ACU Revit cheat sheet

Project files use .rvt; family files use .rfa; templates use .rte or .rft; a central model is a workshared .rvt stored on a network share.

Revit is a single-database BIM authoring tool: every view, sheet, schedule, and annotation is a live query of the same model, so an edit in one view propagates to all others.

The Project Browser organizes views by discipline and family type; the Properties palette shows instance parameters when nothing is selected and type parameters when a type is selected.

Element categories (Walls, Doors, Floors) group families; a family contains types; each placed element is an instance with instance and type parameters.

The View Control Bar at the bottom of the drawing area holds scale, detail level (Coarse, Medium, Fine), visual style, sun settings, and reveal-hidden-elements toggle.

Selection shortcuts: Tab cycles through elements under the cursor, Ctrl-click adds to a selection, and the Filter dialog narrows a selection by category.

Modify commands follow a three-step pattern: select the tool, set options and constraints on the Options Bar, then pick points; Esc cancels and Esc-Esc clears the selection.

Worksharing: Synchronize with Central saves local changes and reloads others' work; Reload Latest pulls changes without saving; elements are checked out by user or by borrowing.

Wall types are system families; basic walls are layered with materials and thicknesses, and each layer has a function (Structure, Substrate, Finish, Membrane) and a wrapping behavior.

Location line options (Wall Centerline, Core Centerline, Finish Face Exterior/Interior, Core Face Exterior/Interior) determine which reference plane the picked line represents.

Height constraints: Unconnected walls take an explicit height and base offset; connected walls use Top Constraint (Level) plus Top Offset, and can attach to a roof or ceiling.

Floors and roofs are sketch-based: draw a closed loop, optionally add slope arrows or a Slope modifier, then Finish Edit Mode; the sketch must not self-intersect.

Roofs are created By Footprint (plan sketch, picked supporting walls) or By Extrusion (profile in elevation); roof slope is defined per sketch line as Defines Slope with a slope value.

Ceilings are placed in a reflected ceiling plan by automatic placement (pick walls) or sketch; the ceiling height is an offset above its base level.

Join Geometry controls visibility of intersecting elements; Cut Geometry carves one solid from another, and Switch Join Order changes which element's material shows.

Compound structure layers can be unlocked to be variable in thickness, and the Core Boundary lines define which layers count toward the wall's structural core.

Family types: system families exist only inside a project (walls, floors, roofs, ceilings); loadable families are built in the Family Editor and saved as .rfa; in-place families are modeled directly in the project.

Loadable family templates are discipline-specific (e.g., furniture, door, generic model); the template determines the category, which controls scheduling and visibility.

Reference planes and reference lines drive geometry; dimensions labeled as parameters and set to Instance or Type convert a family into a parametric type catalog.

Family parameter types include Length, Area, Volume, Angle, Number, Text, Yes/No, and Family Type; formulas can reference other parameters but not create circular references.

Annotation is view-specific and scales with view scale: dimensions, text, tags, and keynotes live in the view, not in the 3D model.

Tags are family-based and read parameters from the tagged element; Tag All annotates multiple elements of a category in one command, and tags can be added in any view where the category is visible.

A door or window family includes a host wall opening; hosted components are deleted if their host is deleted, whereas face-based and unhosted components survive.

Shared parameters are stored in an external .txt file and can be added to families, projects, and tags so the same parameter appears in schedules and labels.

View types include floor plan, reflected ceiling plan, structural plan, elevation, section, 3D view, drafting view, legend, schedule, and sheet; each is a separate view of the same model.

View templates store visibility/graphics overrides, view scale, detail level, and filter settings; applying a template to many views enforces consistent documentation standards.

Visibility/Graphics (VV or VG) controls category visibility, projection and cut line weights, halftone, and per-category detail level; the Cut Plane and View Range govern what a plan shows.

View Range has four parts: Top, Cut plane, Bottom, and View Depth, each with a level and offset; the cut plane determines which elements appear cut in plan.

Sheets are composed of views placed as viewports; a view can appear on only one sheet at a time (titlebar shows the sheet name), and Guide Grids align viewports across sheets.

Callouts, section marks, and elevation markers create new views; the reference sheet and detail number are editable in the properties of the resulting view.

Scope Boxes control the crop and grid extents of many views at once; assigning the same scope box to multiple views aligns them.

Revisions are tracked in the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog; revision clouds placed in views appear on sheets whose revision schedule is enabled.

A schedule is a tabular view of model data; fields come from parameters in the selected category, and Filter, Sorting/Grouping, Formatting, and Appearance tabs control the layout.

Schedules can be keyed (key schedules assign shared parameters by key value), material takeoff schedules count materials, and sheet lists inventory sheets and revisions.

Calculated values in schedules use formulas over numeric fields; totals are enabled per field in Formatting, and grand totals appear in Sorting/Grouping.

Dimensions are annotative and view-specific; temporary dimensions appear on selection, and permanent dimensions can be locked to constrain geometry.

Equality constraints and the EQ toggle in a dimension string create equal spacing; dimension text can be overridden or replaced with a value, but overriding breaks the associative link.

Rendering uses Autodesk Raytracer or a cloud service; sun settings, artificial lights, and background (sky, color, image) are set in the Rendering dialog.

Walkthroughs are exported as AVI from a path of keyframes; camera keyframes are edited in the Walkthrough dialog, and frame rate and resolution are set at export.

Print/Export: sheets print at a chosen paper size with Raster or Vector processing; Export to DWG, DWF, IFC, and PDF uses the Export or Print dialogs and can batch multiple sheets.

Project files use .rvt; family files use .rfa; templates use .rte or .rft; a central model is a workshared .rvt stored on a network share.

Revit is a single-database BIM authoring tool: every view, sheet, schedule, and annotation is a live query of the same model, so an edit in one view propagates to all others.

The Project Browser organizes views by discipline and family type; the Properties palette shows instance parameters when nothing is selected and type parameters when a type is selected.

Element categories (Walls, Doors, Floors) group families; a family contains types; each placed element is an instance with instance and type parameters.

The View Control Bar at the bottom of the drawing area holds scale, detail level (Coarse, Medium, Fine), visual style, sun settings, and reveal-hidden-elements toggle.

Selection shortcuts: Tab cycles through elements under the cursor, Ctrl-click adds to a selection, and the Filter dialog narrows a selection by category.

Modify commands follow a three-step pattern: select the tool, set options and constraints on the Options Bar, then pick points; Esc cancels and Esc-Esc clears the selection.

Worksharing: Synchronize with Central saves local changes and reloads others' work; Reload Latest pulls changes without saving; elements are checked out by user or by borrowing.

Wall types are system families; basic walls are layered with materials and thicknesses, and each layer has a function (Structure, Substrate, Finish, Membrane) and a wrapping behavior.

Location line options (Wall Centerline, Core Centerline, Finish Face Exterior/Interior, Core Face Exterior/Interior) determine which reference plane the picked line represents.

Height constraints: Unconnected walls take an explicit height and base offset; connected walls use Top Constraint (Level) plus Top Offset, and can attach to a roof or ceiling.

Floors and roofs are sketch-based: draw a closed loop, optionally add slope arrows or a Slope modifier, then Finish Edit Mode; the sketch must not self-intersect.

Roofs are created By Footprint (plan sketch, picked supporting walls) or By Extrusion (profile in elevation); roof slope is defined per sketch line as Defines Slope with a slope value.

Ceilings are placed in a reflected ceiling plan by automatic placement (pick walls) or sketch; the ceiling height is an offset above its base level.

Join Geometry controls visibility of intersecting elements; Cut Geometry carves one solid from another, and Switch Join Order changes which element's material shows.

Compound structure layers can be unlocked to be variable in thickness, and the Core Boundary lines define which layers count toward the wall's structural core.

Family types: system families exist only inside a project (walls, floors, roofs, ceilings); loadable families are built in the Family Editor and saved as .rfa; in-place families are modeled directly in the project.

Loadable family templates are discipline-specific (e.g., furniture, door, generic model); the template determines the category, which controls scheduling and visibility.

Reference planes and reference lines drive geometry; dimensions labeled as parameters and set to Instance or Type convert a family into a parametric type catalog.

Family parameter types include Length, Area, Volume, Angle, Number, Text, Yes/No, and Family Type; formulas can reference other parameters but not create circular references.

Annotation is view-specific and scales with view scale: dimensions, text, tags, and keynotes live in the view, not in the 3D model.

Tags are family-based and read parameters from the tagged element; Tag All annotates multiple elements of a category in one command, and tags can be added in any view where the category is visible.

A door or window family includes a host wall opening; hosted components are deleted if their host is deleted, whereas face-based and unhosted components survive.

Shared parameters are stored in an external .txt file and can be added to families, projects, and tags so the same parameter appears in schedules and labels.

View types include floor plan, reflected ceiling plan, structural plan, elevation, section, 3D view, drafting view, legend, schedule, and sheet; each is a separate view of the same model.

View templates store visibility/graphics overrides, view scale, detail level, and filter settings; applying a template to many views enforces consistent documentation standards.

Visibility/Graphics (VV or VG) controls category visibility, projection and cut line weights, halftone, and per-category detail level; the Cut Plane and View Range govern what a plan shows.

View Range has four parts: Top, Cut plane, Bottom, and View Depth, each with a level and offset; the cut plane determines which elements appear cut in plan.

Sheets are composed of views placed as viewports; a view can appear on only one sheet at a time (titlebar shows the sheet name), and Guide Grids align viewports across sheets.

Callouts, section marks, and elevation markers create new views; the reference sheet and detail number are editable in the properties of the resulting view.

Scope Boxes control the crop and grid extents of many views at once; assigning the same scope box to multiple views aligns them.

Revisions are tracked in the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog; revision clouds placed in views appear on sheets whose revision schedule is enabled.

A schedule is a tabular view of model data; fields come from parameters in the selected category, and Filter, Sorting/Grouping, Formatting, and Appearance tabs control the layout.

Schedules can be keyed (key schedules assign shared parameters by key value), material takeoff schedules count materials, and sheet lists inventory sheets and revisions.

Calculated values in schedules use formulas over numeric fields; totals are enabled per field in Formatting, and grand totals appear in Sorting/Grouping.

Dimensions are annotative and view-specific; temporary dimensions appear on selection, and permanent dimensions can be locked to constrain geometry.

Equality constraints and the EQ toggle in a dimension string create equal spacing; dimension text can be overridden or replaced with a value, but overriding breaks the associative link.

Rendering uses Autodesk Raytracer or a cloud service; sun settings, artificial lights, and background (sky, color, image) are set in the Rendering dialog.

Walkthroughs are exported as AVI from a path of keyframes; camera keyframes are edited in the Walkthrough dialog, and frame rate and resolution are set at export.

Print/Export: sheets print at a chosen paper size with Raster or Vector processing; Export to DWG, DWF, IFC, and PDF uses the Export or Print dialogs and can batch multiple sheets.