Dumb Question maybe...

[aaronbav]

Hello everyone. I am very new and still trying to learn Revit, especially to enhance my "marketable skills", however in many areas I struggle, especially with Elevations (among many). I am a one man company and I primarily do residential design and don't have any resources to create families, etc. I do like drawing plans in Revit, but I really fall down when it comes to producing excellent elevations. I tend to ALWAYS fall back to CAD to produce elevations at the level and quality I desire. I primarily use Revit to see the model and how it is progressing in 3d, but I very seldom need to produce such for a client. and if I do it is always outsourced to a 3d rendering company. I just don't have the skills to do it myself and not even sure I could, even if I were able to secure the training I would need to be able to do so. So I guess my question is: How many people use Revit for Floor Plans but fall back to CAD to produce Elevations, Sections, Details, etc... I know but probably a dumb way to do it, but you know - old dog, new tricks etc...

Thanks in advance!

[aaronbav]

Wanted to add: I use the Revit model to generate elevations and sections, which I use as a basis in CAD to start with...

[andybrack]

None that I know of. The whole benefit to working in Revit is that it is a 3D model, not separate floor plans and elevations. If you move a wall in plan view, then it moves in elevation, 3D, RCP, etc. so it is worth the effort to learn a fully Revit workflow, even on residential projects.  Plus you get all the benefits of having schedules and parameters in Revit.  This way you can produce door schedules, window schedules, area calculations, drawing index, equipment lists....etc.   Anything that needs to be listed out in a table can be leveraged. It just makes creation of a drawing set more holistic. Even if you don't want to spend the time to learn rendering you are making more work for yourself by trying to work in CAD & Revit.

Just my two cents.

[Tom_Kunsman]

You do NOT want to do the same work twice, do you? If you are doing the floor plans in Revit, then by all means you should be doing the elevations and sections.

I know that revit sections do not "pop" like you can in AutoCAD, but I bet you any money that when you switched to CAD that those elevations did not look like they did when drawn by hand.

There are some settings for shadows in elevations, along with just increasing lineweights for objects within the project. I hope you take a look at these. 

There is just no way that exporting a floor plan in Revit to AutoCAD to get elevations is "quick". 

Just some of my thoughts.
Starting a collection of families either that you create on your own or download off of the internet would be the best thing. Start collecting some doors, windows, cabinets. Search for the Aussie BIM Guru on YouTube. He has some revit content that he has created that is really nice and worth the investment. 

As for the skills to do 3d renderings, why not start playing around with rendering? There is nothing stopping you. There are high school students just learning revit that can make some nice renderings.

Why not show your clients the 3D model? I read not too long ago that house architects were finding new business and getting buy in from their clients since they could show them the model and rotate it so they get an idea of what the house or addition was going to look like.

Yes, I get you are a one man show. But spending sometime over weekends learning some of these tools will help you. There are lots of videos on Autodesk University that can help you with elevations, and I know there are some even on YouTube. Yes finding them takes time. 

[martijn_pater]

'Quick' is relative to your skill level I suppose, guess OP might do the elevation faster in AC at the moment 🙂 Also, not (necessarily) double work if you just export the plans and draw them based on those or xref them it'll update changes etc... That said ofcourse it's worth learning since in the end it'll probably safe you time. Not so difficult to learn to use surface patterns and shading etc. So if you do plans in Revit you probably know your basics of walls anyway (compound walls/edit sketch/attach to roof ie.) ? Or... are you doing 2D plans in Revit? Hope not 🙂

By the way I think a lot of people still do detailling in AC and/or mix it up and do a basic plan/section in AC and import into Revit, that sort of thing. But then you're going to want your elevations based on the model anyway after that. But it could also be a basic elevation then export it (back) to AC. Guess you just need to find a workflow that works for you in the end...

[RobDraw]

Family editing/creation is a invaluable skill especially for a one man show. Learn it and a lot of other things Revit will be much clearer as you will know how different aspects of families affect the appearance of your model.

[Ilic.Andrej]

Here is an elevation view of one of my projects... Would this presentation level be good enough for your projects? If yes, you can achieve it using Revit only. Explore Revit visual styles and materials. 

[timpy6]

These are some notes I took when I was learning to create Revit elevation views for interiors.

Revit Plans, Elevations and Sections: Presentations and CDs

Use this workflow to create finished elevations and sections:

1. Start by adjusting the View range of Section/ Elevations box
2. Use the Split Segment tool on Sections/ Elevation lines to divide up the cut line into various parts with varying view depths
1. Select a Section cut. The Split Segment knife will be available
3. Modify tab: Use the Linework tool in the View panel to make outlines of large objects and near objects thicker, and far objects thin
1. Go to a view with models. Pick a line type from the drop-down list.
2. Click on model space edges in a view to change the line type 
3. You can drag on straight line endpoints to resize edges
4. Select “By Category” to return them to normal. You can make lines invisible too.
4. Annotate tab: Use a Masking Region to hide items or make new patterned shapes in 2D space. 
1. Modify: Select detail regions and then Bring Forward or Send Backward tools become available to modify layer order to obscure 
5. Annotate tab: Use Detail Lines to reshape or add items in 2D space. 
1. Modify: Select detail lines and then Bring Forward or Send Backward tools become available to modify layer order to obscure 
6. View tab: Use the Cut Profile tool under Graphics category to reshape model line shapes; does not change the model geometry
7. View tab: Use the Show Hidden Lines and Hide Hidden Lines tools to show or hide obscured lines
8. View tab: Use the Graphic Display Options of the view (or modify view template) to display Halftones, Shading, Shadows, and Ambient Shadows
9. View tab: Use the Visibility/ Graphics pane to:
1. Use Depth Cueing setting; adjust the Minimum Fade level too
2. Display Patterns and colors on objects
10. View tab: Use Scope Boxes to limit the Grid and Bubble extents to your scope. The scope box is a named 3D crop region that can be assigned to any other view. Name the scope box. Control which drawings it applies to and the visibility. Scope Box is tied to the crop region of view.
11. When creating enlarged Callout views you can use the Reference Other View option that appears at the top menu bar. 
1. You can draw a pretend Crop box with dashed <Hidden> Detail lines using Rectangle shape on a Sheet view to show the extents. Rounded corners can be nice too. 
2. You can also draw a pretend Break Line using Detail lines in a sheet view. The actual Break Line is a detail Component that you draw in the actual plan or section view, but not in the sheet view.
3. The lines of the actual view crop can not be graphically changed to be colored or dashed or rounded rectangles.
12. To get clean interior elevation boundaries you can 
1. Go to the Elevation view and click Edit Crop. Use this to snap the crop lines to the outer edge of ceilings and wall lines.
2. Make the crop boundary visible. Then, select the crop rectangle (or other cut shape) and Override line weights to a heavier line. This will give a rectangle or shaped bold outline around the whole elevation. 
3. You can also edit the rectangle shape in the plan view with Split Segment.
13. Use view Filters in either a View Template, or in Visibility/ Graphics panel to quickly apply graphic overrides to many items based upon conditional rules such as If, For, Equals, and others.

[syman2000]

Revit is capable to create detail elevation. Screenshot below showcase what you can achieve

[timpy6]

Using Revit you will see that it does have its own problems such as the excessively complicated workflow to learn in order to get all the line weights looking correct as can be seen in my reply above. If you’re used to adjusting line weights in layers then it’s disappointing to discover that Revit does not have layers. 

But, the advantage of drawing your floor plans in any 3D environment (AutoCAD with 3D or Revit) is that you don’t have to update everything two or three times when you move things around in the floor plan. When you shift the floor plan around all the sections, elevations (left and right), and any detail views are updated automatically for free! This alone makes it worth drawing plans in a 3D environment.  

You can use the workflow of modeling in Revit and then exporting to AutoCAD. Try tweaking the elevations in Revit using all the line work tools I listed in previous reply. Then try tweaking lines and shading in AutoCAD. See which method feels quicker and more efficient. 

It’s important to also realize that how you create the families in Revit can have a big impact on the speed, efficiency, and quality of your plans and elevation views. This is because you can draw masking regions and detail lines within the families themselves. And, you can set the visibility of those detail lines and masking regions to only show under certain conditions such as in Course, Medium, or fine detail settings of the project views. Or they can change based upon a parameter such as Yes, or No visibility setting. The masks obscure the model lines in your views. This can be a benefit in hiding complex model lines and instead show just a clean bold outline with just a few details visible.

The drawback to having this available in Revit is that it adds yet another layer of complexity to learning Revit effectively. But, there is a potential benefit to a regular user. 

The reason that the family detailing workflow in Revit is very important is because if you use for example cabinet families in kitchen projects on a repeating basis, then you only have to draw the detail lines and masks once in the family, and then save huge amounts to of time when you just drag and drop them all day long into your projects with the graphics already in presentation ready condition. Also, if you make those cabinets parametric then you can resize the cabinets with just the click of a few buttons. And, they are resized in all plans, elevations, sections and 3D views. 

So, try the Revit workflow, try AutoCAD 3D workflow, and try exporting from Revit to AutoCAD. Play around with line weights in both programs using best practices. Make the line weights of heavy and near objects thicker. Make the line weights of inner details lighter and less dark color like gray. Play around with subtle hatches in AutoCAD and masked region hatches in Revit. Add some subtle shadows in Revit. Then discover your own favorite efficient workflow. 

[calexander_PCO]

It is most assuredly not a dumb question - those learning something new have many questions and one, especially a "one-man shop" like yourself, needs a resource to go to for just those things. I applaud you for learning Revit. I also agree with some of the earlier comments that learning to create (or manipulate) families is a great asset to someone utilizing Revit.

I will add next a question of why you are using Revit at all. It is quite expensive and if you aren't using it to coordinate and you aren't using it to create documentation, then I am unsure what the benefit is to you to pay the money for both Revit and AutoCAD. If you can cover that in your profit, then that's great, but it seems that it would hurt your margin a great deal.

Lastly, I would highly recommend taking some time - I realize that is likely at a premium - but to truly understand elevations and what Revit can do for you (and what it can't/can't easily). An example of the elevations you are trying to get out of the program would help myself and others to speak to what is possible. Reading through these - and many other - forums are often amusing but frustrating because people like to tout what is "possible" - but seldom do they include the man-hour-months of time put into getting it to do that.

I'm sure the forum can be a great resource for you, but feel free to let me know if you'd like a more one-on-one conversation.

[timpy6]

Revit full version is expensive, but Revit LT is only a fraction of the price and can do most things except MEP. That’s an option if money is a concern. Even the Revit LT with AutoCAD LT combined package is only about $40 per month.

Thanks

[martijn_pater]

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@timpy6 wrote:
Revit full version is expensive, but Revit LT has only a fraction of the possibilities and can't do things you really need it to do. That’s an option if money is a concern, but you do require some significant functionalities otherwise not available.

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Might have misread that... 🙄😅 True enough though, but it is appaling that LT I think would be for architects and other practices maybe who are looking to have more visual control over their drawings/presentation material while it is exactly these functionalities which are not included (ie. filters). Coincidence, I don't really think so.

[RobDraw]

LT is a less expensive alternative. Of course it's going to have limited functionality. If you want bells and whistles, you need to pay for all of them.