I was reviewing old posts for something I thought I wrote about Starting Views. I was befuddled when I didn't find anything. I guess that's to be expected when I write things here and on several other webs sites like AUGI, RevitForum, and Autodesk Newsgroups. Enough about my confusion. Since I don't seem to have one already, here's one now.
Revit developers observed that users were creating simple drafting views that contained some project information and then encouraging or insisting users remember to open this particular view when they saved and closed their projects. This way when someone opened a project for the first time they'd always be greeted by this special view. It also takes Revit less time to open a simple view with no model representation involved. In response they introduced the Starting View as a feature. This special view can be assigned to any view including a sheet view.
Initially people were pleased and just referenced the view they were already using. Then some began experimenting with other view types. The Sheet View is particularly useful because it can use a custom title block family to provide the framework we might want for our Starting View, imagine the office bulletin board with a variety of important and often timely info about office parties and upcoming events. In the context of a project that means we can reference actual project information through labels/parameters instead of having people type some of this same information into text. This connection to live data is a natural progression, even expectation.
More recently Andre Carvalho shared (at RevitForum, see link below) how he uses a linked project file to manage project notes that need to be visible to projects that have several or many models or even expand beyond one project to all projects in the office. He can update the master project file and since all the related projects have this file linked into them the information is updated automatically for him each time any project file is opened. Pretty clever stuff, working within the confines of the tools we've got. If you'd like to read more CHECK IT OUT.
If you aren't taking advantage of Starting Views, let me encourage you to consider doing so.
Showing posts with label Starting View. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Starting View. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Tuesday, September 03, 2013
Schedule Linked Files
We can schedule elements that are in linked files but there isn't a schedule that is only interested in telling us what linked files there are. We can determine which files are linked easily enough while working inside Revit. What if we want to document what files are linked into our model and include this information on a sheet? We can take advantage of the addition of Grids and Levels as elements we can schedule in Revit 2014.
If we assume that all projects will have levels and probably grids a schedule that is assigned to one of those categories can be manipulated to look like it is just a schedule of linked files. Then we can combine that with a Starting View if we want to see it each time our project is opened. Add the schedule to a general information sheet and it can be part of our documentation too.
I created a schedule that includes the fields for RVT Links and at least one for Grids. In this example I used Grids to drive the schedule but Levels are probably a better choice.
When we load a linked file we can supply a unique "Name" value. When we use Reload From or Reload later to update the model we can revise the "Name" parameter to show the current version/date.
Make a custom titleblock family and add the Project and Client related parameters as desired. Load the family and create a new sheet using this special titleblock. Add the new schedule to the sheet. To use this as a starting view activate the Manage ribbon and click the Starting View button. Choose our special sheet view as the starting view.
I used the Clear Cell tool, new in Revit 2014, to remove the link between the schedule name and the header text. This allows us to call the schedule something meaningful in the project browser and show something else in the header of the schedule on the sheet, as shown in the first image in the post. Since schedules can be on any number of sheets it is an easy matter to place it on additional sheets if desired.
If we assume that all projects will have levels and probably grids a schedule that is assigned to one of those categories can be manipulated to look like it is just a schedule of linked files. Then we can combine that with a Starting View if we want to see it each time our project is opened. Add the schedule to a general information sheet and it can be part of our documentation too.
I created a schedule that includes the fields for RVT Links and at least one for Grids. In this example I used Grids to drive the schedule but Levels are probably a better choice.
When we load a linked file we can supply a unique "Name" value. When we use Reload From or Reload later to update the model we can revise the "Name" parameter to show the current version/date.
Make a custom titleblock family and add the Project and Client related parameters as desired. Load the family and create a new sheet using this special titleblock. Add the new schedule to the sheet. To use this as a starting view activate the Manage ribbon and click the Starting View button. Choose our special sheet view as the starting view.
I used the Clear Cell tool, new in Revit 2014, to remove the link between the schedule name and the header text. This allows us to call the schedule something meaningful in the project browser and show something else in the header of the schedule on the sheet, as shown in the first image in the post. Since schedules can be on any number of sheets it is an easy matter to place it on additional sheets if desired.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)