The Power of Filters

[bclarch]

I have never really looked into filters and their uses, but I have been seeing references to filters popping up more often in these forums and in blogs. I figure that it is time to get a handle on them. Therefore, my question is, what is the best, most useful, and / or most powerful use that you have found for filters? (Maybe this thread belongs in the Tips & Tricks Forum. Moderators feel free to move it there if you like.)

[Devin_82]

I love filters in Revit. There are so many ways to use them it would be hard to enumerate. They are not perfect and there are some limitations, but in general they are a critical part of our offices work flow. Where I would think you would want to start is by trying to identify any frequent uses of the element hide or override graphics in view tools in your current workflow. You can almost certainly use filters to get away from this tedious process. For my money, filtering by type properties yields the most gain because you only have to input a filtering value to a parameter once and it will populate across all instances of that type. Instance parameter filtering is a little bit more manual if you have to add filtering parameter values, but if you can find something to filter by that is already a part of the instance parameters in the objects you want to override, that's good, too. Hope this gets you started at least.

[bclarch]

Devin,
Thanks for the reply. I guess the reason that I started this thread is because it seems to me that filters were implemented by Autodesk to provide a common tool format to do things that were already achievable by other means. I recognize that my biggest problem might be that I am so used to doing things in certain ways that I haven't been forced to look into filters more closely.
For example, you said that you use filters to manage frequently used graphic overrides or "hide in view" setting. We use View Templates and also Worksets to manage that. Are there other features that make filters more useful in this case?
Also, in terms of selecting and modifying multiple model elements, I have a number of selection methodologies that I use. I either do a window (or window crossing) selection and use the filter tool (funnel icon in lower right corner) to modify my selections or I right click on an element and, in the right click menu, use select all instances>visible in view (or >in entire project); or I use Temporary Hide / Isolate to filter items for selection. Then I make my family wide, category wide or project wide changes to the selected elements. It seems like filtering might save a couple of mouse clicks but I don't see a clear advantage in using filters for this. I am assuming that there are subtleties or advanced uses for filters that I am missing. If this is the case, then I am hoping that the greater Revit community can help me see the light.

[DaveP]

Our best use of filters is for Not In Contract items.
Typically these are shown as dashed.
Before filters, we had to either make two families to In Contract and Not or manually Override In View every single NIC instance.
We now have a Project Parameter named NIC, so all we have to do is tick the box, and the Filter turns it dashed.
Another example is Curtain Wall Elevations. A simple filter turns those off in all but one Plan Type

[Devin_82]

The benefit of filters over any selection based element view based overrides, including those that use the filter selection tool, is that once you set them up, they are automatic. if you add a new element that needs to be overridden, it will be captured by the filter and you don't have to select it in each view it needs to be overridden in and change it. Another example goes like this.

Let's say you have an awning profile overridden on your elevations. You use the selection based method to override the graphics and your view looks sharp. You then find out that you need to create an enlarged view of that area. You have options. You can duplicate with detailing and crop down your view and change your scale and then create a callout on the overall elevation using the reference other view tool to select the newly created enlarged view. That's like 5 steps. or you can use the callout and select the element and apply the override. That's 3 steps.

An alternate using filters in your view template goes like this. Create a filter for "Awning A" and set the project line weight to pop in your overall elevation (already seems faster to me that selecting object and filtering down to a category and then a family, especially if you are using a family category with more than just awnings, but I guess select all instances would work alright). Now lets create that enlarged view. Choose the callout tool in View tab. Callout the area you want to see with the callout type that already has the view scale defined and apply the view template that already has the filter in it for the awning projection line. That's 2 steps to get the same output. Now imagine you have 25 enlarged views that all need the same treatment and you can see you are saving time but more importantly you aren't spending time tracking down all the individual items in the individual views to override the graphics.

Then the client comes back and says you need to drop down the line weight because its too much and takes over the elevation. With view templates combined with filters, you make the change once to your filter in your view template and all views are modified appropriately. Now you are talking about true time savings, like 10's of times faster if not 100's depending on your number of views...

Just an example, but those types of examples are all over the place if you start using filters effectively.

[damon.sidel]

I don't use filters very much, but started using them recently for one very helpful process: hiding all view markers not in the set. You know, all those extra sections, elevations, and callouts people create as they work or just to study something? Those views may not end up in the submission set of drawings. We have a "View Use" project parameter for our views that is set to 1-PRINT for views that are in the submission set. A filter that shows only those view markers is in every plan, section, and elevation for the submission set. That way, people on the team are free to create new sections, elevations, and callouts to study and coordinate the design and the annotations will not show up on the submission set (unless they mess up and change the "View Use" parameter to 1-PRINT accidentally, but that's a hard thing to do accidentally).

[DaveP]

hiding all view markers not in the set. You know, all those extra sections, elevations, and callouts people create as they work or just to study something? .
Yes, that is a good example of using a filter.
However, there's a check box on the Print Setup that - if I'm understanding you correctly - does pretty much the same thing.
Check the "Hide unreferenced view tags" box and if a View has not been placed on a Sheet, the bubble will not print.

[damon.sidel]

if a View has not been placed on a Sheet, the bubble will not print.

Dave, I've used that check box before, but it doesn't do what I need it to do. The views are often placed on sheets for studying the design. We often have a few sets of drawings in our models: Submission Set, a set for the model shop, a set for in-house design review, and a recent project a LEED set. So there are a lot of views that are on sheets that shouldn't show up on the Submission Set.

Here's another example: A bunch of plans that show the property and setback boundaries. I use a Property Line for both these, apply a filter to change the color or line style of the setback boundary and use this in a view template. Then I can apply it to all the plans and most importantly any new plans.

[rtaube]

Coming from a structural engineering office, we use filters to make our framing 'more robust'. Giving us more control than just the Girder/Joist/Horizontal Bracing/Purlin/Other
options that Revit gives us, especially in terms of lineweights. I also find them convenient for temporary use as a "highlighting" tool. Sometimes it's difficult to find all the HSS4x4x1/4 columns in the project, but if I apply the filter and make them fat red lines, it makes it easier.. When I'm done, delete the filter and the I can leave templates and view properties alone.

[dkoch]

I find filters useful for checking for items in the wrong workset. As with the structural members noted by Ryan above, you can quickly make everything in a particular workset a heavy lineweight in a distinctive color. This makes it easier to spot items that are in the wrong workset (such as interior partitions in a shell workset).