Complete Project Sheet List

If you have a project made up of a master site and multiple building models, there is a way of producing a sheet list for the entire project, rather than having to produce one for each project model.

Working in the Site Master file, if you create a new Sheet List.

One of the Options is to ‘Include elements in linked files’. This will allow you to produce a Sheet List schedule that contains the Sheets from all of the linked files.

As long as all of your parameters are consistent then you can sort and filter the list to the desired result.

This process is also great for accessing other information from linked files for inclusion in a other master schedules.

Scope Box Visibility

Scope Boxes are a very useful tool to keep extents of views uniform across the project. There are a couple of ways to control their visibility. The obvious method is to utilise the Visibility Graphics Overrides to turn them on or off in views, but this method will control all of the Scope boxes together.

If you would like to control the visibility of Scope Boxes individually and pre-determine the views in which they will appear, this can be controlled in their Instance Properties.

When a Scope Box is selected, in their Instance Properties there is a ‘Views Visible’ parameter. 

If this is selected it will bring up the ‘Scope Box Views Visible’ dialog box, where you can see which views the scope boxes are automatically visible and you have the ability to override their default settings to make them visible or Invisible specifically in each model view.

Grid Design Option

When you have Grids in your Project, the last thing you want anybody to do is accidentally move them. There are a few ways of locking these away so that they are protected from accidental relocation. You could use worksets or pinning the elements, but a useful Revit feature is using the Design Options.

You don’t need an elaborate naming convention, just create a new Option Set and Option and name them ‘Grids’.

When you go back to your model add the Grids to the Grid Option and they will be secured away. 

The Grids will still be visible but to access them users have to make a conscious choice to activate the Option to make adjustments.

While it still isn’t a fool proof way of securing the Grids, it will provide a good level of security from accidental adjustment.

Structure and Partitions

When you have structural walls and partitions intersecting in your model, it is important to get their intersections looking correct. Revit will always try to join your walls together and usually the resulting intersections is shown correct graphically, in the case of structure and partitions this is where the ‘Disallow Join’ tool can give you a preferred result.

The example below indicates graphically when the walls are automatically joined and when the partition has had the ‘Disallow Join’ applied.

To use the ‘Disallow Join’ just select the wall and right-click on the dot at the end and you will have an option to ‘Disallow Join’.

You will notice that the intersection of the joined walls results in a change in line weight of the structural wall at the intersection, this is not desirable.

When the partition has had the ‘Disallow Join’ the structural walls line weight is continuous and graphically gives the desired result.

So, the moral is to always check the graphical output of your model and don’t settle for what Revit applies automatically.

Associate Family Parameter

When you are working with nested families associating parameters can really help linking your parameters from the nested family into the parent family. The only problem is that unless you know they are there you would miss the Associate Parameter button.

When you select your nested family any of their instance parameters are visible, in the Properties Dialog box the little grey button on the right is the Associate Parameter button. You select this to associate a parameter from the nested family to a parameter in the parent Family.