Keyboard Shortcuts in Revit 2011

“Lest we forget…or were unaware.”  Undoubtedly, most Revit users utilize shortcut keys – how else did some of us navigate the change to ribbon functionality in 2010.  I admit liking the ribbon, but finding things after such change was difficult at times.  Oh the helpfulness of hotkeys!  But one thing I’ll admit to, mainly because of the required editing of the keyboardshortcuts.txt file prior to 2010, I never had the thought that someone would obviously create a shortcut for the “Keyboard Shortcuts” dialog box…big duh.  We often get into repetitive process and don’t look at the screen.  Remember one of the great things about the Revit UI is that any customized hotkeys appear in the hot tip with the command, if we just look.  I didn’t look until late last year that “KS” would bring up the dialog I needed without finding that item on the ribbon.

Hot Tip Reference

Don’t do like I – look, log, memorize…whatever – those hotkeys and use them.  Many a class I have reiterated the test case from AutoCAD long ago where two individuals performed exactly the same task, one using hotkeys, the other full command line entry.  In that case of old, the hotkey user saved two hours over an eight hour day.  What boss doesn’t love that kind of efficiency?

Shortcut keys are a real timesaver and should be customized to your workflow.  The 2011 Revit products allow us a couple areas of access for this optimization.

1.  The Windows panel of the View tab, choose User Interface and select Keyboard Shortcuts.

2.  The Options dialog from the Application drop-down menu, choose Customize next to Keyboard Shortcuts on the User Interface tab.

Ribbon Access

Options Dialog Access

Assign Shortcuts

Check out your User Guide for information of shortcuts functionality; there are some newer items.  Multiple assignments and using arrow keys to cycle through available ones, filtering the customization list, importing and exporting as xml files for user exchange, etc.  Definitely define some for coarse and fine detail level display, but when will we ever gain access to View Range?  Anyone know a secret?

Straighten Out Your Ribbon!

So you figured out that you can ‘tear off’ parts of the Revit 2010 ribbon interface, and place them where you want, did ya? In fact, you’re lucky enough to have 2 monster sized displays and you put some of your favorite and most often used panels on one screen while your model is on the other? Sweet!

You also figured out how to customize your QAT, or Quick Access Toolbar (from one of our great YouTube videos, of course). But now for some reason, your interface has gone a bit crazy. You want to go back to square one. How can you just restore the interface back to the factory settings? Easy! Just download this nifty script:

Autodesk Revit Architecture UI Reset.vbs (vbs – 6Kb)

This little nugget will set your Ribbon, QAT, and Project Browser back to Autodesk factory settings, and you’re ready to start tweaking again.
Be aware that this script removes a Windows Registry key and may delete a file on your computer. Use at your own risk! On the plus side, we’ve used it several times with no side effects. Nice!