Click the Application button, and select Save As ➢ Template, as shown in Figure 23.2.. In the Options dialog, click the File Locations tab, as shown in Figure 23.4.. 4 Finding the new t
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setting up the template
If you think you are going to start a real project with deadlines and budget with
no prior setup, you are going to fail So don’t If you take nothing away from this chapter other than this small bit of advice, it has been successful Granted, you don’t have to get it all, but you need as smooth of a transition as possible Also, once you start down the Revit path, don’t look back, and don’t say, “We can always just push it out to AutoCAD.” I have found that if you think you have something to fall back on, well, you will fall
You don’t have to spend weeks upon weeks preparing for the Coming of Revit You can knock this stuff out if you do it in an orderly fashion, and the first order
of business is creating your company’s templates
If you do nothing more than simply save the default template and give it your company name, you are off to a good start People who are jumping to a new way of working will be looking for any comfort they can find No, this is not like giving someone a sugar pill for a migraine, because we will populate the tem-plate with custom content
The objective of the following procedure is to save a default template and to
“map” Revit to this template
1 Open Revit.
2 In the Projects menu, click New, as shown in Figure 23.1.
3 Click the Application button, and select Save As ➢ Template, as shown
in Figure 23.2
4 Save this file to your network The file in our examples will be called
NER-TEMPLATE.rte You can call yours whatever you see fit
N O T E When I say save this file to your network, give this simple instruction some thought We will be mapping our network deployment to this directory also, don’t get into the habit of having errant templates scattered around your network that you are “practicing” on You will get confused (This author still needs to practice what he preaches regarding this matter.)
The file is now saved as NER-TEMPLATE.rte The rte extension indicates that you have indeed created a template and that you are now working in it
The next order of business is to tell Revit that every time you wish to start a new project, Revit should choose this template
1 Click the Application button At the very bottom of the menu, you
will see an Options button, as shown in Figure 23.3 Click it
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F i g u R e 2 3 1 Clicking New on the Projects menu
F i g u R e 2 3 2 Saving as a Revit template
2 In the Options dialog, click the File Locations tab, as shown in
Figure 23.4
3 For the default template file, click the Browse button, and locate your
newly saved template
So, it’s official You have a separate template for your company to get started
with Now the fun begins!
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F i g u R e 2 3 3 Finding the Options button
F i g u R e 2 3 4 Finding the new template
In your options, if
you go to the File
Locations tab, you
can map your revit
to always use this
template as your
default.
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The first item we will address for setting up this template to your company’s
standards is the nagging line-weight issue that has persisted throughout this
book You take care of this issue by managing your Revit settings
Managing settings
Given that Revit is such a robust, deep application, you would think that there
would be an endless stream of convoluted settings (like AutoCAD Architecture)
Although Revit has quite a few settings, you will find that they are
straightfor-ward In fact, the mapping of the default template is almost the only mapping
that you will need as you set up and work in Revit
The objective of this section is to locate the settings for your line weights and
then apply them to your object styles
1 In Revit, select the Manage tab on the Ribbon.
2 Click the Object Styles button as shown in Figure 23.5.
F i g u R e 2 3 5 Selecting Object Styles
3 With the Object Styles dialog open, notice that there are categories
Click on the + next to the Casework category, and you’ll see the
subcategories
To the right of the category field is the Line Weight column There is a
Projection and a Cut Projection refers to whether you view the item in plan,
elevation, or a 3D view Cut refers to whether you view the item in section (Boy,
this beats layers, huh?) Notice that you can change the line color, the pattern,
and the rendering material each item will use (see Figure 23.6)
Well, that was easy I wish I could tell you specifically what number to assign
each item, but that is up to you!
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F i g u R e 2 3 6 The Object Styles dialog
What do all those 1s and 2s mean? You’re used to seeing something like
“0.35mm” for a line weight, but now we are looking at plain numbers!
Don’t worry—Revit has it figured out You see, these numbers refer to a chart where you will see these familiar line weights Also, these are line weights that comply with NCS 4.0 standards
To find the line weights associated with the object styles, follow these steps:
1 On the Settings panel of the Manage tab, click Additional Settings ➢ Line Weights, as shown in Figure 23.7
In the Line Weights dialog (see Figure 23.8), notice that not only are numbers 1 through 16 assigned a pen thickness, but the thick-ness will actually degrade as the line weights get scaled down!
N O T E You may be inclined to start tampering with these line weights, but hold off doing that You are probably seeing the industry finally shifting
to some form of unified line weight system this is the NCS (National CaD Standards) these line weights are set to these standards Change the object styles all you want, but I recommend that you keep these pen assignments just the way they are
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F i g u R e 2 3 7 Clicking Additional Settings ➢ Line Weights
2 Click the Perspective Line Weights tab on the Line Weights dialog
Notice that you can alter your line weights for an object in a
perspec-tive view, independent of a standard plan, elevation, or isometric view
3 Click the Annotation Line Weights tab Again, notice that you can set
your line weights for your annotation This tab will come in handy as
you start to set up your templates Remember it is available
4 Click Cancel to leave this dialog.
I wish I could tell you that you don’t have tons of work ahead of you in terms of
trying to match your AutoCAD line weights, but many of you will be inundated with
the effort of adjusting line weights for quite a while You will have to make at least
some tweaks before you can submit a set of drawings with your name on them
That being said, suppose your submittal includes sending CAD files Hang on
here, we use Revit! You can do that?
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F i g u R e 2 3 8 The Line Weights dialog
import/export settings
Of course, you can import and export CAD files! The beauty of it is, you can import and export to a predefined set of layers This works wonders for firms that find themselves surrounded by “CAD people.”
The objective of this section is to learn how to deal with the issue of import-ing a CAD model into Revit, so follow along with this procedure:
1 Open the last model you have been working on At this stage of the
game, it does not matter which one
2 On the Insert tab, click on the down arrow in the lower-right corner
of the Import panel, as shown in Figure 23.9
3 In the Import Line Weights dialog, notice that all the line weights
are set to 1 This does not make for a very spectacular drawing At the upper-right corner of the dialog is a Load button, as shown in Figure 23.10 Click it
4 You will automatically be taken to the directory where you mapped
Revit to find your line weights files They are simple text (.txt) files Find the file called importlineweights-dwg-AIA.txt and click Open Your line weights have been adjusted, as shown in Figure 23.11
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F i g u R e 2 3 9 Clicking the down arrow on the Import tab
F i g u R e 2 3 1 0 Importing some line weights
5 Notice that you have a Save As button Change a few line weights
around and click the Save As button
As mentioned before, you will probably have a good amount of work to do
con-figuring these line weights If you have been sticking to the AIA or NCS layering
conventions, you will not have an issue If not, then you have some translating
to do!
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F i g u R e 2 3 1 1 The adjusted line weights
Great! We have importing down Suppose we want to export a Revit model to CAD It’s a little different, but the concept is the same You need to physically
map the Revit objects to AutoCAD or MicroStation layers or levels.
The objective of the next exercise is to examine export settings when sending
a model to CAD:
1 On the Application Menu button, select Export ➢ Options ➢ Export Layers DWG/DXF
In the Export Layers dialog notice that all of your Revit objects are represented and are given a unique layer name That layer name is also assigned an AutoCAD pen number This assigns the layer a color You can change both of these items in this dialog (see Figure 23.12)
Wa i t! i do n’t hav e th at Ch o i C e
When you click the Application button and look for an item, you will notice
an arrow in a wide blue strip at the bottom of the menu If you hover your pointer over this blue strip, you will see the menu scroll up so you can see more choices, as shown here:
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F i g u R e 2 3 1 2 The Export Layers dialog
2 In the Export Layers dialog, click the Standard button.
3 The Undefined Layering Standard dialog opens, as shown in Figure 23.13
Here you get a choice of four standards By default, the American Institute
of Architects Standard (AIA) will be current, but you can change to one of
the other three Choose a standard or click Cancel
F i g u R e 2 3 1 3 The four choices for standards
4 If you want to change your layering scheme, go right ahead Because
the AIA standard is saved to an external txt file, you will not have