Revit Trips

7/29/2019 Revit Trips

1/7

As the curator of the Excitech Revit User group, one of the most

popular sessions that I run at the these events is the Revit Platform

Tricks and Tips session. They are well received by new as well as

seasoned Revit Users. These sessions help build confidence, especially

when you think things are just not possible. Many of these tips are

related to work flow issues or answers to common support problems

which my colleagues and I come across on a day to day basis.

Revit Performance - Windows Classic and OpenGLSqueezing as much performance out of your hardware to improve

your Revit experience is an important consideration and something a

lot of users take for grant. It has been noted by some users that you

will see a minor improvement in interface performance, if you run Revit

in Windows Classic mode.

While we are on the subject of performance, it surprises me how

often new users as well as CAD managers deploying Revit are not

aware of the OpenGL functionality within Revit. Found under

settings>options>graphics tab. Although Revit does not use the

graphics card in the same way as other CAD software. Instead,

performance is reliant on the amount of memory and the speed of the

processor in your hardware.

Nevertheless, if you do have an OpenGL 1.3 compliant graphics card in

your laptop or workstation, enable this functional because you will see

a minor speed increase. This is especially true if you use the real time

shadow functionality within Revit; graphics and shadow generationwill be quicker to redraw to the screen improving the usability

experience.

19www.excitech.co.uk/dpj Excitech Ltd Design Productivity Journal|2008 Volume 4, Issue 5

A range of useful tips to help you get the most from the Revit Platform.

Revit Platform Tips and Tricks Core CAD

By David Light, Senior Revit Consultant, Excitech Ltd.

Figure 1: Windows Classic

Revit Platform Tips and Tricks


2/7

Figure 2: Use OpenGL Hardware Acceleration

Revit and Windows VistaRevit 2009 products are fully supported by Autodesk to run on

Microsoft Vista Business or Ultimate editions operating systems, 32bit

and 64bit versions. With the recent announcement by Autodesk that

they have released a 64bit version of Revit to subscription customers,Revit is now the first ever 64bit BIM tool. The 64bit version of Revit is

available for download from the subscription center website.

Be mindful, its only worth making the leap to 64bit if you are currently

running into memory issues. If you do decide to go down the 64bit

route, load you hardware with at least 8 gigs of RAM. If you limit

yourself to only 4gigs or RAM, the experience will be similar to running

Revit on XP32 with 4gigs of RAM with the 3gig switch enabled and

you will lose the advantage.

However, these are my thoughts and experiences when running Revit

on Vista and its all about squeezing a little extra performance out of

your system, because at times Vista can feel a little sluggish whencompared to Windows XP.

1. It is definitely worth making sure that your graphics card supports

OpenGL under Vista and that you have the latest up to date graphic

drivers.

2. Install Vista service pack 1!

3. Revit seems to perform better without the Aero interface turn on,

but this does depend on the specification of your hardware. To

disable the Aero interface; Right-click the desktop > Personalize >

Windows Colour and Appearance and choose Windows Vista Basic.

Figure 3: Disable Aero Interface

4. Its also worth adjusting the visual effects to maximise performance.

5. Disabling transparency also seems to help: Right-click the desktop >

Personalize > Windows Colour and Appearance. Uncheck Enable

Transparency > OK.

Figure 4: Visual Effects Options

6. Disable the annoying side bar also seems to help: If you don't use it,

get rid of it -- it's just eating system resources.

The Swept Blend ToolOur support teams receive this query on the regular basis; how can I

infill with a wall under or spiral ramp or stair? Prior to the 2009 release,

this wasnt easy; users did all sorts of hacks, from creating the infill in

AutoCAD and importing, to using a very narrow ramp without a railing

then positioning and placing this under the ramp. The new swept

blend tool will now allow you to create this infill.

1. To achieve this, create your wall in the normal manner so it sits under

your ramp or staircase.

Figure 5: Wall Creation

2. Next create an inplace family, as a void swept blend.

3.Create the path to the radius of your wall.

www.excitech.co.uk/dpj0 Excitech Ltd Design Productivity Journal|2008 Volume 4, Issue 5

Core CAD Revit Platform Tips and Tricks


3/7

Figure 6: Create Path to Wall Radius

4. The create profile 1 as an oversized rectangle at the bottom of your

staircase or ramp.

5. Then create profile 2 as a smaller rectangle at the top of staircase or

ramp.

Figure 7: Profiles which form the Swept

6. Then finish the void swept blend and then use cut geometry to cut

the void from the wall.

Figure 8: Void Swept Blend

Figure 9: Resulting Wall

Clean Those DWGs!This may seem very obvious, but it is essential to clean up any form ofDWG file you may want to import or link into Revit. Many users dont

consider this and end up linking or importing DWG data thinking that

Revit will behave like AutoCAD. Rest assured Ive seen some real

nightmares! So the following includes some useful guidance when

working with DWG files in Revit.

1. Check that the units are set in the DWG file before linking or

importing.

2. Watch for layers that may be turned off or frozen.

3. Watch for blocks in the DWG, as they are known to cause issues.

4. Be mindful of how far from 0,0,0 the DWG data may be.

5. Watch for very small lines or geometry within the DWG. If youre

DWG does contain very small lines the import or link will fail.

6. Watch for rogue lines or geometry which have somehow been

moved far aware from the initial view you are importing/linking. It

will become very obvious when importing your DWG centre to

centre into your project, because when you do zoom extents; your

imported plan will just disappear, because its zoomed to the extents

of the DWG including the rogue linework. Youll need to go back to

the DWG to remove this item, before importing/linking again.

7. Purge unused layers, blocks, dim styles, fonts etc from the DWG

before linking.

8. Delete what is not necessary.

9. When you may want to stack DWGs into a Revit project, make sure

they stack correctly with a common coordinate system in AutoCAD

first.

10. Watch for unnecessary 3D geometry in the DWG file, especially on

items like 3D DWG furniture or objects from 3DsMax.

11. If you are using worksets, consider linking DWG files into a separate

DWG workset.




4/7

12. Always pin and lock linked DWGs.

13. Try to avoid exploding imported DWGs.

14. If you only need to see a DWG in a specific view, always link the

DWG into the current view only, this is especially useful if you just

want to trace over a linked DWG floor plan within Revit.

Moving RoomsWhen you place a room it is constrain to the level it is place on, so

repositioning a room to another level is not just a case of changing its

properties. In Revit 2009, it is slightly easier as you can delete the room

from a view and yet it is still contained within the Revit database. This

allows you to place the room again at the correct level. Nevertheless,

the following works for old versions of Revit.

1. So to reposition a room on another level, drag the room from its

bounding elements. Revit will give you an error message to say thatthe room is no longer closed.

2. Next Edit >Cut the room, or control X.

3. Next Edit>Paste Align>Select Levels By Name and choose the correct

level from the levels list.

4. On pasting the room, Revit will give you another error message.

5. Next go to the revised level and then drag the room back into its

correct room bounding elements.

The Shaft ToolUsers often forget the shaft opening tool.

The shaft tool allows you to quickly and easily cut a shaft through

multiple floor plates.

Figure 10: Selecting Shaft Opening

Figure 11: Sketching the Shaft

You can even add symbol lines to the sketch to indicate the opening.

Figure 12: Adding symbol lines to the sketch

Figure 13: Shaft cutting multiple floors

Figure 14: Shaft can be adjusted vertically




5/7

Drafting view for Project titleIf you regularly use worksets on your projects, consider a Drafting view

as an Open and Close view. When saving to central with this view

maximized the benefits include:-

1. The team sees this page and its update info every time they save to

central

2. The processing requirements of this page are small compared to a

plan or 3D view, which means loading a file is quicker and is very

noticeable on large projects.

3. This view is Neutral view, so all users leave and start the project in

this view.

4. Saving to central is as easy as maximising the view and selecting

Save to Central from the file menu.

Figure 15: Project Details

5. It can also act as a project summary and can include:

Company name and logo

File update history File management information ie always save in this view when

saving to central

Date project was setup, started and by who

Revit version the project was started

Figure 16: Drafting view with project details

Site Plans in Revit StructureBy default the Revit Structure templates provided out of the box do

not include a site plan view, unlike Revit Architecture. So how do you

go about creating a site plan in structure?

1. Firstly, start by duplicating level 1 and renaming that SITE.

Figure 17: Duplicating a Level

Figure 18: Rename Site Plan

2. Next open the SITE view, right mouse click in view and go to view

properties from the contextual menu. Then scroll down until you find

View range and edit the View range changing it to read.

Primary Range

Top: Associated (Level 1) offset 100000.0

Cut plane: Associated (Level 1) offset 100000.0

Bottom Level Below offset 0.0 View Depth

Level: Level Below offset 0.0

Figure 19: View Range

3. Finally, go to visibility graphics for the SITE view and make sure that

toposurface is turn on (made visible). You will also have to enable the

check box which says show categories from all disciplines to view

the toposurface category within the visibility graphics / overrides

dialogue box.




6/7

Purging All Family Types From A FamilyHave you ever noticed that however hard you try you can't delete all

family types from a family when you are in the family editor? Revit

always leaves one remaining type!

1. Start by loading the family that you want to purge into a new project.

2. Next go to the family tree in the project browser and delete all the

types, but not the family itself.

3. Then right click on the family in the project browser and select edit,

this will open the family from the project into the family editor.

4. You will need to make sure that the family is not already open as

Revit will just switch you to that window.

5. Next, if you go to your family types you will see that there should be

no types listed for this family.

6. Finally, save the family to a new location.

Changing The Temporary Font SizeThere may be occasion when you want to increase the font size for

temporary dimensions. This is especially true if you are running Revit

on Windows Vista as the default font does have a tendency to look

very same on the screen.

1. To do this open Revit.ini file in Notepad. The file is typically located

in C:\Program Files\Revit Architecture 2009\Program

For Revit MEP:

C:\Program Files\Revit MEP 2009\Program

For Revit Structure:

C:\Program Files\Revit Structure 2009\Program

2. Add the following line to Revit.ini in [Graphics] section:

TempDimFontSizeInPoints=N

Figure 20: Edit Revit.ini

3. Where N is a number larger than 8 (default hardcoded value). Good

starting point is twice the default size (i.e. 16-17).

4. Save Revit.ini.

5. Restart Revit. If the size of temporary dimensions is still small, repeat

from step 1 with larger number.

6. Please note, the [Graphics] section may not exist. If this is the case

add a line that contains [Graphics].

Blank LeadersOne item that Revit doesnt include by default is a blank leader, ie. one

without text. You can easily place text and create leaders off the text,

but a leader on its own doesnt seem possible. The following explains

how to get around this.

1. To achieve this create a new family from the generic annotation

template.

Figure 21: Select Template File

2. Delete the default text in the template and then save the new family,

something like blank leader.rfa.

3. Next load this family into your project.

Place the annotation symbol in a view,

but nothing will appear apart from the

move icon, once you have placed the

family, do a window selection to pick up

the annotation symbol.

Figure 22: Choose symbol from the drafting bar

4. Once youve selected the symbol, you will be able to add leaders

from the options bar.

Figure 23: Add a Leader




7/7

Working With SketchUp & AutoCAD DataOften it may be easier to create your geometry in products like

Sketchup or AutoCAD and bring these elements into a mass family or

generic family and use this geometry within your Revit projects.

1. To achieve this, start by creating a new family component such as a

generic model family.

2. Import the 3d DWG or Sketchup SKP file into this family.

Figure 24 & 25: Working with SketchUp and Revit Data

3. Save the family with a suitable name.

4. Then load this into your project.

5. Next, place the family within your project.

6. Finally, use Revits pick face tool, to skin the form up using real world

building elements such as walls or curtain walls.

Cleaning Family TemplatesThere may be occasions when you want to get rid of stubborn

reference planes, labels and dimensions in the standard family

templates.

1. To achieve this you need to rename your rft templates to rfa (as a

precaution, always make a copy to experiment on) and open the rfa

family in Revit.

2. You can now delete all the reference planes and labels/dimensions.

3. Note that parameters cannot be removed.

4. Then rename back from rfa to rft.

Schedule by CommentThe Filtering facility within schedules is a very powerful feature that

allows you to set rules to control what is displayed within your

schedule. This is easily achieved by adding in the comments column

within a schedule; adding a note or comment to the items you dontwant to display and then use the filter option within the schedule to

filter by comment.

1. To achieve this create a schedule in the normal manner, however,

add a comments field to your schedule.

Figure 26: Structural Column Schedule

2. Next go to your schedule and add the word

NO to the comments columns to the

elements you dont want to show in yourschedule.

3. Next go to the schedule properties and

choose the filter tab.

Figure 27: Comments Column

4. Then create a filter which filters by comment and set it to does not

equal the word NO in the schedule. This will remove all the items

with the comment added, from the schedule.

Figure 28: Schedule Properties

5. Finally, right mouse click on the comments column in your schedule

and choose Hide Column(s) to hide the column from the schedule.

Figure 29: Hide Column

For more information, see inside back cover 4504 or toask a question, email: [email protected]



Documents

Revit Trips