Revit Home Tab Tools Are Greyed Out!

This happens ALL the time with new students. At some point during my class, a student will comment about the Home tab and most of the tools on the Home tab as being unavailable or greyed out. This literally happens with every new class.

Revit does this on purpose. The reason this happens is because you are in the middle of another command which places you in edit mode or what we use to call sketch mode. I tell students to look at the upper right corner of their ribbon and if they see a colored tab, they need to select that tab and make it active. Once a student realizes this, they have to either finish edit mode by selecting the green check or cancel edit mode by selecting the red X.
Mark Petrucci

Revit Slab Edge - Quick Tutorial

This is a quick How-To that was published a while back on my You-Tube channel, but may still be of some use to everyone.  It goes over creating profiles and then using them to create new slab edge types.

For HD, you can still get the original here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIAd7jTaAFY

Revit - Surface pattern

A question came up recently about how to remove the surface pattern from a slab when viewing it from a plan view.


First off, find out what the material is on the slab that is being displayed. Select the slab, go to "Edit Type" in the Properties. Under Structure row, pick the Edit button. Find the top material. Lets say concrete for our example. Pick on it and select the "..." button. This will open up the Materials. The selected material should be pre-highlighted. Select it and go to the Surface Pattern area on the right. Change the material to "none". Select OK three times and you will be back to your view, which is now updated to not show the surface material.

Note: This will remove the surface pattern for all of the slabs with that same material. There are some other options to duplicate the slab type and material, if you want slab "A" to show surface material, and slab "B" not to show the surface material.

Editor's Note: You can also select and right click on the slab and graphically override the category or object in that particular view if you don't want the material to change globally.

Mirrored Door Number Bug

Door schedules in Revit are great. However, if you include room numbers with your doors, you should know about a bug. Door schedules can include data from a "To Room: Number" parameter and "From Room:Number" parameter. The image below shows a simple floor plan with 5 room objects and 4 doors. Looking at a floor plan view, all the doors swing From Corridor Room Number 100 and swing into their own unique room. However, you will notice on the door schedule that Door Number 4 has the associated room parameters reversed. Why? Doors numbered 1 through 3 were placed in the model using the door command. Door swings were flipped using either the space bar or by the using the flip arrows. Door number 4 was placed using the Mirror command. Apparently, not only did Revit mirror the door, it also reversed the From Room and To Room parameters.





To correct the room parameter information, users can open the door schedule view and update the room parameters by simply selecting the correct room value for the drop down list. I should also mention that if you try to flip any of the doors so they swing into the corridor, the same room parameters in the door schedule will not update as well. The work around is the same; go to the Door Schedule view and update the parameters.
Mark Petrucci

BIM, CAD, Revit and Commerical Interior Design

Many argue that BIM requires all work be done in a BIM authoring tool, like Revit. BIM does not exclude the incorporation of legacy data that exists world wide. In fact, for BIM to evolve the AEC industry it has to accomodate decades of hand drawn and CAD produced documentation. Does this information have the ability to contain and share the same volume of information and capability that a Revit model does? Absolutely not, however, legacy data provides valuable historical and as-built records that are useful for informing the design team while they create and/or re-create all or part of a project in Revit.

I suggest that there is far more renovation, remodel and addition work and less new construction. There is far more built environment than under construction. BIM is well positioned for new design, construction and operations where as much of interior design works in previously occupied space. Most of that space was not designed using BIM in its modern context. It only makes sense that to use Revit for commerical interior design, a designer must consider leveraging existing electronic files as part of the design or to build on top of. Until BIM is fully adopted in the AEC industry and all existing space and architecture is recreated using BIM authoring tools, it is logical to use CAD files as part of a BIM workflow.

Most fees do not have the capacity to re-model an entire facility or space for a renovation project. When the technology advances to streamline the 3D laser scanning to Revit model workflow and reduce the cost, then designers will opt for this path. So, for the near future, leverage scans of hand drawn drawings or CAD files in your Revit project to leverage the best of both worlds and available legacy information.

Network license file - parser

Did you know there is a nice way to read your license file?


Autodesk License Parser - shows your license file in an easy to read report. This report will contain the full name of the licensed product, the serial number along with the number of seats. It will also show you the date the serial number was issued.

Revit? Why, when I have AutoCAD?

I loved drafting as a kid. Give me my T-square, triangle, and french curve. Drawing a perspective view was SO COOL!

I learned AutoCAD in 1987 and it was AutoCAD v2.6; what a cool program! I then used AutoCAD R9 when I graduated; loved it! Kept moving forward with AutoCAD R14; did everything I needed it to do. I customized AutoCAD like crazy. Why because I could and my users loved it. In 2000 I saw a program called Revit. It did 3D and was cool. Tried it on a project and it just didn't work for us. Revit could never replace my AutoCAD and the way I customized it for my users. I refused to consider Revit because AutoCAD did EVERYTHING I needed it to do. Then came AutoCAD Architectural Desktop and then AutoCAD Architecture; cumbersome but wow it had some nice features; I still don't need Revit, I now had ACA. Then I was forced to use Revit. Really? Are you kidding? AutoCAD does EVERYTHING I need it to do! So I went to Revit Architecture training.

Revit Training Day 1: I was convinced Revit is a toy and I can still work faster in AutoCAD.

Revit Training Day 2: hmmm.... This program seems to have it's advantage. My elevations, sections, and schedules are partially done. How'd that happen? Wait my schedules are done? My schedules are done! Hey, wait, what? MY SCHEDULES ARE DONE! Oh, no. I have to make a design change. Now what? Make the change and my plans, elevations, sections, and schedules are updated. I can't do that in AutoCAD! Well I can if I setup ACA Project Navigator with my constructs and elements and train my users what they are. What is a construct? Isn't it obvious? Nope. What is a Revit wall, a door, a window? I know what those are.

Revit Training Day 3: I setup my sheets. Drag my plans, elevations, sections, details on to sheets and all my section tags, elevations tags, callout tags are filled in for me! Wait, that means less time setting up CDs and more time spent designing! Should I continue to use AutoCAD or use Revit?

Should I ride my bike to work or drive my car? I think I'll drive my car.

Mark Petrucci