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Revit text editor @#%$

95 REPLIES 95
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Message 1 of 96
tbh
Enthusiast
3591 Views, 95 Replies

Revit text editor @#%$

Does anyone else think that the text editor in Revit is ABYSMAL?!

I've been using Revit for about 4 years now and the fact that it appears the text editor still looks like something from the DOS ages amazes me.

Revit does many things very well. It's solved alot of problems and I would never go back to Autocad (or worse yet ADT). Revit is not perfect. I understand that. The developers have many issues they're trying to solve for the next release. I understand that. But I don;t think I should be concerned with my text shifting on me every time I go edit it!

Come on guys, you can do better.
95 REPLIES 95
Message 2 of 96
Anonymous
in reply to: tbh

Just the fact that it doesn't even have a basic right-click menu to give us
"cut" and "paste" while editing in a text box bugs me to no end.

It would also be nice to be able to select more than one group of text to do
some simple entity-common tasks such as group changing the justification
(something not included in the "element properties"). Instead, you have to
pick one text box at a time - and that gets very time consuming when you
have more than a few to change.
Message 3 of 96
bt1138
in reply to: tbh

It does seem incredible, how limited the text editor is. It's like CAD from 1990.

No auto numbering of lists always seems to be an 'incredibly missing' functionality.

It seems like such an obvious oversight that the developers must have some reason or reasons for not adding in these very obvious features, and I always ask myself what's the reason? You can't miss the fact that it is incredibly primitive, so what's the problem? Wouldn't the code for a few more basic features be relatively trivial for a big software company like Adesk?
Message 4 of 96
Anonymous
in reply to: tbh

Especially considering how much they have improved Acad's text editing over
the years.
Message 5 of 96
jsnock
in reply to: tbh

I'm so sick of this stupid 1980s text editor.  I could give a crap about all the fancy junk they're adding to revit, my kingdom to copy the current ACAD text editor over.  Revit with this text editor is like a space shuttle with an abacus to calculate re-entry.

 

 *Sadly I didn't look at the original post date until after I posted, and this gripe is just as valid 3 years later. *sigh*

Message 6 of 96
watsonrb0
in reply to: jsnock

And the original post is still valid 5 years later... geesh

Message 7 of 96
oisinfrost
in reply to: watsonrb0

Just migrating to Revit from AutoCAD - looking to place lots of text (general notes) with columns etc. Am I dreaming, or is there really NO text editor in Revit? Please tell me I'm stupid, and to go look in the Help file...

Message 8 of 96
Alisder.Brown
in reply to: oisinfrost

What issues are you having with Text in Revit?

I have never came up with anything that cant be solved. It is just a more compact logical text editor than the one in AutoCAD. 

Alisder Brown
Senior BIM Coordinator
Scotland, UK

Message 9 of 96
oisinfrost
in reply to: Alisder.Brown

Just trying to neatly display and edit a 5-column sheet of fully formatted, numbered, indented notes without having to resport to a 1/2 baked workaround like setting them up as a Schedule. Easily accomplished with a word processor like they have in the very basic LT versions. Geez this Revit has some fantastic features, but really is very cave-man like in so many other ways.

Message 10 of 96
jsnock
in reply to: oisinfrost

"It is just a more compact logical text editor than the one in AutoCAD." Maybe autocad R12 but they've come a long way since then.  Modern autocad text editor is actually pretty decent.

 

"Just trying to neatly display and edit a 5-column sheet of fully formatted, numbered, indented notes without having to resport to a 1/2 baked workaround like setting them up as a Schedule. Easily accomplished with a word processor like they have in the very basic LT versions. Geez this Revit has some fantastic features, but really is very cave-man like in so many other ways."

 

Exactly, I see they have added numbered lists, but they still will not allow you to put a blank space between lines, let alone anything more 'advanced' like outline format, etc.  I have tried using shift+space to put a blank line between letters and it shows up fine in the editor, but when revit does it's refresh upon exiting the text editor it adds letters to all the blank lines.  Honestly I could get by at this point if I could just get the blank lines to stay, but it doesn't change the fact that Revit's text editor is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.  

 

Here's a list of things I wish they would add to the text editor:

  1. Bulleted & Numbered lists with the ability to control spacing between items & continue/restart numbering

  2. Line spacing control

  3. Text columns so you could create a multi column list with continuous numbering

  4. A ruler with tab control

  5. Symbol library for items like this: ° ± ∅ ≈ ∠ Δ

  6. A justify function to have even left and right edges of text columns (newspaper justify)

(I just realized this message board has a more useful text editor than Revit, look at those spaces! Smiley Sad )

Message 11 of 96
Alisder.Brown
in reply to: jsnock

To be honest, this is such a unimportant part of the software that i doubt the dev team care. I know i wouldn't

 

You can type text, what else you need? It is not a necessity to format, it is a desire.

Complaining about this kind of thing is ridiculous, in a software that has cut our workflows in half and allows us to easily produce amazing BIM projects with ease (compared to trying the same thing traditionally)

 

It is like the people who complain about schedule formatting not matching "The way we have always done it" 

 

Im happy with the text editor, it does not affect my work atall, buildings are still being designed, detailed and constructed without Revit having line spacing control and ruler indents

Alisder Brown
Senior BIM Coordinator
Scotland, UK

Message 12 of 96
chrisplyler
in reply to: Alisder.Brown

Alisder,

 

You're right, we can still design projects with archaic text capabilities. But come on, it should embarrass Autodesk.

Message 13 of 96
oisinfrost
in reply to: Alisder.Brown

"You can type text, what else you need? It is not a necessity to format, it is a desire" & you wouldn't care...

 

Alisder, that comment leaves me jawdropped & flabbergasted.

 

Text is absolutely vital to convey design intent, from simple leaders to keynotes to standard note sheets. I challenge you to show me a project otherwise.

 

The corollary to this, is that text must be logically organized, ie: formatted. I trust I need not further expound on the consequences of poorly presented drawings here - if you are not convinced, then you really need to spend some time on Site.

 

After being unable to reinforce a blended sweep (simple swimming pool), then figuring out I couldn't even format my text as well as you formatted your response to @#%$, I have given up on Revit (for now).

Message 14 of 96
jsnock
in reply to: oisinfrost

Alsider you may not care about the text editor but it is the number 1 complaint I hear. Everyone agrees revit is amazing, which makes the juxtaposition of the useless and buggy text editor all the more jarring.

Message 15 of 96
Keith_Wilkinson
in reply to: jsnock

Feedback is important to the development of just about anything, not just software. You can look at it as complaining or you can look at it as constructive criticism.  I prefer the latter.  

 

The response at the top of this page just gives the impression that Autodesk don't care what their users think. 

 

Bottom line is the text editor could be better.  Significantly.

 

 



"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
Maimonides
Message 16 of 96
PDSF
in reply to: Alisder.Brown

That is such a smug and tone-deaf response I find it hard to believe it came from a professional. "It is not a necessity to format, it is a desire". FALSE. I found this thread trying to find some sort of plugin or add-on or other method to get the complex formatting we need into our documents. Obviously you have never had to add notes in the specific format the plan reviewers want them in, e.g. excerpts from the building code. If your documents are sufficient with simple numbered lines with no spaces between, I'm guessing the rest of the documentation is pretty rudimentary as well.
Message 17 of 96
rhuserikch2m
in reply to: PDSF

I can't believe this thread was started in 2009 and in 6 years this rather straight forward issue with Revit has still not been addressed. A new text editor would be such an improvement.

Message 18 of 96

From what I've heard it's not an easy fix otherwise they would have done it already.  Not that that is necessarily an excuse of course but it might explain why there has been no movement in 6 years...  😉



"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
Maimonides
Message 19 of 96
ToanDN
in reply to: jsnock


@jsnock wrote:

I have tried using shift+space to put a blank line between letters and it shows up fine in the editor, but when revit does it's refresh upon exiting the text editor it adds letters to all the blank lines.  Honestly I could get by at this point if I could just get the blank lines to stay, but it doesn't change the fact that Revit's text editor is about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.


I ended up with adding an extra period and a bunch of tabs or spaces at the end of a paragraph to get the space in between.  So far no complaints or I would just go on and blaim the plotter.

In summary, there are lots of workaround to get text how I want it to look: schedules, note blocks, child paragraphs inserted in blank space inside parent papagraph, hair loss, coffee spills and whatnots.  It is bad.

Capture.PNG

 

Message 20 of 96
Beth1285
in reply to: Alisder.Brown

Alisdar -  

 

May I ask to what extent you are using the text editor? Also, what does the "Autodesk Expert Elite" in your signature mean? Does that give you any authority on this forum?

 

People enumerated the significant issues with the text editor, but since you aren’t having issues, it must not be that big a deal. The main issue of this thread though, has nothing to do with formatting. It is related to text shifting around when clicking in and out of the editor. Formatting abilities aside, if I want to do so little as indent a line, clicking in and out of the editor often changes that indent. At any point, you could think you have your text laid out how you want while editing it, then click out and it scrambles - including the extremely basic formatting capabilities it does have.  

 

What else do you need? That's not the point. The point is that every other text editor software in the world, short of maybe Notepad, has more advanced editing/ formatting abilities, including other Autodesk products. On your premise, we should all be happy using type writers for our everyday word processing, but clearly we’ve evolved for a reason.

 

Your argument may have been valid in Revit's younger years - Revit solved the problem of creating BIM projects with ease, why worry about text?  Now, let's move onto another problem that has been floating around for 6+ years. If you're fine with it, and can't do anything to actually help the situation, are you just giving your 2 cents and stirring the pot? 

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