Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture 2016. Krygiel Eddy

mouse to activate the corresponding navigation method. This is easier to demonstrate than explain in text, so feel free to try the various modes of the SteeringWheels tool as you continue through this book.

      If you use a laptop or mobile workstation without the benefit of a mouse, the SteeringWheels tool can be a welcome substitute for traditional pointer-based navigation. The touchpads or pointing sticks on most laptops do a poor job of emulating the press-and-drag motions of a mouse along with simultaneous keyboard button combinations that drive native navigation in Revit. If you’re struggling without a mouse connected to your laptop, try the SteeringWheels tool and you might thank us!

NAVIGATION BAR

      Access to the most common navigating tools is also provided in the Navigation bar located at the right side of the drawing area. From here you can launch any of the SteeringWheels and all of the zoom commands from flyout buttons.

NAVIGATING WITH THE MOUSE

      As with most modern design applications, the mouse can also be used to navigate in any view. You are not constrained to using the ViewCube, SteeringWheels, or Navigation bar. You might have already figured out that pressing the left mouse button selects objects and the right mouse button is used to access context menus. We discuss selection methods with greater detail in Chapter 3. For now, let’s review how you can use the mouse to navigate the views in Revit.

      To pan in any view, press and hold the wheel button on your mouse while moving it around your mouse pad. Hold the Shift key and use the wheel button on the mouse to orbit a 3D view.

      The mouse wheel can be used to zoom in and zoom out of any view, but the zooming may be somewhat choppy. Hold the Ctrl key and press the wheel button while moving the mouse forward to zoom out (pushing the model away) or backward to zoom in (pulling the model toward you). You will also notice that the views will zoom in and out with a focal point based on the location of the mouse pointer.

      In camera views, zooming works a bit differently. Scrolling the mouse wheel zooms in and out but includes the view’s crop region. To adjust the view within the crop region, only the SteeringWheels and the ViewCube can be used.

In addition to a traditional mouse, you can use a 3D navigation device such as the Space Navigator from 3Dconnexion (www.3dconnexion.com), as shown in Figure 2.21. A 3D mouse allows you to navigate in multiple directions simultaneously using joystick-like motions. Simply attach the device to your computer and install the 3Dconnexion software, and a 3Dconnexion button will be displayed on the Navigation bar. The 3D mouse will automatically navigate in any 2D or 3D view, but the Navigation bar button allows you to toggle between modes.

Figure 2.21 The SpaceNavigator 3D mouse from 3Dconnexion

      Defining Project Organization

      If you have experience with 2D CAD software, you’re likely familiar with many of the terms and concepts related to designing and documenting a project, but not all of them have exact equivalents in Revit software. You may be comfortable with thinking in terms of what needs to be drawn and coordinated: plans, sections, elevations, details, schedules, and so on. Such information is likely stored in a plethora of separate files that have to be linked together in order to reference other parts of a building design. For teams collaborating on design, you are also likely accustomed to allowing only one person in one file at a time. And finally, maintaining all your project settings and standards is a struggle across so many disconnected files.

      Working in the Revit environment affords you much more control and efficiency in managing the aforementioned issues. The four key components of a holistic and efficient design process are relationships, repetition, representations, and restrictions. These concepts are managed in Revit software as datum objects, content, views, and project management, respectively. They are managed from within a single, bidirectional database.

Figure 2.22 shows what we like to think of as a Revit organizational chart, which gives you a visual description of these four top-level categories and what these categories contain. In the following sections, we’ll discuss each of these categories and describe its particular role in your Revit project environment.

Figure 2.22 Revit organizational chart

Introducing Datum Objects (Relationships)

Data (plural) are sometimes referred to in Revit software as datum objects and consist of references, grids, and levels (Figure 2.23). Datum objects establish geometric behavior by controlling the location and extents of your content (the building, the stuff that goes in a building, and the stuff you need to document your building).

Figure 2.23 Datum objects

      Reference planes can be created in any 2D view from the main ribbon tabs (Architecture, Structure, or Systems), but once created, they may not be visible in 3D. After you add reference planes to your project, they can be set and seen from the Work Plane panel. This will allow you to work with respect to the desired work plane.

      Grids are used to locate structural elements in your project. You are not required to include grids in your project, but they are quite useful in managing structural walls and columns. Like reference planes, grid lines can be added to any 2D view. Keep in mind that grids can only be perpendicular to levels. Furthermore, grids are only visible in views that are perpendicular to the grid. So if the grid is in a north–south orientation, you’ll be able to see it only in plan and from the east–west orientation.

      Levels are datum objects that are parallel to the ground plane. They serve several purposes. First, they are the main method for placing and managing the elevation (or Z-location) of content. Virtually all content placed in a Revit model has a Level parameter. You can even move objects from one level to another simply by changing this property in the Properties palette. Levels also function as constraints for objects such as walls and columns. These objects have top and bottom constraints that can be set to levels so that they will automatically update if the levels are adjusted. Levels may be seen and created only in elevation and section views; therefore, you can’t create levels in plan, and they can’t be diagonal to the ground plane.

      Creating any datum is easy. Simply select the desired tool from the Architecture tab, and then pick two points to define the start and end locations. Despite their two-dimensional appearance, all datum objects have three-dimensional extents that help you manage their appearance throughout a project. You will explore this further in the section “Explaining 3D and 2D Datum Extents” later in this chapter.

CREATING AND DUPLICATING LEVELS

      In the previous section, we discussed the overall purpose of datum objects; however, there are special conditions related to the creation of levels. First, you should understand that a level does not always require an associated plan view. Levels that have plan views will have a blue graphic symbol at the end (double-click it to go to that view), whereas those that don’t will have a black graphic symbol. When you create a new level, you have the option to create a corresponding plan view by using the Make Plan View option from the Options bar.

      Copying an existing level will not create the corresponding plan views. This is useful if you are working on a larger project, such as a high-rise, and you want to quickly configure multiple levels without creating them one at a time. You might also want to use levels just as a reference for content but not for a specific plan, such as for an intermediate landing or mezzanine.

      Although it is easy to create many levels by copying or arraying, only create the levels that are necessary to manage major parts of your project. You don’t need to create a level for every slab, stair, or floor offset. Too many levels can have a negative impact on your project’s performance.

      Let’s explore the