Sheet Composition - Guide Grid - Suggestion

[capu57XX5R9]

I would like to propose that you make some changes to the guild grid under the View Tab - Sheet Composition.

Instead of limiting the grid to just being an specific dimension for both X & Y axis I propose 3 changes

1. Ability to sent X and Y separately.
2. Ability to just set the # of rows/columns you want and it figures out what the dimensions should be.  
3. Would also be nice if you could align the grid boarder with your title block boarder.  Doing that along with #2 it could parametrically adjust the column/row dimensions to equal the requested # of columns and rows.  If I draw a small grid square and say I was 4 Columns and 3 Rows. It will show exactly that.  I then stretch the boarder to 3 times the size it will still show 4 columns and 3 rows but will adjust width and height to match the new border dimensions. 

So basically when you make a grid you could do so by dimensions OR but column/row count. 

[angela_bachetti]

The sheet grid guides are only square. We want them to be different height and width.

[keldar67]

Yes this would be great, I like the use of guide grids especially on high riser projects where plan position is important on the sheet, but multiple plans and details sometimes need different spacing horizontally and vertically.

It would be good also if as an additional option, a custom grid could be configured...???

Thanks

[krzystoff]

Revit's Guide Grids are a good idea, but they still remain largely unusable for all but the most rudimentary sheet layouts.  The spacing can be changed, but the custom nature of the guide grid is limited to a square spacing, not a customized one.  Amongst others, Adobe InDesign has an infinitely superior arrangement for setting out sheets, simply click on the Ruler positions with the crosshairs and click to place a snapping Ruler Guide which is visible across the layouts but remains non-printable. The positions can be anywhere on the layout, with as many or as few guides as you need, (rather than Revit's current option to fill the sheet with distracting blue squares that are not readily snappable / useful).

[lionel.kai]

This is a duplicate of Grid Guides as well as the higher-voted (and broader idea) More control over view placement on sheets (which has been "Under Review" for nearly TWO YEARS! ARGH!!).

BTW, It's much easier to just use <Invisible lines> in the Titleblock. You can also set their visibility to an instance parameter if having them selectable gets distracting. The only use I can think of for Guide Grids is to check if the Titleblock's been moved from the origin (since the Guide Grid doesn't move).

[kryzstof]

@lionel.kai thanks for your input -- I searched for 'Grid Guides' before posting this, and though an unequal grid is part of the idea as per grid-guides, I think it ought to go much further like your second example under review (if Autodesk ever does implement this update).

Your suggestion of the Invisible Lines is something our firm explored in the past, but ditched it as it is not a readily customisable option for different types of sheets or scales (sections vs elevations vs floor plans vs details, etc). Also if you have more than a few people using it, the invisible lines will usually get forgotten, as they are not visible (so users aren't aware of them), and it makes it hard to snap onto the locations you want to place things.
To be really useful Guide Grids need to allow dynamic mouse placement, not a simple numeric spacing, and for all 2D elements (detail lines, text boundaries, images, titleblocks, symbols and view crop regions) to snap onto them.

InDesign has a near-perfect system, that has yet to be improved on since Adobe introduced it decades ago.  ArchiCAD has a fairly pedestrian Layout program that was introduced in the 90s, back when AutoCAD users were still figuring out plotstyles -- AutoCAD now works pretty well with visible snapping grids and non-printing linetypes on layouts, but Revit is still lumbering on with version 1.0 function.  Hopefully the 'Under Review' becomes 'Implemented' by the next release of Revit.

[GertjanvandenbroekVKAE]

I love this idea.

But I wonder. Perhaps a similar effect could be achieved using a detail item family.

Perhaps with a fixed number of dividing lines and all distances between these lines bound to instance parameters?
Or a 3x3 grid scalable in any aspect ratio, nothing would prevent you from making or placing more than 1 grid.

[kryzstof]

AFAIK Detail families cannot be loaded into a sheet, the closest would Annotation Symbol Families. I can make a Symbol family with repeating, adjustable lines then place it on Sheets and size to the Titleblock.
However this has most of the same limitations, namely:
- the invisible lines are non-printable, yet as they are not visible most users (eg. in a mid-sized firm) would not see or use them
- the align tool does not work with Symbol lines, nor does it allow selection of view boundaries, schedule borders, annotative text / text borders either placed on the Sheet or inside a view
- none of these same elements snap to the Symbol lines, (they only snap to elements of their own kind)
- making their positions dynamic so users can simply add and remove them as needed is infeasible.

I imagine something like Reference Lines would help solve this, but with the ability to Group/Assembly/Array and copy/paste between Sheets in different projects, along with the essential Sheet & View element snapping requirements.

[dtpeter2901]

I would be great if we could just get an X and Y spacing set.  That's really all I'm asking for.  I'm sure this isn't the first or only request and would seem like an easy thing to check off of a to-do list for a programmer.

Without this little "feature", guide grids will likely continue to go unused and sheets will either looking like a pattern test from a shotgun at a trap range or we'll continue to see 1000 variations of people adding lines to the sheet, to the sheet family or creating some other method to accomplish the same task.

[Thierry.A]

It would be useful to be able to apply different values in X and Y for the spacing of the guide grids. (Ex. 210 x 297mm)

[l.smithPXEUL]

We created a series of lines in our sheet files and use on/off parameters to display or not...

When working thru placement of views on sheets we use the sheet type with Grids on.

When ready to plot - select one sheet / right click and select all instances in entire project and switch to Grid off.

Very quick to do...just a bit of set up when creating your sheets. (add parameters Grid on  and Grid off)

Select the lines and assign parameter.

[mcooperVK8GU]

Agreed absolutely -- InDesign has figured it out and for anyone who works in both that and Revit the contrast between the two when laying out a sheet is stark. Seems like a very basic feature. 

[miket]

That would be great, wouldn't it?  But I'm not holding my breath it will ever happen.