I plan on writing a series of short “productivity tips” posts here. These are short posts with tips and tricks to help designers be more efficient. Even small tips can have a big impact when you consider those seconds add up quickly over the course of a day, week, and even years!
Are you familiar with Revit’s selection filter? I am not talking about the ability to filter a selection! Keep reading to learn more!
The Challenge
When the phase or workset needs to be changed for several elements, the go-to method for a lot of designers is to select a bunch of elements and then filter the selection down to just doors… then, change the setting for the selected doors. The process is then repeated for the walls, the windows, the furniture, etc. But, there is a better way!
Selection Filter
When a large group of elements are selected you may have noticed the number of selected elements is listed in the Properties palette, just below the Type Selector. In the first image below, there are 122 “Common” elements selected in the Revit model.
The main reason the Filter command is often used at this point is because there are no parameters visible in the Properties pallet.
The reason there are no properties showing in the Properties pallet is because, for all the elements/categories selected, there is not a single shared parameter. For example, grids don’t have a Phase and walls cannot be constrained by a Scope Box.
However… and here’s the “secret Sauce” part of this post… if you click the selection filter drop-down, you will see a list, similar to what is shown in the Filter command; categories and number of elements for each. What’s more, if you select an item in the list, the properties are temporarily narrowed down to that category, but the 122 elements are still selected!!!
In the next image shows three examples for the above selection; Walls, Furniture, and Doors. In each case, the parameters common to their categories are shown. Of course, within each, there may be multiple types and instance parameter values, so the results can vary. However, the built-in parameters like phasing, worksets, and more are now easy to change.
Thus, the efficiency tip is this:
- Select many elements within your Revit model
- Use the Selection Filter (drop-down list) to pick a category
- Edit the parameter values
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed
There is no need to re-select the elements each time. This can save a little time and avoid not selecting all of the same elements each time you re-select.
Conclusion
Small tips like this can save a lot of time, over time. They can also help to avoid errors that can happen by repeating steps (selecting elements in this case). I hope you like this post and the series to follow!
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