REVIT Annotation Line Weights!!!

[Rudy Tovar]

This has more than likely been mentioned prior...sorry don't have the time to read all prior posts...

PLEASE provide access to APPLYING LINE WEIGHTS to LINES in an Symbol or annotation note...

Who made up that rule...? I like to see my symbols, tags, annotations with a punch...and not some weak line weight...

Arrggggg........

[ron.sanpedro]

This has more than likely been mentioned prior...sorry don't have the time to read all prior posts...

PLEASE provide access to APPLYING LINE WEIGHTS to LINES in an Symbol or annotation note...

Who made up that rule...? I like to see my symbols, tags, annotations with a punch...and not some weak line weight...

Arrggggg........

Change the Category in the project, and you can get that punch. I started by moving all the annotations to a lineweight of 3 medium. Now we are considering moving our own stuff to lineweights 3-6, so that 1 can be really thin and used only for hatches, and 2 can be only slightly thicker and used only for material boundaries in walls, floors etc. I also bumped up Furniture and such so that it would pop out against floor finish and such. MUCH better looking drawings as a result.

That said, I do think the Manuals could use a section that goes into what kind of customization you could do, rather than leaving you with graphically inert defaults for the year or two it seems to take to "discover" that you actually have a bit of control.

Best,
Gordon

[Rudy Tovar]

I started by wanting to control the different line weights within a symbol, and then create a header for a body of notes.

Still, I'd want to use 2 or 3 different line weights for one symbol, and not 1 line weight for the entire symbol...

Additionally, I wanted to use a symbol in a collection of schedules...but that's not going to happen unless you know of another way, without having to physically having to import a symbol...

Example...

Door circle or square in the same body of a schedule that's making the collection...or a tag symbol, that's illustrated in the same schedule for mechanical....like the device symbol.

Similarly Autodesk, or Revit developers should be able to generate a schedule of symbols that is illustrated like a Legend...without having to make the collection oneself...

I'd like Revit to monitor the symbols being used, then generate a legend collection of the symbols, and have them all noted, by it self, all in one legend, so all I have to do is drag and drop onto the sheet.

Also, I'd like Revit to create a family of dimensions that can be assigned to an overall area, that monitors walls, so that it can give me 4 points upper, lower, left and right string of dimensions with offset distance, and stacking height, that dimension a plan overall, jogs, interior walls, and openings (4 stacks in all, on 4 sides). All in one click. I know this can be done, and they should try to develop it.

tap your heals...your not in Kansas anymore....

I have a need for speed...

[Scott D Davis]

Still, I'd want to use 2 or 3 different line weights for one symbol, and not 1 line weight for the entire symbol...

You can do this, you just need to create subcategories in the annotation symbol and assign the linework to the subcategory. You can then control the lineweights of individual elements in an annotation by using Object Styles.

[aidenjh]

You can do this, you just need to create subcategories in the annotation symbol and assign the linework to the subcategory. You can then control the lineweights of individual elements in an annotation by using Object Styles.

Revit needs to use graphic controls - not subcatergories, menus and spreadsheets. If I want to make a line thicker, I should just be able to right-click on that line and have a range of intelligent options suddenly come available. As a designer, I get no value from having to re-arrange my process to suit what is truly a poorly designed user interface.

I just cannot understand how the conventions of this program have not been challenged by software design professionals. Revit is using arcane conventions that belong in the DOS world. Make it simple, make it intuitive, make it graphic. We want to design - not become 33rd level Revit Grandmasters.
Revit needs to get out of the way of design. I truly mourn at the thought of the wasted man hours that the design profession is putting into learning the secret handshakes of this program.

[mlgatzke]

Revit needs to use graphic controls - not subcatergories, menus and spreadsheets. If I want to make a line thicker, I should just be able to right-click on that line and have a range of intelligent options suddenly come available.

Are you saying that you think that - 1. right-clicking on an object, then 2. selecting what would presumably be a lineweight option, then 3. selecting the lineweight, then 4-1000. repeat this process on every line you want to change - is easier than 1. selecting the linework tool, then 2. selecting the lineweight, then 3. clicking on every line you want that lineweight? I know that, for myself, sometimes I think a line should be a particular lineweight, but after applying various lineweights to surrounding objects, a lineweight has to be revised because it doesn't work the way I thought it should. Once you're in the Linework tool, changing many lines quickly is only a single mouse click away. Sorry, but your method seems to be the more archaic one, developed by programmers rather than users.

I just cannot understand how the conventions of this program have not been challenged by software design professionals.

Revit was developed BY architects, FOR architects. It wasn't designed for people who design software, that's what makes it operate as intuitively as it does. If you want software that was designed by software design professionals, use AutoCAD Architecture (previously Architectural Desktop). You'll use it for about 15 minutes and come running back to Revit with renewed appreciation. Now, with that said, I will agree with you that Revit could use some UI improvements, but I wouldn't go so far as to call Revit "poorly designed", "using arcane conventions that belong in the DOS world", and I certainly don't think that Revit requires any kind of "secret handshake" or has any hidden functionality.

Perhaps this is more of a paradigm shift for you than a matter of poor design of Revit.

[MikeJarosz]

As a alumnus of SOM, I had the opportunity to use their homegrown CAD systems for many years. First DRAFT, then later AES. It had many features that were way ahead of its time. Some features were just plain easy. Lineweights fell into the easy category. You highlighted a line, just like Revit or Acad. The property box would open. Lineweight was a number. You gave it a number and that was it. No plotstyles. No subcategories. No implicit values. Color wasn't linked to number.

Moving it to another layer didn't make it dashed or thicker etc. You made it pen 7 and it stayed pen 7. Everywhere. In every scale. The actual thickness did vary with scale, but the program took care of that for you. There was a pen 7 at eighth scale and a pen 7 at half scale. No fuss. No muss.

[wmullett]

I went through the lineweight issue with CAD - why would I want that nightmare again!

Revit is great. You set your standards right and it works for 99% of your work. For those few times you need to adjust, you use the lineweight tool. DONE!

If you can't take the time to set up your families and new sub-categories where needed, then go back to dumb CAD.

[USMCBody]

You can do this, you just need to create subcategories in the annotation symbol and assign the linework to the subcategory. You can then control the lineweights of individual elements in an annotation by using Object Styles.

I can only say I've tried this in the past.... and for some reason the overall category was the one controlling all my drafting symbol annotations.... I had no idea way it was and to be honest I basically have no way to double check every time to see what is really controlling my lineweights.

So do I want my drafting symbols to be art work? Yes I do because I consider myself a Drafter. But then Revit hits and it doesn't work so I get stuck with what some programmer thinks I need.... One day they will get around to making it work, but I'm not getting my hopes up... As long a the design is there right... why does it have to be artwork....