Aligning Elements on a Sheet

[lpendergraft]

Hello All,

Relative newbie to Revit here, although gaining more and more opportunities to improve. This question is for all you expert Revit users who know all the hidden tricks to make this program work best for its users.

Does setting up sheets in Revit suck as much as I think it does? Or am I just not doing the right things? Here's the situation. To me, one of the indicators of good craftsmanship is common elements showing up at the same spot on every sheet. So when you are flipping through a sheet set, the general notes, views, schedules, etc. are not jumping around. However, I am unsure of how best to achieve this result. I am aware of grid guides and have been using them but not everything on a sheet is eligible to snap in my experience (maybe I have a setting wrong?). For example, I have a legend placed on the sheet that I have to eyeball into place because it won't snap. Viewport titles same goes. You can nudge and eyeball them into place but cannot snap to a grid line. Snapping is also not an option when extending the width of a column in a table to align to a grid line. Drafting views are another issue I've run into where no snaps are available and you have to eyeball them into place. 

This may be 100% user error and if so, please be kind 🙂

Thanks so much,

Liz

[lpendergraft]

Hello All,

Relative newbie to Revit here, although gaining more and more opportunities to improve. This question is for all you expert Revit users who know all the hidden tricks to make this program work best for its users.

Does setting up sheets in Revit suck as much as I think it does? Or am I just not doing the right things? Here's the situation. To me, one of the indicators of good craftsmanship is common elements showing up at the same spot on every sheet. So when you are flipping through a sheet set, the general notes, views, schedules, etc. are not jumping around. However, I am unsure of how best to achieve this result. I am aware of grid guides and have been using them but not everything on a sheet is eligible to snap in my experience (maybe I have a setting wrong?). For example, I have a legend placed on the sheet that I have to eyeball into place because it won't snap. Viewport titles same goes. You can nudge and eyeball them into place but cannot snap to a grid line. Snapping is also not an option when extending the width of a column in a table to align to a grid line. Drafting views are another issue I've run into where no snaps are available and you have to eyeball them into place. 

This may be 100% user error and if so, please be kind 🙂

Thanks so much,

Liz

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

Clipboard Copy & Paste Aligned to Current View/Same Place also works between Sheets.  

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

Clipboard Copy & Paste Aligned to Current View/Same Place also works between Sheets.  

[lpendergraft]

Good Morning Barth,

I love that feature! My issue comes in when its a similar element but not exactly the same. For example, I may need legends on all sheets but not the same legend. One work around for this I've used is outlining the legend with detail lines and pasting those aligned to current view on the next sheet. I then use these to eyeball the new legend into place on the new sheet. And that may be the best I can do. But I wanted to post this here in case there's something I'm missing or that I could be doing better. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out!

[lpendergraft]

Good Morning Barth,

I love that feature! My issue comes in when its a similar element but not exactly the same. For example, I may need legends on all sheets but not the same legend. One work around for this I've used is outlining the legend with detail lines and pasting those aligned to current view on the next sheet. I then use these to eyeball the new legend into place on the new sheet. And that may be the best I can do. But I wanted to post this here in case there's something I'm missing or that I could be doing better. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out!

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

Add ref planes in views and you can snap their end points to linework/titleblock/guide grid on sheet.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

Add ref planes in views and you can snap their end points to linework/titleblock/guide grid on sheet.

[barthbradley]

So, you want to place an element on the sheet with pin-point accuracy based on what your "eyeball" tells you?  If so, that's an aesthetic thing.  Hard to govern or standardize something like that.  know what I mean? 

[barthbradley]

So, you want to place an element on the sheet with pin-point accuracy based on what your "eyeball" tells you?  If so, that's an aesthetic thing.  Hard to govern or standardize something like that.  know what I mean? 

[lpendergraft]

Good Morning ToanDN,

Thank you! That's a great idea! I've taken it for a spin just now and it seems to be working a treat.

Best,

Liz

[lpendergraft]

Good Morning ToanDN,

Thank you! That's a great idea! I've taken it for a spin just now and it seems to be working a treat.

Best,

Liz

[lpendergraft]

No, that's not exactly what I want. Maybe I'm not explaining things correctly. Staying with the legend example, I want a legend with two symbols on sheet A101. On sheet A102, I want a legend with only one of those symbols. I'm trying to find the best way to make sure that the legends on sheets A101 and A102 are at the same location on each sheet so when you flip from one sheet to the next, the top and left sides of the legends are in the exact same spot. That way the elements aren't jumping around from sheet to sheet.

The reference planes suggested by Toan DN combined with your idea about using "aligned to same place" seem to be working really well! I will leave the thread open for a little while longer just to see if anyone else wants to weigh in. Thanks again for your time!

[lpendergraft]

No, that's not exactly what I want. Maybe I'm not explaining things correctly. Staying with the legend example, I want a legend with two symbols on sheet A101. On sheet A102, I want a legend with only one of those symbols. I'm trying to find the best way to make sure that the legends on sheets A101 and A102 are at the same location on each sheet so when you flip from one sheet to the next, the top and left sides of the legends are in the exact same spot. That way the elements aren't jumping around from sheet to sheet.

The reference planes suggested by Toan DN combined with your idea about using "aligned to same place" seem to be working really well! I will leave the thread open for a little while longer just to see if anyone else wants to weigh in. Thanks again for your time!