Specifying Formulas for Revit Angles

This article is a quick easy tip for specifying a slope for a line instead of only specifying the angle.  When placing roofs, floors, ceilings, pipes, etc, you have the option for specifying the actual slope, but this option is not available in other situations.

This function is especially helpful with drafting views and similar type situations when the angle of an element needs to be modified.  Since angles cannot be typed/specified when drawing an element, angles are commonly modified after element placement.

Depending on the equation that you enter, you can get a riser/run slope or a percentage slope.  (The angle will still be displayed.)

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Project Base Point Clip Gone in Revit 2020.2

Revit 2020.2 release made a change to the Project Base Point that affected many users by removing the clip/unclip capability for it.  Previous releases of Revit had a paper clip symbol that the user could see next to the Project Base Point symbol as shown below.

While this clip feature is no longer part of Revit as of the 2020.2 (it is still in 2020.1), the user still has the capability to move the project.

Revit 2020 Family Offset Parameter

With each release of software, there seems to be little things that change, but are either not documented as a change or the documentation on being a change is buried and difficult to locate.  In Revit 2020, there are some changes in the built-in parameters for families when they are placed in a project file.  These changes can come into play when using automation, such as Dynamo.  While they may or may not have much impact on your particular usage of Revit, it is important information of which to be aware.

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.

My Favorite Revit 2019 New Features

Most Revit users have heard that Autodesk has released the 2019 versions of its various software packages.  Autodesk has included a lot of nice enhancements with this release and delivered on many of the user wish list items.  While there are still many improvements to be made to Revit, I am pleased with enhancements in this release.

Project Browser Enhancement in Revit 2018.2

Revit 2018.2 was just released and it has a nice enhancement to the Project Browser that can be easily missed.  With this release we now have more options available when we desire to expand or collapse information in the Project Browser.

Prior to Revit 2018.2, your only option to expand items in the Project Browser was to pick on the plus sign (+) next to the section’s name to expand the section and show additional information or the minus (-) sign next to the section’s name to collapse the section and show less information.  You still have those options, but the following menu is now available when you right-click over any of the sections in the Project Browser.

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.

Tagging All in Revit 2018

Revit 2018 finally fixes an awkward dialog box.  The ability to quickly add tags to a Revit view through the “Tag All Not Tagged” command has been around a long time, but the dialog box for it has always been a bit klutzy.  In Revit 2018, you can now place a checkmark next to the desired categories to be tagged.  This makes it work like other dialog boxes and I think more user friendly.  While this isn’t a huge new feature with increased productivity or capability, I really like it.

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.

Stop Revit Double-Click For Family Editor

When using Revit, do you ever get irritated with a family opening up in the family editor when you accidently double-click on the family while working in a project?  I do (when on a different computer than my own).  Revit added this great feature a few releases ago to enable easier access to modify families so that you don’t have to select the family and then choose the Edit Family command.  However, I have found this feature to be more annoying than helpful when in production mode.

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.

Revit 2017 Family Reference Planes

As someone that creates a lot of Revit families, I always appreciate Revit enhancements and new features that help with creating or working with families. Reference Planes are a critical component of families and Revit 2017 has some interesting changes in regards to them.