As you work with Revit, you are going to find you are working on a fully integrated model. To work on various aspects of your project, you will frequently open or create views. Views come in many varieties: 2D views, 3D views, details, sheets and schedules to name a few. These are all part of a single project and simply show the model from various vantage points. Use the Project Browser to manage and navigate to different views within your project. When a view is active, the view name in the Project Browser is bold.
The default location of the Project Browser is at the lower-left corner of the screen. Project Browser and other similar palettes can be moved around the screen or to your second monitor if you wish. If yours is not located in the default position, look for the palette titled: Project Browser. If it is not displayed at all, you can go to the View tab, on the Windows panel, click the User Interface drop down and check the box next to Project Browser to display it.
As you can see, the browser is organized by different categories, such as Floor Plans, Ceiling Plans, Elevations, Legends, Schedules/Quantities, Sheets, Families, and Revit Links. This is the default organization, but you can customize the Project Browser to better suit the needs of a specific project if required.
Figure 1–8 Use the Project Browser to open other views of the project
The Level 1 floor plan view will open in its own tab in the main model canvas area of the screen (see Figure 1–9). If you want to return to the previously displayed view, simple click its tab.
Figure 1–9 Views open in their own tabs in the model canvas
You will now have several tabs open. Each of these is a live view of the model. This means that if you make a change in one of these views, the change will also be reflected in all the other views; even the ones you have not opened! This means that when you work in Revit, you open any view that is convenient to make a change and do with the confidence to know that changes will be coordinated throughout the model. Let’s try a simple example.
Figure 1–10 Select a window element onscreen
Rolling the wheel on the mouse will change the magnification onscreen. This is called zooming. Roll up to zoom in and roll down to zoom out. The location of your pointer determines the center of the magnification. If you need to re-center the view, you can hold down the wheel and drag to pan the screen. Notice that as you zoom in on this area, that the window is gone in this view too. In fact, if you open any view that shows this area, that window will be deleted.
Notice that the window will move to the location where you drag it. Its tag (the hex symbol with the number 46) will follow. The window will also move along the window and continue to cut the wall to which it is attached. We call this “hosting” behavior. The wall hosts the window. And the window hosts its tag. Finally, if you return to South elevation, this new location will be reflected here too.
Figure 1–11 Close an individual tab
This closes the current tab. You can do this with other tabs, but there is a faster way if you want to close several tabs at once.
This will close the other tabs leaving only the Level 1 tab open.
After running the Wall tool, you will notice the ribbon (specifically the Modify tab at the right) changes. This is called a Contextual tab. Contextual tabs display specific functionality for the active command, in this case placing walls.
Figure 1–12 During an active command, the ribbon displays context sensitive tools and settings appear on the Options Bar
Another thing you will see once the Wall tool is active, is the change to the Options Bar. This is located just under the ribbon. The Options Bar provides specific options related to the active command or selection (see Figure 1–12).
Figure 1–13 Use the Modify tool to cancel or reset (or press esc twice)
The Properties palette is where you can view and modify the various parameters that define the properties of elements in Revit. It is broken up into two main areas, the Type Selector, and Instance Properties (see Figure 1–14).
The default location of the Properties palette is at the upper-left corner of the screen. Properties and other similar palettes can be moved around the screen or to your second monitor if you wish. If yours is not located in the default position, look for the palette titled: Properties. If it is not displayed at all, you can go to the View tab, on the Windows panel, click the User Interface drop down and check the box next to Properties to display it. Alternatively, you can press ctrl + 1 or type pp in succession.
Figure 1–14 The Properties palette
Figure 1–15 The Type Selector at the top of the Properties palette gives a list of available types
Take note of the list of wall types available (see Figure 1–15).
Notice that the list of available types changes with the tool and selection (see Figure 1–16).
Figure 1–16 Each tool will display a different list of types
The Type Selector lists all the types that are currently available in the project file for the selected kind of elements. When you create new elements, you use the Type Selector to select the family and type that you want to be place into your project. If you select an element that is already in the model, you can use the Type Selector to change it to a different type.
The lower portion of the Properties palette contains the instance properties. Like the Type Selector, it allows you to input the properties of a new element as you create it, or you can use it to change the properties of a selected element already in the model (see Figure 1–17).
Figure 1–17 Selected elements show editable properties on the Properties palette
Instance properties will only change the properties of the selected elements.
The Edit Type button (see Figure 1–18) is used to edit properties that are shared by all elements of the same type; regardless of whether they are selected. Changes apply throughout the model.
Figure 1–18 Use the Edit Type button to access Type Properties affecting all instances of that type
The View Control Bar gives quick access to the various graphical settings and controls in the current view. For example, you can change the current view’s plot scale (In Revit, you simply change the scale and all annotation adjusts automatically, no need to calculate non intuitive scale factors or manually adjust text and dimensions). Level of detail allows objects to display more geometry or less geometry to aid in drawing clarity. Visual styles include hidden line and various shading modes to display the model. The View Control Bar also allows you to quickly toggle on and off the cropping behavior in the view and includes many temporarily display modes to aid in everyday editing (see Figure 1–19).
Figure 1–19 View Control Bar
The Status Bar displays contextual information related to your current action. If you hover over an existing element, it will report the category, family and type of the highlighted element. When you run a command, prompts and instructions will often appear here as well. In multi-step commands, look here for prompts on what to do next (see Figure 1–20).
Figure 1–20 Examples of the Status Bar prompts
