Save typing

A friend writes:

Stupid Revit trick.

If you type in:

   2 10

It is the same as 2’-10”

Hatchmaker

Revit uses old-school Autocad hatch patterns (.pat files) but provides no means to create them.  Lanny Schiele created a great Autocad utility for drawing patterns years ago, and it still works well.

http://cadtips.cadalyst.com/patterns/hatch-maker
http://revitclinic.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/11/custom-fill-pattern-anyone.html

Hatch patterns set to orient to object is one way to "ziptape" firewalls.  Although cumbersome, this method ensures that the pattern sticks with the wall.  Revit feature request:  Wall centerline that allows setting of width, linetype, color, and location within wall!

Creating storefront openings with doors in Revit

Most tutorials I've seen on adding storefront doors assume the simplest case, a 1x1 grid panel.  This video shows a door taking up more grids, which means the mullions can have a more complex or interesting layout independent of the door panel itself.

Change surface patterns from drafting to model for walkthroughs

Drafting patterns like Concrete or Plaster-Gypsum generally look good on surfaces in still 3D views, but drafting patterns "swim" in walkthrough animations.  Model patterns look better in walkthroughs.  Revit 2010 comes with few model patterns;  to import more try the Migrating hatch patterns how-to.  (For some reason the two pattern types are separated, and it's not possible to just change or duplicate one to another type.)

The videos below demonstrate the difference.  (I suggest clicking the fullscreen button in lower right corner to see the patterns better.)  The example is a stippled wall using Revit's built-in Plaster-Gypsum drafting pattern in the first video, and an imported model pattern in the second video.

DRAFTING pattern:



MODEL pattern:



Another artifact problem is evident, with surface pattern visibility switching on and off depending on view distance.  Some cases of this can  be reduced by creating high-resolution animation images as a series of jpgs, and down-sampling in video software for the final render size.  That's a completely different topic, but let's see if Revit 2011 improves the situation!

How to make the change- Under Manage, click Materials and highlight the desired material.  Click the button adjacent to Surface Pattern.  It should look something like this:

In this example the current surface pattern is Drafting type.  Click on Model and choose a new pattern.  Here I've selected "concrete-model" which was previously imported from AutoCAD:

I might revisit this topic after trying it out in Revit 2011.  Needed to post it now while it was still in my brain.  if nothing else, demonstrates the differences between pattern types in 3D views.

Revit release date update (Not April 8th)

Blah, sounds like Autodesk is backing off Revit release date
Revit release date update (Not April 8th)