REFERENCE POINT COMMAND

[Doug Pearson]

Before I put this on the 'wish list' site......
I have tried to find this but was recently assured at a training session you can't do it. It seems so basic.
We want to be able to reference ANY point while drawing, say a wall end, and not have to draw and revise. You know, like most (all) other cad programs, you hit a key and reference a point then you have the choice of entering the distance by XY or distance angle etc. which gives the point of the next wall end, and so on.
I realise Revit gives very smart references (terrific)- dimensions and angles, but they are often not enough or where we want. This is needed for fast drawing.
I know we can tab to select different references. But we need to be quick & in control!
Tell me I'm missing this somewhere.

Regards,
Doug Pearson

[aggockel50321]

Try this, Doug.

Go to a plan view, pick the wall command, pick a point in the view, start to drag the wall in whatever direction you choose, and then directly from the keyboard, type in the length of the wall.

Is this what your looking for?? It's sort of analogous to acad's pick and then enter @15'6<135.

[Doug Pearson]

Andrew,
Thanks but no, I am aware of that usual method which is telling the wall
to extend from the last point. I want to tell it where to go in relation
to an object/point on something else. Similar to the temporary dimensions
which jump out & about from nearby objects. But I want to select the object or point and then where the object I am drawing will go to in relation to that.

Doug

[Nelson V]

Doug P.,

I think the command in autocad is tracking, that a great tool to have in Revit, I haven't find it myself. Try using Offset while youre in sketch mode.

[Wes Macaulay]

Doug...

There's no explicit origin in Revit that you as a user can readily access. There really IS one - so projects can be linked and located with respect to each other, but while working in a given Revit project, there is no 0,0,0 as it were. Frustrating in some respects to the disciplined AutoCAD user, but nonetheless almost irrelevant to the disciplined Revit user, odd as it sounds.

For what it's worth, an object drawn at 0,0,0 and inserted into a Revit project will insert, if you choose origin-to-origin, at the origin of the Revit file. But even this isn't really useful in the end.

It's one of those things where you know how AutoCAD works, and then you're trying to translate that over to Revit and it's not there.

[Doug Pearson]

Wes,
Thanks. That's not the point (bad joke) either. I'm not after the origin 0,0,0.
And I haven't used Autocad enough to go looking for anything from it.
And Nelson V - it's not just tracking, although close.

Aha - I have checked AutoCadLT (which I hardly use)
- here's the equivalent for you Autocaders- 'FROM'
HELP FILE SAYS- QUOTE
'Offsetting from Temporary Reference Points'
To offset a point from a temporary reference point
At a prompt for a point, enter FROM.
If you want to offset from a location on an existing object, specify an object snap method. Then select the object.
Enter a relative coordinate.
END QUOTE

Hope that's clearer, helps when you can explain in Autocadese.

Implementing this is not against the 'Revit philosophy' or anything because it's there now. Just not in the form we need. I don't want to see the existing dropped. Just added to.
It's one of those things we all need for quick design & docs work.

Cheers
Doug
"A witty saying proves nothing." -Voltaire