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Revit 2017 Text Size Changes

You may have heard that the measurement of text sizes is changing in Revit 2017.

The Revit 2017 “Upgrade Information for Revit 2017” help topic offers the following explanation:

“The method for measuring text size is changed so that the Text Size parameter more accurately represents the height of a capital letter (similar to AutoCAD). Previously, Revit measured the size of text from the font baseline to the ascender line. Since most characters do not extend to the ascender line, physically measuring the font may not have produced expected results.

The size of text now reports using the cap height, which measures from the baseline to the top of a capital letter M as seen in the image below. This change affects all text in Revit. After upgrading a model, please review all views and sheets to verify the changes to your text instances.”

 This evokes two practical questions:

• Does my text get larger or smaller when upgrading to Revit 2017?
• How much larger or smaller does my text get?

And here are the short answers:

• The rendered text gets larger when upgrading to Revit 2017 from earlier versions.
• How much larger? Well, that depends!

Let’s investigate using a simple example with then ¼” Calibri text style in a Revit text note. (With apologies to our metric friends in the rest of the world of course!)

I’ll use the letters “MhO” (coincidentally the acronym for My humble Opinion) to illustrate the intricacies of text size measurements. I’ll also draw some surrounding rectangles to help measure and compare letter sizes.

First, the text note in Revit 2016:

¼” Calibri Text Note - Revit 2016

Note that even though this is ¼” text, no part of the letters (width or height) measures ¼”.

Also note how the lower case ‘h’ is a smidge taller than the capital ‘M.’

For some fonts, such as Calibri, the height of letters such as English lower case ‘h’ (called the ascender height) is a bit higher than the capital letter ‘M’ (called the cap height). In other fonts, such as Arial, the height of ‘h’ and ‘M’ are the same.

This height difference is the heart of the text measurement change made in Revit 2017:

• In Revit 2016 and earlier, text size is measured by the ascender height – the height of lower case letter ‘h.’
• In Revit 2017 size is measured by the cap height – the height of the capital letter ‘M.’

However, this isn’t the whole story. Notice that in Revit 2016, the ‘h’ isn’t quite ¼” tall as one would expect from the Revit help explanation. So in actuality, the height of Revit 2016 and earlier text seems to be based on the height of ‘h’ and a bit more.
 
Now, let’s take that “MhO” drawing from Revit 2016 and upgrade it to Revit 2017.

¼” Calibri Text Note - Revit 2017 (upgraded from Revit 2016)

The upgraded to 2017 text is larger, as expected, but it has also been moved down the page a bit. In fact, the top of the ‘h’ now aligns with where the top of the ‘M’ was in the 2016 project.

To do a better size comparison, let’s realign the bottom of the measurement rectangle to the bottom of then ‘M’ as it was originally in Revit 2016.

¼” Calibri Text Note - Revit 2017 (Realigned to 2016 Measurement Lines)

That’s better. Now, as promised by Revit help, the text height of the ‘M’ is the same as the Revit text size. 

More importantly, notice that even for this small stretch of 3 letters, the overall width of the 2017 text note is at least a ½ letter wider than the original 2016 text note. This is expected, because as the text size increases in width it must proportionally increase in width.

From empirical measurements I’ve found Arial about 2% larger and Calibri about 18% larger in text upgraded to Revit 2017. Other fonts will vary depending on the height of ‘h’ versus ‘M.’

Now let’s examine a more realistic example, Arial text notes on a sheet. The example below highlights the visual differences, showing Revit 2016 in red overlapped with Revit 2017 in green:

Sheet Text – 2016 (Red) vs 2017 (Green)

Notice how the green 2017 text in the detail text notes and title block is larger and sometimes wraps to an additional line.

So here are the takeaways for Revit text when upgrading to Revit 2017:

• All text gets larger in height and width
• The text gets larger by the ratio of the height of the letters ‘h’ to ‘M’ and a bit more
• How much text gets larger depends upon the font – perhaps anywhere from 2% to 20% taller and wider
• Text will shift down a wee bit
• Text wrapping may cause larger 2017 text to flow onto additional lines

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Ben Bishoff
Senior Software Developer
Ben has been a software engineer for over 25 years. With a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, he has worked at several software companies developing applications for the AEC industry including Sage Timberline (construction accounting and estimating) and ArchT (architectural drafting for AutoCAD). He also worked at Microsoft creating AEC and other diagramming solutions for Office Visio. Ben has been with Ideate Software for over 8 years developing add-ins for Revit including Ideate Explorer and Ideate BIMLink.

This article was originally posted on the Ideate Software blog.
 

Resetting Shared Coordinates

If you have ever been through a Revit Coordinate system exercise, you have probably discovered it can be quite confusing at times. As I have discovered, it takes a lot of practice and patience to understand. Sometimes the Revit Soordinate system seems it is not as cut and dry as the AutoCAD Coordinate system, so during our discovery and playing around, we often find we end up getting a little disoriented or having trouble reverting our models back to the way things were prior to tinkering.

One of the areas that can get you into hot water is Shared Coordinates. Revit has two coordinate systems that we can use as references. The first coordinate system is the Project Internal Coordinate System, which is the equivalent of AutoCAD World Coordinate System (WCS). The other coordinate system is the Shared Coordinate System, which is the equivalent of AutoCAD User Coordinate System (UCS).

One of the advantages of Shared Coordinates is users can easily use an agreed upon coordinate system for linking and sharing models. This method works really well for projects that cannot link models using the Origin to Origin option (usually due to a lack of model coordination at the beginning of a project) or for projects that have multiple buildings on a site (campuses and housing developments).

There may be times in which Shared Coordinates among a team need to be reset. Now you may be asking why would anyone want to reset a Shared Coordinate System? Well, Perhaps...

1. You were using a temporary coordinate system at the time you started your project and now that you have a more definitive coordinate system basis, it is time to reset your Shared Coordinates. 
2. You established a Shared Coordinate System that is no longer valid. For example, you might have Acquired Coordinates from a Civil drawing and there was a mistake in the file and a newly updated Coordinate System has been established. 
3. You acquired Coordinates incorrectly to start with and now you need a way to start fresh again. 
4. Other reasons. As we all know, there are plenty of other reasons why we may need to reset our Shared Coordinates. 

If you are interested in learning how to reset your Shared Coordinates, be sure to visit our YouTube channel to watch Resetting Shared Coordinates, and learn the tips and tricks. 

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Sash Kazeminejad
AEC Senior Application Specialist 
Sash brings proficiency in Autodesk solutions including AutoCAD and Revit Architecture to Ideate customers. His industry experience includes project management, BIM Management, and design for Architectural firms in California, Montana and Oregon. He is LEED accredited professional and is on track to achieve California licensure with Oregon to follow. In his academic life, Sash was awarded a variety of college scholarships, earned a BA in Environmental Design, a MA in Architecture from Montana State University (MSU) and taught Building Information Modeling courses at MSU Gallatin College. As a Revit Architecture Autodesk Certified Instructor, Sash provides Revit Architecture training and support for AEC firms. Find him on twitter. 

Revit MEP: Reference Planes for Lighting

Here at Ideate we get a lot of questions on issues that arise in the workplace. Our topic de jour came up because ceiling hosted lights are deleted when a ceiling is deleted – meaning they would need to be placed again. Or, maybe no ceiling host object is available for a light, perhaps because a ceiling component is a face-based generic model, such as a specific custom tile. Other options would be to use a generic ceiling (zero thickness) or an in-place ceiling family. This option which originated in Revit MEP may be especially useful where models are linked. For example, linking an architectural model to a lighting model.

In this example you see how to draft and name the reference plane, and then place lights. Now, you'll be able to move the lights when needed and not worry about a hosting ceiling being deleted and remodeled with subsequent loss of attachments.

 Lights with light source

Backlit ceiling

Get started by watching my video Revit MEP: Reference Planes for Lighting.

For more information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services visit our website. Don't forget to keep an eye on our blog for continued solutions.

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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 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.

Revit 2016 Rotate Project North

One of the improvements in Revit 2016 is the enhancement of the Rotate Project North tool.

In previous versions of Revit, the Rotate Project North tool worked primarily for model elements. The tool did not allow for the rotation of view-specific detail elements.

The enhanced Rotate Project North tool in Revit 2016 now allows not only model elements to be rotated along with the project north, but view-specific detail elements as well. These include detail lines, filled regions, text notes, revision clouds, callouts and more. Please note however, that the improved tool is still only enabled for plan views whose orientation in the properties palette has been set to ‘Project North’.

Revit 2016 Rotate Project North

...View video below...

Revit 2016 Rotate Project North

For more information
on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com
 

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Katrina Rodriguez

Ideate AEC Application Specialist

Katrina is an AEC application specialist at the Ideate, Inc. San Francisco office. She is a California–licensed architect with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of the Philippines. Katrina has over 18 years of experience in the AEC industry with a focus on both commercial and hospitality projects. She is also a Revit Certified Professional with over 8 years of experience utilizing the software on both small and large scale projects, from programming to project close out.

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Autodesk Revit 2016 Selection Box

A new feature in Revit 2016 give the user the ability to create 3D isometric views from selected model elements.

In order to accomplish this task in previous versions of Revit user would have to create a 3D view and check on the views Section Box option from the Properties Palette then adjust the section box to the desired element(s) location.  Or users could use an existing view or create a view of the element(s) area and use the Orient to View option from the ViewCube right-click menu.

To create 3D isometric view use the Selection Box tool users simply select the element(s) they would like to isolate in a 3D isometric view and then select the Selection Box tool from the View panel on the Ribbon.  Revit will open the Default 3D View with a section box around the element(s) from your selection set.  To save the view for future use the user merely needs to right-click on the ViewCube and select the Save View option from the menu and enter an appropriate view name.

This new feature enables the use to quickly isolate selected elements in an unobstructed 3D view and to efficiently document a model. Helping project teams to better communicate within their project with smarter modeling and documentation views.

 

 

...View video below...

 



Autodesk Revit 2016 Selection Box

For more information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com

 

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Eugene A. O'Day 
Ideate AEC Senior Application Specialist

Eugene A. O’Day, IX, with more than 25 years of architectural and mechanical experience, offers a trained focus on all things Revit and BIM. Teaching is a passion of his. Eugene has been an instructor in undergraduate degree programs, has traveled worldwide teaching Autodesk solutions to major corporations, has taught at accredited ATCs throughout the Northwestern region, and is a frequent and popular instructor, speaker, and presenter for AUGI® CAD Camps, Revit – and related product user groups. He has also been a trusted public school district advisor on new drafting instructor hires. At Ideate, Eugene provides training and support for Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and AutoCAD. Eugene is also a Revit Architecture Autodesk Certified Professional.

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Revit MEP 2016 – Part Optimization for Fabrication

Autodesk Revit 2016 uses the Autodesk Fabrication MEP configuration data defined in the *.ITM template parts in the current version of Autodesk Fabrication products CADmep and ESTmep.

The Duct Part Editor enables you more detailed control over the duct components and allows you to define detailed dimensions of the part and its connectors.

When placing fabrication parts in Revit 2016, the specifications defined in the Fabrication Configuration define what duct materials may be used.

The specification also controls material gauge (weight), the standard segment lengths, and the connectors applied to the fitting ends.

The *.ITM Template based parts enable detailed control of dimensional values.  The connector settings provide you with the ability to configure end conditions.

 

...View Video Below...

 

Revit MEP 2016 - Part Optimization for Fabrication

For more information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com

 

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Bill Johnson

Ideate Senior Application Specialist MEP/AEC Solutions

Bill has over 25 years experience in applying MEP & AEC design solutions for large commercial companies, this has led to actively develop Autodesk® Revit® implementation strategies, techniques, and procedures for architectural and MEP companies. He has worked for TEECOM Design Group, GTE/GTEL, Greg LeDoux and Associates, and Scottish Power in England. Bill is an Autodesk MEP Implementation Certified Expert, and has been the Lead Designer for several multimillion dollar communication sites which have included structural, electrical, HVAC, conduit, cable plans and equipment layouts. He graduated from the Pasadena Institute of Technology and has a Sustainable Design Certification from the University of California at Berkeley.

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Revit 2016-Duct Part Editor for Fabrication

Autodesk Revit 2016 uses the Autodesk Fabrication MEP configuration data defined in the current version of Autodesk Fabrication products CADmep, ESTmep, CAMduct.

The Duct Part Editor enables you more detailed control over the duct components and allows you to define detailed dimensions of the part and its connectors.

Place fabrication parts for the selected service. -- Use the MEP Fabrication Parts palette to select a service and place fabrication parts in the drawing area. If no parts are listed in the browser, click Settings to open the Fabrication Settings dialog and load content into the MEP Fabrication Parts palette.

Edit a fabrication part to define the necessary dimensional values and connector settings. -- The Edit Part tool opens the Edit Part dialog. Use this dialog to edit dimensions and connectors for a fabrication part.

 

...View video below...

 



Revit 2016-Duct Part Editor for Fabrication

For more information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com

 

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Bill Johnson

Ideate Senior Application Specialist MEP/AEC Solutions

Bill has over 25 years experience in applying MEP & AEC design solutions for large commercial companies, this has led to actively develop Autodesk® Revit® implementation strategies, techniques, and procedures for architectural and MEP companies. He has worked for TEECOM Design Group, GTE/GTEL, Greg LeDoux and Associates, and Scottish Power in England. Bill is an Autodesk MEP Implementation Certified Expert, and has been the Lead Designer for several multimillion dollar communication sites which have included structural, electrical, HVAC, conduit, cable plans and equipment layouts. He graduated from the Pasadena Institute of Technology and has a Sustainable Design Certification from the University of California at Berkeley.

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Revit 2016-Autodesk MEP Content For Fabrication

Autodesk Revit 2016 uses the Autodesk Fabrication MEP configuration data defined in the current version of Autodesk Fabrication products CADmep, ESTmep, CAMduct.

Services from the configuration are added to the Revit project and are organized into groups as defined in the Autodesk Fabrication MEP products.

ITM components within the Services are inserted from the Revit MEP Fabrication Part browser.

Fabrication components provide detailed connection definitions, more granular control on fitting definitions, and standardized segment lengths, leading to more accurate lengths, quantities, and coordination.  Modeling with these components in Revit provides detailers in construction firms’ greater certainty that the model accurately reflects the intended installation.

Using the fabrication content on the MEP Fabrication Parts palette, you can add the components by selecting them and using the Smart Snapping tool easily connect to mechanical equipment.




 

...View video below...

 

Revit 2016 and Autodesk MEP Fabrication Content

For more information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com

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Bill Johnson

Ideate Senior Application Specialist MEP/AEC Solutions

Bill has over 25 years experience in applying MEP & AEC design solutions for large commercial companies, this has led to actively develop Autodesk® Revit® implementation strategies, techniques, and procedures for architectural and MEP companies. He has worked for TEECOM Design Group, GTE/GTEL, Greg LeDoux and Associates, and Scottish Power in England. Bill is an Autodesk MEP Implementation Certified Expert, and has been the Lead Designer for several multimillion dollar communication sites which have included structural, electrical, HVAC, conduit, cable plans and equipment layouts. He graduated from the Pasadena Institute of Technology and has a Sustainable Design Certification from the University of California at Berkeley.

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Revit 2016 Open Sheet View Feature

One of the new features in Revit 2016 is the ability to directly open the sheet view on which a view is placed.

In previous versions of Revit, in order to find and open the sheet view on which a view is placed, a user would first have to look at the properties of a view to identify the sheet number/sheet name on which the view is placed.  After identifying the sheet number, a user would then scroll through the list of sheets in the project browser in search of that sheet number/sheet name and double click on it to open the sheet view. 

The new Open Sheet View feature in Revit 2016 gives users the option to simply right click on a view name in the project browser, and open the sheet view from there. After right clicking on the view name, a context menu box with an option called ‘Open Sheet’ pops up. Upon clicking on the ‘Open Sheet’ option, Revit opens the sheet view directly.

This new feature applies to the different types of views in a Revit model - 3D views, sections, callouts, plans, elevations, drafting and detail views, and duplicate views. The ‘Open Sheet’ option is available when a view has already been placed on a sheet.  When a view has not yet been placed on a sheet, or when a view is a legend or schedule which can be placed on multiple sheets, this option is grayed out and unavailable.

This new feature in Revit 2016 improves efficiency and productivity, especially for large-scale projects, by reducing the time it takes to search for the sheet that a specific view is on.

 

...View video below...

 

Revit 2016 Open Sheet View Feature

For more information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com

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Katrina Vea Rodriguez
 
Ideate AEC Application Specialist

Katrina is an AEC application specialist at the Ideate, Inc. San Francisco office. She is a California–licensed architect with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of the Philippines. Katrina has over 18 years of experience in the AEC industry with a focus on both commercial and hospitality projects. She is also a Revit Certified Professional with over 8 years of experience utilizing the software on both small and large scale projects, from programming to project close out.

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Revit 2016 Energy Analysis Enhancements

In Revit 2016, users now have the ability to perform Energy Analysis in a more precise and reliable manner. Previous versions came with two analysis modes: Use Conceptual Mass Mode and Use Building Element Mode which have now been removed from the ribbon and can be accessed in the Energy Settings dialog under the Analysis Mode pull down menu. An additional analysis mode-Use Conceptual Masses and Building Elements Mode has now been included which enables users to perform energy analysis on the model in a more accurate fashion especially if the model is transitioning from concept to detail design and has both these designs.

If the selected analysis mode contains building elements, upon selecting Show Energy Model Revit creates a 3D Energy Model view, and schedules for Analytical Spaces and Analytical Surfaces which can be examined and modified before running the energy simulation on the analytical model.

Additionally, you can now create an energy analytical model using the Create Energy Model tool which can be viewed directly within Revit without having to export the model to third party applications to view it. This give users greater control for validating and verifying the energy analytical model for better and accurate energy analysis.

Revit 2016 Energy Analysis Enhancements

 

 

...View video below...

 

Revit 2016 Energy Analysis Enhancements

For more information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com

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Vasudha Dixit 

Ideate MEP Application Specialist

Vasudha is an MEP Application Specialist at Ideate, Inc. based on San Francisco office. She has a Master’s degree in Energy Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she specialized in HVAC design, green buildings and energy analysis. Prior to Ideate, she interned at a few multinational companies where she performed finite element analysis for design validation of components. Vasudha provides Revit MEP training and support for various AEC firms.

Get it. Know it. Use it.