Align views on sheets - Stop the insanity !!!

[ecbulic.230329]

Looks like the insanity continues. Couldn't find it on the wish list.

No more stupid complicated work arounds please !!!

This is by far the simplest, most rudimentary and necessary feature which has never managed to make it into Revit.

o.k., sure, levels and grids will align (to some extent), but who cares !! I need to be able to acurately align callouts created in drafting views, and just to havve some consistancy between sheets so that plans and elevations between sheets are positioned in the same place.

It's an absolute pain in the gluteus max. on large commercial jobs to have to manually place views on sheets in approximately the same place between sheets so it looks "tidy". Why can't I snap a vew or elements in a view relative to the sheet !!!

I would seriously pay an extra $1000 bucks for Revit for this feature alone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brian Myers]

I would seriously pay an extra $1000 bucks for Revit for this feature alone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not arguing that this functionality wouldn't be useful, I also know why it IS useful. But I have few points:

1.) If you lose $1000 in productivity while properly aligning your views then there might be some other issues going on in your processes that need to be addressed.

2.) If you do your model properly and document your designs efficiently... then nobody in the field is going to notice a fraction of an inch difference in the views from sheet to sheet as long as physical relationships in the building are properly communicated.

For what its worth, the factory is well aware of this request, its one of the oldest in Revit. But if you can find 50 other companies that would pay an extra grand for this I'm pretty sure the factory (or a third party developer) would find a way to deliver it. (but I doubt it's worth 20% of the value of the software...). Would it be worth subscription cost for a release? ... for some companies, I'm sure they would say yes (I wouldn't be one of those, but I can understand why!).

[ecbulic.230329]

For what its worth, the factory is well aware of this request, its one of the oldest in Revit.

Hi Brian,

A number of our current commercial projects have well over 100 A1 sheets in each, if you add up the time taken for each user to align views, just for consistentcy between this number of sheets, so they look tidy and professional (there is nothing worse than ranomly placed sections & elevations etc.) a thousand bucks does not seem like a lot of money.

This function should not even be a wish list request, it's just plain ridiculous that it isn't a mandatory function.

You're quote speaks volumes, one of the oldest requests and yet it still gets pushed aside.

I stand by my thousand bucks, and I would happily pay the programmer who can figure this out and implement it into Revit.

enough said.

[Gadget Man]

... there is nothing worse than ranomly placed sections & elevations etc...

I am known to all my co-workers and consultants as a perfectionist myself, but I think you are splitting the proverbial hair here.

In my book the set of deliverables is NOT mainly about the alignment of the views - this is NOT that important.

After all, the success of a construction of an architectural structure shouldn't depend on the alignment of the views and if you are basing your professionalism on the looks of your drawings than I wish you luck...

The consistency throughout the documentation in terms of accuracy and relevance is what matters. Yes, the drawings should be as clear and as easy to read as possible to avoid any interpretation error (and alignment of the views plays some minor role here too) but I would rather than AutoDesk spend their time and resources on much more important and pressing issues than this...

I think that the alignment of the views belongs rather to general house keeping rules and user's discipline and it depends too much on different companies' policies to be easily organized on a software level. After all, two different views can be aligned in several different ways, depending on what the user has in mind. Which one is correct? Which one isn't? What about if you have more than two views? How to align them? Based on what? That's a very personal thing and depends too much on the circumstances...

That's just my insignificant point of view...

[jeffh]

Looks like the insanity continues. Couldn't find it on the wish list.

No more stupid complicated work arounds please !!!

This is by far the simplest, most rudimentary and necessary feature which has never managed to make it into Revit.

o.k., sure, levels and grids will align (to some extent), but who cares !! I need to be able to acurately align callouts created in drafting views, and just to havve some consistancy between sheets so that plans and elevations between sheets are positioned in the same place.

It's an absolute pain in the gluteus max. on large commercial jobs to have to manually place views on sheets in approximately the same place between sheets so it looks "tidy". Why can't I snap a vew or elements in a view relative to the sheet !!!

I would seriously pay an extra $1000 bucks for Revit for this feature alone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You may want to check out these Skill Builder videos. They show how a layout grid can be added to the titleblock family and controled with visibility parameters to aid in sheet layout.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...linkID=9243097

Look at the 1st and 3rd videos specifically to see how the layout grid can be added. It is another "workaround" but it can help with consistancy of sheets until (if ever) some kind of functionality like this is added to Revit.

[brethomp]

Looks like the insanity continues. Couldn't find it on the wish list.

No more stupid complicated work arounds please !!!

This is by far the simplest, most rudimentary and necessary feature which has never managed to make it into Revit.

o.k., sure, levels and grids will align (to some extent), but who cares !! I need to be able to acurately align callouts created in drafting views, and just to havve some consistancy between sheets so that plans and elevations between sheets are positioned in the same place.

It's an absolute pain in the gluteus max. on large commercial jobs to have to manually place views on sheets in approximately the same place between sheets so it looks "tidy". Why can't I snap a vew or elements in a view relative to the sheet !!!

I would seriously pay an extra $1000 bucks for Revit for this feature alone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The good news is that the factory has looked into this. But, IMHO this should be given a very low priority over other wish list items. I really don't see the need to have plans and details line up excatly from sheet to sheet, close is good enough.

[cliff collins]

It would be good to be able to snap and align views on sheets.
I agree with th OP--this should be a prerequisite/basic part of the software.

Not to hijack the thread, but.........

I'd much rather have my "tilted wall tool.........." ( uh-oh--not THAT again!)

Seriously. Every time we need a non-plumb/slanted wall, we have to either build
a "fake" sloped in-place wall family, or build a Mass and convert the face to a wall.

cheers.......

[twiceroadsfool]

If everyone who wants it would go read the post on ITF as brethomp posted, its not as *simple* an issue as everyone thinks it is. "We want to be able to align views on sheets."

Align them to what? Each other? Other things? Modeled things? Drawn things? Views? Or titles? Or both?

Depending on how you answer those questions, the implications are far reaching, and it makes it NOT a simple task.

And in 5 years of using Revit, never ONCE has view alignment bothered me, or hindered getting out a project.

[sthedens]

And in 5 years of using Revit, never ONCE has view alignment bothered me, or hindered getting out a project.

I was hearing this complaint from users who had recently migrated from AutoCAD. We have automated routines in AutoCAD that set the viewport size and zoom extent values so ALL 1/8" plan sheets had the exact same initial layout. So Floor Plan, RCP, Lighting, Power, HVAC, Plumbing, Framing, Foundation... all looked consistant from sheet to sheet.

Now in Revit, everyone just drops views on sheets wherever they want. The old guard goes nuts. The young bucks don't understand why. I'm stuck in the middle trying to keep both sides educated and happy.

We use scope boxes and dependent views for our 1/8" plans. It would be really nice if the user could control the extent of the scope box with temporary dimensions. For example, we know that a 250' x 210' scope box is as big as we can get if our 1/8" plan views are to fit within our titleblock. Granted, I can draw a 250'x210' detail line rectangle and then eye-ball (because I can't snap) the scope box extents, then go back and delete my rectangle. But why, should I have to do this?

[twiceroadsfool]

Im still not clear why you have to at all.

I put my project on a sheet. If it diesnt fit, i change the scale, or the titleblock. When i find a setup im happy with, i make the other sheets the same titleblock, and the other views the same scale. Then i put them on the sheet, and its done.

What is the scope box doing, making sure every plan is in *exactly* the same place? Thats seriously minutia, in my humble opinion. I mean, i guess it would be nice, but im still trying to figure out what value its adding? Ive never gotten a complaint that my drawings were haphazard because plans were off a 1/16th of an inch. Beyond that level of accuracy, its just a user thing. Hopefully someone is smart enough to not put one plan on the bottom left of a sheet and one plan in the top right, LOL. When i overlay sheets on top of one another, i verify it by the structural grids or the walls anyway. I dont just bang the papers together and start tracing.

We use reference planes to approximate the sizes of details for things like Drafting views, for our library of standard CYA details, but even then its not something we obsess about getting on the sheet to the nanometer. Just seems a bit... useless. But i know thats just my opinion.