Revit 2013 View Type Creation

In this click saver,  I want to talk about one of the new favorite features in Revit 2013. View Type creation allows you to create a new floor plan, elevation, or section view by simply using the “edit type”, then using the “duplicate’ command to use an existing view as the base. For my example, I’m going to create a new elevation view called “Building Elevation Presentation”. The new view properties include the ability to use a “view template” and apply it. This way, if the original settings for the view template change, so do all of my elevations for presentation.

So where do I get started? First, create a view and get all of the visibility graphics, sun settings, graphic display options, and anything else you can think of setup to your liking. Now that the view is looking great, the next thing we will do is create a “view template”. Go to the “view” tab and select the drop-down for “view template” and choose “create template from current view”.

A dialogue box will open asking you to name the view template. In this example I’m going to name it “building elevation presentation”.  This will bring up the view template manager which gives you the options to change any of the other settings if you need to. When done, pick on the “ok” button at the bottom.

The next thing is creating the “type” so all of my building elevations for presentation will use the same setting. Additionally, they will all reside in the same category in the project browser, making it easier to find them. On the “properties” palette, select “edit type” and choose “duplicate”. In this example, I’m going to call it “building elevation presentation”. The view template and the view type don’t have to have the same name to make this work.  Mine just happened to work out this way. Now, select the “none” button for “view template applied to new views”; then,  choose the “building elevation presentation” view template that we created earlier.  Lastly, check mark the “new views are dependent on template” to make your elevation update from the original view template settings if they happen to change later and  pick “ok” to finish.

Depending how your project browser is setup, you might notice that the view has switched to your new category using the type name that we typed in earlier. Now build a new elevation. In the properties palette, change the “type” to the one you created and notice that it now takes on the settings from your view template.

One warning:  this new feature is for new views not for existing views. If you happen to have existing views you can change them to the new “view type”, however,  please note the “view template” will not automatically be applied. This is easy to fix, though.  Simply go to the “properties” palette and under “identity data” you will see “view template”. Pick on the “<none>” button and assign the correct “view template” from the list and pick ok. You only have to do this once with Revit 2013 because once you do this any changes to the original “view template” will automatically be applied unlike earlier versions where you had to keep remembering to apply the new changes. This is a huge time saver starting in this new version of Revit.

You should see why I like this new feature so much. Many of us live and die by view templates to help keep our document sets looking the same from view to view and sheet to sheet plus the added bonus of being able to create view types with these settings applied to them.

See you in class,

Jarod