Re-scale linework in Revit?

[Brian F.]

Is there a function that I can use in Revit to do the same thing as Autocad's old "scale" command? I have an imported overall building plan that I want to re-scale.

If there is no such ability, do I then have to re-import it and apply a diffeent scale at that point? I've tried to do that once before with another imported drawing. It was not accurate as I went through a lot of trial and error to get an acceptable image sized to what I wanted. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

[beegee]

There is no function to rescale a dwg once it has been imported.

You will need to reimport it and then enter a scale value in the text box

You may have experienced problems with the import units settings.
To explicitly set the unit of measure for imported geometry, choose a value from the Import Units drop-down menu in the Import dialog box. The values are Auto-Detect, feet, inches, meters, decimeters, centimeters, millimeters. If you specify Auto-Detect for an AutoCAD file created in Imperial (English), then the file imports with feet and inches as the units; if the AutoCAD file was created in metric, then the file imports into Revit with millimeters as the units. For MicroStation files, Revit reads the units from the file and uses them. Feet, inches, meters, centimeters, decimeters, millimeters are all supported. If the DGN file has custom units, then the unit in Revit defaults to feet.
If you import a file into a project with opposing units, for example a metric file into an Imperial project, the units in the host project prevail.
If the imported file has a custom unit, choose Custom from the Import Units drop-down menu. This enables the Scale Factor text box.
For example, if the file has a unit called widget where one widget equals 10 meters. When importing the file, you would choose Custom and then specify a value of 10 for the scale. Each unit from the source file is now equal to 10 meters in the Revit file.
It is accurate if you know the scale of the source file.

[Richard McCarthy]

I do wish there is a scale command for Revit......
It's a pain in the butt when you sketch a floor, and found it's a bit too small, and you want it to be slightly larger proportionally...

[beegee]

Edit floor sketch, adjust temporary dimensions.

Isn't that as fast or faster than calculating the proportional increase/decrease, hitting expand and entering that number ?

[Scott D Davis]

Even faster on a floor sketch: select to Offset tool without copy, enter offset distance, hover over a sketch line, hit tab until the chain of sketch lines is highlighted, then click. All sketch lines in chain are offset by selected distance.

[sohocad]

but how do you know what offset is needed....some I only need to reduce by 10 percent.....it would be nice to just scale the building down and keeping the wall thickness the same.....

[beegee]

We've been talking about editing a floor, rather than an entire model so far.

Scaling up/down a 3D model by a button click toggle is a problematic exercise depending on the relationships set up in that model. Even with a generic 2D Cad programme its difficult not to inadvertently scale down other entities like cabinetry, fixtures, furniture and even some room sizes that may need to remain fixed ( ie WC compartments. )
I guess it would be possible to define a string of relationships ( ie these elementts can change, but these cannot ) and then perform scaling on the model. It would possible require unlocking of all constraints to do it properly.

A possible work around is to export the plan to dwg, scale it up/down in your legacy cad programme, reimport it to revit and delete / move/rebuild the walls, move the existing doors and windows, using the dwg import as an underlay. The floors and roof can be very quickly adjusted as mentioned in the previous posts.

No, I know thats not as quickneasy a solution as everyone would like.

Just my tuppence worth.

[sohocad]

sound like revit cannot live without autocad....

the designers in my office spend a fair bit of time in planning stages where they play around with floor plan...ie changing area size up and down - because of the simply nature of planning they only need to change the room area according to the brief...but to do it in revit take abit more effort than in autocad.....so they stay in autocad to achieve what they want then link it into revit to get to the next stage of DD....maybe in the future releases of revit can provide more fexibility in term of planning or sketching....??

[gregcashen]

Along these lines...here are some of my issues with Revit that seem to have a lot of resistance among the die-hard non-AutoCAD users out here...

1) There needs to be a scale command. As mentioned in this thread, there are legitimate uses for it and even though there may be other ways to do this, sometimes a simple scale command would work best. I have heard that it is not a good command because of the various possible constraints that may be affected by scaling something; this is entirely invalid so long as move and rotate exist as commands in revit because invariably, once a model gets a little complex, even moving something will affect the constraints of unanticipated items.

2) For the same reasons as above, there needs to be a stretch command. Sometimes I simply want to stretch the whole model from a certain point...if I haven't anticipated that, and therefore applied all of the constraints necessary to achiieve it, then I simply cannot stretch by moving a wall for instance. A command similar to AutoCAD's stretch command would be a welcome addition.

3) There needs to be an area command. I realize that there is area analysis, and that if I have properly enclosed all of my rooms, then this is a moot point. Sometimes, I have not properly enclosed rooms, or the room is technically not a room, so I can't report on the area. I would like to be able to draw a set of model lines and get the area contained.

4) Dimension lines need to snap to more model elements...topography for one...even if they are not always parallel.

5) Revit desperately needs to hire my Polish friend, Mr. Spelczech.