Chapter 12

Creating Drawing Sets

While the industry continues to move toward a building information model as a contract deliverable, today we still need to produce 2D documents for most construction and permitting purposes. Using the Autodesk® Revit® Architecture software, you can create these sets with more accuracy and dependability than in the past.

In this chapter, we’ll introduce a scenario that will mimic what might happen on a real project in preliminary design. You’ll be using the c12-Residence.rvt model from the book’s web page (www.sybex.com/go/revit2014essentials) in the Chapter12 folder.

Here’s the story. You have recently completed some design work in advance of your upcoming pricing package for a residential design project. You will need to present the plans, elevations, and perspectives on some sheets for the package. But you want to help the contractor by providing some quantities, so you will also include schedules.

In this chapter, you learn the following skills:

• Creating schedules
• Placing views on sheets
• Printing documents

Creating Schedules

Schedules are lists of elements and element properties in the model. They can be used to itemize building objects such as walls, doors, and windows; calculate quantities, areas, and volumes; and list elements such as the number of sheets, keynotes, and so on. They are yet another way to view building objects in a model. Once created, they are dynamically kept up-to-date with any changes that occur to the model itself.

Understanding Schedules

In a project workflow, creating schedules of model elements, areas, or other objects is usually one of the most laborious tasks for architects. When this process is performed manually, it can take a very long time and typically results in errors requiring much checking and rechecking of the information. In Revit Architecture, all the elements have information about their properties defined in the model. For example, doors have properties such as size, material, fire rating, and cost. All this information can be scheduled and quantified. As those doors are changed, the properties update in the schedule.

Because Revit Architecture is a bidirectional parametric modeling program, you are also able to make changes to element properties in a schedule — updating the model and all other views automatically. Continuing with the door example, you can change the material of a door in the door schedule, and the material tags and rendering view will be instantly updated.

You can access several types of schedules from the Create panel of the View tab. Let’s look at each of the six primary types of schedules.

Choosing a Schedule Category

Each of these schedule types has a host of categories that you can mix and match to track elements in the model. You can adjust several aspects of these schedules to build and customize your schedules to meet your needs. Let’s step through these aspects and see how they can be used.

Go to the View tab, then go to the Create panel, then select the Schedules flyout, and select Schedule/Quantities. The New Schedule dialog box appears, allowing you to select a category to schedule (Figure 12.1).

FIGURE 12.1 Creating a new schedule

If there aren’t enough categories for you to choose from to create a schedule, there is a venue to add additional options. At the top of the New Schedule dialog box is a Filter List drop-down that gives you the ability to schedule elements from the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) and structural categories. This option can be useful when those disciplines are supplying model files to you and you are linking them into your architectural model.

You also have the opportunity to create schedules that span multiple categories. The first option in the Category list in Figure 12.1 is Multi-Category. You might want to schedule all the casework and furnishings in a project simultaneously. Or perhaps you want to schedule all the windows and doors if they are being ordered from the same manufacturer. One of the limits of this schedule type is that you cannot schedule host elements such as walls, floors, and ceilings.

Customizing Schedules

With this description in mind, let’s look at the other options when creating a schedule. Choose Walls from the Category list, rename the schedule Door Schedule, and click OK. Doing so opens a new dialog box called Schedule Properties. Here you can set the various properties of a schedule that define not only how it looks but also what information it reports.

Five tabs appear across the top: Fields, Filter, Sorting/Grouping, Formatting, and Appearance. Each of these controls different aspects of the schedule. Let’s step through these tabs and see how they affect the look and reporting of the schedule.

FIGURE 12.2 The Fields tab

FIGURE 12.3 The Filter tab

FIGURE 12.4 The Sorting/Grouping tab

FIGURE 12.5 The Formatting tab

FIGURE 12.6 The Appearance tab

Once you’ve established the fields and look of your schedule, click OK to view the working schedule. This layout can be modified at any time, but it gives you a basis from which to begin. To modify the schedule, use the buttons in the Properties palette to access any of these five tabs. You will see the final graphic formatting of the schedule only when it is placed on a sheet. We’ll get to that later in this chapter.

Using Ribbon Commands in a Schedule

Schedules have their own special tab on the ribbon that is active when you are viewing the schedule outside of a sheet. The tab (Figure 12.7) allows you to insert, delete, and resize rows; show or hide columns in the schedule; and control the appearance of titles, headers, and body of the schedule. The commands become available as you click in the schedule header field, column label field, or row of data.

FIGURE 12.7 The Schedule tab buttons

Another key feature of this menu bar is Highlight In Model. This button allows you to select any element in the schedule and locate that element in the model. Let’s say you want to locate a particular wall segment from your wall schedule. Highlight the wall in the schedule, and click the Highlight In Model button; you will be taken to a different view with that wall instance highlighted.

Now that you have an idea of the elements that compose a schedule, let’s return to the demonstration workflow and create a window schedule, a room schedule, and a sheet list.

Making Schedules

Continue using the c12-Residence.rvt model from the book’s website. You’ll notice that several views and sheets are already created. This model is a work in progress — it’s a private residence of 1,230 square feet. The project is a renovation of an 1890s two-story brick house. In the design, all the interior walls have been eliminated and put on a demo phase, which keeps the 19’ (6 m) clear span as open as possible. All new interior walls have been added, and the entire interior has been refreshed in the historic shell. Because the renovation is so substantial, the designer chose to replace all the existing original windows with insulated, wood windows.

Creating a Window Schedule

To assist the window manufacturer with the custom sizes, you need to create a window schedule. To begin, go to the View tab, go to the Create panel, select the Schedule flyout, and click the Schedule/Quantities button. The New Schedule dialog box (shown earlier in Figure 12.1) opens. Here you’ll make a series of selections to create the schedule. Follow these steps:

1. From the Category list, select Window at the bottom. Because this project has multiple phases, you want to make sure the phase is set to New Construction — you don’t need to schedule the windows you’re removing. Note that a particular phase filter will need to be set in the Properties palette for the schedule. You will get to that after progressing through the Schedule Properties tabs. Click OK to continue.

You’ll now step through the five tabs in the Schedule Properties dialog box to format the schedule and choose what you’d like to see. Note that you can freely switch between tabs in this dialog box without clicking OK each time.

2. Switch to the Fields tab, and add the following fields to the Scheduled Fields list (in this order):

• Type
• Type Mark
• Width
• Height
• Count

3. Choose the Sorting/Grouping tab. From the Sort By drop-down, choose Type. Uncheck the Itemize Every Instance option.

4. Choose the Formatting tab, and select Count from the Fields list on the left. Change the Alignment setting to Right. Select the Type Mark field, and change Alignment to Center so all the letters will align nicely.

5. To leave the rest of the schedule at the defaults, click OK, and the schedule will display as shown in Figure 12.8. Note that you can also change any of the heading names by simply typing inside the box. Because this example is using the type name to describe the unit size, we have changed the first heading to OPENING SIZE and Type Mark to TYPE.

FIGURE 12.8 The Window schedule

6. With the window schedule still active, look in the Properties palette for the Phase Filter parameter. Set it to Show New. In step 1, you set the phase to New Construction; however, the phase setting alone does not customize the display of elements in a view. The Show New filter setting excludes model elements that were demolished in a previous phase.

Creating a Room Schedule

Creating other schedule types is fairly simple if you follow the guidelines just covered and step through the tabs in the Schedule Properties dialog box. You have one schedule under your belt, so let’s try another — this time, you’ll create a room schedule. Let’s try a different method for starting a new schedule. In the Project Browser, right-click Schedules/Quantities, select New Schedule/Quantities, and then follow these steps:

1. Choose Rooms from the Category list in the New Schedule dialog box, set the phase to New Construction, and click OK.

2. In the Fields tab, add the following fields from the Scheduled Fields list in this order:

• Number
• Name
• Floor Finish
• North Wall
• East Wall
• South Wall
• West Wall
• Area
• Comments

3. On the Sorting tab, sort by number, and select the Itemize Every Instance option.

4. On the Formatting tab, select the Area field, and set the alignment to Right. Now choose North, East, South, and West Wall by holding down Ctrl when you click. Set the alignment to Center. Click OK to get the schedule you see in Figure 12.9.

FIGURE 12.9 Room schedule

Notice that some of the fields already contain data. This is because some of this information was generated automatically (such as room areas), and some of it was added earlier in the process by adding room numbers to the plans or room names. Remember, schedules are just a tabular way of viewing the model — changes to the schedule will alter what you see in the model.

Now you’ll do something slightly different with this schedule. Because four of the columns are dealing with wall finishes, you’ll add a header to those columns so you can group them under one header.

1. Click in the <Room Schedule> field (the brackets denote that this text is reporting the View Name Parameter value). Click Insert Below Selected from the Row panel in the ribbon. Notice that you now have a row of headers corresponding to the columns below.

2. Hold down the Shift key, and click the four cells that are directly above the C, D, E, and F columns. With the four columns selected (Figure 12.10), click the Merge button in the Titles & Headers panel in the ribbon. This gives you one large cell. Now type Wall Finishes into this cell, and you have a grouped header.

FIGURE 12.10 Selecting the wall finishes

3. Hold down Shift key; select the cells above A, B, and C; and then click Merge. Merge the cells above columns H and I. Now your schedule is complete (Figure 12.11).

FIGURE 12.11 The room schedule

Creating a Sheet List

The last kind of schedule type we’ll talk about is a sheet list, which allows you to create a customized list of drawing sheets in your project and place it on a sheet for printing. This can be especially useful on larger projects where the sheet list can get long. This tool is also located on the Create panel of the View tab in the Schedules flyout.

This schedule has a feature that allows you to create placeholders for sheets that are not yet created or will not be part of your discipline’s drawings. You can use this feature to create full-sheet schedules including all consultant drawings. It also lets you create placeholder entries in the sheet schedule before you’ve created your own sheets.

In the sample workflow, you have created several sheets, and you now need to add a sheet list to your drawings.

1. Select the Sheet List tool from the Schedules flyout. The Sheet List Properties dialog box appears, starting with the Fields tab. Add the Sheet Number and Sheet Name fields from the list on the left to the column on the right (Figure 12.12).

FIGURE 12.12 Creating the sheet list

2. On the Sorting/Grouping tab, choose to sort by Sheet Number, and make sure the Itemize Every Instance check box is selected.

Because you’re creating a sheet index for a specific set of sheets, you need to create a filter. In this exercise, the only sheets you need to schedule are the A-series sheets.

3. On the Filter tab, choose to filter by Sheet Number. From the next drop-down, choose Begins With. In the third field, enter the letter A. (Be sure to use an uppercase A, because queries in Revit Architecture filters are case-sensitive.) The filter should look like Figure 12.13. When you’re done, click OK to close the dialog box.

FIGURE 12.13 Creating a filter for specific sheets

You should have a schedule with only sheet numbers that begin with the letter A. Now you need to populate the rest of the sheet list.

At this point, it is critical to understand the two methods you can use to create new sheets in your project.

• Create new sheets by using the View tab in the ribbon or by right-clicking the Sheets heading in the Project Browser.
  
• Add sheets by adding rows to a sheet list. These become placeholders until you create an actual sheet in your project. If you have placeholders in a sheet list, when you create a new sheet, you can select a placeholder from the New Sheet dialog box.

Although you can use either method with similar efficacy, let’s continue the exercise by first adding placeholders and then creating the respective sheets.

4. With the sheet list still active, click the Insert button in the Rows panel of the ribbon; from the flyout menu, choose Data Row. You should see a row appear with a sheet name defined as Unnamed. Change the name to FLOOR PLANS, and the number to A100.

5. Click the Sheet button on the View tab in the ribbon. In the New Sheet dialog box, choose the 22 × 34 Sheet CD – C1 titleblock, and select A100 – FLOOR PLANS from the list of placeholder sheets (Figure 12.14). Click OK to close the dialog box and create the new sheet.

FIGURE 12.14 Adding sheets using a placeholder

You’ll notice in the new sheet that the sheet number and sheet name have been automatically populated based on the information you added to the sheet list as a placeholder. This workflow is useful for larger projects where the index of drawings may be planned in advance and entered into a sheet list. As the design progresses and sheets are created, the design team only needs to pick from the list of placeholders. Also, remember that additional parameters can be added to the sheet list in addition to the number and name.

Placing Views on Sheets

Throughout this book, you have created several different kinds of views, from plans to elevations to perspectives. Eventually, you will need to lay out those views on sheets so they can be printed or converted to PDF and sent to clients or team members for review.

Creating sheets in Revit Architecture is very easy. As you’ve already seen, they can be created through a sheet list schedule. You can also create sheets by right-clicking the Sheet node in the Project Browser and selecting New Sheet from the context menu. Regardless of which method you use to create them, let’s walk through laying out these views on sheets and see how each view can be further manipulated once it’s placed on a sheet.

Adding Floor Plans to the Sheet

Because a series of views has already been created in the exercise file, let’s use the sheet you just made for placing some views. You place a view on a sheet by dragging the view out of the Project Browser and placing it on the sheet. Let’s practice this with another exercise.

1. Open the A100 – Floor Plans sheet by double-clicking it in the Project Browser.

2. Under the Views heading in the Project Browser, find Floor Plans, and expand the tree to locate the plan named Basement. Holding down the left mouse button, drag the Basement floor plan out of the Project Browser and onto sheet A100. Release the left mouse button, and the outline of the view displays with a view title. This outline represents the extents of the view at the appropriate view scale.

3. Click the sheet once more to complete the placement of the view. Remember, you can adjust the location of the view on the sheet at any time. Figure 12.15 shows the view placed on the sheet.

FIGURE 12.15 Placing the view on a sheet

4. You have space left on the sheet, so let’s add other views. Add Level 1 and Level 2 by dragging and dropping them from the Project Browser onto the sheet.

When you’re placing the second and third views on the sheet, you’re presented with an outline of the plan view with a dashed line in the center of the view. This is an alignment tool; Revit Architecture is assuming you want the plans to align on the sheet, and it is intelligent enough to aid you in this process. You can casually drag the views around on the sheets enough to find the alignment lines and to ensure that all your plans line up (Figure 12.16). Your sheet full of views should look like Figure 12.17.

FIGURE 12.16 Aligning views on a sheet

FIGURE 12.17 All the views placed on the sheet

Once the views are placed on a sheet, you’ll inevitably want to do a bit of cleanup to the drawings to place everything properly. First, the view tag is placed in roughly the same place for each view; however, the default location might not be the location you desire. Revit Architecture also numbers the views sequentially (1, 2, 3, . . .) in order of placement.

Let’s adjust the view tags on the sheets. To adjust the text in the tags, start by selecting the view itself, not the tag.

1. Select the Basement floor plan view placed on the sheet. The view tag highlights in blue. You want to change two things on the tag: the number and the length of the line.

2. Select the number 1, and change it to A1 to reference the ConDoc drawing system — letters vertically along the side of the sheet and numbers across the bottom of the sheet.

3. Using the blue grips on the view tag line, drag the right grip closer to the end of the Basement text. The tag looks like Figure 12.18.

FIGURE 12.18 The edited view tag

4. Let’s move the view tag to a better position. Click off the tag, anywhere on the sheet, to deselect the tag. You can also press the Esc key twice or select the Modify arrow at the upper left. Then, select the tag itself. It highlights blue again but without the grips on the line. Hold the left mouse button, and drag the tag to any location on the sheet (Figure 12.19).

FIGURE 12.19 Moving the view tag

5. Do the same to the other two views. Renumber Level 1 to A6 and Level 2 to A11 to match their locations on the sheet as shown, shortening the view-tag lines to a more appropriate length (Figure 12.20). Notice that the view tags align with other view tags on the sheet, similar to the way the plans did.

FIGURE 12.20 Laying out the rest of the sheet views

To finish organizing your sheet, let’s add a few lines to divide the views. You can do so easily by using the Detail Line tool , which is on the Annotate tab.

6. On the Annotate tab, choose Detail Line from the Detail panel. Doing so activates the Modify | Place Detail Lines context menu. On the Line Style panel at the far right, choose Wide Lines from the drop-down.

7. You’re ready to start drawing lines, and by default, the straight-line tool is active. You can select one of the nodes on the sheet between views and draw a vertical line between the Basement and Level 1 plans and again between the Level 1 and Level 2 plans (Figure 12.21).

FIGURE 12.21 Adding lines to the sheet

With these dividing lines in place, you may notice that one of the text annotations in the Basement view is a little too close to the dividing line you added to the sheet (Figure 12.22). Let’s adjust it.

FIGURE 12.22 Text to be adjusted in the sheet view

To adjust the text object on the floor plan view, you could simply open the view and adjust the text box, but you wouldn’t have the sheet and the dividing line as a reference. Instead, you’re going to use a command called Activate View.

Activating a view is like working in a model-space viewport while in paper space using the Autodesk® AutoCAD® software. You’re working on the actual view, but you’re doing so while it is placed on the sheet. This approach allows you the benefit of seeing how changes to the view affect the layout of the view on the sheet.

1. Right-click the plan view, and choose Activate View from the context menu (Figure 12.23).

FIGURE 12.23 Activating the view

2. With the view activated, notice that the other views have become grayed out. Only the elements you can currently edit remain active in the view. Select the text box you’ve identified, and drag the right grip inward so the text wraps, as shown in Figure 12.24.

FIGURE 12.24 Modifying the text box

3. To complete your edits, you need to deactivate the view. Right-click, and choose Deactivate View from the context menu.

Adding the Schedules

With your sheet of floor plans configured and ready to print, you can quickly finish the sheet set by adding the window schedule you created earlier. Adding a schedule is just like adding any other view — you drag and drop it from the Project Browser onto the sheet.

Once the schedules are on the sheet, they may need a bit of adjustment. You can redefine the column spacing and even split larger schedules directly on the sheet to make them easier to read. Such adjustments do not change the actual schedule — just its appearance on the sheet.

To adjust a schedule placed on a sheet, highlight the schedule by selecting it. The schedule turns blue, and a few new grips appear that you can use to make changes (Figure 12.25). The blue inverted triangles at the top of each column allow you to modify the column widths. Grab one, and drag it left or right to change the column sizing.

FIGURE 12.25 Modifying the schedule on the sheet

You’ll also notice a blue cut symbol to the far right of a selected schedule. This cut symbol lets you break the schedule into two parts that can be placed on the same sheet. This can be especially handy if you have a long schedule, such as a room or door schedule, that has too many rows to fit on your sheet vertically. Selecting this tool breaks the schedule in half (and you can break it in half again and again) so you can take advantage of the horizontal real estate on your sheet. If you choose to separate your schedule in this fashion, it retains all the necessary information, and all the portions continue to automatically fill themselves dynamically as a single schedule would. You can also change the overall height of the schedule once it is broken by grabbing the grips at the bottom of the schedule and dragging them up or down.

With your schedule on the sheet and the columns properly formatted, you can drag the schedule around on the sheet until it’s located where you’d like to have it. To do so, click the schedule and hold down the left mouse button. As you move the schedule on the sheet, it behaves like other views: it aligns with the other schedules on the sheet and displays a light blue dashed line to help with alignment. Your finished sheet should look like Figure 12.26.

FIGURE 12.26 The finished cover sheet

Printing Documents

You will eventually need to get the sheets out of Revit Architecture and into a printed format. If you’ve been working in the Windows environment, you’ll find that printing from Revit Architecture is straightforward because the process resembles that used in other Windows-based applications.

Exploring the Print Dialog Box

To begin printing, you do not need to be in any particular view or sheet. Select the Application menu and then select Print Print to open the dialog box shown in Figure 12.27. All the features for printing are found here. Let’s step through this dialog box and explore each element.

FIGURE 12.27 Print dialog box

The drop-down menu at the top of the Print dialog box allows you to select the printer or plotter to which you want to print. This can be a physical printer or a virtual one (such as Adobe Acrobat Distiller). You can add printers to this list using your Windows Printer control panel.

Most of the controls you need to use can be found at the bottom of this dialog box in the Settings section on the right and the Print Range section on the left.

Exploring the Print Settings

In the Print dialog box, click the Setup button under Settings to open the Print Setup dialog box (Figure 12.28). Here you can customize the print settings including paper size, zoom, and orientation. You can save these settings with a name so that you can reuse them in later work sessions. We recommend creating saved setups based on a printer type — not for one specific printer. For example, if your office has several plotters of the same make and model, it is sufficient to create one setup named Full Size B/W Plot.

FIGURE 12.28 The Print Setup dialog box

The print settings can also be transferred to other project files if necessary, using the Transfer Project Standards tool located on the Manage tab in the ribbon. Let’s take a look at some of the important printing options available to you.

Hidden Line Views

Views in Revit Architecture can be displayed in several graphic modes: Wireframe, Hidden Line, Shaded, Consistent Colors, and Realistic. The most commonly used type is Hidden Line. You’ll choose this mode for most floor plans, sections, and elevations, and sometimes even for 3D.

You have the option to print this type of view with vector processing or raster processing of the hidden lines. Vector is faster; however, you need to be aware of some nuances when working with hidden-line views. For example, transparent materials (such as glass) print transparent with raster processing but opaque with vector processing.

Zoom

If you’re looking for the ability to print a view to a specific scale (the way you would in the Autodesk AutoCAD software), it’s actually much simpler in Revit Architecture. Remember that every view is assigned a scale factor; therefore, printing a view is always determined as a percentage of that assigned scale. For example, if a floor plan is assigned a scale factor of 1/4″=1’-0″ (1:50) and you would like to generate a quick print of the plan at 1/8″=1’-0″ (1:100), simply set the zoom to 50 percent. Sheets should be printed at 100 percent for full-size or 50 percent for a half-size set.

Options

The Options pane is at the bottom of the Print Setup dialog box. The pane includes these options:

When all your options are set, you can save the settings so you can reuse them on future prints. Because everyone’s system printer configurations will be somewhat different, we won’t ask you to create a specific setting configuration. Instead, use the information we just reviewed to create your own printer setup configuration. Note that you can change settings temporarily by selecting the <in-session> setting from the Name drop-down. Then, click OK to close this dialog and return to the Print dialog.

Exploring the Print Range

The other important part of the Print dialog box is Print Range. In this section, you can define exactly what areas, sheets, or views you want to print. It includes these options:

You can pick any view or sheet to include in the view/sheet set. If you want to include only sheets in a set, use the Show options at the bottom of the View/Sheet Set dialog box to shorten the visible list. Doing so allows you to select only sheets or only views if you choose.

This is a great tool to help define print lists. Some examples of using these selections would be a 100 percent construction document package or a specific set of presentation sheets.

In the exercise, suppose you want to print the A-series sheets and the G000 cover sheet. Follow these steps:

1. In the Print dialog box, choose the Selected Views/Sheets option, and click the Select button.

2. In the resulting View/Sheet Set dialog box, deselect the Views check box at the bottom. Revit Architecture displays only the sheets you’ve created to date.

3. From the list, select the A-series sheets and the G000 cover sheet (Figure 12.29).

FIGURE 12.29 Selecting the desired sheets

4. Because you will more than likely want to print this set again, click the Save As button and name the set Presentation Set 1. Doing so will keep your current collection of sheets together, and if you want to reprint this set, you can grab the set name from the Name drop-down menu in the View/Sheet Set dialog box.

Remember, if you add more drawings to the set, by default they won’t be added to this print set. You’ll need to revisit this dialog box, add the sheets, and click the Save button. For now, click OK to close this dialog box.

5. Clicking OK in the Print dialog box prints the selected drawings to the printer listed at the top. Clicking Close saves your print setup and closes the dialog box without printing.