Sheet View in a Titleblock Family

Brian wrote to mention a quirky subtle situation that he thought I'd be inclined to write about.

Brian wrote:

Open a Titleblock family and then double click on the schedule in the project browser to open it in a separate view. With the schedule as the current view, close all the other active views. Notice that the view with the titlebock itself closes and now there’s no way to open it again, since it’s not listed in the Project Browser.

The subtle bit is that the view is still there in the project browser, it's just hiding under Sheets instead of Views where we'd expect to find it. It's that even more subtle dash listed beneath Sheets.

Yep, it's quirky enough for me.

That Thick Boundary on my Sheet

A conversation about our title block is inevitable when working through implementation. If we're going to produce a drawing we'll need one unless we've arrived at the day when a model is the only deliverable which, unless I've become Rip van Winkle and woke up twenty odd years in the future, isn't the norm yet.

One recurring theme is a thick boundary line. A polyline is often used for this in AutoCAD. Sorry, there is no equivalent element (AutoCAD polyline) in Revit, namely that a polyline's thickness can vary along it length. To replicate a thick boundary we need to use Revit's own lines to sketch thick lines. We also need to keep in mind that Revit's lines do not square off at the ends, an option that AutoCAD developers added to it in the past. Revit's developers designed it thinking that the tip of pens/pencils are round and when you sketch with a them you get rounded edges, consistent with "reality".

If we need a thick (or very thick) boundary with squared edges then we accomplish that with a Filled Region (solid black). It is sketched like two rectangles, inside and outside edges of the thick line, using a thin line. When the filled region is finished it will look just like a thick "line".

Hopefully the same result, just different technique.

Titleblock Parameters

You want to add a parameter to your title block family so that you can change the value for each sheet/title block.

You need a Shared Parameter. You add this parameter to the title block family. When you define the parameter you must be careful to choose the correct data type so you can store the values you want ie; text, number, integer etc.

Once you have defined the Shared Parameter (SP) you can add a Label to the title block and select your SP. Assuming everything else is done in the title block, save and load it into your project.

In the project the parameter value will not let you edit it until you add the SP to the Project via Manage Ribbon tab > Project Parameters (Settings menu > Project Parameters in 2009).

It is here that you define whether your parameter will be distinct for each sheet or the same for all sheets.


If distinct then you assign the parameter to category: Sheets (instance parameter).

If the same for all sheets then you choose category: Project Information (Type Parameter).

White Pawn takes Black Knight

Recent newsgroup question, "How do I get white text over a black background?" Like this:


Here's how:


Use a filled region to create the black background then edit your text/labels.
[True for 2009 and previous]
Color: White
Background: Opaque.

Amended for for 2010
Color: RGB 251,251,251 (nearly white, RGB 254,254,254 is displayed "black")
Background: Transparent

That's it!

Caution if you export sheet views to dwg you'll need to adjust your pen table to plot the text correctly. If you assign the text on the titleblock to its own layer you can tell AutoCAD to plot them using the object color so the text will plot over the background hatch. There are probably other options as well.

Oops! I Deleted the Titleblock! Now What?

When you create a Sheet View Revit adds a titleblock to the view. What if you delete it and don't realize it till later. How do you put it back? How can you just put a Titleblock on an existing Sheet View? There is no command...Symbol? No... Component? No... Tag? No... Guess you can't?

Here's two options, best one first:

Use Edit menu > Copy to Clipboard to copy a titleblock from another Sheet view

Use Edit > Paste Aligned > Current View to paste the titleblock into the Sheet View that is missing the Titleblock. (Also can use Edit > Paste Aligned > Select Views by Name if you managed to delete more than one)

You can drag a Titleblock from the Project Browser (found under Annotation Symbols category) onto the Sheet View. Take care that you won't be able to position this titleblock in the exact location the previous one was. That's why the first option is better.