Share your favorite tips, tricks and workflows in Revit!

[Viveka_CD]

Hello Awesome community!

I wanted to make a thread about sharing your favorite tips, tricks, or workflows found within Revit. From hotkey combos to those really essential tools that everyone may not know about, this is the place to share!

I've set the ball rolling below with some simple cool tidbits 'using formulas in fields' that people may not be aware of.

If you have a requirement to reduce the size of an architectural element, maybe a wall which needs to be cut down to half its size - you can use a formula in the 'unconnected height' field, input =20' 0"*.5 and yes the wall's height is reduced by half! Don't forget to use the '=' sign in front of your formula!

Please, share your tips too! Feel free to use images and screencasts!

Best Regards,

[Viveka_CD]

Hello Awesome community!

I wanted to make a thread about sharing your favorite tips, tricks, or workflows found within Revit. From hotkey combos to those really essential tools that everyone may not know about, this is the place to share!

I've set the ball rolling below with some simple cool tidbits 'using formulas in fields' that people may not be aware of.

If you have a requirement to reduce the size of an architectural element, maybe a wall which needs to be cut down to half its size - you can use a formula in the 'unconnected height' field, input =20' 0"*.5 and yes the wall's height is reduced by half! Don't forget to use the '=' sign in front of your formula!

Please, share your tips too! Feel free to use images and screencasts!

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Thank you for sharing this.

It has helped me a lot.

Natasha

[Anonymous]

Thank you for sharing this.

It has helped me a lot.

Natasha

[Viveka_CD]

Hello Community!

If you haven't seen it yet - export options in Revit 2019 don't include NWC 

Please see AKN article: To Export NWC Files from Revit

Regards,

[Viveka_CD]

Hello Community!

If you haven't seen it yet - export options in Revit 2019 don't include NWC 

Please see AKN article: To Export NWC Files from Revit

Regards,

[Karambaki]

Hi community, 
I wanted to share this with you guys, it's fresh in Youtube now, 

Enjoy watching it 😄 

Randomizing Parameters and Types Scripts
Very easy to use, very stable, and very fast

Created for Revit with Dynamo
Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjjEn7Ep5kk

[Karambaki]

Hi community, 
I wanted to share this with you guys, it's fresh in Youtube now, 

Enjoy watching it 😄 

Randomizing Parameters and Types Scripts
Very easy to use, very stable, and very fast

Created for Revit with Dynamo
Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjjEn7Ep5kk

[Viveka_CD]

Hi there @Karambaki

Thanks for sharing! 

Your contributions benefit to our community and make this a lively thread!

Regards,

[Viveka_CD]

Hi there @Karambaki

Thanks for sharing! 

Your contributions benefit to our community and make this a lively thread!

Regards,

[Corsten.Au]

Room Area Calculation Options

Just Sharing how to change the Room Area Calculations..

notice how it affects the area when the conditions are changed..

Revit allows just one method to use at any given point of time..

[Corsten.Au]

Room Area Calculation Options

Just Sharing how to change the Room Area Calculations..

notice how it affects the area when the conditions are changed..

Revit allows just one method to use at any given point of time..

[Viveka_CD]

Hi @Corsten.Au

Thanks for sharing this tip on how to change the Room Area Calculations.

Regards,

[Viveka_CD]

Hi @Corsten.Au

Thanks for sharing this tip on how to change the Room Area Calculations.

Regards,

[Sahay_R]

A quick tip on changing the hosting of families - let us say from Hosted (face or whatever) to unhosted - 

1) Open the hosted family

2) Select the geometry and CTRL-C

3) Start a new family with an unhosted template

4) CTRL-V. Or you can PASTE Aligned to view

You will notice that the geometry will have brought their parameters along with them. That will leave very few parameters left to be re-created.

To switch from Unhosted to Hosted - follow the process in reverse.You may need to move / align / rotate the geometry to sit it correctly on the face in the family.

[Sahay_R]

A quick tip on changing the hosting of families - let us say from Hosted (face or whatever) to unhosted - 

1) Open the hosted family

2) Select the geometry and CTRL-C

3) Start a new family with an unhosted template

4) CTRL-V. Or you can PASTE Aligned to view

You will notice that the geometry will have brought their parameters along with them. That will leave very few parameters left to be re-created.

To switch from Unhosted to Hosted - follow the process in reverse.You may need to move / align / rotate the geometry to sit it correctly on the face in the family.

[Viveka_CD]

Hiii @Sahay_R

Good to hear from you! Hope have you been?

Thanks for sharing the awesome tip 

Regards,

[Viveka_CD]

Hiii @Sahay_R

Good to hear from you! Hope have you been?

Thanks for sharing the awesome tip 

Regards,

[Sahay_R]

You're welcome, @Viveka_CD! I'm doing well. Always great to be a part of this awesome learning environment.

[Sahay_R]

You're welcome, @Viveka_CD! I'm doing well. Always great to be a part of this awesome learning environment.

[Viveka_CD]

Good to hear that @Sahay_R

Passing on the good vibes you bring always to you too I really needed some this week!

[Viveka_CD]

Good to hear that @Sahay_R

Passing on the good vibes you bring always to you too I really needed some this week!

[Viveka_CD]

Hello Dear Community! 

Here's a cool solution by @Alfredo_Medina on How to create a toposurface from a csv file in Revit 

Regards,

[Viveka_CD]

Hello Dear Community! 

Here's a cool solution by @Alfredo_Medina on How to create a toposurface from a csv file in Revit 

Regards,

[Karambaki]

Hello Community, Here's an update to Synthesize Workflow.

Workflow Software: Fusion 360, Dynamo, Revit

University: Al-Albayt University, Jordan      

The students who are directly involved in the case study project are:

- Ashraf Aldanadneh

- Yousuf Karajah

- Ahmad Abu Warda

And indirectly:

- Saeed Al-Hamza, also, an Autodesk Expert Elite and an Autodesk Student Ambassador, specialized in Fusion 360, for teaching the students Fusion 360 in a professional way.

- Thomas Spiegelhalter, a professor at University of Florida, for his and his students’ help in testing the workflow in 2018 and providing continues feedback.

External Dynamo Nodes Needed From:

- Springs Package

- Clockwork Package

The Workflow Summary:
Using Dynamo to read the exported SAT file from Fusion,
Then import it into a nested Family within a Conceptual Massing Family,
Finally Placing an instance of it

You can now tab into the surfaces and divide them,
Whenever a change happens in Fusion 360, just re-export another SAT,
Run Dynamo again, and It will replace the geometry inside the nested Family with the new one, while trying the to keep any divided surfaces or adaptive components placed on it.

The Goals of the workflow are:

• Ability to freely model organic forms, by using Fusion 360 T-Splines.
• Understanding What works best with Revit panelling and surface UV Dividing.
• Achieving a Synchronizable Connection between Fusion 360 and Revit.

Considering the Following Rules:

• Using Utilities and the Convert tool in Fusion to control what edges to keep and what others to delete, this controls the dividable surfaces in Revit
• Trying to have two adjacent surfaces at most, for the belt measurement configuration to work in Revit as expected.

After understanding the above rules, the guys could design a breath-taking stadium without big effort.

  

Some More Detailed Images:

 

Background / History

The story starts 3 years ago when I asked Bjørn Wittenberg a question,

"Hey Bjørn, Fusion is good, and Dynamo is good, which one to spend an effort on?"

He answered: "Both"

So, the first breakthrough was in that same year, where we were able to create the ReFusion IT workflow, and named later into Synthesize Workflow

Which targeted an integration between Fusion 360 and Revit with a mini help of Dynamo, via linking the SAT file exported from Fusion, inside an in-place mass of a Revit project

It was good one, but still with so many limitations,

And according to Zach Kron, the head of Dynamo team, when I met him in Slovenia some months ago, said: "We make it look good, but it is not actually"

One of the major problems were:

• Dynamo has a limitation of accessing the Inplace mass, so no more Dynamo to manipulate the patterns or the form.

• Revit died, as it is a heavy Inplace mass with a heavy. SAT file, especially Fusion when using T-Spline in Fusion to create the form.

Now even with all the above problems, the Autodesk Expert Elite team promoted it as a potential workflow, and the workflow won in a competition held by the community called DynAwards, which pushed me to improve it.

Now in 2019, the workflow has heavily improved, and is now only a 1 graph out of 340 ones of a package called Synthesize Toolkit,

The Dynamo graph is Fusion 360 SAT Sync. 

As the name says, it can Sync the content of a Fusion project to a conceptual Mass Family (Listen up, it a family!)

That means we can use Dynamo freely within it!

Here's an example of syncing after running another script called K-Attractor to Automate the openings according to points or curves.

Whenever you need to refresh, you could do it with a click from Dynamo Player!, while keeping all the panelling and the divided surfaces updated !

 

Also, another student, Omar Otoom, is re-creating another project called Harbin Opera House,

A very well-known project in China, it being created using the same workflow and panelled in Revit with ease, still in progress.

Some Images:

 

We wish this article would encourage Students and Architects around the world to use this workflow for using the full potential of Autodesk Software, and change from "Drafting in Revit”, into "Designing in Revit"

Finally, the compatibility and the smoothness of a workflow, is what makes it a successful one, so many workflows to be discovered and created, it just need passion and determination!

-Karam Baki

[Karambaki]

Hello Community, Here's an update to Synthesize Workflow.

Workflow Software: Fusion 360, Dynamo, Revit

University: Al-Albayt University, Jordan      

The students who are directly involved in the case study project are:

- Ashraf Aldanadneh

- Yousuf Karajah

- Ahmad Abu Warda

And indirectly:

- Saeed Al-Hamza, also, an Autodesk Expert Elite and an Autodesk Student Ambassador, specialized in Fusion 360, for teaching the students Fusion 360 in a professional way.

- Thomas Spiegelhalter, a professor at University of Florida, for his and his students’ help in testing the workflow in 2018 and providing continues feedback.

External Dynamo Nodes Needed From:

- Springs Package

- Clockwork Package

The Workflow Summary:
Using Dynamo to read the exported SAT file from Fusion,
Then import it into a nested Family within a Conceptual Massing Family,
Finally Placing an instance of it

You can now tab into the surfaces and divide them,
Whenever a change happens in Fusion 360, just re-export another SAT,
Run Dynamo again, and It will replace the geometry inside the nested Family with the new one, while trying the to keep any divided surfaces or adaptive components placed on it.

The Goals of the workflow are:

• Ability to freely model organic forms, by using Fusion 360 T-Splines.
• Understanding What works best with Revit panelling and surface UV Dividing.
• Achieving a Synchronizable Connection between Fusion 360 and Revit.

Considering the Following Rules:

• Using Utilities and the Convert tool in Fusion to control what edges to keep and what others to delete, this controls the dividable surfaces in Revit
• Trying to have two adjacent surfaces at most, for the belt measurement configuration to work in Revit as expected.

After understanding the above rules, the guys could design a breath-taking stadium without big effort.

  

Some More Detailed Images:

 

Background / History

The story starts 3 years ago when I asked Bjørn Wittenberg a question,

"Hey Bjørn, Fusion is good, and Dynamo is good, which one to spend an effort on?"

He answered: "Both"

So, the first breakthrough was in that same year, where we were able to create the ReFusion IT workflow, and named later into Synthesize Workflow

Which targeted an integration between Fusion 360 and Revit with a mini help of Dynamo, via linking the SAT file exported from Fusion, inside an in-place mass of a Revit project

It was good one, but still with so many limitations,

And according to Zach Kron, the head of Dynamo team, when I met him in Slovenia some months ago, said: "We make it look good, but it is not actually"

One of the major problems were:

• Dynamo has a limitation of accessing the Inplace mass, so no more Dynamo to manipulate the patterns or the form.

• Revit died, as it is a heavy Inplace mass with a heavy. SAT file, especially Fusion when using T-Spline in Fusion to create the form.

Now even with all the above problems, the Autodesk Expert Elite team promoted it as a potential workflow, and the workflow won in a competition held by the community called DynAwards, which pushed me to improve it.

Now in 2019, the workflow has heavily improved, and is now only a 1 graph out of 340 ones of a package called Synthesize Toolkit,

The Dynamo graph is Fusion 360 SAT Sync. 

As the name says, it can Sync the content of a Fusion project to a conceptual Mass Family (Listen up, it a family!)

That means we can use Dynamo freely within it!

Here's an example of syncing after running another script called K-Attractor to Automate the openings according to points or curves.

Whenever you need to refresh, you could do it with a click from Dynamo Player!, while keeping all the panelling and the divided surfaces updated !

 

Also, another student, Omar Otoom, is re-creating another project called Harbin Opera House,

A very well-known project in China, it being created using the same workflow and panelled in Revit with ease, still in progress.

Some Images:

 

We wish this article would encourage Students and Architects around the world to use this workflow for using the full potential of Autodesk Software, and change from "Drafting in Revit”, into "Designing in Revit"

Finally, the compatibility and the smoothness of a workflow, is what makes it a successful one, so many workflows to be discovered and created, it just need passion and determination!

-Karam Baki

[Sahay_R]

@Viveka_CD - another gem from @Alfredo_Medina - 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/model-text-along-a-curved-surface/m-p/775988...

[Sahay_R]

@Viveka_CD - another gem from @Alfredo_Medina - 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/model-text-along-a-curved-surface/m-p/775988...

[Viveka_CD]

Thanks for sharing @Sahay_R 

A real gem indeed!

Regards,

[Viveka_CD]

Thanks for sharing @Sahay_R 

A real gem indeed!

Regards,

[Viveka_CD · Accepted solution]

Dear Coummunity!

Also, I wanted to share another hidden gem, an AU class!

Top Solutions from the Revit Forums  from @loboarch  Sr. Learning Content Developer for Autodesk Revit

KEY LEARNINGS from this AU class

• Learn how to apply tips from the top forum solutions to your everyday work
• Discover common problems and associated solutions
• Learn how to complete BIM projects more quickly
• Learn how to use Autodesk forums more effectively

FIND MORE:

• Downloads
• Handouts
• Presentation

Regards,

[Viveka_CD · Accepted solution]

Dear Coummunity!

Also, I wanted to share another hidden gem, an AU class!

Top Solutions from the Revit Forums  from @loboarch  Sr. Learning Content Developer for Autodesk Revit

KEY LEARNINGS from this AU class

• Learn how to apply tips from the top forum solutions to your everyday work
• Discover common problems and associated solutions
• Learn how to complete BIM projects more quickly
• Learn how to use Autodesk forums more effectively

FIND MORE:

• Downloads
• Handouts
• Presentation

Regards,

[Karambaki]

Here's a follow up solution for very complex floors creation and offset via Dynamo

Just make sure you have Synthesize toolkit installed

[Karambaki]

Here's a follow up solution for very complex floors creation and offset via Dynamo

Just make sure you have Synthesize toolkit installed

[Viveka_CD]

Thanks for sharing @Karambaki  

A request to all users contributing - please add tags with #Revit Tips (below your posts)

This will benefit the community searching for specific tips!

Regards,

[Viveka_CD]

Thanks for sharing @Karambaki  

A request to all users contributing - please add tags with #Revit Tips (below your posts)

This will benefit the community searching for specific tips!

Regards,

[ralvarez1976]

---

@planner_matlabi wrote:

Yes that's right But Applicable and simple

This may happen because both face are known to be copied

---

Also works if you tag the edge of the ramp first, and then copy the spot slope to the middle of the ramp. No need to create the floor.

[ralvarez1976]

---

@planner_matlabi wrote:

Yes that's right But Applicable and simple

This may happen because both face are known to be copied

---

Also works if you tag the edge of the ramp first, and then copy the spot slope to the middle of the ramp. No need to create the floor.

[martijn_pater]

I was just wondering how subcategories are used by others, and wether or not I'm the only one who finds them useful essential, yet very buggy at the same time, ie. I find it useful to create subcategories for refplanes and turn them on/off to keep my workviews clean.

----
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/subcategory-change-when-cut/td-p/9056572
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/possibly-fix-subcategories/idi-p/9075986
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/reigning-in-subcategories/idi-p/8685419

[martijn_pater]

I was just wondering how subcategories are used by others, and wether or not I'm the only one who finds them useful essential, yet very buggy at the same time, ie. I find it useful to create subcategories for refplanes and turn them on/off to keep my workviews clean.

----
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/subcategory-change-when-cut/td-p/9056572
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/possibly-fix-subcategories/idi-p/9075986
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/reigning-in-subcategories/idi-p/8685419

[ARCH-SADEQ]

Great job

[ARCH-SADEQ]

Great job