8ed122 PDF

REVIT
EXPERIMENTS
27 TIPS & TRICKS
FOR HIGH EFFICIENCY
Viktor Kuzev
revitexperiments.com
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS
Contents
Copying / Mirroring array...........................................................................2
Controlling a parametric array....................................................................4
Center of Rotation....................................................................................7
The Options Panel.....................................................................................8
Patterns Orientation in Host Layers........................................................... 12
Switch from 3d to Camera....................................................................... 15
View orientation..................................................................................... 17
Placing Annotations in 3d views. .............................................................. 23
Dimensioning whole walls........................................................................ 25
Deleting individual dimensions:................................................................ 28
Dimension String Type............................................................................ 29
Alternate Units for Dimensions................................................................. 31
Override Dimension Value........................................................................ 33
EQ value & formulas............................................................................... 37
Making an object unselectable.................................................................. 40
Reveal Contraints Button......................................................................... 44
Parts..................................................................................................... 46
Embed a Curtain Wall ............................................................................. 53
Wall as a Panel in a Curtain Wall............................................................... 54
Wall Vertical Structure............................................................................. 60
Topography from cad ............................................................................. 65
Phasing and Overriding material............................................................... 71
Move with nearby elements..................................................................... 77
Schedules: Percantage of Anything........................................................... 79
Apply dependant views............................................................................ 86
Exclude element from groups................................................................... 89
Group to Linked File and Vice Versa.......................................................... 93
1 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS COPYING / MIRRORING ARRAY
Copying / Mirroring array

I have received complaints from my coworkers that though the parametric arrays
in Revit are great, it would be nice to be able to copy them and maintain the
same parametric dependencies.
And this is possible of course, although maybe not so obvious.
So if you just select the elements in the array and copy them - the array is gone.
But when you hover over the array line you can select it as well and this is
what’s needed to copy/mirror the array - select both the elements and that line.
2 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS COPYING / MIRRORING ARRAY
Notice that when the array line is selected you can choose the behaviour of the
number parameter:
If “Append To End” is checked - the new elements will be added to the end of the
array following the same spacing (respectively lowering the number will remove
elements from the end of the array, preserving the spacing). If it’s unchecked
the first and the last element are going to stay in the same position and new
elements are going to be added/removed between them. The elements are
distributed at equal spaces.
3 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS CONTROLLING A PARAMETRIC ARRAY
Controlling a parametric array

We can control the parameters of an array, though it’s not as straightforward as
it could be.
In the Family editor we can link the number control of an array to a parameter:
Unfortunately, we can’t link the number control to a Global Parameter in the

project environment.
Controlling the radius and angle of a radial array:
In both the Family editor and the Project environment we can click on the array
and the angle and radius dimensions appear.
4 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
When you click on the “make this temporary dimension permanent”, you get
(unsurprisingly) permanent dimensions.
When you select them you can assign them to an existing parameter or create a
new one:
In the Project environment those are global parameters, in the Family Editor,
they can be instance or type parameters.
The angle parameter works almost as expected. Almost because it actually
changes the position of the first element of the array and not the last.
One really weird thing here is that in the Project Environment both parameters
can exist as Global parameters and work just fine. But in the Family editor, when
having assigned both Angle and Radius parameters - changing one causes the
famous “Constraints are not satisfied” message.
So if you want to create a fully parametric array you have to use nested families.
Here’s how:
/Family creation is a huge topic itself, which
deserves a whole course, so I’m not going to get
into all the details of it here/
Step 1. Open a fresh new family. In this case, I’m

using a furniture template.
Step 2. Load the family you want in that family:
Step 3. Make a linear dimension and connect it to

an instance parameter. Here I call it “Radius”:
5 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
Step 4. Load this into the array family.

Step 5. Connect the parameter to the Radius parameter in the host:
Step 6. Create an array. Very important here is to use

as a base point for the array rotation the base point of
the helper family.
That’s it. You can use the angle and number controls as
usual.
And since we’re taling about placing a rotation center

here is a nice quick tip:
6 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS CENTER OF ROTATION
Center of Rotation
This is a quick one, but in my opinion it’s a big relief.
When using the Rotate command and want to place the center of rotation
somewhere you have to click on “Place”:
But the quicker way is to just press space on your keyboard. Try it - it’s much
better.
The funny thing abot this is that I was talking to someone who just switched
from using ArchiCAD in their previous place of work to Revit in their current. SO
they were complaining about how you have to go and click on “Place” everytime
you want to rotate something. But no. Just hit space instead.
7 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS THE OPTIONS PANEL
The Options Panel

The options panel has some important settings lots of people forget about. To
access it you click on the big R in Revit versions prior to 2018 or on “File” in later
versions and then you click on “Options”
8 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
In the “User Interface” Tab you can control which tabs you’d like to see in the
ribbon menu:
You can create custom keyboards shortcuts. Just click on customize and search
for the command you wo want
I personally tend to use a lot of Trim/Extend so I have assigned shortcuts to the

different commands:
9 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
Another set of options I like to change is the “Double-click Options”:
Prior to Revit 2014 you had to press “Edit Sketch” and “Edit Family” to edit
them. Double-clicking was doing nothing and I am still used to this behaviour.
I find it annoying to enter the family editor every time you accidentally double-
click on a family. This is a personal preference of course and I’m happy I have
control over it.
On the “Graphics” tab you can control several options.
10 REVIT EXPERIMENTS
Having Hardware Acceleration enabled is essential for the performance, and

sometimes you’d need to disable anti-aliasing for performance as well, though I
haven’t had the need to do so in a long time.
In the “Colors” section you can change the Background colour. I use a grey
background occasionally since I find it a lot easier on the eyes. Before exporting
images and printing you might need to change it back to white though.
You can also change the selection colour to something of your preference. I used
to have it in orange, but since most people are using the defaults I changed it
back to blue.
What’s interesting is that the Temporary Dimensions size control is here. These
are the “preview” dimensions that appear when you draw or select an element.
8 is the default size and I find it too small. I tend to like it at 10.
These are the most important controls in the options panel in my opinion. Take a
look at the others as well. You might find something you’ve needed.

REVIT TIPS & TRICKS PATTERNS ORIENTATION IN HOST LAYERS
Patterns Orientation in Host Layers

The pattern orientation options in Revit are well hidden so many users don’t
know about them. They’re not perfect either, but still, we have some control:
I have applied a material with a crosshatch pattern to these walls.

To change the relative orientation we have to go to the material:
Click on the pattern and then edit it:
We have controls for the angle and spacing and also 3 different options for
“Orientation in Host Layers”
So these are the 3 in the same order:
Orient to view- All patterns share the same orientation and origin with respect
to paper, so they perfectly align at element transitions:
Keep Readable - This option mimics the behaviour of text. Patterns align with
the host; however, patterns flip 90 degrees when the host is slanted 45, 135,
225, and 315 degrees. A right diagonal pattern always stays more or less right
diagonal, and a 90-degree corner has a smooth transition. Patterns share the
same origin with respect to paper:
Align with Element - Patterns align with the host (such as a wall, floor, roof, or
ceiling) and compute a good origin:
As you can see - none of them is perfectly seamless for the shape I’m using
here. But still, it’s good that we have at lest some options for this.
Choose wisely!
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS SWITCH FROM 3D TO CAMERA
Switch from 3d to Camera

I’ve received this complaint several times: “Why can’t you switch in between 3D
Perspective and parallel views in Revit like in the other programs?” Where “the
other programs” usually means Sketchup.
Also, prior to Revit 2018 many of the commands in the ribbon menu, as well as
Dynamo, were not available in perspective views, but only in parallel, which I
believe was one of the reasons for that demanding.
Actually, we can switch between 3d and axonometric view if the crop region is
visible.
If it’s not visible and we right-click on the view cube we see “Toggle to
Perspective-3D View” is greyed out.
In order to use it the simple requirement is that the crop region of the view is
visible:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS SWITCH FROM 3D TO CAMERA
Now than we have enabled the Crop Region

we can click on “Toggle Perspective 3D
View”
Though, usually, the result is a bit more out

of the center and distorted than what you
might expect. Still, we have a much quicker
result than creating a camera each time and
setting up the Visual Style
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS VIEW ORIENTATION
View orientation
So let’s picture a scenario where you would need to rotate views for convenience:
So the most common solution for having individual aligned floor plans is using
scope boxes.
So, in this case, we have 3 scope boxes, one for each house:
Then we can apply the desired scope box to any view and get its extents and
orientation:
But what if we want to do the same for a 3d view?

3d views don’t have a Scope Box parameter in the
properties.
But since Revit 2016 we have this button:
It makes a Section box around the selected Elements and applies it to your
default 3d view.
So if I select the house which is a group and click the button or press BX on my
keyboard I’m left with this result:
Yes, the house is isolated but the section box is not oriented in the house’s
direction.
The same thing happens even if you select the Scope Box.
But there’s a neat thing called “Orient to view” when you right-click on the view
cube.
What it does is (unsurprisingly) orienting the 3d view to match the scope and
orientation of any plan, section elevation or another 3d view and creating a
section box that matches that orientation. So if you already have a plan with
applied scope box you can orient the 3d view to this plan.
In my case floor plan “House2” has a scope box applied so if I right click orient
to view:
I’ll be left with 3d view matching the scope box and the cut plane of the view’s
view range:
I can then adjust the Section box with the handles if I need to:
Worth noting are the other options for orientation - “Orient to a direction” and
“Orient to a plane”. The direction thing is actually - North, East etc. I find “Orient
to a plane” useful for roof modelling. Since I click “Orient to a plane”, then
“Pick a plane” then I select the roof slope I want and the view is showing me it
orthogonally:
Also, I want to make clear what “Save View” and “Set Current View as Home”
do.
When you’ve opened the default 3d view -
{3D} or in a workshared project the 3d view
with your username clicking on Save View
will save a new 3d view with the current
orientation. You’ll be asked to specify a
name for it.
Clicking it in any other 3d view saves the current orientation. If you then change
the orientation, close and reopen the view - it’s going to show you the new,
changed orientation. But if you close the project and reopen it - then the saved
orientation is going to be shown.
You can always click on Save Orientation and Lock View to avoid any changing
but you should know that 3d Orthographic views always go to their saved
orientation after reopening the project.
Every project has one Home view. It is not specific to the different views. One
per project. So when you set a view as Home:
Even if you go to another view and press the Home button (or right-click -> go
home)
The view is going to be oriented to what’s now
the Home view of the project.
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS PLACING ANNOTATIONS IN 3D VIEWS.
Placing Annotations in 3d views.

To be honest, I thought this was pretty obvious and didn’t think of including it in
that book, but it turned out many people I’ve worked with have missed this.
We can place Spot Elevations and dimensions easily in 3d views. But when trying
to place a tag or a keynote we get this message:
And this is the main reason I was hesitant to put it the book - Revit tells you
what to do to be able to place the tag.
The lock icon is down there:
To place dimensions in 3d just make sure that you set the plane of placement
first.
If I want to place dimensions from the top to the bottom of this wall I might pick
the wall’s face for the placement of the dimension:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS PLACING ANNOTATIONS IN 3D VIEWS.
Then I just click on the dimension button or type DI, I select my references and
place the dimension. It appears in 3D and lies on the plane we picked.
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS DIMENSIONING WHOLE WALLS
Dimensioning whole walls

Ok, I thought this is pretty obvious, and I apologize if you think it shouldn’t be
here. But I found out people tend to forget it or don’t know about it.
When you click on the dimension button these are the default options:
Wall centerline and Individual References.
Click on “Wall centerline” and you’ll see

the other options.
These are what the dimension will prefere
as a reference, but you can always tab
through the different references when
placing the dimension.
Now to the interesting part:
Click on “Individual References” and

select “Entire Walls”. Then the “options”
button is enabled. You get several
options:
Let's try them all on the same wall.

So first, nothing is checked:
We get a dimension
along the whole length
of the wall.
Then let’s try “Openings” - “Centers”:
Pretty much self - explanatory. Dimensions are placed referencing both ends of
the wall and all centers of inserts.
Openings Widths:
The ends of the wall and the extremities of all inserts (windows and doors).
Intersecting Walls:
Intersecting Grids:
So what if you want to place a dimension for the whole wall except one or 2
segments? Should you do it with individual references?
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS DELETING INDIVIDUAL DIMENSIONS:
Deleting individual dimensions:

If you’re using Revit 2013 or above which is most probably the case you can
tab-select and an individual line from that dimension and just press delete on
the keyboard to delete it:
We’re left with 2 separate dimensions and there’s no way of joining them
back. Of course, we can always select one or the other and edit the Witness
Lines to include what we’ve deleted:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS DIMENSION STRING TYPE
Dimension String Type

Well, this is widely unregarded, mainly because 99% of the time you need the
default behaviour.
Dimension String Type is a Type option of the dimensions. There are 3 options:
Continuous, Baseline and Ordinate. I never needed the baseline, but occasionally
I use the Ordinate type:
Continuous:
Baseline:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS DIMENSION STRING TYPE
Ordinate:
Ordinate with a custom thick mark in the shape of an arrow:
All the positions of the references are measured from one side of the wall. If
you want to change the side select the dimension and click on the flip sign(Flip
Dimension Direction):
It appears only when the String Type is set to Ordinate or Baseline.
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS ALTERNATE UNITS FOR DIMENSIONS
Alternate Units for Dimensions

The units of a dimension are a Type Property - you can control them in Edit Type,
you can create different types with different dimensions etc.
You can use the project defaults or set up another unit:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS ALTERNATE UNITS FOR DIMENSIONS
You can set up an alternate unit to show below or to the right of the main unit:
Show Opening height is another important option:
The dimensions in Revit are smart enough to know when they are referring to an
opening in the wall so if this checkbox is ticked you get the height of the opening
below the width. It works for individual references as well as for entire walls
dimensions:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS OVERRIDE DIMENSION VALUE
Override Dimension Value

So what if you want to replace the actual value of a dimension segment with
something else?
Double click on the value and you’re presented with this window:
Write something, hit “Apply” and this is it:
You can also use the above and below fields for multi-line effect:
So what if you want to lie with a dimension, just type in a different number?
Nope. Revit doesn’t want us to do so:
Or at least it doesn’t want it to be so easy and I support the developers’ decision

to do so.
But you can right-click on the text field and select “Insert Unicode control
character” and select something invisible that doesn’t affect the spacing like
a Unit Separator or if you want the number to be right in the middle of the
dimension the ISS(inhibit Symmetric swapping) is better:
You can click on “Show Unicode control characters” to see the character in the
field:
Of course, you can take a more responsible approach here :)
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS EQ VALUE & FORMULAS
EQ value & formulas

There are several things you should know about the EQ dimensions.
The obvious is, of course, to use them for controlling equidistant elements.
Especially valuable when building families.
When you hove over the EQ you can see “Click to edit dimension text”
This is the window that pops up - this appears

for any dimension:
In the instance properties

of the dimension, there’s a
something called Equality
Display and it has three
options:
Value
Equality text
Equality formula
Value - means that each dimension is going to have its actual value shown.
Equality text and Equality formula are type properties for the dimension:
In the dimension type we can set up the text we’d like to appear or set up the
formula:
There are several parameters we can add to that formula and also we have a
Prefix and a suffix and spaces for each.
Fo if we get the Total length, Length of Segment and number of segments we
can make it look like this:
And We can use any ASCII symbol there if we feel like it:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS MAKING AN OBJECT UNSELECTABLE
Making an object unselectable

Ok, so many times we need to move something in a project, but it turns out we
picked up something else. Does it happen to you? How do you prevent things
from accidental moves?
The obvious answer should be the pin.
I think everybody knows how to use them but still, it’s pretty simple - you pin
something - it becomes unable to move or delete.
But what if you don’t want to be able to select it at all?
You see that little arrow next to

“Select”? It turns out many people don’t
know about it.
When you click on the arrow you get
this:
These are the selection options in Revit.

Here you can choose what should and
what should not be selectable in the
project.
For example, if you had the problem
that when clicking on a similarly empty
space you actually select a floor that
means that “Select elements by face”
is checked and you’d probably like to
untick the checkbox.
When “Drag elements on selection”
is ticked that means that directly by
clicking on an element and dragging it
you can move it as opposed to when it
is not ticked - you’ll have to slick first
and then click again and drag. Try it
yourself if it’s not clear.
Sometimes, though, these options are not enough and your colleagues keep
moving or deleting things accidentally (or so they say). Then the really good lock
for you is the Design Options.
I am assuming you’re familiar with the Design Options if Revit for showing
different options in the same project. But even if you are not they are pretty
simple. The Design Options panel is at the bottom of the screen:
You can also find it in the Manage tab:
So in order to use them to freeze something just create a new design option set
and move the object(s) you want to its primary (and only if you haven’t created
another) option:
Here I have
created an
option set named
“Frozen objects”.
It’s always a good
idea to name in a
meaningful way.
After closing the
window I can
select the objects
I want to freeze:
This is the “Add to set” button. After I click it I get this winfow:
I select the option I want and click ok.
That’s it.
Now selecting, deleting or moving
these objects is impossible unless you
go and edit the design option.
So accidental moving or removing
something placed in such an option is
practically impossible.
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS REVEAL CONTRAINTS BUTTON
Reveal Contraints Button

Ok, this one is very helpful and easy and still many users don’t know about it
maybe because it was added in Revit 2015 R2.
I’m sure you’re familiar with the annoying message “Constraints are not
satisfied”. Well, for the most part, you don’t know what’s constraint until you
move it… Unless you press on the “Reveal constrains” button.
Yes, it’s tiny and neglectable but it reveals any constraints applied to the model
that could be displayed in the view.
Here we have some walls and 2 furniture families.
When I press the button I see the “Reveal Constraints” box in the upper left
corner, the red frame of the view and the constraints - in this case:
• EQ constraint
• Alignment constraint (the couch is aligned to the wall - see

the dashed line)
• Locked padlock of a dimension - the chair is locked to be

always 2000 units away from the wall
If you select the highlighted constraint you can delete it. Handy, isn’t it?
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS REVEAL CONTRAINTS BUTTON
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS PARTS
Parts
Parts are an extensive functionality and not just a trick. Still, I see many Revit
users are reluctant to use them.
Parts serve you to divide an element into discrete parts that can be
independently scheduled, tagged, filtered, and exported. They also can be
individually modified in shape and material.
Parts add additional detail level since they are not destructive - when you create
parts from an object you still have the original undivided object, but a view
property defines what is shown:
So in every different view, we can choose to show the original, the parts or both.
This is really useful.
According to Autodesk, parts can be generated from:
Parts can be generated from elements with layered structures, such as:
• Walls (excluding stacked walls and curtain walls)
• Foundation Walls
• Floors (excluding shape-edited floors of more than one layer)
• Roofs
• Ceilings
• Structural slab foundations
• Slab Edges
• Fascias
• Gutters
Parts can also be generated from the following categories of loaded or in-place
families:
• Structural Framing
• Columns
• Structural Columns
But I have been creating parts successfully from Generic Models as well.
The first example is a generic model - this bridge:
You can create parts from it either by selecting it and then press the “create
parts” button on the ribbon or by clicking the button first and then selecting the
object:
Since the Bridge doesn’t have a layered structure there’s going to be only 1 part
created - duplicating the family geometry. Notice that the view where the parts
were created is set to “Show Parts” now.
Then we can select the part and divide it by clicking on Divide Parts:
Then we can sketch the divisions and we can also use Intersecting references -
which could be levels, grids, reference planes or all of the above:
So I used all of my grids,

levels and ref planes
and I also drew one line
sketch. Notice that in the
properties panel you have
2 settings:
Gap and Division Profile. The division profile is good for creating wall panels (see
below) but for the moment I’m just going to set a Gap of say 50mm and if you
press on that little button next to the value for the gap you can link the gap to a
Global Parameter, which I’m going to do:
So this is the result:
You can see the gap:
Now we have multiple parts created by our initial model.

We can exclude a part and then restore it, we can merge and edit the parts.
We can also set a different material for each of them and enable the Shape
handles:
All of this has a lot more application when done on a wall or a floor.
Let’s apply parts to a wall with several layers:
Let’s apply a Division profile now:
The division profile is basically the shape of the knife cutting the parts’ divisions.
We can draw custom profile families and use the options for the profiles.
We can also choose to divide only one of the layers. Select one of them and
press Divide parts:
Thus we can apply different divisions and division profiles to different layers.
If we go and edit the structure of the wall and change a layer’s thickness it is
going to change the part thickness as well. The parts inherit this from the wall
structure even after their creation:
We can then further create new

divisions, and they don’t have to be
in the same plane:
Here we can try messing around with materials and shape handles. Select the
parts you want to change and tick the checkbox for shape handles and untick
“Material by Origin”
All parts are schedulable so you can get their volume and area in the schedules.
The cool thing is that you can have a duplicate of the same view, which shows
the original wall.
This is one way you can model a floor or wall tiling and show it in some views
only.
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS EMBED A CURTAIN WALL
Embed a Curtain Wall

Many times we use curtain wall inside a regular wall to represent windows:
But it is annoying if you have to always use cut geometry to achieve that:
But we don’t have to.

In the Curtain wall type properties, there’s a tick box called “Automatically
Embed”.
When it’s checked the curtain wall cuts automatically through the host wall once
it’s created.
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS WALL AS A PANEL IN A CURTAIN WALL
Wall as a Panel in a Curtain Wall

You can put a wall as a panel in a curtain wall and that’s really cool.
First and probably most important application of this is that you can then put a
regular door in the curtain wall instead of a curtain wall panel.
Often you’ve got a huge library of doors and only 3-4 curtain panel doors and
none of them works for your current purpose. Or maybe you want to make sure
that the dimensions of the doors are defined by the door family and not by the
curtain grid.
Anyway, it’s really simple.
Select the panel and chose a wall type:
Then just place whatever kind of a door you desire hosted on that wall:
Of course, this door won’t adjust to the panel size:
Another application is for easily creating curved glass.
So if you just draw a curved curtain wall, the panels are going to still be flat
which is actually the desired result in 99% of the time:
But if you want curved glass panels that adapt to the curvature of the wall
the best way is to create a glass wall type and apply it as a panel:
This is the wall I'm going to use as a panel - 20mm thick glazing.
Then I go to the Curtain Wall type and set up this wall as a default panel:
The result is nice:
Curved glass panels. Neat.

The mullions though don’t look that good. So one last hack here.
1. Remove the horizontal mullions from the curtain wall:
2. Edit the glass wall type and add a sweep in the vertical wall structure:
3. Choose a profile, material and offsets to adjust the sweep so it looks like a
mullion.
We need a top Mullion now so to make it we have to create another glass wall
type with 2 sweeps - one at the top and one at the bottom:
If we change the radius or the spacing of the curtain wall everything’s going to
change accordingly:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS WALL VERTICAL STRUCTURE
Wall Vertical Structure

Handles
This is useful for detailing in 3D.
So here we have a floor slab and a wall. Let’s say we want the outer 2 layers of
the wall - the finish and the insulation to cover the slab. We can, of course, draw
it in 2D, but I think there’s a better way.
Select the wall go to Edit Type and click on the “Edit…” button next to “Structure”
A new window appears:
At the bottom, you see there ’s the “Modify Vertical Structure” which is greyed
out.
To enable it to click on “Preview” and then change the preview to “Section”:
Now that Modify Vertical Structure is enabled click Modify.

Then click on the bottom of the layers in the preview and unlock the padlock:
Then click OK and again click ok in the Edit Type window.

Now you’ll see in the section view the wall has handles:
So we can pull the layers down.
There are some limitations though. We can’t pull all the layers individually and
we can’t have the finishing layers on both sides unlocked.
Another interesting thing in the vertical structure is Split (and Merge) region.
You can vertically split a layer and assign it to a new material:
To do so insert a new finish layer and leave it with 0 thickness for the moment.
it has to have the same function as the layer we’re using - in this case, Finish
2[5]
Then select the new layer and click on “Assign Layers” in the Modify Vertical
Structure tab and select the bottom piece in the preview:
Then click ok. You can see the piece changed it’s cut pattern and the new layer
inherited the thickness of the existing. The thickness stays the same though. If
you want it to have a different thickness you should just use a stacked wall. I
consider them a basic functionality, so they’re not in this booklet but if you want
to find out more about Stacked Walls in Revit click on this link (you might need
to hold control when clicking it)
A Stacked Wall in Revit
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS TOPOGRAPHY FROM CAD
Topography from cad

I’m sure that you know how to create topography from an imported CAD file.
Revit does a fairly good job creating the topography from the isolines (provided
their elevation in CAD is correct) and also from geodesic triangulated surfaces.
But what’s a really powerful feature is that once created you can EDIT the
topography based on an import!
So here I have a Revit toposurface created from a CAD file with isolines:
When I select it I and I press “Edit Surface”
I see I still get the creation options:
Now, why is that so important? Because I can use Revit to create the CAD file.
Now follow me on this.
If I want to create a sloped hole in this topography using the tools Revit provides
I have 4 options:
1. Place points one by one. - slow and annoying
2. Use the Site Designer (available with the subscription version only) - some
find it really hard to use
3. Create or use a Dynamo script. If you already have the script - that might
be an ok workflow, but it also has a drawback - you can’t edit the topography
with Dynamo. You can copy it, delete it and Create a new one with the edits, but
it’s going to be a new topography. Also if you don’t have a script that does what
you want to you can spend a lot of time developing it.
4. Do what I’m going to show you - quick and easy. No Dynamo skills needed.
So I’m going to model an in-place mass(you can do it with a component in place
as well):
So this is the shape I created for my hole (or as we prefer to say “excavation”)
The topography is hidden.
This is another view of the mass with the topography shown.

Follow me closely:
1. I isolate the mass and export it to DWG on my desktop.
2. I link the DWG from my desktop.
3. I edit the topography.
4. I click on “Create from import”
5. I select the imported DWG and when it asks me about layers I just click OK
6. I click on “Finish Surface”

7. I hide or remove the link
You can see the excavation is created and the bottom looks perfect, though
towards the top of it it’s not matching the shape of our mass.
That depends on the topography and sometimes it’s going to be perfect just like
that.
But we can make it better easily:
1. Edit the mass.
2. Select the lateral faces of the solid and click on Divide surface:
3. You’ll see it’s going to create something that looks like french fries basket.
4. Now export that basked to DWG and repeat the exercise:
Now it’s pretty good since we’ve created more references for points with the grid
of the divided surface.
Now it’s important that we delete all the existing points (if there are any) that
are found in the footprint of our new volume. With Dynamo we can automate
this, but still we’ll need to create a new toposurface. We can’t edit the existing
one. Which is a problem when you have things hosted on that one.
Of course, you can use it for any kind of modelling of the topography, not only
excavations:
This is actually the technique I used to create the body-shaped topography in the
video:
Hold “Control” on the keyboard and click the image to go to the video.
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS PHASING AND OVERRIDING MATERIAL
Phasing and Overriding material

I got this question a long time ago. “How can I override all the materials
in certain view in a project?” The goal was to create a “Gypsum” or “Clay
rendering” where everything is set to the same material, windows are opaque
etc.
My first suggestion was to use a Hidden Line view and play with the lights and
shadows instead of making a real rendering. Cause you can’t override material,
or can you?
There is actually one place you can override the materials in Revit and it is in the
Phasing options.
Now I want to underline that phases are not meant to be used that way and
creating a new phase only for that small task, that could be done easily in other
software is not what I’d call recommended for maintaining good BIM. But maybe
you really need this and you don’t want to export-import files so here’s how to
do it:
Now I haven’t created any phases in this project and in the template, there were
2 - Existing and New Construction. So everything in the model is sitting on “New
Construction”
To access the Phases go to Manage -> Phases:
Create a new Phase after the ones that are already there:
Then go to Phase Filters:
As you can see I have several pre-set filters. The first one - “Show All” is what
I’m going to use since all Existing, Demolished and Temporary are all set to
“Overridden” and I don’t have anything in “New” since no object’s Creation Phase
is going to be set up to that phase.
Then Go to “Graphic Overrides”(the last tab in “phasing”):
Here you can actually apply a Material override for these 4 states of the objects
in Revit.
What are these states actually, you might ask if you’re not familiar with the
Phasing?
Phasing explained as briefly as possible:
Phasing represents time in Revit a little bit like the moves in chess.
Phase are consecutive and happen one at a time.
Every Object has 2 phasing parameters:
Phase Created - this represents the Phase or The Move in which it is created
Phase Demolished - The phase in which it is demolished.
So each object has a lifespan in a way.
Every view (including schedules) has 2 different phasing parameters:
Phase Filter - One of the Filters we saw.

Phase - the phase that is currently shown in this view.
So back to our 4 states at a given phase (move, time) Any object could be either
Existing, Demolished, New or Temporary:
Existing - The object is created in the past, in a previous phase and is not
demolished in this phase (either not demolished at all, or demolished in a later
phase)
Demolished - The object is created in a previous phase, but in the current, it is
being demolished (it has Phase Demolished set to the current phase)
New - The object is created in the current phase
Temporary - The object is created AND deleted in the current phase.
So this is my project in a 3d view with phasing parameters:
All the objects inside are created in New Construction and are not being
demolished.
When I change the Phase to the one I created after new construction everything
is going to be overridden with the material we set up for Existing:
So Basically Gypsum in this case.
Let’s compare the renderings:
First image is the regular rendering without any overrides:
This is when all the objects created in Existing are overridden with gypsum:
And just for fun here’s how it looks with water as an override material:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS MOVE WITH NEARBY ELEMENTS
Move with nearby elements

Move with nearby elements is a property of the placeable families. You can
switch it on or off with a checkbox:
If I switch it on for this bed it means that whenever I move one of the nearby
walls the bed will follow it at the same distance:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS MOVE WITH NEARBY ELEMENTS
However, if I place another family:
The chair is not going to follow the bed, only the walls. So it would probably be
more precise to call this option “Moves with Nearby system Elements”
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS SCHEDULES: PERCANTAGE OF ANYTHING
Schedules: Percantage of Anything

Have you used a percentage calculated value in the schedules?
If you have you might have noticed that you can’t calculate the percentage of
anything. Just things like lengths, areas and volumes.
Let’s take a look at this wall schedule:
These are all the walls in my project. I’m going to filter out the Curtain Walls
first.
Then I’ll try to add a percentage value:
I can choose one of these 3 to calculate the percentage.
So I can get it for each wall separately - What percentage of all the walls areas
does it represent.
I have only 2 types of walls here - Concrete Wall and Brick wall.
To check the percentage of Area of all the concrete and brick walls we need to
group by Wall Type and uncheck “Itemize every instance”
This is what I am left with. But what if I want to calculate the percentage of the
count of the walls. I.E. how many walls are concrete vs how many walls are Brick
walls in %.
Let’s first add the count parameter:
Revit doesn’t allow for Percentage of count. On top of that it doesn’t allow for
using the count in the formula as well:
So how to solve it?

Let’s go and create a new project parameter -
I named the parameter “PseudoCount” and it is a number and applied to the

walls.
Then I go to the schedules and I add it in:
Next, we need to set the value of this parameter to 1 for all the walls.
If none of the walls is in a group the easiest way to do so is to select the walls
in the schedule, to click on “Highlight in Model” and then to type the value in the
properties:
But if some of the walls are in a group you would have to go and edit the group
to type it in.
Another way is to use Dynamo for setting the parameter.
Then because PseudoCount is a number parameter Revit will allow us to create a

percentage value for it:
It looks like this for every instance since we have 51 walls and if we group it by
type and uncheck “Itemize every instance” it looks like this:
The downside of this is that we have to add the value manually. This can be
automated with a Dynamo script. Just make sure you run the script before
checking the percentage values.
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS APPLY DEPENDANT VIEWS
Apply dependant views

I suppose you know what dependant views are.
All copies, known as dependent views, remain synchronous with the
primary view and all other dependent views, so that when view-
specific changes (such as view scale and annotations) are made in
one view, they are reflected in all views.
This is from the Autodesk knowledge database. If you want to you can check it
out here
Here I have a plan view (Level1)and two dependent views - House 1 and House
2
They are cropped versions of Level 1 and since they are dependent even
annotation on Level1 is going to be visible on House 1 and 2
But I have several more levels, parallel to Level 1 and I want to make the same
dependant views for them. Luckily there’s a quick way.
Right click on Level one and select Apply dependant views
A window with all the parallel views to Level 1 is going to pop up and you can
select which views you desire to apply the dependent views to.
It’s quick but there’s no way to specify

the names of the newly created
dependent views.
This can be automated with Dynamo or

a paid app, but it this out of the scope
of this book.
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS EXCLUDE ELEMENT FROM GROUPS
Exclude element from groups

There are several tricky things about using groups in Revit. Actually, a whole
booklet with guidelines about what should and what shouldn’t be included in a
group could be written.
One of the best things about groups is the option to exclude elements from it.
This is how to use it.
Here we have a group:
It’s a small terraced house. So when we copy or mirror it we’ll end up with 2
walls on top of each other and Revit is going to signal us about it :
“Highlighted walls overlap. One of them may be ignored when Revit finds room
boundaries. Use Cut Geometry to embed one wall within the other or tab-select
one of the grouped overlapping walls and exclude it from the group instance.”
Which is not good for schedules, performance and graphics:
So we can select the wall and press the “exclude elements” sign:
Now there’s only one wall at that place as clearly visible:
Basically, this option allows us to

have two different instances of the
same group:
One with the wall and one without it. However, when you select the group you’ll
still see the wall:
Also, when you hover over the empty
space you’ll see a preview of the wall:
So it’s more like the wall is invisible. It will also be invisible in schedules.
You can select it and restore it:
You can also “Restore All Excluded” if you select a group which has excluded
elements:
REVIT TIPS & TRICKS GROUP TO LINKED FILE AND VICE VERSA
Group to Linked File and Vice Versa

The other powerful thing about groups is their interchangeability with linked files.
If you select a group you can see there’s a “link” button in the ribbon:
You’re given 2 options by clicking on it:
If you choose to replace it with a new file you’re going to be prompted to save
the group as a new file somewhere on the disk.
If you choose to replace with an existing project file - you’ll be asked to browse
for the file.
If the selected group instance has excluded elements when creating the linked
file you’ll get the following message:
“Excluded elements restored in the link.”

So in our case this clearly messes up the graphics and doubles the walls:
Then, of course, we can bind the linked file. Select it and click “Bind Link”:
We’re provided with these options - what do we want to include in the group that
we’re creating.
Then we get a new group with the same name as the linked file.
If we already have groups with the same name Revit show this message:
If you click “No” a new group is going to be created (the same name with
number suffix)
If you click “Yes” all the existing groups are going the be replaced with
whatever’s in that linked file. Actually, if you have the same elements and
they are excluded in some of the groups, Revit remembers them and doesn’t
restore those elements.

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REVIT

Controlling a parametric array....................................................................4

The Options Panel.....................................................................................8

Patterns Orientation in Host Layers........................................................... 12

Switch from 3d to Camera....................................................................... 15

Placing Annotations in 3d views. .............................................................. 23

Dimensioning whole walls........................................................................ 25

Deleting individual dimensions:................................................................ 28

Dimension String Type............................................................................ 29

Alternate Units for Dimensions................................................................. 31

Override Dimension Value........................................................................ 33

EQ value & formulas............................................................................... 37

Making an object unselectable.................................................................. 40

Reveal Contraints Button......................................................................... 44

Embed a Curtain Wall ............................................................................. 53

Wall as a Panel in a Curtain Wall............................................................... 54

Wall Vertical Structure............................................................................. 60

Topography from cad ............................................................................. 65

Phasing and Overriding material............................................................... 71

Move with nearby elements..................................................................... 77

Schedules: Percantage of Anything........................................................... 79

Apply dependant views............................................................................ 86

Exclude element from groups................................................................... 89

Group to Linked File and Vice Versa.......................................................... 93

Copying / Mirroring array

Controlling a parametric array

Unfortunately, we can’t link the number control to a Global Parameter in the

Step 1. Open a fresh new family. In this case, I’m

Step 2. Load the family you want in that family:

Step 3. Make a linear dimension and connect it to

Step 4. Load this into the array family.

Step 6. Create an array. Very important here is to use

And since we’re taling about placing a rotation center

The Options Panel

I personally tend to use a lot of Trim/Extend so I have assigned shortcuts to the

Another set of options I like to change is the “Double-click Options”:

Having Hardware Acceleration enabled is essential for the performance, and

Patterns Orientation in Host Layers

I have applied a material with a crosshatch pattern to these walls.

Click on the pattern and then edit it:

Switch from 3d to Camera

Now than we have enabled the Crop Region

Though, usually, the result is a bit more out

But what if we want to do the same for a 3d view?

Placing Annotations in 3d views.

Dimensioning whole walls

Click on “Wall centerline” and you’ll see

Now to the interesting part:

Click on “Individual References” and

Let's try them all on the same wall.

Then let’s try “Openings” - “Centers”:

Deleting individual dimensions:

Dimension String Type

Ordinate with a custom thick mark in the shape of an arrow:

Alternate Units for Dimensions

Show Opening height is another important option:

Override Dimension Value

Write something, hit “Apply” and this is it:

Or at least it doesn’t want it to be so easy and I support the developers’ decision

Of course, you can take a more responsible approach here :)

EQ value & formulas

This is the window that pops up - this appears