Discover the process of importing details into a Revit project file, including the options to link or directly import CAD files. This article explains the process using the example of a typical ceiling detail, and explores how to adjust line weights and hide certain elements within the drafting view.
Key Insights
- The import process in a Revit project file allows for existing details to be added, either through linking them (thus maintaining a connection with the original file for updates) or a direct import.
- Creating a drafting view within the project enables a 'blank sheet' approach, providing the flexibility to adjust details such as line weights by changing the numbers in the Object Styles dialog box.
- Revit offers tools to hide certain elements within the view, either through the Visibility Graphics Overrides dialog box or by selecting the imported CAD file and using the Query button to select and hide specific layers.
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Welcome back to the Cat Teacher VDCI video series for BIM 303, Detailing and Revit Architecture. This video begins Lesson 3, Importing Details. We will continue using the same Revit project file, so go ahead and open your BIM 303 Lesson 2 RVT file, and let's do a Save As, and rename this one Lesson 3. Over time, you may choose to redraw your standard library natively in Revit Architecture, but in the meantime, you can import your existing details, whether they are made in AutoCAD or even raster files such as JPEGs or bitmaps.
When importing details, you have two choices to make. You can either import it, or you can link it. Import it imports the CAD file into Revit without maintaining a connection back to the original file, while Link maintains a link to that CAD file so you can later update it whether it was in AutoCAD or whatever CAD software that you use.
You save it, and then you go to Manage Links, and then reload the link. Let's import a typical ceiling detail into our project as an example. First let's go to the View tab, then go to the Create panel, and then what we're going to do is create what's called a drafting view.
You can think of a drafting view as a blank sheet of paper with no link to the Revit model, which is sometimes useful and even necessary. Okay, let's go ahead and rename this drafting view Ceiling Soffit Detail, and set the scale to 3 inches equals 1 foot 0 inch. Be sure you've downloaded the file detail-soffit.dwg, and save it in the same folder as your Revit project file.
So let's go to the Insert tab, and Import Panel, Import CAD, and find the detail called detail-soffit.dwg, set the colors to black and white, and you can leave the rest of the settings as the default. Now click Open, hit ZX to zoom extents, and you'll find your detail. Note that the line weights are all the same.
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Let's look at how we can adjust these line weights. All we need to do is go to the Object Styles. So let's go to the Manage tab, Settings panel, Object Styles, and once you have the Object Styles dialog box open, go to Imported Objects, and you'll see that our DWG we've just imported is now a category, and each of the layers that came with that DWG file is now a sub-category.
Note all the line weights to the right are all set to 1. So to update our line weights and give things different thicknesses, all we need to do is change these numbers. So let's go and find the layer ADetail-2, and change that projection line weight to 2, and then find ADetail-3, let's change that to 3, and then ADetail-4, we'll change that to 5. Click OK, and now note the differences in the line weight. So you'll notice we have the name and scale of this detail at the bottom.
Let's go ahead and hide that, and so you can hide that text either in two ways. So this text was written on the Deaf Points layer to make it easy to isolate from the other layers, so you can just go to your Visibility Graphics Overrides dialog box by typing VV, go to Imported Categories, and then uncheck the Deaf Points, click OK, and that text is hidden. I'm going to undo that and show you the other method of hiding, is selecting the imported CAD file, and at the top right, hit the Query button, and then you'll notice as you hover over the imported geometry, each of the lines highlights in blue, and so if we highlight one of the text that we want to hide, we can select it, and then select the button Hide in View, and it's going to hide that layer in this view.
In the next video, we're going to review the import settings.