I hear this complaint, "I need smaller grid bubbles in site plans, they are toooo BIG!", every now and then in the last couple years. In the early days there was usually a "hallelujah" when we realized we no longer had to deal with keeping them the correct size when printed. Irony!
The fundamental issue is that Revit's mandate is, "All annotation must maintain their intended printed size". If the grid text is assigned 1/8" scale and the circle is 3/8" diameter then no matter what scale is used they will maintain that size. This is why they are "so big" in 1:500 views. The reality is they are not bigger, they are exactly the same...the building has gotten much smaller in comparison.
Text, symbols and dimensions all behave in exactly the same manner...except that they only show up in one view, the one you place them in. Grids, levels and reference planes transcend the view specific nature of other annotation to eliminate the need to draft them repeatedly and therefore coordinate them endlessly.
A solution to show different size grid annotation in large scale views involves using Design Options.
- Create a Design Option called Grid Management and two options: Normal Size and Reduced Size.
- Create a Reduced Size Grid type that uses a grid bubble family with smaller text and circle.
- Rename the normal Grid type: Normal Size.
- Add all the Normal Size grids to the project and then add them to both Design Options.
- Edit the Reduced Size view's Design Option and change the grid types to the matching Reduced Size grid type.
- In the larger scale views set their Design Option (via Visibility/Graphics dialog) to display the Reduced Size Design Option.
Now you have smaller grid bubbles and they "look" better...just keep in mind that they are smaller and now harder to read when printed full size, or half size for that matter.
Caution Dimensioning to these grids in a design option and to the rest of the model can have unpleasant issues. Such as the dimension getting deleted or at least disappearing when the relationship between the Option"ed" grids are no longer relevant. This can happen if you toggle the assigned option to another and back.
8 comments:
Another option would be to keep the view at the same scale but create a new titleblock to hold it that is exactly 2x the size (i.e instead of 30"x42" use 60"x84"). When printing this sheet choose a reduction of 50% and all the grid bubble, text, dimensions and other view specific information scales down by 50%) It may be problematic in a large CD set to manage this, but for a one-off presentation I have used this method and it works just fine.
This confuses me, maybe I'm just tired. If the view scale doesn't change but the title block is bigger doesn't that mean that the view ends up twice as small in a bigger frame (titleblock)? How does this make the model view the same scale but reduce just the grid bubbles? Ow, my head hurts... :)
Steve, If I want my "plotted" view to be 1/16"=1'-0" scale but my grid bubbles, tags and text become to large at 1/16" then I keep the view at 1/8" scale and place onto the double size titleblock. When I print at 50% I get a view on the sheet that is effectively 1/16" in scale but without the "larger" annotation such as the grid bubbles.
No different than printing a "half size set" for your desk copy, but just starting with a larger size titleblock.
Hope this expanation helps your head stop hurting.
This is a great work around!!!
Great idea! Just don't forget that the automatic scale notation won't be correct. This could prevent some really annoying re-annotation hair-pulling sessions.
I'm still pushing for auto-dimensioning schemes.
Um the whole point is not looking, but rather printing! . . . It is a cumbersome workaround and Revit really ought to address this.
But thanks Steve (i finally got back around to this) - i discovered that one ought to make reference planes to be able to see where the grids go in the small grid option otherwise one is guessing eh? Simple steps omitted but important. :-)
Seems to work tho it is like walking with a spaghetti noodle when one has a sprained foot . . .
Roland - I hear that next year they are going to fix everything we complain about. ;)
Steve Autodesk never resolve this problem till today... its Revit version 2020..lol
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