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Username: Mike Kelly Book: Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 Essentials: AUTODESK OFFICIAL TRAINING GUIDE. No part of any chapter or book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior written permission for reprints and excerpts from the publisher of the book or chapter. Redistribution or other use that violates the fair use privilege under U.S. copyright laws (see 17 USC107) or that otherwise violates these Terms of Service is strictly prohibited. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of U.S. Federal and Massachusetts laws.

CHAPTER 1 Introducing Revit and the User Interface

After one decade in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) space, Autodesk Revit Architecture continues to be unique in its holistic building information modeling (BIM) approach to design integration. Sure, there are other BIM-ish tools that allow you to design in 3D. And 10 years ago, 3D might have been a differentiator, but today 3D is a commodity! Revit provides the unique ability to design, manage, and document your project information from within a single file, something that no other BIM tool will allow you to do. Because all your data resides in a single project file, you can work in virtually any view to edit your modelplan, section, elevation, 3D, sheets, details, and even a schedule. To begin the journey in learning Revit, we will help you become comfortable with the user interface and the basic principles of a Revit project. In this chapter, you learn the following skills: Understanding the Revit interface Understanding the interface workflow Using common modifying tools

Understanding the Revit Interface

The user interface (UI) of Revit is similar to other Autodesk products such as AutoCAD, Inventor, and 3ds Max. You might also notice that it is similar to other Windows-based applications such as Microsoft Word or Mindjet's MindManager. All of these applications are based on the ribbon conceptwhere a set of toolbars are placed on tabs in a tab bar, or ribbon, and are contextually updated based on the content on which you're working. We will cover the most critical aspects of the UI in this section, but we will not provide an exhaustive review of all toolbars and commands. You will gain experience with the common tools as you read through the chapters and exercises in this book. Figure 1.1 shows the Revit Architecture 2012 UI. To illustrate some different project views, we've tiled four different view windows: Plan, Elevation, 3D, and Camera. FIGURE 1.1 Revit 2011 User Interface

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Let's begin by examining just a few important parts of the UI. As you progress through the remaining chapters in this book, you'll gradually become more familiar with the other basic parts of the UI.

Properties Palette
The Properties palette is a floating palette that can remain open while you work within the model. The palette can be docked on either side of your screen, or it can be moved to a second monitor. You can open the Properties palette in one of three ways: Clicking the Properties icon in the Properties panel of the Modify tab in the ribbon Selecting Properties from the right-click context menu Pressing Ctrl+1 on your keyboard, as you would in AutoCAD As shown in Figure 1.2, the Properties palette contains the Type Selector at the top of the palette. When you are placing elements or swapping types of elements you've already placed in the model, the palette must be open to access the Type Selector. FIGURE 1.2 The Properties palette allows you to set instance parameters for building elements and views.

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When no elements are selected, the Properties palette displays the properties of the active view. If you need to change settings for the current view, simply make the changes in the Properties palette and the view will be updated. For views, you may not even need to use the Apply button to submit the changes. Finally, you can also use the Properties palette as a filtering method for selected elements. When you select a large number of disparate objects, the drop-down list below the Type Selector will display the total number of selected elements. Open the list and you will see the elements listed per category, as shown in Figure 1.3. Select one of the categories to modify the parameters for the respective elements. This is different from the Filter tool in that the entire selection set is maintained, allowing you to perform multiple modifying actions without reselecting elements. FIGURE 1.3 Use the Properties palette to filter selection sets.

Project Browser
The Project Browser (Figure 1.4) is a virtual folder tree of all of the views, legends, schedules, sheets, families, groups, and links in your Revit project. You can collapse and expand the tree by selecting the + or icon. Open any view listed in the Project Browser simply by double-clicking on it.

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FIGURE 1.4 Project Browser

The Project Browser can also be filtered and grouped into folders based on any combination of userdefined parameters. To access the type properties of the Project Browser, right-click on Views at the top of the tree, and select Type Properties. Select any of the items in the Type drop-down list or duplicate one to create your own.

Status Bar
The status bar provides useful information about commands and selected elements (Figure 1.5). In addition to the worksets and design options toolbars, the status bar displays information about keyboard shortcut commands or simply lists what object you have selected. It is also particularly useful for identifying when you are about to select a chain of elements. FIGURE 1.5 The status bar is located at the bottom of the Revit application window.

View Control Bar

The View Control Bar is at the bottom of every view and will have different icons depending on the type of view in which you are working (Figure 1.6). FIGURE 1.6 The View Control Bar gives you quick access to commonly used view properties.

From left to right you have Scale, Detail Level, Visual Style, Sun Path (On/Off), Shadows (On/Off), Rendering Show/Hide (only in 3D Views), Crop On/Off, Show/Hide Crop, Lock 3D View (only in 3D views), Temporary Hide/Isolate, and Reveal Hidden Elements. Note that some of these buttons will access view properties you can also set in the Properties palette.

ViewCube

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As one of several navigation aids in Revit, you'll find the ViewCube in 3D views. You can orbit your model by clicking and dragging anywhere on the ViewCube. You can also click on any face, corner, or edge of the ViewCube to orient your view. Hovering over the ViewCube will reveal the Home option (the little house above the ViewCube), which will bring you back to your home view. Right-clicking the ViewCube will open a menu that will allow you to set, recall, and orient your view, as shown in Figure 1.7. FIGURE 1.7 Right-click on the ViewCube to access more view orientation options.

Options Bar
The Options Bar is a context-sensitive area that gives you feedback as you create and modify content. This is an important UI feature when you are creating model content. For example, when you use the Wall command, the Options Bar displays settings for the height, the location line, offset, and chain modeling options, as shown in Figure 1.8. Even when you place annotations, the Options Bar provides you with choices for leaders and other additional context. FIGURE 1.8 The Options Bar provides immediate input of options related to a selected object or command.

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