This is typically done on a per-sheet basis by adding revision clouds around elements that are changing and documenting those changes in the title block.. The revision history of each sh
Trang 1Chapter 19 Tracking Changes in Your Model
Once a project is under way in the construction document phase, design changes need to be tracked This is typically done on a per-sheet basis by adding revision clouds around elements that are changing and documenting those changes in the title block The revision history of each sheet
is then tracked in the title block with a number, description, and issue date In this chapter, we will look at how to add new revisions, how to add clouds to sheets, how to assign a cloud to a revision, and some best practice tips and tricks We will also look at how to use the Autodesk Design Review application to pass comments and markups back and forth
In this chapter you’ll learn to do the following:
◆ Add revisions that automatically get tracked on sheets
◆ Create revision clouds
◆ Export your designs in a lightweight file format for review
Adding Revisions to Your Project
Revisions allow designers and builders to track changes made to a set of construction documents Typically, these changes begin getting recorded after a set of documents has been issued and per-mitted Since the construction documents typically consist of many, many sheets, this methodology allows everyone on the team to track and identify which changes were made and at what time in the construction process The purpose is not only correct construction but also creation of “as built” documentation at the end of the construction process
In a typical workflow, the revisions will look something like Figure 19.1 when they are created
in Revit and issued as part of the drawing set
Figure 19.1
A revision cloud and triangle tag 44831.book Page 601 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM
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To create a Revision, choose Settings Revisions This opens the Revisions dialog (Figure 19.2) From here you can add, delete, merge, issue, and define the behavior of revisions Let’s quickly go through the major elements of this important dialog
Figure 19.2
The Revisions dialog
The numbering method You can choose to number revisions By Sheet or By project, and this is
a global setting Which method you choose mainly depends on how your firm tracks revisions, but most firms tend to use the By Sheet option By Sheet allows you to have as many revisions
as you want, but on each sheet, the revision numbers always start with 1 In the example shown
in Figure 19.2, the tags and revision schedule are unique for each sheet, depending on what revi-sions are on each sheet The revirevi-sions on each sheet are presented sequentially, depending on which revisions are on the sheet Using By Project will tag your revision clouds based on the glo-bal sequence established within the project as a whole In this example, all revisions with the same issue date within the model would have the same revision number So you might skip a revision number on any given sheet
We recommend using the By Sheet setting at the beginning of each project You can also set this
up in your default office templates
The revision table The Revision Setting dialog starts with one default revision already in place, even though you may have not made a revision yourself This is just so that you have a place to start—no revision will appear in your title blocks until you add revision clouds to your drawings Each revision has a fixed number of parameters that you can fill out As you can see
in the dialog, they are fairly self-explanatory and include Release Date, Description, and an Issued check box in addition to an Issued To column and Cloud and Tag visibility options
Creating new revisions To create a new revision, click the New button The new revision will automatically be placed in sequential order Only the sequence number will be automatically updated You’ll need to add your own description and date
Issuing a revision To issue a revision, click the check box in the Issued column This will lock the revision clouds placed on sheets or in views associated with that revision from being moved, deleted, or otherwise edited The parameter values will gray out and become non-editable This 44831.book Page 602 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM
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is to guarantee that the clouds and data do not change downstream once you issue a set of draw-ings Keep this in mind: while the clouds can become fixed in the project, the model will not be
So, if you need to maintain an archive of all project phases and of each revision, be sure to export the sheets either as DWF or PDF files as a snapshot of the sheets at time of issuance
Visibility of revision clouds and tags The visibility of revision clouds and tags related to issued revisions is controlled from this dialog As issues occur, you may want to hide clouds or tags of previous revisions This is where the Visible parameter comes in handy For example, if you’ve issued a revision and then have additional revisions later, and want to de-clutter your drawing, you can choose to show the issued revision as the tag only (typically a small triangle with the revision number inside it, as in Figure 19.3) or not show anything at all by using the None option (Figure 19.4)
Figure 19.3
A revision tag
Figure 19.4
Use the Visible parameter to hide clouds and tags of issued revisions on your sheets
Combining revisions If you need to combine two revisions into one, use the Combine With Previous or Combine With Next button All associated revisions on sheets and tags will update automatically
Placing Revision Clouds
To place a revision, open a view in which changes to the model have occurred and to use the Revision Cloud tool found in the Drafting design tab Once you activate the tool, you will be dropped directly into sketch mode Start drawing lines around the area you are calling out as a revision in a clockwise direction Revit automatically creates a line that makes a “cloud” (or arc) as shown in Figure 19.5 When you’re finished creating the cloud, click Finish Sketch in the Design bar
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Figure 19.5
Clouds are drawn for you as you sketch
The graphics for revision clouds are controlled in the Object Styles dialog on the Annotation Objects tab, shown in Figure 19.6
Use this dialog to make revision clouds have thicker line weights, change patterns, or colors As
we mentioned in Chapter 4, this should be set up in your office templates in advance to guarantee consistency between projects
By default, each new revision cloud will be assigned to the last revision in the Revision Settings dialog If you need to change what revision a cloud belongs to, select the cloud and navigate to its element properties From there you can change the Revision parameter, as shown in Figure 19.7
As soon as you have placed a revision cloud onto a sheet, the revision schedule in your title block will update to include revision number, description, and the date that you assigned in the Revisions dialog box earlier
Tracking Revisions in the Title Block
The revision is typically a part of the architectural sheet and is located in a prominent position in the title block to alert readers to changes made in the documents These revisions can be incorporated into your title block design so they are parametrically read from the sheet into a revision table To see how
to add a revision schedule to a custom title block, refer to chapter 4
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Figure 19.6
You can change the graphic appearance of revision clouds globally using the Object Styles dialog
Figure 19.7
The revision cloud properties dialog 44831.book Page 605 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM
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Tagging a Revision Cloud
Revision clouds can be tagged like many other elements in Revit The tags are intelligent and designed to report the revision number that has been assigned to the cloud Place a revision tag using the Tag By Category option on the Drafting tab
If a tag for Revisions is not in your template, you will be warned that no tag exists in your project To continue, simply load an appropriate tag The default Revit tag is named Revision Tag.rfa and is located in the default Annotations folder that is created with a standard installation (Figure 19.8)
Figure 19.8
Load a revision tag if it’s not already part of your template
Once you have a tag loaded, you are ready to go Simply hover the cursor over a revision cloud and click to place the tag You will see a preview of the tag prior to placing Once the tag is placed, you can drag it around the cloud to reposition it and it will stay associated with the cloud
Customizing the Tag
If you want to customize the appearance of the default revision tag, simply select a tag already placed in the project and click the Edit Family button in the Options bar You could also follow the steps presented in Chapter 4 to make a custom annotation tag from scratch Editing the tag within the project will take you to the Family Editor where you can tweak its size, font, and appearance
Updates in Custom Title Blocks
If you are using the default Revit title blocks, updates will happen automatically If you are using custom title blocks, be sure you’ve added a revision schedule to them in the appropriate location so you can take full advantage of using a parametric model (See Chapter 4 for how to add revision schedules to your title block families.)
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Once you’ve made your customizations, save it to your local library, then load it into your project, and swap it with the default tag using the Type Selector
Disabling the Leader
You can choose to use a leader line between the tag and the cloud or not In many cases, the tag just needs to be near the cloud and a leader is not necessary Disable the leader by selecting the tag and unchecking the Leader option in the Options bar (shown in Figure 19.9)
Figure 19.9
A revision tag can be made to have no leader by using the Options bar
Parametric Modeling and Supplemental Drawings
The process of making supplemental drawings, or SDs, entails making a change to an existing drawing and then issuing that change as a separate package Sometimes this can be a single
81⁄2˝×11˝ sheet where the new detail is then pasted over the old one in the construction set in the job trailer From a workflow perspective, this can be a little disruptive in Revit for a couple of reasons:
◆ Placing the new detail into an 81
⁄2˝×11˝ or smaller sheet to issue the individual drawing can lead to other problems You will need to either remove the view from the sheet it was issued
on temporarily (and remember to put it back) or duplicate the view and hope that you do not need to make last-minute additional changes
◆ An SD, once issued, is like a snapshot in time It becomes a numbered change made to the drawing set at a given date Since the model and all the views in the model always reflect the most current state of the project, making separate SD sheets and views will show any addi-tional changes made to that view
As a best practice, some architects leave all of the revisions directly on the sheets where they were originally issued The sheets are printed to PDFs and the PDFs (with the revision clouds) are imported into Illustrator where they can be properly scaled and cropped to the view or detail in question and then placed on an 81
⁄2˝×11˝ template to be issued
Using Autodesk Design Review
Autodesk Design Review offers a fast, efficient way to view and mark up 2D and 3D designs for review This workflow is different than what we just covered, and is more geared toward informal design review, rather than management of sheet issues For example, if you need to have your drawings reviewed by a senior designer for quality checking and design review, this tool can streamline the process Once a DWF is published from Revit, it can be opened in Design Review, marked up, and then linked back into the Revit file, where changes can be picked up and tracked 44831.book Page 607 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM
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Tracking Changes in the Foundation Project
To see the change-tracking process in practice, you can try an example using the Foundation project Assume that you have already submitted a CD documentation set and, after some review with the cli-ent, have decided on some additional changes Imagine that you need to change some windows from sliders to casements
Another team member implements this change, and now you need it to be tracked on your sheet as a revision to the original document set
When you open the sample file, Foundation.rvt, from the Chapter 19 folder on the companion web-site (www.sybex.com/go/masteringrevit2008), you’ll see some markup notes on the sheet indi-cating the desired changes, along with the revised window design itself
You first open the Revisions dialog, click New to add a new revision, and give the revision a description: Window Modifications Click OK and move to the Drafting tab, where you select the Revision Cloud tool, sketch a cloud around the windows, and click Finish Sketch Then, to place a tag, you select the Tag By Category option, clear the Leader check box in the Options bar, and tag the revision cloud Your work-space should look like this
Notice the Revit revision cloud and tag In the title block, notice that a new entry appears in the revision schedule Your revision tag, the cloud, and the revision number are parametrically associated 44831.book Page 608 Friday, October 12, 2007 12:31 AM
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The DWF format allows you to share drawings and models with stakeholders with a lightweight and easy-to-use application The navigation and ability to hyperlink between views works well with Revit and is easy to learn
Design Review is a free tool that you can download from the Autodesk website: www.autodesk.com/ designreview
Once it’s installed, you can open any DWF file produced from other Autodesk products—such
as AutoCAD, Inventor, and AutoCAD Architecture—in addition to Revit
The Design Review User Interface
The interface for Design Review is straightforward, as shown in Figure 19.10 It contains a main view window, toolbar, and a navigator pane
Figure 19.10
The Autodesk Design Review interface
The view window The main window shows the active view Using the middle mouse button, you can zoom and pan If you are looking at a 3D DWF, you’ll also see the view navigation cube
in the upper-right corner of the view Use this cube to rotate the model by clicking on it, or you can hold the mouse down and rotate the cube Before you start rotating the model, make sure the orbit method is set to Turntable in the toolbar
This will keep your model rotating with the z-axis always pointing up If you use the Orbit option, your model will tumble around freely in space on all axes
The toolbar Located at the top of the application, it contains tools for spinning, zooming, panning, cutting cross sections, moving and rotating elements, and adding markups Feel free
to experiment with all of these features
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The navigator pane Located on the left side of the application, this feature is a lot like the Project Browser in Revit: it contains lists of all the views, components, element properties, mark-ups, and layers Use this to move between views, check properties of objects, and show/hide elements in the view
Selecting Elements in Design Review
This operation is very much the same as in Revit for certain types of elements For example, when you select a wall, level, grid, or section marker, that element will highlight in other views as well— not just where your cursor is It behaves this way because the DWF originated from Revit, where every element is a unique, model-based element and not a mere set of abstract lines When an ele-ment is selected, check out the context menu There are many options there that allow you to zoom, hide elements, make them transparent, and even move them (Figure 19.11)
Figure 19.11
The Autodesk Design Review context menu
Pubishing to Design Review
The DWF format allows others to examine your design without needing to install or license a copy
of Revit The files are also small, which makes them easy to email, something you cannot do with
a large Revit file There are two ways to share your model using Design Review: as 2D information
or as 3D information If you publish to 3D, you create a single 3D representation of your model Publishing to 2D can create either a view or a whole collection of interconnected views and sheets all packaged as one file
Archiving with DWFs
A 2D DWF of all the sheets of the drawing set is a great way to keep an archive of your project This allows you to take a snapshot in time of the state of your drawings in a single, small file that is easy to print and easy to reference back into the model should you ever need to return to a previous state in the design Again, make sure you export sheets, not views
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