Top Ten Revit Tips

Zoog,

Not tips and tricks but...

Quote:

Please list 5 (more or less) things you do everyday that save you time

The things that save time in Revit are the things you DON'T do!(In no particular order)

1. You don't have to check door numbers (Room numbers, window numbers…) to make sure they are the same on the schedule as they are on the drawing

2. You don't have to jump out of Revit to 'third party applications' or 'add-on' products to create a 3D view or rendering that is acceptable to the client as a finished product.

3. You don't have to spend countless hours checking drawing cross references to ensure the contractor can find their way around your set of drawings (or to ensure that you don't look like a fool who doesn't know where he put stuff!)

4. You don't have to toss out the work you did in the preliminary stages of a project because it was 'just for presentation'. With Revit you can easily create a logical and re-useable work flow simply by varying the display properties of various objects and views.

5. You don’t have to waste time getting final plots pumped out. Pick a bunch of views/sheets, hit the plot button and your trusty HP plotter (or laser printer or PDF writer or whatever) does the rest. No fuss, no messing around. Tons more time for coffee (or Coke, as my beverage of choice)

6. You don’t have to anticipate every question a client (or the boss) may ask and figure out or draw the explanation in advance. They want to know what their project looks like from 'over there' or what it looks like with a 4:12 roof instead of 8:12 and it takes you two seconds to modify the model, create the view, create the section or spin the model around, and then you get back to discussing the issues at hand. You not only get back to business faster, you get some serious oooh and aaaah points from the client

7. You don't have to spend hours/days/weeks/months learning a piece of software that, ultimately, is just a really expensive pencil that is just creating dumb, 2D geometry that represents real world, 3D architecture.

8. You don't have to search your hard drive to make sure that the 27 files that make up your project are all located in the same folder so your x-ref paths are valid, the drawing sheet you need for the client meeting 'right now' has not been renamed by someone else working on the project and that when you back up a project, you are actually backing up all the files that make up the project.

9. You don't have to spend four hours trying to figure out what 'system variable' controls the line weight of the left tick mark of the last dimension in a horizontal string! (OK, the 'other' product isn't that bad but, seriously, who can tell me what all those acronyms stand for… without looking in the very back of the manual?)

10. You don't have to waste a pile of time trying to find people who know what the software is capable of, who always seem to have answers and creative solutions to problems and questions and then have them willingly share that knowledge. For us Revit folks it's easy… we just go to the browser and hit this link http://www.zoogdesign.com/forums

I could go on… because I have the time to do just that. The reason I have the time is because Revit allows me to be more productive in the 'grunt' work of architecture so I can spend more time exploring design options, doing that extra rendering (just for fun, or my portfolio), creating that one or two extra sections that aren’t required for contract docs but sure make the client more comfortable in their understanding of the end product. Or I can use the extra time to be with my kids, relax and play a little golf or just respond to posts like this from Zoog. Not precisely what you asked for (and a bit wordy) but this is the 'time' factor that makes Revit a pleasure to work with every day. It's not the tips and tricks that save time. It's a well written piece of software that works the way I want to work.

(All this bein said, I'll be sitting front row at AU waiting to hear all the 'real' tips and tricks.

Thanks

ed..stepped in to spread out the text, a little easier to read...nice list..."Q"

1) Keyboard Shortcuts set so that I don't have to reach across the keyboard to key them in...see the threads re: this in this site. Someone (beegee?) posted a list of all of the available commands that can be set to shortcuts.

2) Using the Wacom Graphire Pen Tablet...allows me to work for hours and not get a sore wrist.

Now my back gets sore before my wrist does. Less breaks = more work done!

3) Using the "Hide Annotation in View" option on Sections, so I no longer have to toggle the visibility of the view range in order to change its extents. I only wish this were possible in plans, elevations, etc.

4) Setting the default template at startup to a nonexistent template so that it dos not try to start a new project with each open.

5) Multiple deletes by holding down the delete key while selecting objects...WHAMO! they disappear!

1.) Ease of setting up a sheet to print, plus the many print & export output options that don't require any intermediate steps with other software to get the file format desired (i.e jpg & pdf). None of the 1/192xp = 1/16" per foot angst when setting a viewport scale. When people as me for dwg or dgn printed sheets, I find I can import & set them up faster with fewer errors in Revit than in the software that produced them.

2.) No layer management, and no layer "standards".

3.) Since 5.0, the ability to manipulate large models, and not have to leave for a cup of coffee while the model regenerates.

4.) An intuitive interface that's easy to learn.

5.) The ability to sit down for a day or two, take the tutorials and maybe a few online lessons, & then start right in, learning the finer points as you go.

Ability to use Windows copy/cut & paste on objects and annotations, & have it work correctly 95% of the time, both within & between projects.

here are a few....

1. when sketching a floor or roof by the pick walls method, press tab to select all the walls

2. In your template fie, draw all the filled regions in a drafting view as rectangles - when you need a filled region copy and paste it in, that way you can organize them any way you want in the drafting view and

they are visible.

3. As above but for all your detail components, start a new template file that contains all your detail components and all your standard details on drafting views (this is all you will use it for) - organize them to suit you and the copy and paste into your current project as required.

4. if you are doing a lot of detailing over on a view, use the group command to group it all, then place it also on a duplicated view set as underlay, when you make changes on the duplicated view they will be matched on the main plan because they are a grouped - I do this because it makes it easier to see what you are doing without all your dimensions, notes, detail components etc cluttering up your view - and it isolates you different detail lines - for example I can do a drainage layout like this, an electrical layout, beam layout, etc etc - all on separate duplicated views group them, then copy and paste aligned to my main plan - like lots of internal xrefs kind of thing........

5. Duplicate views, use duplicate views a lot.... they are very useful, I duplicate views to do my dimesioning and setting out etc - if you this on a duplicate view you can leave your construction lines in place, leave notes to yourself etc etc, if you name all your view sensibly it saves loads of time. And use detail lines to set out, iy you use too many ref planes and grids it just gets too confusing - only use ref planes and grids for major items, otherwise use a detail line on a duplicated view......

1) The inherent ability to work between 3D and 2D is really wonderful. As I work through a plan it is absolutely great that I can open an elevation or section view and see instantly what is going on. The 3D nature of the building model makes understanding multi-story spaces remarkably easy.

2) Automatic reference updates is huge. As the drawing set develops and drawings get pushed from here to there I love that I don't have to worry about updating references. Wishlist item - I would like to have an Inline Smart Tag that I could place in the body of a text note that would reference a drawing within the set. That way, if a detail moves or takes on a different drawing number, the text note would also be updated.

3) The single building model is really a great feature. Having moved from AutoCAD where the only reasonable drawing management strategy is to work with Xrefs, the Revit single building model seems to address and resolve nearly all of the limitations of the Xref strategy.

4) Automatically linked scheduling. It brings tears to my eyes every time I get to the door and window schedule part of a project and I don't have to generate it manually, or in the case of ADT go through a bunch of commands and buttons to get it to update.

5) Phasing. I'm amazed that I ever worked on a renovation project without phasing. Amazing.

6) When printing a series of sheets the settings on previous prints are retained. This is particularly great when printing a quick 1/2 size set.