Revit 2024 - Template Views Crop Boundary Controlled by Scope Box

 There are new multi-discipline templates for Revit 2024 (imperial and metric).

In the new multi-discipline template the views that are placed on sheets are controlled by a Scope Box. When you look at the properties you'll notice that Crop View is disabled (gray).

We can turn off the visibility of the crop boundary but we have to disable the association with a scope box if we want to change the crop independently. Of course if we like and want to take advantage of the scope box being defined and used for the views, we need to open a view that isn't constrained by the scope box so we can adjust the Scope Box extents (it's called Views Overall)

Family Templates and Reference Plane Inequity

This is subtle but still a source of amusement or annoyance. Start a new family using the Generic Model template and try to copy an existing Reference Plane. Nope, the Copy tool is disabled.

Now try it with the Furniture template. Ah, Copy is enabled.

Try it in the Casework family template. You'll find Right, Left and Front Reference Planes are forbidden while the Center (Left/Right) and Back Reference Planes are not. That makes sense. Wait, what?

Okay, the rule is copying a Reference Plane working on furniture is okay and doing that in Generic Model templates = BAD? Doing it in the Casework template is, well it depends...

Actually the only rule is that you can expect some reference planes in some templates to be forbidden to copy while others are not affected by such thinking. Ralph Waldo Emerson cautioned us to avoid a foolish consistency. In this case a little more consistency wouldn't be bad.

...I'm not asking for all of them to be forbidden either...if you're wondering.

Revit MEP - Silly Revit - We Don't use those Pipe or Duct Sizes

If you don't take the time to fine tune your project templates then you'll find Revit will offer you all kinds of pipe and duct sizes. These are available in the drop down lists during placement and then later if you run Duct/Pipe Sizing.

If you don't take the time to fine tune your template you'll find Revit gives you a duct size of 11" after completing its Duct Sizing, regardless of the fact you only choose from even sizes. It's easy to blame silly Revit...but it's our fault. The Duct and Pipe Sizes are controlled via Mechanical Settings, the duct sizes for Rectangular are shown below.

We need to either delete sizes we never want or just un-check them in either column or both, Set it and forget it.

Oh, the same is true of conduit and cable tray.

Create View Template - Tool Description

Oh so...subtle...

The command via the ribbon is called Create Template from Current View.

The right-click context menu offers this version of the command instead (Create View Template From View).

It's subtle because the right-click version is based on the fact that we've selected a view and used right-click. The context doesn't demand using the language Current View because it's based on the view we selected in the first place. The ribbon version leaves out the word View because it is listed as part of the View Templates button already. It also declares that it will create the template based on the Current View since it is possible to have accidentally changed which view has focus prior to using the command; for example if views are tiled or cascading in the drawing window.

My initial reaction was that they were inconsistent and wrong to use a different description for a command that will produce the same result. After mulling it over I think it is a reasonable subtlety since their use is different and the phrasing is intended to help us know what to expect in each situation.

Grid Bubble at Second End

Occasionally I get this question, "Why does the grid bubble always show up at the second point? I wish it was at the first point. I'd like to start at the bubble and draw from there." The answer is you can! It's just a setting, a simple one at that. This is the Type Properties dialog for a grid type.

Notice the highlighted parameters? End 1 is the Start (first pick point) and End 2 is the End (second pick point). If you want to sketch grids starting with the Bubble just switch the check marks. End 1 should be checked and End 2 should not. Make this adjustment in your project template and you'll not have to worry about it again, hopefully.

Same thing is true for Levels by the way.

Door Template Wall Types

Prior to Revit 2015 the stock door template had one wall type called Wall 1. Many users create additional wall types to make it easier to test our work for problems that can arise with different wall types (those with a different thickness), prior to loading into a project to test further.

A very subtle change with 2015 is that the stock door template now has three types: Generic - 6", Generic - 8" and Generic - 12". The metric door template has Generic - 150mm, Generic - 200mm and Generic 300mm.

I assume this is in response to observing that many people have be doing with this with their own content. It's been part of my door tutorials and sessions over the years. It's one less subtle task to deal with when starting out with a new door family.

Creating Family Templates

Revit does not permit us to use Save As to create a Family Template unlike projects which can be saved as either a project or a project template. It's a bit like a strict parent that insists we go to bed at 8 PM no matter what, even if a TV show we really really want to watch is on at 8 PM.

Along the way, many years ago, someone noticed they could just rename the family to use the template extension .RFT instead of .RFA (family extension). The technique works as long as you don't have a desire to alter its structure (the file that changed from .RFA to .RFT) once you've started to create a family with it.

This means I can rename a family extension from .RFA to a template extension .RFT. Once it's changed I can create a new family by clicking New Family and choosing this special family template. While working on this new family (based on the template) I cannot delete any reference planes/lines or dimensions I created while it was a family (not a .RTE). When Revit opened the file it took ownership of all of "my work" while it was still just a family (using .RFA).

This means that if I want to start a new family based on this template but realize I need to alter the format a little, I have to return to the original "template/family" to do so. Once I've changed the extension to .RFA again I can alter the template's format freely. Any families I've created using the template can't be changed as extensively or freely.

There is no going back to a less well prepared format, at least not with the resulting family(ies). I can move and copy reference planes but I can't decide I don't need them any longer. Revit locks down the reference planes in the same way that the stock templates have done for the reference planes we find there. It protects those parts of the template file. This can be particularly confusing for other people when they come across a family and think they can reverse engineer it or start with this family to create something similar. It's confusing when they can't get rid of so many reference planes and dimensions.

Since I frequently have different things asked of me I just leave families assigned to the .RFA extension, those that I think of as templates. I add the word "template" to the name. This way I don't have to deal with switching the file extensions back and forth, which I find confusing. Which ones did I change, which ones did I leave alone? I just keep my templates in a separate folder. The hardest part for me is remembering to use Save As before I start messing with one. I could make the folder read only to make it a little harder on myself.

I recall slightly different results using past releases. This post is based on using Revit 2014.

Phase and Poche Materials

As you're likely to know already Revit provides a feature to change the appearance of elements to distinguish between phases of work. When you examine the Materials dialog the "Phase-X" materials were created by the development team and they exist to support the way that feature is intended to work. The templates are configured (OoTB) to automatically "work" if you use the phase features.

When I visit the 2014 Architectural template I find three "rogue" phase materials in the dialog (image above). The four highlighted in yellow are assigned to the Phases Graphic Overrides.

I've no idea what these three other materials are assigned to. When I examine the Materials dialog and the icon for "asset use" (highlighted with the red circle in the first image in this post) the four "good" materials report that the associated asset is shared with 8 materials. The three rogue ones are not using an asset shared with any other materials. Easy enough, I deleted them. Revit will let you delete any of the phase related materials even though the Phase feature is technically relying on them to work as intended out of the box.

In general nobody will use the materials for anything else, not really suited for anything else. They "work" as intended and are preset so they do. The only real interaction anyone needs to have with any of these materials is if something about how they look isn't quite what we want. If we don't think demo elements should be red we can change the material to use something else or increase or decrease the transparency for example.

The other material highlighted in yellow is the poche material (pronounced Poe-shay). It's also a feature that was originally tied to the graphic display of the model when Coarse Detail Level is in effect. However they've made the Poche material assignment a Type Property of 3D views.

You have to assign a material to have it take effect. In the past Poche was hardwired to the effect. Now you can technically use any material in the library instead. Poche isn't required itself to work anymore. Here's an example of it being used on the section through a pavilion model.

Revit 2014 Family Template for Two Level Relationships

The collection of Generic Model templates has grown a little bit with this new release, one new template called "Generic Model Two Level Based.rft".

Revit Electrical Productivity Pack

CTC (CAD Technology Center) teamed up with LHB, the company that Daniel Stine works with, to develop their new offering, a packaged focused on helping a firm bring their electrical engineering process using Revit up to speed quickly.

From their site...

...snip

The template includes many features such as schedules (light fixture, equipment, cost estimating, etc.), legends, sheets, titleblocks and more. The content utilizes shared parameters and contains actual electrical information. When content is placed the appropriate schedules begin to populate; for example, lighting fixtures have information on lens type, number of lamps, ballast, manufacturer, etc... The template also has a Meter Schedule for documenting LEED projects.

This product contains nearly all of the content needed by electrical engineers to create electrical systems that work within Revit MEP. The Electrical Productivity Pack enables you to pass the flow of electrical data from outside of the building, to the inside and throughout. The included content has consistent parameters that enable accurate data transfer of electrical information between equipment and devices.
...snip

They provided an overview in a video (13 minutes) on their site (hosted at You Tube).

The site lists the package at a site-license price of $1,495.00

If this package helps you skip right past the implementation phase of Revit adoption that price seems pretty reasonable compared with building it all from scratch yourself. Even if it falls short in some areas it could be a solid head start? Worth a closer look! Click to DOWNLOAD a PDF Table of contents for the included User Guide documentation. Download a brochure if you want too.

Dept. of Echo - Your Office Template

Warning! Before I echo what you should read you need to:

• Wait till tonight/tomorrow night
• Grab a beer (or preferred beverage)
• Chips (or preferred snack)
• Close your office door
• Turn on a little reading music
• Turn off the phone/Facebook/Twitter etc.
• Tell the neighbors you are out
• Tell your wife/spouse/kids that you are not to be disturbed

Then wander over to Aaron Maller's blog Malleristic Revitation. He's never been accused of being brief or a "man-of-few-words" so no worries, it isn't going to happen this time either. He's taken the time to write out his perspective on Creating a Revit Template, based on his experience doing it at four firms (I think that's the count now). He's got an opinion and he's not afraid to use it, and offer it free of charge!

I've got one thing to add to his post, "ditto"! Now get ready!

The First Number or Value - Template Setup

When you place a component, like a door, Revit provides a unique Mark parameter value. Same thing happens when you place a grid. Have you started a new project, placed a door and found a nice number like 234? How about a grid value of 2 or 15 instead of just 1 or A? Not all elements get a unique number automatically, such as furniture or casework for example. Those two just get a blank value.

Fortunately this issue is pretty quick to resolve. Just open your template, place a new component or grid and renumber the Mark/Name parameter so that it has the number just before the one you want your user to get with the template when they get started. This works fine for numbers but I'm not sure what to do about letters. If you want the grid to start with A...what comes before A? I've tried to get it to start with A again...but no joy.

I made a short video that shows what I'm writing about.