....... to the software developers at Revit.
(In the south where I practice, it takes 15 AttaBoys/AttaGirls to make up for one AwShucks or the more colorful version used in less dignified conversations. Revit needs a ton of AttaBoys/AttaGirls to ever come close to making up for its boatload of AwShucks.)
I put a "fill" of vertical lines on a west elevation to serve as a base for the elevation drawing. Sort of a section elevation look. I copied the fill, went to the east elevation, clicked on "Paste in exact same place" and, walla, Revit mirrored the paste without me having to manually do it. Revit played nice with me today and I want to brag on it so maybe it will do this more often.
Other opportunities for AttaBoys/AttaGirls (in case anyone from Autodesk ever looks at these posts and cares at all about their customers):
1. When you create a 2x4 lay-in ceiling (Reflected Ceiling Plan) in a room, it is obvious that the Revit software folks never did one of those in real life. The grid lines automatically centers in the space AND the long dimension of the 2x4 tiles runs in the same direction as the long dimension of the rooms. In my practice, lay-in ceilings are usually between 8' & 10" AFF which means the space between fixtures is usually 6' or 3 tiles. Either a fixture or a tile is always centered in the room. We also always run the long dimension of the grid across the short dimension of the room to avoid making the room look longer and skinnier than it is. If anyone at Autodesk cared, just like they automatically mirrored the paste from one elevation to the opposite one, they could have the default for 2x4 ceiling creation to reflect real life. Then, only occasionally, would a situation require me to manually rotate and shift rather than having to do it in every room in every Revit project like I do now. This has been "suggested" to Autodesk year after year after year with no results.
2. I realize this may be a little harder to do, but I sure do miss the "hit space bar to repeat last command" ability in Autocad. That is one keyboard shortcut that I still yearn for and I have owned Revit for 9 years and been doing Revit exclusively for six years. Mousing and scrolling to click on the same damn command over and over is really irritating.
3. Just give Revit some basic site tools. Quit acting like the Civil Engineers will never buy another Autodesk product if any decent site tools are included in Revit. You let us Architects put light fixtures and columns and beams and toilet fixtures in our projects without having to involve the damn engineers before they need or want to be involved, why not do the same on the site? Most Architects end up not even using Revit for the site drawings, getting them done in house or eventually when the civil guys DO get involved letting them do it and inserting a PDF of their sheet into the print set. How in the world can Autodesk claim to offer the owner/contractor/whoever full BIM models of projects if they won't let Architects do the basic site work. Again, in the real world where most Architects practice, on most of our projects Civil Engineers don't want to and are not needed to be involved in laying out parking, sidewalks, setbacks, curbs, and basic site sloping design details.
Come on Autodesk! Make Revit play nice more often!
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Darrel Odom AIA, LEED AP
President
Odom Peckham Architecture, Inc.
Little Rock AR
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