Dividing your element to smaller parts allows you to create detailed appearance of your element. You can have different materials in a wall layer. You can modify part size by dragging the grips.

Not limited to its appearance, you can report parts in your schedule. You can also tag them as separate elements, not as the whole original element.

Applying materials

Applying material is the same with applying it to original element.

Choose your part(s) and change your material in properties palette. You must uncheck material by original to allow this override.

This is what I have done to my wall.

And yes, we can render it too.

Don’t forget to change part visibility to show parts! If you choose to set your view to show original, it will render the original element.

Creating schedule

You can create parts schedule by selecting parts in category. The process is exactly the same as creating other schedules in Revit.

You may want to try changing parts size and see how the schedule is dynamically updated. You can drag shape handles to change part size.

To enable shape handle, you need to select the part and check show shape handles in properties palette.

Tagging parts

You can tag parts using tag by category.

Activate the tool, then click on your part. If you haven’t loaded part tag, you will see this warning.

Click yes to load tag. You can find part tag in annotations folder. Remember, M prefix is for metric families. If you’re using imperial families, you will see part_tag.rfa.

Place your tags to your parts. You may see question marks like this. Why was that?

Just like other Revit tags, you need to define the element mark that shows the tag value. Select the part and fill mark value in properties palette.

Do you think you can use it?

Do you think Revit parts can be useful in your work? Have you use it, or how do you plan to use it? Share with us here!

In Revit, you can divide element into smaller parts. Snipped from help file:

Parts can be generated from elements with layered structures, such as:

Walls (excluding stacked walls and curtain walls)
Floors (excluding shape-edited floors)
Roofs (excluding those with ridge lines)
Ceilings
Structural slab foundations

The idea of dividing into parts is for scheduling and tagging purpose. So we can deliver schedule report in more details, and also flexibility to work with smaller parts.

Let’s try to create parts from a wall.

Creating Revit parts

We can create parts from an element by selecting it and click create parts from contextual ribbon.

In this example,I use basic wall. It has several layers.

I select it and click create parts, then each layer will become a part. If you move your pointer above the wall, you will see they are separate parts.

If you don’t see the parts, check your properties palette. When you have nothing in selection set, it should show you view properties.

Check if parts visibility value is show parts.

You should be aware that if you set it to show original , you will not be able to select part in this view.

Dividing Parts

Still need to divide them to smaller parts?

After you create parts, you can split it further. Select your part and click divide parts.

Remember, you have to select part, not the original element. Selecting wall in parallel elevation view can be difficult, so it might be easier if you open multiple views if you have high resolution.

After you activate it, you might need to set work plane to work with this part. You can just pick part faces as a plane.

Now all we need is to divide the part into smaller parts. Draw lines as necessary to divide it.

After you finish with the sketch, click finish edit mode.

You should see your wall is divided to smaller parts.

We will continue working with parts in the next article. We will work with tags.

Jay Polding, the man behind Revit in Plain English blog, has just released his updated training videos for Revit Architecture 2012.

In this version, there are basic and advanced training video. There is also a bundle price to get both.

So if you’re looking for good material to learn by yourself at home or office, anytime you have time, you can consider it.

Check the free demo video before you decided to purchase it:

1. Learning Revit Architecture 2012 (basic)
2. Advanced Revit Architecture 2012
3. Revit Architecture 2012 bundle (basic and advanced)

Let’s get started.

Open your title block family. If you created one  from this Revit tutorial, you can use it.

Creating shared parameters

If you haven’t created a shared parameter file, refer to this tutorial.

Go to manage tab on your ribbon. Click shared parameters in settings panel.

It will open a dialog box.

1. Click new under groups. Type title block info then click OK. We will put every shared parameters related to title block here.
2. Now let’s create a parameter. Click new button under parameters group.

Name what custom information you want to show on your sheet. Here I want to show consultant information. Don’t forget to change the type to text.

Click OK. Repeat the steps above if you still have more custom information. After you finished, click OK to close the dialog box.

Add custom label to Revit sheet

Now let’s place the label to our sheet. Go to home tab. Click label in text panel.

Click where you want to place the label. This will open a dialog box.

Click add new parameter (shown by arrow below).

Another dialog box opened. Click select.

Choose your shared parameter then click OK. Click OK again until you see edit label (above dialog) the only dialog box opened.

Now you should see it’s in this dialog and selected.

Click add parameter to label to use it.

Click OK. Now we can see the label is updated.

If you have more labels you need in this sheet , repeat the steps above until you’re done.

Save the title block. Create a new project and load the template.

Adding parameter to Revit project

Now we are finished with the title block. Our next task is to use it in our project. You may want to create it in empty project file, so you can save it as a template. This will allow you to have them loaded every time you start your project.

With Revit project active, go to manage tab on your ribbon. Click project parameters.

In opened dialog box, click add.

Another dialog box opened.

1. Choose shared parameters then click select. Choose your shared parameter.
2. Now you should see the data change.
3. Check project information in categories.

We are finished now. Click OK.

Changing label values

We are done. We already have the parameters in our project, and labels in sheet to show them. Try to create a sheet using the family you customized before.

The label is still empty, but don’t be sad. We haven’t fill the project information yet. You do remember we put the parameter in project information category, aren’t you?

Click project information in manage tab.

Now you should see the custom parameters! Try to change the value and check your title block now.

They are now showing your custom Revit project information.

What kind of custom information you need to add in your title block? Can you add them using this method?

Creating Shared Parameters

Let’s open a double door family. You can choose any door available with Revit installation. As we can see, it shows width value: Door opening width.

All default families have equal door width. So let’s just use it.

Go to manage tab, click shared parameters.

1. In edit shared parameters, we need to create a shared parameter file first. Click create button, then give the file a name. Save it.
2. Now we have new group button enabled. Click it and create a group named width. You can also use group name like dimension or other name.
3. Click new button under parameter group.
4. Give the shared parameter name, and set the type as length.

Click OK until all dialog boxes are closed. Now we have a shared parameter.

Using Shared Parameters in Library

Click family types from ribbon.

In family types dialog box, under parameter category, add.

In opened properties dialog box, choose shared parameter. Click select button to choose the Door Width we created before. Click OK to add it to our family.

Defining Formula

Back to family types dialog box, find door width. In formula column, change the value to Width/2. Remember, parameter name in Revit is case sensitive.

Now save the library, upload it to your project and use it.

After you have done, try to create door schedule.

Now you should be able to report Door Width value we created before.

Other usage

There are many possibilities to use shared parameters. In this example, we simply use it do define door width. It’s very simple because we simply divide the double door width by 2. In other case, you can create unequal door width (door 1 width, door 2 width, and total opening). You can create notes. And many other uses.

For further reading, you can read this article in AEC magazine and this one from Revit OpEd.

And don’t forget to check our e-book: Revit family tutorial. The e-book will guide you the basic of creating Revit families, included with animation.

Now after you see this example, do you have any thought how you would use it?

The Worksets Concept

As you know, Revit work on a single project file. In any applications, you cannot open the same file if someone already open that file. You can only open it on other computer as read only, and you can’t save any changes that you make to the same file.

The idea of using worksets is dividing the project file to several worksets, and put all of the worksets in a central file. The central file is saved in a shared location (commonly a shared folder in a server) and each user can create a copy of that central file in their local hard drive. Each of the users will only open the workset that is assigned to them.

Since each user using local copy of the master file, they can work individually with the same project file and save the changes they make. But they are limited to work only on workset(s) they open.

After they’ve done, they can save the project, and update the central file. Other users can see the changes after they update their workset with the central file. Confused? You probably will. To get the concept more clearly, we are going to do a little exercise.

Simulating Multiple Users

If you have several computers with Revit installed, you can open Revit in each computer before you start using them.

If you only have one computer, you can simulate them in one machine, using multiple account. I hope your computer is powerful enough to do this. Create two more accounts from Windows control panel and give each of them password. The accounts must be password protected. Now you should have 3 Windows accounts. Refer to Windows help how you can do it if you have problem.

Open Revit normally. This session will act as you, the user name you use to login.

Let us open another Revit instance. Right click on Revit icon (hold [shift] then right click in Windows 7) choose run as different user. You will see a dialog box open. Type the user and password. Wait until this Revit instance is finish loading. Open another instance with the last account. Now you have three Revit instances running as three different users.

If you see a warning, simply ignore it. It will not affect this tutorial.

Defining Worksets

Now let us create a very simple project in the first user window. I simply create a box that I will use as the building shell. Now let’s pretend we have finished our shell design.

Now we are going to create several worksets. Open collaborate tab on your ribbon. Click worksets in worksets panel.

You are going to see a warning that you are enabling worksharing. Because we do want to enable it, so you don’t need to worry. Create your new workset name as shell. Then click OK.

You will see worksets dialog box opened. I use Mike as the file creator, so you see Mike’s name here. Click new and create two more worksets.

Give them name level 1 interior and level 2 interior.

Now we are going to save it to central file. First time you save it, then it will be the central file. Pick a place in a shared folder or somewhere all your users can access it. Remember, if you are simulating this on one machine, do not save it in my documents folder! Your path will be hard to find by the other users. Place it somewhere in C or D drive. Something like c:\exercise.

Now we have the central file. Next, we have to release the ownership of the other worksets. Click ‘relinquish all mine’ in collaborate tab, synchronize panel.

Opening Worksets

Now let us open the worksets. What we did by clicking ‘relinquish all mine’ is changing the editable setting to no. Now in your computer (or your account) change it to yes. You should see your name in owner column now.

Now move to other computer and change the editable properties to yes. You will see the workset that already edited by other user appear here. You can’t edit it when other are working on it. Open other workset.

Before you start to work on your workset, change the active workset to your workset. And activate gray inactive workset graphics to easily distinguish your workset.

Close workset dialog box. Do it in the last computer too. Now we have 3 people on 3 computers, working on the same project.

Working on Workset

Now work on your model. Let’s say my buddy Greg has develop level 1 interior. After he has done, he need to submit his updated design to the central file. He need to click synchronize with central to submit the changes.

Now the central file has been updated. But the other users still don’t see the changes. After the synchronization finished, the other users have to click reload latest to see the changes. Will there be a pop up or a message mentioning something has changed? Unfortunately no. There is a plugin that does that, but you need to download it. And it’s only available for subscription customer. Find the Revit extension named worksharing monitor.

I believe now you get the idea how design collaboration works in Revit. We will discuss a bit more about workset later.

Understanding How Design Phase Works

Let us open a project. You can use any project or simply create a new one. Just place a wall and select it.

In instance properties, you will see phasing category. There are two parameters here: phase created and phase demolished.

By default, Revit has two phases: existing and new construction. New construction will be used as default, your newly created building elements will be in this phase. If you are working on renovation project or building expansion project, you can change the element phase to previous phase: existing. If there are any building elements you need to demolish, you can define when the element should be demolished.

Let us try a simple case, we want to demolish the wall (1) for building extension. I changed the phase created to existing, and change the phase demolished to none. To close the existing area, I created a temporary wall (2). This wall is created during building extension project, and also will be demolished in this phase. So I change the phase created to new construction, and phase demolished to new construction as well. See how they are represented differently.

Let us see another sample. This door below is created on new construction, while the wall created in existing. Revit will automatically tell us the wall need to be demolished to place the door. The wall in the door location is not removed like usual, but shown in dashed lines.

Managing Phases

We can rename, add, remove and arrange the phases sequence in phasing dialog box. You can access it from Revit ribbon, manage tab, phasing panel. Click phases button.

There are three tabs in this dialog box. In project phases, you can manage the phases.

Phase Filters

In phase filters tab, you can manage how to show your objects. For example, show demo + new filter will only show all objects that demolished and objects that are created in new phases.

You can use the filters in properties palette (or in view properties dialog box for pre-2011).

Try to play with this filter. And don’t forget, schedules are views too. So you can separate how many walls need to be demolished, and how many walls need to be built, separate from existing walls! Isn’t that cool?

Graphic Overrides

The last tab controls how your object should be shown. You might want to create more phases, and want to control each phases graphical representation. You can manage them here.

Preparing Your Model

Let us create a very simple floor plan first. A simple floor plan like this will do. I use something like this. The size of the plan is not critical. You may also use your own model if you like.

Now imagine we can’t decide how the entrance would look like. We are going to create two alternatives for the entrance. You may want to add more for practicing later.

Activating and Preparing Design Option

Before you use the design options, you will see all the buttons grayed and disabled. Except for design option button. Click the design option button, and you will see a dialog box opened.

On the right hand side of the dialog, you will see 3 groups of buttons.

The first one is to choose which option you want to edit. You need to define option set first.

The second group manage option set. Option set is used to manage which area you want to have the options. You can manage the options for entrance area, options for reception area, option for pantry area… in separate option set.

You can create new option set, rename it, accept it as primary, or delete the option set.

Click new button in option set group. You will see ‘option set 1’ and ‘option 1 (primary)’ as a child in the option tree. Select ‘option set 1’ from the tree, then click rename button in option set group. Rename it to ‘building entrance’.

And then select option 1 (primary), click rename button in option group. Rename it to ‘stacked entrance’. Add new option and rename it to ‘arched entrance’.

Now we have one option set, and in that option set we have two options. Select the primary option, then click edit selected in edit group. Close the dialog.

Now you will see the plan grayed out and you can’t select the elements in the drawing. This is because the active set now is the ‘stacked entrance’ option.

Optional: Moving Building Elements to Option Sets

One thing that you may have in mind now, what if you want the existing elements are in one of my design option? You need to move it to your option. Imagine that the options are transparent paper you will overlay on your main model. If you want option 1, then you place transparent paper 1. You can then add more elements on that paper. But you can’t change the main model.

To move your existing elements to an option, you need to switch to main model first. You can do this by selecting from drop down list in design option panel. Select main model from the list.

While you are in main model, you can select the existing building elements. Select the elements you want to move. Revit will open contextual tab, you need to activate the manage tab again. Yes, it’s quite annoying.

Then click add to set.

Choose to which option sets you want the element exist. Now you can continue working on each option set.

Creating Options

Add more walls and add door like this. You may add more building elements as necessary.

Now we have finished the first design option. Let us work on the second option. You can change the active option by using drop down menu in design option panel.

Now you will see the entrance door disappear, just like you’ve never worked there before!

Create another design for the entrance.

Now you have two design options for the entrance. Apologies for the design, I believe you can create more attractive design than me :) Don’t forget to review the design in other views. Try to see the 3d view, sections, and schedules.

You can add more option sets for different areas for your design. And have several options for that particular area.

Finalizing Your Design

After you have done with the presentation and choose an option that you will use, open design option dialog. Choose the option, and click make primary. Primary option will always appear even if you are not using design option anymore.

Then click finish editing in edit group to end using design option.