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.

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Automatic Updating Electrical Symbol Legend in Revit

Electrical symbol legends are a critical part of electrical design documents and everyone wants to have a Symbols List which automatically updates to show the actual electrical symbols that are placed in a project.  That way, the only symbols that are on the list are ones that are actually placed in the model and the list does not include many unused symbols.  It is actually possible to do this.  When an electrical item gets added to the model, the symbol gets added to the symbol list.

Create Type Catalog from Existing Revit Family

There are times that a Revit user will come across a family where the family creator added many types to the family.  I recently talked to someone that had a family with over 100 types defined within the family.  This has the following ramifications:

• It increases the size of the family.
• It creates many family types in the project that are not needed.
• It displays a long list of types in the Type Selector for the family making it confusing finding the desired type.

Fortunately, Autodesk Revit has provided us with an easy way to create a Type Catalog that contains all of the types contained within the family.  This eliminates the need to have a family with a huge list of types within it.  We can create the Type Catalog directly from the family, so we do not need to recreate the data contained in each family type.

Schedule Organization Improvements in Revit 2018.1

For a long time, I have wished that there were better ways to organize schedules in Revit’s Project Browser, especially in project files with dozens of schedules.  The recently released 2018.1 version of Revit does just that and allows me various ways to organize my schedules in a Revit project file.  Different disciplines and different companies have varying quantities of schedules, so some users will appreciate this new feature more than users.

The following image shows grouping the schedules based upon working schedules and schedules that will be placed on sheets.  This particular option is created by having 2 different View Templates for schedules – one for working schedules and one for schedules on sheets.  Schedules are then grouped by View Templates.

Starting View Using Parameters

It is pretty typical for organizations to utilize the Starting View function within Revit and use that view to show project information.  That information often includes project name, project number, project address, and other important data.  Ideally, some of that information would be displayed using the same project parameters as used in title blocks to maintain consistency.  It can.

I believe that using a starting view is “good BIM” and good utilization of the starting view is very important.  It can help the model load more quickly and give the user important information about the project since it will be the first view seen when opening the project file.

Many organizations use a drafting view as their starting view.  When using a drafting view, project parameters cannot be used since labels are not allowed in a drafting view.  A “Label” is needed in order to use a parameter and are used in families.  If a drafting view is used, regular text needs to be used for the information.

A good method to use project parameters in your starting view is to utilize a sheet with a custom title block for the starting view.

Personal Section View in Revit

Creating sections in a Revit model is key to creating a quality 3D model, and that includes creating sections that are simply used for design verification.  Construction documents typically include sections, but users also use a lot of temporary sections for coordination and verification.  A problem with temporary sections is that you don’t know who created the section and the purpose for the section.  As a result they tend to stay in the model because no one really knows if they can delete the section.

I previously wrote a blog article about creating Working Sections which helps with this situation.  However, the working section can be further enhanced.  This article will address 2 key features for improving the working section:

1. Who created the working section.
2. Apply a user’s specific settings for the working section.

Note that this article will build upon that previous blog article.  You can find the article here.

Year End BIM Evaluation

It is now the end of another year, with all the experiences of life that comes with that year.  As such, we tend to evaluate the past year and look forward to the challenges and experiences of the new year.  That includes all different aspects of our lives, including the personal and professional sides.  However, in additional to individuals doing this, organizations need to do the same thing.

Since this is an building industry oriented blog, I am going to touch on what I believe to be an important component of AEC firms in the technological age in which we now live.  That is the evaluation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) within your firm.  While there are still many AEC firms that have not moved into the world of BIM, it is becoming more common and more important in the industry.

It is extremely important to evaluate BIM within a firm.  There are costs associated with moving toward BIM integration and it is important to understand whether your firm is getting a return on that investment and how it can be improved.

Dynamo Time

Customization has always been a mainstay of design software, especially with the Autodesk products.  Customization of Revit for the user/non-programmer is finally here with Dynamo.  Dynamo has been in development for some time, but has been gaining momentum among Revit power users.  It really opens up the door for users to achieve more functionality through the open-source visual programming extension for Revit.  It provides similar opportunities to the Revit user like AutoLisp did for AutoCAD users.

Components for AutoCAD Details

As a consultant and trainer, I work with many people that are currently working with AutoCAD or transitioning to Revit.  I am constantly amazed at the number of architectural users of AutoCAD that are not aware of detail components within AutoCAD Architecture.  These components can be an important part of drafting the many details that are part of an architectural design office.  Over the years, I have spent many hours drafting details for construction documents and I think of the advantages of having pre-made components available to me for detailing.

Understanding the Autodesk Content Browser – Part 6

This is Part 6 and is the final part of a multi-part series on the Autodesk Content Browser.  This article will address how to update palettes that have been shared from the Content Browser.

Part 1 of the series addresses why you would want to use the Content Browser and how to get to it. Read it here.

Part 2 of the series addresses how the Content Browser is organized. Read it here.

Part 3 of the series addresses the library to which the Content Browser will look.  Read it here.

Part 4 of the series addresses adding a catalog to the library and how to make catalogs available to users.  Read it here.

Part 5 of the series addresses how to add tools and tool palettes to the Content Browser.  Read it here.

As changes are made to tools or tool palettes in the Content Browser, you want the users to see those changes on the tool palettes inside their AutoCAD Architecture on their computer.

Understanding the Autodesk Content Browser – Part 5

This is Part 5 of a multi-part series on the Autodesk Content Browser.  This article will address how to add tools and tool palettes to the Content Browser.

Part 1 of the series addresses why you would want to use the Content Browser and how to get to it. Read it here.

Part 2 of the series addresses how the Content Browser is organized. Read it here.

Part 3 of the series addresses the library to which the Content Browser will look.  Read it here.

Part 4 of the series addresses adding a catalog to the library and how to make catalogs available to users.  Read it here.

The most important part of using the Content Browser is having appropriate tools and tool palettes contained within it.  That is where the true power of the content browser comes into play as it gives accessibility to those tools deemed important to be shared with others.

Understanding the Autodesk Content Browser – Part 4

This is Part 4 of a multi-part series on the Autodesk Content Browser.  This article will address adding a Catalog to the Library and how to make Catalogs available to users.

Part 1 of the series addresses why you would want to use the Content Browser and how to get to it. Read it here.

Part 2 of the series addresses how the Content Browser is organized. Read it here.

Part 3 of the series addresses the library to which the Content Browser will look.  Read it here.