Managing the Revit Project Browser: View Usage

The Revit Project Browser lets you navigate between project views. When the Project Browser has many views, it can be hard to find the one you want. The good news is there is an option to sort the browser and impose order according to parameter. While default options include sorting by File Type, Discipline, Not on Sheets, Phase, or a combination of these, most people think of View Usage as a good way to sort and arrange the views.

If you add a View Usage parameter, values for view function can be added to the View Properties. This means views can subsequently be sorted using these values. You can isolate View Usage in the Browser for several things, including:

• CD - Construction documentation
• EXPORT - Export to other products such as 3ds Max, Navisworks, BIM Glue, or Autodesk Live
• MODELING - Working or modeling views, not going onto a sheet
• PRESENTATION - Presentation views to explain the model, but not on a sheet
• PRINTING - Views to be printed as posters, not placed on a sheet
• RENDERING - Rendering 3D views to produce images that will go onto a sheet

Project Browser sorted for View Usage

A View List can be used to manage these views in the project and to maintain project standards such as View Usage or designation of View Templates. This will allow you to control what is visible in these views and how they look graphically.

Manage Project Standards

With the Project Browser sorted by View Usage, it is, for example, clearer to everyone on the team which views they should working/modeling in and which managed views are reporting on the model and will be part of the construction document set. The result? Better communication all ‘round!

To see this workflow in action, please watch the accompanying video to this post.

For more information on the software solutions, training, and consulting Ideate provides, please visit the Ideate Inc. website.

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Jim Cowan

AEC Senior Application Specialist

Jim Cowan’s extensive AEC design industry experience, Autodesk design solutions expertise, and status as an Autodesk Certified Instructor have made him a sought after university curriculum developer, instructor, and presenter. Jim’s areas of expertise include eLearning, interoperability between solutions, and overcoming barriers to the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM). Educated in Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot–Watt University and in Landscape Architecture at the University of Manitoba, Jim has a special focus on sustainability issues: daylight analysis, sun studies, lighting analysis, modeling buildings, and conceptual energy modeling (models with shading devices). You can learn more from Jim on his YouTube Channel.