Tag Archives: Tips

Quick floor sketching method

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About a year ago I read a blog that talked about using ceilings as floors in order to utilize the easy auto sketch option with ceilings.  Most of the time I disagree with using tools for things that which they aren’t meant, assuming there is a simple way to use the correct tool.  That post, however, did get me thinking…

Quick side note: Normally when I explain any sketch tool in Revit I stress that using Pick Walls (or Pick Supports) associates the edge of a sketch to a wall (or structural framing member) such that if the wall moves the skethed element also moves.  However, the pick wall tool will only allow a user to pick one wall face, what if the floor is a finish floor, and the sketch lines need to be on each side of the wall.

… when skething a ceiling, there is an “Auto Ceiling” command.  This tool allows a user to pick within a boundary of walls to create all of the sketch lines.  The sketch lines become associated to the walls, similar to “Pick Wall”, such that if the wall moves, the ceiling adjusts with the wall.  I, along with numerous others, have complained for years that there should be an option like this for floors.  When reading that post I thought, what if I copied the sketch lines to the clipboard from an existing ceiling and pasted them into the sketch mode of a floor?  I tried this method, and it worked.  However, there was an issue that kept occuring, which was a circular chain of references.  Somehow when using this copy and paste method the floor occasionally linked itself to the ceiling, so I couldn’t edit or delete one with out it affecting the other.  Feeling slightly defeated, but not ready to throw in the towel, I tried a similar method, but started by creating a new ceiling and then copied the “Auto Ceiling” sketch lines to the clipboard, cancelled the ceiling command, and then used Paste “Align to Current View” to paste the sketch lines into the sketch mode of a floor.  Once I used this approach, the  circular chain of references was no longer an issue.  This method works great for finish floors, as well as slab on grade, where walls need to pass through the slab.

Snap Distances

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I thought I would follow up from the last post with a small little tip.  When the Nudge command is used it looks to the values that are set in the Dimension Snap setting dialog.

As the description in this dialog box states: When the mouse is moved 2mm on the screen it will snap to the length dimensions that are closest to that zoom resolution, this is also true for the Nudge command.  A little known trick to this dialog box is to adjust it often.  I have heard many times that AutoCAD Architecture or other programs are nice because when inserting doors I can set a desired value and the doors just snap to that distance.

  Revit can do the same if this dialog box is used, Change the 6″ value to say 5″ (127mm) and then start placing doors, they will snap this distance from a desired corner.  I will also change that value to 8″ when  I am working with a brick or masonry wall, now when I model the wall is the correct length.  Of course verify that the temporary dimensions are also set approiately to what you need as well.

Nudge

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My tip today is a quick one.  This is something I managed to go years without knowing and so when I noticed myself using it today I thought I would share.  Everyone uses “Nudge”; simply select and object and use the arrow keys to move said object slightly.  But what if you want to move it more than just a little bit?  Hold down the shift key and the nudge distance will increase by a factor of 10.

Design Review Mobile

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I got on my iPad this morning and noticed that Autodesk had released an update for the Design Review Mobile app.  I was hoping that this upgraded version would allow me to take my redlines back to the cloud and see them on my desktop.  Well that feature isn’t there yet but they did open it up for  other languages and the viewing of pdf documents you have stored on your cloud account.  As usual some bugs got fixed which is always a good thing.

This does bring me to an iPad or iPhone tip. If you hit the Home Button and the Power button simultaniously then it will create a screen capture of your device.  Since we cant’t get any Design Review redlines back to the cloud at least you can use this tip to email those captured redlines to the person who needs them.

Show Hidden Lines

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This is a tool that seems to be underutilized when I visits firms, yet a tool that is very useful when it comes time to setting up construction documentation.  If there has ever come a need to show one objected hidden behind another, there is a tool for that.  On the View tab in the Graphics panel there is a command called Show Hidden Lines, this tool allows for an element to be picked an that needs to see the dashed line through, then the element to be hidden.

As usually the status bar will always display the steps needed to accomplish a command.

One tip I usually talk about when using this command is to go into Wireframe, other wise it is really hard to get the element that is being hidden. Once the command is done the view can be put back into Hidden Line mode to see the effects.  In the example below I did this with a partial height wall that was being covered with a counter top to display the wall below.

Another little tip about this tool is that is also works with detail components and modeled elements.  A modeled element can be displayed hidden through a detail component that has a masking region built into it.  The example below shows this for a plate detail component over a modeled structural beam.