Revit Tip: Section Clip Plane

Section Clip Plane (courtesy of Bill Davis)

You can effectively make a "near clip plane" by turning on Section Box in a perspective view.
…it acts a little wacky in a large model though.

Revit Tip: Bathroom Elevations

Draw less bathroom elevations

Bathrooms have very specific dimensional and location requirements to meet numerous codes.







Problem

Every bathroom we draw has to meet these codes, but we draw all our bathrooms from scratch. Once the bathroom is drawn, we have to show compliance by documenting distances, heights, and equipment locations. We do this with numerous elevations and plans that require lots of labor for the exact same information every time.








Solution

Instead, use a drafting view that I created for Byung that shows all this information correctly every time. We simply insert this drafting view into our enlarged bathroom plans and you don't need to elevate all the similar bathrooms. Now you can concentrate on any unique conditions you have and spend less time on the mundane repetitive areas.

Revit Tip: Filter Content

Filter content

Tired of trying to select individual elements in your project?

Use the filter feature! It’s that little funnel thing in the toolbar.

When you have items selected, click that little baby and watch the magic happen.

This will bring up a dialog box with a list of all the items that you have selected. You can systematically remove pieces from your selection by unchecking the box. Once you hit OK you will be returned to your screen with only the items checked selected.

Revit Tip: Frame Tags

Frame Tags

Placing text next to storefront systems as a frame tag does not utilize the Revit tag feature. Previously, we had used this text to hide the tiny frame elevation tag. However, from my previous tip we know that these tags showing are no longer a problem.







Problem

Using text as a means to tag frame elevations is archaic and not very BIM-like. Revit has tagging features that we need to utilize more often. Besides, placing text next to the frame requires that all tags in every view be updated once there is a change.

Solution

I have created a wall tag that shows only the Mark value of a wall. This allows us to tag the storefront system on the plans.








Once you have the elevation placed and labeled on a drawing sheet, instead of returning to place the text on the plan, you can edit the value of the wall. Change the Mark value to the frame elevation number.





Now anytime you make a change to the frame elevations, the only place you need change the number will be in this location. All the locations that this wall is tagged will automatically update.

Revit Tip: Frame Elevation Diagrams

Frame Elevation Diagrams

Instead of making tiny frame elevation tags, use a separate floor plan and edit the properties of the tags.







Problem

Using tiny frame elevation tags makes more work to hide the tag in the original plan, and requires you to manually hide every tag individually. This is time consuming and also means that any new plans will require the same amount of work to clean up and hide.






Solution

Create a new floor plan at a fairly large scale. I used 3/16" = 1'-0" for the entire building footprint. Draw all your frame elevation tags in this plan.













Now select the view portion of the tag.










Or you can isolate the tags, select them all, and filter out the elevation portion that you don't want.







Edit properties and change the "Hide at scales coarser than" setting to match the scale of you drawing.



Now, any of your 1/16" = 1'-0" or 1/8" = 1'-0" plans will automatically have the frame elevation tags hidden.

Revit Tip: Join/Unjoin Geometry

Join/Unjoin Geometry





One of the many uses for the Join Geometry tool allows you to cut multiple objects with one instance.

Problem

When we add a Wall Mod to a standard wall we have created two independent elements in the model.





If we cut the standard wall with an opening, a door, window, or storefront system, then we have only cut one of the two walls.










Solution

You could edit a sketch of the elevation of the wall mod and draw in your door cut to match the standard wall elevation.









Of course, this does not link both walls to the door and if the door moves, requires a new sketch.

Use the join geometry tool to link the wall mod to the core wall and the door opening will automatically cut and update.

Tangentworks 550

In case some of you were wondering, I have been contributing my Revit tips to a great blog on Line Meets Curve.






Tangentworks 550

This is a brand new company that has created a wonderful application specifically for the architecture, engineering, and construction fields. I use this software nearly as much as I use Autodesk Revit. My company adopted Revit early on, having realized the immense upper hand that it provides us with in the industry. Just like the advantage that Revit gives us to visualize our project from all angles immediately, Tangentworks gives us the same immediate control over our project collaboration. Tangentworks allows me to share project information with my client, consultants and contractor all in a few easy steps. I simply create a project workspace, add users and upload files. It will even keep track of file versions allowing us to review the entire history of the project. There’s a lot more to this software than I can explain here, so if you are interested you should seriously take a look at what it offers.

In the future, I plan to post all my tips and tricks to this blog as well. I might even go back and start reposting the information here, so stay tuned!