Line Style Naming Conventions

[Scott Hopkins]

When delineating elevations I often find that I am in need of additional line types in-between the built-in thin, medium, and wide line styles. Below is the convention that I have come up with. It kind of makes sense but all of the variations of medium can make it difficult to find the style you are looking for. I am wondering what conventions other people are using?

Thin Lines
Medium Thin Lines
Medium Lines
Medium Wide Lines
Wide Lines
X Wide Lines

[bclarch]

I will be interested to see what kind of responses you get. I'm sort of in the same boat. I have been adding linestyles as I've needed them without any set naming convention. I have considered labelling them by their thickness at 1/4" scale (.25mm, .35mm, etc.) but since thickness can vary with view scale its not a great solution either. In Autocad, I had some layers set up for misc. linework that had default line thicknesses assigned to them. I found that having a range of 5 lineweights was usually sufficient. The layers were called outline, coarse, medium, fine, x-fine. I have been leaning towards using a similar naming convention in Revit but I haven't settled on a difinitive answer yet.

[Allen Lacy]

I've been naming them for what I need them for, i.e.,seating line, heavy detail line, parking line, etc. It's been easy to turn visibilty on and off as needed that way.

[bclarch]

I've been naming them for what I need them for, i.e.,seating line, heavy detail line, parking line, etc. It's been easy to turn visibilty on and off as needed that way.
Do they all get added to your template or do the more speciallized ones remain project specific?

[Dimitri Harvalias]

I'm with Allen. Just like everything else Revit, give it a name that means something. Better control over visibility and easier for others to figure out what controls what. Also easier to make global changes without affecting other objects if you decide you don't like the appearance of something.

[Allen Lacy]

No, I haven't been putting them in the template, but it's not a bad idea to put the ones used most often in.

[Scott Hopkins]

It’s a shame that the factory didn't name Thin Lines as Fine Lines instead. If they were called Fine Lines at least then the line styles would line up alphabetically in the list according to increasing thickness.

Fine Lines
Medium Lines
Wide Lines

Instead of

Medium Lines
Wide Lines
Thin Lines

[Scott Hopkins]

I've been naming them for what I need them for, i.e.,seating line, heavy detail line, parking line, etc. It's been easy to turn visibilty on and off as needed that way.Definitely agree with this, but you are still going to have generic line names for things like elevations and details

[aaronrumple]

For generic lines:
Pen01
---
Pen16

For specific use:
Setaback
Gas
Water
Profile
etc...

[gbrowne]

I may be missing your point here, but if the lines were scalable, ie, they didn't change thickness, regardless of the scale, (like using actual old drawing pens) then when you added a line thickness, it stayed like that. Anywhere.

And if you used the old ISO sizes, you would know what to expect beforehand.

Kinda like the relatively new line weight feature in ACAD. No fuss, no mess.

Another example of a proven thought process that never made it to revit, just like content explorer. Strange.

[FK]

If you don't like the adaptable line weights, go to Model Line Weights and delete all view scales but one. Then this one set of pens will drive all orthographic views.

Revit ain't perfect, but where it's good, it's good.

[Chad Smith]

I'm with Allen. I use real world naming for Object Styles, with the exception of Detail Components, Annotation and Title blocks, in which case I use Thin, Medium, Wide and a custom one of Extra Wide.

Also, has anyone else noticed that the Detail Component family has Object Style's of Light, Medium and Heavy :screwy:. Seems like someone at the factory isn't following the Revit guidelines.

[bclarch]

I may be missing your point here, but if the lines were scalable, ie, they didn't change thickness, regardless of the scale, (like using actual old drawing pens) then when you added a line thickness, it stayed like that. Anywhere.

And if you used the old ISO sizes, you would know what to expect beforehand.

Kinda like the relatively new line weight feature in ACAD. No fuss, no mess.

Another example of a proven thought process that never made it to revit, just like content explorer. Strange.
I would have to disagree. Having the ability to vary the lineweight with the drawing scale is very useful in my opinion. In the past, plotting a 1/4" scale drawing to 1/8" scale often created ureadable areas on the drawings where masses of ink converged together.

[gbrowne]

No, I don't think you got what I meant, sorry. I meant, if you use a line of say 0.7mm, on a 1:20 drawing, then half the scale to a 1:10 drawing, the 0.7mm thick line would stay at 0.7mm. It wouldn't become 1.4mm thick. Yea?

[FK]

Of course not. The closest fitting pen set will be selected.

[gbrowne]

The thing about line "weights" is that they are independent of the line type, and once you set the thickness it stays at that thickness, regardless of the scale and linetype, and in the case of cad, the dreaded layer..

It allows a little more flexibility. My understanding was that Architects who were unhappy with the "dead" look of cad drawings requested it.

As there is no layer issue, this probably isn't as important.

Is it true to say that a thick line, say 0.7mm always prints at 0.7mm, regardless of scale in Revit at the moment?

[beegee]

No, not really. If you go to Settings, Line Weights, you will see that the line thickness for a 7 model line weight is 2.0 mm at 1:10 and 0.5mm at 1:500. ( out of the box figures ). Model line weights are dependent on the scale of the drawing, whereas Annotation Line Weights are not and remain constant.

You may find it interesting to read through Skisouth's Tutorial on Pen Weights (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=12337).


Is it true to say that a thick line, say 0.7mm always prints at 0.7mm, regardless of scale in Revit at the moment?

[FK]

Is it true to say that a thick line, say 0.7mm always prints at 0.7mm, regardless of scale in Revit at the moment?
If you want it to, it will behave like that (see my previous messages).