Five Revit Rules to Live By

In the construction world, Revit is known for its capabilities and intricacies. For those of us who use this visual database to express how a building puzzle goes together, we are aware that there are both good and not so good ways to use it. There is a certain Revit etiquette to each discipline of user within a project environment, from the architect designing the building to the MEP groups designing the nervous systems of the buildings. Extra, unnecessary hours can be added to a job from simple things like taking shortcuts while adding content into a model, or overloading the program with open views that will hinder performance. In some cases, an extra few minutes spent up front can save hours of work later in a project. To save you these headaches, I set out with my fellow VISION Team members at Faith Technologies to create a list of Five Revit Rules to Live By. While this list may not help you outside of the office, they may make that time between Monday morning and Friday afternoon a little bit easier.

1. Always Sync After Opening

This rule became second nature after a few rough experiences with lost work having to be repeated. It will be faster the second time around, and you’ll be able to identify any problems if your model is synched as soon as you open it. So sync it first and get going!

2. Always Sync Before Printing

It never fails: you just spent the last two hours working to meet your deadline, then you go to print the sheets or make PDFs, and halfway through, Revit crashes. Sync before you print, and you’re fine.

3. Enjoy the (Limited) View

We have all been culprits of having a pile of views open – we need to jump between them all, right? It may not be obvious you are breaking this rule until opening a new view takes over a minute (depending on the horsepower your desk hotrod has under the case.). The blue spinning wheel of pain can be frustrating, so we recommend you limit yourself to three open views at a time.

4. The Revit Way or the Highway

Revit has a few picky ways of how it likes things done, which plays into it being a database more than a drafting tool. Doing things the recommended way will enable you to take full advantage of Revit’s timesaving capabilities, which can save you hours of work later.

5. An Audit a Day

Just like a daily vitamin, audits are important to incorporate into your daily schedule. Auditing helps keep the model clean and healthy, mitigating the chance of a crash. An audit a day can help keep the Revit doctor away!

We hope you appreciate these quick suggestions for making Revit a great tool for your design work. We’ve got some more ideas we’ll share with you in a future blog, but in the meantime, let us know what tips you may have to get the most from this powerful program.