How to Reference Multiple Detail Views from a Single Revit Callout

One of the great things about Revit is that annotation is linked to the objects it annotates, whether that is a component, view, etc. The Callout tool allows us to draw a boundary and directly reference the view, or detail, that this refers to.

Sometimes, however, you might have more than one detail that is pertinent to that callout area. This often happens when keynoting, but can happen for detailing purposes as well. So, how can you add multiple Revit callout symbols to a single callout?

This seems like a pretty straightforward request, but the problem is that Revit doesn’t allow you to simply place an annotation symbol that links to a detail view without actually drawing the rectangle that defines the callout area. In this case, we don’t want multiple boundaries — just one. What we want is to have multiple callout symbols to allow us to point to different details.

Some firms have created a separate annotation symbol that contains a parameter that can be manually set to reference the detail number. I don’t care for this method as it’s very non-BIM. If the detail view ever gets moved or assigned a different number, the callout does not automatically update, but has to be adjusted manually.

The trick — albeit a fairly kludgy hack, is to draw the boundary, which Revit forces us to do, but make the rectangle as small as humanly (should I say, Revitly) possible. You then have to adjust the leader to shrink that down as well. It still leaves behind a trace of itself, but this generally doesn’t show up on plots.

Yes, it’s a hack, but it works, and the great thing is that it keeps its hyperlinked association with the view that it references. All go for BIM.

Check out the video for the step by step:

Multiple Detail Callout Symbols on a Revit Callout Boundary from Patrick Villella on Vimeo.

Sometimes, when trying to get Revit to do something we want it to do but it really isn’t designed for, you have to wonder that maybe the designers imagined a different workflow than we are hoping to achieve. This is one of those examples. While explaining this method to a good Project Architect friend of mine, he brought up the point that maybe you shouldn’t ever be referring to more than one detail with a callout to begin with. His point, which I think is well founded, is that if you need to reference the info in both of those details for one part of the building, why not just make sure that all the needed info is in one detail to begin with. I know that builders don’t appreciate having to jump from sheet to sheet, trying to piece together the complete info they need to construct something. This might be what the Revit development team had in mind to begin with.

That being said, I think there are still times when it would be useful to reference multiple details or views and I like the flexibility of deciding for myself what is the best method to take. Maybe future releases of Revit will give us a simple Option Bar control that lets us easily choose whether we want the boundary or not — rather than resorting to a bit of a hack.

Showing elements from a ceiling plan in a floor plan

From time to time it’s nice to see overhead items in a Revit floor plan. Dropped ceilings, soffits, light fixtures, etc. are all useful to see in plan view, especially when arranging furniture and such.

Here’s a great and incredibly simple technique to show these items in plan using whatever line style you choose, while still maintaining the connection to the actual ceiling elements. I’ve found some designers simply using drafting lines to create these items in plan, but this is a non-BIM way of doing things, since there is no real connection between the items in plan and the elements in the RCP. Sure, you could constrain and lock them, but the following method is much simpler.

What’s the trick? Well, it makes use of Underlay, setting the orientation to Reflected Ceiling Plan, then using the Linework tool. The slick thing is that once you’ve overridden the line style, you can shut off the underlay and the lines you’ve modified are still visible. Nice, right?

I’m sure that’s enough to get a lot of you going, but here are the step by step details in a quick Revit tutorial.

Revit Tutorial – Show Elements from a Ceiling Plan in a Floor Plan View

Revit - Standard Reflected Ceiling Plan View

Here is a standard Revit reflected ceiling plan. We’ve got an acoustic tile ceiling with an overhead lighting fixture in the conference room.

Revit - Standard Floor Plan

As you know, by default in a Revit floor plan view, no ceiling items are shown.

Revit - Turn on Underlay with RCP Orientation

Set Underlay to Level 1 (same level) and make sure the Underlay Orientation is set to Reflected Ceiling Plan

Revit - Linework Tool

Use the Line Work tool from the Modify panel of the Ribbon to change the appearance of the edge of elements you’d like to be visible in the floor plan. You’ll notice that there is an Overhead style that exists for this very purpose.

Revit - Overhead Line Style

Piece of cake, right? Simple choose ‘Overhead’ from the Line Style drop down (or whatever line style you prefer) then click the edge of the element you want to be visible. You’ll see the line change from halftone (underlay style) to a dark line with whatever line style you choose.

Revit - Ceiling Elements in Floor Plan

Here’s the finishing touch! Turn off Underlay in the View Properties. Presto! The lines that we modified with the Line Work tool are still visible. Sweet, right?

Autodesk Project Varsari Technology Preview

Autodesk Project Vasari – Importing Site Images.

Want to see something really easy? Take a look at Project Vasari. Besides looking just like a Revit toolset, it works as a conceptual site studies tool too. In addition, it imports results into Revit.

First off, as anything else related to BIM, you need to set the location. Since we will depend on linking that information in, look at the location showing as Boston MA under the Viewcube. Clicking on this and setting the location will get us started. 

When we click on the location we are presented with a Map of Boston, just type in the Project address or at least the city and state.

In my case I am using CADsoft Tempe office address at 1295 W. Washington St Tempe AZ after which we will then click import site image into another dialog box.

Then import the image again into Project Varsari. If you have been using Revit’s location tools to set the buildings to sites this will be pretty straightforward

After which the active level will then receive the image and you are all set to start using the image as a tracing of existing forms of the site for contextual studies, sun/shadow analysis, etc.

Set the viewcube to top and then trace the outline of the existing building. Nothing to it.

Using Revit like massing tools and gizmos enables rapid learning and adoption across differnt or not so different platforms.

I can’t believe how easy our work is getting with BIM. Sign up for this technology preview and try it out it’s free and easy!

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/vasari/

Navisworks 2012 Display Tips

New application releases sometimes change what we are used to seeing in our display windows.  Somewhere along the line we forgot that we changed what was originally the default, or something new in the software has been added, or maybe, we simply never used the feature before.  In Navisworks 2012, some new avatars have been added and the display, at least on all of our machines show the third-person avatar mode by default.  Certainly a little annoying if you do not use these much or at all.  Don’t forget about the Options dialog for we can turn this off as “our default” if we like.  Do so by opening the Options dialog from the Application drop-down menu.  Choose Viewpoint Defaults under Interface and select the Settings button under collision.  Here you can deselect Enable for Third Person so that he/she won’t appear when starting a new project.  Of course you can select which avatar to use when starting a project as well.

Another possible bother is the orbiting of your view.  If you’re like me – old school – I use the Shift+mouse wheel to orbit in my model views for all products.  When I do this in a fresh, new Navisworks project I get unwanted results.  Even though, again, there are Options dialog settings, I like to hit PgUp after loading the first file (Navisworks zoom extents) and then my orbit method works as desired.

Control visibility of masking region linework in Revit

While creating a custom office furniture family set for a client a while back, I had the need to control the appearance of boundary lines in a Revit masking region.

On the surface, it seemed like something pretty easy to do. While in Sketch Mode for the masking region, you can select the boundary line you want to paramaterize to control its visibility and add a Yes/No field to it. You can check out the accompanying image to see how I attempted this. Seems like it would do the trick, right?

The problem is that it just flat doesn’t work. For some reason, the Visibility parameter doesn’t apply to masking region boundaries. I fought with the masking region a bit before eventually, I figured out a pretty easy work around. It was one of those things I figured out while deep in the middle of a family creation project that saved the day, but I didn’t take the time to put together a blog post or video to share it with my fellow Reviteers.

Well, Jose over at Andekan has created a great (while lengthy) video showing the problem and the work around. Check it out, after this brief description of the solution. Here’s the trick:

You can’t control the visibility of a Revit masking region boundary with a parameter.

Instead, change the linework of the boundary lines that you need to control to ‘Invisible’. Now they will never be seen. Exit sketch mode for the masking region.

Next, draw new Symbolic Lines over the top of them. Guess what? Symbolic Lines CAN have a parameter that controls their visibility!

You should be able to take it from there. If you want to see a great step by step, check out the video from Andekan. Also, be sure to check out their high quality custom Revit families. These guys do a great job of creating powerful and parametric Revit content.