Revit 2021: "Distance" Units

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out what is the purpose of the new Distance Units in Revit 2021.

If you look in the Units of 2021, you can see Distance vs Length. 

Length is the normal measurement for our dimensions.
Distance: My first though was that it was linked to the new Path of Travel but after investigating in that direction, all the units are the length for Path of Travel too.

I spend too much time already on Google and on this Forum trying to find the answer! Haha
Any idea?

Cheers!

[hmunsell]

Length is the measurement of an element, Distance is the measurement between elements?

I have no idea if this is correct, but its the first thing that comes to mind. i think it is supposed to be used with Surevey Feet functions.

[barthbradley]

Distance is used in Generative Design.  

[purvigirwin]

What is the distance units related to in Generative Design?

[RECArchi]

@barthbradley : How Generative Design uses "Distance" unit ? Does it also impact Revit project in any way ?

We were told by our BIM Manager to pay attention to our units ("Distance" is by default in feet, whereas Length is in Meters)

Thank you in advance.

[Ali_Amine]

Hello !

I also spent a lot of time looking for an answer. I just did not try the suggestion about the generative design.

[samuelsanf · Accepted solution]

Hello all, Distance is the unit used for road stationing (civil design), when importing bridges from InfraWorks would need to tag with this units because these are the units used in linear features for infrastructure.


More info here:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-structure-forum/revit-2021-1-new-quot-alignment-station-quot-an...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2021/ENU/Revit-C...

[RECArchi]

Hi @samuelsanf ,

I'm not a civil engineer, but why this feature does not use Length unit?

It's not big deal, but it adds a bit of confusion... 😉

[f.annoscia1XRNMD]

I was also wondering the same question, using Revit 2023!

[samuelsanf · Accepted solution]

I agree. But that's is how they do. I'm also Architect.

Usually, in the US, the stationing do not use inches, only feet and mostly US Survey Foot instead of International Foot (depending on the state)*.

The measure of hundreds are separated from the rest with a plus (+) symbol; E.G.: 12,345.67' are noted as 123+45.67 measured from the road center line (or whatever profile/linear feature). Other features can be referenced from the road with the stationing and an offset value. In common langue and road signs road distances are expressed with Miles

Alignment Labels

 https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/civil-3d/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2023/ENU/Civi...

In Autodesk Civil 3D I see these formats to display alignment stations (I think Revit only uses the plus symbol):

• 10+50.00
• 10-50.00
• 10_50.00
• 1050.00
• 10/50.00
• 10C50.00
• 10K50.00

Because of this (no inches, no fractions, and US Survey Foot) I think it's no practical to use the same value as the Length used by all the mortals.

In the rest of the world we use stationing with Meters and the plus (+) symbol separate the thousand unit: 12.345,678 km = 12,345.687 m would be 12+345.678 (meters). Road signs and common language would use kilometers for distances.

We, the rest of the world also think like you and say "it will be less confusion if the US get rid of the International Foot and the US Survey Foot (also inches, fraction of inches, yards, miles, etc.) and get Metricated", that had not happened... yet. But that looks to be a big deal 🤣

... At least the US Survey Foot looks to be deprecated by 31/12/2022 (day/month/year like in the most of the world 😜)

Mark near a road under construction in Dominican Republic

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/multistate-disagreement-over-the-length-of-the-foot-to-en...