Restore the contextual Options Bar for MEP creation tools (Pipe, Duct, Conduit & Cable Tray)

[gergely_dunajcsik]

Problem

Revit 2027 removed the contextual Options Bar that appeared while creating Pipes, Ducts, Conduits and Cable Trays.

In previous versions of Revit, the most frequently used creation parameters were available in one compact location directly below the Ribbon. This included values such as:

• Diameter / Width / Height
• Elevation
• Justification
• Level
• Offset
• Other tool-specific creation options

This interface allowed MEP designers to modify these parameters instantly while modeling, without moving the cursor away from the drawing area.

In Revit 2027, these settings have been split between the Ribbon and the Properties palette. Some options remain on the Ribbon (such as Offset), while others, including Diameter and Elevation, have been moved to the Properties palette. As a result, parameters that used to be available together are now scattered across different parts of the interface.

Impact

For MEP designers, this is a significant workflow regression.

When designing piping, ductwork, conduit or cable tray systems, sizes and elevations are changed continuously throughout the day. It is common to switch between multiple pipe or duct sizes and elevations hundreds of times during a project.

The previous contextual Options Bar provided immediate access to all of these parameters in a single location, making modeling fast and efficient.

The new workflow requires additional mouse movement, extra clicks, and constant switching between the drawing area and the Properties palette. This slows down daily modeling without adding any new functionality.

Suggestion

Please restore the contextual Options Bar for MEP creation tools (Pipe, Duct, Conduit and Cable Tray), or provide an option that allows users to enable the classic workflow.

This is not a request for a new feature.

It is a request to restore an efficient and well-established workflow that many MEP professionals relied on every day.

The previous design significantly improved productivity by keeping all frequently used creation parameters in one place during modeling. Bringing it back as an optional interface would preserve the benefits of the new UI while allowing experienced users to continue working efficiently.

Summary

One of the key goals of Revit 2027 was to improve performance and streamline the modeling workflow. However, removing the contextual Options Bar has had the opposite effect for many MEP users. It was one of the most efficient parts of the interface, providing immediate access to frequently used creation parameters during modeling. Restoring it as an optional feature would preserve the modern UI while allowing experienced users to maintain a fast and efficient workflow.

[Pamela.JimenezM]

Please restore the contextual Options Bar for MEP tools. When drawing pipes, we need to see and modify the diameter and elevation immediately in one visible location. Moving these controls to Properties and the ribbon requires more clicks, interrupts the workflow, and significantly reduces productivity. Please restore the original bar or allow users to enable it as an optional interface.

[lhauswirth]

Commenting here to increase engagement with this post, as recommended by Revit Support, in hopes that the software design team will reconsider this change.

Removing the Options Bar adds clicks, slows workflow, and creates unnecessary friction for MEP designers. The previous workflow was faster and more intuitive for tasks we perform repeatedly throughout the day. I strongly support restoring the contextual Options Bar for MEP creation tools.

[jgombert]

Removal of the contextual options bar is a significant hinderance to normal, efficient duct system design. Please restore this functionality as soon as possible. Looking for property values in multiple places when they have been in one concise location for many, many versions of Revit is a big problem for those of us who have to use the software to actually produce design content day in and day out. As noted this is not a request for a new feature. It is a request for restoration of an existing, integral part of MEP design.

[Susana_Duarte_LMSI]

Yup... Why fix something that was not broken, when you have a backlog of stuff to fix from 10+ years ago. That fix has broken stuff even beyond just the button position - it has broken the tools (see the problem with changing MEP type when fittings have shared components issue that started in R2026).

[leszekgrzeczkowskiY9S4Y]

changing diameter of whole pipe branch with 100's of fittings is a nightmate now. Sometimes i have to do it couple of times per day. I've stopped using Revit 2027 recently and get back to 2026

[t.archambault]

As usual, no consideration for MEP users. Except when it's time to pay.

[keith6TC5W]

Please restore the contextual options bar.  This is a SIGNIFICANT loss of functionality.  What used to take an instant now takes a few seconds.... that is going backward in workflow.

[Chris_forry]

The data, from my own journal files

I parsed my Revit journals rather than guess. One small residential project in 2027, wall-heavy architectural work: 231 Properties palette round trips across 11.5 hours of active modeling. Twenty per hour.

That's one project, not a controlled study. But those 231 trips are logged events, and every one of them is a trip the Options Bar absorbed inside the live command. Scale twenty an hour to a 200-unit multifamily permit set and you can do the arithmetic yourself.

Why "we consolidated duplicates" is the wrong description

The two controls were never doing the same job.

The Options Bar was command-scoped. It appeared because a command was running, in a fixed single-row position, and I changed values inside the live command without ending it. Muscle memory worked because the target never moved.

Properties is selection-scoped. It's a variable-height list whose field positions shift with element type and scroll state, so there's no fixed target to learn. You set a value before or after a command, not during it.

Same value, different interaction model. Removing one and pointing at the other isn't consolidation, it's deletion with a redirect.

Your own workaround documents the regression

Autodesk support's guidance for vertical stub up is: assign a keyboard shortcut to Create Riser, and confirm the elevation has been applied in Properties before entering the shortcut.

That confirmation step did not exist in 2026. The elevation was in the Options Bar, visible, inside the command. Now the supported workflow requires me to go verify a value somewhere else first. The official fix contains the problem.

This is bigger than the MEP scope on this ticket

This idea is filed under Pipe, Duct, Conduit and Cable Tray, so I expect it's being triaged as an MEP issue. It isn't one.

Walls lost the same thing. Location line (wall centerline, core centerline, finish face exterior and interior, core face exterior and interior), plus chain, offset and radius. Laying out a floor plate means flipping between core face and centerline constantly, mid-chain, and that was one glance and one click without leaving the command. That's where my 231 trips came from, and not one of them was a pipe.

If you're counting votes on this thread to size the impact, you're counting MEP users and missing every architectural user hitting the identical problem on walls. The real affected population is larger than this thread shows.

What we're actually asking for

Not a rollback. Not a new feature. A toggle.

Ship the Options Bar off by default, in the UI options where the rest of the interface preferences live. New users get the interface you designed. Production users check a box and keep working at speed. Your design direction survives intact and this thread goes away.

The code for that bar shipped in 2026. This is the cheapest goodwill available to the Revit team this cycle.

Why I bothered writing this

13 years in Revit, licensed journeyman plumber, CPD, currently designer of record on a 200-unit permit set. I'm not attached to an old button position. I parsed my own logs because I wanted to know whether the slowdown I was feeling was real before I complained about it.

It's real. It's twenty interruptions an hour on the work we do most, and the people it hits hardest are the ones producing the drawings that justify the seat.