Revit MEP 2013 – Selection Sets

Selection Sets:

The capability to create Selection Set Filters has been a part of the Revit Structural for some time now.  With the release of RMEP 2013, the building engineers now have the same capability.  With this feature, a selection set of objects can have display settings applied in the Visibility Graphics just like we have done with Filters setup based on Filter Rules.  Have you ever needed to turn off several objects in a view, but didn’t want to turn off all the objects of the same category?  Have you ever wanted to color certain objects differently from the category?  Then Selection Sets may be your answer.

In the view to the left, I have a water closet and a vanity sink unplumbed that I do not want to show.

When I select the two fixtures, on the Modify ribbon panel, you will find now, the Selection Panel which contains the feature to Create and Edit Selection Sets.  (Yes, you are seeing that right, I use magenta as my selection highlight color.)

I will give my selection set a name: MySelectionSet

Next, we go to the Visibility Graphics/Add Filters and you will see that the created selection set, MySelectionSet, is available to add to the Filters of the view.

Once added, our selection set has all the filter options to turn off the visibility, control surface coloring, transparency and halftone.

Benefits:As opposed to “Hide in View”, the Selection Set can easily be made visible without digging through “Reveal Hidden Elements”.  The selection set filter can be used again and again in any view.  Also, in my example I worked with just the category Plumbing Fixtures, but I could have just as easily selected objects from multiple family categories.

For an overview of the new features and enhancements for Revit MEP 2013, see the link:http://usa.autodesk.com/revit/mep-engineering-software/#whats_new

dennis