Saving Drafting Views to Create a Revit “Block” Library

By Matt Niemeyer,
AEC Solutions Engineer
Hagerman & Company
St. Louis, MO
 

With Revit you can save multiple types of view out for use in other project. Although the process is virtually the same for each, we are going to focus on Drafting Views. Drafting Views contain 2D information. It can be drawn in Revit or it could have been imported from another software such as Autocad or Microstation. Once the Drafting view is configured, it is then placed on a sheet to be printed. These Drafting views are quite often typical details that can be referenced by many different projects.

You will want to have some sort of directory structure set up. This way when you save your views out they can be saved in folders that will make finding them easy later on.

The first step is to select the view you want to save. Once it is highlighted in the project browser, right click on it and select “Save to New File…”

Once the “Save As” dialog box appears, you will browse to the location you want to save your new file. Notice that it saves as a *.rvt file. If this is saved in a folder that has active projects it may become confusing to some as to what it actually is. Again, you want to make sure it is easy to find and decipher these files after you have saved them out or they are not doing you any good.

That is it. Your new Revit “block” is now saved for use in a New Project.

Add a Saved Drafting View to a Project

Now, to bring the Drafting View into your New Project.

Open the project you are wanting to bring the Drafting View into. Notice the Drafting Views that exist already in the Project Browser.

Under the <File> pull down select “Insert from File” à “Views…”

In the Open dialog box browse to the file you are wanting to insert. And then select “Open.”

On the “Insert Views” dialog make sure the drafting view is checked. And select “OK”

The Duplicate Types box will show up. This is preventing anything that was created in the Drafting View from overwriting the same objects in the Project. If a filled region is imported with the same name as one that is in the project, it won’t allow the one in the project to be overwritten.

The inserted Drafting View is now listed in the Project Browser.

It is now ready to be placed on a sheet and printed.