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  • 7/31/2019 Beginners Tips for Revit

    1/9www.augi.com February 20

    Revit Architecture

    When you rst start using Autodesk Revit,it seems easy. Pick the wall tool, draw awall by picking two points, pick the door

    tool, place the door, then go see it in 3D. Wow! Tereare little things youll want to know. For example, you

    want to know how ar the door is rom the wall. Well, the tempo-rary dimension you see when placing it tells you, so no more step1. Now place the door, step 2, and move it 6 inches away rom thewall. When you switched rom the wall tool to the door tool, youdidnt change layersyou didnt even think about it. Is Ortho onor o? How about snap? No more o that.

    But as you continue and stop playing with your simple 3D house,you start working on a real project. Te aorementioned littlethings arent a thought anymore, but other little things are. Sea-soned Revit users have learned to cope, and now you can, too.

    Te rst project is a rustrating one because, as a new Revit user,you will be learning the program as you are working on your project.

    Even i you come prepared with great training, youll quickly nthat when you use Revit on a real project, not everything will wolike it did in your training sessions. On a real project, with real dealines attached, you might not have time to work through how to dthings correctly, or have the time to make a amily work at all. Youturn to detail lines or detail components and lled regions to mathings work. Te Annotate tab will house your go to tools.

    Tere will be many lessons learned in this initial project. At thpoint I suggest you sit down with the team and review what yocouldnt do, what you still need to gure out, where you cheatedand all the little things that caused rustration. I recommend gatering the team at the end o milestone submittals, because i yowait until the end o the project youll likely orget many o tlittle things you couldnt gure out.

    By reviewing, and documenting, these lessons learned a ew timthroughout the project, youll be able to help the next new team showing them what to expect and how to avoid obstacles.

    TigstoReeberasa

    RevitBegier

    2012 by: Elisa de Dio

  • 7/31/2019 Beginners Tips for Revit

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    Revit Architecture

    In this article, I will share some simple things that can help yoube more ecient while you are still learning the sotware. For ex-ample, when I was new to Revit and on my rst project, I createdtoo many section views. For every area I needed to look at, I cre-ated a view. First lesson learnedI dont create section views justbecause I can. Now, I create a ew, move them around as needed,delete them once Im done, and create a new one when necessary.

    TERmInOlOGyAs with any new sotware, there are new terms to learn. For exam-ple, where there were once cell and block, there are now amilies,components, type, instance, loadall new terms when workingin Revit.

    Dont compare a Revit amily with something similar in anotherprogram. Learn to use these terms correctly so when you have toask an experienced Revit user a question youll be using appropri-ate terms.

    Remember that component and amily are similar, but notthe same. Family is the broad term while component is speci-ic to amilies you actually create. Remember that walls, roos,ceilings, foors, and stairs are not components; rather, theyare amilies.

    Youll need to understand Parameters and learn the dierencebetween type parameter and instance parameter. For example,changing a type parameter changes more than the one amily youselected, while changing the instance parameter changes only theamily you selected.

    An easy way to remember which parameter is instance is by look-ing at your properties dialog. Youll have this docked and youllsee that it changes oten depending on what you are doing. Whenyou select the element, the properties dialog will show the instanceparameters. o see the type parameters, you have to take one morestep: select the Edit ype button. Once you do this, you are editingmore than one element.

    OPTIOnSBARI you expect a certain tool to work a certain way or perorm aunction and nd that it doesnt, it could be because you arentchecking your options.

    Many tools in Revit have multiple options, meaning there are di-erent ways to use the tool. Tis is especially true or the Modiytools. For example, Scale allows you to scale graphically by choos-ing two points, or numerically.

    Another example is the Rotate tool. You can make a copy o anobject as you rotate it (see Figure 1). I you arent paying attention

    Figure 1: Options bar when rotating a wall.

    Figure 2: Home tab, when ceiling tool is initiated.

    2012

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    BECAuSEICAn.nOw,ICREATEAFEw,

    mOVEThEmAROunDASnEEDED,

    DElETEThEmOnCEImDOnE,AnD

    CREATEAnEwOnEwhEnnECESSARy.

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    Revit Architecture

    to the Options bar, however, youll add a step by copying the ele-ment then rotating it.

    COnTExTuAlTABI you see a green tab, you are in a command. Lets say you begin aroo or ceiling and then switch to the Home tab to nd everythinggrayed out (see Figure 2). Tat happened because you orgot tocancel. So whenever you see a green tab, remember to go back andcancel or nish what you started beore you move on.

    Tere are other times when you are placing a component thatisnt specically hosted. Here, too, you have options. When you

    try to place a component annd it wont go where you wait or you cant see it, remember check your Contextual tab (sFigure 3). You may have to chanto Workplane.

    TABkEyAnDSPACEBARWhen placing elements, yound the tab key and space bar oyour keyboard very helpul. Tspace bar allows you to fip or cycthrough dierent placement anglbeore you place the element. Fexample, when modeling a wai you have the location line set exterior and where you start twall needs to be mirrored, hit thspace bar and the wall fips. Whplacing a desk, i you need to rtate it, hit the space bar and throtation begins, typically every 9degrees. Depending on where yocursor is, it will also rotate eve45 degrees.

    kEyBOARD

    ShORTCuTSAnother lesson youll denitewant to learn concerns keyboashortcuts. Tese are very simpto use: two keys, no Enter. Yocan set them to your liking and ttooltip (see Figure 4) that appeawhen you hover tells you what thshortcut is. Using keyboard shorcuts is a smart way to use Revit.

    QuICkACCESS

    TOOlBARQuick access to tools you use rquently will save you a lot o tim

    For example, why go to the Anntate tab every time you want to use the dimension and tag toowhen they are readily available on the Quick Access oolb(QA)? Te great thing about the QA is you can customize I theres a tool you use oten, but not oten enough to have a keboard shortcut, place it in the QA by right-clicking over it, shown in Figure 5.

    RIGhT-ClICkInGDierent modes will bring dierent commands, or shortcuwhen you use the right-click menu.

    Figure 4: My avorite, not a Revit deault: XX or close hidden windows.

    Figure 5: Right-clicking brings up the option to add to the QAT. In this image, youll see that I havealready added the Change Type to my QAT. I dont have to go to the Properties palette to fnd it; I staynear the ribbon.

    Figure 3: Contextual tab, when placing a generic ace-based component.

    2012

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    hTTP://www.REVITExPRESSTOOlS.COm

    http://www.revitexpresstools.com/http://www.revitexpresstools.com/
  • 7/31/2019 Beginners Tips for Revit

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    Revit Architecture 2012

    For example, in the project browser, you can place a amily withouthaving to scroll through all the amilies listed in the Componentstool (see Figure 6). Also, i you need to place an element suchas a door, you dont want to go to the ribbon and select copy. In-stead, you can select the door, right-click, and select Create Similar(see Figure 7).

    COmmunICATIOnWhen using Revit, youll begin to communicate more with yourcoworkers. In an environment when you are the sole user o a leand nobody else is responsible or it, you dont really need to com-municate with someone else on the team until youre done. Youcan nish a whole foor plan, detail sheet, and so on without evertalking to anyone. Tere may be les reerenced in that others areediting, but it will not change the work you are doing.

    But in Revit, there are relationships among objects that requireyou to communicate. You may not be able to nish the detail othat column cover i the column urring isnt modeled correctly yet.

    I the walls representing the column urring are Generic, and notset to an oce standard wall type, you will have to ask what thecolumn urring wall will be in order to detail it.

    More requent communication is the one change that many newRevit users dont anticipate. Te end result is that youll come toknow your teammates a little better. Tis is a good thing.

    Te more you use Revit, the more lessons youll learn. Youll dis-cover other shortcuts and eciencies along the way. I hope thisarticle makes a ew initial Revit rustrations go away.

    Elisa de Dios is BIM Manager/Pro-duction Coordinator and Associate orAC Martin, Los Angeles, CA. In her

    15+ years in architecture, Elisa hasdone projects or healthcare, retail, oodservice, and K-12 schools. She enjoysdrating, space planning, and being a

    Job Captain and Construction Ad-ministrator. Elisa has helped developstandards or diferent architectural

    rms, and sel-employed contractors.At AC Martin she implements, trains,and supports staf with BIM technol-ogy. She helps lead the Digital Prac-tice Committee to keep up to date with

    current technologies in the industry.She also enjoys keeping up with otherindustries similar to architecture andsharing her new discoveries with co-workers.

    Figure 6: By right-clicking over the amily type you can Create In-stance and place a component.

    Figure 7: Create Similar by right-clicking ater selecting an element

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    Inside Track

    AuGIwordbrigsorecet

    deveopetsiAtodesadreatedsoftareites

    REAlREVITOBjECTSFROmlASER

    SCAnPOInTClOuDSAvailable now rom Autodesk Labs: Point Cloud Feature Extrac-tion or Revit.

    Overview: Point Cloud Feature Extraction or Autodesk Revit2012 sotware is a ree technology preview that allows you to workwith point cloud more easily in Revit. Tis plug-in automatically

    extracts useul geometry eatures rom point cloud o buildingsand creates basic Revit elements to aid the building modeling inRevit.

    Te ools

    Point Cloud Feature Extraction or Autodesk Revit 2012 providesthe ollowing tools to acilitate the point cloud editing ater it isinserted into Revit:

    Crop / Uncrop: emporarily hide the points outside a rect-angle or polygon.

    Hide Point Cloud: emporarily hide the whole pointcloud object to acilitate the inspection o the eatureextraction result.

    Adjust Axis: ransorm the point cloud data so that foorcan be aligned with XY plane and major walls are parallel

    to Z axis. Tis plug-in includes some main eatures specically or Revit

    so that the extracted eatures / geometry can be smoothly in-tegrated into the BIM workfow:

    Datum Extraction: Extract both level and orthogonal grid.

    Site Extraction: Extract both terrain surace or ground sur-ace creation and building ootprint on terrain surace orbuilding pad generation.

    Wall Extraction: Extract both straight wall layout andarc wall.

    Floor Extraction: Extract foor rom selected points on the

    foor plan level.

    GEnERATEREAlSTRuCTuRESFROm

    mASSOBjECTS

    Project Structure Generator or Autodesk Revit Structure andAutodesk Revit Architecture sotware is a ree technology pre-view that provides a connection between massing models andobjects created during conceptual design and structural elementssuch as beams, column, walls, plates.

    Video demo here: http://youtu.be/7ZsVc3B9_70

    InTERACTIVEREAl-TImEREnDERInG

    Stadia Interactive Rendering

    Fromtheirsite:Stadia enables architects to generate interactive renderingsstraight rom Revit model data. Finally, digital representationemerges as a tool o iterative design.

    More ino, demos, and ree trial oer available at stadia3d.com

    by: Erik Lewis

    http://youtu.be/7ZsVc3B9_70http://stadia3d.com/http://stadia3d.com/http://youtu.be/7ZsVc3B9_70
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    Revit MEP

    As with many things in lie, appearance can beeverything, and Autodesk Revit objects areno exception. Tere are a number o ways to

    adjust the appearance o objects in Revit, which canprovide visual cues so users can easily identiy miss-

    ing or incorrectly dened elements while producing constructiondocuments tailored to design rm needs.

    All Revit objects belong to a category, and categories have appear-ance settings that are applied to all objects in a category. Appear-ance settings control object characteristics o line color, line weight,

    and line pattern and can apply to an entire project or to individualviews. During design it is oten useul to hide some objects withina category while viewing others. Controlling the visibility o indi-vidual objects within a category by using lters provides users witha method or quickly and eectively hiding or viewing objects romwithin the same category. For example, lters can be used to hidemechanical equipment that does not have a power connector onthe electrical plans, to change the color o receptacles that are noton a circuit so designers can easily see what is let to be added, andto adjust the object appearance based on which system an objectis associated.

    ThEAnATOmyOFAFIlTERTere are a ew basic components to lters such as lter namecategories to which the lter applies, and lter rules. Te rst setion o the lter window is Filters, which is a list o lters in tproject. When creating lters, using a standard naming convetion will help maintain communication and workfow with othusers. Keep lter names concise, yet descriptive enough to undestand what the name relates to. For example, using the disciplinthe lter applies to at the beginning o the name (e.g., Elec electrical or Mech or mechanical) ollowed by the category which the lter applies (e.g., Equipment) will aid in keepin

    things organized as you expand your list o lters. A lter namMech - Equip w/o Power would apply to all mechanical equiment that does not contain a power connector (see Figure 1).

    Te next section o the lter window is Categories, which aused to dene the categories to which the lter will apply. is important to choose categories wisely because the availabparameters in the lter will be limited to only those parametecommon to the selected categories. For example, i Ducts anMechanical Equipment categories are selected or the ltPanel or Circuit Number parameters will not be available uder the Filter By list because there is no electrical inormatio

    TePoerofRevit

    FitersHowunderstandingthemechanicsoflterscanhelpyoune-tuneyourdrawingsandimproveyourmodels

    2012 by: Joe Field

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    Revit MEP

    on ducts. Creating separate lters or categories with uncommonparameters could work around this issue.

    Te last section o the lter window is Filter Rules, which arelogic statements that determine to which objects the lter will ap-

    ply. Up to three logic statements can be usedper lter. Each logic statement is composedo three elements: a parameter to lter by,the logic operator (equals, less than, doesnot contain, etc.), and the value to look orin the specied parameter. Note that whenusing multiple logic statements, only theAnd option is available or the query. Why

    is an Or statement not available in FilterRules? Or statements create exceptions tothe rules because only one statement mustbe true. Te And statement is much clearersince all conditions must be true.

    I the intent o a lter is to turn o or hal-tone objects to which the lter applies, it isbest to use a rule that has inverted logic. In-stead o asking Revit to show what shouldbe seen, tell Revit to hide the objects thatshould not be seen. For example, to showonly the mechanical equipment that has

    plumbing connections, write a rule that ap-plies to mechanical equipment that does nothave a plumbing connector and then un-check the visibility o that lter to hide allobjects without plumbing connectors.

    Te above plumbing lter would then useSystem Classication or all logic statementswith all operators set to does not contain.One value to lter by would be Domestic,which will include the Domestic Cold Wa-ter and Domestic Hot Water connectors.

    Another value to lter by would be Sanitary,which includes a pipe connector with the clas-sication set to Sanitary. Te last value tolter by would be Vent, which includes pipeconnectors classied as Vent. So i the logicstatement is Show all objects i parameter Xcontains this or contains that... then the ol-lowing is an equal statement: Hide all objectsi parameter X does not contain this and doesnot contain that...

    EVEnFIlTERShAVEPRIORITIESTink about more than just having the rightlogic in lters. Quite possibly, an object canall into several dierent lters at the sametime. With multiple lters in a view, a sys-tem needs to be in place or Revit to priori-tize what gets applied rst. Luckily, Revithas a way to manage this.

    In the Visibility/Graphic Overrides dialog under the Filters tab,arrange the order o lters listed in order o importance. Te lterat the top has the highest priority and the lters decrease in pri-

    Figure 1: The anatomy o a flter that applies to mechanical equipment without power connec-tors.

    Figure 2: The fn tube (FT-1) has no power connector, yet it is colored green because the with-out plumbing flter takes priority over the without power flter.

    Figure 3: Moving the without power flter up in the list changes the priority o the flter thatapplies.

    2012

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    Revit MEP

    ority down the list. A lter that overrides the line pattern o allheating water return piping to display as dashed lines, and the nextlter down makes all pipes a continuous line pattern, the rst lterwill take priority and not all piping will be a continuous line pat-tern. I these lters were fipped around, all pipes would be shown

    as a continuous line pattern because that lter has a higher priority(see Figures 2 and 3).

    Prioritizing multiple lters that apply to the same object is nota concern i each lter is controlling a dierent graphic setting.For example, i one lter sets the color to red and another ltersets the line pattern to hidden, both lters will be applied sincethey are each changing dierent graphic overrides. Te one ex-ception to lter priority is the Visibility control. I multiple l-ters apply to an object and one has the visibility unchecked, theobject will not show up in that view regardless o how the ltersare prioritized.

    GETCREATIVE!Filters can be used in thousands o dierent ways. Filters can im-prove the presentation o your drawings by changing how objectsappear, even when in the same category. Filters can identiy incor-rect or incomplete inormation by changing the color o objects(e.g., receptacles, diusers, and plumbing xtures) that have notbeen ully connected (see Figure 4). Filters can also help withquality assurance procedures by highlighting objects that mighthave parameters outside o oce design standards such as ductswith high-velocity air or pipes with excessive pressure drop. Ad-vanced users can use lters to automate the control o object vis-ibility with little to no action by the user.

    I the Building InormatioModeling (BIM) goal to include all the technicinormation about a pieo equipment in the Revmodel, the amilies in thRevit model will most likecontain the appropriate conectors or other disciplinto connect to it. Te parameters that are associated wieach connector can then bused in a lter to contrhow those objects are diplayed.

    Te key to using ltesuccessully is to be opminded. Dont be araid

    be creative and try somthing new. I the lter donot unction as intenderemove it and try again. to think o ways to use prameters that are alreadavailable in the project

    project amilies. Using a prameter that already exists will streamline the lter and preveredundant inormation.

    Having a good understanding o the mechanics o lters in Revwill allow the ne tuning o drawings when other methods dnot work and can save time otherwise spent with tedious micrmanagement o object appearance. Te visual eedback lteprovided to users and checkers can open the door to endless posibilities that will ultimately improve design quality in a shortperiod o time.

    Joe Fields, PE, LEED AP BD+C, isa mechanical engineer at Te RMHGroup, a mechanical, electrical, andindustrial process engineering rmbased in Lakewood, CO. He has eight

    years o experience with various Au-todesk products including AutoCAD,Autodesk MEP, Revit MEP, andNavisworks, and requently serves asan Autodesk product beta tester. JoeFields and Te RMH Group havebeen early advocates o using BuildingInormation Modeling (BIM) to pro-mote integrated product delivery.

    Figure 4: A flter alerts the user to electrical fxtures that need to be added to an electrical circuit.

    2012