As companies develop their drafting view details inside Revit, the organization of the the details becomes more important. There are many different ways of organizing details inside Revit, but I like this process outlined in this blog article.
Advantages:
- It is easy to locate the desired detail within the Revit project file where it is placed.
2. It is easy to locate the desired detail within a detail resource file which contains all of the company’s details.
The key to this process is to organize the details based upon CSI division and to name the details with the division prefix.
Organizing the Details:
When you create a Drafting View in Revit, it will use the system family “Drafting View” with a type of “Detail”. The first thing to do is to have a variety of Drafting View types in the file, from which you can select.
Create a View Type
When a drafting view selected, pick the Edit Type button.
In the Type Properties dialog box, pick the Duplicate button to the right to create a new view type. Name the new type accordingly. Repeat this process to create multiple new view Types.
The following are some examples of drafting view type naming:
- 00-Accessibility-ADA
- 01-General Requirements
- 02-Site
- 03-Concrete
- 04-Masonry
- 05-Metals
- 06-Walls
- 07-Roof
- 08-Door & Windows
- 09-Finishes
- 10-Specialties
- 11-Misc
- 12-Casework
- 13-Stairs Ramps Elevators
- 14-Mechanical
- 15-Plumbing
- 16-Electrical
The above naming is a suggestion and can be modified to better suit your situation. The point here is to divide your details into logical groupings.
Assign the View Type
With the various view types in the Revit project file which contains all of your details, you can then assign each detail to the desired view type. To do this, simply highlight the desired detail drafting view, go to the Properties palette and select the desired Drafting View Type from the list after picking on the arrow to the right.
After changing the view type to the desired CSI division, the view will shift to the selected grouping in the Project Browser.
Naming the Drafting View Detail
Organizing the detail views in the desired grouping is half of the solution to this organizational system.
Give each view name a prefix with the division number, such as “07-” for the 07-Roof grouping.
While this naming is not required and not noticeable while in a project file, it is still important. When you use the “Insert Views from File” command from the Insert tab, you will notice the importance of the name. Since all of the drafting views are listed alphanumerically in the Insert Views dialog box, they will be sorted by the CSI division making it easy to locate the desired detail.
Notes:
- When you insert drafting views from the resource file into your project file, the view type grouping will come along with your detail view. This enables the details to group in the project file in the same way as in the resource file.
- To further organize your details, you can add more information to the prefix, such as “06-Ext” or “06-Int” to differentiate exterior vs interior doors.
Applying Technology to Architecture 