Trim Multiple and Multi-Select

I find that I consistently forget this is possible, to use a crossing window to select more than one element to trim or extend multiple elements at once. Don't forget Steve! Maybe now that I've written that I'll start remembering more often, hopefully. The following video is just the tooltip video that runs if you hover over Trim Multiple long enough.

Pre-Selection and Selection Color

I always change the default color that Revit uses for selected elements. I use Red.

The default setting is the same blue that is assigned to Pre-selection. I don't recall when that changed but somewhere in the fog of time it used to be assigned to red. I happen to like the visual confirmation, the difference between what is highlighted and what is selected. To each their own.

If you want to change it too: Application menu (Big R) > Options > Graphics page

Friday Wish - IDs of Element on Modify Context Ribbon

As a quick follow up to yesterday's post about using the IDs of Selection tool, I find myself wishing that the button for it would show up on the Modify Contextual ribbon tab when elements are selected.

Yes I know I can assign a Keyboard Shortcut to it... assuming I'd be able to remember it...

Finding Families - IDs of Selection

When we need to track down a family that might be loaded into one or more project files we can use master schedule project that includes links for all the relevant project files. If one of the project files already has links to all the others then we can just use that one for this instead.

A schedule focused on the relevant category that also uses the option Includes elements in links can be quite useful.

It can help us track down which models and how many there are in each of them. A little clever use of the Filter tab in the schedule can be a big help. Once we've figured out where the family is we can deal with each of them in each project.

We can search through the Families branch of the Project Browser and then use the right click option for Select all Instances in Entire Project.

Now I can reach for IDs of Selection.

Revit provides a list of Element ID numbers for each family.

It is not unusual for the list to be quite long so I often reach for Notepad (or better still Notepad++...which reminds me I need to install it on this new PC). I use CTRL+C to copy the element IDs to the clipboard and then CTRL+V in Notepad. Notice the commas between the Element ID numbers.

In Notepad I can be selective about which ones to start examining more closely. I just select one or more of the element IDs and then use Select Element by ID (CTRL+C and CTRL+V again in reverse).

Notice the instruction in parenthesis (in the image below)? It says to use a semicolon between the numbers but Revit used commas earlier. Odd.

...and...believe it or not, this is the reason I decided to write this post... commas work too. Yeah, that's definitely subtle.

As for the element hunting and selecting process, I'll be interested and waiting to see what sort of Dynamo approaches pop up in comments.

Revit 2016 - Selection Box and Scope Box

I keep forgetting about the new Selection Box tool. It just requires us to select something and it will open the default 3D view and turn on the Section Box to match the extents of the selected element(s).

The new tool is also quite handy when used in combination with a Scope Box. I don't think of one (a scope box) as an model element, not like a door or a wall at least. The tool doesn't mind though. That makes it easy to crop a large model down to just a selected Scope Box. Easy!

Heads Up, it will use the active 3D view if there is one. Just be sure to close the 3D view you don't want to alter or open one you do. If no 3D view is open it will use the default 3D view, yours (the one with your username appended) if you are using worksets.

Revit 2016 - Selection Box

You’re already familiar with this new tool, conceptually at least, if you’ve used the 3rd party applications COINS Section Box or Xrev View Box. Just select elements and click the button to generate a 3D view with a section box cropped around those elements.

You may not want to give up those other tools just yet because they may offer more control of the resulting view than this tool does. It carries out the action with your default 3D view so if you didn’t want to mess that one up you need to remember to save it before you use it. It is easy and fast, you decide if you agree.

Double Clicking Tags

In Revit 2013 we found a new feature to be quite annoying, double clicking on a room tag would put us in the family editor. That is particularly bewildering to new users. Usually we were more interested in typing in a room name or number. With 2014 we received new options to define how Revit should respond to double clicking on a family.

At the Central States Revit Workshop this morning, Brian Cowles with IMAGINIT mentioned a subtle change that is easily missed. If you leave the setting "Edit Family" as your preference it is almost the same as 2013 except that where you put your cursor is important before double clicking. If you double click on an editable label in the tag it will place you in edit mode for the parameter. If the Move symbol icon is displayed when you double click you'll edit the family. This means you can take advantage of double clicking AND avoid the downside.

Love subtle stuff!

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!

New Selection Quirks

Dan Stine passed along a couple thoughts after working with Revit 2014 in earnest. The new selection options Select by Face and Drag Elements on Selection can have some undersireable effects on your modelling experience. He wrote to describe these two situations:

Select by Face combined with Drag Elements on Selection is a “deadly” combination because you can much more easily start moving floors and ceilings.

When Select by Face is turned on you cannot select Rooms or Spaces. Ouch or maybe that's good, depending on what you are up to? I'll have to check to see if we can still TAB over the room tag to select the room.

Sometimes when we get things we ask for we also get some unintended consequences along with them.

Remember the Status Bar and Think Edges

Two little practical tips or reminders for Friday morning.

Tip One - Revit doesn't see things until you place your cursor near the edge of an element. There are some exceptions but for most elements you've got to move the cursor near an edge. Not sure if Revit sees it? Is it highlighted? No, then Revit doesn't see it. No point clicking to select something if Revit doesn't acknowledge it. The highlighting is visual confirmation that Revit thinks "this" is what you want to select.

If it isn't the correct one, remember the TAB key cycles through alternate elements that Revit could see in the same spot. I imagine sonar radiating from the tip of the cursor. If an element is close enough to bounce a signal back to the cursor you can "sink the battleship". No "Disco Tabbing", that happens when you hold the tab key down instead of just pressing once or twice as needed. I say disco because elements flash at you when you hold the button down. Thanks to Cyril Verley for that, I heard it from him first.

Okay that was three tips already; Edges, Highlighting and the TAB key.

Tip Two - When you are busy remembering edges don't forget to remember the Status Bar. It tells you what Revit sees or wants from you. When you place your cursor near an element you get the highlighting, you should see a tool tip AND the Status Bar offers you some info too. It's like a read-only command line, sssh.

Selecting Multiple Saved Selection Sets

Sibilance! I used to work for Syracuse Scenery & Stage Lighting, Co. in Syracuse, NY. It was fun when I had to introduce myself formally starting with, "Hi, I'm Steve Stafford with...". The title of this post reminded me of that, sorry! I was going to lead into it with Dept. of Subtle but that was too many "sssss"... it is really subtle though. Okay I'll get to it then.

Revit 2013 added Saved Selection Sets, a feature that was part of an extension for Revit Structure originally.

The concept is simple, select elements and click a button to save (top button in the image above) them as a set that can be called on later, to do something with or to them again. If that seems likely then it will come in handy. The Save button wakes up when there is something selected. The Load button wakes up after something has been saved as a selection set.

The subtle part of this is that when there are several selection sets to choose from, what if we want to do something to more than one at a time? The dialog doesn't let us select multiple saved sets. Guess we're sunk.

[Edited 5/18/2012 - Gabe pointed out in a comment that CTRL isn't necessary, just running the tool again by clicking Load will allow us to add another selection set, cool! Thanks Gabe! - Disregard the following section]

It doesn't look like it will work but using the CTRL key does work, just not inside the dialog. The trick to this is selecting one and clicking OK to leave the dialog. Then press CTRL and click the Load button again (middle button in the first image), select another saved set, click OK.

Now we've got two saved selection sets selected again. It's easy when you know how!

Ready Made Selection Sets for Navisworks

Want to save time in Navisworks when it comes to selection sets? Try exporting select views of the model to establish ready made "selection sets". We've already got natural organization with categories, worksets and filters doing some heavy lifting in our project. If we export several NWC files with just things like all the plumbing, HVAC, furniture, fin tube radiation, medical equipment, and so on, we'll have separate ready-made selection sets. Further finer grain selections can then be made by focusing on the separate files within Navisworks, if it's even necessary.

Sure that's what Navisworks is good at, selecting and searching for criteria but things are already pretty organized in a Revit model. Seems a waste of time to export a big pile only to want to break it down into smaller piles inside Navisworks? Want to run slash detection on pipes and ducts, just pick the two separate files as soon as they are loaded. If information doesn't get sent to us like this, we can just ask. If it still doesn't then we've still got Navisworks search ans selection sets in our back pocket.

Tab Key and Selection

Read a post by Luke at What Revit Wants regarding a tip he heard in Chad Smith's AU Virtual session, 45 Autodesk Revit Tips in 45 Minutes. It reminded me that I created a video of it to demonstrate it a couple years ago. Here's what I wrote back in October 2009 regarding this tip.

This is subtle feature of using the TAB key that many users are not aware of. First of all, it is easier to see than to describe so you might as well watch the VIDEO.

Two items:

• Select Entire Chain of Walls or Lines
  
• Select Partial Chain of Walls or Lines

First item - Hover cursor over a wall or line > Press TAB key once (Walls or lines highlight) > Left Click to select.

Second item - Select a wall or line > Hover cursor over a different wall or line somewhere along the path > Press TAB once (Walls or lines highlight) > Left Click to select. The subtle difference is that which direction the selected chain travels depends on which end of the element you hover your cursor over. Watch and then try it!

NO DISCO tabbing, as my friend Cyril says. Just press the TAB key once. You get the disco tabbing when you press and hold the TAB key down. We call it Disco because the highlighted lines will flash at you.

Last comment, make sure you hover and then hold your mouse steady. If you move the mouse away after highlighting the chain the TAB feature fails. You have to make sure everything is highlighted still before using the Left mouse button to select them. It is a process unlike any other software you are familiar with most likely. Practice a couple times if you aren't already very comfortable with it.

Here's the video...

Dept. of Wishes - Revit MEP - Selection Priority

I made a brief video that describes a frustrating selection situation when linked models are involved. Revit places the link at a higher priority than local MEP elements. Wireframe visual style will change this but wireframe in some views (3D) isn't always a better option. It would be really nice if a linked model had a lower selection priority when compared with other native elements. I've embedded the video here but you can also watch it at YouTube.

Dept. of Subtle - Selection Ceiling

This is technically a Dept. of Echo post too. I love it when the factory shares insider information like this. Harlan wrote the other day on the The Revit Clinic blog that Revit won't let us select more than 16,383 elements in a single selection effort. We can select more but not with one wave of our mouse.

Dept. of Subtle - TAB Key - Entire and Partial Chain of Lines or Walls

This is subtle feature of using the TAB key that many users are not aware of. First of all, it is easier to see than to describe so you might as well watch the VIDEO.

Two items:

• Select Entire Chain of Walls or Lines
  
• Select Partial Chain of Walls or Lines

First item - Hover cursor over a wall or line > Press TAB key once (Walls or lines highlight) > Left Click to select.

Second item - Select a wall or line > Hover cursor over a different wall or line somewhere along the path > Press TAB once (Walls or lines highlight) > Left Click to select. The subtle difference is that which direction the selected chain travels depends on which end of the element you hover your cursor over. Watch and then try it!

NO DISCO tabbing, as my friend Cyril says. Just press the TAB key once. You get the disco tabbing when you press and hold the TAB key down. We call it Disco because the highlighted lines will flash at you.

Last comment, make sure you hover and then hold your mouse steady. If you move the mouse away after highlighting the chain the TAB feature fails. You have to make sure everything is highlighted still before using the Left mouse button to select them. It is a process unlike any other software you are familiar with most likely. Practice a couple times if you aren't already very comfortable with it.

Reviteristic - Revit Links are More Important?

When we link a Revit model into another project file there are number of instances where the linked model seems to interfere with selecting elements that are actually native parts of the model. I encounter this the most when I'm working with Revit MEP.

For example, using the Create System option for an Air Terminal the option to Select Equipment seems to only have eyes for the architectural model and it can be nearly impossible to select the very nice Single Duct VAV box right in front of you.

What to do? Well you could write a blog post like this and complain to start 8-).

If you change your view to Model Graphics Style: Wireframe you'll find that Revit is no longer as focused on the linked model. Another solution is to have a view with the linked model and another where the link is not displayed. When you are ready to create your systems just switch to the other "cleaner" view and no such issue.

Happy selecting!