Maximizing Revit MEP: Taking Your Projects to the Next Level

DAVID BUTTS: Hello, and welcome to Autodesk University. My name is David Butts. I'm an engineering technology manager for Gannett Fleming, and I'm here today to talk to you about maximizing Revit MEP, taking your projects to the next level.

I'm happy to be here today. I've been working with Gannett Fleming now for about 14 years. I'm an Autodesk expert elite. I've also in the past been a Revit certified professional for electrical and mechanical. And yes, don't forget to renew your exams. I just missed that date, so I have to go get mine renewed. I've been an Autodesk certified instructor and speaker or mentor, and I've also been rated as a top speaker several times, including in 2011, 2016, and 2019.

So I'm happy to be here with you today. This is my 20th consecutive event presenting, teaching, working with different addresses and all kinds of good stuff at the event. So I'm just really thrilled to be here for another year with you guys.

All right, so let's talk about what we're going to cover today. We're going to first talk about advanced family tips for data management for nested content and for doing process project equipment beyond just typical building systems. So we're going to talk at that broad level first about the different content that you might use in a project and how to structure that stuff and how to set it up. Then we're going to narrow that field down and start talking more a little bit in our second agenda item of discovering the best practices for your templates for libraries, systems, and views, how do I set up my environment inside of Revit to make sure things are as efficient as possible.

The last thing we're going to do is we're going to talk about the platform. We're going to go outside of Revit and say, look at how you can manage your project content, your projects themselves for fewer issues and faster performance. Where is it important that I keep my files and how do I edit them in such a way that I don't have errors, and how do I just make things as efficient as possible?

We might today talk about a few things that may be forward looking, so Here's our safe harbor statement that we do for every one of our classes. And so I just want to make sure that we cover this today and everybody knows that, hey, if we say something that Autodesk to just can't do down the road, it's OK.

All right, let's start talking about advanced family tips here, and specific to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing. What is it that's really important in here? So there's a lot more to a family than just an RFA file. So where are the best places that you can go and improve your content?

And so there's five areas I wanted to take a look at today. The first is your shared parameters. What do you need to do with this data and how do you need to manage it in such a way that make it easy for all users to be able to take advantage of this content? And then you're going to determine where we're actually going to place a shared parameter. When is it the right time to put it in a project as opposed to putting it into a family? Then we're going to talk about parent versus child inherited properties or associated properties and how they can be associated with content inside of a nested family or something else.

Next, we're going to look at how to work with nested MEP connections. We're going to take a look at a new feature that allows us to do a better job of creating electrical equipment connections that are nested inside of another family. And then we'll talk real quick about Inventor conversions to Revit content and how informed design is going to help, just a quick little preview of what you need to be looking.

So let's start off by talking about shared parameters, OK? What do you need to have with shared parameters in here? It's anything that's going to be included in a tag, a schedule, a database export. Anything that needs to be created, it has to be done as a shared if you're going to use it in this fashion. These are stored in a text file, which are identified by their GUID that is created when we actually make that parameter.

So while you can look at this stuff with Notepad, you don't want to alter the numbers or structures like this. And I've seen people actually take this file, open it up in Excel and resort it and all of a sudden the GUIDs are not associated with the parameter name anymore and the parameters don't work. So you want to make sure that you understand how you can work with this file. It's best to edit it directly in Revit so you don't wind up missing something or having something not correctly associated.

You can put descriptions on the parameter to say what it's intended to be used for. And again, you do that from Revit. You also want to stay away from special characters. You want to avoid things like percent keys and parentheses and things like that, because those can be misinterpreted when you're trying to use a parameter in a formula. So just keep it as text. And I've actually started taking out things like spaces, just to make it work a little bit smoother. So we'll get a few of them that we've made that change to. But just be aware that that's one of the things you might want to look at doing.

We also want to make sure that you're using the correct data format in here. So when you're putting a parameter together, don't just use text for everything. You have all kinds of parameters that you can use that are for analysis. They're for flow. They're for loads. There are all kinds of stuff. And so they're basically set up to work within the program to perform things like flow calculations.

And here's another little tip, too. Don't be afraid to share your shared parameter file, follow of that, share the shared. So in this particular case, if I've got a client that I'm working with, give them your shared parameter file, because it's easier for you both to be working from the same content than it is for you to actually have their content versus your content. It winds up creating a lot of duplicate work for things like tags and annotations, where I have to have a separate shared parameter file and a separate tag to manage this stuff when I really don't need that. Just keep it as generic as possible and then share this content.

So let's take a quick look at this, then. Now I bounce out of this real fast, and I'm going to jump over to Revit. So bear with me for a second.

All right, so how do I actually get to the shared parameters here? I start off by going to Manage and Shared Parameters. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to go ahead and jump in and take a look at where these are. So let's grab this dialog that went flying off the screen over here. That happens.

So we actually have ours sorted by different categories. Now, we'll tell you this much. When you create your shared parameters, you want to put them in the same category that you want them to appear in under properties when you're actually using the parameter. So when I have things like electrical loads, when I created all these shared parameters, some of these actually, if you just use the default, will go to electrical engineering.

Well, I changed mine to electrical loads because I wanted to have everything that's associated with the load on an object in one category. So that way, when I'm looking through properties, I can find it and I can edit it really easily. And then we were talking about when do you use text as opposed to when you actually use one of the built in unit values in here. So if I look at number of poles and I look at properties-- let's drag this dialog over here.

Notice that this is using an electrical discipline and a predefined property called number of poles, and that's because it works with the panel schedules and the circuit to define how that load is broken up based on the number of poles that are associated with the circuit. So all of that information that you have in here is easy to define, but you want to stay with the project units and you want to stay associated with something that's actually calculating a value when you can. And then when you can't, if you're giving something that's descriptive, then you use something like text as a value to create the parameter with.

All right. So that's a quick note on where the shared parameters are. Well, let's take a look at how this stuff actually comes into play here. So-- sorry. One of my little hiccups right there. How would I actually assign some of these parameters here? So I want to go find a template that I've got open. So give me just a second. Let's switch over to this guy. We're going to go back to our MEP template.

And so now when we look at this, I've already got in my template. I have a bunch of predefined parameters already loaded in here. And so when you go to Manage, and you actually go to Project Parameters, it's important to understand when you're going to assign something to a specific category that's going to apply globally to every object in here. So if I start to look at the different parameters that are available, notice how I've got different things for panel schedules, occupant load, you name it. There are things that are in here, but I've got one for air flow rate in here.

Now what would I apply an air flow rate to? So let's do a quick edit to take a look at this guy. There are specific categories in Revit that are unique. Only one object type is in it. So an example of that would be an air terminal, a lighting fixture. Those are actually very specific categories that have very specific parameters. And so when I look at this, if I want all of these families I put in to have an air flow value, technically, I could go through here and assign air flow and say all air terminals are going to have an air flow value.

And I can determine where that's going to be assigned. Is this going to be something that's instance based, which is unique to the object or type based, which applies to all examples? So air flow is always going to be unique. It's going to be unique to that example. So if I assign this here, I don't necessarily have to assign it in the family.

So when would I actually assign it in the family? When it's something that's going to be global, like mechanical equipment, electrical equipment, specialty equipment. You have all different kinds of mechanical equipment, air handling units, pumps, you name it. So you don't want to take a parameter that really applies to just one of those examples and have it show up for everything. So just make sure that you're aware of what I'm using a project parameter for and how it's actually going to be assigned.

All right. So let's get out of this real quick. All right. Now, I want to take a look at something else. When would I actually have it assigned in a family? So if I look at my VAV box and if you've been to my classes before, you've seen this guy a million times. But it's a great example of a way to use parameters in a family. So let's grab this dialogue over here real quick and drag him over.

So in this particular case, I have a whole bunch of different types of parameters. Some are formulas. Some are just basic family information. We got things like dimensions that are family parameters. But then I have some of the share parameters we were looking at before. And so if I look at this, this is actually created as that shared parameter. It has this value. And in this case, I assigned it to a type.

Now, an electrical load like this is going to be common. I'm going to use it in anything that has an electrical connection. But what if something specific to the VAV box, like the VAV duct discharge size? If I go and look at how this is created, this is an example of a parameter that you only assign to the family. You don't go and predefine this as a project parameter in your template. And in my case, I actually put it in as type because I have different types for different sizes. So that's just an example of the difference between when you would actually use a shared parameter in a project, when you're actually going to use it in a family.

So let's take a look at something else in here. Let's go back and tab back over to our PowerPoint. And go to our show. All right. So we just finished talking about project and data families and our data parameters here. And so as long as you understand how these things are organized, the difference between the single item and common categories, the light fixtures, air terminals, those are single categories. Mechanical equipment, electrical fixtures, those are common categories.

And my project template, anything that's a single category that I want to make sure it shows up for everything, I put that into my project template. But again, with families, I'm only going to put those common categories in the family as a shared parameter. And I also started doing this. I've started creating starter families with preloaded shared parameters all the time.

All right. So let's talk start to talk about what goes into the family and how you can use parent versus associated properties for nested content. I'm seeing a lot more people do this lately where I'm putting different examples into a family, and instead of having 15 different families for things like light switches, I have one family that has different types on it.

And what it does is it controls-- that one can control multiple symbols, multiple graphics by using a nested parameter and associating something with a visibility parameter. That's usually called an associated property. So you typically use that with other fields and parameters for anything that you want to control, whether it's internal or nested. I like to use them for graphics, but you can also use them for physical properties. You can use them for scheduling data.

So let's take a quick look at a light switch that I have in here and look at how I've actually got this guy set up so we know how that actually works. So I'm going to switch over to my light switch. And in this particular case, what you're going to do is you're going to see that I've got an annotation family. And this annotation family is something that we created a long time ago that says, I want to see all the different symbols. So these are all in one family.

So if you go and look, you're going to see a variety of different types if we actually open this one up. But we're going to jump over here to type properties first and actually show how the graphics are controlling this. So if you see, I've got a digital timer switch to turn things on and off. I've got one that actually shows the box around the text, one that shows the occupancy sensor settings, one that actually shows the S symbol for the switch and one that shows the vacancy sensor.

So with this particular type, that switch is turned on. If I go to occupant sensor, that switch gets turned on. Then if I go over here to 3-way switch, the only thing I show is just the S. Now where is that set? So if I cancel out of this dialogue, and I come back here and I pick the switch-- we'll grab that guy real quick and we're going to edit the family. OK, so now that we're in your family, you're going to see that I got a whole bunch of different symbols in here. So here's the digital timer in this, and this is just basically text. And so all I did was come in here and create an association with visibility.

Let's grab this guy and bring him over. And I have a parameter set up, a visibility parameter. And this is a family. This one's not a shared parameter because it's not data that needs to go into a schedule. But this is just simply telling Revit that if this type is used, turn this symbol on inside of the family so that's what shows up in the plan view. And all I had to do was go create that association here. And then once I had the association created here, I could come back over to the light switch again.

And with the switch itself and the particular type, I can say, what are you associated with in this particular instance. What makes you visible? And so that's controlled by type properties to turn this switch on and off. So that's an example of how you can use a nested family for graphics. Been around for a while, but it's a great advanced tip to use on your families to make sure that you get a more seamless experience and not as much content in there.

All right. So let's jump back over to the PowerPoint real quick. One more. All right. Now, there's other types of nested components. And when I started doing a lot of work with plumbing fixtures years ago, I said, OK, what is it that's something that needs to be interchangeable? And I'm not going to interchange the plumbing fixture itself because that shows up in one box. But I could have different flush valves that could be working on this particular type of a plumbing fixture.

And so in this case, I used that same visibility characteristic that I used before to turn them off and on based on what type of a plumbing fixture and a flush valve device I want. But now, I have to work on things that are electrical. Now, there are some improvements for how we do source connections in here. But what I want to look at first is when I need to use a surface connector for something like a power connection and when I can actually use a nested connector. So we're going to take a look at two different families here.

So let's jump back over to Revit real fast, cancel out of this guy. We're going to start with a wall mounted toilet. Now, it's important to understand what this is and the whole type source relationship of MEP objects in here. And this particular case, I had to put the electrical connector in the host family in here. And the reason being is because this would be considered a target device. It's not a source.

And so a target is what actually defines a circuit itself. And so if I was going to create a circuit, I would actually have to pick the plumbing fixture in this case. And that connector has to be here in the host. It cannot be in a nested family. The only time it can be in a nested family is when it's actually a source, the panel, the switchgear, something like that. That's when you can actually have a nested connector inside of another family.

So if I look at how this connector is defined, notice that I'm doing the same association that I did with visibility. But now, I've got this association set up with the parameter that's in this family in the plumbing fixture, so that somebody knows that when they're using this particular fixture, there's an electrical connection that could be available. And now, I need to create that connection.

Now, there's a limit to this. If you're using the handle flush valve, you can't turn off the property for electrical. That's why it's so important to keep these in a separate category. So how you manage your categories is really important in this particular case. So that's how I would do something that has a power connection in it that's not necessarily an electrical device. It's a plumbing fixture. It's a piece of mechanical equipment, anything like that, like a disconnect switch.

If I want to do something a little bit different, we actually got this new little feature in here called the nested power connection that we want to take a look at. And I actually had a great little conversation with Martin Schmid, one of the product managers, about how this works. And so now, if you've been to my other classes, you know we talked about targets and sources. A target is something that receives air fluid or power. And a source is something that provides or controls the flow of air fluid or power to a device. So you have a bunch of different devices like sub panels that are fed by a different main panel.

So in this particular case, I can actually select a nested family to create that connection to the source equipment for that circuit. So if you look at this, it just says, hey, it's one family, but it's got two panels in it, right? Or I look at this device, it actually has two switchboards in it. Now, you can think of it as an MCC or something else like that, motor control center, any one of those will work.

But if I look at this particular device here, and I say, OK, I want to create a circuit to one of those panels. So I take this panel, and I go to electrical circuits, and I say select the panel. And now look, check this out. I can actually go and tap select if I did this, right? Oh, I got to make sure that I have everything set up correctly. So let's do a little bit different one.

We'll pick this guy, and go to Electrical Circuits, and say Select Panel because that one already had one defined. That's why I screwed that up. So this is actually looking at the two nested switch gears that I can connect this power panel to and now it creates that circuit. So that's a really cool feature that now I can actually really build a motor control center and I can have VFDs, high voltage power connections, you name it, going into that MCC, but the MCC itself is one family. So it actually can be tracked as that one part.

So that's a great improvement to the program and how it actually works. And then as you start to tab select, and pick circuits, and show path, and do all this other good stuff, you actually are going to see a little bit better behavior. Like, this is still a little bit wonky in this case of it showing where the original device was. But if I actually pick the circuit again and say edit the circuit, now I actually see how that path is closed in. And so it actually is calculating voltage drop correctly now. A couple of fixes that they did in 2025.

All right. So let's bounce ahead back to our PowerPoint again. That's how the nested connectors are working. So let's talk about vendor content. Now we're starting to get into complex parts. And so there's a couple of choices you can make during the course of when you're actually working on your projects. One is what types of files am I going to work with.

And I work with a lot of complex water treatment plants, things like that. And so I use Inventor to actually model those parts. Well, you can use with Inventor, IAM/IPTs, SOLIDWORKS assembly, STEP files, STL, SAT, Drawing. You can use any of those in Inventor to convert your part, but you actually use the Model Explorer to go through and remove small parts and the BIM Content Tools to simplify it and take out details so it works better in Revit.

I really like how the connectors are working in here, so we're going to take a look at an example for that. I've got a couple of links in the PowerPoint about informed design. There's a good session that you can follow up on, but this is the bigger picture of how to get content from Inventor over to Revit. So follow this link to get more details. We got a really great class associated with this one here.

So let's jump over to Inventor real quick. So I've got a family here. And this is an original piece that I imported that it's just something I found on the internet. Whoever modeled this thing is a great little piece about how it works. But I can actually use the Model Explorer when this thing gets imported to look at individual parts and components. And so it's really cool. It actually browses through.

And as I start going over different parts, I can actually see what's in here. So if there's something that I don't need, like a pipe, I can actually right click on this and I can delete it, I can move it, I can copy it, I can change whatever I need to if it doesn't need to be in that particular part. So first thing that you want to know is that Model Explorer gives you the opportunity to look at those smaller parts, like connections, like anything else that would be really tiny that you didn't want to have in here, it'll actually help you find these things and then actually remove them from the model before you do simplify.

Now, once I've removed them from the model, I'm going to jump over to one that's already been simplified here. When you get into Environments, you have a couple of tools in here that are really cool. So if I look at BIM Content here-- and this has evolved over the years. It's been around for several releases of Inventor, but it's gotten a heck of a lot better. So I can use Simplify up here to actually reduce things like holes, to create something as a solid body, to make it a smaller and tighter part.

We're not going to go into detail about how Simplify works, but you need to be using this tool to actually reduce the detail level, to make the model perform better when you get it inside of Revit. The thing I really like now though, is how they're actually managing connections. And so when I look, I've already got a pipe connection here that's already set up on this particular device.

Well, what if I wanted to throw another one on here? So let's back up and see how that things actually match to the size of that connection. So if I put in a new pipe connector down here, it's going to be a circular connection. I can put a size in here if I want, doesn't really matter. But now, I'm going to come over here and I'm going to say, OK, I want to pick that surface. And look at what it did. It actually picked up the size of that connector because it recognized it as an Inventor pipe.

So now, all I have to do is say go through and tell me what this is associated with. It's another type of a system. It's not hydronic or anything else like that. Its flow direction could be in or out. So if it's a source, you want it to be out. And then you can also go in and say what type of a pipe connection and this data can carry forward into Revit that's a property associated with the pipe. So once I get that connection, I would pick Finish BIM Content and it actually would go through-- or I'm sorry-- you pick Export Building Components and create your RFA.

Let's go ahead and look at that final product of the RFA that I already created in here. So we're going to switch right quick. Let's get out of our system selector. And now, we're going to go over and look at the final dewatering piece in here. So let's grab this guy real fast. And there he is, mobile dewatering. I got so many files I'm working with today. I can't bounce them quick enough.

But I want to point something out about this part. If I take a look at the 3D view now, and actually see this in here-- let's go look at a little isometric view. OK, we'll bounce around a couple times, get where we need to be. Notice that the part itself is an extracted solid. So you see that in here and it's showing up as an IEM file. This is important. That's how I know it came from Inventor as an assembly.

But let's take a look at the connector itself. It's not nested inside of the family. It's actually on that surface. And this is a critical difference for people who are actually managing this content. It's now valid and a good time to go and actually put that connector in Inventor because number one, it's going to read the size, and number two, it's still going to be an independent object inside of our family. So this is a great path for us to be working through and how we actually can use more sophisticated content on our projects, especially stuff from vendors. That's not something that we sure as heck don't want to go model ourselves.

All right, so let's get back over here. So that's what I wanted to talk about with families. Let's talk about templates. Let's talk about systems and libraries. We're going to pick up the pace a little bit, start getting through this stuff. All right. So you get the most out of your template. There's a few things you want to do. First, you want to make sure that you're using predefined workshare-based starter models. Don't use a template.

We actually started doing these because that way we can already have worksets defined. And then when I create the project, and I work in Autodesk Docs a lot, I can actually start from one of these workshare files that I keep on my local drive and then do save as cloud model. And because it's already a central file, it'll automatically become a cloud file when I put it up into Autodesk Docs and it will stay as a central file. So I can rename it, save as, it's one step to get the central file created by starting from a workshare starter that already has things like worksets defined in it.

And so now when I get cruising along the content that I'm going to put in my template, it's all going to be based on common use, not potential use. I don't want to put everything in the kitchen sink inside my template because then the template gets too big and the project starts off slow and then you wind up having to purge a lot of stuff. You also don't want to overload component families. Things like in this particular case, I only keep a few examples of component families for common things like air terminals, light fixtures, pipe types, but I don't put a whole bunch of them in there.

One of my rules is does this part actually require a type mark. And if it does, then you want to have that in your template because you cannot predefine a type mark in an RFA file. You have to do that in a template. You also, in your template, want to make sure that you've got some well-defined view types, not just view templates, but view types so that when you create your views, you already have things like view templates assigned to them. And then you also want to make sure you have those common system types, again, basic duct and pipe types. What am I actually going to use on this project?

Now, I will tell you, with the change in the industry and how we're creating projects, you need to be aware that in some cases, you don't have to go in great detail with your piping model because when it gets to fabrication, if the contractor is actually recreating this model, they're doing fabrication pipe, they don't necessarily need you to have a full on level of development, 400 ductile iron pipe as a design file. So just be aware of that. Keep it basic, keep it simple, and don't overload your template in that case.

One last thing to do is also check calculation rules and settings. If you are using Revit to do duct sizing that type of stuff, you want to make sure that you have the rules turned on and that you have that stuff set up and ready to go. So let's take a look at some examples real quick. So we're going to bounce back over here to Revit and we're going to start off by taking a look at my template itself. And so in this particular template-- by the way, this is included with the class, so you'll be able to download it after EU here.

I want to start off by talking about things not worksets in this case, but what I actually would include in the template. So in this particular case, we want to talk about view types. So I'm going to jump over here and say, if I'm going to create a new plan view like this, we actually have these view types already created that have these examples in here. So if I'm doing electrical lighting, electrical power, I can actually pick that. And this is the key part here was when I actually edit the type. So let me get this dialog over here. Sorry, my mouse is having a fun time today.

All right. So in this case, I already had the view template assigned to the view type. So when I'm creating something by a view type in this case, and I can do multiple floor levels at one time based on the view type, I'm already bringing in what I want those settings to be for visibility, for detailed level, for shadows, for exposure, all that stuff. Anything that I want to have created, it's giving me a preset view that already has all the settings that I want in it. So absolutely should be doing this in my template.

Now, what if I want to control the visibility of things like worksets and stuff like that? Then I have to have the same settings created in my workshare starter file. So we want to make sure that we have that part created correctly. So let me bounce back here and switch to that file real fast. We're going to go to the work share file. OK. And so now that I'm in this one, I can look at the same view types.

And again, it all just depends on what you're trying to create. So I may have a few more of them in here that I can create because I actually have more control over things like worksets and links that are already in here. And so if I go back and look at the different view types like electrical power in this case, and I go look at electrical power as a view template, notice that I have worksets that's available that I can control now.

So if you're starting from a template, you wouldn't have that capability. But if you're starting from a workshare or starter, you do have that capability. So in this particular case, that's a good idea to actually start there so you can actually control what you're seeing. And the other advantage about the workshare starter file is the fact that I can have all of my worksets predefined and I can control things like what links do I want to have visible and have worksets for every link file that I have.

So if I want to start off in this file by not showing Navisworks or point clouds, I can actually have this set in my workshare starter as opposed to a template to turn these things on and off. So this is all about view. It's all about what I see and what's in this particular case. Now, it's not just about that too. It's about content too. And so if we go back and look, I've got a few things that are already defined in here, like under electrical fixtures, we have basic wall mounted receptacles.

And so if I go back and look at a typical type in here, this is another one of those sophisticated families that that's in the template that you guys will be able to take advantage of. It's got those visibility graphics turned on. It's got that information about load and everything else pre-programmed. But now, as I start to look at different types, like a GFI, same type of information, but the difference is now the type mark is predefined.

So when I start to create this element in the project now, when I go to tag it, I don't have to fill out that tag information because it's already there. It's already part of that particular content. So again, my library mainly contains things that need that kind of requirement, or at least a basic like pipe types and pipe systems. Now, I do want to jump over to pipe systems real quick and talk about this.

You want to make sure that the pipe systems that you're creating in your project are specific to the type of project you're working on. And I'm getting really big about doing a project type specific templates that we use. We've had a master template forever that just did MEP. But now, we're actually looking and saying, OK, what if this is a water treatment plant, what if this is a pump station, what if this is an office building, and actually having templates that already have the different pipe types and system types defined in here.

And so when you look at these different types and I look at something like gas, well, that's not something that's calculated, right? So one of the things that can affect performance in a model is whether or not you have calculations turned on. If you're not going to be using this pipe to do any kind of load calculations, have your calculations set to none. Because what will happen is you get a couple of different options in here that if you've got them set up in your template, it can actually slow things down for you.

So if we look at chilled water, come up here and I look at chilled water supply, there's four different options in here. You can have it to where all calculations are performing all the time. You can have it to where it's only calculating flow. So it says, OK, I've got this particular device that has 50 GPM coming out of it. So it's just calculating that flow. It's not actually calculating other values like friction loss and everything else. But then you have performance.

And performance is a really good one to have because then calculations don't come into play until you actually pick that item in that system or edit the system. And so performance is just specific to that one device. Now, again, this feature has been around for a while, but the point here is to make sure that it's in your template and then you actually have it available, so when the project starts, you're already ahead of the start line. You have things that are defined. Now, jumping ahead here a little bit, I do want to talk about appearance and how things are going to look in the project.

So real quick, I'm going to bounce back out to PowerPoint. I want to talk about appearance real quick and actually how things look inside your project. So where do you improve what's going on? Autodesk fixed something in 2025. That auto generation of mark numbers, that's now disabled for all MEP categories. So if you don't want something to auto generate like one, two, three, four, five or equipment or anything else, you can actually turn that off. And that way, you can assign the values that you need without having to worry about having a duplicate or having numbers that are just randomly made out of space in here.

You also want to go back and make sure that any abbreviations you use that are associated with your systems that you have defined, you've got that set up and matched in your legend. This is a-- we get guys that actually bring in CAD legends into our projects. And we've had that happen in the past. You don't want to do that. You want to have a native Revit legend in here. So it's a good idea to actually set a table up and have that created in your project.

I also believe in keeping my annotation types generic, and we're going to talk about this a little bit after materials. But I like having my textiles and my dimension styles not have my company name in them because when I start to share that with other people, it's problematic if they actually have to go back and have oh, I've got to have the textile in here and not just my textile that has the exact same properties in just a different name to keep it simple.

We also want to do same thing with our annotation family set for defaults for tags. So when you're actually creating a template, go ahead and preload all the tags that are for any categories that you're actually going to create in a project, have them loaded in there and have your most common use ones in there. And then, again, we're going to talk about materials based on industry standards. I'm going to show that one first since we're still in the pipe type.

So let's take a look at how this works. So when we talk about appearance again-- go back over here and go to Revit real fast. Notice that in the pipe type we were just looking at, I have a material sign of this that says ANSI 13.1 potable, cooling, and other fluids. On the type of project that I'm working on here, this one actually has a material that's defined. So let's get the material library over here so we can actually see this. Here we go.

So I had these in my template already and they're associated with the pipe types. So they're based on what ANSI requires the pipe to be painted. When I go to render this view and actually show a final rendering, I've got the ANSI color code already assigned to the pipe type and the pipe system in this case. I have it pre-assigned here so that it shows up correctly or a rendered and shaded appearance so that it actually shows what the pipe should actually be painted. So that helps improve the quality of the 3D views that I'm producing because we're doing more and more of these in a project to actually show somebody what things actually look at from a 3D isometric view.