how to override dimentions

[jwenzeljr]

how do you over ride dementions. if i double click the dinention itself i can replace text with a period and then just place the "fudged dimention" below or above that period.
Is there a better way? easier way of doing this

[D.Williams]

I believe it has been intentionally made to not allow a simple dimension switch. If you want the number to be fudged, why not make it the correct dimension? If you're doing it for multiple scenarios, adding text via the replace with text feature should get you what you're looking for.

[eric.piotrowicz]

how do you over ride dementions. if i double click the dinention itself i can replace text with a period and then just place the "fudged dimention" below or above that period.

Is there a better way? easier way of doing this

DON'T DO THIS EVER!!! The whole point of Revit is that you build a virtual model of the real building not a kludged up version. This is not AutoCAD and its going to cause more problems than anyone thinks it will potentially solve to try to work this way.

[DaveP]

Is there a better way?

Yes.
Don't fudge dimensions!

One of the core principles when Revit was designed was that you MUST be able to trust the annotation. You can only create a Dimension between two real items. Elevations and Sections point to the correct View. Any changes to Sheet Numbers are reflected globally. And, a Dimension accurately reports on the distance between two parallel items.
Fudging (perhaps more accurately referred to as "lying") about a dimension could have all sorts of consequences down the road when the data may be used for analysis, estimating, or other calculations.

To be blunt about it ( I guess I'm feeling feisty lately) if you want to fudge dimensions, use CAD.

[rtaube]

As a side note, I would recommend not drawing your Revit walls by snapping to a CAD underlay. You might dimension two walls and find that Revit says they are 10'-0" apart, but that might just be because your tolerances are set to 1/2" or 1/4". If you snap to an underlay, it could 9'-11 251/256".. multiply this by 20 adjacent rooms and your dimension string won't add up to the overall dimension, same as cad.

Just something annoying I had to deal with, jumping into an existing project last week.

[eric.piotrowicz]

As a side note, I would recommend not drawing your Revit walls by snapping to a CAD underlay. You might dimension two walls and find that Revit says they are 10'-0" apart, but that might just be because your tolerances are set to 1/2" or 1/4". If you snap to an underlay, it could 9'-11 251/256".. multiply this by 20 adjacent rooms and your dimension string won't add up to the overall dimension, same as cad.

Just something annoying I had to deal with, jumping into an existing project last week.

I firmly believe that this is the reason that the tape measure tool and temporary dimensions do not have adjustable tolerance settings. They should be used for modeling and positioning everything 100% accurately and then nobody has to redo a ton of work when they dimension a plan and find those five supposedly 20'-0" rooms yield and overall dimension of something other than 100'-0".

[Scott D Davis]

Is there a better way? easier way of doing this

Yes, fix the model to be the right dimension. Both better and easier.

[sthedens]

Whenever my dimensions don't work out, I just replace one of them with "Field Verify". Yes, that is a joke.

I wholeheartedly agree with everyone else. Model it correctly and the dimensions just fall out.

Granted there are situations where you want one detail for similar but varying conditions, and can override a dimension value with something like "Varies - See Plans".

[cek]

I agree with all the responses not to fudge. That's one AutoCAD habit that needs to stay with AutoCAD.

One strategy to improve your model quality and avoid overall dimensions that are giving you errors (due to fractional values in your dimensional substrings that you are not seeing because of the tolerance settings being to low) is to use high tolerance dimensions during your model construction.

We color code these high tolerance dimensional strings to red and run them at a 1/128" resolution. That way we reduce the chances of overall dimensions drifting and the quality control reviewers can easily identify the red construct dimension strings prior to finalizing the model. This assures a model accuracy higher than can be achieved by field construction.

[Scott Womack]

We have had several instances with the dimensions set to 1/8", or 1/16" where an inner string (to windows and doors) will not add up to exactly the outer string, due to "rounding differences in the strings or eleements. These do not become redily apparent until a 1/256" accuracy was displayed in the string.

Actually, recently, our firm has begun setting all of the standard dimensions to 1/256" which is the highest Revit can be set at. That way, everyone in our firm is forced to fixt the offending item in the model, so as not to present a string with these types of fractions in it to our Partners when they review the drawings. No one wants to hear another lecture on dimensioning.