Category Archives: BIM Essentials

BIM Essentials Tip #3

09 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in BIM Essentials, Tips & Tricks

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Okay, seriously, who’s responsible for the time machine? I swear I just got back from RTC, and now it’s almost time for AU 2016. Some of this is probably due to the fact that, for the first time since I’ve been attending AU, it’s before Thanksgiving. The rest is because life and work have been running non-stop all year…and I don’t think it’s about to change! Better busy than bored, right?

Before I send a lot of visionary posts at you next week, with all the big ideas I’m sure we’ll hear at AU, here’s another small-but-important entry in the BIM Essentials series.

If you’re opening a workshared model with Revit Viewer, use Detach from Central.

At first glance, this sounds redundant. Why would you have to detach your model, when you can’t save your changes anyway?

As a reminder:

Viewer mode allows all functionality of Revit, except the following: save or save as in all cases; exporting or publishing modified projects; exporting or publishing any projects to a format containing model data that can be modified; or printing projects after changes are made.

If all you want to do is look at things, you don’t have to detach. But if you try to change something–cut a new section, rotate a 3D view, change Visibility Graphic overrides–while in Viewer mode, Revit will check back with the central model for permission first. And it won’t get it–because you’re in the viewer mode!

CentralModelInaccessible.png

Detaching the model means it won’t try to check out objects, and won’t trigger that error.

Revit Viewer does try to warn you about that when you open a model, but we know not everybody reads every warning…

viewerwarning

Side note: Even if you do detach, if you have linked models you’ll still get this warning. The dialog won’t tell you that it’s related to the link, but it is.

Maybe some of you have your own dedicated Revit licenses, so you don’t need to worry about this. But if you use network licenses (or if you have friends who do), and you use the Viewer when you don’t want to take up a license, keep this tip in mind!

BIM Essentials Tip #2: Override View Templates

07 Tuesday Jul 2015

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Even if you’re a big fan of View Templates (like I am), there comes a time when they’re in the way. Really, that time can be several times a day! Instead of turning off the template entirely–and then having to remember to put it back–use template overrides instead.

VToverride

Revit 2014 added this handy tool to the status bar and included two options: Enable Temporary View Properties and Temporarily Apply Template Properties. The first one just unlocks all the Visibility Graphics options for you to modify at will. The second lets you use the properties of a pre-existing template. For example, I have a “coordination” template that does nothing except turn on linked models in halftone–I use that one as a temporary override all the time.

And when you pick a template to use as an override, Revit remembers it! That template stays in your status bar menu for easy access later.

VTtemplate

When you’re done, simply “Restore View Properties”. The purple border (indicating an overridden template) will go away, your original template will be restored, and you’re back to business as usual.

BIM Essentials Tip #1

25 Thursday Jun 2015

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The theme of this series of posts will be “bite-sized BIM” — easily digestible tips, tricks, and hints to help everyday Revit users be more productive.

Tip #1: View Templates

View Templates are a favorite tool of BIM Managers, because they provide control over the graphic settings for plotted views. Turn on or off a linked model, override the graphics for a model category, use filters to select specific objects — it’s all there. Also available are additional parameters for sorting view within the Project Browser, so you can keep your Working, Printed, and Coordination views separate.

1B   1A

Anything with its box checked in the right-hand image above cannot be modified in the regular Visibility Graphics dialog. So if you’re trying to change a graphics setting in your view and can’t…look for a view template! (But don’t change that template without talking to your model manager.)

If you enjoyed this first course, be sure to stay tuned…there’s plenty more where this came from!