Over the years of using Revit I have always
been impressed with Autodesk's ability and desire to continually
improve the software. With the current major release right
around the corner they have proven once again that they listen
to their users and are always looking to continually enhance the
features of Revit. One of the first changes you will notice is
that Revit is no longer just called “Revit®.” Allow me to
introduce Revit® Architecture 2008. (Image 1)
Aside from the obvious visual changes the developers of Revit
Architecture 2008 haven’t disappointed with this release. In
this article I would like to share with you a couple of the more
than 40 enhancements that have been added to Revit Architecture
2008.
Element and Category Visibility Control
Permanent Hide of Elements or Categories in View
With past releases of Revit we never had the ability to
permanently hide an element or a category. Well, now you can.
One of the first things that you may see is that there have been
some new commands added to the “View Control Bar.” (Image 2)
The first command that we will go over is the “Temporary
Hide/Isolate” command. Just looking at it, one might say that it
looks no different than it has in earlier releases. To discover
what’s different about it, let’s select a family to modify its
visibility. (Image 3)
Once I’ve got the family highlighted, I can now use my
“Temporary Hide/Isolate” command. Once selected you will now see
the change, what once was “Isolate Object” is now “Isolate
Element” and “Hide Object” is now “Hide Element.” (Image 4)
You now have the ability to permanently hide an element in a
view. In the past you may have tried to use this feature to hide
something, thinking that it wouldn’t print, only to find that
after you ran the print job, the element was there. The other
new command now available is “Apply Hide/Isolate to View.” Once
you choose one of the four commands you will have the
opportunity to apply that command permanently to the view. I
have selected “Hide Element.” After doing so, the “glasses” now
turn blue instead of the red that we were used to seeing. You
will also notice that you now have a blue border around the
perimeter of your drawing. (Image 5)
After I select “Apply Hide/Isolate to View,” the blue box and
blue glasses disappear. (Image 6)
The center door has now been permanently hidden in this view. To
be able to see it again or see what elements that I have hidden
in this view I simply select “Reveal Hidden/Elements” (light
bulb). Once I have done this I will get a magenta border and any
elements that were hidden are also magenta, you will notice that
the glasses turn magenta as well. (Image 7)
Once I have done this I can now select the element that is
hidden and change the visibility of it for that view. Once I
have chosen the element I simply right-click on it and the
customary dialogue box appears with some new options as well.
(Image 8)
If I wanted to hide the entire category in this view I would
select “Hide in View” and choose “Category.” If I wanted to
unhide the element I would of course select “Unhide in View” and
choose “Elements.” I now have the ability to override the
graphics of either an element or a category in the view, and
again you could do this by right clicking and selecting
“Override Graphics in View” and choosing either “By Element,”
“By Category,” or “By Filter.”
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