Spacebar Short Cuts in Revit MEP

Sometimes you just stumble on things. One of the designers in my office told me if you type the letter C and hit the spacebar Revit will go into the copy command, just like in Autocad.

I thought she was lying, but it worked. I tried other letters and here is what I found.

A - Array

C - Copy

D - Door

E - Edit Requests

F - Flex Duct

G - Create Group

O - Offset

P - Pin

R - Reload Latest

S - Shade

T - Thick/Thin Lines

V - View Properties

W - Wall

Z - Zoom Window

These are based off the text file "KeyboardShortcuts.txt" found in the Program folder under Program Files. Because I don't use some of these at all, and I wanted to know if I could change them, I dug a little deeper.

In the example above I edited KeyboardShortcuts.txt and changed the shortcut for delete to just E. Because the first short cut (alpha-numerically) is the default that spacebar will fire, E will now delete selected elements when I hit spacebar. Save this text file and restart Revit to load the changes.

Now go crazy. I bet there are a lot of old AutoCAD commands that will make sense in Revit. It helps when you switch between the programs, and it makes some people more comfortable and fast.

It's a good thing.

Revit MEP HVAC Plans Ceiling Plan or Floor Plan?

If you are using Revit MEP, you might be thinking about your HVAC plans and wondering should you use a floor plan (which looks down and excludes the ceiling grid) or a Ceiling plan (which looks up and seems to invert which duct is actually on top when duct cross).

Here is what I have come up with so far.

I use both.

I model in the ceiling plan view because I need the ceiling grid to place my diffusers and miss the lights fixtures. Then I annotate in the floor plan view which I place on the sheet. There I have the correct orientation of duct.

I never print the ceiling grid. This comes from having AutoCAD drawings in which my ceiling grid and the architects often were different. I guess that is not such a problem with Revit, but I have become accustom to not printing it. In AutoCAD I would make it no plot, so I can reference it. Modeling in the ceiling plan view handles that.

Every firm is different, but this way is an idea. Post a comment to let me know what you do.

MEP Analysis Extension for AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP

Kyle B. just announced on the duiscussion groups a newly available Autodesk LABS extension. The MEP Analysis Extension contains 25 HVAC utilities for sizing duct work, sizing piping, sizing HVAC equipment, calculating cooling and heating loads for commercial and residential buildings, calculating psychrometric properties of air, performing U-Value calculations, sizing electrical wire, and much more, all in the name of saving energy and the environment.

Available as a Technology Preview feature, the Extension is programmed to expire within 30 days of installation.

Autodesk is looking for feedback to help them make better products.

The technology preview will run through October 31, 2008.