Introducing Revit Architecture 2010, BIM for Beginners: Chapter 2 - Getting Acquainted with the Revit Interface and File Types

3.31.10 5:40-6:08 pm 28mins
Introducing Revit Architecture 2010, BIM for Beginners
Chapter 2 ■ Getting Acquainted with the
Revit Interface and File Types
- Setting up your project environment

"Project Units
...From the Manage tab in the
Project Settings panel, choose Project Units to open the dialog box s...where you can
set the measurement units, rounding convention (number of decimals), and suffixes for length, area, volume, and angle. You can also define the way you measure slopes — in rise or angle degrees — as well as the symbol used for the decimal division (point or comma)."


"Snaps
...define snaps by choosing the Manage tab, Project Settings panel and expand the Settings button to find the Snaps settings. In the resulting dialog box, you can turn the snaps on or off globally, set a variety of snap types, and specify the angular and length increments at which the system will snap.
...Snap Overrides ...during creation of elements. Right-click when drawing a wall, and you can override any of the project definitions for Snap by choosing Snap Overrides and selecting the option you need."

"Close
If an element you’re drawing is part of a chain (connected lines or walls) and is a valid open loop, you can close it by selecting the Close command from the context menu: Snap Shortcuts, Close.
You can access the same function with the keyboard shortcut SZ."

NOTE
"the system is preset to straighten out lines or walls drawn in small angles. This is helpful when creating new projects, but it can be an issue when you’re working with existing projects, especially surveyed properties or old buildings. If you import a .dwg from such a project, Revit will automatically make something like a 0.00005-degree angle into a 0- or 90-degree angle, and this might affect the final precision of your outcome."

NOTE
"Snap is on by default. If you are creating a project of an existing building and are drawing it directly in Revit, turning off Snap will be helpful; otherwise, Revit will force you to round angles to the first minimum snap angle defined."

"Line Weights
Revit has a global setting for displaying line thicknesses on the screen and the printed page. Revit provides independent control over cut and projected line weights on a per-category basis, giving you a great deal of flexibility. For example, cut lines for walls are often represented with thicker lines than walls in elevation. You can choose from 16 preset line weights that range from very thin to very thick.
Revit does an excellent job of presetting these line weights to produce a good graphical display of your model on the printed page. We don’t recommend manipulating the dialog box shown in Figure 2.82; however, if you’re unhappy with the print quality of the line weights, you can access the values in this dialog box and make changes by selecting the Manage tab and in the Project Settings panel, click Settings and then click Line Weights."

"Object Styles
Line colors and styles are defined in the Object Styles dialog box.
To access this dialog box, select the Manage tab, and in the Project Settings panel click Settings and then click Object Styles.
...each Revit element has an assigned line weight number that corresponds to what is defined in the Line Weights dialog box. The line weights chosen for Projection (elevation) and Cut can vary depending on your requirements. You can also define line color and line pattern for each category here."

"Options
The Options button in previous versions of Revit was also located under Settings, but in the new Revit 2010 UI it has been moved to the Application Menu.
...you will find a variety of other options for using Revit.

The tabs for this function include the following:
General - ...set your save-reminder intervals and your username. By default, your username is the same as your Windows login name.

Graphics - ...you can change some of the settings for your graphics card and the screen colors in Revit. ...by default has a white screen with black lines (the inverse of AutoCAD). ...specify selection and highlight colors, and
enable anti-aliasing for 3D views.

File Locations - ...stores the location of your default paths for templates, user files, and most important, paths to your family libraries. The path you defined for your Revit families is the one that you will be linked to when you choose the Load Family option, which becomes available upon selection or creation of any of the Revit elements (try Window as an example). You can add new links to personal library folders as well.

Rendering - ...shows you the default installation path to the new rendering library,
used when you render views. ...also where you can add additional material libraries,
as well as licensed ArchVision (photorealistic rendering entourage) content.

Spelling - ...allows you to specify various settings for automated spelling and indicate the dictionary that you want to be used. You can leave the default Revit dictionary or switch to a Microsoft Office dictionary, change the language settings, and add other dictionaries.

SteeringWheels - ...offers various controls over the visibility of the SteeringWheel,
its size and opacity on the screen, and some additional settings, such as the Zoom and Orbit settings. You can also access these settings by clicking Options in the Wheel context menu (the Options dialog box opens with the SteeringWheels tab selected).

ViewCube - ...allows you to set the appearance of the ViewCube as well as some
behavioral and scene settings..."

Introducing Revit Architecture 2010, BIM for Beginners:Chapter 1 - Types of Elements in Revit

3.28.10 8:25-9:05am
Introducing Revit Architecture 2010, BIM for Beginners
Chapter 1 ■ Understanding BIM
- Types of Elements in Revit

"
Types of Elements in Revit
Every parametric object in Revit is considered a family. ...The categories are divided into two primary buckets: model categories and annotation categories."

"organizes all the data in the model using building industry-specific classifications. ...manages relationships among classes of elements as well as their graphical display. ...fixed list of categories...and a generic category to which unusual, nonstandard elements can be assigned. Every element...belongs to one of these fixed categories."

"Model categories include all physical object types typically found in buildings. All 3D families will use one of these categories...elements that don’t fit into the Revit categorization system, the generic model category can be used."

"Annotation categories are all the annotations, symbols, text, and other 2D data added to a view to describe how the building is to be constructed. ...annotations are view specific and appear only in the view they were created in."
"To view all the model and annotation categories, select the Manage tab and from the
Settings panel, select Object Styles. ...Below each category can be many subcategories. ...elements. you can add or remove subcategories when creating or editing families. The beauty of this system is that you can control the visibility and graphics of each subcategory independently. This allows you to use different line weights for different subcomponents of families.

Controlling the Visibility of Elements
"Instead of using layers, Revit uses object categories’ view-specific settings to control how a drawing looks. The Visibility/graphic Overrides dialog box,...lets you control visibility of categories on a view-by-view basis. For example, instead of putting door handles on their own layer so they show only in high-scaled detailed views, Revit has commands to control the visibility of elements per view. If you don’t want to show the fine-grained details of an element, such as door handles and hardware, you can change the level of detail for your view..."

"Families in Revit
Independently of whether it’s a model or annotation category, a Revit element (from now on, family) can be a system family, a component family, or an in-place family.

System Families
"Examples of system families are walls, roofs, floors, ceilings, stairs, railings, ramps, and mullions. To create a system family, you must be in the project environment (you will not be able to create system families in the Family Editor). To make new, additional types of these families, you need to duplicate an existing family of the same type and modify it. So, to create a new wall type, for example, you must duplicate an existing wall, change its name, and then change the properties of the wall."
"...you cannot save a system family to a shared library as a
standalone component, it is possible to transfer these families between projects. To reuse system families from one project to another, select Manage ➔ Transfer Project Standards, then choose the category you want to transfer."

"Component Families
Component families (sometimes called standard families) are created outside of the project environment — still in Revit, but in a specific environment called the Family Editor. Component families have their own file format extension (.rfa) and can be stored or edited as separate files independent of a model, and then loaded at any time into a project."

"In-Place Families
In-place families are custom objects that are specific to a certain context within the model. A complex railing fence on a site is an example of an in-place family. ...Avoid making in-place families if you plan to reuse the family, or have multiple instances of it in the project."