Beam Usage Setting

[jrichardson]

I would like to see a switch that allows you to lock down the beam usage setting. The one that you specify (Automatic, Girder, Horiz bracing, etc) in the beam tool, and if you forget to set it to your liking you have to go into the properties of the beam to toggle it to your preferred setting. Our office standard is to show all beams the thick solid line just like the girder symbolic line displays. We do not differentiate between usage types. It is also my understanding that this usage is strictly for drafting display and has no affect on the analytical model. (someone please correct me if I am wrong)

It will remember your setting each time you place a beam but will default to automatic when you leave the command. A default setting withing the "Structural Settings" dialog box under Settings pull down would be nice. The same type of drop down you get while in the beam tool. Only this one would allow you to lock a global setting for your environment.
thanks,

[Paul Andersen]

I would be happy if the majority of the toggles and drop down options in the options bar and elsewhere would remain persistent until changed by the user at least for the current session of Revit.

Next on my list would be to have some kind of control over the default status of these on startup either, as you have suggested, through a more robust structural settings dialog, the template itself or an additional user preference file of some sort. It does seem that over the course of a day a lot of time is spent reseting several of these options every time you relaunch a command. Even making extensive use of shortcuts/hotkeys there are a lot of excess mouse clicks required either before or after placement of geometry in many cases.

I suppose one way around the beam usage issue with regards to uniform display would be to set all of the structural framing subcategories (girder, joist, purlin, other, etc.) to have the same line weight, color, and pattern in the object styles dialog and simply ignore the beam usage setting altogether.