Workspace shifting problem

[richard.140626]

I did a few searches and could not find any comments or issues with this (perhaps I am phrasing it incorrectly).

I downloaded the Revit Architecture trial and have been going through the tutorial. So far it looks like a winner. However, aside from no apparent way to customize the UI, a major pain is the workspace shifting when I select an object in the workspace (trigger mousedown event it seems as opposed to a mouseup event). This opens up the Options Toolbar which shifts the workspace down. This makes it impossible to double click anything (mousedown event shifts it and second click is no longer over object). It also makes it impossible to click something that isn't locked without getting an error message to the effect "You cannot move this" as a single click is treated as a drag event.

I know there has to be a setting I am missing or just don't see because I cannot imagine there are no other complaints about this. So far tutorial is going well, its just this little issue that I know can be fixed in some way.

Thanks in advance!

[ajayholland]

Richard,

Does the top of your display look like my attachment? The toolbars settle into two rows, and may be turned on and off. The third row of icons is the Options Bar, which is always displayed, and changes depending on the tool that is active.

Revit is a winner. You’ll eventually lose that temptation to customize.

~AJH

[DaveP]

Welcome to the future!
I can't duplicate your problem, but let me make sure I understand you correctly.
When you click on an object (say a Wall) in the Drawing Window, do you get a new toolbar showing up? The Options bar should simply be added to the right side of the same toolbar that the Type Selector is on.

The only thing I can think of is your resolution. If you've got a lower resolution, like 1024x768, one of your Toolbars might be wrapping & adding an extra line. Either try a higher resolution, or maybe turning your Text Lables off. Right-click in a blank area of the Standard toolbar & uncheck "Text Labels"

BTW, you really don't need to (read: "Can't") double-click on anything in Revit anyway. Many people have suggested improvements in the UI. The Revit developers don't want to get into the A*t*C*D trap of redesigning the UI every other version. Wouldn't surprise me if 2009 (due next April) has a new UI, though.

[richard.140626]

Thanks for the replies.

My toolbars are 4 levels down with nothing clicked (6 when using some families are selected). So no, my toolbars do not look like yours. The new toolbars that appear are created under the existing ones.

I am using this on a laptop with extended monitor. The laptop screen resolution (which I use for the tutorial) is 1024 x 768. The secondary monitor connected through a docking station is 1440x900.

I tried turning several of the toolbars off and text labels and the new toolbars still insist on appearing below the existing ones and do not add ioto them.

I've attached pics of the toolbar below with nothing selected and then with a foundation pier selected to illustrate the additional toolbars that appear below the existing ones.


EDIT: I moved the Revit window to the main display on the laptop and the problem goes away. Any reason it should do that on a second monitor that is higher resolution? Meantime I will do some searches on dual monitor setups in Revit to see if a fix or workaround is posted in one of them. I'll repost here if I find a fix to 'close' this topic.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

I have had similar issues with this in the past but it has never been a persistant thing. A simple shut down and restart of Revit usually solves the problem. I've always just put it down to 'one of those Windows things'
Very odd though:?:

[bclarch]

I've had similar problems as well. I find that switching to a different view or opening a different view usually resets things.

[mcbarrettchuk]

i sit in the company of the 4+ liners...supposively there is a fix out there. Once I find it I will report back with the answer. It is the most frustrating thing to stare all day at a screen that bounces up and down depending on what you select. I lost my desktop and on a laptop currently so I wonder if there is a problem with that type of setup, then again many other run laptops without this problem. ah!

[mcbarrettchuk]

No sooner than I finally left a post as my frustration got the best of me...I have a solution...

What the problem is (especially with a laptop, monitor combo) the tops of the 2 monitors in the Display Properties must be aligned at the top (which is semi annoying in itself for the mouse to jump around. So for those wanting to duplicate the error, try that to see if you can see the annoyance we greatly enjoyed. Hope this makes your day, any remember it is a long weekend!

[Calvn_Swing]

Glad you found it, and I apologize for not posting sooner. Revit does not support multiple displays like most other autodesk applications do. This issue is related to how windows attempts to handle Revit's UI coding when multiple displays are present, and especially when stretched across multiple displays. If your two resolutions match and are aligned, then you'll have no problems. If your two resolutions don't match, then as you mentioned the tops need to be perfectly aligned otherwise your options bar goes cattywhompus. Basically, when windows senses the options bar attempting to add new items (the type selector is the only constant) it adds them vertically instead of horizontally to the menu bar.

In a previous version of Revit, this would actually physically move elements in the model vertical to the screen when this error occurred and you had press and drag activated. Yikes! not sure if that was fixed or not. I just turn it off anyway. Point being, multiple monitor support and detachable menus (like the project browser for instance) are a big wishlist item for many users, so hopefully this bug will vanish in due time...