architecture 2009.

Worksharing Monitor
The Worksharing Monitor is a utility that allows you to find out information about a workshared project:

■ Who is currently working on this project?

■ Is my local copy of the project up to date?

■ When will my Save to Central operation finish?

■ Has my request to borrow elements been granted?

■ Are any issues interfering with my work on a Revit Architecture project?

The Worksharing Monitor is available to Revit Architecture subscription customers. See Worksharing Monitor
on page 1274.

API
Revit Architecture provides an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows you to extend the
functionality of the product. Starting with Revit Architecture 2009, you can use the API to define macros
that can be saved with the application or project. For example, you might define a macro to add a grid to
your project, to rotate a selected object, or to collect information about the square footage of all the rooms
in your structure. Other general examples include:

■ Locating and extracting Revit content to external files

■ Changing geometry or parameters

■ Creating elements

■ Importing/exporting external file formats

Macro support is provided by the Revit VSTA plug-in, which you can install in conjunction with your existing
Revit installation. For details and example code, see Creating Macros with Revit VSTA on page 1421.

Documentation
The documentation for Revit Architecture 2009 has been restructured and revised to improve usability. In
addition, images have been added to illustrate and clarify important concepts. Look for further improvements
to the documentation in future releases.

82 | Chapter 3 What's New?

Families Guide
Documentation for family creation has been restructured, revised, and enhanced with more detailed
conceptual information and tutorials.
See The Families Guide on page 418.

Documentation | 83
84
Revit Essentials
4
The following topics provide information on what you need to start a project in Revit Architecture.

Using the Revit Interface

Revit Architecture is a powerful CAD product for the Microsoft® Windows operating system. Its interface
resembles those of other products for Windows, featuring a ribbon that contains the tools used to complete
tasks.
In the Revit interface, many of the components (such as walls, windows, and doors) are available at the click
of a button. You can drop these components into the drawing and immediately determine whether they
meet your design requirements.

85
 Related topics

■ Learning Tools on page 44

Parts of the Revit Interface

The Revit Architecture interface is designed to simplify your workflow. With a few clicks, you can change
the interface to better support the way that you work. For example, you can set the ribbon to one of 3 display
settings. You can also display several project views at one time, or layer the views to see only the one on
top.

IMPORTANT If this topic displays when you are trying to access context-sensitive help, you need to turn on
tooltips or wait for the tooltip to display before pressing F1. See Tooltips on page 92.

Ribbon Overview
The ribbon displays automatically when you create or open a file. It provides all the tools necessary to create
a project. The ribbon can be customized by changing its view state and by rearranging the panels that contain
the tools.

The ribbon has 3 types of buttons:

■ button: invokes a tool

■ drop-down button: contains a drop-down arrow that displays additional, related tools

■ split button: invokes a frequently used tool, or displays a menu that contains additional, related tools

TIP When you see a button that shows a line dividing it into 2 areas, you can click the top (or left) side to
access the tool you typically use most often. Click the other side for a list of related tools.

To move panels

■ Click a panel label and drag the panel to a desired place on the ribbon.

86 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

■ Click a panel label and drag the panel off the ribbon to the drawing area or the desktop. To return the
panel to the ribbon, mouse over the panel to display a control in the upper-right corner, and click Return
Panels to Ribbon.

To change the ribbon view state

■ Click (Show Full Ribbon) to the right of the ribbon tabs.

The ribbon view state cycles through the following options:

■ Show Full Ribbon: Shows entire ribbon.

■ Minimize to Panel Tiles: Shows tab and panel labels.

■ Minimize to Tabs: Shows tab labels.

Ribbon Tabs and Panels

The ribbon is comprised of tabs and panels.
The following table describes the ribbon tabs and the types of tasks they contain.

Ribbon Tab Includes tasks for...

Home many of the tools you need to create the

building model.

Create (family files only) many of the tools you need to create a
family.

Insert tools to add and manage secondary items

such as raster images, and CAD files.

Annotate tools used for adding 2D information to a

design.

Modify tools used for editing existing elements,

data and systems. When working on the
Modify tab, select the tool first, then select
what you want to modify.

Massing & Site tools for modeling and modifying concep-

tual mass families and site elements

Collaborate tools for collaboration with internal and

external project team members.

View tools used for managing and modifying

the current view, and for switching views.

Manage project and system parameters, and set-

tings.

Add-Ins third-party tools used with Autodesk Revit

Architecture 2010. The Add-Ins tab is en-
abled only when a third-party tool is in-
stalled.

Parts of the Revit Interface | 87

 Expanded Panels
A drop-down arrow at the bottom of a panel indicates that you can expand the panel to display additional
tools and controls. By default, an expanded panel closes automatically when you click another panel. To
keep a panel expanded, click the push pin icon in the bottom-left corner of the expanded panel.

Dialog Launcher

Some panels allow you to open a dialog to define settings or complete a task. A dialog-launcher arrow on
the bottom of a panel opens a dialog.

Contextual Ribbon Tabs

When you use certain tools or select elements, a contextual ribbon tab displays that contains a set of tools
that relate only to the context of that tool or element.
For example, when you click the Wall tool, the Place Wall contextual tab displays, showing 3 panels:

■ Select: contains the Modify tool.

■ Element: contains Element Properties and the Type Selector.

■ Draw: contains the drawing tools necessary for the wall sketch.

A contextual ribbon tab closes when you exit the tool.

To reset the ribbon and Quick Access toolbar

■ delete the UIState.dat file located in the Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 folder under one of the following
folders:
■ For Windows XP:
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\Revit

■ For Windows Vista:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit

Application Frame Overview

The application frame contains tools and provides feedback to help you manage your Revit projects.
The application frame consists of the following areas:

Application Window Tool Description

Opens (single-click) or closes (double-click)

Application button the application menu.

Application menu Provides access to common tools. (See

Access Common Tools on page 89.)

88 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

Application Window Tool Description

Quick Access toolbar Displays frequently used tools. (See Using

the Quick Access Toolbar on page 91.)

InfoCenter Provides requested information. (See In-

foCenter on page 100.)

Status bar Displays information related to the current

state of a Revit operation. (See Status Bar
on page 99.)

The Application Menu

The application menu provides access to many common file actions. It also allows you to manage your files
using more advanced tools, such as Export and Publish.

NOTE Revit Architecture settings can be updated in Options on the application menu. See Setting Options on
page 516.

Access Common Tools

Access common tools to start or publish a file in the application menu.

Click to quickly access the following actions:

■ Create a file

■ Open an existing file

■ Save a file

■ Print a file

■ Publish a file

Parts of the Revit Interface | 89

 ■ Close the application

Click the left side of... to open the...

New dialog
(New)

Open dialog
(Open)

Print dialog
(Print)

DWF Publish Settings dialog

(Publish)

Product and License Information dialog

(Licensing)

Recent Documents
Files display in the Recent Documents list with the most recently used file at the top by default.

Pinned Files
You can keep a file listed regardless of files that you save later using the push pin button to the right. The
file is displayed at the bottom of the list until you turn off the push pin button.

Sort and Group Options

Use the drop-down list at the top of the Recent Documents list to sort or group files by

■ File name

■ File size

■ File type

■ Date the files were last modified

Currently Open Documents

Files display in the Open Documents list with the most recently opened file at the top. To make a file current,
click the file in the list.

Quick Access Toolbar

View Undo and Redo History
The Quick Access toolbar displays options to undo and redo changes to your file. To undo or redo a less
recent change, click the drop-down button to the right of the Undo and Redo buttons.

Add Commands and Controls

Add unlimited tools to the Quick Access toolbar. Tools that extend past the maximum length of the toolbar
are displayed in a flyout button.

90 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

To add a ribbon button to the Quick Access toolbar, right-click the button on the ribbon and click Add to
Quick Access toolbar. Buttons are added to the right of the default commands on the Quick Access toolbar.

Using the Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access toolbar contains the following items by default:

Quick Access Toolbar Item Description

Opens a project, family, annotation,

(Open) building component, or IFC file.

Saves a current project, family, annotation,

(Save)
or template file.

Cancels the last action by default. Displays

(Undo) list of all actions taken during the session.

Reinstates the last cancelled action. Also

(Redo) displays a list of all reinstated actions per-
formed during the session.

Completes an action, or prepares the soft-

(Modify)
ware to select an element to modify.

Opens or creates views including Default

(3D View) 3D, Camera, and Walkthrough.

Synchronizes a local file with one on the

(Synchronize and Modify Settings) central server.

Customizes the items displayed on the

(Customize Quick Access Toolbar) Quick Access toolbar. To enable or disable
an item, click next to it on the Customize
Quick Access Toolbar drop-down.

NOTE The New button displays on the

Customize Quick Access Toolbar drop-
down, but is not enabled by default.

To undo or redo a series of actions, click the drop-down list to the right of the Undo or Redo buttons. This
list displays the action history in a list. Starting with the most recent action, you can select any number of
previous actions to include in the Undo or Redo operation.
The Quick Access toolbar can display below the ribbon. To change the setting, on the Quick Access toolbar,
click Customize Quick Access Toolbar drop-down ➤ Show Below the Ribbon.

While in an edit mode (such as Place Wall) or the Family Editor, items that are added to the Quick Access
toolbar from the Create, Modify, Group, Clipboard, or View Graphics panel persist on the toolbar for that

Parts of the Revit Interface | 91

 mode. However, when you switch to another editing mode, these items do not display and need to be
re-added to the Quick Access toolbar. See Using the Quick Access Toolbar on page 91.

NOTE Some tools on contextual tabs cannot be added to the Quick Access toolbar.

Tooltips
When you hold the cursor over a tool on the ribbon, by default Revit Architecture displays a tooltip. The
tooltip provides a brief description of the tool. If you leave the cursor over the ribbon tool for another
moment, additional information displays, if available. While the tooltip is visible, you can press F1 for
context-sensitive help that provides more information about that tool.

NOTE If you press F1 before the tooltip displays, the default help topic opens instead of the appropriate
context-sensitive help topic. Wait for the tooltip to display before pressing F1.

These tooltips are useful when you are first learning how to use the software. You can adjust the amount of
information displayed in tooltips or how quickly the information displays. You can also turn off the tooltips
when you no longer need them.

To adjust or turn off tooltips

1 Click ➤ Options.
2 On the General tab, under Notifications, for Tooltip assistance, select one of the following values:
Value Description

Minimal Displays only the brief description provided by tooltips, suppressing

the display of additional information.

Normal Displays a brief description when you move the cursor over a tool,
followed by more information if you leave the cursor in place for
another moment. This is the default.

High Displays the brief description and more information about the tool
(if available) at the same time, without a delay.

None Turns off tooltips so they no longer display.

NOTE When you turn off tooltips, context-sensitive help

(F1) is also turned off. If you want context-sensitive help to
be available, set Tooltip assistance to Minimal.

3 Click OK.

Keytips
Press the Alt key to display shortcut keys for common tools in the application window.
When you select a keytip, more keytips are displayed for that tool.

92 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

Project Browser
The Project Browser shows a logical hierarchy for all views, schedules, sheets, families, groups, linked Revit
models, and other parts of the current project. As you expand and collapse each branch, lower-level items
display.

To change the size and location of the Project Browser

■ To show the Project Browser, click View tab ➤ User Interface panel, and select the Project Browser check
box.

■ To hide the Project Browser, click View tab ➤ User Interface panel, and clear Project Browser, or click
the Close button (the red X) at the top of the browser.

■ To resize the Project Browser, drag one of its borders.

■ To move the Project Browser, drag the browser’s title bar within the Revit window. As you move the
cursor, an outline indicates where the browser will move to, and what its shape will be. Release the mouse
button to place the browser in the desired location. You can also drag the Project Browser outside the
Revit window to the desktop.

■ To float the Project Browser in the drawing area, double-click its title bar. You can then move the browser
to the desired location, and drag its borders to resize it.

You can customize the organization of project views in the Project Browser. See Customizing Project View
Organization in the Project Browser on page 255.
Changes to the size and location of the Project Browser are saved and restored when the application is
restarted.

Using the Project Browser

The Project Browser is a powerful way to navigate and manage complex projects.

Views, Schedules, Sheets

If you want to... then...

open a view double-click the name of the view, or right-click the name and click Open from
the shortcut menu. The active view name displays in bold.

Parts of the Revit Interface | 93

 If you want to... then...

add a view to a sheet drag the view name onto the sheet name or onto the sheet in the drawing area.
You can also right-click the sheet name, and click Add View on the shortcut
menu. In the Views dialog, select the view to add, and click Add View to Sheet.
After you perform one of these actions, the sheet is active in the drawing area,
and the added view displays as a viewport. As you move the cursor, the viewport
moves with it. When the viewport is in the desired location on the sheet, click
to place it. See Adding Views to a Sheet on page 1033.

remove a view from a sheet under the sheet name, right-click the view name, and click Remove From Sheet.

create a new sheet right-click the Sheets branch, and click New Sheet. See Adding a Sheet on page
1032.

copy a view right-click the view name, and click Duplicate View ➤ Duplicate.

copy a view with view-specific elements right-click the view name, and click Duplicate View ➤ Duplicate with Detailing.
View-specific elements (such as detail components and dimensions) are copied
into the view. This tool is available for plan views, callout views, drafting views,
and section views. You cannot copy callouts from plan views.

rename views, schedules right-click the view name, and click Rename. In the Rename View dialog, enter
a new name, and click OK.

rename a sheet right-click the sheet name, and click Rename. In the Sheet Title dialog, enter a
name and number for the sheet, and click OK.

close a view right-click the view name, and click Close.

delete a view right-click the view name and click Delete.

change properties right-click the view name and click Properties, or open the view, click in the
drawing area, and click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ View Properties.

expand or collapse branches in the Project click + to expand, or click – to collapse. Use the arrow keys to navigate between
Browser branches.

find referring views right-click the view name, and click Find Referring Views. See Finding Referring
Views on page 255.

Families
If you want to... then...

create a new family type right-click the family name, and click Du-
plicate.
A new type name displays in the type list.
The new type name uses the family name
and is designated by a numeral. As you
add more types, Revit Architecture contin-
ues using this naming scheme: for ex-
ample, right-click a family name called
Desk and click Duplicate; the family name
Desk1 displays. If you repeat the process,
the names display as follows: Desk2, Desk3,

94 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

If you want to... then...
Desk4, and so on. You can then double-
click a new type and set properties for it
in the Type Properties dialog. See Revit
Families on page 415.

rename a family right-click the family name, and click Re-

name. Enter a new name. (You cannot re-
name a system family.)

create a new family instance in a view right-click the family name, and click Cre-
ate Instance. This tool activates the appro-
priate tool and selects the appropriate type
to create the selected family in the drawing
area.

reload a family right-click a loaded family, and click Re-

load. In the Open dialog, navigate to the
family location, select it, and click Open.
See Loading and Saving Families on page
427.

edit a family right-click a loaded family, and click Edit.

You can edit and reload the family directly
into the project. See Modifying Families in
a Project (or Nested Family) on page 430.

delete a family right-click the family name and click De-

lete, or click the family name and press
Delete. If the project includes instances of
that family, a dialog displays asking if you
want to unload the family and delete all
instances of it in your project. Click Yes to
delete the family, or click No to cancel.

NOTE This tool is not enabled for wall

types.

duplicate/modify family types right-click the family type, and select one
of the following tools:
■ Duplicate: Copies the selected family
and assigns a numeral to the copy.
■ Delete: Deletes the type. (This tool is
not enabled for wall types.)
■ Rename: Renames the type.
■ Select All Instances: Selects all in-
stances of a type or group in the pro-
ject.
■ Properties: Changes type properties.

modify type properties double-click the type name under a family.

For example, under the Walls family,
double-click Exterior - Brick on CMU. The

Parts of the Revit Interface | 95

 If you want to... then...
Type Properties dialog opens, and you can
edit values.

delete a family type do any one of the following:

■ Select the family type name in the
Project Browser, and press Delete.
■ Right-click the family type name, and
click Delete.

This function deletes family types that you

may have created and families loaded into
the project.

drag and drop family types into a project select the family type, and drag it into the
appropriate view. You can drag families
created from loadable families and system
families.

Groups
If you want to... then...

place a group instance in a view under Groups, navigate to the desired

group, then drag the group into the
drawing area. See Placing Groups on
page 358.

modify group types right-click the group type, and select one
of the following tools:
■ Delete: Deletes the group type.
■ Rename: Renames the group type.
■ Select All Instances: Selects all in-
stances of a group type in the pro-
ject.
■ Properties: Changes type properties.

duplicate a group type under Groups, navigate to the desired

group, right-click the group name, and
click Duplicate. The new group type
displays in the Project Browser. See Du-
plicating Group Types on page 357.

reload a group under Groups, navigate to the desired

group, right-click the group name, and
click Reload. See Loading Groups on
page 358.

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Revit Links
If you want to... then...

create a new link to a Revit model right-click the Revit Links branch, and
click New Link. See Linking Revit Models
on page 1277.

manage links to Revit models right-click the Revit Links branch, click
Manage Links, and click the Revit tab.
See Managing Links on page 1286.

copy a linked Revit model to another pro- under Revit Links, navigate to the linked
ject file model to copy, right-click the link name,
and click Create Instance. Click in the
drawing area to place the new instance
of the linked model. See Copying Linked
Revit Models on page 1281.

unload or reload a linked Revit model under Revit Links, navigate to the linked
model, right-click the link name, and
click the desired tool to unload or reload
the model. See Managing Links on page
1286.

Renderings
If you want to... then...

view rendered images

click (Show Rendering Dialog) on
the View Control Bar, then select Render
on the Rendering dialog.

place rendered images onto sheets drag the rendered image name onto the
sheet in the drawing area.

Drawing Area
The drawing area of the Revit window displays views (and sheets and schedules) of the current project. Each
time you open a view in a project, by default the view displays in the drawing area on top of other open
views. The other views are still open, but they are underneath the current view. Use tools of the View
tab ➤ Windows panel to arrange project views to suit your work style.
The default color of the drawing area background is white; you can invert the color to black. (See instructions
below.)

Parts of the Revit Interface | 97

 To manage views in the drawing area

■ To display a project view that has not yet been opened, navigate to the view in the Project Browser, and
double-click the view name.

■ To see a list of open views, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Switch Windows drop-down. The bottom
of the menu lists the open views. A check mark indicates the view that currently has focus in the drawing
area.

■ To display another open (but hidden) view in the drawing area, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤
Switch Windows drop-down, and click the view to display.

■ To open a second window for the current view, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Replicate. This tool
is useful if you want to pan and zoom on certain areas of the design, while also viewing the entire design
in another window. (Use the Tile tool to see both views at the same time.) Any changes that you make
to the project in the new window also appear in other windows of the project.

■ To arrange all open windows in a series in the drawing area, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Cascade.

■ To see all open views at the same time, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Tile.

■ To close all hidden views, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Close Hidden Windows. If more than one
project is open, one window per project remains open.

■ To increase the size of the drawing area, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ User Interface drop-down,
and clear check boxes to hide interface components, such as the Project Browser and the status bar.

To invert the background color of the drawing area:

1 Click ➤ Options.
2 In the Options dialog, click the Graphics tab.
3 Select or clear the Invert background color option.
4 Click OK.

98 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

Status Bar
The status bar is located along the bottom of the Revit Architecture window. When you are using a tool, the
left side of the status bar provides tips or hints on what to do. When you are highlighting an element or
component, the status bar displays the name of the family and type.

The progress bar appears on the left side of the status bar when a large file is opening and indicates how
much of the file has downloaded.

Several other controls appear on the right side of the status bar:

■ Press & Drag: Allows you to drag an element without selecting it first.

■ Editable Only: Filters selections to select only editable, workshared components. See Filtering Non-Editable
Workset Elements from Selection on page 1264.

■ Active Only: Filters selections to select only active design option components. See Selecting Elements in
Design Options and the Main Model on page 1314.

■ Exclude Options: Filters selections to exclude components that are part of a design option. See Selecting
Elements in Design Options and the Main Model on page 1314.

■ Filter: Refines the element categories selected in a view. See Selecting Elements Using a Filter on page 341.

To hide the status bar, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ User Interface drop-down. Clear the Status Bar
check box.

Getting Hints About What to Do Next

If you start a tool (such as Rotate) and are not sure what to do next, check the status bar. It often displays
tips or hints about what to do next for the current tool. In addition, a tooltip appears next to the cursor,
displaying the same information.
To cancel or exit the current tool, do either of the following:

■ Press Esc twice.

■ On the Quick Access toolbar, click (Modify).

Options Bar
The Options Bar is located below the ribbon. Its contents change depending on the current tool or selected
element.

Type Selector
The Type Selector is located on the Element panel for the currently invoked tool, for example, Place Wall.
Its contents change depending on the current function or selected elements. When you place an element
in a drawing, use the Type Selector to specify the type of element to add.

Parts of the Revit Interface | 99

 To change existing elements to a different type, select one or more elements of the same category. Then use
the Type Selector to select the desired type.

View Control Bar

The View Control Bar is located at the bottom of the Revit window above the status bar.

It provides quick access to functions that affect the drawing area, including the following:

■ Scale (See View Scale on page 243.)

■ Detail Level (See Detail Level on page 511.)

■ Model Graphics Style (See Model Graphics Styles on page 250.)

■ Shadows On/Off (See Creating a Solar Study on page 1241.)

■ Show/Hide Rendering Dialog (Available only when the drawing area displays a 3D view. See Defining
Render Settings on page 1221.)

■ Crop Region On/Off (See Crop Regions on page 211.)

■ Show/Hide Crop Region (See Showing or Hiding Crop Regions on page 212.)

■ Temporary Hide/Isolate (See Temporarily Hiding or Isolating Elements or Element Categories on page
209.)

■ Reveal Hidden Elements (See Revealing and Unhiding Hidden Elements on page 209.)

InfoCenter
You can use InfoCenter to search a variety of information sources with one query. You can also easily access
product updates and announcements.

100 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

Overview of InfoCenter
You can use InfoCenter to search for information, display the Subscription Center panel for subscription
services, display the Communication Center panel for product updates, and display favorites panel to access
saved topics.
You can use InfoCenter to:

■ Search for information through keywords (or by entering a phrase)

■ Access subscription services through Subscription Center panel

■ Access to product-related updates and announcements through Communication Center panel

■ Access saved topics through Favorites panel

■ Access topics in Help

To display the InfoCenter box in a collapsed state, click the arrow to its left.

To browse search results

➤ On the panel for Search Results, Subscription Center, Communication Center, or Favorites, on the right
side of the category header, do one of the following:
■ Click the Next button.

■ Click the Previous button.

To rearrange the topics displayed on a panel

1 Display a panel by doing one of the following:

■ In the InfoCenter box, enter a keyword or phrase. Then press ENTER or click the Search button.

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Communication Center button.

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Favorites button.

2 Click and drag a category or group header to the desired position.

NOTE You can rearrange categories within a group, but you cannot move them into other groups.

Search For Information

You can enter keywords or a phrase in the InfoCenter box to search for information.

Parts of the Revit Interface | 101

 When you enter keywords or a phrase in the InfoCenter box, you search the contents of multiple Help
resources as well as any additional documents that have been specified in the InfoCenter Settings dialog
box or through the CAD Manager Control Utility.

NOTE You must have Internet access to display search results from the Autodesk Online category.

Keyword searches produce better results. In case of a misspelled word, spelling suggestions are displayed on
the panel.
The results are displayed as links on the InfoCenter Search Results panel. Click a link to display the topic,
article, or document.
To keep Search Results, Subscription Center, Communication Center, and the Favorites panel expanded,
click the push pin icon in the bottom-right corner of the panel.
When you use InfoCenter to search for information, you can use the following special symbols in your query
to refine or expand it. These symbols can be used alone or can be combined.

Symbol Description

* Replaces one or more characters when used at the begin-

ning, middle, or end of a word. For example, “*lish”,
“p*lish”, and “pub*” will find “publish”. Also, “anno*” will
find “annotative”, “annotation”, “annoupdate”, “annoreset”,
and so on.

? Replaces a single character. For example, “cop?” will find

“copy”, but not “copybase”.

~ Adds grammatical form variations to a keyword when added

at the beginning or end of a word. For example, “plotting~”
will find “plots”, “plotted”, and so on. Also, “~plot” will find
“preplot”, “replot”, and so on.

When performing the exact phrase search, use double quotation marks (" ") to enclose words that must
appear next to each other in the specified text string. For example, enter "specify units of measurement" to
find only topics with all those words in that order. You can also use the previously mentioned symbols in
a text string that is enclosed in double quotation marks.

To search multiple sources for information

1 In the InfoCenter box, enter a keyword or phrase.

2 Click the Search button.

The search results display in the Search Results panel.

To search a single location for information

1 In the InfoCenter box, enter a keyword or phrase.

2 Click the down arrow next to the Search button.

3 Select a location from the list to search.

The search results from that location display in the Search Results panel.

To add a location to search

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

102 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

 2 Click Add Search Location.

3 In the Add Search Location dialog box, specify a document or a file location to search.

4 Click Add.

Receive Product Updates and Announcements

You can click the Communication Center button to display links to information about product updates and
announcements, and may include links to RSS feeds.

Overview of Communication Center

To open Communication Center, click the Communication Center button in the InfoCenter box.

Communication Center provides the following types of announcements:

■ Autodesk Channels: Receive support information, product updates, and other announcements (including
articles and tips).

■ CAD Manager Channel. Receive information (RSS feeds) published by your CAD manager.

■ RSS Feeds. Receive information from RSS feeds to which you subscribe. RSS feeds generally notify you
when new content is posted. You are automatically subscribed to several default RSS feeds when you
install the program.

You can customize the items that display in the Communication Center panel.

Communication Center Online Policy

Communication Center is an interactive feature that must be connected to the Internet in order to deliver
content and information. Each time Communication Center is connected, it sends your information to
Autodesk so that you receive the correct information. All information is sent anonymously to Autodesk to
maintain your privacy.
Communication Center sends the following information to Autodesk:

■ Product name (in which you are using Communication Center)

■ Product release number

■ Product language

■ Country/region (specified in the Communication Center settings)

■ Your unique Customer Involvement Program (CIP) ID if you are participating in the CIP program

Autodesk compiles statistics using the information sent from Communication Center to monitor how it is
being used and how it can be improved. Autodesk maintains information provided by or collected from you
in accordance with the company's published privacy policy, which is available at
http://www.autodesk.com/privacy.

Parts of the Revit Interface | 103

 Receive New Information Notifications
Whenever new information is available, Communication Center notifies you by displaying a balloon message
below the Communication Center button on the InfoCenter box.
Click the link in the balloon message to open the article or announcement.
If you don’t want to receive Communication Center notifications, in the InfoCenter Settings dialog box,
turn off Balloon Notification.

Save and Access Favorite Topics

You can click the Favorites button to display saved links to topics or web locations.

Any link that displays on the Search Results panel, Subscription Center or Communication Center panel
can be marked as a favorite.
A link marked as a favorite displays a star icon on the Search Results panel, Subscription Center panel or the
Communication Center panel.

To display the InfoCenter Favorites panel

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Favorites button.

NOTE The links displayed on the Favorites panel are organized into the same groups or categories from which
they were added.

To save a link in InfoCenter as a favorite

1 Display a panel by doing one of the following:

■ In the InfoCenter box, enter a keyword or phrase. Then press ENTER or click the Search button.

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Subscription Center button.

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Communication Center button.

2 Click the star icon that is displayed next to the link that you want to save as a favorite.

To remove a favorite link from the InfoCenter Favorites panel

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the Favorites button to display the Favorites panel.

2 Click the star icon that is displayed next to the link that you want to remove from the Favorites panel.

Specify InfoCenter Settings

You can specify InfoCenter Search and Communication Center settings in the InfoCenter Settings dialog
box.
In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, you can specify the following settings:

■ General. Your current location, frequency for checking new online content and option to turn on or off
animated transition effects for the InfoCenter panels.

104 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

■ Search Locations. Locations (documents, web locations, and files) to search for information, as well as
the name that displays for each location and the number of results to display for each. Also, you can add
or remove search locations.
The Web Locations check box provides access to important information on the Autodesk website,
including the Knowledge Base and discussion groups. When you add document locations, you can specify
files on your local drive.

NOTE User-specified CHM (compiled help) files must be located on your local drive. InfoCenter cannot search
CHM files located on network drives.

■ Communication Center. Maximum age of the articles displayed on the Communication Center panel
and the location and name of the CAD Manager Channel.

■ Autodesk Channels. Channels to display in the Communication Center panel as well as the number of
articles to display for each channel.

■ Balloon Notification. Notifications for new product information, software updates, and product support
announcements. Also, you can customize the transparency and the display time of the balloon.

■ RSS Feeds. RSS feed subscriptions. You can add or remove RSS feeds. RSS feeds generally notify you when
new content is posted.

You can use the CAD Manager Control Utility to specify InfoCenter Search and Communication Center
settings. Click Help in the CAD Manager Control Utility window for details about the CAD Manager Channel
settings you can control.

To specify locations to search for information

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, Search Locations panel, in the right pane, select or clear the
search locations you want to include or exclude when you search for information.

4 Click OK.

NOTE With the Search All Available Languages option, you can specify whether to search the default language
or all available languages, including English, Japanese, and French. Select the check box if you want to search all
available languages.

To add a new location to search for information

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, do one of the following:

■ On the Search Locations panel, in the right pane, click Add.

■ On the Search Locations panel, in the right pane, right-click anywhere in the pane. Click Add.

4 In the Add Search Location dialog box, specify a file location to search.

5 Click Add.

NOTE A warning message is displayed when you add a search location with a file size larger than 5 MB. You
cannot continue to work in the application until indexing is complete.

Parts of the Revit Interface | 105

 6 Click OK.

To remove a search location

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, do one of the following:

■ Select a location to remove, and then click Remove.

■ Right-click a search location. Click Remove.

4 In the InfoCenter - Remove Search Location dialog box, click Yes.

5 Click OK.

To specify the CAD Manager Channel location and name

1 Click Start menu (Windows) ➤ All Programs (or Programs) ➤ Autodesk ➤ CAD Manager Tools ➤
CAD Manager Control Utility.

2 Select the product you want to modify. Click OK.

3 In the CAD Manager Control Utility window, InfoCenter tab, select the option to enable CAD Manager
Channel.

4 Under Feed Location, enter an appropriate feed.

5 Enter the display name for the CAD Manager and then click Apply. Click OK.

6 Restart your Autodesk product.

7 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

8 Click Search Settings.

9 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click Communication Center.
The CAD Manager Channel location and name are displayed.

NOTE A green check mark is displayed if the channel can be located and a yellow warning sign is displayed if it
cannot be located.

To specify the channels to display in the Communication Center panel

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click Autodesk Channels.

4 In the right pane, select or clear the channels you want to display in the Communication Center panel.

5 Click OK.

To specify InfoCenter balloon notification settings

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click Balloon Notification.

106 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

 4 In the right pane, select or clear the options to turn balloon notification on or off.

5 Enter the number of seconds to set the length of time for balloon notifications to display.

6 Enter the transparency value of the balloon or set the value using the slider.

7 Click OK.

To add an RSS feed to Communication Center

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click RSS Feeds.

4 In the right pane, do one of the following:

■ Click Add.

■ Right-click anywhere in the right pane. Click Add.

5 In the Add RSS Feed dialog box, enter the location of the RSS feed you want to add. Click Add.

6 In the InfoCenter - RSS Feed Confirmation dialog box, click Close.

7 Click OK.

To remove an RSS feed from Communication Center

1 In the InfoCenter box, click the down arrow next to the Search button.

2 Click Search Settings.

3 In the InfoCenter Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click RSS Feeds.

4 In the right pane, do one of the following:

■ Click Remove.

■ Right-click an RSS feed. Click Remove.

5 In the InfoCenter - Remove RSS Feed dialog box, click Yes.

6 Click OK.

Search Topics in Help

You can click the Help button to display topics in Help.

You can get much more benefit from the Help system when you learn how to use it efficiently. You can
quickly find general descriptions, procedures, details about dialog boxes and palettes, or definitions of terms.

To display topics in Help

■ In the InfoCenter box, click the Help button.

Parts of the Revit Interface | 107

 Autodesk® Seek
Use Autodesk Seek to search for and share product design content from AutoCAD® and Revit® products.
For information about sharing product design content with Autodesk Seek, see Publishing to Autodesk®
Seek on page 1382.

NOTE Autodesk Seek is currently available only in the English edition of the software.

You can access Autodesk Seek in the following ways:

■ Go to the Autodesk Seek home page http://seek.autodesk.com.

■ Click Insert tab ➤ Autodesk Seek panel to search for content.

■ Click ➤ Publish ➤ Share with Autodesk Seek to share online content.

■ Click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ User Interface drop-down ➤ Recent Files. In the Recent Files window,
click Web Library.

With Autodesk® Seek you can find and share product design information with the online design community
to enhance designs and to meet specific customer needs. It allows designers to search for, download, and
integrate generic or manufacturer-specific building products or components and associated design information.
When you are working in a design program, you may want to include products that, for example, meet
design standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or the Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA). Autodesk Seek can help you locate such information and products, and get them into your design.
■ For more information about LEED green building certification, visit the U.S. Green Building Council
website: http://www.usgbc.org.

■ For more information about ADA standards for accessible design, visit U.S. Department of Justice website:
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/.

The design and product information available on Autodesk Seek depends on what content providers, both
corporate partners and individual contributors, publish to Autodesk Seek. Such content could include 3D
models, 2D drawings, specifications, brochures, or descriptions of products or components.
Autodesk has partnered with content aggregators such as BIMWorld™ and the McGraw-Hill Construction
Sweets Network®, who maintain relationships with manufacturers, to provide and maintain product and
design information within Autodesk Seek.
Autodesk® Seek also contains all files from the content libraries provided with the 2008 and later releases
of the following products:
■ AutoCAD®

■ AutoCAD® Architecture

■ AutoCAD® MEP

■ Revit® Structure

■ Revit® Architecture

■ Revit® MEP

Currently, Autodesk Seek is intended primarily for the AEC/building industry. In the future, Autodesk Seek
will expand to include product information that is more typically used in other industries.

108 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

File Types Supported by Autodesk Seek
The following list includes file types currently supported by Autodesk Seek.

File Type Description

3DS 3D Studio scene file

DGN MicroStation drawing file

DOC Microsoft Word document

DWF Autodesk’s open, secure format for sharing design informa-

tion

DWG Industry standard file format for 2D and 3D design data

DXF Autodesk Drawing Exchange Format — enables data inter-

operability between AutoCAD and other design programs

IES Photometric data file

GSM ArchiCAD Graphic Description Language file

LCF ArchiCAD library container file

MCD Mathcad document file

MLIB Revit material library file

PDF Adobe portable document format

RFA Revit family file

RTE Revit template file

RTF Rich Text Format file

RVG Revit External Group file

RVT Revit project file

SKP Sketchup Document file

TXT Text file

XLS Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

ZIP Compressed archive file

Searching for Content with Autodesk Seek

You can enhance your designs by acquiring product or design information published by Autodesk, partner
content providers, or other designers on Autodesk Seek.

NOTE Autodesk Seek is currently available only in the English edition of the software.

Parts of the Revit Interface | 109

 Autodesk® Seek supports parametric searches, meaning that the search results returned are more or less
specific depending on what you enter in the search text box. More search terms return fewer results.

Filtering Search Results

After you have searched for product information, you can reduce the number of displayed results by applying
filters. On the Autodesk Seek web page, apply filters to narrow the results of a search.
Available filters depend on information supplied by content providers when the design files are added to
the Autodesk Seek website.

Filters

■ Product Attributes. Filter results by attributes common to the returned results. The attribute filters
available vary depending upon the type of product searched.

■ Manufacturer. Filter results by manufacturer. Manufacturer names are displayed in descending order by
the number of results associated with each manufacturer. The Generic filter displays results for which
no manufacturer information has been supplied.

■ File Type. Filter results by file type. The file type filter excludes results that do not contain product or
design information of the type selected.

■ External Catalogs. Filter results by supplier catalog, such as BIMWorld.

■ Product Libraries. Filter results by Autodesk product library, such as Revit Structure.

Downloading Content from Autodesk Seek

After you have located product or design information that you want to add to your design, you need to get
it from the Autodesk Seek website and into your drawing.

NOTE The first time you download a file, you must agree to and accept the Autodesk Seek terms and conditions.
Accepting the terms installs a cookie on your computer. If you clear your web browser's cookies, you will need to
accept the Autodesk Seek terms and conditions the next time you download a file.

To perform a search

1 Click Insert tab ➤ Autodesk Seek panel ➤ Find product design files online, and enter the desired search
term.

NOTE Autodesk Seek searches all available product information by default.

2 Press Enter or click to search.

The Autodesk website displays the results.

NOTE To return fewer results, enter more terms in the text box. For example, a search for “window” returns
more results than a search for “fixed window 3D.”

To accept the Autodesk Seek Terms and Conditions and download a file

1 To review the terms and conditions of use, click Terms and Conditions.
The Autodesk Seek Terms of Use are displayed in a browser window. When ready to proceed, close the
browser window to return to the Terms and Conditions page.

2 Click the I Have Read and Agree to the Terms and Conditions check box.

3 Click Accept. The File Download dialog box displays.

110 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

 4 Do one of the following:
■ To display the file in its associated program, click Open.

■ To save the file, click Save. If necessary, specify a new file location and file name.

You can use Autodesk i-drop® to drag and drop content from a website into your drawing session. However,
you cannot use i-drop to download ZIP files.

NOTE To enable i-drop you must first download and install it. For more information visit
http://www.autodesk.com/idrop.

To i-drop a file into your drawing

1 On the Autodesk Seek website, move your cursor over an available download displaying the i-drop icon.

2 Click and drag the file.

3 Drop the file at the desired location in your drawing and, if necessary, reposition it.

Where to extract the contents from a ZIP file

1 If a Readme TXT file exists, open it to determine where you should extract each file in the ZIP file.

2 Extract the files to the locations specified in the Readme. If the family does not have a Readme, extract
the files to the locations specified in the following table.

NOTE These locations are the default Windows XP and Windows Vista® paths that are set during installation.
Because these paths can be changed during installation, your paths might be different.

File Type Location

Family (RFA) The Revit library, which is installed by de-

fault in
■ Windows XP:C:\Documents and Set-
tings\All Users\Application
Data\Autodesk\<Revit release
name>\<Imperial or Metric> Library
■ Windows Vista:C:\Program-
Data\Autodesk\<Revit release
name>\<Imperial or Metric> Library

Type catalogs (TXT) that manage paramet- The same folder as the RFA file
ers for families with many type variations

NOTE The type catalog must have

exactly the same name as its family
RFA file. The names are case-sensitive.

Lookup tables (CSV) that Revit MEP com- ■ Windows XP:C:\Documents and Set-
ponents use to define instance parameters tings\All Users\Application
Data\Autodesk\<Revit MEP release
name>\LookupTables
■ Windows Vista:C:\Program-
Data\Autodesk\<Revit MEP release
name>\LookupTables

Parts of the Revit Interface | 111

 File Type Location

Image files (BMP, JPG, JPEG, or PNG) used ■ Windows XP:C:\Program

to create a custom color, design, texture, Files\Autodesk\<Revit release
or bump map for a render appearance name>\Data\Rendering\assetlib-
rary_base.fbm
■ Windows Vista:C:\Program
Files\Autodesk\<Revit release
name>\Data\Rendering\assetlib-
rary_base.fbm

Photometric data files (IES) for use with C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Applic-
lighting families ation Data\Autodesk\<Revit release
name>\IES

Opening Revit Files

When you start Revit Architecture, the Recent Files window displays, listing the projects and families that
you opened most recently. If you are already working in a Revit session, you can return to the Recent Files
window by clicking View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ User Interface drop-down ➤ Recent Files.
To open a Revit file, use any of the following methods:

■ Press CTRL+O.

■ Click ➤ Open.

■ Click ➤ Open, and select a Revit file type.

■ Click and select a file from the Recent Documents list.

■ Click on the Quick Access toolbar.

When you click a file under Projects or Families, Revit Architecture opens the file.

NOTE If you are editing a non-workshared file, other users will have read-only access to the file.

Opening a Revit Project File

1 Click ➤ Open ➤ Project.

2 In the Open dialog, navigate to the folder where the project file resides. To see only files of a
certain type, select that type from the Files of type drop-down list.
3 Select the desired options:
If you want to... Then...

scan, detect and fix corrupt elements in select Audit. This can greatly increase the
the project time required to open files. Use this option
only for periodic maintenance of large

112 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

 If you want to... Then...
workshared files or when you are preparing
to upgrade.

open a workshared local file separate from select Detach from Central. See Opening
the central file Workshared Files Independent of the
Central File on page 1268.

open a local copy of the central file select Create new local. See Creating a
Local Copy of the Central File on page 1258.

4 Select the project file, and click Open.

NOTE If you are editing a non-workshared file, other users will have read-only access to the file.

Opening Families and Training Files

1 Click ➤ Open ➤ Family.

2 On the left side of the Open dialog, select a family library or the Training Files folder.
3 Navigate to the appropriate directory, select the file, and click Open.
To make other directories available from the Open dialog, see Setting Options on page 516.

NOTE If you are editing a non-workshared file, other users will have read-only access to the file.

Opening Files from the Conceptual Design Environment

The conceptual design environment contains family files and templates that you can download and use in
a massing study. See Template Files for the Conceptual Design Environment on page 532.

To open files from the conceptual design environment

1 Click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ User Interface drop-down ➤ Recent Files.
2 Under Families, click New Conceptual Mass.
The New Concept Mass Model - Select Template File window opens.

3 In the browser window, navigate to the desired file, and click Open.
See Conceptual Design Environment on page 527.

Opening Files from the Web Library

To download family files or templates from the web library for use in a project, do the following:

1 Click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ User Interface drop-down ➤ Recent Files.
2 Under Families, click Web Library.
The web library opens in a browser window.

3 In the browser window, navigate to the desired collection, and click the family or template to
download.

Opening Revit Files | 113

 4 In the File Download dialog, click Open to open the item in Revit Architecture, or click Save to
save it in a specified folder, from which it can be loaded into a project.
5 If you opened a family and want to immediately use it in a project, do the following:
a Click Create tab ➤ Family Editor panel ➤ Load into Project.

b In the Load into Projects dialog, select the open projects to receive the family, and click
OK.

You can see the new family in the Project Browser under Families.

Opening Revit Files from Windows Explorer

The following alternative methods open Revit files from Windows Explorer.

■ Double-click a project or family file.

■ Drag a project file from Windows Explorer into Revit Architecture.

■ Drag a family file from Windows Explorer into the Project Browser or drawing area of Revit Architecture
to load it into the project.

■ Drag a family file from Windows Explorer into anywhere other than the Project Browser or the drawing
area (such as the ribbon, Quick Access toolbar, or the title bar) to open the family in the Family Editor.

■ Drag multiple files from Windows Explorer into an active session of Revit Architecture. A dialog opens,
asking whether you want to open dropped files in separate windows or load dropped families into the
current project.

NOTE If you are editing a non-workshared file and another user attempts to open the same file, the user will be
given access to the file in a read-only state.

Saving Revit Files

The Save tool saves the active file to its current name and folder.
To save a file, do any of the following:

■ Click ➤ Save.

■ Press Ctrl+S.

■ On the Quick Access toolbar, click (Save).

If you want to save the current file to a different file name or location, click ➤ Save As.
If you are working in a project that has worksharing enabled and you want to save your changes to the
central file, select Collaborate tab ➤ Central panel ➤ Synchronize with Central drop-down ➤ Synchronize
Now. See Synchronizing with the Central File on page 1265.

NOTE The first time that you save across the network in a Revit Architecture session, you may see a dialog that
advises you to install current Microsoft® hotfixes. Installing these hotfixes may prevent future loss of data in the
Revit project. To obtain the hotfixes, click (Help) drop-down ➤ Documents on the Web.

114 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

Saving a File with a Different Name or Location

1 Click ➤ Save As.

2 Select a Project, Family, Template, or Library file type to save.
3 In the Save As dialog, navigate to the desired folder.
4 If desired, change the file name.
5 To specify save options, click Options, set the options as desired, and click OK.
See Save Options on page 115.

6 Click Save.

Save Options
When using Save As from the application menu, click Options in the Save As dialog, and specify the following
in the File Save Options dialog:

■ Maximum backups. Specifies the maximum number of backup files. By default, non-workshared projects
have 3 backups, and workshared projects have up to 20 backups. See Backup and Journal Files on page
116.

■ Make this a Central File after save: Sets the current workset-enabled file to be the central file. See Creating
a Central File from an Existing Workshared File on page 1272.

■ Compact File. Reduces file sizes when saving workset-enabled files. During a normal save, Revit Architecture
only writes new and changed elements to the existing files. This can cause files to become large, but it
increases the speed of the save operation. The compacting process rewrites the entire file and removes
obsolete parts to save space. Because it takes more time than a normal save, use the compact option when
the workflow can be interrupted. See Using Workshared Files on page 1257.

■ Open workset default. Sets the workset default for the central file when opened locally. From this list,
you save a worksharing file to always default to one of the following options: All, Editable, Last Viewed,
or Specify. See Creating a Central File from an Existing Workshared File on page 1272. The only way a user
can change this option is to resave a new central file by selecting "Make this a Central File after save" on
the File Save Options dialog. The local file can use the Reload Latest tool to update the changed option.
To change this setting in an existing central file, resave the file using Save As and adjust the Save Options.
When opened locally, you can override this default setting each time the project is opened. The override
only affects that work session, and will revert to defaults the next time the file is opened.

■ Preview. Specifies the preview image that displays when you open or save a project. The default value
for this option is Active View/Sheet. Revit Architecture can create a preview image only from open views.
If you select Regenerate if View/Sheet is not up-to-date, Revit Architecture updates the preview image
whenever you open or save the project. This option can consume considerable resources on a complex
model. Use it only if you want the preview image to update frequently.

Setting Save Reminders

You can specify how often Revit Architecture reminds you to save an open project, or you can turn off the
reminder.

To set save reminders

1 Click ➤ Options.

Saving Revit Files | 115

 2 In the Options dialog, click the General tab.
3 To change how often Revit Architecture reminds you to save an open project, select a time
interval for Save Reminder Interval.
4 To turn off the save reminder, for Save Reminder Interval, select No Reminders.
5 Click OK.

Related topics

■ General Options on page 516

■ Options on page 516

Backup and Journal Files

All backup operations (such as copying, purging, and so on) occur when you save changes to a project. If
necessary, you can use backup files to roll back the latest changes to a project, restoring the project to a
previously saved state.

NOTE This topic describes backup files for non-workshared projects. For information about backup files for
workshared projects, see Workshared Project Rollback on page 1271.

When you save a non-workshared project, Revit Architecture makes a backup copy of the previous version
of the project (that is, the project file before the current save). This backup copy has the name
<project_name>.<nnnn>.rvt, where <nnnn> is a 4-digit number indicating how many times the file has
been saved. The backup file resides in the same folder as the project file.
You can specify the maximum number of backup files that Revit Architecture saves. (See Specifying the
Number of Backup Files on page 116.) If the number of backup files exceeds the maximum, then Revit
Architecture purges the oldest files. For example, if the maximum is 3 backup files, and the project folder
contains 5 backup files, then Revit Architecture deletes the oldest 2 backup files.

Specifying the Number of Backup Files

By default, Revit Architecture saves up to 3 backup files for each project. You can change the number of
backup files that Revit Architecture saves for a project.

To specify the number of backup files

1 Click ➤ Save As.

2 In the Save As dialog, click Options.
3 In the File Save Options dialog, for Maximum backups, specify the number of backup files to
save.
4 Click OK.
5 Click Save.

Backup Files for Network Saves

Suppose you work on a project whose file is stored in a network location, and the project is not workshared.
When you save changes to the project, Revit Architecture does the following:

■ Saves the current changes to the project file in the network location.

116 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

 ■ Makes a backup copy of the saved file, and places it in the Journal folder on the local computer. (See
Journal Files on page 117.)

The local backup file provides protection in case the network save fails. Revit Architecture saves up to 3 local
backup files. It purges older backup files.
The local backup file uses the same name as the project file, with a GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) date and
time stamp appended to it. For example, when you save project.rvt, Revit Architecture saves a local copy to
the Journal folder, using the file name format project_YYYYMMDD-hhmmss-mmm.rvt.

Journal Files
Journal files capture the actions taken by the software during a session of Revit Architecture, from the time
the software starts to the time it stops. These text files can be used to troubleshoot technical problems with
the software.
Revit Architecture creates a new journal file each time you use the software. The journal file with the highest
number is the most recent file. By default, journal files reside in the following location:
C:\Program Files\<Revit product name and version>\Journals
If you encounter problems during a Revit session, your support provider may ask you to send the journal
file and any backup files to help with the troubleshooting process. If you do not encounter problems during
a Revit session, the journal file is of little use and can be deleted. To automate the deletion of old journal
files, see General Options on page 516.

Refreshing the Screen

The Refresh tool repaints the screen to remove any extraneous images. You do not normally need to use
this tool, but it assures a clean image.
Press F5 to refresh the screen.

What Is a Project?
In Revit Architecture, the project is the single database of information for your design—the building
information model. The project file contains all information for a building design, from geometry to
construction data. This information includes components used to design the model, views of the project,
and drawings of the design. By using a single project file, Revit Architecture makes it easy to alter the design
and have changes reflected in all associated areas (plan views, elevation views, section views, schedules, and
so on). Having only one file to track also makes it easier to manage the project.
As you design the building, you create different views of the project, such as sections, plans, and elevations.
When you change the building design in one view, Revit Architecture propagates those changes throughout
the project. This means that the 3D model, any views of the model, the drawings, and the schedules are
associative; they all update to reflect the changes.

Before You Begin a Project

Before you create a project in Revit Architecture, consider the following approaches to the design process:

■ Using levels and grids. You can begin the design process by defining levels and grids for the structure.
See Levels on page 1101 and Grids on page 1093.

Refreshing the Screen | 117

 ■ Importing data. If you started the design process using another CAD program (such as AutoCAD), you
can import existing data. Revit Architecture imports various CAD formats, including DWG, DXF, DGN,
and ACIS SAT files, as well as SketchUp (SKP) files and Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). See Import/Link
on page 1386.

■ Massing. You can start a project by designing a conceptual model. After you create basic shapes with the
massing tools, you can convert mass faces to building elements. See Massing Studies on page 589 and
Conceptual Design Environment on page 527.

Starting a New Project

When you start a new project in Revit Architecture, the new project file uses default settings, which are
defined in a project template. Revit Architecture includes a default template called default.rte, which contains
several settings to help you begin the design process immediately. Alternatively, you can start a project using
a custom template. (See Creating a Custom Project Template on page 445.)
For information about changing the default template, see Setting Options on page 516.

Starting a New Project Using Default Settings

1 Start Revit Architecture.
2 Start a new project using one of the following methods:
■ Press Ctrl+N.

■ Click ➤ New ➤ Project. In the New Project dialog, for Template, select None. For
Create New, click Project. Click OK. In the Select Initial Units dialog, click Imperial or Metric.

Revit Architecture creates a new project file, using the default settings. The default project name displays in

the title bar of the Revit window. To assign a different file name, click ➤ Save As.

Starting a New Project Using a Template

1 Start Revit Architecture.

2 Click ➤ New ➤ Project.

3 In the New Project dialog, for Template, click Browse.
4 Navigate to the location of the desired project template, select the template file (with the file
type RTE), and click Open.
Revit Architecture provides several project templates, which reside in the Metric Templates or
Imperial Templates folder at:
■ Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\<product name>\

You can use one of these templates or create your own templates as needed to maintain corporate
standards or to simplify the setup process for different types of projects. See Creating a Custom
Project Template on page 445.

5 For Create New, click Project.

6 Click OK.

118 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

 Revit Architecture creates a new project file using the settings defined by the specified template. The default

project name appears in the title bar of the Revit window. To assign a different file name, click ➤ Save
As.

Related topics
■ Creating a Template on page 445

■ Project Template Settings on page 446

Building with Elements

You create buildings by adding elements to a design. In projects, Revit Architecture uses 3 types of elements:

■ Model elements represent the actual 3D geometry of the building. They display in relevant views of the
model. For example, walls, windows, doors, and roofs are model elements.

■ Datum elements help to define project context. For example, grids, levels, and reference planes are datum
elements.

■ View-specific elements display only in the views in which they are placed. They help to describe or
document the model. For example, dimensions, tags, and 2D detail components are view-specific elements.

There are 2 types of model elements:

■ Hosts (or host elements) are generally built in place at the construction site. Walls and roofs are examples
of hosts.

■ Model components are all the other types of elements in the building model. For example, windows,
doors, and cabinets are model components.

There are 2 types of view-specific elements:

■ Annotation elements are 2D components that document the model and maintain scale on paper. For
example, dimensions, tags, and keynotes are annotation elements.

■ Details are 2D items that provide details about the building model in a particular view. Examples include
detail lines, filled regions, and 2D detail components.

Building with Elements | 119

 Categories, Families, and Types
Revit Architecture classifies elements by categories, families, types, and instances.
Category: A category is a group of elements that you use to model or document a building design. For
example, categories of model elements include walls and beams. Categories of annotation elements include
tags and text notes.
Family: Families are classes of elements in a category. A family groups elements with a common set of
parameters (properties), identical use, and similar graphical representation. Different elements in a family
may have different values for some or all properties, but the set of properties—their names and meaning—is
the same. For example, six-panel colonial doors could be considered one family, although the doors that
compose the family come in different sizes and materials. Structural members (such as w shapes) are another
family. See Revit Families on page 415.
Type: Each family can have different types. A type can be a specific size of a family, such as a 30” X 42”(A0)
title block or a 32" x 84" (910 x 2110) door. A type can also be a style, such as default aligned or default
angular style for dimensions. A family can have several types. For example, a table may be available in several
sizes. Each size table is a different type within the same family.
Instance: Instances are the actual items (individual elements) that are placed in the project and have specific
locations in the building (model instances) or on a drawing sheet (annotation instances). Each instance
belongs to a family and, within that family, a particular type.

Element Properties
In Revit Architecture, most elements have two sets of properties that control their appearance and behavior:

■ Type properties are common to many elements in a family. A type property affects all instances (individual
elements) of that family in the project and any future instances that you place in the project.

■ Instance properties apply to individual instances (elements) of a family type in the project. Instance
properties tend to vary with the location of an element in a building or project. An instance property
affects only one selected element, or the element that you are about to place. For example, suppose that
you select a beam, right-click, and click Element Properties. You change one of the instance properties
and click OK. Only that beam is affected, even if the project contains other instances (individual beams)
of the same type.

For example, the dimensions of a window are type properties, while its elevation from the level is an instance
property. Similarly, cross-sectional dimensions of a beam are type properties, while beam length is an instance
property.

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Modifying Instance Properties
To modify the instance properties of an element, use either of the following methods:
■ Select the element in the drawing area. Then click Modify <Element> tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element
Properties drop-down ➤ Instance Properties.

■ Select the element in the drawing area. Then right-click, and click Element Properties.

The content of the Instance Properties dialog varies, depending on the type of element. The following image
shows the Instance Properties dialog for a wall.

Modifying Type Properties

To modify type properties for elements, use either of the following methods:
■ In the drawing area, select an element belonging to the desired type. Then click Modify <Element>
tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties drop-down ➤ Type Properties.

■ In the drawing area, select an element belonging to the desired type. Then right-click, and click Element
Properties. In the Instance Properties dialog, click Edit Type.

Related topics

■ Creating a New Family Type in a Project on page 122

■ Previewing Family Types on page 122

Building with Elements | 121

 Creating a New Family Type in a Project
You can add a new type to the family and change the parameters for that type. This feature allows you to
define an entire family of different-sized components within the project.

NOTE A new family type created in the project exists only in that project.

To create a new family type in a project

1 In the drawing area, select an element belonging to the desired type. Then click Modify <Element>
tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties drop-down ➤ Type Properties.
2 In the Type Properties dialog, click Duplicate.
3 In the Name dialog, enter a name for the new type and click OK.
4 Specify properties for the type, as desired.
5 To preview the new element type, click Preview. See Previewing Family Types on page 122.
6 In the Type Properties dialog, click OK.

On the Modify <Element> tab ➤ Element panel, the new type displays in the Type Selector, indicating that
the new type is assigned to the selected element.

Related topics

■ Revit Families on page 415

■ Working with Families on page 418

■ Loading and Saving Families on page 427

Previewing Family Types

The Type Properties dialog features a preview window that shows an image of the family type. As you set
parameters and change values for the type, the image in the window updates accordingly.

To preview a family type

1 In the drawing area, select an element belonging to the desired type.
2 Click Modify <Element> tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties drop-down ➤ Type Properties.
The Type Properties dialog displays.

3 To see (or hide) a preview of the family type, click the Preview button at the bottom of the
dialog.
As you change type parameters, the preview image updates to reflect the changes.

Manipulating the preview image of a family type

4 To control the appearance of the preview image, do any of the following:

■ For View, select a view name to see how this type of element will appear in a different view.

■ Use the scroll bars to move the image up, down, left, or right in the preview window.

■ Click or to activate the SteeringWheels navigation tool. If you are previewing a 3D view of
the element, you can also use the ViewCube. See Navigating Views on page 217.

The following is an example of a Type Properties dialog for a wall type, with the Preview pane displayed.

122 | Chapter 4 Revit Essentials

Revit Tutorials
A complete set of Revit tutorials are available to help you be more productive using Revit Architecture.
Follow the self-paced exercises to get comfortable with using Revit Architecture.

To access the Revit Architecture tutorials, click (Help) drop-down ➤ Tutorials.

Revit Tutorials | 123

124
Project Views
5
This topic covers most project views in Revit Architecture. The following project views are covered in other topics:

■ Sheet views (see Preparing Construction Documents on page 1029)

■ Detail views and drafting views (see Detailing on page 1134)
■ Area plans (see Area Analysis on page 1008)
■ Linked Revit models (see Linking Revit Models on page 1277)

Plan Views
The floor plan view is the default view in a new project. Most projects include at least one floor plan.

Floor plan views are created automatically as you add new levels to your project.

125
 Reflected Ceiling Plan View
Most projects include at least one reflected ceiling plan (RCP) view.

Reflected ceiling plan views are also created automatically, as you add new levels to your project.

Creating a Plan View

1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Plan Views drop-down ➤ Floor Plan.
2 From the New Plan dialog, select one or more levels for which you want to create a plan view.
3 If you want to create a plan view for a level that has an existing plan view, clear Do not duplicate
existing views.
4 For Scale, select an appropriate view scale for the new view.
5 Click OK.

NOTE If you create duplicate plan views, the duplicate view displays in the Project Browser with the
following notation: Level 1(1), where the value in parentheses increases with the number of duplicates.

Creating a Reflected Ceiling Plan View

1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Plan Views drop-down ➤ Reflected Ceiling Plan.
2 In the New RCP dialog, select one or more levels for which you want to create a view.

NOTE Hold the Ctrl key as you select to choose multiple levels.

3 If you want to create a plan view for a level that has an existing plan view, clear Do not duplicate
existing views.
4 For Scale, select an appropriate view scale for the new view.
5 Click OK.

126 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 NOTE If you create duplicate plan views, the duplicate view appears in the Project Browser with the
following notation: Level 1(1), where the value in parentheses increases with the number of duplicate
views.

Cutting a Plan View by the Back Clip Plane

You may want to cut a plan view at the back clip plane when you have an element (such as a slanted wall)
that spans multiple levels. If you only want the wall visible in the plan view as it appears in the view range
of level 3, you can clip the wall from view using the Depth Clipping parameter. The following image illustrates
this.

You activate this feature using the Depth Clipping parameter for the plan view. The back clip plane is defined
by the View Depth parameter, which is part of the view’s View Range properties.

NOTE Plan views include floor plan views, reflected ceiling plan views, detail plan views, and callout plan views.

The following image shows the cut plane and view depth for this model and the resulting plan view
representations for the Depth Clipping parameter options (Clip without line, Clip with line, and No clip).

Cutting a Plan View by the Back Clip Plane | 127

 Plan regions respect the Depth Clipping parameter setting of their parent view, but follow their own View
Range settings.
Elements that have symbolic representation in certain views (such as structural beams) and non-cuttable
families are not affected when you cut a plan view by the back clip plane. They will display and are not cut.
This property does affect printing.

To cut by the back clip plane:

1 In the Project Browser, right-click the plan view you want to cut by the back clip plane, and
click Properties.
Alternatively, if the view is active in the drawing area, right-click and click View Properties.

2 In the Instance Properties dialog, find the Depth Clipping parameter.

The Depth Clipping parameter is available for plan and site views.

3 Click the button in the Value column.

The Depth Clipping dialog displays.

4 In the Depth Clipping dialog, select an option and click OK.

128 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 5 Optionally, click View Range, and modify the View Depth setting if necessary. The level you
select for View Depth is where the view will be clipped, when the Depth Clipping property is
active.
6 Click OK to exit the Instance Properties dialog.

Plan View Properties

Each plan view has type properties for callout tags and reference labels. The reference label parameter sets
the text displayed in a callout tag when a reference callout is made to the plan view. To define the look of
callout tags click Manage tab ➤ Project Settings panel ➤ Settings drop-down ➤ Callout Tags.
See View Properties on page 259.

Displaying a Plan View

■ Double-click its name in the Project Browser.

■ If the view is open but hidden behind another view, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Switch Windows
drop-down ➤ <view name>.

Plan Region
The Plan Region tool lets you define a region within a plan view that has a different view range from the
overall view. Plan regions are useful for split level plans or for displaying inserts above or below the cut
plane. Plan regions are closed sketches and cannot overlap each other. They can have coincident edges.

Plan regions are view-specific. You can copy and paste them into the same view or different views. When
you copy a plan region into a different view, the view range settings are maintained from the previous view.
Plan regions export and print when they are visible in a view.

Plan View Properties | 129

 Creating a Plan Region
1 Open a plan view.
2 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Plan Views drop-down ➤ Plan Region.
3 Sketch a closed loop using lines, rectangles, or polygons.
For more information, see Sketching on page 303.

4 Click Create Plan Region Boundary tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Plan Region Properties.
5 In the Instance Properties dialog, for View Range, click Edit.
6 In the View Range dialog, specify the primary range and view depth.
If the value for Cut Plane is specified as Parent View’s Level, then the level used to define all the
clip planes (Top, Bottom, Cut, and View Depth) is the same as for the entire plan view.

NOTE Values for offsets need to make sense with respect to each other. For example, the top offset
cannot be lower than the cut plane offset, and the cut plane offset cannot be lower than the bottom
offset.

For more details about view range options, see View Range on page 247.

7 Click OK to exit the View Range dialog.

8 Click OK to exit the Instance Properties dialog.
9 Click Finish Plan Region.
You do not have to enter sketch mode to edit the shape of a plan region. Each boundary line of the plan
region is a shape handle, as shown in the following image. Select the shape handle and drag it to modify
the size.

Related topics

■ Plan Region on page 129

■ Controlling Visibility of Plan Regions on page 130

■ Cutting a Plan View by the Back Clip Plane on page 127

Controlling Visibility of Plan Regions

1 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, or type the shortcut key combination
VG.
2 In the Visibility/Graphics dialog, click the Annotation Categories tab.
3 Scroll to the Plan Region category.
4 Select or clear the check box to show or hide the plan region.
5 Click in the Projection/Surface Lines column, and click Override to make changes to the line
weight, line color, and line pattern of the plan region.

130 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 6 Click OK.

Elevation Views
Elevation views are part of the default template in Revit Architecture. When you create a project with the
default template, 4 elevation views are included: north, south, east, and west. It is in elevation views where
you sketch level lines. For each level line that you sketch, a corresponding plan view is created.

You can create additional exterior elevation views and interior elevation views. Interior elevation views
depict detailed views of interior walls and show how the features of the wall should be built. Examples of
rooms that might be shown in an interior elevation are kitchens and bathrooms.

Elevation Tags

You designate elevations with an elevation tag . The tag snaps to walls as you drag it around with the
cursor. You can set different properties for the tag. See Modifying Elevation Symbol Properties on page 137.
The elevation view arrowhead is visible in a plan view, provided the elevation view’s crop region intersects
the view range of the plan view. If you resize the crop region of the elevation such that it no longer intersects
the view range, the arrowhead is not visible in the plan view.

Creating an Elevation View

1 Open a plan view.
2 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Elevation.
The cursor appears with the elevation symbol.

3 On the Options Bar, select a view scale.

Elevation Views | 131

 4 Place the cursor near a wall, and click to place the elevation symbol.

NOTE As you move the cursor, you can press Tab to change the position of the arrowhead. The
arrowhead snaps to perpendicular walls.

5 To set different interior elevation views, highlight the square shape of the elevation symbol,
and click.
The elevation symbol displays with check box options for creating views, as the following image
shows.

TIP The rotation control is useful for aligning to angled elements in the plan.

6 Select the check boxes to indicate where you want to create elevation views.
7 Click away from the elevation symbol to hide the check boxes.
8 Highlight an arrowhead on the symbol to select it.
9 Click the arrowhead once to view the clip plane:
Elevation symbol with clip plane

The end points of clip planes snap and join to walls. You can resize the width of the elevation
by dragging the blue controls. If the blue controls do not display in the view, select the clip
plane and click Modify Views tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties. In the Instance
Properties dialog, select the Crop View parameter, and click OK.

10 In the Project Browser, select the new elevation view.

The elevation view is designated by a letter and number, for example, Elevation: 1 - a.

Related topics

■ Displaying an Elevation View on page 132

■ Changing the Clip Plane in an Elevation View on page 133

■ Changing the Elevation Symbol on page 133

■ Framing Elevation Views on page 135

Displaying an Elevation View

There are several ways to display an elevation view.

■ Double-click the view name from the Project Browser.

■ Double-click the arrowhead on the elevation symbol.

■ Select the elevation symbol arrowhead, right-click, and select Go to Elevation View.

132 | Chapter 5 Project Views

Changing the Elevation Symbol
1 Select the elevation tag arrowhead.
2 Click Modify Views tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties drop-down ➤ Type Properties.
3 Modify the appropriate property values by clicking in the Value fields.
4 Click OK.

Changing the Clip Plane in an Elevation View

Clip planes define the boundaries for an elevation view. The end points of clip planes snap and join to walls.
You can resize the viewing area of an elevation by resizing the clip planes.
1 In a plan view, select the elevation tag arrowhead.
The clip planes for the elevation display in the drawing area, as shown in the following image.

NOTE If the far clip plane (the dotted green line) is not visible, right-click the elevation arrowhead,
and click Element Properties. Find the Far Clipping parameter, and select an option. For more
information, see Cutting an Elevation, Section, or Callout View by the Far Clip Plane on page 133.

2 Drag the blue dots or the arrows to resize the clip plane.

Cutting an Elevation, Section, or Callout View by the Far Clip Plane

You can cut an elevation, section, or callout view at the far clip plane. You activate this feature using the
Far Clipping parameter for the view. The far clip plane is defined with the Far Clip Offset parameter.
The following image shows the clip plane for the model and the resulting elevation view representations
for the Far Clipping parameter options (Clip without line, Clip with line, and No clip).

Changing the Elevation Symbol | 133

 Elements that have symbolic representation in certain views (such as structural beams) and non-cuttable
families are not affected when you cut an elevation, section, or callout view by the far clip plane. They will
display and are not cut.
This property does affect printing.

To cut by the far clip plane:

1 In the Project Browser, right-click the view you want to cut by the far clip plane, and click
Properties.
Alternatively, if the view is active in the drawing area, right-click and click View Properties.

2 In the Instance Properties dialog, find the Far Clipping parameter.

The Far Clipping parameter is available for elevation, section, and callout views. To use this
parameter in a callout view, for the Far Clip Settings parameter, specify Independent.

3 Click the button in the Value column.

The Far Clipping dialog displays.

4 In the Far Clipping dialog, select an option, and click OK.

5 Enter a value for Far Clip Offset. This is where the view will be clipped when the Clipping
property is active.
6 Click OK to exit the Instance Properties dialog.

Reference Elevation
Reference elevations are elevations that reference an existing elevation or drafting view. They do not create
a new view when you add them to your project.

134 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 You can place a reference elevation in a plan or callout view.

Placing a Reference Elevation

1 Open a plan or callout view.
2 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Elevation.
3 On the Options Bar, select Reference other view.
4 Select a reference view from the adjacent menu. If there are no existing views to reference, you
can select <New Drafting View> from the menu. This creates an empty drafting view that is
added to the Project Browser under Drafting Views. The default name is Elevation of <level
name>. You can edit this view as necessary and rename it.

NOTE If a view from the menu list is on a sheet, the detail number and sheet number display next
to the view. For example, if you choose a drafting view, and it is on a sheet, its name displays as
Drafting View: Drafting 1 (1/A101), where the values in the parentheses represent the detail number
and sheet number.

5 Place the cursor in the drawing area and click to place the reference elevation.
The reference elevation displays in the drawing area with the default reference label, as shown
in the following image.

To change the label text, select the reference elevation symbol, and click Modify Elevations
tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties drop-down ➤ Type Properties. Edit the Reference
Label type parameter and click OK.

6 Click Elevation tab ➤ Select panel ➤ Modify, to exit the Elevation tool.
7 Optionally, select the elevation symbol, and add check marks where you want to create additional
reference elevations.
When you select a check box, the Select View to Reference dialog opens. Select the view to
reference and click OK.

Framing Elevation Views

Framing elevation views are useful for adding vertical bracing to your model, or for any task that requires
quick work plane alignment to a grid or to a named reference plane. When you add a framed elevation,
Revit Architecture automatically sets the work plane and view range at the selected grid or reference plane.
The crop region is also confined to the region between adjacent grid lines that are perpendicular to the
selected grid line.

Framing Elevation Views | 135

 Creating a Framing Elevation View
NOTE You must have a grid in your view, before you can add a framing elevation view. See Grids on page 1093 for
information on drawing a grid.

1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Elevation drop-down ➤ Framing Elevation.

2 Place the framing elevation symbol perpendicular to the selected grid line and in the direction
of view to display, and click to place it.

3 Press Esc to finish.

4 Double-click the elevation arrowhead to open the framing elevation.
The view represents a full-height view of the area at the work plane of the grid or of the reference
plane. The view is constrained to the surrounding grids or limits of the reference plane.

Related topics

■ Framing Elevation Views on page 135

136 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 ■ Elevation Views on page 131

■ Reference Elevation on page 134

Elevation View Properties

Each elevation has type properties for elevation tags, callout tags, and reference labels. To define the look
of elevation tags and callout tags, click Manage tab ➤ Project Settings panel ➤ Settings drop-down ➤ Callout
Tags or Elevation Tags. The Reference Label parameter sets the text displayed next to the elevation tag when
the elevation is a reference elevation.

Modifying Elevation Symbol Properties

You can set various parameters to modify the display of the elevation symbols.

1 Click Manage tab ➤ Project Settings panel ➤ Settings drop-down ➤ Elevation Tags.
2 In the Type Properties dialog, make the necessary changes to the elevation symbol properties.
3 Click OK.

Section Views
Sections views cut through the model. You can draw them in plan, section, elevation, and detail views.
Section views display as section representations in intersecting views.
You can create building, wall, and detail section views. Each type has a unique graphical display, and each
is listed in a different location in the Project Browser. Building and wall section views display in the Sections
(Building Section) branch and Sections (Wall section) branch of the Project Browser. Detail sections appear
in the Detail Views branch.

You can cut a section view at the far clip plane. For more information, see Cutting an Elevation, Section, or
Callout View by the Far Clip Plane on page 133.

Elevation View Properties | 137

 Considerations for Section Views in the Family Editor
■ You can create a section view in the Family Editor.

■ Section views are not available for in-place families.

■ If the section symbol appears without a head, you need to load the section head. See Changing the
Section Head on page 145.

Creating a Section View

1 Open a plan, section, elevation, or detail view.
2 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Section.
3 Click Section tab ➤ Element panel, and from the Type Selector select Detail, Building Section,
or Wall Section.
4 On the Options Bar, select the view scale.
5 Place the cursor at the starting point of the section, and drag through the model or family.

NOTE You can snap a section line parallel or perpendicular to a non-orthogonal datum or wall.
Snapping to a wall is available in plan views.

6 Click when you reach the end point of the section.

The section line and the crop region appear and are selected, as the following image shows.

7 If desired, resize the crop region by dragging the blue controls. The depth of the section view
changes accordingly.
8 Click Modify or press Esc to exit the Section tool.
9 To open the section view, double-click the section header, or select the section view from the
Sections leaf of the Project Browser.
The section view changes when the design changes or the section line is moved.

Related topics

■ Displaying a Section View on page 143

■ Controlling Section View Width and Depth on page 140

■ Breaking Section Lines on page 139

■ Changing the Section Head on page 145

138 | Chapter 5 Project Views

Section Tag Visibility
The section tag is visible in plan, elevation, and other section views, provided its crop region intersects the
view range. For example, if you resize the crop region of the section view, so that it no longer intersects the
plan view’s view range, the section symbol does not appear in the plan view.

TIP The section instance parameter Hide at Scales Coarser Than establishes a scale at which sections are either
shown or hidden in other views. For example, a section tag can be hidden at scales coarser than 1/4”=1’0”.

Section symbols can display in elevation views even if their crop boundary is turned off. The section displays
in elevation if the section line intersects the elevation clip plane. To view and modify the position of the
elevation clip plane, select the arrowhead of an elevation symbol in a plan view, and the clip plane appears
with drag controls on it. If you resize the clip plane such that it no longer intersects the section line, the
section is not visible in the elevation view.

Related topic

■ View Tags in Dedicated Views for Design Options on page 1320

Breaking Section Lines

Breaking section lines is useful when you want to create a section view, but you do not want the section
line to appear across the drawing. Breaking a section line has no effect on what displays in the section view.

You can break section lines by clicking the break control ( ) and adjusting the length of the section
line segments. The section break is in the middle of the section line. The following images show the same
section, whole and broken.

To rejoin the section line, click the break control again.

NOTE A break in a section line is view-specific. It affects the display of the section only in the view where the break
was made.

Controlling the Line Style of Broken Section Lines

1 Click Manage tab ➤ Project Settings panel ➤ Settings drop-down ➤ Section Tags.
2 Change the value of the Broken Section Display Style property to Continuous or Gapped.

Section Tag Visibility | 139

 Gapped is the default. If you select Continuous, the section line displays according to the Broken
Section Line style defined in the Object Styles dialog. For more information on the Object Styles
dialog, see Object Styles on page 493.

Controlling Section View Width and Depth

When you create a section view, Revit Architecture sets a default view depth and width. By selecting a section
and resizing its crop region, you can control more accurately what displays in the section view.
The following image shows a section and its crop region.

Drag the controls on the crop region to resize the width and the depth of the section view, as necessary.
The following image shows the same section as above, but with a resized crop region.

Segmented Section View

You can split sections into segments that are orthogonal to the view direction. This allows you to vary a
section view to show disparate parts of the model without having to create a different section.
In the following figure, a typical section is drawn on the model.

140 | Chapter 5 Project Views

The section produces the following view.

Modify the section as shown and the resulting section view changes.

Segmenting a Section View

1 Sketch a section in a view, or select an existing section.
2 Click Modify Views tab ➤ Section panel ➤ Split Segment.
3 Place the cursor on the section line at the point it is to be segmented, and click.

4 Move the cursor to the side of the split to move, and move the cursor in a direction orthogonal
to the view direction.

5 Click to place the section.

Segmented Section View | 141

 The new segmented section has several controls on it. Controls for resizing the crop region display as a
dashed green line. All segments share the same far clip plane.
There are controls for moving the segments of the section line.

There is also a break control that divides the section into smaller segments. The break control displays as a
Z on the section line. Click it to break up the section even further. When you do, the section has more
controls for resizing segments.

Merging Segmented Section Views

To change the segmented line into a continuous line, move segments toward one another so that they form
a continuous line and merge.

Reference Sections
Reference sections are sections that reference an existing view. They do not create a new view when you
add them to your project.

142 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 You can place reference sections in plan, elevation, section, drafting, and callout views. Reference sections
can reference section views, callouts of section views, and drafting views.

To create a reference section:

1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Section.

2 On the Options Bar, select Reference other view, and select a section, callout of a section, or
drafting view name from the drop-down menu next to it. If there are no existing views to
reference, you can select <New Drafting View> to create a new drafting view; the reference
section then references this new drafting view.

NOTE If a view from the menu list is on a sheet, the detail number and sheet number display next
to the view. For example, if you select a drafting view to be referenced and it is on a sheet, its name
displays as Drafting View: Drafting 1 (1/A101), where the values in parentheses represent the detail
number and sheet number.

3 Sketch the section line.

Reference Section Tips

■ There is no parametric relationship between the reference section and the referenced view. Resizing the
clip planes of a reference section has no effect on the crop region of the referenced view.

■ If you double-click the reference section head, the referenced view opens.

■ The reference section head includes a label. To change the label text, edit the Reference Label parameter.
It is a type parameter of the section family.

■ Any sections placed in a drafting view must be reference sections. They do not create a new section view.
The Reference other view option is always selected and cannot be cleared.

Hiding the Section Annotation Symbol

You can hide the annotation line and bubble from the current view by selecting the annotation, right-clicking,
and selecting Hide in view ➤ Elements (to hide only that section annotation) or Category (to hide all section

annotations) from the shortcut menu. To display the annotation again, click (Reveal Hidden Elements)
from the View Control Bar, right-click the section annotation symbol and click Unhide in view ➤ Elements
or Category.

Displaying a Section View

There are several ways to display a section view.

■ Select it from the Project Browser. See Project Browser on page 93.

■ Double-click the section head.

■ Select the section line, right-click on it, and select Go to View from the shortcut menu.

Section Heads
The Section Head Family creates the symbol that displays at the end of the section line. Revit Architecture
designates a default symbol, but you may want to use your own symbols to define different sections. By
specifying a family for section heads, your project can include more than one symbol.

Hiding the Section Annotation Symbol | 143

 Before reading this topic, you should be familiar with families. See The Families Guide on page 418.

Starting a Section Head Family

When creating a section head family, you define the section head symbol. The section head symbol you
create should indicate the viewing direction. You set a viewing direction by sketching an arrow head. The
symbol should also include a set of double arrow mirror controls to reverse the viewing direction, if necessary.

Setting Parameters for the Section Head

There are 2 parameters you can set for the symbol: the Drawing Number and the Sheet Number. You can
set them by placing Tag Text. The Drawing Number is the number of the view on a sheet. The Sheet Number
is the number of the drawing sheet. If you add these parameters to a symbol, they automatically fill in when
you add the section view to a project.

The following procedure is a general procedure for creating a section head family. Your steps may differ
based on design intent.

1 Click ➤ New ➤ Annotation Symbol.

2 In the Open dialog, select Section Head.rft from the templates folder and click Open.

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 3 The section head template includes a predefined head. You can use this head or click Create
panel ➤ Detail panel ➤ Line to create a different one.
4 If desired, add text to the symbol by clicking Text.
5 If desired, click Label to add text to the symbol for the Detail Number or Sheet Number. To
include the view name with the section head, choose the View Name parameter.

6 On the Quick Access toolbar, click (Save). Revit Architecture saves the file with an RFA
extension.

Changing the Section Head

1 Click Insert tab ➤ Load From Library panel ➤ Load Family.
2 Double-click the Annotations folder, and select one or more section head families.
3 Click Open to load the families.
4 Click Manage tab ➤ Project Settings panel ➤ Settings drop-down ➤ Section Tags.
5 In the Type Properties dialog, click Duplicate.
6 Enter a name for the new section head, and click OK.
7 Click in the value box for the Section Head parameter and select the section head family you
just loaded.
8 Click OK.
9 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Section.
10 Click Section tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties drop-down ➤ Type Properties.
11 Click in the value box for the Section Tag parameter, and select a tag from the list.
12 Click OK to save your changes.

Tip for Creating a Section Head Family

The intersection of the 2 perpendicular reference planes represents the origin of the symbol. The origin is
the point at which the symbol attaches to the section line. Sketch the lines accordingly.

Section View Properties

Each section has type properties for section tags, callout tags, and reference labels. To define the look of
section tags and callout tags, click Manage tab ➤ Project Settings panel ➤ Settings drop-down ➤ Callout
Tags or Elevation Tags. The Reference Label parameter sets the text displayed next to the section bubble
when the section is a reference section.

Modifying Section View Properties

1 Select the section line.
2 Click Modify Views tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties.
3 In the Instance Properties dialog, edit Instance properties as desired.
4 Click Edit Type to edit Type properties.
5 When finished, click OK.

NOTE You cannot modify the Detail Number and Sheet Number properties for a section. These
values are automatically filled in when the section view is added to a sheet.

Section View Properties | 145

Callout Views
A callout shows part of another view at a larger scale. In a construction document set, use callouts to provide
an orderly progression of labeled views at increasing levels of detail.

Callouts Overview
You can add a callout to a plan, section, detail, or elevation view. In these views, the callout tag is linked to
the callout view. The callout view shows an enlarged version of part of the parent view, and provides more
information or details about that part of the building model.
The view in which a callout is drawn is the parent of the callout view. If the parent view is deleted, the
callout is also deleted.
Callout views accessed from tags in the parent view

Callout Tag Parts

A callout tag is an annotation element that marks the location of a callout in a parent view.

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The callout tag consists of the following parts:

■ Callout bubble. The line drawn around part of the parent view to define the callout area.

■ Callout head. A symbol that identifies the callout. When you place the callout on a sheet, the callout
head displays the corresponding detail number and sheet number by default.

■ Leader line. A line that connects the callout head to the callout bubble.

■ Reference label. For reference callouts only. Text displayed in a callout tag to provide information about
the callout.

You can change all parts of the callout tag. See Callout Tags on page 151.

Callout Types
In Revit Architecture, you can create reference callouts, detail callouts, and view callouts.

Reference callouts
Use multiple callout tags in different views to refer to one callout view. See Reference Callouts on page 154.

Detail callouts
Use a detail callout when you want to provide details about a part of the building model. The detail callout
provides more granular information than the parent view. You can add details and annotations to the detail
callout. These details do not display in the parent view.
When you add a detail callout to a view, Revit Architecture creates a detail view. (See Detail Views on page
1134.) The detail view displays in the Project Browser under Views (all) ➤ Detail Views.
For a detail callout, you can specify whether its callout tag displays in the parent view only or displays in
the parent view and intersecting views. For intersecting views, you can automatically hide the callout tag if
the scale is coarser than a specified value.
Furthermore, you can specify whether the detail view uses the style and offset that you specify in the detail
view parameters, or the same clipping as the parent view. (Elevation and section views use the Far Clipping
parameter. Plan views use the Depth Clipping parameter.)

Callouts Overview | 147

 Related topics

■ Creating a Callout View on page 148

■ Detailing on page 1134

■ Cutting a Plan View by the Back Clip Plane on page 127

■ Cutting an Elevation, Section, or Callout View by the Far Clip Plane on page 133

View callouts
Use a view callout when you want to provide more or different information about a part of the parent view.
For example, you can use a view callout to provide a more detailed layout of fixtures in a bathroom.
When you add a view callout to a view, Revit Architecture creates a view that has the same view type as the
parent view. For example, if you add a callout tag to a floor plan view, the callout view is also a floor plan
view, and displays in the Project Browser under Views (all) ➤ Floor Plans.
A view callout offers the same capabilities as its parent view. For example, you can specify another view to
use as an underlay, assign a color scheme, and specify a view range. Use properties of the callout view to
specify these parameters.
See Creating a Callout View on page 148.

Callouts and Sheets

Callouts are tools for making coherent document sets. They are designed to send the user (builder, contractor,
installer) from one view to another. Plan your use of views and callouts to provide a logical sequence that
moves the user from large-scale plans to views with greater levels of detail.
You can place callouts on the same sheet as the parent view, or place details on sheets by category (for
example, roof eave details, or window sill details). You can use standard details in drafting views as references
for multiple callouts that detail the same condition.

Creating a Callout View

You can add a detail callout or a view callout to a plan, section, detail, or elevation view. (See Callout Types
on page 147.) When you draw the callout bubble in a view, Revit Architecture creates a callout view. You can
then add details to the callout view to provide more information about that part of the building model.

NOTE To create a reference callout, see Creating a Reference Callout on page 154.

1 In a project, click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Callout.

2 Click Callout tab ➤ Element panel, and from the Type Selector, select the type of callout to
create: a detail callout or a view callout (a callout view that has the same view type as the parent
view).
See Callout Types on page 147.

3 On the Options Bar, for Scale, select a scale for the callout view.
4 To define the callout area, drag the cursor from the upper-left to the lower-right, creating a
callout bubble as shown by the dashed line enclosing the upper-left corner of the grid.

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 5 To see the callout view, double-click the callout head .
The callout view displays in the drawing area.

Related topics

■ Opening a Callout View on page 149

■ Creating Details on page 1142

■ Modifying a Callout on page 149

■ Visibility of Callouts on page 153

Opening a Callout View

To open a callout view, use any of the following methods:
■ In the Project Browser, double-click the name of the callout view.

■ In the parent view, double-click the callout head.

■ In the parent view, right-click the callout head, and click Go to View.

Modifying a Callout
After creating a callout, you can change it in the following ways.

If you want to... then

change the type of callout tag assigned to a callout see Changing the Callout Tag for a Callout on page 150.

enlarge or reduce the area shown in a callout view see Changing the Boundaries of a Callout on page 150.

change the format of the callout head, or the information see Creating a Callout Head Family on page 151.
that it displays

For a callout bubble:

change the line color, weight, or style see Changing Display Properties for Callout Tags on page
153.

change the radius of the corners see Creating a Callout Tag on page 153.

For the leader line:

Opening a Callout View | 149

 If you want to... then

change the line color, weight, or style see Changing Display Properties for Callout Tags on page
153.

change the location of the leader line see Adjusting the Callout Leader Line on page 151.

Changing the Callout Tag for a Callout

The callout tag consists of the callout head, callout bubble, and leader line. (See Callout Tag Parts on page
146.) You define the style of the callout head and the radius of the corners of the callout bubble in the callout
tag. (See Creating a Callout Tag on page 153.) To assign a callout tag to an existing callout, use the following
procedure.

NOTE Define the line weight, color, and style for the callout bubble and the leader line in the project. See Changing
Display Properties for Callout Tags on page 153.

To change the callout tag

1 In the parent view, select the callout bubble.
2 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ View Properties.
3 In the Instance Properties dialog, click Edit Type.
4 In the Type Properties dialog, for Callout Tag, select the callout tag to use.
If the desired callout tag is not listed, you can create a new call out tag. See Creating a Callout
Tag on page 153.
You can specify the reference label for a reference callout in the Type Properties dialog. (See
Reference Callouts on page 154.) If the callout view is a detail view, you can also specify the
section tag to use for this callout.

5 Click OK twice to save your changes.

Changing the Boundaries of a Callout

The boundaries of the callout bubble define the part of the building model that displays in the callout view.
To change the callout boundaries, do either of the following:
■ In the callout view, drag the crop region boundaries.

■ In the parent view of the callout, select the callout bubble. Drag a blue dot to change a boundary of the
callout.

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 If you change a callout boundary in one view, Revit Architecture automatically updates the other view with
the same changes.

NOTE You can change the boundaries of a detail callout or a view callout. Resizing the boundaries of a reference
callout does not affect the crop region of the referenced view.

Adjusting the Callout Leader Line

In the parent view of a callout, you can move the leader line to any point on the callout bubble.

To adjust the callout leader line

1 In the parent view that displays the callout bubble, select the leader line.
A blue elbow control displays in the middle of the line.

NOTE You may need to zoom in on the callout bubble to see the blue controls.

2 Drag the elbow control to the desired location, or drag the blue control near the callout head.
As you move the control, notice that the leader line attaches to different points on the callout
bubble. The leader line segments snap to vertical and horizontal planes.

Callout Tags
The callout tag consists of the callout head, callout bubble, and leader line. (See Callout Tag Parts on page
146.) Use the Family Editor to create a callout head family to define the shape of the callout head and the
information that it contains. In a project, create a callout tag to specify the callout head family to use and
the radius of the corners of the callout bubble. To define the line weight, color, and style for the callout
bubble and leader line, use Settings on the Manage tab.
Parts of a callout tag

Creating a Callout Head Family

The callout head is the symbol that displays to identify a callout bubble in a parent view. You can create a
callout head family to specify a desired format or to include specific information.

Callout Tags | 151

 Callout tags that use different callout heads

To create a callout head family

1 Click ➤ New ➤ Annotation Symbol.

2 In the Open dialog, select Callout Head.rft or M_Callout Head.rft.
3 Click Create tab ➤ Detail panel ➤ Line, and sketch the shape of the callout head.
See Sketching Elements on page 304.

4 If desired, click Text to add text to the callout head.

This text remains constant for each callout that uses this family.

5 Add labels to the callout head.

A label represents a variable field value that displays in the callout head. For example, the default
callout head includes a detail number and sheet number. When you place the callout view on
a sheet, the callout head in the parent view updates to show the detail number and the sheet
number for the callout.
To add a label to the callout head, do the following:

a Click Create tab ➤ Annotate panel ➤ Label.

b Move the cursor to the drawing area, and click where you want the information to display
in the callout head.

c On the Edit Label dialog, under Category Parameters, select the field to place in the callout
head.

d Click (Add parameters to label).

e Click OK.

6 If desired, add filled regions, masking regions, or other details to the callout head.

7 On the Quick Access toolbar, click (Save), and specify a name and location for the new
callout head family.
8 To load the callout head family into open projects, click Load into Project.

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 Creating a Callout Tag
When creating a callout tag, you can specify the following:

■ The type of callout head to use. See Creating a Callout Head Family on page 151.

■ The radius of the callout bubble.

To specify the line weight, color, and style of the callout bubble or leader line, see Changing Display Properties
for Callout Tags on page 153.

To create a callout tag

1 In a project, click Manage tab ➤ Project Settings panel ➤ Settings drop-down ➤ Callout Tags.
2 In the Type Properties dialog, for Callout Head, specify the type of callout head to use.
3 For Corner Radius, specify the radius of the corners for the callout bubble.
If your organization uses round callouts, set the radius to a large value.

4 Click OK.

Changing Display Properties for Callout Tags

You can control the line weight, color, and pattern used for callout bubbles and leader lines. The settings
that you specify here apply to all callouts in the project.

To change the line styles for callout bubbles and leader lines

1 In a project, click Manage tab ➤ Project Settings panel ➤ Settings drop-down ➤ Object Styles.
2 Click the Annotation Objects tab.
3 Under Category, expand Callout Boundary.
4 Use the Line Weight, Line Color, and Line Pattern columns to specify the desired settings for
callout boundaries, callout leader lines, and callout heads.
5 Click OK.

Visibility of Callouts
Revit Architecture offers several ways to control the visibility of callout bubbles in a view. If you cannot see
callout tags in a view as expected, check the following:

■ Visibility/Graphics setting. Open the view in which you want to see the callout tag. Click View
tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics. On the Annotation Categories tab, under Visibility, make
sure that Callouts is selected. (To hide all callout tags in the view, clear this option.)

Visibility of Callouts | 153

 ■ Crop region. If a callout tag does not display in the parent view, check whether the callout tag is outside

the parent view’s crop region. In the parent view, on the View Control Bar, click (Show Crop Region).
Expand the crop region to the limits of the drawing to find the callout tag. If needed, adjust the crop
region to include the callout tag.

■ Hide at scales coarser than. This view parameter can control whether the tag for a detail callout displays
in other views. In the callout detail view, click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ View Properties. The Show
in parameter controls the Hide at scales coarser than value. When the Show in value is Parent View Only,
Hide at scales coarser than is read-only. When the Show in value is Intersecting Views, you can change
the value of the Hide at scales coarser than parameter. As a result, Revit Architecture displays the callout
tag in any views that intersect the parent view perpendicularly, as long as the view scale is more detailed
than the scale specified by Hide at scales coarser than.

Reference Callouts
A reference callout is a callout that refers to an existing view. When you add a reference callout, Revit
Architecture does not create a view in the project. Instead, it creates a pointer to a specified, existing view.
Multiple reference callouts can point to the same view.

Reference Callouts Overview

You can place reference callouts in plan, elevation, section, callout, and drafting views. Multiple reference
callouts can point to the same view.
When using reference callouts, consider the following:
■ Reference callouts in section, plan, elevation, or callout views can reference cropped views of the same
type as the view in which the reference callout is placed.

■ Reference callouts in drafting views can reference any plan, section, elevation, or callout view if the crop
region displays in these views. Drafting views must use reference callouts; they cannot use detail callouts
or view callouts. (See Callout Types on page 147.)

Check the properties of the referenced view to be sure that the Crop View parameter is turned on. See View
Properties on page 259.
A reference callout does not have a parametric relationship with the referenced view. Therefore, if you change
or resize a reference callout, the changes do not affect the original referenced view. For example, resizing
the boundaries of a reference callout does not affect the crop region of the referenced view.

Creating a Reference Callout

NOTE To create a detail callout or a view callout, see Creating a Callout View on page 148.

1 Open the view in which you want to add a callout to a drafting view.
2 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Callout.
3 On the Options Bar, select Reference other view, and select a reference view name.
If there are no existing views to reference, select <New Drafting View> to create a new drafting
view. The reference callout will then point to this new drafting view.

NOTE If the Reference Other View list includes a view on a sheet, the detail number and sheet number
display next to the view name.

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 4 To define the callout area, drag the cursor from the upper-left to the lower-right, creating a
callout bubble as shown by the dashed line enclosing the upper-left corner of the grid.

5 To see the callout view, double-click the callout head.

The callout view displays in the drawing area.
If you created a new drafting view for the reference callout, the new view displays in the Project
Browser under Views (all) ➤ Drafting Views. Create the drafting view as desired. For instructions,
see Drafting Views on page 1139.

Changing the Reference Label

By default, the callout head for a reference callout includes a label (such as Sim, an abbreviation of Similar).
You can change this label to meet project needs or corporate standards. For example, you can use Mirror or
Reverse as the reference label.

To change the reference label

1 In the parent view, select the callout bubble.
2 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ View Properties.
3 In the Instance Properties dialog, click Edit Type.
4 In the Type Properties dialog, for Reference Label, enter the desired text.
5 Click OK twice to save your changes.
You can change the way that the reference label displays in the callout tag, or add the referencing detail or
sheet numbers to the callout head. To do so, create a callout head family, and add labels that use these
parameters. See Creating a Callout Head Family on page 151.

Reference Callouts | 155

Modifying Callout Properties
1 In the Project Browser, right-click the callout view, and click Properties.
2 In the Instance Properties dialog, click in the Value text boxes to see the detail and sheet numbers.
You can also change the view name and scale, and manage crop regions.
3 Click OK.

Related topics

■ Detail View Instance Properties on page 1137

■ View Properties on page 259

3D Views
You can create perspective and orthographic 3D views in Revit Architecture.

Perspective 3D Views
Perspective 3D views show the building model in a 3D view where components that are further away appear
smaller, and components that are closer appear larger.
You can select elements in a perspective view and modify their type and instance properties. When you
create or view a perspective 3D view, the View Control Bar indicates that the view is a perspective view.

Orthographic 3D Views
Orthographic 3D views show the building model in a 3D view where all components are the same size
regardless of the camera’s distance.

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Creating a Perspective 3D View
You can create a perspective 3D view from a plan, section, or elevation view.
1 Open a plan, section, or elevation view.
2 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ 3D View drop-down ➤ Camera.

NOTE If you clear the Perspective option on the Options Bar, the view that is created is an orthographic
3D view and not a perspective view.

3 Click in the drawing area to place the camera.

4 Drag the cursor to the desired target and click.
Revit Architecture creates a perspective 3D view and assigns a name to the view: 3D View1, 3D
View2, and so on. To rename the view, in the Project Browser right-click it, and select Rename.

You can use a section box to limit the viewable portion of a 3D view. See Using a Section Box in a 3D View
on page 159.

Creating an Orthographic 3D View

1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ 3D View.
This places the camera above the southeast corner of the model with the target positioned on
the center of the ground floor. If you want to control camera placement when you create the
view, use the following method:

2 Open a plan, section, or elevation view.

3 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ 3D View drop-down ➤ Camera.
4 On the Options Bar, clear the Perspective option.
5 For Scale, select a view scale.
6 Click once in the drawing area to place the camera, and click again to place the target point.

Creating a Perspective 3D View | 157

 An unnamed 3D view of the current project opens and displays in the Project Browser. If an unnamed view
already exists in the project, the 3D tool opens the existing view.
You can rename the default 3D view by right-clicking the view name in the Project Browser, and clicking
Rename. Named 3D views are saved with the project. When you rename the default, unnamed 3D view, the
next time you click the 3D tool, Revit Architecture opens a new unnamed view.
You can use a section box to limit the viewable portion of a 3D view. See Using a Section Box in a 3D View
on page 159.

Specifying the Background for a 3D View

After creating a 3D view, you can specify a gradient background for it, with different colors for the sky,
horizon, and ground.
In an orthographic view, the gradient is a blend between the horizon color and the sky or ground color. In
an orthographic view that is oriented to an elevation view or in a perspective view in which the horizon is
visible, the sky meets the ground at the ground plane and blends with the horizon color. The horizon is set
to the ground plane for the view (Level 1, by default).

NOTE When you render a 3D view, you can specify clouds and haze for the background of the rendered image.
See Specifying the Background for a Rendered Image on page 1229.

When you export the view to an image or to a 2D DWF file, the gradient background is included. When
you export the view to a 3D DWF file, the gradient background is not included.
When you print a 3D view with a gradient background, you can print only using raster processing. To print
the view using vector processing, you must first turn off the gradient background.
If you create a view template for a 3D view, the gradient background settings are stored as part of the template
under Graphic Display Options.

To specify the background for a 3D view

1 Open the 3D view.

2 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ (Graphic Display Options).

3 Under Background, select Gradient background.
4 Select the desired colors for the sky, horizon, and ground.
5 (Optional) If the horizon will be visible in the view, specify the ground level:

a In the Graphic Display Options dialog, for Sun Position, click (Browse).

b In the Sun and Shadow Settings dialog, select Ground Plane at Level, and specify the level
to use for the ground plane.

c Click OK.

6 In the Graphic Display Options dialog, click OK.

The view displays the gradient background, and the horizon and ground, if visible.

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Using a Section Box in a 3D View
You can use a section box to clip the viewable portion of a 3D view. When you enable a section box in a
3D view, the only change to the view is the addition of the section box. The following image shows a 3D
view with a section box enabled.

After you enable the section box, you can modify its extents using drag controls in the 3D view, or you can
modify extents from other views, for example a plan or elevation view. Section box extents are not cropped
by the view’s crop region.

To enable a section box:

1 Open a 3D view.
2 Click Modify Cameras tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties drop-down ➤ Instance
Properties.
3 In the Instance Properties dialog, under Extents, select the Section Box option.
4 Click OK.
5 Select the section box and use the drag controls to modify the extents, as necessary.

Using a Section Box in a 3D View | 159

 The following image shows the section box selected with the blue arrow drag controls visible.
The section box extents have been modified to cut into the stair tower.

To modify section box extents outside of the 3D view:

1 Enable the section box in a 3D view.
2 Open an associated view, for example a plan or elevation view.
3 In the Project Browser, right-click the 3D view name, and click Show Section Box.
4 Drag the blue arrow controls to resize the section box.

To control visibility of section box extents:

1 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics.

2 In the Visibility/Graphics dialog, click the Annotation Categories tab.
3 Clear the check box for Section Boxes, and click OK. This hides the section box extents in the
view. Select the check box to show the extents.

Rotating a 3D View
The target point defines the axis of rotation for a 3D view. You can rotate a 3D view about this axis by
modifying the camera level and its focal point. You can tile your project views to see the effects of the
rotation in different views.
1 Open the 3D view and any other views where you want to see the effects of rotation.
2 Click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Tile.
3 In the Project Browser, right-click the 3D view name, and select Show Camera.

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 Camera for perspective 3D view

Camera for orthographic 3D view

The hollow blue dot is the focal point and the pink dot is the target point.

4 Drag the camera to modify the camera level. Drag the hollow blue dot to modify the focal point
around the axis of rotation (the target point).

Displaying a 3D View
■ Double-click the 3D view name in the Project Browser.

■ If the view is open but hidden behind another view, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Switch Windows
drop-down ➤ <view name>.

Specifying Camera Position in a 3D View

You can set the position of the camera in a 3D view. Changes made to the orientation or position of the 3D
camera are considered temporary until they are saved. For information on saving a 3D view, see Saving a
3D View Orientation as a Project View on page 242.
1 Open a 3D view.
2 Right-click the ViewCube, and click Orient to View or Orient to a Direction.
Orient to View allows you to select another view. The camera moves to the same location as in
the view you specify, and a section box is placed around the model that emulates the extents
of the selected view.

NOTE To turn off the section box, in the Project Browser right-click the view name, and select
Properties. In the Instance Properties dialog, clear the Section Box check box.

Orient to a Direction includes options to orient the camera north, south, east, west, northeast,
northwest, southeast, southwest, or top (places the camera at the top of the model).

Modifying the Camera Position in a Perspective 3D View

NOTE Changes made to the orientation or position of the 3D camera are considered temporary until they are
saved. For information on saving a 3D view, see Saving a 3D View Orientation as a Project View on page 242.

Displaying a 3D View | 161

 1 Open the perspective 3D view.
2 In the Project Browser, right-click the perspective 3D view name, and select Show Camera.
The camera is selected in all views where the camera is visible, such as plan, elevation, and other
3D views.
Selected camera in plan view

Selected camera in 3D view

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 Selected camera in elevation view

3 In the Project Browser, double-click the view in which you want to modify the camera position
(for example plan or elevation).
4 Drag the camera to move it. The view updates according to the new camera position.
5 Drag the target to move it. The view updates according to the new target point.
6 Select the perspective view. Drag the handles to vary the field of view (FOV).

Turning Off the Camera in a 3D View

Turning off the camera in a 3D view is the same as showing or hiding the crop region. See Showing or Hiding
Crop Regions on page 212.
To turn off the camera in any other view type, click a blank area in the drawing area.

3D View Properties
Parameter names, values, and descriptions for 3D views.

Name Description

Graphics

View Scale The scale of the 3D view.

Scale Value A ratio derived from the view scale. For example, if the view scale is 1:100, the scale
value is the ratio of 100/1 or 100. If you select a value of Custom for the view scale,
you can enter a ratio in the value field for this property.

Detail level Applies the detail level setting to the view: coarse, medium, or fine.

Visibility/Graphics Overrides Opens the Visibility/Graphics dialog, where you can set visibility options for the
view.

Model Graphics Style Changes the display to Hidden Line, Wireframe, Shading, or Shading with Edges.

Graphic Display Options Click Edit to access the Graphic Display Options dialog, which controls shadows
and silhouette lines.

Discipline Select the discipline for the view from the list. Select Structural to hide non-load-
bearing walls from the view.

Identity Data

Turning Off the Camera in a 3D View | 163

 Name Description

View Name A name you define for the 3D view.

Title on Sheet The name of the view as it appears on the sheet; it supersedes any value in the View
Name property.

Default View Template Identifies the default view template for the view. See View Templates on page 507.

Extents

Crop View Applies top, bottom, right, and left clip planes to the model. As you move the clip
plane, part of the model is either hidden or shown.

Crop Region Visible Turns on or off the visibility of the crop region.

Annotation Crop Shows or hides the annotation crop.

Far Clip Active Shows or hides the far clip plane.

Section Box Turns on or off the visibility of the section box around a 3D view. The box is different
from the crop region in that if you rotate the box, the model moves with it. The
viewing area does not change. You can use the section box to clip the viewable
portion of a 3D model; to see the clipping, when the section box is visible, you can
resize it and rotate it with the handles.

Camera

Render Settings Settings used to create a rendered image of the 3D view. See Changing Render
Settings for a View on page 1232.

Perspective Indicates whether the 3D view is a Perspective view. See Creating a Perspective 3D
View on page 157. This is a read-only value.

Eye Elevation Height of the camera.

Target Elevation Height of the target point.

Phasing

Phase Filter Phase Filter name applied to the view. See Phase Filters on page 1333.

Phase The Phase name applied for the view. See Project Phasing on page 1331.

Type Properties

Coarse poche material Defines the material applied to capped faces in coarse-scale views. In coarse scale
views, the default material is Poche. In medium and fine views, the capped faces of
hosts display the layered structure of the host.

Walkthrough Views
A walkthrough is a camera that follows a path that you define. The path comprises frames and key frames.
A key frame is a modifiable frame where you can change the direction and position of the camera.

164 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 A walkthrough path might look something like the following image. The red dots indicate key frames.

By default, walkthroughs are created as a series of perspective views, but you can also create them as
orthographic 3D views.

Creating a Walkthrough Path

1 Open a view in which to place the walkthrough path.

NOTE Typically, the view is a plan view, but you can also make a walkthrough in other views, including
3D, elevation, and section views.

2 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ 3D View drop-down ➤ Walkthrough.

3 If desired, on the Options Bar on page 99, clear the Perspective option to create a walkthrough
as an orthographic 3D view. Also select a view scale for the 3D view.
4 If you are in a plan view, you can vary the height of the camera by offsetting it from a selected
level. Enter a height in the Offset text box and select a level from the From menu. This can give
you the effect that the camera is going up a flight of stairs.
5 Place the cursor in a view, and click to place a key frame.
6 Move the cursor in the desired direction to draw the path.
7 Click again to place another key frame. You can place key frames anywhere, but you cannot
change their position during creation of the path. You can edit the key frames after you finish
the path.
8 To finish the walkthrough path, you can do any of the following:
■ Click Finish Walkthrough.

■ Double-click to end the path.

■ Press Esc.

Creating a Walkthrough Path | 165

 After you finish placing camera key frames, Revit Architecture creates a walkthrough view under the
Walkthroughs branch of the Project Browser on page 93 and assigns it the name Walkthrough 1.

Editing a Walkthrough Path

1 In the Project Browser, right-click the walkthrough view name, and select Show Camera.
2 To move the entire walkthrough path, drag the path to the desired location. You can also use
the Move tool. See Moving Elements with the Move Tool on page 373.
3 To edit the path, click Modify Cameras tab ➤ Walkthrough panel ➤ Edit Walkthrough.
You can select which control in the path you want to edit from the drop-down menu. Controls
affect the position and direction of the camera.

Dragging the Camera to a New Frame

1 For Controls, select Active Camera.
2 Drag the camera along the path to the desired frame or key frame. The camera snaps to key
frames.
3 You can also type the frame number in the Frame text box.
4 While the camera is active and located at a key frame, you can drag the target point of the
camera and the far clip plane. If the camera is not at a key frame, you can change only the far
clip plane.

Changing the Walkthrough Path

1 For Controls, select Path.
The key frames become controls along the path.

2 Drag a key frame to the desired location.

Notice that the value in the Frame text box stays constant.

Adding Key Frames

1 For Controls, select Add Key Frame.
2 Place the cursor along the path, and click to add a key frame.

Removing Key Frames

1 For Controls, select Remove Key Frame.
2 Place the cursor on an existing key frame on the path, and click to remove it.

Displaying the Walkthrough View when Editing

As you edit a walkthrough path, you may want to see the results of your changes on the actual view. To
open the walkthrough view, click Modify Cameras tab ➤ Walkthrough panel ➤ Open Walkthrough.

Editing Walkthrough Frames

1 Open the Walkthrough Views on page 164.
2 Click Modify Cameras tab ➤ Walkthrough panel ➤ Edit Walkthrough.

3 On the Options Bar, click the Walkthrough frame edit button .

166 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 The Walkthrough Frames dialog has 5 columns that show the frame properties:
■ The Key Frame column displays the total number of key frames in the walkthrough path.
Click a key frame number to display where that key frame appears on the walkthrough path.
A camera icon displays at the selected key frame.

■ The Frame column displays the frame at which the key frame displays.

■ The Accelerator column displays numerical controls for changing the speed of the
walkthrough playback at a specific key frame.

■ The Speed column displays the speed at which the camera travels along the path at each key
frame.

■ Elapsed Time displays the amount of time that has elapsed since the first key frame.

4 By default, there is a uniform speed at which the camera travels along the entire walkthrough
path. You can change the speed by increasing or decreasing the total number of frames or by
increasing or decreasing the number of frames per second. Enter the desired value for either.
5 To change the accelerator value for key frames, clear the Uniform Speed check box, and enter
a value for the desired key frame in the Accelerator column. Valid values for the Accelerator are
between 0.1 and 10.

Cameras Along Path

To help you visualize the distribution of frames along the walkthrough path, select Indicators. Enter a value
for the increment at which you want to see camera indicators.

Resetting Target Points

You can move the position of the camera's target point at a key frame, for example, to create the effect that
the camera is looking side to side. To reset the target points back to following the path, click Modify Cameras
tab ➤ Walkthrough panel ➤ Reset Cameras.

Controlling Walkthrough Playback

Several tools are available to control playback of a walkthrough while you are editing it. See Editing a
Walkthrough Path on page 166.

■ Click to move the camera position back one key frame.

■ Click to move the camera position back one frame.

■ Click to move the camera position forward one frame.

■ Click to move the camera position forward one key frame.

■ Click to move the camera from its current frame to the last frame.

■ To stop play back, click Cancel next to the Progress Bar or press Esc. Click Yes at the prompt.

Related topics

■ Editing Walkthrough Frames on page 166

■ Editing a Walkthrough Path on page 166

Controlling Walkthrough Playback | 167

 ■ Exporting a Walkthrough on page 168

■ Walkthrough Views on page 164

Exporting a Walkthrough
You can export a walkthrough to an AVI or image file. When you export a walkthrough to an image file,
each frame of the walkthrough is saved as an individual file. You can export all frames or a range of frames.

To export a walkthrough:
1 Open the walkthrough view.

2 Click ➤ Export ➤ Images and Animations ➤ Walkthrough.

The Length/Format dialog opens.

3 Under Output Length, specify:

■ All frames to include all frames in the output file(s).

■ Frame range to export only a specific range of frames. For this option, enter the frame range
in the entry boxes.

■ Frames/second. As you change the number of frames per second, the total time automatically
updates.

4 Under Format, specify Model Graphics Style, Dimensions on page 263, and Zoom to the desired
values.
5 Click OK.
6 Accept the default output file name and path, or browse to a new location and enter a new
name.
7 Select the file type, either AVI or an image file (JPEG, TIFF, BMP, or PNG).
8 Click Save.
9 In the Video Compression dialog, choose a video compressor from the list of compressors you
have installed on your computer.
10 To stop recording the AVI file, click Cancel next to the progress indicator at the bottom of the
screen or press Esc.

Legend Views
Legends provide a way to display a list of the various building components and annotations used in a project.

168 | Chapter 5 Project Views

Some typical legends include

■ Annotation Legend. Displays sheet annotations such as section heads, level markers, spot elevation
marks, elevation symbols, keynote symbol, revision tag, element tags, and other symbols that do not
represent model objects. Each symbol has an associated piece of descriptive text. All symbols are shown
at printed size.

■ Model Symbol Legend. Displays symbolic representations of model objects with some descriptive text.
Typical elements are electrical fixtures, plumbing fixtures, mechanical equipment, and site objects.

■ Line Styles Legend. Displays a line in a selected line style and text identifying what that line style
represents on drawings. Among the uses are fire rating lines, property lines, setback lines, electric wiring,
plumbing, utilities, and center lines.

■ Materials Legend. Displays a sample of a cut or surface pattern and text identifying the material associated
with that pattern.

■ Phasing. Shows a section of wall drawn with a selected graphic override and identifying text.

Legends can be added to multiple sheets. Any elements that can be placed in drafting views, such as detail
lines, text, dimensions, and filled regions, can be placed in a legend.
Legend views are unique to each project, and therefore cannot be transferred from one project to another.

NOTE A component that is placed in a legend does not count as an additional instance of the component in the
building model, and thus is not added to the number of instances of that component listed on a schedule or note
block.

Visibility of Elements in Legends

You can modify legend views by turning off the visibility of subcategories in the view. For example, you can
place several door legend components and then turn off all the door subcategories (except for Frame/Mullion)
to produce a Door Frame Legend. For more information on category visibility, see Visibility and Graphic
Display in Project Views on page 198.

Legend Views | 169

Creating a Legend
1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Legends drop-down ➤ Legend.
2 In the New Legend View dialog, enter a name for the legend view and select the view scale.
3 Click OK.
The legend view opens and is added to the Project Browser list.

4 Add the desired element symbols to the view using any of the following methods:
■ Drag model and annotation family types from the Project Browser into the legend view.
They display as view-specific symbols in the view.

■ Alternate method for adding model family symbols:

a Click Annotate tab ➤ Detail panel ➤ Component drop-down ➤ Legend Component.

b On the Options Bar, for Family, select a model family symbol type.

c Specify the view direction for the symbol. Some symbols have more options than others.
For example, wall types can be displayed in floor plan or section representations.
Wall-hosted elements like doors can be represented in plan, and front and back
elevations. If you are placing a hosted symbol, such as a door or window, the symbol
displays with the host in floor plan representation. You can specify a value for the Host
Length.

d Place the symbol in the view.

■ Alternate method for adding annotation symbols:

a Click Annotate tab ➤ Detail panel ➤ Symbol.

b Click Place Symbol tab ➤ Element panel, and from the Type Selector, select an annotation
type and place the symbol in the view.

5 Click Annotate tab ➤ Text panel ➤ Text.

6 Click Place Text tab ➤ Element panel, and from the Type Selector, select the text type.

NOTE If the text size you want to use is not listed, click Place Text tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element
Properties drop-down ➤ Type Properties. In the Type Properties dialog click Duplicate to create a
new text type.

7 Place the necessary text in the legend.

For more information about placing text, see Text Notes on page 1087.

Dimensioning Legend Components

You can add dimensions to individual legend components using the Dimension tool. See Dimensions on
page 263 for more information.
You can dimension to most lines within a legend component. However, you cannot dimension to host
components, such as walls, ceilings, and floors. Likewise, you cannot dimension system family components
within a legend.

170 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 Window legend with first window dimensioned

Placing Components from a Legend into a Project View

You can use legend views as graphical palettes. This means that you can select a component in a legend
view and use the Create Similar or Match tools to place the component in another view.
For more information on these tools, see Copying Elements with the Create Similar Tool on page 396 and
Changing Component Types Using the Match Type Tool on page 397.

Modifying Legend Component Properties

1 Open a legend view.
2 Select a legend component, and click Modify Legend Components tab ➤ Element
panel ➤ Element Properties.
3 In the Instance Properties dialog, specify the view direction, host length (if applicable), detail
level, and component type.
By default, the legend component acquires its detail level from the project view. If the model
family type was created to show different geometry at varying detail levels, you can change the
look of the model symbol by specifying different detail levels for the view or the symbol itself.

4 Click OK.

Placing Components from a Legend into a Project View | 171

Schedule Views
A schedule is a tabular display of information, extracted from the properties of the elements in a project. A
schedule can list every instance of the type of element you are scheduling, or it can collapse multiple instances
onto a single row, based on the schedule's grouping criteria.

You can create a schedule at any point in the design process. As you make changes to the project that affect
the schedule, it automatically updates to reflect those changes. You can add a schedule to a drawing sheet.
See Adding a Schedule to a Sheet on page 1063.
You can export a schedule to another software program, such as a spreadsheet program.

Types of Schedules
You can create several types of schedules:

■ Schedules (or Quantities)

■ Key Schedules

■ Material Takeoffs

■ Annotation Schedules (or Note Blocks)

■ Revision Schedules (see Revision Schedules on Sheets on page 1078)

■ View Lists (see Using View Lists on page 258)

■ Drawing Lists (see Drawing Lists on page 1066)

172 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 Formatting Schedules
You have several choices available for formatting the look of the schedule. You can

■ Specify the order and type of properties to display

■ Create totals

■ Create your own custom properties, which you can then include in the schedule

■ Apply phases to a schedule

Schedule Tips
■ Mouse-wheel scrolling is available in schedule views. Move the mouse wheel to scroll vertically. Hold
Shift and move the wheel to scroll horizontally.

■ You can select an element in a non-schedule view from a schedule view. This works best if you are tiling
windows. (To tile windows, click View tab ➤ Windows panel ➤ Tile.) To view an element in a non-schedule
view, click in the element’s cell in the schedule, and then click Modify Schedule/Quantities tab ➤ Schedule
panel ➤ Highlight in Model. The Show Elements in View dialog displays. You can continue to click Show
in this dialog to open other views that show the element.

Creating a Schedule or Quantity

1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Schedules drop-down ➤ Schedule/Quantities.
2 In the New Schedule dialog, select a component from the category list. A default name appears
in the Name text box, which you can change as necessary.
3 Select Schedule building components.

NOTE Do not select Schedule keys. If you want to create a key schedule, see Key Schedules on page
173.

4 Specify the phase.

5 Click OK.
6 In the Schedule Properties dialog, specify the schedule properties. See Specifying Schedule
Properties on page 176.
7 Click OK.

Key Schedules
Schedules, particularly for windows, doors, or rooms, can comprise multiple items that have the same
characteristics. For example, a room schedule might have 100 rooms with the same floor, ceiling, and base
finishes. Rather than enter all this information manually for all 100 rooms in the schedule, you can define
keys that automatically fill in information. If a room has a defined key, then as that room is added to a
schedule, fields in the schedule automatically update, reducing the time required to produce the schedule.
You define keys using key schedules. Key schedules look very similar to component schedules, except that
you define them to your specifications. When you create a key, it is listed as an instance property for the
element. When you apply a value for the key, then the key's attributes are applied to the element.

Creating a Key Schedule

1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Schedules drop-down ➤ Schedule/Quantities.

Creating a Schedule or Quantity | 173

 2 In the New Schedule dialog, select the schedule key category.
3 Select Schedule keys.
Revit Architecture automatically fills in the Key name. This is the name that appears among the
element's instance properties. If desired, enter a new name.

4 Click OK.
5 In the Schedule Properties dialog, add the predefined fields for the style. For example, add ceiling
finish, floor finish, and wall finish.
6 Click OK.
The key schedule opens.

7 Click Modify Schedule/Quantities tab ➤ Schedule panel ➤ New to add rows to the table.
Each row creates a new value for the key. For example, if you are creating a room key schedule,
you can create key values for executive conference room, small conference room, large conference
room, executive office, standard office, and so on.

8 Fill in the appropriate information for each of the key values.

Applying a Key to an Element

1 Select an element that has a predefined key. For example, you might select a room in a plan
view.
2 Click Modify <Element> tab ➤ Element panel ➤ Element Properties.
3 In the Instance Properties dialog, find the key name (for example, Room Style).
4 Select a value for the property from the list.
When you apply the new style, read-only properties appear in the list of instance parameters.
These are the properties defined in the key schedule.

Applying the Key to a Component Schedule

1 Create a schedule for the appropriate element (such as a room schedule).
2 Include in the scheduled fields the key name you created. For example, if you created a key
name called Room Style, add this key to the schedule.
3 In the schedule, select values for the newly added key. For example, if the key is called Room
Style, you add values for it by selecting them from the menus that appear under the key heading.
Scheduled fields update automatically with the information you define in the key schedule. If
you edit and modify any values in the key schedule, they update automatically in the component
schedule.
When you apply a key value to a schedule row, you cannot modify any fields defined in the
key schedule.

Material Takeoff Schedules

Material takeoff schedules list the sub-components or materials of any Revit Architecture family. Material
takeoff schedules have all the functionality and characteristics of other schedule views, but they allow you
to show more detail about the assembly of a component. Any material that is placed in a component within
Revit Architecture can be scheduled.

174 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 NOTE When Revit Architecture computes the volume of materials for individual layers within a wall, some
approximations are made to maintain performance. Minor discrepancies might appear between the volumes
visible in the model and those shown in the material takeoff schedule. These discrepancies tend to occur when
you use the wall sweep tool to add a sweep or a reveal to a wall, or under certain join conditions.

Creating a Material Takeoff Schedule

1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Schedules drop-down ➤ Material Takeoff.
2 In the New Material Takeoff dialog, click a category for the material takeoff schedule, and click
OK.
3 In the Material Takeoff Properties dialog, for Available Fields, select the material attributes.
4 Optionally, sort and group, or format the schedule. See Specifying Schedule Properties on page
176.
5 Click OK to create the material takeoff schedule.
The material takeoff schedule displays, and the view is listed in the Project Browser under Schedules/Quantities.

Annotation Schedules (Note Blocks)

Annotation schedules, or note blocks, list all instances of annotations that you can add using the Symbol
tool. See Creating an Annotation Symbol Family on page 1132.
Note blocks are useful for listing notes that are applied to elements in your project. For example, you might
want to attach a note to several walls, and that note might have a building description for each of the walls.

Creating an Annotation Schedule (Note Block)

1 Load the generic annotation family or families into your project and place them where desired.
Be sure to enter meaningful information in the parameter values for the annotation. For example,
enter some comments for the Description parameter.

2 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Schedules drop-down ➤ Note Block.

3 In the New Note Block dialog, for Family, select a generic annotation.
4 For Note Block Name, enter a name for the new note block, if desired.
5 Click OK.
6 In the Note Block Properties dialog, for Available Fields, select the parameters to set, and then
click Add to add them to Scheduled Fields list.
7 Complete any information in the additional Note Block properties tabs. For more information
about the tabs, see Specifying Schedule Properties on page 176.

Annotation Schedules (Note Blocks) | 175

 8 Click OK when finished.

Specifying Schedule Properties

After you have specified the desired type of schedule, you need to specify the information to include on the
schedule and how the information should appear.
You set schedule properties in the Schedule Properties dialog. To access this dialog, right-click the schedule
name in the Project Browser, and select Properties. Click Edit for any of the parameters in the Other category.

Selecting Fields for a Schedule

On the Fields tab of the Schedule Properties dialog, you can select the fields that appear in the schedule.
The following table lists the tasks you can complete from this tab.

If you want to... then...

add a field to the Scheduled Fields list click a field name in the Available Fields box, and click Add.
The order of the fields in the Scheduled Fields box shows the
order in which they appear in the schedule.

remove a name from the Scheduled Fields list select it from the Scheduled Fields list, and click Remove.

move a field up or down in the list select the field, and click Move Up or Move Down.

add a custom field click Add Parameter, and select whether to add a project
parameter or shared parameter. For more information, see
Custom Parameters on page 450.

modify a custom field select the field, and click Edit. In the Parameter Properties
dialog, enter a new name for the field. Click Delete to delete
a custom field.

create a field whose value is calculated from a formula click Calculated Value. Enter a name for the field, set its type,
and enter the formula for it using existing fields in the
schedule.
For example, if you want to calculate an occupancy load
based on the area of a room, you could add a custom field
called Occupancy Load that is calculated from the Area field.
Formulas support the same mathematical functions as in the
Family Editor. For more information on creating formulas,
see Using Formulas for Numerical Parameters on page 387.

create a field that is a percentage of another field click Calculated Value. Enter a name for the field, set its type
to percentage, and enter the name of the field to take a
percentage of.
By default, percentages are calculated based on the total for
the entire schedule. If you set grouping fields in the Sort-
ing/Grouping tab, you can choose one of those fields here.
For example, if you group a room schedule by level, you can
display what percentage of the total area of the level the
room occupies.

add room parameters to a non-room schedule for Select Available Fields From, click Room. This changes the
list of fields in the Available Fields box to a list of room para-

176 | Chapter 5 Project Views

If you want to... then...
meters. You can then add those room parameters to the list
of scheduled fields.

include elements from linked models select Include elements in linked files. For more information,
see Including Elements from Linked Models in a Schedule on
page 177.

Including Elements from Linked Models in a Schedule

You can include elements from linked models in schedules of model elements (such as doors, rooms, and
walls) and in drawing lists. They are not supported for note blocks, view lists, or key schedules.
All fields that are available for elements in the host project are available for elements in linked models. The
behavior of some fields changes when you add elements from linked models to a schedule. For example,
the Family, Type, Family and Type, Level, and Material parameters become read-only for elements in both
the host and linked model. You also cannot filter a schedule by the Family, Type, Family and Type, Level,
or Material parameters.
You can include project information (such as the client name or the project address) and information about
the linked Revit model (such as the instance name or the file name) in a schedule. Including information
about the linked Revit model is useful when you have multiple copies of a linked model in your project (for
example, multiple identical buildings on a site or multiple identical floors in a building) and you need to
identify in the schedule which instance of the linked model each element comes from.
For more information, see Specifying Project Information on page 447. To learn how to specify the instance
name for a linked Revit model, see Linked Model Properties on page 1285.

To include elements from linked models in a schedule:

1 In the Project Browser, right-click the schedule name, and select Properties.
2 In the Instance Properties dialog, for Fields, click Edit.
3 Select the Include elements in linked files option.
4 To include project information from a linked model, for Select Available Fields From, select
Project Information. Add the desired fields from the Available Fields list to the Scheduled Fields
list.
5 To include the linked model instance name or the file name, select RVT Links in the Select
Available Fields From list. Add the desired fields from the Available Fields list to the Scheduled
Fields list.

NOTE The file name does not include the file path or the file extension. In addition, if there are visible
nested links in a linked model, the file name that displays for elements in the nested link is the parent
link.

6 Click OK.

Including Project Parameters or Area Schemes from Linked Revit Models

in a Schedule
1 In the linked Revit model project, create a schedule that contains the project parameter or area
schemes.
Be sure that the schedule or area scheme has a unique name (one that is different from any
schedules or area schemes that currently exist in the main model).

Specifying Schedule Properties | 177

 2 Add the schedule or area scheme to a sheet.
3 Select the schedule or area scheme on the sheet, and click Modify Schedule Graphics
tab ➤ Clipboard panel ➤ Copy.
4 Open the main project.
5 If the Revit model (from which you want to include project parameters or area schemes) is
already linked in the main project, unload the linked model.

To unload the linked Revit model:

a Click Manage tab ➤ Manage Project panel ➤ Manage Links.

b In the Manage Links dialog, click the Revit tab.

c Select the linked model, and click Unload.

d Click Yes to confirm, and click OK to exit the Manage Links dialog.

6 In the main model, open a sheet view.

7 Click Modify tab ➤ Clipboard panel ➤ Paste.
8 If you unloaded the linked Revit model, you need to reload it.

To reload the linked Revit model:

a Click Manage tab ➤ Manage Projects panel ➤ Manage Links.

b In the Manage Links dialog, click the Revit tab.

c Select the linked model, and click Reload.

d Click OK to exit the Manage Links dialog.

The project parameters or area schemes should now be available to schedule.

Including Room Information in a Door Schedule

You can include information in a door schedule about the room a door leads to and the room a door leads
from. Typically, the door swing indicates the room the door is leading to or from. For example, in the
following image door 56 leads from the hall to the bedroom.

178 | Chapter 5 Project Views

If you change the door swing after you place the door, this will not automatically be reflected in the schedule.
The schedule retains the data of the initial door placement. Therefore the particular door opening for door
56, always (by default) leads from the hall to the bedroom regardless of the door swing. If you want door
56 to lead from the bedroom to the hall, you can change the door swing in plan view, and then edit the
appropriate field in the door schedule.

To include room information in a door schedule:

1 If you need to include room information in an existing door schedule, do the following:
a Open the door schedule.

b Right-click in the schedule and click View Properties.

c In the Instance Properties dialog, click Edit for the Fields parameter.

If you are creating a new door schedule, do the following:

a Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Schedules drop-down ➤ Schedules/Quantities.

b In the New Schedule dialog, select Doors as the category, and click OK.

2 On the Fields tab, click From Room or To Room from the Select available fields from list.

The Available fields lists updates to show all the available parameters for a room, prefixed by
either To Room or From Room.

3 Select the appropriate fields, and click OK.

The door schedule opens. Because To Room and From Room fields do not automatically reflect changes you
make to the door swing, after you place the door, you can edit these fields by selecting a value from the list.

Limiting Data Presented in a Schedule

On the Filter tab of the Schedule Properties dialog, you can create filters that limit the display of data in a
schedule. You can create up to 4 filters, and all filters must be satisfied for the data to display. See Schedule
Views on page 172.

Specifying Schedule Properties | 179

 Many types of scheduled fields can be used to create filters. Types include text, number, integer, length,
area, volume, yes/no, level, and key schedule parameters.
Filtering is not supported for the following scheduled fields:

■ Family

■ Type

■ Family and Type

■ Area Type (in area schedules)

■ From Room, To Room (in door schedules)

■ Material parameters

You create a filter based on fields in the project. To create a filter based on a field that does not display in
the schedule, you add the field to the Scheduled Fields list, then hide it on the Formatting tab.
An example of how you might use a filter is in a door schedule that you want to filter by level. In the Filter
tab, you can choose Level as your filtering parameter and set its value to Level 3. Only the doors that are on
level 3 display in the schedule.

Sorting Fields in a Schedule

On the Sorting/Grouping tab of the Schedule Properties dialog, you can specify sorting options for rows in
a schedule, and add headers, footers, and blank lines to sorted rows.
You can also choose to show every instance of an element type, or collapse multiple instances onto a single
row.
Also see Sorting and Grouping Schedule Samples on page 181.
You can sort by any field in a schedule, except Count.

If you want to... then select...

specify a sort field a field for Sort By, and select Ascending or Descending. Select
additional sort fields for Then By, if necessary.

add the sorting parameter value as a header for the sort group Header. For example, you have sorted a window schedule
by Family and Type. A header might read M_Fixed: (Family)
0406 X 0610 (Type).

add footer information below the sort group Footer. When you select Footer, you can select the informa-
tion to display.
■ Title, count, and totals: Title shows the header informa-
tion. Count shows the number of elements in the group.
Both title and count appear left-justified below the group.
Total shows the subtotal below a column that can have
a total. Examples of columns having subtotals are Cost
and Count. You can have totals calculated for these
columns on the Formatting tab.
■ Title and totals: Displays title and subtotal information.
■ Count and totals: Displays both count values and sub-
totals.
■ Totals only: Displays subtotals only for columns that can
have them.

180 | Chapter 5 Project Views

If you want to... then select...

insert a blank line between sort groups Blank Line.

itemize every instance of an element in the schedule Itemize every instance. This option displays all instances of
an element in individual rows. If you clear this option, multiple
instances collapse to the same row based on the sorting
parameter. If you do not specify a sorting parameter, all in-
stances collapse to one row.

Sorting and Grouping Schedule Samples

The following images illustrate sorting and grouping examples for schedules, including itemizing instances,
sorting, and totals.

Itemizing Element Type Instances

The following images show the same schedule, the first with the Itemize every instance option selected, and
the second with this option cleared.

Specifying Schedule Properties | 181

 Sorted Schedule with Totals

Adding Grand Totals to a Schedule

1 In the Project Browser, right-click the schedule name, and select Properties.
2 In the Instance Properties dialog, for Sorting/Grouping, click Edit.
3 On the Sorting/Grouping tab, select Grand Totals to display the sum of the elements from all
the groups.
Grand totals also display the sum of any columns with subtotals.

4 Select a display option from the drop-down menu:

■ Title, count, and totals. Title shows the header information. Count shows the number of
elements in the group. Both title and count appear left-justified below the group. Total shows
the subtotal below a column that can have a total. Examples of columns having subtotals
are Cost and Count. You add these columns using the Formatting tab.

182 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 ■ Title and totals. Displays title and subtotal information.

■ Count and totals. Displays count values and subtotals.

■ Totals only. Displays subtotals only for those columns that can have them.

5 Click OK.

Adding Column Totals to a Schedule

1 In the Project Browser, right-click the schedule name, and select Properties.
2 In the Instance Properties dialog, for Formatting, click Edit.
3 Select the field to add a column total for, and select Calculate Totals.

NOTE Column totals will not appear if the Grand Totals option on the Sorting/Grouping tab is not
selected. For information on grand total display options, see Adding Grand Totals to a Schedule on
page 182.

4 Click OK.

Formatting a Schedule
On the Formatting and Appearance tabs of the Schedule Properties dialog, you can specify various formatting
options, such as column orientation and alignment, grid lines, borders, and font style. Options you select
on the Appearance tab display when you add a schedule to a sheet view.
Also see Schedule Formatting Samples on page 186.

Formatting Tab Options

If you want to... then...

edit the title that appears above a column in a schedule select a field to display it in the Heading text box. You can
edit each column name.

specify the orientation of a column heading on a sheet only select a field. Then for Heading Orientation, select an orient-
ation option.

align text in the rows under a column heading select a field, then select an alignment option from the
Alignment drop-down menu.

format the appearance of numeric fields see Formatting Units and Number Fields in a Schedule on
page 184.

format the appearance of currency fields see Formatting Currency Fields in a Schedule on page 185.

display subtotals for a numeric column in a group select the field, then select Calculate Totals. This setting is
available only for fields that can be totaled, such as room
area, cost, count, or room perimeter. If you clear the Grand
Totals option on the Sorting/Grouping tab, no totals display.
For more information, see Adding Column Totals to a
Schedule on page 183.

Specifying Schedule Properties | 183

 If you want to... then...

hide a field in a schedule select the field, then select Hidden field. This option is useful
when you want to sort the schedule by a field, but you do
not want that field to display in the schedule.

TIP You can show or hide any columns while in the schedule view. To hide a column, select a cell in the column,
and then right-click. From the shortcut menu, select Hide Column(s). To display all hidden columns, right-click
in the schedule view, and select Unhide All Columns.

Appearance Tab Options

If you want to... then select...

display grid lines around schedule rows Grid lines, and then select the grid line style from the list.

extend vertical grid lines into headers, footers, and spaces Grid in headers/footers/spacers.

display a border around the schedule Outline, and then select a line style from the list. The border
displays when you add a schedule to a sheet view. If you clear
this option, but the Grid lines option is still selected, the grid
line style is used as the border style.

specify the font for the heading text a font from the list, enter a font size, and select bold or italic
attributes.

display the title of the schedule Title. To create a different underscore line style, select Under-
line, and then select the line style from the list.

display the scheduled fields as column titles Column headers. To create a different underscore line style,
select Underline, and then select the line style from the list.

insert a blank row before the data rows Blank row before data. This option affects both the schedule
segment on the sheet and the schedule view.

specify the font for the body text a font from the list, enter a font size, and select bold or italic
attributes.

Formatting Units and Number Fields in a Schedule

1 In the Project Browser, right-click the schedule name, and select Properties.
2 In the Instance Properties dialog, for Formatting, click Edit.
3 Select a length (includes height fields), area, volume, angle, or Number field from the list.

184 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 NOTE A Number field is a project parameter or calculated value that was created as a Number type.
When you create a calculated value on the Fields tab of the Schedule Properties dialog, you see the
Calculated Value dialog, where you can select the type. The following image shows this dialog with
the Number type selected.

4 Click Field Format.

The Format dialog appears. The Use project settings option is selected by default. This means
that values display according to the units setting in the project.

5 Clear the Use project settings option.

6 If you selected a length, area, volume, or angle field:
a For Units, select an appropriate unit.

b For Rounding, select an appropriate value. If you select Custom, enter a value in the
Rounding increment text box.

c If applicable, select a Unit symbol.

7 If you selected a Number field, select one of the following formatting options:
■ General. Displays values with up to 6 decimal places, and removes trailing zeros.

■ Fixed. Allows you to specify rounding, and preserves trailing zeros.

■ Percentage. Multiplies the value by 100, and inserts a percent sign (%) adjacent to the value.

8 Click OK.

Formatting Currency Fields in a Schedule

1 In the Project Browser, right-click the schedule name, and select Properties.
2 In the Instance Properties dialog, for Formatting, click Edit.
3 Select the Cost field or a Currency field from the Fields list.

Specifying Schedule Properties | 185

 NOTE A Currency field is a parameter or calculated value that was created as a Currency type.

4 Click Field Format.

5 Clear the Use project settings option.
6 For Rounding, select an appropriate value. If you select Custom, enter a value in the Rounding
increment text box.
7 For Unit symbol, select the appropriate currency symbol.
8 Optionally, select suppress trailing 0’s.
When selected, trailing zeros do not display (for example, 123.400 displays as 123.4).

9 Optionally, select Use digit grouping.

When selected, the Decimal symbol/digit grouping option specified in the Project Units dialog
is applied to the unit value.

10 Click OK.

Schedule Formatting Samples

The following images illustrate some examples of how you can format a schedule, including field formatting,
showing or hiding grid lines, calculating totals, outlines, and underlines.

NOTE The grid lines, outlines, and underlines used in these samples are custom line styles. To create your own
line styles, see Creating a Line Style on page 494.

186 | Chapter 5 Project Views

Schedule Field Formatting

Calculating Totals

Specifying Schedule Properties | 187

 Schedule with Grid Lines

Schedule with Grid Lines and an Outline

188 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 Schedule with an Outline and Underlines

Applying a Phase to a Schedule

1 In the Project Browser, right-click the schedule name, and click Properties.
2 In the Instance Properties dialog, enter values for the Phase Filter and Phase parameters.
3 Click OK.
For more information on phases, see Project Phasing on page 1331.

Modifying Schedules
There are various ways to modify schedules to improve the readability and to keep them up to date with
changes in your project.

Schedule Updates
All schedules update automatically when you modify the project. For example, if you move a wall, the square
footage updates in a room schedule accordingly.
When you change the properties of building components in the project, the associated schedule updates
automatically. For example, you could select a door in the project and change its manufacturer property.
The door schedule would reflect the change to the manufacturer property.

Editing Cells in a Schedule

You can edit the cells in a schedule by clicking in them. You can either select a value from a list (if available)
or enter text. As you add new values, they become available in that field's list.
To enter carriage returns in a text cell, press Ctrl+Enter. Carriage returns display when you place the schedule
on a sheet.

Applying a Phase to a Schedule | 189

 For schedules grouped by type, changes to a type are propagated to all instances of that type within the
project.

Grouping Column Headings in a Schedule

After you create a schedule, you may want to change its organization and structure by grouping columns.
You can create several layers of headings and subheadings to provide more detail in your schedule.
1 Open a schedule view.
2 In the group header rows, click and drag to select the headings to group.
Be sure the cursor appears as an arrowhead as you select the headings, as shown in the following
image.

3 Click Modify Schedule/Quantities tab ➤ Schedule panel ➤ Group, or right-click the selected
headings, and click Group Headers.
A new heading row displays above the grouped column headings, as shown in the following
image.

4 Enter text in the new row as necessary.

Text in the new heading row is centered.

To modify the text in a column group heading, click the heading field and edit the text. To delete the column
heading row, select the heading and, click Modify Schedule/Quantities tab ➤ Schedule panel ➤ Ungroup,
or right-click in the heading cell, and click Ungroup Headers.

Hiding Schedule Columns

1 Open a schedule view.
2 Right-click a column, and click Hide Column.

Deleting Schedule Rows

1 Open a schedule view.
2 Select a row in the schedule.
3 Click Modify Schedule/Quantities tab ➤ Schedule panel ➤ Delete.

Reusing Schedule Views

Schedule formatting can be saved as a view template and applied to or reused in another project. Templates
can be applied to selected schedules or to all schedules on selected sheets. By default, new schedules can be
based on a template through a setting on the Apply View Template dialog.
For more information on view templates, see View Templates on page 507

190 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 Saving Schedule Views to an External Project
Use the following procedure to save the format of a schedule view to an external Revit Architecture file for
use in another Revit Architecture project.
1 In the Project Browser, right-click the schedule view name, and click Save to New File.
2 In the Save As dialog, enter a name for the file, and click Save.
This procedure saves the formatting of the schedule, but not the actual scheduled components.

Inserting Schedule Views from Another Project

1 Click Insert tab ➤ Import panel ➤ Insert from File drop-down ➤ Insert Views from File.
2 Select a Revit Architecture project that contains the views to insert, and click Open.
All the views that are saved with the project, display in the Insert Views dialog.

3 Select the views to display from the list.

4 Check the views you would like to insert, and click OK.
A new schedule view is created in the Project Browser with all the saved formatting of the original schedule,
and all the parameter fields that may have been customized for that schedule.

Foundation Footings Schedule Example

In this example, a footing schedule is created. The following illustration is used for the example.
Sample structural foundation plan used for creating schedule

1 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Schedules drop-down ➤ Schedule/Quantities.

2 In the New Schedule dialog, select Structural Foundation for Category.
3 For Name, enter Foundation Schedule.
4 Click OK.

Foundation Footings Schedule Example | 191

 5 In the Schedule Properties dialog, add the following available fields (in this order) to the
Scheduled Fields list: Type, Length, Width, Volume, Count, and Comments.
6 Click the Sorting/Grouping tab.
7 Set the first Sort By list to Type.
8 Clear the Itemize every instance option.
9 Click OK.
10 You may add this schedule to a sheet. See Adding a Schedule to a Sheet on page 1063.

Exporting a Schedule
You can export a schedule as a delimited text file, which can be opened in many spreadsheet programs.
If you add a schedule to a sheet, you can export it as a CAD format.

To export a schedule:
1 Open a schedule view.

2 Click ➤ Export ➤ Reports ➤ Schedule.

3 In the Export Schedule dialog, specify a name and directory for the schedule, and click Save.
The Export Schedule dialog appears.

4 Under Schedule appearance, select export options:

■ Export column headers: specifies whether Revit Architecture column headers export.
■ One row: only the bottom column header exports.

■ Multiple rows, as formatted: all column headers export, including grouped column header
cells.

■ Export group headers, footers, and blank lines: specifies whether sort group header rows,
footers, and blank lines export.

5 Under Output options, specify how you want to display the data in the output file:
■ Field delimiter: specifies whether fields in the output file are separated by tabs, spaces,
commas, or semi-colons.

■ Text qualifier: specifies whether the text in each field of the output file should be enclosed
by a single or double quote, or no annotation.

6 Click OK.
Revit Architecture saves the file as delimited text, a format that can be opened in spreadsheet programs,
such as Microsoft® Excel or Lotus® 123.

Duplicate Dependent Views

You can create multiple copies of a view that are dependent on the primary view. All copies, known as
dependent views, remain synchronous with the primary view and all other dependent views, so that when
view-specific changes (such as view scale and annotations) are made in one view, they are reflected in all
views.

192 | Chapter 5 Project Views

Creating dependent views may be useful in the following scenarios:

■ You are working on a large project with an extensive floor plate, and you want to crop the view into
smaller segments so you can place them on sheets. When you make changes to dependent segments of
the view, you can quickly see how they effect the view as a whole by looking at the primary view.

■ You need to place a view on more than one sheet.

Dependent views display in the Project Browser under the primary view. You can insert matchlines to indicate
where the view is split, and view references to link views.
The following image shows a project view, Level 1, that has been split into 2 dependent views: Left and
Right. Level 1 is the primary view and is shown in the drawing area with its crop region, and the crop regions
for the dependent views visible, a matchline indicating where the view is split (dashed blue line), and view
references (1/A102 and 1/A101).

NOTE In the following image, the graphic display of the matchline has been overridden. The default graphic
display of a matchline is a dashed black line.

Supported View Types for Dependent Views

You can create dependent views for plan views, elevation views, section views, and callout views. When you
create dependent section, elevation, or callout views, a new section, elevation, or callout symbol is generated
on top of the original symbol. You can move the new symbol independently.

Visibility and Graphic Settings for Dependent Views

When you add view-specific information to a primary view or a dependent view, it is visible in all related
views. You can specify visibility and graphic overrides to individual elements on a per-view basis. This allows
you to clean up areas where there is overlap between related views. For more information, see Hiding Elements
in a View on page 208.

Dependent Views and View Properties

A dependent view inherits view properties and view-specific elements from the primary view. Synchrony is
kept between the primary view and dependent views for the following view properties:

■ View Scale

Duplicate Dependent Views | 193

 ■ Display model

■ Detail Level

■ Visibility settings

■ Model Graphics Style

■ Graphic Display Options

■ Hide at scales coarser than

■ Underlay

■ Underlay orientation

■ Wall Join Display

■ Discipline

■ Color Scheme Location

■ Color Scheme

■ Phase Filter

■ Phase

■ Associated Level

■ Default View Template

■ View Range

■ Depth Clipping

■ Far Clipping

■ Far Clip Offset

The following properties can vary between the primary view and dependent views:

■ Orientation

■ Identity Data properties (with the exception of the Default View Template property)

■ Extent properties (with the exceptions of View Range and Associated Level)

■ Scope Box

■ Project parameters

■ Shared parameters

Creating Dependent Views

1 In the Project Browser, select the view for which you want to create dependent views.

NOTE You cannot create a dependent view from another dependent view.

2 Click View tab ➤ Create panel ➤ Duplicate View drop-down ➤ Duplicate as Dependent, or
right-click the view name, and click Duplicate View ➤ Duplicate as a Dependent.

194 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 The dependent view opens. In the default Project Browser organization, the dependent view
displays under the primary view. If you customize the Project Browser display, dependent views
can be grouped and filtered like other view types.

3 Optionally, in the Project Browser, right-click the dependent view name, and click Rename.
Enter a new name for the view, and click OK.
4 Select the crop boundaries and resize as necessary to show only the necessary portion of the
view.

If crop regions are not visible click (Show Crop Region) on the View Control Bar. You can
display model and annotation crop regions. For more information, see Crop Regions on page
211.

Adding Matchlines for Dependent Views

Matchlines are sketch lines that you can add to a view to indicate where a view is split, as shown in the
following image.

You can customize the look of matchlines by editing the line weight, color, and pattern in the Object Styles
dialog. See Object Styles on page 493. You can add view references near a matchline to link views. See
Navigating Primary and Dependent Views on page 196.

Adding a Matchline
1 Open the primary view from which your dependent views were created.

2 If crop regions are not visible, click (Show Crop Region) on the View Control Bar.
The crop region for the primary view and the crop regions for dependent views are visible.

3 Click View tab ➤ Sheet Composition panel ➤ Matchline.

4 Sketch the matchline.
5 When finished, click Finish Matchline.

Modifying a Matchline
To edit the matchline sketch:
1 Open any view in which the matchline is visible, and select the matchline.

Adding Matchlines for Dependent Views | 195

 2 Click Modify Matchline tab ➤ Edit panel ➤ Edit Sketch.
3 Edit the sketch line as necessary.
4 When finished, click Finish Matchline.

To override matchline graphic format in a view:

1 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, or use the keyboard shortcut VG.
2 Click the Annotation Categories tab.
3 Select Matchline from the list.
4 Click Override in the Lines column.
5 In the Line Graphics dialog, select values for Line Weight, Line Color, and Line Pattern, and
click OK.
6 Click Apply to see your changes, and click OK to exit the Visibility/Graphics dialog.

Matchline Properties
The following matchline properties are available for matchlines drawn in plan and callout views.

NOTE Matchline properties are not available in elevation or sections views, because specifying top and bottom
level constraints do not apply in these view types.

Name Description

Constraints

Top Constraint Specify the top level on which the matchline is visible.

Top Offset Specify a distance above the top level on which you want the matchline to be visible.

Bottom Constraint Specify the bottom level on which the matchline is visible.

Bottom Offset Specify a distance below the bottom level on which you want the matchline to be visible.

Navigating Primary and Dependent Views

Use any of the following methods to navigate between primary and dependent views.

■ To go to the primary view from a dependent view, right-click a dependent view crop boundary, and click
Go to Primary View.

■ To go to a dependent view from the primary view, right-click the crop boundary of the view you want
to go to, and click Go to View.

■ If there is a view reference, double-click it to open the view that it references. The following image shows
view references (1/A102 and 1/A101) on the matchline.

196 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 A view reference is a symbol. You can create a view reference family in the Family Editor. View reference
families can contain lines, filled regions, text and labels for the view number and sheet number parameter
values.

To add a view reference:

1 Open the view to which you want to add a reference.

NOTE If the view is on a sheet, right-click the view, and click Activate View.

2 Click Annotate tab ➤ Tag panel ➤ View Reference.

3 On the Options Bar, select the target view.
Alternatively, click the crop region of the view you want to reference. If crop regions are not
visible click (Show Crop Region) on the View Control Bar.

4 Click in the drawing area to place the reference.

View references display in the primary view and all related dependent views (except for the view
that it is referencing). For example, if you have a view split into 2 dependent views (left and
right), and you add a view reference to the right view to reference the left, the view reference
appears in the primary view and in the right view, but not in the left view.

To hide view references

1 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, or use the keyboard shortcut VG.
2 Click the Annotation Categories tab.
3 Clear the check box for View Reference.

Related topics

■ Duplicate Dependent Views on page 192

■ Adding Views to a Sheet on page 1033

Propagating Dependent View Configuration

After you have set up dependent view configuration for one view, you can propagate the view and crop
region configuration to parallel views of the same scale. New dependent views display in the Project Browser
under the primary view, but are not placed on sheets.

Propagating Dependent View Configuration | 197

 To propagate dependent view configuration:
1 In the Project Browser, select the primary view to propagate.
2 Right-click the view name, and click Apply Dependent Views.
The Select Views dialog opens and displays parallel views of the same scale that do not already
have dependent views.

3 Click to select the appropriate views.

4 Click OK.
The new dependent views display in the Project Browser under their primary view. Right-click the view, and
click Rename to change the name, as necessary. Associativity is not maintained between the original set of
views and the new set of views after the configuration is propagated.

Making a Dependent View Independent

In the Project Browser, right-click a dependent view, and click Convert to independent view.

Deleting Dependent Views

When you delete a view that has dependent views, all dependent views are also deleted. When you delete
a dependent view, the view and all view references for that view are deleted.
1 In the Project Browser, select the view.
2 Right-click, and select Delete.

Visibility and Graphic Display in Project Views

You can override the visibility and graphic display of model elements, annotation elements, imported
elements, linked Revit model elements, and workset elements for each view in a project. The settings that
you are overriding are those specified at the project level. Project level settings are specified in the Object
Styles dialog. See Object Styles on page 493.
You can override the cut, projection, and surface display for model categories and filters. For annotation
categories and imported categories, you can edit the projection and surface display. In addition, for model
categories and filters, you can apply transparency to faces. You can also specify visibility, half-tone display,
and detail level of an element category, filter, or individual element.

Related topics

■ Changing the Line Style of Elements on page 398

■ Defining the Graphic Display for Phase Statuses on page 1335

Overview of Visibility and Graphic Display

Most overrides for visibility and graphic display are made in the Visibility/Graphics dialog. The exception
is for individual element overrides; these are made in the View-Specific Element Graphics dialog.
From the Visibility/Graphics dialog, you can view overrides that have already been applied to a category. If
the graphic display of a category has been overridden, the cell displays a preview of the graphic. If no
overrides have been made to a category, the cell is blank, and the element displays as specified in the Object
Styles dialog.

198 | Chapter 5 Project Views

 In the following image, the doors category has overrides for projection/surface lines and for cut pattern.

For information on visibility settings for elements in linked Revit models and elements in worksets, see
Visibility for Linked Revit Models on page 1282 and Controlling Workset Visibility on page 1265.

Creating Views for Specific Purposes

Because you can control element visibility and graphic display by view, you can create views for specific
purposes. Some possibilities include:

■ Furniture Layout—Show furniture half-toned on lighting RCP plan.

■ Sprinkler Layout—Show sprinklers prominently on a half-toned ceiling plan.

■ Furniture Plan—Show furniture and associated symbols, with room names and numbers, on a half-toned
floor plan.

■ Equipment Plan—As in an industrial kitchen layout: floor-mounted equipment shown prominently,

wall-mounted equipment shown with an alternate line weight, and ceiling equipment (hoods) shown
with a third line weight, on a half-toned power plan.

■ Fire-Safety Plan—Show 1-hour, 2-hour, and other fire-rated enclosures on a half-toned floor plan in a
manner so that you can distinguish the ratings. Overhead exit signs and sprinklers can appear in one
color, and wall-mounted alarm devices and fire-extinguishers can appear in another color.

■ Restoration Work—Show periods of existing materials in a building being reviewed for historic alterations.
For example, 17th-century features shown in line weight 1, 18th-century features shown in line weight
2, and proposed alterations shown in line weight 3.

Overriding Visibility and Graphic Display of Individual Elements

NOTE If you need to override the visibility and graphic display for element categories, see Overriding Graphic
Display of Element Categories on page 201 and Specifying Element Category Visibility on page 202. You can also
override the graphic display of individual elements using the Linework tool. See Changing the Line Style of Elements
on page 398.

Overriding Visibility and Graphic Display of Individual Elements | 199

 1 Open the view in which you want to override the visibility or graphic display of individual
elements.
2 In the drawing area, right-click the element you want to override, and click Override Graphics
in View ➤ By Element.
The View-Specific Element Graphics dialog opens and displays the current visibility and graphic
display settings for the element. You may need to expand the categories to view setting details.

3 In the View-Specific Element Graphics dialog, make your edits.

NOTE For annotation, import, and detail elements, only relevant override options display.

■ Visibility: show or hide the element in the view.

■ Halftone: blend the line color of an element with the background color of the view. All line
graphics (including fill patterns) and solid fills are drawn halftone when this option is selected.
Halftone has no effect on material color in shaded views. See Halftone/Underlay on page
497.

■ Transparent: display only lines for the element and not surfaces.
When elements are transparent, only edges and fill patterns (including solid fills) are drawn
on element faces. The faces between pattern lines are not drawn. In Hidden Line view and
Shaded with Edges view, parts of edges are hidden. An edge can be hidden by the face of any
non-transparent element and by a face of its own element (even when it is marked
transparent). Edges are not hidden by other transparent elements.

■ Projection Lines: edit the line weight, color, and pattern.

■ Surface Patterns: edit visibility, color, and pattern.

■ Cut Lines: edit the line weight, color, and pattern.

■ Cut Patterns: edit visibility, color, and pattern.

After you edit any of the above, you can click Apply to keep the View-Specific Element Graphics
dialog open and instantly see how the change affects the model.

4 When finished, click OK.

NOTE Individual element overrides are not stored in view templates.

200 | Chapter 5 Project Views

Overriding Graphic Display of Element Categories
NOTE If you need to override the visibility or graphic display for an individual element, see Overriding Visibility
and Graphic Display of Individual Elements on page 199.

1 Open the view in which you want to override the graphic display of element categories.
2 Right-click an element in the drawing area, and click Override Graphics in View ➤ By Category.
When you use this method, the element’s category is already highlighted when the
Visibility/Graphics dialog opens.
Alternatively, you can click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, or use the keyboard
shortcut VG or VV.

NOTE If you open the Visibility/Graphics dialog from a drafting view, only those categories that can
appear in a drafting view display.

3 If necessary, click the appropriate tab in the Visibility/Graphics dialog (Model Categories,
Annotation Categories, or Imported Categories).

If you are overriding element categories in a linked Revit model

a Click the Revit Links tab.

b Click the button in the Display Settings column.

c In the RVT Link Display Settings dialog, click Custom.

d Click the appropriate tab (Model Categories, Annotation Categories, or Imported Categories).

e Select Custom from the drop-down menu.

4 Highlight a category row.

5 Click the Override button for the line or pattern to edit.

NOTE For annotation and imported categories, you can only override projection and surface display.

6 For lines, edit the line weight, line color, and line pattern. For patterns, edit the fill color and
fill pattern.
7 (Optional) Select the Halftone check box next to a category to blend the line color of an element
with the background color of the view. This produces a lighter shade for the line color. (See
Halftone/Underlay on page 497.)
8 For model categories, you can also select a detail level at which to display the element category.
The detail level of the category overrides the detail level of the view. For example, you can set
a wall to display at medium or fine detail level to see its structure, even if the view detail level
is set to coarse.
You cannot set the detail level for subcategories. They inherit it from their parent category.

9 Click Apply to view your changes, and click OK to exit the Visibility/Graphics dialog.

Related topics

■ Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters on page 204

■ Removing Graphic Display Overrides for Element Categories on page 202

■ Applying Transparency to Faces of Model Element Categories on page 203

Overriding Graphic Display of Element Categories | 201

Removing Graphic Display Overrides for Element Categories
1 Open the view in which you want to remove graphic overrides.
2 Right-click an element in the drawing area, and click Override Graphics in View ➤ By Category.
When you use this method, the element’s category is already highlighted when the
Visibility/Graphics dialog opens.
Alternatively, you can click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, or use the keyboard
shortcut VG or VV.

NOTE If you open the Visibility/Graphics dialog from a drafting view, only those categories that can
be shown in a drafting view display.

3 If necessary, click the appropriate tab in the Visibility/Graphics dialog (Model Categories,
Annotation Categories, or Imported Categories).
If you are editing element categories in a linked Revit model:
a Click the Revit Links tab.

b Click the button in the Display Settings column.

c In the RVT Link Display Settings dialog, click Custom.

d Click the appropriate tab (Model Categories, Annotation Categories, or Imported Categories).

e Select Custom from the drop-down menu.

4 Highlight a category row or rows.

5 Click the Override button for the line or pattern to edit.
6 Click Clear Overrides.
7 Click Apply to view your changes, and click OK to exit the Visibility/Graphics dialog.
When you remove a graphic display override, the element category displays in the view according to the
settings specified in the Object Styles dialog. For more information, see Object Styles on page 493.

Specifying Element Category Visibility

NOTE For information about visibility settings for element categories in linked Revit models and worksets, see
Visibility for Linked Revit Models on page 1282 and Controlling Workset Visibility on page 1265.

1 Right-click an element in the drawing area, and click Override Graphics in View ➤ By Category.
When you use this method, the element’s category is already highlighted when the
Visibility/Graphics dialog opens.
Alternatively, you can click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, or use the keyboard
shortcut VG or VV.

NOTE If you open the Visibility/Graphics dialog from a drafting view, only those categories that can
be shown in a drafting view display.

2 Click the Model Categories, Annotation Categories, or Imported Categories tab.

3 To set category visibility, select or clear the check box next to the category or subcategory. If
you clear the check box for a category, all subcategories for that category will not be visible in
the view.
4 To hide all categories, clear the check box at the top of the tab. For example, to hide all model
categories, clear the Show model categories in this view check box.

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 By default, the Visibility/Graphics dialog lists only those element categories that are appropriate
to the particular discipline of Revit you are working with (for example, Revit Architecture). To
list categories from all disciplines, select the Show categories from all disciplines check box.

5 Click Apply to view your changes, and click OK to exit the Visibility/Graphics dialog.

Controlling Category Selection

■ Click All to select all rows in the table. If the visibility of all categories is selected, you can clear it for all
categories by clearing one category.

■ Click None to clear the selection of any selected rows.

■ Click Invert to change the selection of rows between the ones that are selected and the ones that are not.
For example, if 6 rows are selected and you click Invert Selection, those 6 rows are no longer selected
and all others are.

■ Click Expand All to expand the entire category tree and make all subcategories visible. This makes it
easier to select all categories and subcategories, using the All tool.

■ Select a cell with a check box and press Spacebar to select or clear the check box.

■ Select a category row with focus in the Visibility cell. Press Right Arrow to expand the category tree. Press
Left Arrow to collapse the tree.

Applying Transparency to Faces of Model Element Categories

NOTE If you need to apply transparency to an individual model element face, see Overriding Visibility and Graphic
Display of Individual Elements on page 199.

1 Open the view in which you want to apply transparency to model category faces.
2 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, or right-click an element in the drawing
area, and click Override Graphics in View ➤ By Category.
3 In the Visibility/Graphics dialog, click the Model Categories tab.
If you are editing model categories for elements in a linked Revit model:
a Click the Revit Links tab.

b Click the button in the Display Settings column.

c In the RVT Link Display Settings dialog, click Custom.

d Click the Model Categories tab.

e Select <Custom> from the drop-down menu.

4 Highlight a category row or rows.

5 In the Transparent column, select the check box.
6 Click Apply to view your changes, and click OK to exit the Visibility/Graphics dialog.
When elements are transparent, only edges and fill patterns (including solid fills) are drawn on element
faces. The faces between pattern lines are not drawn. In Hidden Line view and Shading with Edges view,
parts of edges are hidden. An edge can be hidden by the face of any non-transparent element, and by a face
of its own element (even when it is marked transparent). Edges are not hidden by other transparent elements.
The following images show the same model in 3D view. The second image shows how part of the roof looks
when transparency is applied.

Applying Transparency to Faces of Model Element Categories | 203

Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters
Filters provide a way to override the graphic display and control the visibility of elements that share common
properties in a view. For example, if you need to change the line style and color for 2-hour fire-rated walls,
you can create a filter that selects all walls in the view that have the 2-hour value for the Fire Rating parameter.
You can then select the filter, define the visibility and graphic display settings (such as line style and color),
and apply the filter to the view. When you do this, all walls that meet the criteria defined in the filter update
with the appropriate visibility and graphics settings.

Creating a Filter
1 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Filters.

2 In the Filters dialog, click (New), or select an existing filter and click (Duplicate).

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 NOTE If you open a Revit project that was created in Revit Structure, you may see in the list of
available filters Selection Filters and Rule-based filters. You can modify and apply rule-based filters in
Revit Architecture. You can also apply selection filters in Revit Architecture, but selection filters can
only be modified in Revit Structure.

3 If you are creating a new filter, in the Filter Name dialog, enter a name for the filter.
If you are duplicating an existing filter, the new filter displays in the Filters list. For example, if
you are duplicating a filter called 2-hour Fire-Rated Doors, the name 2-hour Fire-Rated Doors 1

displays in the Filters list. To rename the filter, click the name, and click (or right-click the
name, and click Rename).

4 Click OK.
5 Under Categories, click one or more categories to include in the filter.
The categories that you select determine the parameters that are available in the Filter By lists.
The parameters that display are those that are common to all selected categories.
For example, you can create a filter to show only 2-hour fire-rated doors. In this case, you would
select only the doors category. If you wanted to create a filter to show 2-hour fire-rated doors
and walls, you would select the doors and walls categories.

6 From the Filter By list, select the parameter to filter by (for example, fire rating).
If the parameter you want to filter by is not in the list, click More Parameters to view additional
parameters or to create a custom parameter. To create a custom parameter (for example, NIC
[not in contract]):
a In the Project Parameters dialog, click Add.

b In the Parameter Properties dialog, enter the parameter data. In this example, the parameter
name is NIC, the discipline is Common, the Type of Parameter is Yes/No, the parameter is
grouped in the Instance Properties dialog under Other, the parameter is an instance
parameter, and the parameter only applies to elements in the Casework and Furniture
categories.

Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters | 205

 c Click OK.

d If elements are selected in the drawing area, the Parameter Value dialog opens. Specify a
parameter value for the selected elements, and click OK.

e In the Project Parameters dialog, click OK.

f In the Filters dialog, select the parameter from the Filter By list.

For more information on creating custom parameters, see Custom Parameters on page 450.

7 Select the filter operator from the following options:

■ Equals. The characters must match exactly.

■ Does not equal. Excludes everything that does not match the value you enter.

■ Is greater than. Looks for values greater than the value you enter. If you enter 23, values
greater than but not equal to 23 are returned.

■ Is greater than or equal to. Looks for values greater than or equal to the value you enter. If
you enter 23, values of 23 and greater are returned.

■ Is less than. Looks for values less than the value you enter. If you enter 23, values less than
but not equal to 23 are returned.

■ Is less than or equal to. Looks for values less than or equal to the value you enter. If you
enter 23, values of 23 and lower are returned.

■ Contains. Selects a character anywhere in a string. If you enter the character H, all attributes
that contain the character H are returned.

■ Does not contain. Excludes a character anywhere in a string. If you enter the character H,
all attributes that contain the letter H are excluded.

■ Begins with. Selects a character at the beginning of a string. If you enter the character H, all
attributes that begin with H are returned.

■ Does not begin with. Excludes a character at the beginning of a string. If you enter the
character H, all attributes that begin with H are excluded.

■ Ends with. Selects a character at the end of a string. If you enter the character H, all attributes
that end with H are returned.

■ Does not end with. Excludes a character at the end of a string. If you enter the character H,
all attributes that end with H are excluded.

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 8 Enter a value for the filter, or select a value from the list (available for some parameter types).

NOTE If you select the equals operator, the value that you enter must match the search value. The
search is case-sensitive.

9 Enter additional filter criteria as necessary. You can add up to 3 additional criteria. When you
enter more than one filter criterion, elements must meet all criteria to be selected.
10 Click OK when you are done creating filter criteria.

Applying a Filter
1 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, or type VV or VG to open the
Visibility/Graphics dialog.
Alternatively, right-click an element in the drawing area, and click Override Graphics in
View ➤ By Filter.

2 Click the Filters tab.

3 Click Add.
The Filters dialog opens, which contains a list of filters created in the project. If no filters exist
in the project, click Edit/New to create a filter.
For details on creating a filter, see Creating a Filter on page 204.

4 Select a filter, and click OK.

5 Select or clear the Visibility check box to turn visibility of the filtered object on or off.
6 Override the projection, surface, and cut line styles and projection patterns as necessary.
7 Check the Halftone option to make filtered objects appear at halftone.
See Halftone/Underlay on page 497.

8 Check the Transparent option to make filtered objects transparent.

9 Click OK or Apply to activate the filter for that view.
Filters are view-specific. OK activates the filter and closes the dialog. Apply activates the filter
and keeps the dialog open.

NOTE If multiple selection filters are applied to the same view, the order in which they are listed
denotes priority. The selection filter nearest the top of the list takes precedence.

Related topics

■ Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters on page 204

■ Overriding Visibility and Graphic Display of Individual Elements on page 199

■ Overriding Graphic Display of Element Categories on page 201

Modifying Filter Criteria

1 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Filters.
Alternatively, click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, click the Filters tab, and
then click Edit/New.

2 In the Filters dialog, select the filter you want to modify from the filters list.

Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters | 207

 NOTE If you open a Revit project that was created in Revit Structure, you may see in the list of
available filters Selection Filters and Rule-based filters. You can modify and apply rule-based filters in
Revit Architecture. You can also apply selection filters in Revit Architecture, but selection filters can
only be modified in Revit Structure.

3 To rename the filter, click . Enter a new name for the filter, and click OK.

4 To delete the filter, click . Click Yes to confirm the deletion.

5 Modify the categories and filter rules, as necessary.
6 Click OK.

Modifying Filter Visibility and Graphics Settings

1 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics, or type VV or VG to open the
Visibility/Graphics dialog.
Alternatively, right-click an element in the drawing area, and click Override Graphics in
View ➤ By Filter.

2 For Name, select the filter to modify.

3 Modify visibility, projection, surface, and cut line patterns and styles, halftone, and transparency,
as necessary.
4 Click OK.

Hiding Elements in a View

You can hide individual elements or categories of elements in a view permanently or temporarily. When
you hide an element that is used as a reference for a tag or a dimension, the tag or dimension is also hidden.
Hiding a revision cloud does not affect the revision table.

Hiding Elements
1 In the drawing area, select the element to hide.
2 Click Modify <Element> tab ➤ View Graphics panel ➤ Hide drop-down ➤ Elements, By Category,
or By Filter.
Alternatively, right-click the element, and click Hide in View ➤ Elements, By Category, or By
Filter.

If you select Element, the element is hidden in the view. If you select By Category, all elements of that
category are hidden in the view. If you select By Filter, the Filters tab on the Visibility/Graphic Overrides
dialog displays for modifying, adding, or removing filters.

Related topics

■ Revealing and Unhiding Hidden Elements on page 209

■ Temporarily Hiding or Isolating Elements or Element Categories on page 209

■ Applying Transparency to Faces of Model Element Categories on page 203

■ Controlling Visibility and Graphic Display of Elements Using Filters on page 204

208 | Chapter 5 Project Views

Revealing and Unhiding Hidden Elements
1 On the View Control Bar, click .
The Reveal Hidden Elements icon displays with a color border to indicate that you are in Reveal
Hidden Element mode. All hidden elements display in color, and visible elements display in
half-tone.

To unhide hidden elements:

2 Select the element.

3 Do one of the following:
■ Click Modify <Element> tab ➤ Reveal Hidden Elements panel ➤ Unhide Element or Unhide
Category.

■ Right-click the element, and click Unhide in View ➤ Elements or Category.

NOTE The Unhide Element and Unhide Category options become active when you select an element
that was hidden by element or, a category that was hidden by category.

4 On the View Control Bar, click to exit Reveal Hidden Elements mode.

Temporarily Hiding or Isolating Elements or Element Categories

Temporarily hiding or isolating elements or element categories may be useful when you want to see or edit
only a few elements of a certain category in a view. The Hide tool hides the selected elements in the view,
and the Isolate tool shows the selected elements and hides all other elements in the view. The tool affects
only the active view in the drawing area.
Element visibility reverts back to its original state when you close the project, unless you make the changes
permanent. Temporary Hide/Isolate also does not affect printing.

To temporarily hide or isolate elements or element categories:

1 In the drawing area, select one or more elements.

Hiding Elements in a View | 209

 2 On the View Control Bar, click (Temporary Hide/Isolate) and then select one of the following:
■ Isolate Category. In other words, if you select some walls and doors, only walls and doors
will remain visible in the view.

■ Hide Category. Hides all selected categories in the view. If you select some walls and doors,
all walls and doors will be hidden in the view.

■ Isolate Element. Isolates only the selected elements.

■ Hide Element. Hides only the selected elements.

When you temporarily hide an element or element category, the Temporary Hide/Isolate icon
displays with a border ( ).

To exit temporary hide/isolate mode without saving changes:

3 On the View Control Bar, click , and then click Reset Temporary Hide/Isolate.
All temporarily hidden elements are restored to the view.

To exit temporary hide/isolate mode and make changes permanent:

4 On the View Control Bar, click , and then click Apply Hide/Isolate to View.
If you make temporarily hidden elements permanent, you can reveal them at a later time, and unhide them
if necessary. For information, see Revealing and Unhiding Hidden Elements on page 209.

Overriding Individual Lines in an Element

You can use the Linework tool to override the line style of individual element lines. For more information,
see Changing the Line Style of Elements on page 398.

Overriding Host Layers

Using overrides, you can control the visibility of cut edges in host layers in plan and section views. The hosts
to which you can apply an override are walls, roofs, floors, and ceilings. You can assign line weight, line
color, and line pattern to each of the layer functions: Structure, Substrate, Thermal/Air, Finish 1, and Finish
2. You can also control the line styles for common edges, which occur when a line is common to 2 layers
of differing functions. If both layers are drawn in line styles with the same pen weight, the properties assigned
to common edges are used.
You can also select from the following core layer clean-up options:

■ Default. This is the current behavior.

■ Use Function. Ignores the material settings (the line is never invisible) and sets the style of the separating
line based on the layers' functional priorities. The style of a separating line is determined by the layer
with the higher functional priority.

■ Use Common Edge Style. Ignores the functional priorities and material settings, and always uses the
common edge style.

■ No Edge. Sets the separating line to invisible whenever the layers have the same fill pattern.

The line styles that you assign to the host structure are view-specific; they are visible only in the view in
which you create them. The overrides are applied to the cut edges of all hosts in the view.

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 Override Cut Line Styles
Use the override feature to assign different line weights to the cut lines and structural core lines of a wall in
plan view.
1 Open a plan view.
2 Click View tab ➤ Graphics panel ➤ Visibility/Graphics.
3 Under Override Host Layers, select Cut Line Styles, and click Edit.
4 In the Host Layer Line Styles dialog, assign line weights, line colors, and line patterns to host
layers, as desired.
5 For Core layer clean-up, select an option. See Overriding Host Layers on page 210.
6 Click OK.
7 In the Visibility/Graphics dialog, click OK.

Crop Regions
The crop region defines the boundaries for a project view. You can display a model