Guru-G

One of the shortcomings of Revit is that unlike AutoCAD you can't save multiple UCS to rotate the snap grid based on the orientation of the building. But we can make use of the grid from the workplane to align/snap the elements in whichever angle you want. To see and manipulate the grid in any of the plan views, Go to the plan view. Click on "Show"  button in the "Workplane" toolbar of "Architecture" tab in the ribbon. The grid by default will show up aligned to the screen orientation. You can select the grid and click on rotate to rotate the grid to your desired orientation. Snap Grid

In one of my previous posts, I have explained the  difference between Project North & True North  and how we can use them in any project. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to Set/Change the Orientation of Project North. Unlike True North, rotating a project north is a little different. You can only rotate in 90°/180° or use an existing element to orient. Following are the steps to rotate the Project North. Go to any Plan view.  Go to Manage tab in the ribbon and click on "Position" drop-down in the "Project Location" toolbar. Then choose "Rotate Project North" from the drop-down list. Rotate Project North This will pop up a window that gives you various options for rotating the project north 90° clockwise 90° counterclockwise 180° Align selected line or plane

In any Revit project, the orientation of the North is always set to the top of the screen. But this might not be the case with all the projects. All the projects are not oriented parallel to the North direction, and we might want to orient the project to the true north direction. In one of my previous posts, I have explained the difference between Project North & True North and how we can use them in any project. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to Set/Change the Orientation of True North. Go to any Plan view.  Go to Manage tab in the ribbon and click on "Position" drop-down in the "Project Location" toolbar. Then choose "Rotate True North" from the drop-down list. Rotate True North This will show you 3 different ways to change the orientation of the True North. They are 1. Manual Rotation Upon clicking the "Rotate Ture North", Revit will automatically prompt you for manual rotation of the orientation. You can use

In the very first post of my Revit-Coordinate System series, I've explained the difference between the Project Basepoint and Survey base point, and in the third post , I've explained how to manipulate/change the values of the Revit Coordinate system. This tutorial shows you how to set the real world elevation values to be reflected in the Levels of a project. Open the project where you want to change the settings and go to an elevation view. Select a level. (Check my following post if you can't see any levels in the view) Click on edit type in the properties window. In the Windows that pops up, look for the option called "Elevation Base" and choose either "Project Base Point" or "Survey Point" Edit Properties Window

If you're using the default templates provided by Autodesk, then in any plan view after  unhiding the SBP & PBP , you can observe that both PBP & SBP are at the same location and overlapping each other. If you select either of the base points, you can see the information of the Point and also a Gizmo that allows us to move the selected base point in the 2D plane. But the orientation of the Gizmo for both the points might be different depending on the Orientation of Project North and True  North . Before moving either of the points, notice a clip shaped icon when you select either of the points. This icon denotes the clipped/unclipped state of the respective point, which says how moving the point would affect the entire project. Clip/Unclip the Base Points If you move the points using the Gizmo, you'll notice that moving the Project Base Point moves the whole project i.e., all the elements modeled, while moving the Survey Base Point doesn't do anything. B

In the first post(01 of 07) of the Revit-Coordinate System Series, I've explained what are the different coordinate systems(ProjectBase Point and Survey Base Point) in Revit and how all the elements in Revit take a relative reference to Project Base Point(PBP) and Survey Base Point(SBP). This tutorial explains how to properly manipulate/move those points Follow the following steps to properly Change/Manipulate these points: Go to a plan view where you feel comfortable with the orientation of the project. You'll need these points to be visible in the plan view to make any changes to them. You can either use the Reveal Hidden Elements button or Change the Visibility Graphics settings . To unhide Project base point & Survey base point, press "VV" to open Visibility/Graphics Override window. Look for "Site" and expand it to find "Project Base Point" & "Survey Point" Visibility/Graphics Override Select the point that yo

With the default setting of Revit, you always model the elements parallel to the screen orientation. But have you ever wondered why is the orientation like that or what is the actual orientation for the project and how to reflect it in the model? Well, the simple answer is, the default plan orientation is set parallel to the screen for the user's convenience. So, how to set and display the actual orientation of the site? To do that we need to understand the 2 different Orientation in Revit, Project North & True North. These two orientations of the project are associated with the 2 different coordinate systems in Revit, Project Base Point & Survey Base Point (respectively) which I've explained in detail in my other post. By default, all the plan views(except site plan) are set to orient to Project North. You can change the settings in the Properties tab(shortcut - CTRL+1) > Graphics > Orientation. Site Plan vs Level 1 So the basic difference between T

In any project, one of the most important information is the base elevation. For any typical project, we usually use "0.00" as the Base level/Level 1. But there might be a time when you might need to find the actual elevation of an element or you might want to reflect the actual elevation values that you got from your site survey. So to accomplish that, you need to understand 2 hidden elements and their properties in Revit - Project Base Point and Survey Base Point . Survey Base Point vs Project Base Point Project Base Point A Project Base Point can be considered as the origin point(0,0,0) of your project. All the elements that you model take the project base point as the origin and get their coordinates.  But it is not necessary that the value of the Project Base Point is (0,0,0). In large-scale projects where multiple RVT project files are linked using  Shared coordinates , each of the linked files has their own projects base point whose locations are in refe

The coordinate system in Revit is not as simple as it is Autocad, where there is just one Origin and all the elements are associated with that. In Revit, there are basically 2 Origin points that we can set the elements to take reference from - 1. Project Base Point(PBP) PBP can be considered as the Origin of the Revit Project. But it is not necessary that the value of the Project Base Point is (0,0,0). In large-scale projects where multiple RVT project files are linked using Shared coordinates , each of the linked files has their own projects base point whose locations are in reference to the PBP of the parent file which has all the linked files. 2. Survey Base Point(SBP) SBP is the real world location of the project that is usually calibrated on the site using survey tools. Unlike PBP, the Survey Base Point will be the same for the entire project and for all the individual linked Revit files in large-scale projects. To view the Project Base Point and Survey Base Point,

Excel Macros in VBA are really a great way to do repetitive or an automated task. So if you have a specific macro that you'd like to be run every time a specific file is opened, then you need to write the VBA code for that macro in the Workbook_Open() procedure. Follow the following steps to do that: Open the Visual Basic editor from the Developer Tab. (Go to the following link if you can't see the Developer Tab ) Look for "This workbook" in the Project Explorer and double-click it. Select Workbook from the 1st drop-down Select Open from the 2nd drop-down for excel to automatically create a procedure for Workbook_Open(). Insert the VBA code that you want to run every time the specific excel file is opened. Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications There are many other similar procedures that you can add in "This Workbook" like BeforeClose, BeforeSave, Sheet Change etc..,

Excel by default hides the "Developer" from the ribbon. To unhide it, we need to go to the options and check the developer option, using the following steps. Open a blank Excel or an existing Excel file Go to File >  Options, which opens the "Excel Options" window. Go to Customize Ribbon and choose "Main Tabs" in the customize the ribbon list. Check the "Developer" option and click ok. Excel Options

Autodesk provides us with few sample files while we are installing the application. These sample files can be very useful for any beginner to understand the various concepts of any project like linked file, shares coordinates, Project Base Point & Survey Base Point. To see the different types of Sample files that are downloaded, you can click on  Revit(R)>Open>Sample Files . This provides you with a list of sample files each having their own significance. Chose the type of file you want to open depending on the feature that you want to learn. Revit - Sample Files 

The new Autodesk virtual Agent (AVA) is an Autodesk website where you can interact/ communicate with a virtual agent (name AVA) in dealing with any type of requirement regarding Autodesk account/application. AVA Autodesk Virtual Agent(AVA) AVA can help you with things like Account Management, Downloads & Upgrades, Activation and registration and other's as mentioned above. You can simply chat with the virtual agent as you would with a normal human being and it'll show you provide you with the solutions. In case you're not satisfied with the responses you get from AVA, you can request to "Chat with Agent" which will redirect you to a human agent and copy the transcript of your conversation with AVA to the agent. You can even create a case that you'd like Autodesk to have a look at and get back to you with a solution.