Opening with Varying Widths Throughout Revit Wall

It is common to have openings in walls that are not of a consistent width all the way through the wall.  An example of this is when a door is recessed into a brick wall and the brick opening is wider than the stud/masonry wall opening or the door.  The following illustration shows a door opening in a stud and brick wall with the brick opening wider to allow brickmould casing around the door.

Revit doors and windows, by default, have an opening that goes straight through the wall with a completely rectangular opening.  If you just use the default Door.rft or Window.rft with the default opening to create your doors and window families, you will not see the above jogged offset opening.

The secret to getting the walls to cut as you desire is to NOT use the Opening Cut that is in the family template, but use Voids instead.

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Zooming In Revit Non-Graphical Areas

Revit is always full of little functions that are not really advertised by Autodesk, but are handy nevertheless.  Zooming in non-graphical locations is one of those functions.

The following locations allow you to easily zoom in and out.

Properties Palette

• Since at least Revit 2016, we have been able to zoom in and out of the Properties Palette by holding down on the CTRL key and using the mouse scroll wheel.
• Zooming within the Properties Palette returns to the default size when you exit the current project file.
• Zooming within the Properties Palette is specific to each open project.  If 2 or more projects are open, zooming in the Properties Palette can be different for each project.

Schedules

• Since Revit 2019, we can zoom in and out of Schedules by holding down on the CTRL key and using the scroll wheel on the mouse.

Space Name Update to Room Name

Within Revit, it is standard procedure for architects to use “Rooms” and engineers to use “Spaces” to delineate areas of the building.  This is due to how Revit utilizes each of these 2 categories of items, so each have their place.  An issue with this procedure is that Spaces and Rooms for the same area should have the same name, but this does not happen automatically.  This can cause problems with consistency between the architect’s plans and the engineer’s plans.

Since the 2017 version, Revit has given us a tool to help keep Room names and Space names consistent.  Prior to 2017, we had to rely on either naming the Spaces manually or utilizing one of the 3rd party tools on the market.  With this command, we can update all of the Spaces in the entire model to be the same as a Room that is in the same bounded area (if there is a Room element there.)  Autodesk slipped this command into the menu system and I don’t remember them promoting it, but it is a fantastic tool for engineers!  It can save hours of work trying to get Room and Space Names consistent.

Electrical Panel Feed Thru Lugs in Revit 2020

Revit 2020 has a new feature that will please Electrical designers.  Feed through lugs are now incorporated into Revit for your electrical distribution system.  Previously, electrical users had to utilize workarounds to represent this situation in their designs, so this will improve the documentation process and help with the electrical design.

As part of this new feature, Revit has added a new panel schedule template, which is called “Feed Through Lugs Panel“.  This panel is available in the Electrical-Default.rte and the Systems-Default.rte templates.  This panel template is accessible via the Manage tab -> Settings panel -> Panel Schedule Templates.

 

The process to actual set up the electrical panels to utilize the above Panel Schedule is shown below.

Hiding Specific Level Markers in Revit

Many times in Revit, you create Levels that are utilized for various purposes.  Sometimes, there are some of those Levels that you do NOT want to display in elevation and section views on the final construction documents.  They are Levels that you use for your design, but might be confusing to those viewing your construction documents.  Therefore, it is best to just not have them seen.  This is a common practice for all disciplines.

Levels are turned on or off easily in the visibility controls, however, that control turns ALL Level markers on or off.  A good way to control which ones you want seen is to create a new Level Type that is specifically used when you don’t want to see that level.  You can then create a View Filter to filter for that new Level Type and turn it off in the views where you desire the level to not be seen.

The following illustration shows the same project file with 2 different elevation views.  The view on the left has a new Level Type turned off and the right view has all Level Types turned on.

Component Elevation Changes with Wall Base Offset

When placing components on the face of a wall in Revit, the same component may move differently when the wall base offset changes.  This can cause frustration to the user by not understanding why it is happening.  No one wants to see their component change elevation when they don’t expect it.

Walls can have the bottom offset either up (positive dimension) or down (negative dimension) to raise or lower the base of the wall.  While the majority of the time the wall will be at the floor level, there are many times when the wall needs to be above the floor.  A couple of examples are a wall that sets on a concrete curb, or a wall which serves as a soffit.  The Base Offset parameter for the wall is modified in the Properties palette when the wall is highlighted.

Revit Section Bubble Placed In Text

I get asked about how to place a detail bubble or a section bubble amongst text notes where the actual leader for the bubble is not desired.  The user still wants to have the information within the bubble to auto-update, so the bubble needs to be an actual callout. This is a very common situation,   The following image is an example of a typical situation.

Revit Design Options in Linked Files

It is not uncommon for construction bid projects to have alternate bid items as part of the design.  Revit users will typically use the Design Option capability of Revit to show the alternate bid(s).  This works excellent for the Architect, but it does not work quite as well for MEP consultants.

For the Architect to make it a bit easier for their MEP consultant, it is good for the Architect to create a model elements only view of the alternate bid design option in their Architectural model.  This allows the MEP consultant to reference this view in their model without extraneous information.

Show Existing Architecture But Not Electrical

I have seen the situation where the Electrical designer was working on a remodel project and did not want their Existing electrical devices to be shown in the New Construction phase views.  The existing electrical devices and equipment were only to be shown on views that displayed only existing information.  However, they needed to show both the Existing and New Construction walls and other Architectural elements in the New Construction views.  Revit doesn’t want to do this without changing the default settings.

By default, the linked Architectural elements will show the same phase as the host Electrical file’s view.

• If the Electrical file’s view has its Phase parameter set to New Construction, and the Phase Filter parameter set to Show Previous + New, you will see the existing elements for both files as well as the new elements for both files.
• If the Electrical file’s view has its Phase parameter set to New Construction, and the Phase Filter parameter set to Show New, you will only see the new elements for both files.  Existing elements will not be seen for either file.

Control Visibility of Plumbing Fitting Tick Marks in Revit

Single line drawings in Revit plumbing plans (Coarse and Medium displays) show the tick marks for fittings by default.  Some design firms prefer to not show tick marks for the elbows, tees, and other fittings.  Revit has a setting that allows users to adjust the printed size of the tick marks, but this affects all tick marks for all fittings.  I see situations where the designer wants to see tick marks for reducers and couplers, but not some other fittings.

Pipe fitting families can have a parameter added that controls the visibility of the tick marks.  This allows the user to specify which fittings should show the tick marks and also allows tick mark visibility to be different for different projects.

Each Pipe Fitting family will need to be modified, but we will take a look at one family here.

Revit Section Markers Discipline Visibility

When and how Revit section markers display on plan views can be a bit confusing when you are working with multiple disciplines.  With more disciplines involved with a model, the more noticeable and confusing the issue becomes.  This is due to the fact that section markers are discipline-specific and cannot be displayed on all the different disciplines of plan views.

Revit is designed so that section markers will not show in other discplines’ views and this is based upon the Discipline parameter of a view.  Revit has 6 different Disciplines available for selection for a view.  They are:

• Architectural
• Structural
• Mechanical
• Electrical
• Plumbing
• Coordination

 

Copy Revit Electrical Circuits to Multiple Levels

When working with a multi-story building, it is common to have identical electrical items on multiple floors and the designer desires to have the same circuits for those items replicated on each level.  Doing so creates consistency between panel board circuits and reduces labor for circuiting each floor.  An example of this is the restrooms, janitor closets, elevator lobby and other service areas in the core of a building where each of those rooms will have the same electrical needs for each floor level.

It is possible to copy the electrical devices and equipment from one floor level to multiple other floor levels and replicate the circuits for the new items.  The electrical devices that were circuited together in the first level will be circuited together in the other levels.  The Rating, Frame, and Load Name for the replicated circuit(s) will be the same as the original circuit(s).