Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture 2016. Krygiel Eddy

you upload exported formats (DWF, DWG, DXF, DGN, and SAT) to Autodesk^® Buzzsaw^® to share project documents with your team. Use the Close command to quickly close a project or family without closing every open view. When accessing some of the flyout commands in the Application menu, be aware that there may be additional commands or options on the flyout that are hidden. This is most evident on the Export command flyout, in which you must scroll to the bottom of the flyout to access exporting options for IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) and others.

Using the Quick Access Toolbar

      The Quick Access toolbar (QAT) allows you to keep frequently used tools at your fingertips. Some commonly used commands are included by default in the QAT, but you can customize it to meet your own needs.

Right-click any button in one of the ribbon tabs, and you will find the command Add To Quick Access Toolbar. By clicking the small, down-facing arrow to the far right of the QAT, you’ll find that tools may be further customized, grouped, or removed from the toolbar (Figure 2.2). By default, the QAT bar is above the ribbon, but you also have the option to show the QAT below the ribbon.

Figure 2.2 Customizing the QAT

Using the InfoCenter

To the far right of the QAT is the InfoCenter (Figure 2.3).

Figure 2.3 The InfoCenter

      From left to right, you have the ability to search for help solutions, access the Subscription Center, open the Communication Center, show Favorites (saved articles and solutions from the Communication Center), sign in to other Autodesk services (such as cloud rendering), launch the Autodesk Exchange for Revit (Exchange Apps), and open the help content.

Getting to Know the Ribbon

The ribbon is the primary location for accessing the commands and tools you will use in a project (Figure 2.4). You can launch commands and tools using the ribbon, or you can create customized keyboard shortcuts as an alternative. Refer to Chapter 3, “The Basics of the Toolbox,” for more information on keyboard shortcuts. Throughout this book, we will refer to the ribbon frequently, so you should be familiar with its basic parts: tabs and panels.

Figure 2.4 The ribbon

      The organization and size of the icons within each panel on the ribbon will change slightly as you scale the size of your application window. As the application window gets smaller, the icons will decrease in size and will sometimes stack, or the descriptions will be hidden.

TOURING THE TABS

      Tabs are the highest level of organization and are used to select from among the various groups of functionality. There are up to 11 tabs along the top of the ribbon. We’ll take a moment to briefly describe them:

Architecture, Structure, or Systems If you install Revit Architecture you will only have access to the Architecture and Structure tabs in the ribbon. If you install Revit with one of the Autodesk Building Design suites, you will have access to the tools for all three design disciplines, and you can control the visibility of these tabs (Architecture, Structure, and Systems) from the Options dialog box (accessed from the Application menu), as shown in Figure 2.5. These tabs contain tools you will use to create or place content specific to each design discipline.

Figure 2.5 Setting the UI options

      Insert The Insert tab is used to link external files (2D, 3D, image, and other RVT files) as well as search for external content via Autodesk^® Seek. To insert content from family files, you can use the Load Family command from this tab; however, this same command is available with most modeling commands in the contextual tab of the ribbon. Learn more about linking Revit files in Chapter 6, “Working with Consultants,” and using other file formats in Chapter 7, “Interoperability: Working Multiplatform.”

      Annotate The Annotate tab contains many of the tools necessary to annotate, tag, dimension, or otherwise graphically document your project. Learn more about these tools in Chapter 16, “Detailing Your Design,” and Chapter 18, “Annotating Your Design.”

      Analyze The Analyze tab contains the tools necessary to modify energy analysis settings and to run an energy simulation via Green Building Studio^®. This feature requires an Autodesk Subscription account to access the online analysis engine. Learn more about conceptual energy analysis in Chapter 9, “Conceptual Design and Design Analysis.”

      Massing & Site The Massing & Site tab contains the tools necessary to add massing- and site-related elements such as toposurfaces and property lines. Learn more about modeling site context in Chapter 3, “The Basics of the Toolbox,” and conceptual design massing in Chapter 9.

      Collaborate The Collaborate tab contains the tools that you’ll use to coordinate and manage the project within your own team as well as across other teams and their linked files. Learn more about worksharing in Chapter 5, “Working in a Team,” and interdisciplinary coordination in Chapter 6.

      View The View tab contains the tools that you’ll use to create all your project views, 2D and 3D, as well as schedules, legends, and sheets. You can also modify your UI from this tab, including your keyboard shortcuts. Learn more about creating multiple project views and sheets in Chapter 17, “Documenting Your Design.”

       Manage The Manage tab contains tools to access all your project standards and other settings. You will also find the Design Options and Phasing tools on this tab. Additional tools such as Review Warnings and Select By ID are found in the Manage tab and will help keep your project running smoothly.

      One of the most important settings that you’ll use during your project is Object Styles on the Manage tab. Selecting this option will allow you to manage the global visibility settings for just about everything in your project: how it projects, how it cuts, and its associated color and pen weight. Learn more about this and other project settings in Chapter 4, “Configuring Templates and Standards.”

      Modify The Modify tab contains the tools used to manipulate the content that you’re creating in your project. You’ll find tools like Cut, Join, Move, Copy, and Rotate, among many others. Learn more about common editing tools in Chapter 3.

Contextual Tabs Contextual tabs are revealed when specific elements are selected or element creation commands are launched. For example, the Modify | Walls contextual tab (Figure 2.6) is displayed when a wall is selected. These unique tabs are usually colored green to help you distinguish them from other static tabs in the ribbon.

Figure 2.6 Example of a contextual tab

      A simple, yet important, setting that may be exposed on the contextual tab when placing model content is Tag On Placement. Modeling commands like Door, Window, and Component allow you to enable automatic tagging to reduce overall documentation time. If you are working in an early design phase, you may wish to disable the Tag On Placement setting.

PLACING PANELS

Within each tab in the ribbon are groups of tools and commands referred to as panels. If you want to make any panel consistently available, you can pull it out of its tab and arrange it anywhere on your computer screen. To relocate a panel, drag the panel out of the ribbon using your mouse pointer on the panel title bar (Figure 2.7). The panel will snap to alignment