The Revit Clinic

10 Revit Tag Tips

Continuing the series of 10 quick tips, here are 10 tips and videos for tags in Revit.  Please note the videos do not have sound and are for reference only….

1.  Display the rectangular box in a room tag family

When editing a room tag and the lines around the room number are not visible, verify annotation categories are visible.  Open Visibility / Graphics Overrides > Annotation Categories > check Show annotation categories in this view:  Video Example

2.  Cannot tag top face with spot elevation tag

If you are unable to tag a face with the spot elevation tag, verify Model Graphics Style is not set to Wireframe:  Video Example

3.  Section tag center line

The section callout head family center line contains a hard-coded parameter for Rotate with Section.  This will allow the line to rotate with the section head.  While you cannot add this to new lines, you can copy the line and modify as needed:  Video Example

4.  Nested annotation text readability

If you come across text that is not staying readable in families containing a nested family; verify the Keep text readable setting in the nested family: Video Example

5.  Tag all multiple categories

To tag all for multiple object types, use the CTRL key to select as many categories as needed:  Video Example

6.  Room tag model orientation

When adding a room tag, you can specify Model orientation to have it align with model elements.  Simply use the SPACE bar to toggle the elements it will be aligned to: Video Example

7.  Design options and view tag visibility

To determine how view tags show when design options are in place, you can specify the visibility of a view tag in the Instance Properties: Video Example

8.  Section view hide at scales coarser than

When you add a section view tag, it takes the current view scale and makes this the default for Hide at scales coarser than.  This is good to keep in mind if tags drop out of a view when the scale changes: Video Example

9.  Add a rotation parameter to project north symbol

To make updating a true north \ project north symbol easier, you can add a type parameter for the rotation of the symbol line: Video Example

10.  Add visibility parameter to imported image in annotation family

Technical Solution

Video Example

Tips for Beam Cutbacks in Medium/Fine Detail

Some of the steps from the last post will be the same for Medium/Fine cutbacks, but there a few areas that are different.

1. How long are the beams in the connection?

By default, longer beams are cut back by the shorter beam in the join. If you want to change the way these beams join and control which ones cut back, you can use the Edit Beam/Column Joins tool.

2. Are there differing elevations?

As with the Coarse display, check the beam elevations. If needed, adjust the Z-Direction Justification using the same process I explained in my last post.

3. Does the beam frame into a column?

If so, check the column geometry. In Medium/Fine detail, the beams will cut back according to the bounding box of the family. The column family Beam Cutback in Plan parameter will not affect the Medium/Fine display as it does in Coarse.

4. Do you want to remove the cutback altogether?

If so, you can modify the family so there is no cutback. To see how, watch this video example.

5. Is your beam a custom family?

If so, try replacing the beam with an out-of-the-box family to see if the issue is due to the way a custom family was created.

6. Does your connection need regeneration?

If the steps above don't resolve the issue, try cutting and pasting the members to see if the representation appears correctly. If necessary, recreate the members associated with the connection.

Tips for Beam Cutbacks in Coarse/Symbolic Detail

Continuing in the spirit of Ryan's "Tips" sections, I thought I'd offer some tips for beam cutbacks. The way a beam cuts back in a connection is different in Coarse/Symbolic versus Medium/Fine. This post will deal with cutbacks in Coarse/Symbolic Detail, and I'll cover Medium/Fine in a second post.

If your beams aren't cutting back correctly in Coarse representation, there are a few things to check:

1. Is the issue isolated to a few beams or is the cutback incorrect throughout the file?

If none of the members are cutting back correctly, check the Structural Settings dialog in the Symbolic Representation Settings. 

2. Have you added start or end extensions?

If so, extensions do not display in Coarse detail, so they would need to be added with linework.

3. Are there differing elevations in the connection? 

Depending on the elevation difference, the cutbacks might not calculate. You can avoid this by using the Z-Direction Justification parameter in the beam's Instance Properties. For example, you might want a joist seat to sit on top of a framing member. Rather than adjusting the Start and End Level Offsets to accommodate the height change, set those to 0' 0", set the Z-Direction Justification parameter to Other, and set the Z-Direction Offset value to the height above (ie 0' 2 1/2").

4. Are you using a custom symbolic representation?

Check the beam family settings to see how the representation is defined. Edit the family and go to the Create ribbon and select Category and Parameters. In this dialog there is a Symbolic Representation family parameter than can be set as From Project Settings or From Family. This determines whether the symbolic representation is defined by the family or the settings of the project in which it is placed.

5. Is your beam framing into a column? 

If so, check the cutback settings associated with the column family. Edit the column family and enter into the Category and Parameters dialog. There is a Beam Cutback in Plan parameter that can be set at From Bounding Box or From Geometry. This will determine whether the beam cutback is determined from the column bounding box or the physical geometry of the column. Something like this might come into play if the column has nested components such as a foundation or plate together in the family.

 

6. Is your beam a custom family?

If so, try replacing the beam with an out-of-the-box family to see if the issue is due to the way a custom family was created.

7. Does your connection need regeneration?

If the steps above don't resolve the issue, try cutting and pasting the members to see if the representation appears correctly. If necessary, recreate the members associated with the connection.

10 Wall Tips

Continuing the series of 10 quick tips, here are some tips for walls:

1.  Embed a wall into curtain panel

You can change a curtain wall panel to any wall type by un-pinning it and modifying the type.  Next you can then embed another curtain wall into the new wall panel infill by adding a curtain wall and using the Cut Geometry tool between the wall infill and curtain wall.  You can repeat this process as many times as needed.

2.  Disallow join

When you right-click over any wall end you activate the Disallow Join option.  This will prevent the wall end from joining with other walls.

3.  Unlock wall layers

When editing the structure of a wall, you can click Modify and un-lock a region of a wall layer.  Afterwards the wall will display an additional grip to dynamically adjust the wall layer as needed.  

  

This dimension can also be manually entered in the Instance Properties of the wall under Base Extension Distance or Top Extension Distance depending where the layer was unlocked.

4.  Schedule a curtain wall infill as wall or curtain panel

To specify how the infills of your curtain wall will be scheduled, highlight the panel and open Element Properties to locate Categorize As.  You can specify panel or wall.

 

5.  Enable multiprocessing for wall cleanups

If using a quad-core processor on your workstation, you can improve the wall join regeneration times by enabling a switch in the Revit.ini file. Check out page 4 of the Model Performance Technical Note through the link below for additional information:

Revit 2010 Model Performance Technical Note

6.  Wall sweep other than horizontal or vertical

Using the standard Wall Sweep tool you have options for Horizontal and Vertical.  If you need to create more custom shapes you can use the Component > Model in Place to create custom wall sweeps.  Simply set the work plane as the face of the wall and start modeling the sweep as needed.

 

7.  Break up a stacked wall

If you need to maintain the geometry of a stacked wall but convert it to standard walls, you can utilize the Break Up tool.  Simply highlight the stacked wall > right-click > Break Up.

8.  Access room bounding for stacked wall

For stacked walls you cannot directly access the Room Bounding parameter, unless you TAB select the wall.  Additional information is available in the Technical Solution below:

Modifying Room Bounding parameter for stacked walls

9.  Join geometry tool on parallel walls

Hosted objects such as a window or door in one wall will cut openings in a second parallel wall when the Join Geometry tool is used between the two wall objects.

10.  Wall function

When placing a wall, if you change the Element Properties > Type Properties > Function the wall insertion defaults will change.  For example when first changing to Soffit, the default wall will change to 1’-0” high.  Changing it back to Interior will resume the last entered Interior wall function height.

Printing images in Revit 2010 products

If you are experiencing issues printing views or sheets containing images in Revit 2010 products, the three topics below should improve this behavior:

1.  Update 1

There were a number of printing, image handling, and print preview improvements with the Update 1 release for 2010 products.  Ensure you are running the latest build by applying the update below.  I have included the 3 links for each product:

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010
Autodesk Revit Structure 2010
Autodesk Revit MEP 2010

2.  Latest Printer Drivers

If images are still dropping out or mirroring when printing, it may be related to the printer driver.  For Revit 2010 products ensure you are running the latest printer driver specific for your operating system.  Typically if the image prints to DWF or PDF normally it may be related to an outdated printer driver.

3.  HP Plotters

If you are still experiencing issues, and are printing to an HP Plotter, there is a potential situation where images may drop out when printing.  To resolve this behavior, I have included a Technical Solution below covering this scenario:

Images drop out when printing to HP plotters from Revit 2010 products

Door family with an offset parameter

The following process allows for creation of a door containing an offset parameter.  This will allow specific placement of the door within the wall.

First, you want to edit the door family and create a parameter for the offset distance.  Next, add a dimension line and parameter to the following:

1.  Face of wall to end point of door swing line [offset parameter].
2.  Door panel end to end, to allow for the width to properly update as the door moves within the wall [width parameter].
3.  There should already be a 0’-0” dimension in place for the face of wall to door panel line; you can simply assign the new offset distance parameter to this dimension line [offset parameter].

  

Video Example

This example uses the wall face as the offset reference, but you can also set the offset with the center reference plane if needed.

Using filters to control object selection

If you are looking to add an additional level of control to filter objects in a view, the following approach should be useful.  In this example workflow we will create a Project Parameter for objects such as Doors. 

Next by creating several View Filters, we can control the visibility of the doors by the value of the Project Parameter.  The example video below sets up 3 groups of doors; “Exterior”, “Interior” and “Core”.

 

The View Filter can be toggled to isolate the object visibility, and they can be selected as needed:

Video Example

New Video Solution

Check out the latest Revit video solution, by yours truely.  This video covers frequently encountered problems or questions with the Revit 2010 products.