Category Archives: Platform

Replacing Revit Toposurface

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A question came up the other day that is worth a blog post.  My client had created a quick topography from a CAD link that was a preliminary surface.  He had created pads so that the views would look correct.  He now had the new CAD link and wanted to know how to update his surface with the new file.  Unfortunately Revit doesn’t update the surface created from a linked CAD file when the new CAD file is updated.  The trick is to edit the topo surface, delete all the points and then recreate a new surface from the layers in the linked CAD file.   This way Revit keeps the same ID number and building pads can remain to cut out the surface.  However this is one crazy thing that happens when trying to do this, if you delete all the points a warning will come up “A Pad can’t extend beyond the edge of a Toposurface“.  I create a few points that are at a crazy high elevation just around the pad, (by crazy I mean 1000′ or 2500m above the current surface)  then I can easily delete all the points that are at a real elevation in a 3D file.  Once I create a new topo surface from the new CAD link I can delete the points that are generating the huge mountain.  Unfortunately any site component, i.e. trees, parking spaces, etc.  wont update to the new surface.  They will have to be selected and a new host will have to be selected.

 

 

Sheet Issue Dates

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One common thing I see in a set of Construction Documents is a schedule that displays all of the dates each sheet was issued on, either with a dot or symbol of some sort.  This is usually done with a project parameter for each release date and then someone has to manually go through and mark each sheet for the date it was issued.  I have seen a few different add ons for this to work but here is a nice little tip to use if you don’t have an add on.

The trik is to create a Sheet Set and then use that sheet set in the browser organization to multiselect all the sheets.  To create the sheet set go into the print dialog and choose to print by “Selected views/sheets” select all the sheets that are part of the print set and do a “Save As…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once a sheet set is created this can now be used for Browser Organization.  The browser organization for sheets can now be set to Filter By “Print Set” (note: in the print dialog this is called Sheet Set not Print Set). 

Now only the issued sheets are available in the browser making it easier to select them all at the same time and check the appropriate project parameter field.

 

Linked AutoCAD Files – Layers

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Recently a question arose about removing layers globally from a linked AutoCAD file inside of Revit.  The user had went into Object Styles, Imported Objects Tab and then expanded the file for the .dwg file then proceeded to delete the desired subcategories for object styles.  This sounds like a completely legitimate way to go about this, with any Revit category if the subcategory is no longer needed then we simply delete them.  In the case of a linked AutoCAD file this is not the right way to go about this, the end result will delete the undesired layers but all of the arcs, lines, circles and text will remain in the file. I found this interesting and a bit of a surprise.  If those elements in the CAD file are queried  the will be un-associated to a layer therefore making it impossible to remove them out of the Revit file.  Instead select the CAD file and use the Delete Layers option, this will remove the layers AND all of the associated elements form the entire file.

Revit 2013 – Temporary Hide Category

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In Revit 2013 View Templates went under a total reconstruct, they are much better in this release, or at least I think so.  One of the major changes was the ability to have views dependent on a view template, so if the view template changes all the views dependent on that template update automatically.  This is a feature that has been asked for many years and to a lot of people is long overdue.

I have one issue with this new feature, if a view is dependent on a view template, the Temporary Hide Category tool is no longer available.  I don’t know if this was by design or if this is an unwanted side effect of something else.  Either way I find this unfortunate, however I wouldn’t trade the new View Template changes to get it back.  If it does bother you the work around is to select all instances of an element then Temporary Hide Element in the view. However this may have to happen several times to accomplish what Temporary Hide Category would do for us.

 

Revit 2013 Print

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So in Revit 2013 I noticed a small little change to the print setup dialog box.  This change is minor and doesn’t really affect any options but will be nice for clarification.  In 2012 and earlier when you changed the Zoom option to “Fit to page” the % size dialog didn’t change.  This could cause confusion where users thought it would fit to page but at 100% of the view.  Now in 2013 when you change to “Fit to page” the % size option disappears.  Not a big deal but I have had questions in the past on this and hopefully it will make things more clear.