Keyboard Shortcuts

These are the fastest way to start a command or tool in Revit. No amount of user interface customization we can do or Autodesk can give us will beat them. My problem with them is my ability to remember them. Yesterday in a discussion with some other people I did a quick count and came up with 24 that I could remember without any real effort. Today I managed 31 so I'm seven smarter today! Oh, up to 33 if you count the ones I remember have alternates.

How many do you remember??

The Keyboard Shortcuts I remember today (the winners) are...(bold are ones I use constantly, which helps)

Viewing
ZZ(ZR) (Zoom Region)
ZA (Zoom All to Fit - all open views)
ZF (Zoom to Fit - active view)
ZS (Zoom Sheet Size)
ZO (Zoom out 2x)
WT (Window Tile)
XX (Close Hidden Windows - custom)

Snapping
SM (midpoint)
SE (endpoint)
SI (intersection)
SO (snaps off)

Visibilty
VG (VV) (Visibility/Graphics)
VR (2017 View Range)
HH (Temp/Hide Hide Element)
HI (Temp/Hide Isolate Element)
HR (Temp/Hide Reset)
IC (Temp/Hide Isolate Category)

Editing
CO (Copy)
TR (Trim - Corner)
TS (Trim - Single Element - custom)
SL (Split Element, with Delete Inner Segment option checked a lot)

Creating Stuff
WA (Wall)
DR (Door)
CM (Place Component)

Annotation
DI (Dimension Aligned)
TG (Tag by Category)

Miscellaneous
MD (Modify)
RL (Reload Latest - worksets)
CTRL+C (copy to clipboard)
CTRL+V (paste)
CTRL+X (cut to clipboard)

Revit 2017 - View Range Keyboard Shortcut

Brian Mackey wrote a post earlier today that describes two quirky issues with using the new View Range keyboard shortcut VR. It is definitely subtle, quirky and worthy of an echo.

The first quirk is having to click Apply first and then OK to close in order to make a change stick. I'd run into that too and meant to write something but Brian was quicker to the keyboard. The other, and very important, thing to know is that using it ignores when a View Template has been assigned to a view, meaning the template is supposed to be controlling the parameters for View Range. That's not good! Check out his thoughts.

As such it is no longer his favorite new subtle feature and I'm inclined to agree, too bad.

Keyboard Shortcut and View Template Conflict

It is obvious when you think about it but when you are trying to use a keyboard shortcut and it doesn't work you might be tempted to think, "That's strange it used to work?!". Off we go to check our keyboard shortcut settings...then..."OH, the view has a View Template assigned to it!"

When a View Template is Assigned to a view, via the view's properties (yes, that's different from applying a view template), the template blocks our access to those settings it is in charge of. When we open Visibility/Graphics we see the categories are disabled (gray). Any keyboard shortcut we attempt to use that involves one of those settings is likewise affected.

In my case tonight I was trying to use keyboard shortcut VH (Hide in View > Category) but nothing happened. Yes, it was just a View Template being bossy. Had me going for a second...

Double Up on Keyboard Shortcuts

This is lifted from the RFO Tips and Tricks forum and a contribution by Mark Balsom. He's reused the same letter combinations to deal with starting and finishing sketch based elements. For those who are unaware (or not) you can assign the same shortcut keys combination to more than one command.

For example, assign EE to EDIT "...x..." as in Edit Boundary and Edit Profile for example. Keep in mind we can just double click on sketch-based elements to accomplish the same thing now (in 2014).

You can do the same with FF for FINISH instead of clicking the Green Check Mark.

You can do the same with CC to CANCEL instead of clicking the Big Red X.

In use it looks like this:

• Select a floor, type EE (Edit Boundary), type FF when you are finished
• Select a wall, type EE (Edit Profile), type FF when you are finished
• Select a roof, type EE (Edit Boundary), type FF when your are finished
• ...or if you decide to cancel the current sketch based editing session, type CC (Cancel "...x...")

Here's an extra tip
You can also Cycle through (review and select one) all the available commands that are associated with the first letter of a keyboard shortcut. Type a letter and look at the Status Bar. Revit shows the first command associated with that letter. In this image you can see what happened when I type Z.

Use the left/right arrow keys to Cycle through any other commands that also share that first letter. It cycles through (displays the commands) them in alphabetical order.

Switch Between Palette and Browser with Keyboard Shortcut

With the new dockable window feature that supports hosting the Project and System Browser (MEP), Reconcile Hosting Dialog and Properties Palette comes the slight awkwardness of never having what you really want open (having focus) when you want it.

This video shows how assigning a keyboard shortcut to the Properties Palette gives me the illusion of switching between the Project Browser and Properties Palette quickly. I write illusion because the Properties Palette is really closing but then reopening within the dockable window framework. Try it, like it...mileage may vary.

New Selection Features and Keyboard Shortcuts

The new selection options that I mentioned earlier are accessible via keyboard shortcuts too by the way. This question was asked at a recent user group meeting but wasn't answered explicitly other than to say, "I think so". Well they can!

Keyboard Shortcuts - New User Interface

One of the items introduced to Revit 2010 as part of the Subscription Advantage Pack is a Keyboard Shortcut editor.

The first compelling reason to use this? You can edit them in your current session and the changes take effect immediately. No more closing and re-opening Revit to get to use them! I've recorded a video to describe using it more efficiently than writing about it here.

You can start the Keyboard Shortcut Editor with three methods:

• Application Menu > Options > Keyboard Shortcuts
• View ribbon > Windows Panel > User Interface > Keyboard Shortcuts
• Use a Keyboard Shortcut

A couple constructive comments for improving it:

• Show me Duplicate entries - Add a filter
• Promote a Shortcut setting - Up/Down

The Shortcut Highway product (which doesn't appear to be available anymore) had/has the ability to show me duplicate values and I found that compelling and useful. We can assign alternative shortcuts to the same tool. It would be nice be able to move the one we want to be the primary shortcut to the top of the list. Why? That's the one that appears on the tips inside the Revit interface when we hover over a tool.

I should mention that the new keyboard shortcut file format is XML, no longer .TXT. If you want to import a previous keyboard shortcut file you can only do so from a 2010 version. Remember the ribbon development created a significantly different shortcut file so this makes some sense to me.

Here's an embedded version of the video to listen and watch.

Keyboard Shortcuts - Single Letter Shortcuts

Single letter keyboard shortcuts work but they "harm" any other shortcut that starts with the same letter. When you type a single letter watch the Status Bar.


Revit recognizes the letter as the start of a "hotkey".

If you type a second letter and it matches a defined shortcut Revit "fires" the command. If you use the arrow keys you can "cycle" through all the commands that have keyboard shortcuts that use the first letter you typed. If you find one you like you press Space Bar or Enter to "fire" the command.

I find that a three letter combination works better without messing up shortcuts like single letter shortcuts do. I double up the first letter...like XXR or MMO...

Copy via CTRL + Drag

Another simple feature that seems too obvious to mention...Windows permits us to copy a selection by pressing the CTRL key and simply dragging the selection. Doing this same thing within Revit will produce a copy of the selected item(s) too.