Revit 2010 UI...

Sorry for the large gap between my last posts.  I have been very busy gearing up and training for the 2010 release of Revit.  Now that it has been released to subscription customers it time to start talking about it.

I have a lot of information to talk about now that it has arrived. 

First thing first though,

Revit's New User Interface

The biggest change this year is the new interface for Revit products.  This is the first real I change for Revit and it is a big change.  I am not going to talk about the design or the theory behind it, those topics are answered by people wiser than me.  I am going to talk about parts of it though and attempt to answer some questions that are sure to come up. 

The first one...

Is there a way to switch back to the old UI in 2010?

Unfortunately, no, you cannot.  There is not a method available to switch back to the old interface.  

Where are all the old tools? 

Your tools are all still there, and there are some new ones to.  To help you make the transtion. Under the Question mark (help) drop down you will now see a new tool called Where is my Command?  This tool helps to show you where tools use to exist in Revit products and where they are now. 

Can you customize the new interface?

Yes! you can now customize portions of the user interface. Ribbon panels can be pulled off the ribbon and placed around your screen (or on a second monitor) you can add buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar and the project browser will now remember where you put it last with each session of Revit. 

This customization could lead to you forgetting where you put things of course, so if you want to go back to the standard out of the box UI we can do a trick to reset things back.

To reset the ribbon and Quick Access toolbar:

• Rename or delete the UIState.dat file located in the Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 folder under one of the following folders:
  • For Windows XP:
    
    %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010
    
  • For Windows Vista:
    
    %LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010

To reset your project browser to the default location:

Using the Windows Registry editor, rename the following registry key

• • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\Components\Panels

These steps also work for Revit Structure and Revit MEP (just replace the word Architecture in the paths with Strucure or MEP and you wil be all set. 

To help you out further, I have created scripts that you can use to do this for you.  I build three VBScripts that allow you to reset your Revit 2010 user interface.  The script will create a backup of your Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar if you want one as well. 

Download and run these scripts on your computer to reset your Revit 2010 User Interface:

Download Autodesk Revit Architecture UI reset

Download Autodesk Revit Structure UI reset

Download Autodesk Revit MEP UI reset

Tell me what you think of the Scripts.  They are my first real attempt at creating something like this so I hope you like them.  I think that is plenty for this post.  More to come.

Comments

[Jose Guia]

Excellent info - thank you very much for sharing, I am going to add this to my script for resetting paths to REVIT defaults and create a Super-Duper-Reset Script, be back when I'm done.

Thanks!

btw - to help spread the word I kicked your post over at:
http://www.cadkicks.com/adkrevitarch/Resetting_REVIT_2010_Settings_to_Default

[Chester Bailey]

Thanks for sharing. They seem to work just fine.