Revit's application frame has the following main zones:

As in previous releases of Revit, you can undock the Project Browser and make it float over the drawing area, as shown here:

Users with double screens can now place the Project Browser in the second screen. Revit 2010 will remember all changes made to the interface and will display them in the next launch of the application.

The Element Properties button is located at the far left of the Elements tab and becomes active when you select an element or tool. Clicking this button opens the Instance Properties dialog box (Figure 2.15), where all instance and type parameters of selected elements are displayed and can be edited. You can also open this dialog box by right-clicking an element and selecting Element Properties from the context menu

The Type Selector is located on the Element panel when creating or an element. Its contents change depending on the current function or selected elements. The Type Selector (Figure 2.16) is a drop-down list of element types available in the project. For example, if you select the Wall tool from the Home tab, the Type Selector that is invoked when you click the Change Element Type button shows you a list of all available types of walls in your project. If you select a wall from within the project (the drawing area) you are working on, the Type Selector displays the type of that wall and allows you to select a different wall type from the list. This works with just about any element you can select in Revit, and is an extremely powerful way to make easy and fast changes to the model.

Figure 2.15. A context menu appears when you right-click an element

Figure 2.16. The Type Selector

There are many types of views in which building information can be represented in Revit. These views are listed and organized in the Project Browser using a collapsible tree navigation framework. Types of views include plans, ceiling plans, sections, elevations, 3D views, animations, schedule tables, legends, and sheets. Once a view has been created, it can be duplicated to create a similar view and then modified to fit the requirements of various design deliverables. For example, you can create a plan view of a first floor of a building with furniture layout and then duplicate it to make an electric layout plan. Every view allows you to control which elements will be visible and how will they will be visible. Elements also have additional view-related parameters, such as scale, name, and visibility and graphics settings. You can access these properties by right-clicking on the view name in the Project Browser (Figure 2.21) and selecting Properties from the context menu.

In the Project Browser, you can also see all the loaded families (library elements) in your project. Loaded means that they are a part of the project library, not necessarily that they have been used in the project. From here, you can drag and drop those families into the drawing area, query their properties, create new types of elements, and even select all instances of a given element in the model in order to perform wholesale changes. The right-click menu for families in the Project Browser (Figure 2.22) is different from that for views. Use the keyboard shortcut VP for quick access to View Properties.

Figure 2.22. Context menu for a family

Revit links are other Revit projects that are referenced (linked) into your current project. If they are present in a project, they are listed in the Project Browser. From here you can reload, unload, open, copy, and visually identify the links in your project (Figure 2.23).

Figure 2.23. Links appear in the Project Browser

The Project Browser displays views in an organized tree structure that is predefined. The default organization shows views grouped by view type (plan views, ceiling plans, sections, and so on). Additional predefined organizations are also provided, and you can customize these to suit your specific needs. You can also create completely new view organizations in the Project Browser. When you right-click on the View All node in the Project Browser, the Type Properties dialog box appears. Under Type you can see the list of all predefined organizational types (Figure 2.24). Try them out — switch from one to another to notice the different organizations of the project that they offer. To explore how these are set up or to make your own Project Browser organization, click the Properties button and check out the rules used to structure views.

The first tool indicates the scale in which the drawing will be printed. Clicking the Scale tool gives you a standard set of scales to choose from. The scale of the view determines how big your drawing will be when printed and also creates a visual relationship between annotations and the model. Annotations are always shown in paper size, and the model adjusts its graphics according to the view scale. Put simply, a plan view at ¼″ = 1′–0″ (1:50) will be twice as large as a plan view at ⅛″= 1′–0″ (1:100) when printed, but in each view the text notes will be the same size.

Figure 2.27. The View Control bar

Figure 2.28. Custom scale options

In Revit you can create your own custom scales. Revit will allow you to create scales up to 1:1, or 12′ = 1′. To do that, click the Scale button (the first one) on the View Control bar. In the drop-down menu, select Custom. A new Custom Scale dialog box opens (Figure 2.28). You can create your custom scale and assign a specific name to it. The name you give to the custom scale appears on the View Control bar, view title, or title block. If you do not give a specific name to the custom scale you create, then the numeric value of the scale is displayed.

Thin Line Mode

By default Revit displays real line weights of the model. Sometimes, though, this can make it hard to read the model, especially when working in high scales and zooming close to a detail. In such cases, for visual clarity, you can use the Thin Lines mode tool

Once active, this feature affects all views. As the following graphic demonstrates, when selected, Thin Lines mode displays all lines as being a single pixel wide, regardless of view scale. When this tool is deselected, the line thickness corresponds to the thickness you have assigned to the elements and shows how the drawings will look when printed.

Note that this command affects only how Revit appears in the screen views and not how Revit prints. Thin Lines mode is located in the View toolbar because it affects all views, not just the active view.

In Revit, some types of graphics are drawn independently of any zoom scale:

These lines are drawn with a consistent screen-based line style.

This icon indicates the level of detail assigned to the view. There are three levels of detail in Revit, as illustrated in Figure 2.29: Coarse, Medium, and Fine. You can select a level to show more or less information and detail in a view.

Figure 2.29. Detail level options in the View Control bar

Figure 2.30. Detail level options

Depending on the type of drawing and where in the process your project is, you can use the detail level options to expose more or less information in your documents. At 1″=50′ (1:600 scale), for example, you may represent a wall as a solid fill, regardless of the number of layers in the wall construction. At ¼" =1′–0″ (1:50), you probably want to show the different layers of the wall assembly. The same applies to a door or window. A door is represented with different levels of abstraction depending on the scale. Figure 2.30 illustrates a standard door shown in three levels of detail.

When using a computer-aided design (CAD) system, you use separate blocks for each of these symbolic representations. In the case of a door, you would have to create three different symbols that are drawn in different levels of detail. In 2D CAD, you would also need separate symbols for the section and elevation of a door. In Revit, the door is modeled once and can be designed so that it can show itself in meaningful representations for different scales as well as view types. The trick is that it's always the same object — it's just showing different levels of information about itself.

You may already be acquainted with this type of graphic display from using other design applications. The options shown in Figure 2.31 allow you to display the model in one of four modes: Wireframe, Hidden Line, Shading, and Shading with Edges. These are demonstrated in Figure 2.32.

Figure 2.31. Model graphic style in the View Control bar

Figure 2.32. Model graphic styles demonstrated

Graphic Display Options is a set of view options that let you control shadow and silhouette settings. Here you can fine-tune the sun angle, time of day, intensity, and other variables. The settings shown in Figure 2.33 let you add graphic embellishments, such as brightness of the sun, contrast of shadows, and style of silhouette outlines:

Figure 2.33. Graphic Display Options in the View Control bar

Figure 2.35. Sun studies

The Crop Region tool allows you to limit what part of the model is visible. To better understand it, imagine that you have a piece of paper in which you have cut a rectangular hole and you are viewing the model through that hole. A crop region can be applied to all interactive views. The boundary of the region can be visible or invisible depending on how the view was generated. In sections and callout views, a crop region is automatically visible by default. Plan views, on the other hand, do not show their crop regions by default. The Crop Region tool is accessible from the View Control bar, as shown in Figure 2.37.

Some examples of crop regions are shown in Figure 2.38.

Figure 2.36. Shadow view with silhouette edges

The Crop View toggle makes the crop region active and crops the view. Do Not Crop View keeps the crop boundary but it does not crop anything. (This is useful for the dependent views, which we will discuss later.)

Figure 2.37. Crop Region options in the View Control bar

You can toggle the visibility of the crop region (its boundary) using the Show/Don't Show Crop button. You'll notice a boundary around your model when the region is visible. You can change the size of this boundary by selecting it and dragging it with the blue arrows. The crop region can also be activated through View → Properties and is applicable in both 2D and 3D views.

Figure 2.38. Crop region examples

Hiding and isolating elements is a useful way to work with a model when it starts to get more complex. These tools will help you isolate problems, and get clutter out of the way when you're working.

Temporary hide and isolate The Hide/Isolate tool in the View Control bar allows you to temporarily change the visibility of elements in a view. Please note the meaning of the word temporarily: it indicates that the view is in a temporary state, and this state will not be saved or printed. This temporary mode is useful in visually cluttered situations when you want to isolate an object in order to work undistracted and freely with it, or when you need to view a portion of the model without the presence of certain elements. This feature allows you to change the visibility of a view independent of object types.

To hide or isolate an element or an entire category of elements, first select the elements and choose among the options under the eyeglasses icon

Figure 2.39. Hide/Isolate options in the View Control bar

Once you've hidden an element, the eyeglasses icon turns cyan and a cyan border is drawn around the view, both indicating that something is temporarily hidden in this view. To reset the view to the normal state, select Reset Temporary Hide/Isolate. The temporary hide or isolate state is applied to one view only and is instantly lost when you press Esc, change a view, or reopen a project. The state isn't saved and is not printable.

The Apply Hide/Isolate to View option allows you to convert a temporarily hidden or isolated element into a permanently hidden element in the active view that saves and prints.

Permanent hide/isolate The permanent Hide/Isolate tools allows for elements to be hidden in a view that can be saved and printed.

There are two ways to permanently hide or isolate elements:

Figure 2.40. Hide/Isolate context menu options

Tools for Controlling the Display of Annotations in a Cropped View

Note the difference between the two dialog boxes shown here. The first one is the View Properties dialog box of a 2D view; the second is for a 3D view. Some tools are specific to certain type of views. Let's review them.

ANNOTATION CROP

If you need to show only a portion of a floor plan that contains text, dimensions, and keynotes and use the Crop tool, it will crop the model elements but not the annotations. The Annotation Crop option makes the crop region aware of annotations as well as the model and lets you crop them with an additional crop region.

The Annotation Crop option is turned off by default. Select the View Properties button located in the Graphics panel of the View tab to enable it. This creates a second crop region in the same view. Note that the model and annotation crop are separately controlled, and you can change their extents using the blue arrows when the border of the crop is activated. This is shown by the outer dashed box. It is important to know that the annotation crop can never be smaller than the model crop. The offset between the annotation crop and model crop can be preset by selecting the crop region and clicking the Size button in the Options bar. This opens the Crop Region Size dialog box, where you can present the offset for the annotation crop.

When you're working in a team, some team members may hide certain elements in a view and leave them hidden when they leave the view. To make sure you can quickly assess what is going on and have an instant view of all the information you should, use the Reveal Hidden Elements Mode tool. This tool offers a special way to display the view: after activating the Reveal mode, the model will be represented as halftone, and hidden elements or categories will appear in a bold magenta color that pops out and indicates what has been hidden.

In this mode, the temporarily hidden elements and categories (if any) are represented with cyan and the permanently hidden elements with magenta, as shown in Figure 2.41. To indicate that you're in a Reveal mode, the drawing window has a magenta line around the drawing area. The lightbulb icon is changed as well and appears in a frame, "lit up."

Figure 2.41. Reveal Hidden Elements mode options in the View Control bar

Figure 2.42 shows a sample plan and the same plan with Reveal Hidden Elements Mode turned on. Unlike when using temporarily hidden elements, this mode allows you to add elements or categories to or remove them from the permanently hidden mode. To do this, select any element (regardless of its state), right-click, and select Hide or Unhide from the context menu. You can also use the Options bar to unhide elements or categories.

Figure 2.42. Floor plan

Controlling the Extent of a 3D View: Section Box

For 3D views, an additional cropping feature is available that allows you to crop the model with a 3D clipping box. This option, named Section Box, cuts through your model like a cake, vertically and horizontally, and is available in both axonometric and perspective (camera) views. This tool is effective for creating perspective sections that are highly informative, creative, and appealing, that shows what's going on in your model, or for isolating in 3D a portion of the model that you wish to indicate a detail solution for. To enable the Section Box tool, select the Section box option in the View Properties dialog box. If you orient the 3D view to another view (when in 3D view, right-click on the ViewCube, choose Orient to View, select another view), a section box will be turned on and automatically initialized.

Note that the grips that allow changing the extents of the section box are sometimes somewhat awkward to select. This often results in beginning users failing to notice that instead of moving the section box extents, they are actually moving a real element in the building model that basically changes the entire project. We recommend that beginning users be overly cautious and careful when changing the extents of the section box.

Tooltips

When you hover over an element in the view, Revit helps you identify that object with a tooltip. You can read the name of the object and the type of family to which it belongs. The same information is also displayed in the status bar.

Consistent with Microsoft conventions, tooltips also appear when hovering over any button in the UI, helping new users to identify what the button is used for.

To select an object, use the left mouse button

Right-clicking an object

Anywhere in the free space of the View window, right-clicking opens a menu specific to the navigation of the particular view (Figure 2.44). Note the View Properties option. This is something you'll use regularly, and we'll go into more detail about its specific functions later in this chapter.

Figure 2.44. A context menu with view-specific information and options

The scroll wheel can be rolled

These last three functionalities (Zoom, Pan, and Spin) are also available in the SteeringWheel and ViewCube tools.

A three-button scroll mouse is recommended for effective use and navigation in Revit, but you can achieve all of the needed behaviors with a two-button mouse as well. We will explain that and all navigation possibilities in this section.

Whenever you open a 2D view in a project, you will see a floating palette located on the far right of the View window.

There are two tools in the floating palette when opening a 2D view: the Full Navigation wheel and the Zoom tool. Upon selection of the Full Navigation wheel, the SteeringWheel appears on the screen. It follows (travels with) the mouse to provide quick access to the navigation tools in the context of the work you do. When placed in 2D view, the wheel looks as shown in Figure 2.45 and offers three functionalities:

Figure 2.45. SteeringWheel tool in 2D view allows for zoom, pan, and rewind

Zoom The Zoom option in the SteeringWheel has the following behavior:

Pan Panning the view has several meanings. When used in a 3D context, Pan dollies the camera left and right. When used in a 2D context, Pan means one of two things:

The Rewind History stack is view specific and is persistent for each view throughout the session, until the file is closed. It is a practical tool that allows you to go back to a previous camera state with one mouse click. Figure 2.46 shows the Rewind tool in process.

Figure 2.46. Rewind allows a one-click access to different previous camera states of the model

Here are general guidelines for all SteeringWheels:

The SteeringWheel in 3D view looks slightly different, as shown on Figure 2.47. The wheel shown on the figure is the Full Navigation wheel. You can choose to have different versions of the navigation wheel by expanding the list that appears when you select the arrow below the wheel icon on the floating palette. You can set the default appearance of the SteeringWheels from the Application Menu by selecting the Options button and the SteeringWheels tab.

Figure 2.47. The Full Navigation wheel in 3D views

You will find additional tools in this wheel:

Figure 2.48. Use the on-screen controls to move the camera

There are additional settings in the floating palette of the SteeringWheels that let you define size or transparency. Expand the palette to view them all (Figure 2.49).

Figure 2.49. Additional settings for docking or display of the SteeringWheels

You will notice that the SteeringWheel will also be present in the preview window of the Type Properties dialog box of any element in Revit (Figure 2.50).

For even easier navigation in 3D views, there is another new navigation tool in Revit: the ViewCube (Figure 2.51).

The ViewCube tool allows for intuitive and easy navigation through 3D views. It appears in the top-right corner of all 3D views, both in the Revit project environment and in the Family Editor.

Figure 2.50. SteeringWheel tool in the preview window

Figure 2.51. ViewCube

To use the ViewCube, click its icon to orient the view to a direction of your choice. To rotate the view, drag the ViewCube in one direction. The right-click menu of the ViewCube will let you reset the Home camera, reset the Front direction, lock to the current selection, and orient the current view to an existing view or a predefined standard direction. Right-click the ViewCube and click Properties to set the ViewCube properties. Figure 2.52 shows an example of the ViewCube reorienting a 3D view to Top.

Using the ViewCube you can with one click orient any 3D view into a Top view or Elevation view, as shown in Figure 2.53. Try this out! You will be surprised at the ease of use and the speed with which you can access specific views of your model.

Figure 2.52. A 3D view oriented to Top using the ViewCube

Figure 2.53. The ViewCube in perspective view—dragging the corners of the ViewCube, you can easily orient the view in a direction of your choice

For previous users of Revit, it is important to mention that the ViewCube now has a context menu that contains many functions that were more obviously exposed in older versions of Revit UI but are hidden here. Right-click on the ViewCube to find the Orient to View or Orient to Direction tool as well as other view-related options.

Many elements display blue grips when selected that allow you to modify their size or location. Selecting and dragging the grip provides a preview (like the one in Figure 2.56) of the final outcome prior to completing the drag operation.

Figure 2.56. Dragging a grip enables a preview of the movement's outcome

For walls and lines, blue-filled grips are displayed at the ends of selected element in plan view, and along the ends, bottoms, and tops of selected walls in elevation and 3D views, where they're labeled as shape handles. You can click and drag these controls to resize an element, as shown in Figure 2.57.

Figure 2.57. Wall grips and shape handles

The blue grips also have additional functionality. With walls, by right-clicking and accessing the context menu, you can control the wall joins (the way the walls connect) by using the grips to disallow joins between two walls. By default, the walls join automatically, but this behavior may be undesirable in some conditions (see Figure 2.58).

Figure 2.58. Using grips to edit wall joins

When you select a chain of walls or lines (Figure 2.59), drag controls appear at the coincident endpoints; you can drag these to change the layout of the chain. Touching walls are selected at the same time, and the filled blue grip turns into an empty blue grip (see Figure 2.60).

Figure 2.59. Wall grip when multiple walls are selected

Figure 2.60. Manipulating multiple walls using the grips

Each object, when selected, can be moved without invoking the Move command in the toolbars. When you move your mouse close to the element, a set of crosshairs appears. By clicking and holding the left mouse button, you can dynamically move the element selected.

Revit has many embedded help tools to make your life easier when creating or editing objects. One of these is the dashed blue line shown in Figure 2.61. This line displays each time a movement is constrained to a plane, as with walls and lines in plan views.

The line helps you maintain the same plane of the wall when extending it, without the necessity of holding down the Shift key or using any other auxiliary tool.

Figure 2.61. Manipulating the wall constrained to a plane

A similar dashed line helps you place a new element, similar to an adjacent one, by taking a reference from the nearby element. Figure 2.62 shows how placing new level lines in section or elevation references the start or end of an existing level line.

Figure 2.62. Referencing similar elements

When you're drawing or editing elements, Revit lets you orient them with respect to other elements without changing coordinate systems. This is a neat advantage of Revit.

If you want to draw a wall parallel to another that is already drawn, Revit recognizes the angle of that wall and offers it as a constraint. This lets you draw the second element, keeping it parallel to the first wall during its creation (see Figure 2.63).

Figure 2.63. A new element is constrained when created near a similar one.

Using the spacebar also helps you orient elements during creation or while editing them. During placement, pressing the spacebar lets you rotate elements at 90-degree intervals. However, if you mouse over a nonorthogonal reference (such as the wall in Figure 2.64), the spacebar starts rotating the element, adding the angle for reference. For example, a bed placed next to a nonorthogonal wall can be quickly oriented to the angle of the wall. Just imagine how cool this is after all the trouble you may have had in the past defining locations!

Figure 2.64. Use the spacebar to rotate elements during placement

You click a flip control

Figure 2.65. Editing a wall using a flip control

Swinging doors have two flip controls: Flip Facing (which controls whether the door swings in or out) and Flip Hand (which controls whether the door swings right or left, as shown in Figure 2.66).

The flip control applies not only during creation of an element but also when an element is edited later. Note that flip controls are displayed only when applicable: they don't appear for items that don't need to be flipped (a table, for example).

Figure 2.66. Door flip controls

In Revit, dimensions are much more than static forms of documentation. They can be used to interactively adjust the model at any time. Temporary dimensions are displayed each time an object is selected, inserted, or edited. Revit allows you to type a value in the temporary dimension string that determines the position or size of an object. Permanent dimensions work the same way; you can edit the location of elements directly by changing dimensional values.

A wall 32′ (10m) long displays a 32′ (10 m) temporary dimension. However, if you enter a 20′ (6 m) dimension, the wall becomes 20′ (6 m) long (see Figure 2.67).

Figure 2.67. Modifying a wall using temporary dimensions

Figure 2.68. It is always the selected element that moves when you manipulate a distance using the temporary dimension

New Revit users are sometimes confused about which elements change or move when you use temporary dimensions. When you use temporary dimensions to change distances between elements, the selected element moves. If you select the wall on the right in Figure 2.68 and type a value in the temporary dimension area, the wall at the right moves, not the left one.

It works the same way for levels. If you need to modify the height between levels, select the level you wish to move, and modify the temporary dimension. Regardless of whether you're changing the upper dimension or the lower dimension, in each case Level 2 is modified, as shown in Figure 2.69.

Figure 2.69. Modifying levels using temporary dimensions

Revit is one of the rare architectural authoring applications that allow you to embed your design intent in the form of locks and constraints that persist until you consciously remove them. Here are a few examples:

In the example in Figure 2.70, the door is constrained to a 1′–4″ (40 cm) distance from the wall to accommodate a cupboard. To constrain a distance, you set it by placing a dimension, selecting the dimension, and locking it with the Create or remove a constraint toggle. After having locked the door to the wall (Figure 2.71) at a distance of 1′–4″ (40 cm), if you move the wall in the drawing, the door will always move with it, retaining the locked distance.

The Pin tool is another way to set a constraint for an element. In this case, the element is constrained not with respect to another element in the model but geospatially. You can pin your grid system so it doesn't move from its location or pin elements from an existing building so they aren't mistakenly modified while you're working on new additions. The Pin command appears under the Modify panel of the Modify tab whenever an element is selected

Figure 2.70. Temporary dimensions at a closet door

Figure 2.71. Locking the door location

Pin also appears in element types like the predefined curtain walls shown in Figure 2.72. By default, the pins exist here because there are embedded rules in a type-based curtain wall that you don't want to inadvertently change. If, however, you consciously decide to change the type or a distance (like the space between the mullions), you can unlock the pin at any time by clicking it. This undoes the constraint and allows you to freely change the element from now on. Locked and unlocked pins in a curtain wall are shown in Figure 2.73.

Figure 2.72. Pins in a curtain wall

Figure 2.73. Using the Pin tool

Another type of constraint is designed for logical relationships between elements. When furnishing a space, you probably want to align the bed or dresser with a wall. If you change your design, you want the furniture to follow the wall to the new location. For this purpose, Revit has a command called Move with Nearby Elements. When you select a furniture element, like the bed in Figure 2.74, this option appears on the Options bar. It lets you check a box to move the associated elements. By selecting this option, you create an invisible relationship between the bed and the wall so that each time you move the wall, the bed moves with it.

Figure 2.74. Moving an element with nearby elements

When elements appear with editable drag controls, these are considered instance parameters. This means you can modify the geometry on an instance-by-instance basis rather than change the definition of a type and have all occurrences of the type in the model update at once. Many elements in Revit are driven by type parameters, but this doesn't restrict making and using content that is more flexible and driven only at the individual instance level.

This type of instance-level behavior may be desirable for windows and doors. Once a window or door is placed in a wall, there seems to be no way to change its size aside from opening the properties of that object and changing type parameters. When you select a window, blue grip controls do not appear as they do when you select walls. You might wonder: why can I not drag windows and doors to be any width and height I want? Essentially, the dimensions of windows and doors are defined as type parameters by default, and Revit does not let you manipulate these dimensions on a per-instance basis. This is done intentionally, because you typically want to use a standard range of door sizes and keep this information stable and predictable. Nonetheless, it is possible to create windows and doors that vary in size and shape on a per-instance basis. Remember that Revit makes some assumptions about desired behavior, but in most cases it lets you move beyond the typical and not be hindered.

Should you want the ability to change the dimensions of windows and doors with direct editing (using the blue grips), you must change the parameters for width and height from type parameters to instance parameters. This can be done in the Family Editor with a few clicks. Note that this method of working takes away the advantage of having all windows and doors changed at once via a single parameter change. You also need to be careful not to create any odd custom sizes unintentionally. Figure 2.75 shows an example of a window as a type and an instance.

Figure 2.75. Type and instance parameters

Figure 2.78. Slope settings in the Project Units dialog box

Various settings for slope are in the Format column in the Project Units dialog box accessible from the Manage tab in the Project Settings panel. You can control units, rounding, and digit grouping, as shown in Figure 2.78.

Ratio, rise, decimal degrees, and percentage are the available options for units.

Figure 2.79. All major currency symbols are provided for the new currency settings

When making schedules, architects often have the need to add currency information when calculating cost, and this improvement accommodates that need. Currency formatting allows you to format costs using common currency symbols.

In the Format dialog box, you can choose any of the 10-plus major worldwide currencies, suppress trailing zeros, and decide to use grouping that replaces decimal symbol setting (comma separators in 1,234,567).

You will access the same settings when you make a cost schedule. You can access the Field Format setting on the Format tab of the schedule (Figure 2.79).

Suppressing zeros is often desirable. For example, if the value of a cost item is 2756.400, checking the suppressing trailing zeros will result in 2756.4. For drawings, you can suppress spaces — for example, in the value 1′ - 2″, the result is 1′–2″.

Digit grouping options set the separator, the decimal symbol, and how many digits to group by.