Schedule Hidden Fields

Scheduling in your project often calls for some sorting or filtering of the schedule fields. This can call for a bit of schedule magic, especially if you want a particular field to sort or filter the schedule but you don’t want that field to be visible in the final schedule.

This is where you can use a Hidden Field.

In the Example Door Schedule below, I want the schedule to group all of the Doors of the same ‘Construction Type’, but I don’t want the Construction Type to be visible in the final schedule.

To create this schedule ‘Construction Type’ needs to be one of the fields scheduled.

Then you can sort the schedule using the ‘Construction Type’ field. This will get the schedule in the correct order.

If you select the Formatting Tab. Highlight the ‘Construction Type’ field and tick the box labelled ‘Hidden Field’.

This will use the ‘Construction Type’ in the schedule to sort but hide it in the final schedule.

Rotation Center Point Correction

When we need to use the rotation tool in our model, the location of the rotation center point is critical to ensure our rotation is going to give use the correct final result.

When you select an element, pick the Rotate Tool (RO), Revit by default places the rotation point in the center of the element or elements selected. Very rarely do we want it in this location and we have to move it before we execute the command.

We have 3 options to relocate this point.

1. Click + drag the point in the view
2. Place Button (Options Bar)
3. Space Bar (press to position the center point)

Using the Place button or Space bar we just have to click where the center point ought to be. These options are very useful if the center point is not visible in the view.

Using Click + Drag we need to click on the center icon (left mouse button), + drag it to the correct location. 

One thing that is often overlooked is the Copy, in the Options Bar. This will allow you to copy the element and rotate in one command. (Holding down the CTRL key will also activate the Copy option).

Check Ceiling Heights by Colour using Dynamo

I was asked by a Revit User today if there was a quick way of showing the different ceiling heights as a different colour. I initially thought that I could use a “Color Scheme” and try and define the height of the rooms as a different colour?

Before I could begin I found that Ceiling Plans do not support “Color Schemes”. 

I could have used filters but this would take time and every time a ceiling was added at a different height I would have to add or amend a filter.
This was a good opportunity to employ Dynamo to solve the problem. So creating some ceilings at different heights I was able to write a fairly simple script that looks for the “Height Offset From Level” Parameter. Then it applies a colour graphic override to the ceiling.

The good things about this graph are:

• You can add or delete as many ceilings as you like, Revit will adjust the colour range accordingly (keeping the graph in Automatic will do this instantaneously)
• You can change the colour range to different colours
• You can use this to identify other ceiling parameters (just change the “Height Offset From Level" Node to another parameter)
• This will also work in 3D views (any view a ceiling is visible really)