Each year around this time, I like to write an article highlighting a few of the changes to Autodesk Revit. Specifically, I like to point out items that are likely to affect everyday work within the software. The 2015 version does not have a lot of significant changes in this area, so making the transition will be pretty easy for most; no changes to the Materials dialog this year! To help with that transition, I would like to take a brief look at a change related to the Revit user name and then a few view-specific changes to Revit, namely Sketchy Lines, Anti-aliasing, Revit Hidden Lines control, and Revision clouds and tags.
Revit User Name
This is perhaps the most important 2015 change item to be aware of if you are using worksharing on Revit models. As clearly stated in the Options dialog shown below, your user name will change if you log into Autodesk 360 cloud services. The one exception: Revit will NOT change the user name if you are currently in a workshared file (local or central). This makes sense as you would no longer be able to synchronize with Central. Keep in mind that you cannot open an "old" local file after your user name changes because the central file will see you as a different user—not the person who may still have several items checked out. I have always recommended a designer start a new local file every time to keep it optimized—so this practice would help reduce problems. If a firm has a user naming standard, such as the one shown below (user name and extension) you are pretty much out of luck as there is no way to disable this feature. You may also have trouble figuring out who has something checked out if they are using a personal free Autodesk 360 account and have provided a cryptic username/email.
Anti-aliasing
In the past, anti-aliasing could only be turned on or off globally in the Options dialog. We still have this high-level control, but now we can choose to control this by view (see image below). This allows for better overall performance as Revit does not have to optimize every view when the feature is turned on.
Sketchy Lines
Revit now has a sketchy lines feature! This implementation appears to be the same as what can be accomplished in AutoCAD. Compared to SketchUp, I do not think the overall style is as good, but it sure is better than nothing at all. Each model view can have this feature enabled. This is done in the Graphic Display Options dialog. Notice that there is NOT a special option on the Visual Styles menu via the View Control Bar (see image below).
In the Graphic Display Options dialog, there is a Sketchy Lines section (see image below). Expanding this area, we see an option to toggle the feature on for the current view and two sliders; one for Jitter and another for Extension. The sketchy lines look better if you also turn on anti-aliasing.
The result can be seen in the image below. There are no category or element specific overrides for sketchy lines. Annotation is not affected, but fill patterns are. I have found the sketchy fill patterns to be a bit distracting in some cases—such as a brick pattern on an exterior perspective.
Show Hidden Lines
Every model view (except perspective) has a new instance parameter called Show Hidden Lines. This parameter has up to three possible options available via a drop-down list: None, By Discipline and All. This is a high-level way in which to control how hidden lines function in a given view. As usual, upgraded models will default to settings to maintain the current status of each view. By Discipline will likely be the default as the other two options are technically new features.
This new view parameter can also be controlled by a View Template.
By Discipline
As just mentioned, the way Revit has always worked in the past is equivalent to the By Discipline option. Mechanical and Electrical both have specific hidden line options in their respective settings dialog on the Manage tab. These discipline-specific settings can be overridden per the other two options, as we will discuss next.
None
This setting will turn off all hidden lines controlled by the MEP settings AND those controlled by the Show Hidden Lines tool on the View tab.
Note: The Show Hidden Lines tool has been around for a long time. This tool is used to reveal the outline of an item which is being obscured by another element. This appears to only work when the view's discipline is set to Architectural or Coordination.
There are a few things None does not affect. This setting does not affect the Beyond line controlled by elements falling between the Bottom and View Depth settings in the View Range dialog. This does not affect the hidden lines set using the Linework tool or line work assigned to the Hidden Lines sub-category within a family. It is interesting, however, that the Show Hidden Lines tool is also dependent on the Hidden Lines sub-category and IS affected by the None setting.
The image below shows a simple reception desk family in plan view, note these three points:
- Item #1 was set to use Hidden Lines via the Linework tool
- Selected line style controls color and pattern
- Item #2 was set to Hidden Lines via the line's properties within the family
- Hidden Line color and pattern controlled by Furniture sub-category
- Item #3 has Hidden Lines showing using the Show Hidden Lines feature
- This is a low wall extending under the worksurface
- Hidden Line color and pattern controlled by Wall sub-category
When Show Hidden Lines is set to None, only the lines related to Item #3 are hidden. Everything else stays the same.
All
This option is interesting in that all obscured edges appear as Hidden Lines in the entire view. The images below show the same reception desk in plan and 3D view. Notice all the 3D geometry is shown through the work and transaction surfaces. Also note that the color and line style is being controlled by the elements sub-category (in this case, furniture). Also, the view scale controls the line pattern size.
Individual hidden lines can be removed using the Linework tool with the line style set to <Invisible Lines>.
This functionality is not available for perspective views nor does it work on linked models. The All option is also not an option for MEP plan views.
The All option is available for MEP 3D views. The example below is a bit complex but highlights the topic under discussion well.
Discipline: Mechanical, Show Hidden Lines: All
Below are three images of the same area of an MEP ventilation plan, each with a different Show Hidden Lines setting selected. Note: Because All is not an option for the Mechanical discipline (in plan view), the Coordination discipline was used in the All example below.
Discipline: Mechanical, Show Hidden Lines: None
Discipline: Coordination, Show Hidden Lines: All
Discipline: Mechanical, Show Hidden Lines: By Discipline
Another example of using the All option for Show Hidden Lines is documenting wall openings in structural drawings. In the image below, a plan view, we see an opening in the wall.
Previously, if the opening did not occur directly on the section cut plane the opening was not visible by default. Now, with the section view's Discipline set to Structural and Show Hidden Lines set to All, the opening's edges will appear IF the opening is within the view depth—as shown in the second image below. Notice that the Hidden Lines sub-category for Walls is what governs the lines displayed. Architecturally, this is not as clean as the window in the opening would also appear dashed.
Revisions
One more change in Revit 2015 that we will cover relates to Revisions. First, in the Revisions dialog we can now Delete Revisions (see below). Previously we could only merge a revision with another and required an add-in to delete a revision (including the clouds and tags). We also have a new option to control the size of the arc used in the revision clouds.
Additionally, as shown below, we have additional Draw options when sketching revision clouds. The cloud shown was drawn by simply clicking two points on the screen using the rectangle Draw option.
Finally, if you adjust the revision tag leader to have a shoulder (i.e., a horizontal line next to the symbol), Revit will maintain that shoulder when the tag is moved.
Conclusion
Understanding these changes to Revit 2015 should help make your transition a smoother one. Enjoy.
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