Orient 3D Views in Revit

A client requested various orthographic views this week.  I have some experience with this, but I learned a new trick that is very handy, and not just with orthographic views.


The trick is that in any 3D view you can right click on the view cube, go down to "orient view" and select any floor plan, section or 3D view.  If you select a floor plan it will go to a view from above and the section box will have the same view depth and crop settings of the selected floor plan.  If you select a section, it will orient to that view and have the width and depth of the associated section.  This is extremely useful.


One example: you're using a section view to do blockout drawings.  You see a duct angled through the wall and wonder if there's enough room pull the angle to one side of the wall and then do a straight run through.  Before learning this trick, I would open different views, try to find one that showed the duct and the wall, maybe adjust the section box to get a good view of both objects, etc.  Now I know that all you need to do is orient the 3D view to the section.
All the work is done for you.  This is just
one of many uses for this feature.

One thing to keep in mind is that orienting the view does not change the visibility graphics settings.  If your section is not showing a linked model, but he 3D view is, the linked model may obstruct your view.  That's easy enough to change though.  I now keep a "working" 3D view that I orient to different positions as needed.

Navisworks Clash Color Options and Bugs


As a BIM Manager I've used a lot of NWD's created by other people. Often these files are set differently from what I like or what I use with my own files. A couple of weeks ago I was using one of these files.  All the clashes, regardless of their status, were showing up white.  I finally figured out that this had to do with the render style lighting.




I'm not sure if this is a bug, but when the render style lighting is set to "full lights", clashes are white.  Changing the lighting to "scene lights", "head light" or "no lights" fixes this.






Another style of clash coloring I've come across is no coloring at all.  The shot on the left shows the model, colored by system.


The shot on the right shows highlight all and dim other.  The clashing items are in their original color.  This can be changed by checking or unchecking the "highlight" box in the item 1 or item 2 panes.  Both boxes need to be unchecked to show the original colors.  Checking the highlight box in either pane will highlight all objects.  

Enter BimSwell

Every once in a while I am confronted with a problem in Revit or Navisworks. Sometimes I can find a solution online, but more often than not, I need to figure it out myself or create a work-around. I hope to post cool and useful tips and tricks here. There should be a healthy mixture of Revit, Navisworks and MEP+ as well as a little Photoshop and maybe even some 3D Max. A balanced diet for any BIM professional.

BIM TOPICS

BIM (2) MEP (2) REVIT (2) 3D MAX (1) 3D View (1) BIM SWELL (1) CAD (1) Clash (1) Color (1) Highlight (1) NAVIS (1) NWD (1) Navisworks (1) Orthographic (1) PHOTOSHOP (1) View Cube (1)