Control your model with global parameters

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We've been looking at Revit, and BIM in general from the perspective of a relational database and looked at a variety of examples.

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One very powerful tool is a global parameter.

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A global parameter is basically a set of master parameters that allow us to force control over our entire model within Revit.

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So let's have a look at a couple examples.

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Once again, we're in Revit 2024.

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We'll open up the project that we've been working on all along, the small medical center.

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We come to the project landing page. And notice we have our shared parameters that we looked at.

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Let's go find the 3D view, second floor break room.

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And here we have some cabinets. And we have some lighting fixtures.

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And if I look at these cabinets, I can edit the type, and I can set the material under Material and Finishes

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for the various parts of this cabinet.

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If I click on the light fixture, very similar, edit my type and here's my shade material.

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Now, what I wanna do is I want to set up a global parameter to control

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all of the cabinet materials as well as another global material, to be assigned to the lighting fixtures I select.

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So I go to my Manage tab.

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And here under Settings I have Global Parameters. There are no global parameters for this project.

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So I want to create a new one. I click on new. The name will be cabinet fronts.

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The discipline can be common, but the data type will be material.

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And where do I want to group the parameter under? Material and finishes is fine.

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So I click OK. Let's create one more. Call it Light Shades.

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This again will be a material to be grouped under material and finishes.

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Click OK again. So I set up two global parameters.

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Now let's give it a default value, for my cabinet fronts,

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select cherry, and for my light shades,

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let's search for blue, and make it blue solid.

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OK. Now nothing has changed in the cabinets, or in the lighting shades because even though I've created the global parameters,

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I haven't yet assigned them to the families.

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So I select the base cabinet, and as before I added the type, and now I can come into my doors and draw our material,

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and rather than picking a material, if I go to the far right, I can associate a global parameter.

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In my global parameter list, I select cabinet fronts, and apply, and "OK".

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Now nothing has changed because the material we picked was already the material assigned to this cabinet.

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So let's move on to the next one. Do the same thing.

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I select my global parameter of cabinet fronts.

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I'll continue on by editing the type of this cabinet,

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and assigning my cabinet fronts global parameter.

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OK. Let's suppose that we've decided to make all cabinet fronts spread.

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So rather than selecting each individual cabinet, I can go to my manage tab, select my global parameters,

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and here I can change my type to search for red, aluminum painted red.

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Let's just have a look at this, what it looks like under appearance.

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It is green even though it's called red. Click OK.

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And OK once again, and now we see that all the cabinets,

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that have that global parameter assigned to it have changed their material.

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Let's do the same for the sliding fixture. I selected.

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It's a sconce light, we'll simply edit our type,

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and change our shade material, to light chains, and click OK.

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And now they all come in as blue, very powerful stuff.

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Another great example of global parameters is dimensions.

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So we can set up a dimension for the entire project, let's say for door clearances.

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Global parameters are very powerful, and the more comfortable you get with Revit and the idea of a relational database,

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the more power you can get out of this relational database by using such tools as the global parameters and the shared parameters.