REVIT6.

BASIC OVERVIEW FOR CREATING WORKING DRAWINGS WITHOUT LAYERS

To explore how Revit works without layers, well use a sample Revit file that ships with the program. 1. Launch Autodesk Revit. 2. From the main menu bar, select File > Open. 3. Navigate to the Revit folder, the Training subfolder, and finally, the Common subfolder. (See below for example location on my desktop).

4. Open the Townhouse file

Note: If for some reason you dont have this file, choose another sample file having a multiplelevel building model.

Controlling Element Visibility

Now lets suppose that you only want to look at wall elements on a certain level. To do that, youll have to turn off the display of all the other elements. Heres how: 1. Double-click the 1st Floor item under the Floor Plans in the Project Browser. All the building elements for this level display in the document window to the right of the browser area

See below a display of all building elements shown on the document window for the 1st Floor level of the Townhouse file.

2. Right-click in the document window and select the View Properties option from the contextual menu that appears. The Element Properties dialog box for this view opens

Note: You can also open this dialog box by right clicking the 1st Floor item in the Project Browser and selecting the Properties option from the contextual menu that appears.

3. Go to the Instance Parameters section, and click the Edit button next to the Visibility parameter. The Visibility/Graphic dialog box opens at its Model tab This dialog box lists all the different element types available in a Revit model, grouped under three broad categories: modelling elements, annotation elements, and imported DWG/DXF/DGN elements.

The first column in the table on the Model Categories tab lists all the different categories of building elements. When you create an element in Revit, it is automatically assigned to the correct category for that level; you dont have to define a layer and create elements on it as you would do in a traditional CAD program. 4. Click the Select All button to select all the building elements in the list. 5. Clear the check box (click the ticks to deselect) of any element. Because all the elements are selected, this one action clears all the check boxes

6. Click the Select None button to deselect all the elements. All the categories become invisible in the document window. (Ill show you how to make them visible again in the next section.) 7. Scroll down the list to the Walls category. Select the check box next to it). This activates the Visibility attribute of this category only.

8. Now click the Annotation Categories tab and use the procedure described in Steps 4 to clear the visibility of all the annotation elements.

9. Click OK to exit the Visibility/Graphic dialog box. 10. Click OK again to exit the Element Properties dialog box, which returns you to the 1st Floor document window.

That window now displays only the wall elements on the 1st Floor level. When you are working with the Visibility/Graphic dialog box, keep in mind that; some of the element categories listed in this dialog box have subcategories (indicated by the + sign).

You can also manipulate visibility at the subcategory level by or clearing the associated check box. In addition to adjusting visibility, you can adjust various other attributes of an elements appearance such as Line Style, Halftone, and Detail Level. You can explore these on your own later. In our example, if you switch to a different view in the Project Browser, say 2nd Floor, you will find that all its elements are visible. The modifications you made to the 1st Floor view have no effect on this view. Autodesk Revit, unfortunately, does not have an option that would let you make changes globally across all views.

Hiding or Isolating Elements Temporarily

Revit softwares automatic categorization of elements is very convenient, saving you time and eliminating layer-type errors. However, this convenience, and the underlying intelligence making it possible, comes at a price you cannot organize elements at will. That means you cannot create a custom category comprising a set of elements. In this situation, you can apply the Revit Hide/Isolate feature to elements to approximate a custom category. But first, you have to make all the 1st Floor elements visible again (since you made all but one category invisible in the preceding section). 1. Return to the Visibility/Graphic dialog box for the 1st Floor view using Steps 2 and 3 in the preceding section. 2. Make all the 1st Floor view elements visible using Steps 4 and 5 in the preceding section. But this time, select, rather than clear, any check box to select all the elements. 3. Close the two dialog boxes youve opened to return to the1st Floor view window. All the elements are now visible

4. Click the Hide/Isolate icon on the Standard toolbar (or select the Hide/Isolate option from the View menu) to open the Temporary Hide/Isolate dialog box

5. On the Options bar for the Hide/Isolate tool, select the Inside radio button for Pick box (instead of accepting the Pick box default, which is Crossing).

6. Select a portion of the model by framing it with the mouse. If necessary, add to the selection by keeping the Ctrl key pressed down.

7. Click the Isolate Selected button in the Temporary Hide/Isolate dialog box. This action makes everything invisible except the elements you just selected.

8. Switch to the 3D perspective view in the Project Browser. The isolation of particular elements applies only to the view it was performed in; it is not global across all views.

9. To restore the visibility of all the elements in the 1st Floor view, switch back to that view (select 1st Floor under Floor Plans in the Project Browser) and click the Reset button in the Temporary Hide/Isolate dialog box.

By diminishing clutter and isolating the selected elements in this manner, you can work on them in detail more effectively when you need to. This method is analogous to having these elements on a separate layer in a traditional CAD program and turning off all other layers. But because the isolation is limited to one view rather than synchronized across all views, some design flexibility is lost. For example, you cannot quickly isolate a whole multilevel wing of a building, if that is required, and see just that portion in all plan, section, elevation, and 3D perspective views.

Locking Elements to Prevent Modification

The layer-locking capabilities in a traditional CAD program help prevent accidental drawing modifications. But Autodesk Revit software doesnt use layers, so, of course, it has no layer-locking feature. To approximate that function, Revit software has tools with which you can select individual elements and lock them in place. (You cannot lock categories of elements in Revit.) Follow these steps to lock an element: 1. In the 1st Floor view of the Project Browser, select a number of items by clicking on them individually or framing them with the mouse.

2. Click the Lock icon from the Edit toolbar (or select the Lock Objects option from the Edit menu) to lock all the selected elements.

3. Now try to move a locked element with the Modify tool. You cant.

4. To unlock the elements, select them all again and apply the Unlock Objects option from the Edit menu. You can also individual elements by clicking directly on the Lock icons associated with them in the document window. If you apply any of the modification tools on the toolbarMove, Rotate, or Mirrorto a locked element, the transformation is applied to a copy of the element. You can also delete a locked element after receiving a warning message that the element is locked. In that respect, locking an Element in Revit is not the same as locking a layer in a traditional CAD program.

Working drawings without layers

Autodesk Revit eliminates the need for layers by automatically organizing building elements by location in the model according to floor levels, where each level corresponds to a story at a certain vertical height. Furthermore, all elements on a level are grouped together by category. This is only possible, and entirely logical, in a building design program like Revit that deals with intelligent building objects rather than dumb graphic entities. Not having to worry about what layers to put objects in, can save you time as well as eliminate layer-type errors. As an alternative to layers, Revit provides tools for turning off the visibility of selected categories of elements and for isolating and locking selected elements, as you have seen in this tutorial. Thus, working without layers is possibleyou just have to adjust your mind-set. If you move to Autodesk Revit software without expecting it to behave like a traditional CAD program, youll do just fine. And youll also have a more logical and productive set of tools for building design and modelling.