Revit MEP Tricks and Tips Part #1

Sometimes it's the little things which make all the difference. I thought I would share some nifty tricks that can help make Revit MEP go down a little easier.

1. Use the space bar to inherit duct and pipe sizes from objects you have connected to instead of uses the last used size. Hit the space bar again to cycle back to the last used size.
2. Tap the space bar to rotate Light fixtures 90 degrees before you insert them. Hold your cursor over an angle wall and tap the space bar to have you light fixture or diffuser align to that wall or go perpendicular to it..
3. Tabbing while hovering over a duct or pipe will highlight portions or the entire run (system).
4. Use your keyboard's arrow keys to nudge selected objects left, right, up and down small distances.
5. Type CM to add every single available object type to the type selector. I use this when I can not remember the family type. CM loads them all.

More to come. Feel free to share your tips by comment.

No Plot Layers in Revit

In AutoCAD based products you have the ability to see things that won't plot through the use of No-Plot layers. Revit doesn't have this capability. In the MEP world it is imperative that you have the ability to see the other disciplines without plotting them.

One way to handle the situation is to create separate view templates for modeling and for plotting. Users must be sure to switch to the plotting view template before plotting which can be done relatively easy by selecting all the appropriate views in the Project Browser and right clicking to apply the view template.

A little sexier solution can be achieved with some knowledge of families and the detail level view control. In Revit Architecture using detail level shows the appropriate amount of detail at different scales in objects like walls. On the MEP side of the fence view control is pretty much only used to switch from single line pipe and duct to double line. When creating families you can set the visibility of electrical plan view symbology to only show in Course and Medium. Then set mechanical families view in Medium and Fine. Electrical and mechanical users can design in Medium detail for coordination then switch to Course or Fine respectfully for plotting. I also override the colors of the alien equipment so their presence is painfully obvious.

For this to work, you will have to visit every family that is not shared by both disciplines. A fun activity for implementations maybe? It's more work on the back end (for you), yet much easier for new Revit users to understand. It's your call until Autodesk addresses this requirement to good engineering.

Autodesk Nabs Green Building Studio and Carmel

Autodesk announced on February 12th that it has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all the assets of Green Building Studio and Carmel Software Corporation.

Green Building Studio provides free online feedback on building loads and guidance on greening your building.

Carmel Software Corporation makes Duct Size, Load Soft and Design Build HVAC software among others.

Look out baby; I think Autodesk's intent is to combine the design with the document. I could have sworn 5 years ago, they said they would leave that to the people they just bought. Oh well, it makes perfect sense to me. I wish I owned some software Autodesk would buy. I wrote some really cool lisps and made an interesting light fixture family the other day.

Monitoring Worksharing

Scott Brisk posted a great heads up on Worksharing in his Blog Revit MEP. See the latest download available to help keep everyone in the loop when worksharing.

Special Characters in Revit MEP

It's probably safe to say that most people converting to Revit MEP came from an AutoCAD background. Inevitibly, you will wonder, "How do I do this in Revit?" Here's one I had.

AutoCAD has allowed the use of special text characters like Ø and ± since.. well back when I owned a comb. This comes from the use of SHX files, which Revit does not use. So here's what you need to do. Every font has some sort of special charaters and they can all be different. For this example I will use Arial since that is what's used out of the box with Revit MEP. The special characters can be viewed by opening the character map for the font you use. Access it by clicking on the Start button and selecting All Programs -> Accesories -> System Tools -> Character Map. (See Below)

Here is screen shot of the Character Map for Arial. Once you click on a character you want you can copy and paste it to a Revit Text box or better yet check out the bottom left-hand corner of the dialog box. You may find the keystroke equivalent to the character. In my example I can insert the plus or minus symbol by holding down the Alt key and typing the number 0177.

If you are just starting a conversion to Revit MEP, give some serious thought to the font you want to use and ensure that it has at least the majority of the special characters you may need. Any other characters can be saved as an annotation symbol, which I will have to discuss at another time.