Duplicating Revit Views with Linework Overrides

Following on from recent tips about copying views between projects, here is another tip about copying views - this time within the same project.

Have you ever duplicated a view, and wanted to retain all the linework overrides that you laboriously did - then found that Revit does not do it?

• Start with a view

•  Use the Linework tool to override some lines

• If you want to duplicate the view, you might imagine that 'Duplicate with Detailing' would preserve the linework overrides

• Wrong

•  The linework overrides disappear

The Solution:

• Try duplicating the original view as a dependent view

• The original linework overrides will be preserved
• But you may not want the view to be dependent . . .
• Right-click on the view and select the 'Convert to Independent view' function

 

• The linework overrides will be maintained, and the view will no longer be 'dependent'.

 

You can thank Alex Dobysh & Slavica Ruzdic of Mirvac in Sydney for this tip

Copy Revit Model View Contents

Following on from my previous post on copying sheets between Revit projects, I figured out another tip that might be useful when copying views in Revit - this was prompted by a question about how to copy a 3D view and its contents.  This is a tricky workaround, but could be useful in some situations.

Copy View Contents

If you want to copy a 3D view or any model view for that matter, I have previously described how to do it here.  But supposing you want to copy the contents of that view too?

What you need to do is to save out the view as a Revit project, then insert it into the project that you want to copy it to.

You might try to use the official Revit command for saving a view - its in the Revit menu

But it is very clunky to use for two reasons (hint: if you are in a hurry, skip to 'Shortcut' below):

1. It is really, really slow to open the cascading menus
2. You have to be very dextrous and patient to get at the command - first click on 'Save As', then wait about half an hour, oh, I mean second;  then click on (or hover over) library; wait again; then move the mouse in the opposite direction to the little arrow pointing to the right, and choose 'View'

• At the top of the Save As menu it claims that this can be used to save out ANY view.

• Well, it simply is not true:  it does not seem to like saving 3D views.  And the list of model views can be very limited - it only a few model views are listed

• Eventually I figured out that it only list orthographic views with annotation on them 

• And it still won't allow you to save out a 3D view even if you lock it and annotate it.  Very frustrating!
• And it won't list a dependent view either, even if annotated
• Oh, I forgot to mention that the 'View' part of Save As will be greyed out if you try to access it in the middle of doing something else.  First you have to cancel that command, then try again.
• During beta testing of the new ribbon back in v2010, we all told Autodesk how bad this part of the menu was, but it has never been fixed 7 years later.
• Why would you bother to use this method, when there is a much quicker way?  Its your choice:

Shortcut

1.   Why not try the right-click menu in the project browser instead?

• If you right-click on a plan view or an elevation/section, it will give you an option to 'Save View'

• But, only if the view is annotated, otherwise it will be greyed out
• A 3D view will also be greyed out

 

• BUT, right-click on a sheet, and the 'Save to New File' option will be available.

• So, all you need to do is place a 3D view onto a blank sheet, and it will let you save it out as a new Revit project file.  This will be a very lean file with only elements visible in the 3D view, plus anything hosted in the elements - like doors and windows (even if not visible);  curiously it also takes Revit linked files with it, even if they are not visible in the view (another Revit glitch)

2.  Select the view crop boundary of the 3D view (or camera if it is a perspective)
3.  Then go to the other project that you want to copy the view and elements to
4.  Paste the view/camera into the project
5.  A separate operation is required to import the elements in the view:  you need to insert the elements as a group, by one of two methods

a). Load as Group

• From the Insert tab on the ribbon, 'Load as Group'

•  Locate the file that you previously saved out.  Revit will default to looking for a project file (RVT), even though it can also load a 'Group' file

• When loading a Group, it will not give you an option to place it in a specific location so you would need to place it then move as appropriate

If precision location is important, use method b):

b). Insert Revit Link

• Link the Revit file using Origin to Origin, or whichever means you need to get the precise location
• Select the linked file, and you get an option to 'Bind Link'

• This will convert the link to a group
• Then you can ungroup it to achieve the same status as in the original project

As I said, it is a little laborious but it should do the job.

Postscript

Michael Dunn has pointed out that this method transfers more hidden objects than I thought - not only does it export Revit links that are not visible in the export view (as I stated above), but it also exports hidden phases.  There could be other hidden elements exported when you 'Save As', so you'd best check the exported file before importing it to another project.

Links for Copying Sheets & Views

Copying views between Revit projects
Copying Sheets between Projects
Duplicating Views with Linework Overrides (within projects)

Copying Sheets Between Revit Projects

A year ago I published a post about copying views between Revit projects.  This has recently been receiving a lot of hits, so it is obviously a big issue for Revit users.  Here is another tip related to this topic, with credit due to Alex Dobysh of Mirvac in Sydney, who showed the concept to me:

Copying Sheets

You might think it is not possible to copy and paste sheets between projects.  Well, normally it is not, but there are certain situations where it is possible - kind of . . .

In the project browser, if you right-click on a sheet, the option to 'Copy to Clipboard' is normally greyed out

However, if the sheet does not have any model views on it, then 'Copy to Clipboard' is enabled

In this situation, Revit considers Legend views to be model views even if they do not have any components placed on them.  It is curious why it does this, since legends can be placed on multiple sheets - yet another of Revit's legendary inconsistencies (pardon the pun).

Once you have copied a sheet to the clipboard, you can go to another project in the same Revit session, and 'Paste from Clipboard'

This will create a new sheet with exactly the same layout of title block, schedule views and any annotation (text etc);  it brings with it the schedules in the same location and format as the original sheet;  it also brings drafting views - but if those already exist with the same name, it creates a new drafting view with a number suffix.  As schedules are allowed on multiple sheets, it does not create new ones if those already exist.

You can also paste sheets within the same project to create copies of them - it just increments the sheet number and puts a number suffix to the sheet name.  If there are any drafting views on the sheet, it will duplicate them and increment a number suffix.  This is a quick way to create multiple similar sheets - all you need to do after that is add the model views

Links for Copying Views

Copying views between Revit projects
Copying contents of 3D views between Projects
Duplicating Views with Linework Overrides (within projects)