In this chapter we discuss how to configure and manage standards through the development and use of a project template. Such templates can be rich with information that goes beyond the out-of-the-box content that Autodesk provides. We will present proven methods for establishing template settings and content as well as explain how the reuse of work will increase productivity with each successive project.
In this chapter, you’ll learn to:
Like many other applications, the Autodesk® Revit® Architecture application allows you to start with a basic template and then evolve your own custom templates to suit specific needs. As your knowledge of the software progresses, you’ll begin to create new and reusable content such as wall types, roof types, ceilings, stairs, tags, and other families in order to meet your design and documentation needs. This is also the case with regard to the graphical language that you or your firm has established and needs to implement within Revit. How you graphically present elements such as text, dimensions, annotations, keynotes, and hatch patterns defines your graphic style of design documentation. In reality, the architectural profession tends to develop stylized graphics to convey design intent, and Revit respects this by enabling the customization of almost all aspects of the project template.
You can configure project templates by one or more of the following methods:
We’ll explain these methods in greater detail throughout this chapter. For now, know that you can save the completed settings as a new project template (with the filename extension .rte
) and use these templates whenever you start a new project. You can create templates by using a completely blank project, by saving an existing project as a template, or by using one of the default templates provided with the Revit installation.
To start from scratch, click the Application menu and choose New ➢ Project. In the New Project dialog box, shown in Figure 4.1, choose None for the Template File option, and choose Project Template for the Create New option. Once you click OK, you’ll be asked to choose a default unit of measurement—imperial or metric. This dialog box also appears when you press Ctrl+N or click New in the Recent Files window.
Starting a new project template without a base template requires you to develop all common content such as levels, grids, sections, callouts, tags, and model elements. If you have only custom graphics and system families, this approach would be appropriate; however, if much of your graphic style is similar to the defaults, we suggest you start with one of the default templates and edit it as necessary. This is also a much faster approach to get you up and running. You can find these templates by clicking Browse in the Template File area of the New Project dialog box. By default, the template files are installed in the root folder of the templates directory: C:ProgramDataAutodeskRVT 2016Templates
.
One of the most common complaints from teams implementing Revit software on their first projects is poor graphic quality of printed documents. When you first install the software, only some default settings are defined to approximate a standard graphic appearance of architectural drawings. For example, walls cut in sections are thicker than those shown in projected views and callout boundaries are dashed; however, almost all annotation categories are set to a line weight of 1. Fortunately, you can easily overcome these problems with some basic configuration.
The primary means of controlling graphic consistency throughout a project is through object styles. To access these settings, select the Manage tab and choose Object Styles from the Settings panel. As shown in Figure 4.2, the dialog box is divided into four tabs: Model Objects, Annotation Objects, Analytical Model Objects, and Imported Objects. Settings for Line Weight, Line Color, Line Pattern, and Material are established for each category.
Model Objects The Category column on the Model Objects tab lists all available categories and subcategories of model elements. It is important to note that the subcategories for model and annotation objects are created in families, which are loaded into the project or template. This will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 14, “Designing with the Family Editor.”
The next two columns, under Line Weight, define the line weight used when the elements are displayed in projection or cut view. You use a projection view when you’re looking at the object from a distance; you use a cut view when your view plane is intersecting the element as in a section. In some categories, the Cut setting is unavailable; these element categories will never be cut in plan or section views, regardless of the location of the view’s cut plane. For categories that enable cut display, you can set element geometry in the Family Editor to follow that rule or not, as shown in Figure 4.3.
Line Color and Line Pattern allow you to customize the display properties of each category and subcategory, but remember that printing a Revit view is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)—colors will print as colors unless you override them to print as grayscale or black in the Print Setup dialog box. The last column, Material, allows you to define a default material to be associated with the category or subcategory in case family components in that category don’t have materials explicitly defined. If a family has materials set to By Category, it references the material defined in the corresponding object style within the project environment.
Annotation Objects The Annotation Objects tab is similar to the Model Objects tab except there are no material definitions. There is also only one column for line weight (Projection) because lines do not have three-dimensional properties like model objects and cannot be “cut.”
Analytical Model Objects This tab allows you to color the various physical conditions in the building that correspond to the building’s structural components. Analytical settings only apply to structural and MEP analysis tools within Revit and are beyond the scope of this book.
Imported Objects You can control the graphic appearance of layers (DWG) and levels (DGN) within linked or imported CAD files throughout the project on the Imported Objects tab of the Object Styles dialog box; however, we will cover this in greater detail in Chapter 7, “Interoperability: Working Multiplatform.”
You can use lines in a variety of ways. Some lines relate to obvious tools, such as detail lines and model lines, whereas you can place others with filled regions and by using the Linework tool. Lines also relate to the graphic representation of model and annotation elements, as previously discussed. Achieving the desired graphic quality requires a review of line weights, patterns, and styles.
To open the line weight settings, click the Manage tab and choose Additional Settings ➢ Line Weights. The dialog box shown in Figure 4.4 manages the printed line weights relative to a numbered assignment from 1 to 16. For model objects, heavier line weights vary between view scales. If you require more granular control between scales, click the Add button to insert another scale value column and edit the line weights as required. In the Perspective Line Weights and Annotation Line Weights tabs there is only one column to specify line weights. This is because annotation is always displayed at 1:1 scale and perspective views are not defined at any measurable scale.
We recommend that you first customize the graphic appearance of model and annotation elements with object styles before trying to manipulate any of the information in the Line Weights dialog box. You should attempt to refine the line weight settings only with a rigorous investigation of printed views in multiple scales, because changes in one area can have an impact on several others.
Line patterns are created from a repetitive series of dashes, spaces, and dots. To edit or create line patterns, switch to the Manage tab and choose Additional Settings ➢ Line Patterns. The Line Patterns dialog box, shown in Figure 4.5, displays a list of existing line patterns in the project.
To edit an existing pattern, select a pattern from the list and then click the Edit button. Click New to create your own patterns. You create and edit patterns by specifying dash and space lengths, which will form a repeating sequence, as shown in Figure 4.6. For dots, a length value isn’t required.
Frequently, a line pattern is required to include a symbol or text for elements such as fence lines, piping, or underground utilities. In Autodesk® AutoCAD® software, shape definitions can be used within linetype definitions to achieve the desired results. In Revit, these special lines can be created as line-based detail components. Samples of this type of custom line can be found by downloading the file c04-Lines.rvt
or c04-Lines-Metric.rvt
from this book’s companion web page at www.sybex.com/go/masteringrevitarch2016.
Follow these steps to create a new simple line pattern:
MARA Pattern
.Define the sequence, as shown in the following image.
Any dash or dot must be followed by a space, and all dashes and spaces must have a defined length.
Confirm by clicking OK.
The resulting line pattern looks like this:
Now that we have discussed the basic components of lines—weight and pattern—the two are combined with a color to create line styles for use in detail lines, model lines, filled regions, and masking regions. They are also available when the Linework tool is used to override a part of a model element. To open the Line Styles dialog box (shown in Figure 4.7), switch to the Manage tab and choose Additional Settings ➢ Line Styles. Note that you may need to expand the list of line styles by clicking the plus sign next to Lines.
In the Line Styles dialog box, notice that some of the style names are bracketed—for example, <Hidden>. These are internal, “system” types of lines that cannot be renamed or deleted; however, their weight, color, and pattern can be modified.
Establishing the best styles for your templates will be completely up to you, but we will offer some proven examples for inspiration. First, realize that the application already uses common line styles such as Thin Lines, Medium Lines, and Wide Lines. If you are creating a complete array of customized line styles for your colleagues to use, rename the out-of-the-box styles to fit into your graphic standard.
One common approach is to create line styles organized by their weight number along with any variable to their appearance, such as (3) Gray Dashed or +Line 01. The parentheses (or the use of any special characters at the beginning of the line’s name) keep your custom line styles sorted to the top of the list in the Line Styles dialog box as well as in the Type Selector when you’re using a line-based tool. This approach has proven to be effective and efficient when creating details in drafting views or generating fill or masking regions.
Another approach reserves certain line styles for special circumstances where lines represent aspects of a building in a plan, elevation, or section and must be assigned to a specific layer when views are exported in CAD format. For example, the crossing lines typically used to indicate an area-in plan that is “Open to Below” may need to be assigned to the CAD layer A-FLOR-BELW. This is difficult if you used a line style based solely on weight and pattern such as (2) Dashed. You cannot separately assign that line style to A-FLOR-BELW for the floor plan export and A-DETL-THIN for all other exports. Here are some examples of line styles you could create:
In summary, take care to understand the different settings when you are beginning to customize graphic settings for lines in the Revit template. To change the displayed weight of an element in a project, changes should not be made in Line Weights but rather through the Object Styles dialog box. For example, if you want to increase the cut line weight of a wall already set to (5), do not increase the value of (5) in the Line Weights dialog box. You would change this value by selecting (6) or (7) as the cut weight of a wall in the Object Styles dialog box.
Defining materials in your project template is another important task that can help maintain graphic consistency in many other areas. Materials drive the graphic representation of elements, not just in a rendered view but also in hidden line views that are 2D or 3D. They are also responsible for cleanups between model elements because materials can merge with one another when elements of the same material are joined. In Figure 4.8, the surface patterns and colors are all derived from the material assigned to each element.
Materials in Revit are organized into groups of properties called assets, consisting of the following: Identity, Graphics, Appearance, Physical, and Thermal. Let’s explore these by opening the Material Browser. Switch to the Manage tab and choose Materials on the Settings panel to open the Material Browser (Figure 4.9). The left side of the dialog box shows the materials that exist in the active project, including a search bar to help you quickly find materials for editing. Click the icon just below the search bar to show or hide the Library Panel. On the right, the selected material’s assets are displayed as tabs.
Select any material in the Project Materials list and we’ll step through each of the asset tabs.
Identity Defines schedule values and keynotes for materials. Specifying correct identity data for your standard or typical materials will increase efficiency when you’re using annotation such as material tags as well as facilitate quality management by aligning model data such as manufacturer, model, and mark with your project specifications. In Figure 4.10, we’ve entered some sample identity data. Keywords can be entered for use with the Search bar, and cost data have been entered for use in a Material Takeoff schedule. The use of material identity data in project annotation is also discussed in Chapter 18, “Annotating Your Design.”
Graphics Defines shading color, surface patterns, and cut patterns. These properties will determine how a model element displays in non-rendered views (Hidden Line, Shaded, or Consistent Colors):
Shading Defines the color and transparency of a material. Note that the color can be dependent on the material’s render appearance. If the Use Render Appearance option is selected, the color and transparency are adopted from the Appearance asset settings and the shading controls will be disabled.
Surface Pattern Allows the selection of a model pattern to be displayed on the faces of elements in elevation, plan, and 3D views. Note that a material’s surface pattern does not appear in rendered views; a pattern can be defined in the Appearance asset tab.
Cut Pattern Allows the selection of a drafting pattern to be displayed when an element is cut in a model view. Some elements can’t be cut, as discussed previously in this chapter; in these cases, this setting has no effect on the graphic display and the pattern will not display.
Appearance Defines rendering attributes for use in Realistic and Ray Trace display modes as well as renderings. These properties will become visible only when you render a view and will not affect other graphic display styles, unless the Use Render Appearance option is selected in the Graphics asset under Shading.
Identity, Graphics, and Appearance are the three assets that are required for every material in Revit. You can add Physical and Thermal assets for analysis, if necessary.
Physical Defines physical properties of a material for analysis.
Thermal Defines thermal properties of a material for analysis.
You can also replace an asset for Appearance, Physical, or Thermal properties with one from any asset library. Let’s review the process to add a new asset to a material. To complete the following exercises, download and open c04-Materials.rvt
from this book’s web page.
Click the X to close the Asset Browser and return to the Material Browser.
You will see a new Physical Asset tab next to the Appearance tab.
You cannot change any of the asset properties in the Autodesk Physical Assets library; however, after an asset has been assigned to a project (document), you can change the values. Let’s experiment with this process in a quick exercise. Remember that altering any physical or thermal assets may produce undesirable results in analysis or simulation.
Click the Duplicate This Asset icon at the top of the tab.
It should change the name of the asset to Concrete 3.5 ksi(1). To change the name of an asset, expand the Information drop-down menu and click in the Name field. Change the name to Concrete 3.5 ksi (Custom)
.
1.75
.Return to the Project Materials list and select Cast-In-Place.
We will now add the customized physical asset to this project material.
Another way you can quickly change assets is by using the Replace Asset command. Instead of manually changing each asset property, simply select a material in the Material Browser and in one of the asset tabs, click the Replace Asset icon. Let’s explore this functionality with another quick exercise:
In the Asset Browser, navigate to the Appearance Library folder and then click on Concrete.
Notice that the list of assets is automatically filtered to show only those assets with the Aspect field specified as Appearance.
It may seem impossible to imagine all the materials you’ll need in a project, which may make the process of building a template seem daunting. Think of the basic materials you’re likely to use—wood, brick, concrete, glass, and so on—and build from those. Remember, a template is just a starting point, and you can always expand it. If you create a number of high-quality materials over the course of a project, use the Transfer Project Standards function to copy those materials back into your templates. You can also create custom material libraries for your own reuse or for larger project teams.
When you start to organize materials by name, there are many prevailing theories too numerous to list here, but here are a few suggestions:
By Type Each material is prefixed with a descriptor such as Metal, Paint, Carpet, Wood, and so on.
By Use Each material is prefixed with a description of its application, such as Cladding, Interior, Exterior, Site, and so on.
Alphabetical Materials have no prefixes.
By CSI Division Each material is prefixed with a MasterFormat numerical descriptor corresponding to its specification section.
By Mark Each material is prefixed with the designation of its Mark annotation parameter (for example, WD01-Wood-Cherry).
Whatever naming convention you choose for materials, the Material Browser can help you organize and manage them efficiently. First, note that you can change the display of the material list, including sorting options, by clicking the icon at the upper right, as shown in Figure 4.13. You can also filter the list of materials according to the Class property by clicking the arrow at the upper right.
You can also use the Search bar to quickly find matching text in any material property field. For example, try typing sample
in the Search bar and the list will reflect those materials that include that term in the Keywords property.
Materials are often represented with simple hatch patterns. For any material used, you can define a surface pattern and a cut pattern. For simple parallel hatches and crosshatches, you can use the patterns already supplied or you can make your own patterns.
For more complex patterns, you need to import an external pattern file (with the filename extension .pat
). Such pattern definitions can be imported from pattern files used by AutoCAD—a process we explain later in this chapter. To create, modify, or view an available fill pattern, switch to the Manage tab and choose Additional Settings ➢ Fill Patterns (see Figure 4.14). On the left side of the Fill Patterns dialog box, you can view the names and small graphic previews of the patterns. Below those are the Pattern Type options, where you choose what type of pattern to create and specify what type of pattern you want to edit (Model or Drafting).
Model patterns are used to convey real-world dimensional patterns to represent a material, whereas drafting patterns are intended for symbolic representations. For example, a model pattern is used to show a brick pattern in 3D and elevation views, whereas a brick drafting pattern is used to represent the material in plan and section. Figure 4.15 shows how concrete masonry units (CMUs) are represented with a running bond pattern (model) as well as a crosshatch (drafting). To display cut patterns in a 3D view, a section box must be enabled and adjusted to intersect a model element.
Model patterns have specific behaviors that are not dependent on any view. The scale you establish in a model pattern will always be that size, regardless of the view scale. In the example shown in Figure 4.15, the surface of the CMU wall displays a block pattern that measures 16" × 8" (400 mm × 200 mm). If you were to change the view scale, the pattern would appear larger or smaller but it would always measure the same. With a drafting pattern, the opposite is true: The pattern adjusts with the view scale, so the pattern looks identical in all scales.
Fill patterns are also created as one of two types: simple or custom. Figure 4.16 illustrates some examples of each option.
Simple These patterns are generated with parallel or crosshatch lines that can have different angles and spacing. With both the Crosshatch and Parallel Lines options, you can specify only one angle for the entire pattern. Using crosshatch, you can set two spacing values.
Custom To create a more complex custom pattern, you have to import a pattern (PAT) file from an external source. This is often necessary because of the current limitation in creating natively complex patterns. Your office may have a set of established patterns that have been used for years, and the Custom option allows you to import and reuse them without having to make them again from scratch. Custom patterns let you import a PAT file from anywhere on your hard drive or on a network and use it as a base pattern for a new fill pattern.
To create a new simple pattern, first choose either Model or Drafting, and then click the New button. A generic pattern appears in the New Pattern dialog box. You can then design your pattern and assign orientation behavior.
The option Orientation In Host Layers is particularly useful when you’re making drafting patterns. This option allows you to specify how a pattern orients itself relative to host elements such as walls, floors, roofs, and ceilings when they’re represented as cut. Note that the option isn’t available for model pattern types. As shown in Figure 4.17, the orientation options are Orient To View, Keep Readable, and Align With Element.
Orient To View When this orientation is applied, the patterns used in the project all have the same orientation and the same origin. They’re always perfectly aligned with the origin of the view.
Keep Readable This orientation will maintain alignment with the view (that is, horizontal lines will remain horizontal) but will be adjusted relative to angled host elements.
Align With Element This orientation ensures that the pattern orientation depends on the orientation of the host element. Patterns essentially run parallel with the element.
Custom patterns require an external file that contains the definition of the pattern. The filename extension of that pattern should be .pat
, which is what you’ll make in this exercise by editing an existing AutoCAD PAT file. An advantage of specifying patterns in the template file is that the PAT file won’t need to be installed on each computer where the application is installed; patterns are stored internally in the Revit template or project file.
Before modifying PAT files, always make a copy of the original PAT file you intend to use as a base; you don’t want to risk messing up other files that might already be using that original PAT file. PAT files can be edited with Notepad or any other text-editing application. For this exercise, you’ll choose the AutoCAD pattern called Grass, which you can find in acadiso.pat
(in metric units) or acad.pat
(imperial units) located on this book’s web page.
Follow these steps to make a custom fill pattern by importing an existing pattern definition:
acadiso.pat
(Metric patterns) or acad.pat
(Imperial patterns).Highlight the lines that define the pattern, and select them:
*GRASS,Grass area
90, 0, 0, 17.9605, 17.9605, 4.7625, -31.1585
45, 0, 0, 0, 25.4, 4.7625, -20.6375
135, 0, 0, 0, 25.4, 4.7625, -20.6375
The actual numbers in the pattern may differ slightly, depending on whether you are using acadiso.pat
or acad.pat
.
metric.pat
or revit.pat
file located in C:Program FilesAutodeskRevit 2016Data
, in which all Revit patterns are already saved. In that case, you can paste the selected text in that file.)This is the important part: In the new text file where you pasted the selected text, add the two lines shown boldfaced here:
;%UNITS=MM
*GRASS,Grass area
;%TYPE=DRAFTING
90, 0, 0, 17.9605, 17.9605, 4.7625, -31.1585
45, 0, 0, 0, 25.4, 4.7625, -20.6375
135, 0, 0, 0, 25.4, 4.7625, -20.6375
The first line that you write before the pattern text, ;%UNITS=MM
, can appear only once in the text file. It defines the value for the units used in the pattern. In the example, the units are millimeters (MM
); if you wanted to work in imperial units, it would be ;%UNITS=INCH
. (If you use the option in step 4 to collect all patterns in the master PAT file, then this line already exists and you don’t need to add it.)
The second statement, ;%TYPE=DRAFTING
, helps define whether you’re creating a drafting or model pattern. In this example, the pattern is the Drafting type.
.pat
filename extension.In the New Pattern dialog box, select the Custom option.
The lower part of the dialog box offers new options.
In the list that appears to the right of this button, you can see the name of the pattern you created: GRASS, as shown in Figure 4.18. (If you have a PAT file with many patterns defined, you’ll see all the other drafting patterns available in that list.) The name of the pattern automatically becomes the name of your fill pattern, but you can change that if you like.
If necessary, you can adjust the scales of the imported pattern. The Preview window displays the graphic of the pattern, always in 1:1 scale. This informs you if you need to scale the pattern up or down. You’ll know that you need to scale the pattern if the preview appears as a solid black box—that means the pattern is too dense. As an alternative, if the preview box shows only white, your scale might need to be reduced.
Now that you have created a fill pattern, you can use the pattern in a number of ways. One of the simplest ways is to assign the pattern directly to a material. We purposely instructed you to create a grass pattern in the previous exercise to illustrate a limitation in Revit—you cannot assign a surface pattern to a material that is associated with a toposurface.
In the following exercise, you will assign the grass pattern to a material in the sample project that has already been assigned to a toposurface. We will then show you how to create a new filled region type in order to create a symbolic representation of grass in the site plan.
c04-Materials.rvt
file, switch to the Manage tab and click Materials.In the Material Browser, find the material named Site - Grass and choose the Graphics tab. Under the Surface Pattern properties, click the Pattern field and then choose the GRASS pattern you created in the previous exercise. Click OK.
The pattern will be assigned to the material, but you will be prompted with a warning that toposurfaces do not support surface patterns. Next, we’ll create a filled region type and use it as a graphic indicator on a site plan.
Grass
. Set the Fill Pattern property to GRASS (Figure 4.19).
Click OK to close the Type Properties dialog box, and draw a shape on the Site plan using any configuration of lines, making sure your lines form a closed loop.
Remember to click the green check mark in the contextual ribbon to complete the sketch of the filled region. You can even experiment with the <Invisible Lines> type to achieve results similar to those shown here.
The use of color schemes in project documentation will be covered in greater detail in Chapter 20, “Presenting Your Design”; however, for now, just know that you can preconfigure them in project templates for a variety of scenarios. For example, an architect may perform many projects for a single client that uses the same department names in all of its program design requirements. The architect would like to ensure that an identical color scheme is used in the colored plans in all projects for this client.
In the following steps, you will create a new color fill legend with some predefined department values and associated colors. These settings can be saved in either a custom project template (*.rte
) or a project file (*.rvt
) that acts as a container for settings to be transferred into another active project file. Download and open the file c04-Color-Schemes.rvt
from this book’s web page and follow these steps:
Activate the Level 1 floor plan and, from the Architecture tab, choose the Room button and add rooms to the enclosed spaces shown in the plan view. For clarity, we have turned on the Interior Fill and Reference properties for rooms in this plan view. This will make it easier for you to select the rooms in the next step.
You won’t want to let these rooms remain if you save the file as a project template, but it will help to better visualize the color schemes if you can see them placed in a sample model view.
When rooms are placed, you can either type the values for departments that match the predefined values in the color scheme or select the values in the Properties palette when each room is selected, as shown in Figure 4.21.
At this point, you have two options for storing these types of settings. We will discuss strategies for managing templates later in this chapter, but for now you can either save this file as a project template or maintain it as a container file, which is simply a RVT file that holds settings you will transfer into other project files. For a container file, simply leave the file as is, and we will discuss the use of the Transfer Project Standards command later in this chapter. If you want to use this file as a project template, follow these steps:
c04-Color-Scheme-Template.rte
.You don’t have to delete all the modeled content and rooms from your project templates; however, it’s likely that you will have a unique layout for each project you design. By deleting the sample walls and rooms, you maintained the color scheme settings with the predefined colors, patterns, and department names.
Once you’ve customized the settings for graphic quality, you can use several other tools and techniques to increase efficiency and ensure that your visual standards are applied consistently throughout your projects. The properties of all views can be used to your advantage in creating a browser organization that meets the needs of your teams. You can apply filters to views for generating graphic overrides based on model element parameters. You can manage and deploy these settings and more in view templates that can be applied to many views simultaneously.
Maintaining a clear and consistent organization of views within a Revit project can generate measurable increases in project productivity. Especially in larger projects, a Revit file can have more than 1,000 views, which can easily cause confusion and wasted time if the right view cannot be found in the Project Browser when needed.
Download and open the file c04-Browser-Org.rvt
from this book’s web page. Most default project templates contain a few simple Browser Organization types that can be copied and/or customized—except for the type named All. To access these settings, switch to the View ribbon, find the Windows panel, click the User Interface drop-down button, and select Browser Organization, as shown in Figure 4.23.
Select any one of the listed types in the Browser Organization dialog box and click the Edit button. Remember, you can’t edit or delete the type named All.
In the Browser Organization Properties dialog box (Figure 4.24) are two tabs called Grouping And Sorting and Filtering. Grouping And Sorting allows you to group views together based on selected view parameters, whereas the Filtering tab gives you the opportunity to display only views that pass selected criteria.
Choose the Grouping And Sorting tab to specify up to three levels of hierarchy to be shown in the Project Browser. Here are some examples:
To further organize the views in your project, you can create additional project parameters and assign them to views and sheets. The following is one example of adding custom text parameters to views for more refined organization:
Zone
; for Type Of Parameter, specify Text. Select the Instance option; then find and check the Views category, as shown in Figure 4.25. You may also set the Group Parameter Under value to Identity Data.Zone/Phase
and click OK.Check the box next to Zone/Phase to make this browser setting current and click OK to close the dialog box.
The Project Browser is now ready to support the use of the custom view parameters you created earlier.
It is now up to you to assign values to the custom view parameters created in the previous exercise. These values can be assigned directly to the view properties in the Properties palette or by adding them to view templates. Views that do not have values for these parameters will be found in the browser hierarchy listed as ??? (three question marks). Figure 4.26 illustrates this scenario in which floor plans and ceiling plans have values assigned to the Zone parameters but the elevation views do not.
Filters are another view configuration and customization tool that can be developed and deployed in Revit project templates. They are similar to the filters available in schedules in that they can either display or hide elements matching user-specified criteria. But filters can also override the graphic appearance of elements within a view. The possible combination and application of view filters is virtually limitless, so let’s take a look at a few real-world examples.
First, we’ll review the steps to create and assign a view filter. The fundamental steps are as follows:
In the following example, you will create view filters to identify fire-rated walls with different colors. You can download the sample file c04-Sample-Building.rvt
from this book’s web page. Here are the steps:
c04-Sample-Building.rvt
. Switch to the View tab, find the Graphics panel, and click Filters.Walls-Fire 1
, use the Define Criteria option, and then click OK.Walls-Fire 2
and Walls-Fire 3
.With the filters now applied to the floor plan, walls that have been assigned a fire rating value will appear with the color overrides you assigned to the respective filters. You can create more filters to define graphic styles for specific model elements such as furniture by owner, interior walls, secure doors, or equipment not in contract.
After you have defined your desired settings in as many view types as possible, you can use view templates to manage these settings and apply them to other views of the same type. The use of view templates will be discussed in various chapters of this book, but we will discuss their importance to the project template in this section. Let’s begin by opening the View Templates tool:
On the View tab, find the Graphics panel and select View Templates ➢ Manage View Templates.
In the View Templates dialog box (Figure 4.28), you will find icons to duplicate, rename, or delete view templates below the list on the left. On the right are the view properties that can be applied when the view template is applied to a view.
Notice the column named Include on the right of this dialog box. This column allows you to include or exclude various view properties when you’re applying the view template. In Figure 4.28, notice that View Scale and Detail Level are not included (unchecked). This would allow you to apply this template to plans of multiple scales and detail levels, while applying settings such as visibility of Object Styles, Phase Filter, and View Range without affecting the View Scale or Detail Level settings.
Also notice in Figure 4.28 the custom view parameter we created earlier: Zone. This value can be applied with the view template, which will have the effect of cataloging the views in a customized hierarchy within the Project Browser. Changes to view templates are automatically reflected in the views to which they have been assigned.
The only way to assign a view template to a view is in the Properties palette. Select any view in the Project Browser and then examine the Properties palette to locate the View Template parameter. If the View Template parameter button displays as <None>, then no view template has been assigned. Click the button to launch the Apply View Template dialog box, and choose an appropriate view template. In contrast to this assigning workflow, view template properties can be applied to individual views. Applying a view template is a one-time application. Future changes to the view template will not change a view where a template was applied. You can apply a template in various ways, including the following:
Any of these methods will apply the properties of a view template, but it will not assign the view template to the view. If you use these methods and a view happens to have a view template already assigned, a message will prompt you to partially apply the properties that are not being managed by the view template assigned to the view.
Any properties listed in the View Templates dialog box, shown previously in Figure 4.28, that are selected in the Include field will not be changed if you choose to partially apply view template properties to a view with an assigned template. For example, if model object styles are included in the assigned view template and you are attempting to apply template properties that also have model object style modifications, the model object settings from the assigned view template will not be overridden from the applied properties.
Despite these relatively intuitive methods for applying view templates, you can increase efficiency on larger projects by assigning a default view template for each view type. In the following exercise, continue to use this chapter’s exercise file c04-Sample-Building.rvt
from the filters exercise, and follow these steps:
Level 1 Design
.Design Plans
.Click OK to close the Type Properties dialog box.
You should notice that the Level 1 Design floor plan in the Project Browser is now listed under Floor Plans (Design Plans); however, the view template has not been applied to this view yet.
In the Properties palette, click the View Template field button, select the Design Plan template, and then click OK.
The floor plan view should appear changed, no longer displaying any annotation.
Level 2 Design
.The workflow described in the previous exercise will help you spend less time configuring view settings and more time focused on your designs. Including view templates in your project template will give your teams the ability to quickly apply your standard view settings. It will also support continued consistency as each building project grows in scope and size. Remember that view templates are easily shared between projects using the Transfer Project Standards tool, which we will discuss later in this chapter in the section “Strategies for Managing Templates.”
We are avid supporters of global graphic standards for architecture and engineering, such as the United States National CAD Standard (www.nationalcadstandard.org), but in reality many architects and designers will likely have their own set of graphic conventions that will need to be implemented in their Revit projects. Placing customized annotation families in your project template will save time when you’re starting new projects and ensure maximum compliance with your firm’s conventions. You can load tag families into the template using several methods:
In the following sections, we’ll walk you through creating some common element tags and customizing system annotation.
Tags in Revit have various similarities and differences to annotation symbols you might find in a CAD application. They are similar in that they are created at 1:1 scale and contain lines and other graphic elements. The main difference is that Revit tags merely report information from model elements, whereas a CAD-based symbol usually holds an attribute value that does not directly relate to the annotated building element. These dynamic annotation elements are referred to as labels within a Revit family, whereas static annotation is simply known as text.
Before you begin to customize annotation families or create your own, let’s take a detailed look at the difference between text and labels.
Text In the Family Editor, placing text in an annotation family or title block means you’re defining text that will always be the same and is unchangeable when that family is placed in the project environment. Figure 4.31 shows the words AREA and VOLUME as text. Regardless of where this room tag is placed, the text will always say AREA and VOLUME. Section tags work the same way: If you add static text, that text appears exactly the same for all section marks. This technique isn’t typically used for sections because each section is a reference to a unique view, and you want that information to be dynamic and parametric. That’s where label functionality comes into play.
Labels Like static text, a label offers textual information; however, it’s a live reference to a parameter value of an element in the project. For example, if you add an Area label, it will pull the value of the area of the room; if you add a Sheet Number label in a Section Head family in the Family Editor environment and then use that section head in a project, the label will automatically display the actual sheet number on which the section view is placed in the project. If you move the section view from one sheet to another, the label will automatically report the new sheet number.
In Figure 4.31, UNIT 4 is a label reporting the room name; the number 201 is a label reporting the room number. The label behaves as dynamic text and is always fully coordinated with the value of the model element parameter it represents.
Imagine you could use the actual width and height of a door element to drive the tag value. You can! As an example of creating custom tags for a basic model element, use the following steps to create the custom door tag shown in Figure 4.32. You can download the template files from this book’s web page if you can’t find them in the default location.
In the New Annotation Symbol dialog box, select the family template called Door Tag.rft
or Metric Door Tag.rft
, and click Open.
The Family Editor opens in a view with two crossing reference planes, the intersection of which represents the origin of the tag. To avoid problems later, don’t move these planes.
On the Create tab, find the Text panel and select Label. Click the intersection of the two planes to position the label.
Note that text and labels do not snap to geometric references; therefore, you will have to manually adjust the placement of labels to achieve the desired alignment.
In the Edit Label dialog box that opens, select Width from the column on the left, and click the Add Parameter(s) To Label icon between the Category Parameters and Label Parameters fields, as shown in Figure 4.33. Then do the same for Height.
The Width and Height parameters will be concatenated in a single label, which will display the actual size of the door in the tag. In the subsequent steps, you will customize the display of the label.
x
in the Suffix column of the Width parameter, and change the number in the Sample Value column to 36
(in) or 1000
(mm). Change the sample value of the Height parameter to 80
(in) or 2000
(mm).On the Create tab, activate the Masking Region tool and sketch a six-sided polygon, as shown previously in Figure 4.32.
Remember to finish the sketch by clicking the green check mark in the Mode panel. A masking region is used instead of just lines because it will allow the door tag to obscure any geometry if it is placed over a model object. If you do not need this graphic convention, simply create the tag outline with lines.
Save your tag and load it into your project template.
Make sure that it is specified as the default tag for doors in the Loaded Tags And Symbols dialog box, and use the Tag By Category or Tag All Not Tagged tool or place new doors with the Tag On Placement option. Using concatenated parameters in tag labels allows a great deal of flexibility while utilizing actual parametric values. In this example (Figure 4.34), the actual Width and Height parameters driving the door size become the text displayed in the tag.
Section, callout, and elevation tags are graphic indicators that reference (link to) other views in your project. The graphics for these elements can be customized to meet most scenarios. To create a custom section tag, for example, you have to first create a custom section tag family and a section tail family and then load them into a template or project. You must then associate them with a section tag system family type, which is then assigned to a section type. Switch to the Manage tab, and choose Additional Settings ➢ Section Tags; you will see the application of separate section head and tail families in a section tag system family type, as shown in Figure 4.35.
In simple terms, view tags are organized in the following hierarchy: The view type refers to a Callout Tag type (and a Section Tag type for section views); the Section Tag type then refers to a section head family and a section tail family.
By default, there is a predefined view tag for each view type. The graphics can vary depending on the language version of Revit you have installed on your machine. The view tags shown in Figure 4.36 are displayed and available by default in the U.S. English version.
In the next exercise, you will create a section tag that looks like the one shown in Figure 4.37. You’ll first need to create a section tag family using the Family Editor before loading the section tag family into the template. You can download the template files from this book’s web page if you can’t find them in the default location.
To begin, follow these steps:
In the New Annotation Symbol dialog box, select the family template called Section Head.rft
or Metric Section Head.rft
, and click Open.
The Family Editor environment automatically opens, and the drawing area shows a view in which three green reference planes (two vertical and one horizontal) have already been drawn. Do not change the position of either the horizontal reference plane or the vertical reference on the right. In some templates, this is indicated with help text in red (which you can later remove).
The intersection of the horizontal and the right reference planes defines the connection location with the section line. This means your annotation will be located in between the two intersections points.
A proposed geometric shape is drawn for the annotation: a circle (two arcs) and a horizontal line. The default shape is there to help you visually understand where to begin drawing your new tag geometry.
In the Edit Label dialog box, select Sheet Number. Click the Add Parameter(s) To Label button. In the Sample Value column, you can enter a value; the default is A101. Click OK.
The label is placed and displays blue grips when selected. These let you change the length of the label text field. The length is important because any value that is added (in a project) that is longer than the length of this box will begin to wrap and could cause undesirable results.
Following the same principle, place the label Detail Number above the horizontal reference plane but still between the vertical reference planes, as shown in Figure 4.38.
You can reposition a label by selecting it and using the Move button to move it around. For more precise positioning, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to nudge elements in small increments. You can also help yourself by zooming in for a better view. (Zooming in refines the increment for the nudge tools.)
Custom Arrow.rfa
on your hard drive or network, and you’re ready to use it in the template or a project. To load it into your project, click the Load Into Project button located in the Family Editor panel. Choose the project where you want to use the symbol and click OK.Next, you’ll assign this tag to a section mark system family type in the context of a project or template.
To create a section type that uses the section head family you created earlier, you need to load the new section head into the template file (if you’ve already loaded the custom arrow family in the previous exercise, skip to step 3):
Custom Arrow.rfa
section head you created previously, select it, and click Open.Custom Filled Arrow
, and click OK.In the section head’s Type Properties dialog box, click the drop-down menu for Section Head and select Custom Arrow. For Section Tail, click <none>. This means the other end of the section line will not use a symbol. Click OK.
The final step is to create a customized section view type, which will use the new section tag type you created in the previous step.
Design Sections
, and click OK.You can now place a section in your drawing area and see the results shown in Figure 4.40. Note that in our sample the section is referencing a view that has already been placed on a sheet.
You can repeat the previous exercises using a callout tag family template instead of a section tag template to achieve results similar to those shown in Figure 4.41.
Elevation tags are a bit different from section or callout tags because one tag can simultaneously reference up to four views. You must, therefore, create and nest various parts of a custom elevation tag into one family in order to create custom graphics. Here’s how it works:
Elevation Mark Body.rft
or Metric Elevation Mark Body.rft
, and click Open.Custom Elev Head.rfa
.Elevation Mark Pointer.rft
or Metric Elevation Mark Pointer.rft
and click Open.Custom Elev Pointer.rfa
and load it into the Custom Elev Head.rfa
family.When this custom elevation tag family is loaded into a project and associated with an elevation type, it will function much like standard elevation symbols.
After the views are placed on a sheet, you get a preview of the completed elevation symbol, as shown in Figure 4.45.
Now that we have covered many areas of customization within project templates, you can configure Revit to use any of your custom project templates. To do so, follow these steps:
During implementation, you can take one of two approaches when managing project templates: additive or subtractive. An additive approach, as shown in Figure 4.47, assumes that more than one project template will be developed to manage standards and content for a single project. Typically, a “base” template is used to start a project with a minimum amount of settings, whereas content and settings from “supplemental” templates are appended based on region, project type, or project style. In this scenario, each template file is lighter, but managing the templates becomes more difficult because changes in common settings or families must be applied to all templates.
In contrast, the subtractive approach, shown in Figure 4.48, uses a single master template that contains all standard settings and content and relies on the project teams to remove and purge unused content. Although the file size of these templates tend to be larger, graphic settings are easier to manage within a single file.
Whether you are managing the settings between templates or developing a project with multiple templates in an additive approach, you have useful tools within Revit to help share data between projects, such as Transfer Project Standards, Insert Views From File, and Insert 2D Elements From File.
You can easily share Revit families between project files by loading their RFA files; however, most other types of content must be transferred with the Transfer Project Standards command. Types of elements commonly transferred with this command include, but are not limited to, the following:
To use this command, you must first have both the source and target Revit files open within the same instance of the software. As an alternative, you can have the source file linked into your target file. Next, make the target file the active project. Switch to the Manage tab, and select Transfer Project Standards on the Settings panel. In the Select Items To Copy dialog box (Figure 4.49), choose as many item categories as you want to transfer, and then click OK.
If you choose an element category containing some of the same types that already exist in your current project, you will be prompted with the option to overwrite the existing types or import the new types only (New Only), as shown in Figure 4.50.
The Insert Views From File command is useful for sharing views between project files—especially if you use the additive method of template management we mentioned earlier. This command allows you to copy drafting views, renderings, or schedules from one project to another. It can also insert entire sheets with all attached drafting views and associated properties. This procedure is quite useful if you use Revit project files as containers for your standard or typical details. An entire sheet of details can be inserted with one command!
Switch to the Insert tab, and choose Insert From File ➢ Insert Views From File in the Import panel.
Browse to a Revit project file (with the filename extension .rvt
), and you will then see the Insert Views dialog box (Figure 4.51). In the left pane, all eligible drafting views, sheets, and schedules will be listed. If necessary, use the Views drop-down list to filter the choices.
If one or more sheets are selected in the Insert Views dialog box, all eligible drafting views placed on those sheets will be inserted into the current project as well. Note that repeating this process will not update the drafting views in the project but instead will create new renamed drafting views and sheets. Also note that any custom view parameters are maintained during the transfer and can fit right into your customized Project Browser organizations, as we discussed earlier in this chapter.
The Insert 2D Elements From File command is similar to the Insert Views From File command, but instead of inserting an entire view, it will transfer only the view-specific elements from the selected view to the active view in the current project. You can select only one view from the selected file. This command allows you the flexibility to insert various view-specific elements such as detail lines, filled regions, text, and color fill legends. These elements can be imported from any view—not just drafting views.
On the Insert tab, find the Import panel, choose Insert From File ➢ Insert 2D Elements From File, and then navigate to a project file. Choose one of the available drafting views in the Insert 2D Elements dialog box (Figure 4.52).
For consistency, be sure to select the Transfer View Scale option to convert the scale of the active drafting view to that of the view you are inserting. You can move the elements into position using the Move command, and after placing the 2D elements, be sure to click Finish in the Edit Pasted panel or double-click anywhere outside the elements to complete the command.
Define settings for graphic quality and consistency. The fundamental building blocks for any template are the customized settings for object styles, line styles, fill patterns, materials, and more.
Master It How can a complex custom-fill pattern be imported?
Organize views for maximum efficiency. The project template can be used to capture a framework supporting your visual and organizational standards.
Master It How can you customize the Project Browser to support your business needs?
Create custom annotation families. Developing a graphic style to match your standards will usually require you to edit some annotation families or create them from scratch.
Master It Can a single label display more than one parameter? How are custom view tags loaded into a project?
Start a project with a custom template. Making your custom template available for new projects ensures that all future projects will maintain the same level of graphic quality and efficiency you expect.
Master It How do you set your own custom project template to be the default for new projects?
Develop a template management strategy. Organizing your standards, content, and settings while using Revit tools to transfer content will make your effort more efficient.
Master It How do you insert your standard details from one Revit project to another? How do you transfer settings such as materials?