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Modular Training Programme

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012

Module A04Visibility Control & Categorisation

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A04 - 2 2011 White Frog Publishing Ltd.

A04

Visibility Control & Categorisation

Autodesk Revit Modular Training Programme

Delegate Notes

Notes

Introduction

This module is delivered in a lecture format followed by a short exercise where delegates get to manipulate and

modify various visibility settings, these control the

appearance of the information on the drawings.

The exercise at the end of this module starts from the

dataset file RMT-WFL-04-XX-M3-ARVisibility_A.rvt.

The overriding purpose of the module is to describe the

various methods of customising and controlling thegraphical output of Revit drawings and to understand

those factors which have an impact on the style and

visual appearance of drawings and other graphics.

We take a closer look at the control and management

tools available to assist and control the graphical

appearance of the published outputs.

Delegates will be introduced to the categorisation tools to manage elements, their representation, styles and

textures and individual line-work across projects and specific views.

Throughout the presentation, the importance and implications of the National Revit StandardAEC (UK) BIM

Standard for Revitwill be explored and discussed. It is recommended that changes to those elements which are

dictated by corporate standards shall be done only with the knowledge of the Project BIM Co-ordinator and shall be

recorded in the Project BIM Strategy Document.

The graphical control of Revit output can be summarised into four topics:

ProjectsettingsLine Weights, Line Patterns, Materials andTextures, etc and how they come together inthe Line Stylesand Object Stylesassociated with each category, on a project-wide basis

View - specific Visibility / Graphics Overrideof the project-wide category settings are explored as a means oftweaking view preparation. The creation and use of View Filtersas a means of defining and applying

common settings quickly and efficiently

Objects- within each view, the graphics associated with individual elements can be overruled by right-clickmenu or criteria-filtered selection. Options include control of visibility and transparency; line weights,

patterns and colours; cut and projection fill patterns

Line- the linework tool is used to override particular lines that define the edges and details of individualobjects within specific views

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2011 White Frog Publishing Ltd. A04 - 3

A04



Delegate Notes

Project-Wide Settings

Used to define the corporate identity; through various styles and settings which are applied as defaults to elements

in every view.

Line Weights

The Line Weights table allows the specification of

line thicknesses which adjust to suit the scale of the

view.

These line weights are applied across the project to

all graphical data, so whenever a line weight 3 is

applied to an element, the line thickness will be

automatically assigned for the relevant scale.

The Revit Standard and associated templates

provide a suggested line weight table which can be

altered to suit a corporate or project requirement.

The table should not be altered by individuals

without management approval and all such

changes should be logged in the Project BIM

Strategy.

To access this dialogue box you need to go to the manage tab on the tools ribbon and select the settings drop down

menu, where you will find the various project settings including Line Weight.

Line Patterns

Made up of a sequence of dashes, spaces and dots, the line patterns may be used throughout the model

environment.

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Delegate Notes

Line StylesBringing together the above Line Weights and Line

Patterns and adding colour, users can create Line Styles

to specify the appearance of any Linework used in all

aspects.

You can always add and edit your own line styles to suit

popular requirements.

Material Library

The Materials dialogue can be launched directly from the

Manage tab, which will give full access to all features.

Alternatively, the dialogue can also be accessed by

assigning a material to an element or sub-element

although this method does provide a reduced set of

management tools.

When a material is applied to an element or surface, it

defines the shading colour, cut pattern and surface

pattern of the object, as well as the potential for a photo-

realistic render texture and meta-data associated with

the material.

The material library and the render texture library are

two distinct concepts and assigning a material does not

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Delegate Notes

Texture Library

The render appearance of a material is basedupon a texture assigned from the provided

Revit library, a 3rd

party supplied library or a

user-created alternative.

Producing the very best rendered images from

Revit requires high quality textures applied to

detailed and accurate components. Textures

can be defined and customised in terms of

transparency, reflection and bump maps.

The provided Texture Library is common to

many Autodesk applications, allowing for the

importing of new libraries and the easy

transfer of textured models from Revit to

other software tools such as 3D Studio Max or

AutoCAD.

The textures are categorised and can be searched and filtered to help find the most appropriate.

Creating a new texture can be done by replicating an existing one and tweaking the settings or by building one from

scratch using imported images.

Project-Wide Object Styles

Revit components are divided into categories

during creation. These categories are hard coded

into the application meaning that no facility

exists to create new categories, although sub-

categories can be created as required.

The Object Styles dialogue allows for

characteristics to be applied to these categories

and sub-categories to define the default

graphical appearance of elements that preside

within this data structure. Customisation extends

to the line weight, pattern and colour for cut and

projection lines; the surface patterns and cut

patterns with appropriate colours for surfaces

and even the option to set the default material

for a given component type.

These settings are then applied to all new views, unless overrides are subsequently applied.

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Delegate Notes

View Specific Overrides

Having used the above information to define the defaults for a project we can then look towards the override

options that exist in order to customise the appearance of particular views to achieve a desired aesthetic.

View Specific Category Overrides

First and foremost, the Visibility

Graphics dialogue box affects only

the view from which it was launched

either by using the default keyboard

shortcuts VVor VG; via the button

found on the View tab; or via the

View Properties Palette.

In a layout that matches that of the

Object Styles dialogue, element

categories are divided into Model

and AnnotationCategories with a tab

for each. There are also tabs for

ImportedCategories to control the

visibility and appearance of any

linked or imported external data like

CAD drawings and Revit files, and

Filterswhich allow for elements to be

overridden based on certain criteria

being met, such as walls rated at 30

minute fire protection coloured

green.

Additional tabs are added as more advanced features of the software are brought into use on a project, so enabling

the likes of Design Options and Worksets would introduce further tabs and hence additional options for controlling

the appearance of the view. As mentioned in Module 02, the distinction between Model Categories and Annotation

categories is not a 3D/2D divide but one of object versus label with element such as Walls, Doors and Columns in the

Model Category tab and Grids, Elevations, Text and Symbols falling into Annotation.

The dialogue allows the view to be tweaked in terms of the visibility and graphical appearance of each category of

component, allowing modification to the lines and patterns applied by default to objects due to the Objects Style

settings, as well half-toning or transparency to reduce the impact of components deemed non-critical in this

particular view. The level of detail which is set for each view can also be overruled for individual categories such that,

for instance, walls are displayed as course whilst all other elements are at a fine level of detail.

All these changes apply to the current view only and can only be applied to other views by creating a view template

to capture the changes and transferring them.

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Delegate Notes

View Templates

In addition to the Visibility Graphics Overridesmentioned above, many other view

properties and settings can be collated and

stored in a view template. This could include

properties of the Detail Level, the Scale, the

Model Graphics Style and /or the View Range.

A template can be designed to create an

entire view style such as a Fire Strategy Plan

where object categories are removed or half-

toned, Detail Level is set and filters are

applied to colour elements as per givencriteria. Alternatively, a view template can

simply deal with one item on the list of View

Properties, ignoring all other aspects.

The usual workflow is to prepare a view in exactly the required way and then generate a view template from that

view, deciding as you do which properties to include. Once the template is saved, a new view on a different level can

be created and the view template applied to it in order to replicate the appropriate settings.

Note: If a view template is updated after it has been applied to one or more views, it does not automatically update

those views but will have to be re-applied to make the relevant changes.

Reveal Hidden Elements

It is a useful feature to be able to reveal any elements which have been hidden within the current view using any of

the methods outlined in this module, use the Reveal

Hidden Element tool found on the control bar to affect

this. Pressing the light bulb icon will halftone all currently

visible items in the view, whilst revealing in red, any items which have been switched off by whichever means. A red

border around the view window acts as a reminder that the tool is in use and a hidden item can be selected

whereupon the right-click menu provides the option to Unhide in View.

Temporary Hide/Isolate

Still on the view control bar, the icon resembling a pair of glasses provides

access to the temporary Hide and Isolate options which facilitate the removal

of superfluous information during modelling. The important point here is that

the changes are superficial and will not have an impact on the published

appearance of the view. It is intended to be used, when congestion of

components restricts the user view of a work area. Objects can be selected

and this tool allows the selected objects to be hidden or isolated to remain.

Once initiated, the view window will be surrounded by a cyan border until

such time as the Temporary Hide/Isolate tool is reset and the items are

returned to their correct visual state.

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Delegate Notes

Element Specific Overrides

By continuing to increase the granularity of the manipulation the following tools allow for overruling of the project

defaults and view-specific changes to correctly display an individual object within a specific view, and do not effect

objects at a category level nor elsewhere in the project.

View Specific Element Overrides

In addition to the view specific category overrides already discussed, the

right-click menu provides the option to apply element overrides to theselected object or objects. You can see from this graphic that the same

options are available as through the Visibility/Graphics Override dialogue

but in a different form.

Shown here in fully expanded form, the dialogue can control transparency,

halftone and the appearance of lines and patterns.

View Specific Criteria Filtered Overrides

Filtering can be applied to any parameter and

can be used to identify elements from within a

single category or across several categories, as

long as they meet the criteria laid down by the

filter rules. The example shown here for a Fire

Rating view template identifies those items from

within the categories of walls, doors and ceilingswhich have a fire rating of a given value and

each component that meets the criteria is

coloured and patterned accordingly. Items from

within those same categories which do not have

a fire rating are half-toned.

The filters are established in a filter management dialogue box which is accessible via the Edit/New button seen

here, and then selected for application in each view using the Add and Remove buttons.

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Delegate Notes

Transparency

The transparency feature is found throughout the various dialogues described above, and has the effect of removingthe shading from an object, whilst maintaining the hidden line appearance and any surface patterns. It can be a

useful way of revealing otherwise hidden details within a 3D view, or to make glass transparent in 2D views.

Individual Line Overrides

Linework Tool

This tool is available in 2D and 3D views of the model and allows for view-specific changes to each line defining an

object, providing the ultimate control over the graphical appearance of individual objects in a view. This is often used

to highlight an object; show depth to a view by enhancing those objects closest to the foreground; or removingunwanted lines between adjacent or joined objects.

The choice of line style that is to be applied to

the element is selected prior to picking the

lines, and the user then has the option to

restrict or extend the length of the replacementlinework.

An invisible line style option provides the facility to

seemingly remove any unwanted lines.

Further options for modifying the appearance of objects within a view are explored in the modules covering 2D

detailing where lines, arcs and circles are supplemented by masking and filled regions to provide cosmetic patches to

overrule the model elements in a view specific way.

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Delegate Notes

Exercise

Controlling Element Visibility

This exercise starts from the Revit model RMT-WFL-04-XX-M3-ARVisibility_A.rvt.

The first part of the exercise leads delegates through the Visibility Graphics Override dialogue to manipulate the

appearance of the modelled elements within a structural floor plan.

1. Open the starter file RMT-WFL-04-XX-M3-ARVisibility_A.rvtandnavigate to the Floor Plan: Ground Floor

2. In the Element Properties palette,select the Editbutton adjacent to

Visibility/Graphics Overrides

Note: Most of the commands below can be performed from the Element Properties palette but in order to show

alternatives, the steps below look to call up the information from various sources

3. In the Model Categories tab, un-tick the box adjacent to Furniture. Click OK and notice that the furniturebecomes hidden

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Delegate Notes

4. Select one of the Grids and right-click, thenSelect All Instances, Visible in View

This will select all grids of the same style presently visible

in the current view, which in this case equates to all

grids in the model as only one style of grid is employed

and all are visible here.

5. Right-click again and Override Graphics in View, By Element

This tool allows for one or more elements to be manually altered in a view-specific way and can be used highlight or

reduce the intensity of an object or objects. There is no inherent logic to the overrides as there is with filters or

category overrides.

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Delegate Notes

6. Change the colour of the grids to Red and click OK

7. On the View Control Bar at the base ofthe screen area set the Scaleto 1:100

and the Detail Levelto Coarse

8. Back in the screen area, use the keyboard shortcut VVto launch theVisibility/Graphics Overrides dialogue9. In the Annotation Categoriestab, override the attributes of the Dimensionsto Halftone, click OK

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Delegate Notes

Automating View Style

So in the first part, we switched some things off, half-toned some and applied an override to others. In the secondpart of the exercise, delegates store the settings and refinements made to the ground floor plan and then apply

these to the first floor plan.

10. In the View Tab, View Templates, Create Template fromCurrent View

11.Then set the Nameto WF Floorplan and clickOK...

The dialogue that then appears will show all the view settings that it is possible to store in a View Template. Users

have the choice to make a View Template that only applies a very small but important change whilst leaving the rest

to individual circumstancesuch as applying a complex arrangement of filters or a view template can effect a

change to almost every aspect of the view and hence create a very closely defined view.

12. ...OKagain toaccept all the defaults

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Delegate Notes

13.Navigate to the Floor Plan: First Floor

14. In the View Tab, View Templates, Apply Template toCurrent View

The list of available templates which appears is restricted to those

which are applicable to plan views, one of which will be the newly

created template.

15. Then select WF Floorplanfrom the list and click OK

Note: The First Floor Plan now has the furniture hidden from view and the

previously invisible dimensions are switched on and half-toned as per the

ground floor plan. The grids have not gone red however. This difference is due

to the fact that whereas the changes to dimensions and furniture were by

category, which is captured by the view template creation, whereas the grids

were altered by element and this is not captured.

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