Tag: object styles

Quickly select Invisible Line Style using the Keyboard

Luke Johnson

Sometimes you may have to deal with a very long list of Line Styles in Revit.  Unfortunately, there is no ‘Recently Used’ list in Line Styles!  The keyboard can be used to scroll in the Line Style selector by pressing the first character of the Line Style name.  However, to select , you have to:

  1. Click in the Line Style selector
  2. Hold down Shift, and press < and then I
  3. Press Enter

If you actually want to do it completely on the keyboard:

  1. Start a straight line command
  2. Hit Alt
  3. Then M
  4. Then LS
  5. Hold down Shift, and press < and then I
  6. Press Enter

In case you haven’t realised yet – pressing Alt once reveals a level of keyboard shortcuts, then after you type one of those options – another level is revealed.  It appears that some of these are not actually accessible using the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog…

Stairs Representation During Upgrade to Revit 2013

Luke Johnson

Awesome post to Wikihelp by Ping Jiang, Software Quality Assurance Engineer, Autodesk.

The short version:
basically when the old stairs upgrade to Revit 2013 and mix with new stairs in the project, we just need to simply uncheck the visibility of ‘above’Riser Lines and Riser Lines, then the representation for them will be almost exactly the same [as pre-2013] in all the views.

Read the complete and detailed guide at:
Stairs Representation During Upgrade – WikiHelp

Topography edge visibility workaround

Luke Johnson

In Revit, you can’t use the linework tool on the physical edge of a Toposurface.  Worse still, the edge has no distinct category of its own.

The only viable workaround that lets you consistently hide the edge of a Toposurface is to change its Object Style color to white.  You can still set you Primary and Secondary contours to show in black or whatever color you use.

This method creates its own problems – like if you draw a grey filled region over the edge of the Toposurface, the ‘white’ line may show through and print.  In any case, feel free to ask Autodesk for some better visibility control over Toposurface elements.

While you are at it, why not ask for Toposurfaces to comprehend phasing properly?

Tip via:
AUGI – View Single Post – Linework tool w/ Topography

Cuttable vs Non-cuttable Family Category Properties

Luke Johnson

One easy way to determine if a family Category is Cuttable is by looking in the Object Styles dialog box. If there is a gray box in the ‘Cut’ column, that Category is not cuttable. See image below (from 2012):

For some further info, you can check out these WikiHelp pages:
Cuttable Families – WikiHelp

Non-Cuttable Families – WikiHelp
However, it would seem that the above lists are not exhaustive…

Also, you can check out my previous post about the subject:
What Revit Wants: Cuttable vs Non-cuttable families

Smartness with Object Styles

Luke Johnson

Revit wants you to understand it. It wants to be logical.

Sometimes you need to give Revit a bit of a hand. You may need to take a few simple steps to make Revit more understandable. David Light has some great tips along these lines over at http://autodesk-revit.blogspot.com/2010/02/point-colour-in-revit-2010.html

This is all part of being a smart Revit user – a few simple changes in Object Styles can give your modeling environment a whole heap more clarity.

Once you have modifed the Object Styles to suit your tastes, save these settings to a template file – so you don’t have to make the same changes each time. Be smart!