Configure Project Information

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We tend to look at Revit as an architectural or engineering design tool.

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But in effect, it is a relational database in the background that sits on top of a graphical interface.

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We will be looking at that database configuration in particular with your project information.

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Now, the beauty of a relational database is that we enter the information once and it propagates throughout the project.

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And in this video, we will be looking at the project information,

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how we can enter it and how it shows up in various different parts of our project.

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So let's get started with Revit. Here we are in Revit 2024.

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In our recent files, click on the small medical center, or you may have to go to "Open"

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and browse to your project location and open the small medical center.

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It opens up in the last field was saved in which is this default 3D view.

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And if we look over in our project browser under "Sheets", the very first sheet, A001, is 3D.

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So double click on that.

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And here is our sheet, and the project name is "Revit Dataset Model" which isn't very ideal.

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And soon we'll look at how we can change that.

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Let's look at another sheet, A002, which is the site plan.

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And this has a regular title block.

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And down below we see Autodesk, which is the client name.

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The project name again is that Revit Dataset Model.

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We also have the sheet number, and the sheet name.

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Where is it getting this information from?

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We have to distinguish what is project information and what is sheet information.

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For the sheet information, if I click on the title block,

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the sheet information resides in the properties of this title block.

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So I could change it from site plan to site view.

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And as I enter that, you'll notice that it changes in my drawing as well as in the project browser.

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Notice that I don't have any area in the properties for the project information.

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For that, I go to the manage tab and here under settings we have project information.

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And here's the information that we were looking for. Autodesk is the client name.

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Revit Dataset Model is the project name. So let's change the client name to upper case AUTODESK.

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Project status, change that from Architectural Check Set to Not For Construction.

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Let's change the project number to 23-45 12 and click "OK".

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Now you'll notice that in the title block, the Autodesk has changed, but this is bidirectional.

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So if I click on the project name,

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I can change that here, or call it "Autodesk A-Town".

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And when I hit Enter it, updates it in my title block.

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And since this is a relational database field, it also goes to that 3D view that we looked at and it changes it there.

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And not surprising if I go to my manage tab back to project information, and presto, it is changed here as well.

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So this is the nature of a relational database where we enter the information once and it propagates throughout the project.

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And we have to distinguish what is project information, and what is sheet information.

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And the sheet information once again is available in the properties of the title block.

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Now let's actually look at how this works underneath the hood.

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So with my title block selected I go to Edit Family.

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Now this is the raw title block. In AutoCAD terms, this is the block definition.

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And here we see some text of client name, project name, sheet name.

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And these are attributes in AutoCAD terms, but they're more than attributes.

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If I click on client name and I go to edit label.

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And let's say that I want to bring my project number underneath my client name.

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I select my project number. I use the green arrow.

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I click on break to make this a second line, and OK, now let's load this into project.

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We want to override the existing version.

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And now you see the project number underneath the client name.

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Let's just go back and reverse that.

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So I simply edit my label again, take my project number and now use the red arrow to remove that.

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Once again, load it into the project and close it.

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No, I don't want to save the changes, want to override the existing version, and now it's back to normal.

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These are actually fields or parameters from the relational database.

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And the beauty of a relational database is we enter the information once and it propagates throughout the project.

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Now, with that information entered in our next video, let's try to find a creative way to query such information.

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Let's go back to our 3D view and close the inactive views, and let's save the file.