On the seventh day of CADD Care, the CADD team gave to me… insights on Revit’s overlooked command options!
Many commands in Revit have options that can be easily overlooked. You can use these commands over and over and never realize their full potential, simply because you ignored the options at you disposal. Or because you never had a need for a particular outcome, but when that need arises, you don't know how to achieve it because you have never tried other command options and don't even know they are available.
I have experienced that many times as a consultant. Since my many clients have very disparate needs and desired outcomes, I am constantly discovering new ways to use tools in Revit because I never needed to do what my clients need to do. Sometimes these commands and options have been staring me in the face the entire time I've been using Revit, but since I have never had a need for them, they were kind of in my blind spot.
One such command is the Spot Elevation dimension tool and its several options. When I have used this dimension in the past, I just clicked on an element and bang, a dimension appeared, and I moved on. Recently I was working with a structural engineer and he had a need to display the various elevations of walls in his plans, like the bottom and top of a wall. I immediately thought of Spot Elevations, but in my mind, it wouldn't work because I thought a Spot Elevation on a wall in plan would only display the elevation of the Cut Plane in the View Range.
Boy was I wrong. All because I never looked at the options:
As I said, I never really paid attention to these options before. For the "Display Elevations" options, here is what is displayed in plan for each:
To understand what each of these options is referencing, here is an elevation view of these elements:
Finally, here are the "Relative Base" options and what they display for my CMU Wall with the Current Level at Level 2:
So the moral of the story is pay attention to your Options, they could come in handy!
Check back tomorrow to discover more tips and tricks the CADD Team has lined up for the rest of the Twelve Days of CADD Care!
Missed any posts? Catch up on previous entries in the Twelve Days of CADD Care series here:
- Day One: Digital Twin Solution
- Day Two: Make Managing Users Easier: Discover Autodesk’s Latest Usage Report Updates!
- Day Three: The Construction Cloud Visual Map That You've Been Missing
- Day Four: The Unopened Christmas Present
- Day Five: Bring PDFs to the Dark Side
- Day Six: Take Control of Curb Returns with Corridor Transitions