ISSUE #4 / SPRING 2017

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1 REVIT PURE PRESENTS PAMPHLETS ISSUE #4 / SPRING 2017 CAD revitpure.com Copyright BIM Pure productions

2 WHAT IS THIS PAMPHLET? Revit Pure Pamphlets are published 4 times a year by . Each edition covers a very specific Revit theme. We like to pick themes that are complex and confusing. Our job is to make these topics simple for you. Here are all pamphlets published so far: Pamphlet #1 - Summer Worksets Pamphlet #2 - Fall Schedules Pamphlet #3 - Winter Phases Pamphlet #4 - Spring CAD Go to revitpure.com to subscribe and receive all pamphlets. WHY TALK ABOUT CAD? In an ideal world, no one would use CAD, ever. Sadly, we don t live in that world yet so we have to deal with consultants and friends that send us CAD files we have to integrate in Revit. These people also want us to convert Revit to CAD and send the files back. A lot of people don t really know what they are doing when they import CAD into Revit, resulting in pure chaos and sadness. Don t worry: we got you covered. The following pages will guide you to make sure you use CAD files in a simple, clean and efficient way. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 2

3 PREPARING CAD FILES Any CAD files linked into Revit must follow a careful process. 1- BIND XREFS: Xrefs can cause problems. Open the Xref dialog box and Bind them all, preventing duplicate layers. 2- RUN PURGE : This removes unused layers, linetypes, blocks, etc. 3- RUN SETBYLAYER : All lines settings should be set to layers, ignoring any color, linetype or lineweight overrides. Use the Setbylayer command to quickly resolve this problem. 4- FREEZE USELESS LAYERS: Freeze all layers not required in Revit. 5- SAVE A COPY: Keep the original DWG file just in case. Save the modified file in a Revit CAD Links subfolder. USE LINK CAD, NOT IMPORT CAD Now that your DWG file is ready, you can bring it to Revit. You will notice that there is two options to bring the DWG file: Import and Link. Avoid using Import CAD. It makes your model heavier, causing performance issues. Link CAD is better: it loads the latest version of the DWG each time you open Revit and is more efficient to manage the files. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 3

4 9 TIPS FOR EFFICIENT CAD USE IN REVIT 1- USE THESE LINKED CAD FILES SETTINGS You have many settings to adjust when linking a DWG file. Follow the tips below for the best results. ACTIVATE CURRENT VIEW ONLY: If left unchecked, the DWG file will appear in all views of the model. In most cases it is better to import to a single view only. COLORS: BLACK AND WHITE: The default setting is Colors, but you should change that to Black and White. It provides better visibility. LAYERS: VISIBLE: By default, all CAD layers will be imported. Set the option to Visible, which means layers that are hidden or frozen in AutoCAD won t be imported. POSITIONING: The best way to position DWG file is usually to use Manual - Center option. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 4

5 2- USE QUERY TOOL TO HIDE CAD LAYERS Select a DWG file inside your Revit Model. In the contextual tab, you will find the Query tool. Click a line inside the DWG, then use Hide or Delete to make the layer invisible. 3- SET BACKGROUND OR FOREGROUND Set the instance properties of the CAD file to Background or Foreground. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 5

6 4- RELOAD OR ADJUST DWG FILE IN MANAGE LINKS Go to the Insert tab and click Manage Links. Go to the Cad Formats tab in the menu. Click Reload to refresh to the latest version of the CAD file, or Reload From... to replace the DWG by a different file. 5- USE COLORED OVERRIDE ON DWG Need to use information from a DWG to create a Revit model? Set a colored override to distinguish the CAD from the model. Use the tool in the contextual tab. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 6

7 6- NEVER EXPLODE A CAD FILE INSIDE REVIT Exploding a DWG file inside your model will create a linetype for each CAD layer. That means you will create complete chaos inside your model. Don t do it. Ever. 7- IMPORT CAD DETAIL INSIDE FAMILY If you plan to use CAD for Revit detailing, the best way is to import the CAD inside a family and use the Pick Lines tool to recreate it with Revit Lines. If you are short on time, you can also keep the DWG intact inside the family. In the image, we import a DWG file to a Mullion Profile family. Using the Visibility Settings, we set it to be visible only in Fine settings. Whatever technique you use, avoid using DWG detail files directly on the model, always insert them in a family first. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 7

8 8- ADJUST LINKED CAD FILES LINEWEIGHT Go to the Insert tab and click on the little diagonal arrow below the Manage Images icon. This will open a menu containing Lineweight option for DWG. You can either load a file containing settings or manually adjust them. The numbers in the left column are associated with CAD colors, while the column on the right are associated to Revit weight styles. 9- CREATE Z-CAD WORKSETS For easy control of DWG files visibility, create a Z-CAD workset and put all the linked CAD files inside it. Set the workset to not visible by default and manually activate it for the required views. If you are an advanced user, you can avoid using worksets for this purpose and instead use filters and View Templates to control CAD visibility. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 8

9 10- CONTROL CAD LAYERS IN VISIBILITY GRAPHICS All layers from a CAD files can be controlled in the Visibility Graphics menu for each view. Collapse the menu for the required DWG file. Then check and uncheck layers you want to see. Add overrides for each layers if required. To control the visibility for a CAD file in all views, go to Object Styles. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 9

10 HOW TO EXPORT TO DWG Want to create CAD files from your model? Click the big R on the upper left of the screen, then select CAD format and DWG. You might want to adjust export settings. To do that, click... in the export setup. Select Units & Coordinates and the specific CAD version you want to export to. Also select if you want to export using XRefs or not. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 10

11 ASSIGN SPECIFIC LAYERS In the export settings layers submenu, you can set a custom layer name to be assigned to each category. Also select an AutoCAD color. REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 11

12 LIKED THIS PAMPHLET? BASICS IS FOR YOU. Do you like the simple, fun and efficient ways of this pamphlet? We created a complete beginner/intermediate series to learn Revit with the exact same style. To thank you for reading this pamphlet, we offer 15% off to get the BASICS package. Go to revitpure.com/basics and enter promo code learn. Let us know what you thought about the pamphlet at this address: nick@revitpure.com REVIT PURE - Copyright BIM Pure productions 12