Exporting to AutoCAD

If you need to export your Revit model to CAD for any reason you need to be careful what scale the Revit view is set to prior to exporting. At different scales you will get varying results in the final CAD file.

For smaller scales the export is without problem, but for some larger scales (above 1:200) the export will start to drop detail in you CAD file. And there doesn’t seem to be any logic towards what goes missing.

The examples below are images of the final AutoCAD (DWG) exports for a simple screen model.

Original Revit Model

Revit Export Scale 1:200

Revit Export Scale 1:500

Revit Export Scale 1:1000

Revit Export Scale 1:2000

So when you are exporting to CAD from Revit, be aware that any exports above 1:200 may not give you the results you were expecting.

Grouping In-Place Masses

If you are working with In-Place Masses be careful when you group them together. The masses will group together fine, it is only when you try to move or copy the In-Place Mass Group that you will start to encounter some problems.

When a group containing In-Place Masses is moved or copied they will not relocate to their new position. Instead they will remain in their original location creating a duplicate copy on the same instance, (or worse….. and start randomly placing masses).

This is clearly evident when you have modeled elements grouped with the masses (eg. Floors), the modeled elements will relocate properly and the masses are left behind.

So when you are working with In-Place Masses, try not to group them together.

Double Click - Middle Scroll Wheel

Here is a quick one......If you Double Click on the scroll wheel on your mouse, it is the same as selecting Zoom to Fit.

Wall Sweep Visibility Control

When you have Wall Sweeps in your model, by default they can be a little problematic to hide in your views without having to resort to ‘Hide in View’ > ‘Element’. (Which is a very undesirable work practice, so don’t even think about it!)

The problem occurs because there is no Wall Sweep Category and Revit, by default doesn’t have a Wall Sweep subcategory under the walls.

Dynamo - Accessing Legends via Core Nodes

This task originated from trying to determine which legends were actually in use on sheets in a Revit project file.

Listing all of the Legends in the model seemed like an easy enough task and while there are a couple of packages that have nodes to collect this information. I always see if it is possible to do this via the core nodes.

This process was more difficult than first thought below is the graph and attached is the Dynamo file. Hopefully you will find it useful.

You may notice that it brings up a few errors, but these can be ignored and it doesn't list Keynote Legends, as there are considered schedules by Revit.

Legends in Dynamo

Copy Box Toggle

When you are using a modification tool that has the ‘Copy’ box as an option, like Offset, Mirror or Rotate.

If you hold the ‘CTRL’ key down while executing the command it will toggle the ‘Copy’ tick box (On or Off depending on the modification tool).

This will save you having to move your mouse up there every time.

Divided Surfaces Alignment

In the conceptual modelling environment, if you have a trapezoidal face that isn’t a perfect square or rectangle, when you divide this flat surface the resulting grid will be applied at an assumed rotation, aligning itself to the angled edge. 9 times out of 10 this is not the result you were looking for.

It would be really nice if the grid was distorted so that it divided all of the edges equally resulting in a more uniform grid arrangement. Just like the image below.

How do we get to this result?

Well as it happens the conceptual environment seems to favour distorted, organic forms. So just pick the point at the top corner of the face and distort it ever so slightly.

In this instance I am adding .0001 to the dimension. Technically it isn’t perfectly flat anymore but dimensioning will round it to the correct value, and nobody will ever know. It is your little secret.