Align views on sheets - Stop the insanity !!!

[sthedens]

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?

The scope box is just making sure that all of the 1/8" plan sheets have the same view extent.

I'm not saying it's adding value, because it isn't. There are just some old guard who say, "You mean Revit CAN'T do something that we automatically do in AutoCAD. Explain to me again why we must move to this more advanced software." In their eyes, if Column line "A" is 3 1/4" from the border on sheet A1.1, it should be 3 1/4" from the border on sheets: E1.1, E2.1, E3.1, M1.1, M2.1, P1.1, S1.1 and S2.1.

[wmullett]

I don't know why I'm wasting my time here...

One item by itself completely blows away this kind of logic .... All the view references in Revit are always coordinated.... That alone just says that focusing on this item doesn't make sense. It's the forest - forget the tree.

[sthedens]

Im 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.

As part of a large A/E firm with lots of history, one does not just change a titleblock. Especially not on a per project basis because a view won't fit. One also does not change floor plan scale conventions overnight.
Smaller firms have the luxury of being nimble like a jet-ski. For larger firms it's like trying to turn the Queen Mary.
It may be insane, but then that depends on who you talk to. In my case, those who don't think its insane are also the ones who sign my paycheck.

[twiceroadsfool]

Huh? In the example i gave above, someone was changing either the titleblock or the plan scale, because it didnt fit on a titleblock sheet. That was in reference to the OP's issue of: How do i set up my plans on a sheet. My point was: It fits on the sheet in its current state, or it doesnt. If it does, i place it on the sheet, and go to the next one, which i put in relatively the same place on the next sheet. Do i get out my micrometer to check it? No, i dont. But a plan starting in drawing block A1 on one sheet starts in the same lower left hand corner of A1 on the next sheet, and so on and so forth.

What that has to do with the size of the firm is beyond me, unless you mean that "Turning a big ship is slow moving, and youre talking about turning them away from USING the micrometer to measure drawing spacing." And yeah, ive been there in offices, too.

Rule number 1 in Revit: Its not your old CAD package. Itll do ten million great things, and a few things youre used to... it wont do. I dont care where my leaders come off my text, i dont care about my elevation markers, and i dont care to use a micrometer to measure my drawing spacing. if they care that much... Maybe revit isnt for them?

[Gadget Man]

... "You mean Revit CAN'T do something that we automatically do in AutoCAD. Explain to me again why we must move to this more advanced software."...

To repeat what twiceroadsfool said as well: REVIT is a totally different software than AutoCAD (or anything else for that matter).

Period.

It doesn't have to have and it doesn't have the same features and tools. Some are very similar, some are different, some are new and some are not there altogether.

A different program.

Accept it.

Stop comparing. It doesn't make any sense.

If you don't like it - don't use it. Simple.

[Steve_Stafford]

This is one of those requests I hear all the time. Just rolls off a student's tongue as soon as they put a few views on a sheet and start fussing with them. The developers have been hearing it for years too.

What's wrong with expanding on the ease with which we can create orderly documents? All this request is about is improvement. Would anyone really be unhappy if we could align annotation in one view with another? Text...symbols...?

Every release ought to have some new features, fix some problems, and refine the existing toolset. The love it or leave response doesn't really help anyone does it?

[Gadget Man]

... The love it or leave response doesn't really help anyone does it?

Steve,

My "love it or leave it response" was purely directed towards the people who are coming from the world of AutoCad into the world of Revit and start this transition by glorifying the "old good" ways of AutoCad and complaining about Revit being different.

I don't say Revit is better or worse. I don't say AutoCad (or any other program) is worse or better. They are different.

In Revit you can easily do many, many things which would be difficult if not impossible in AutoCad. In AutoCad you could easily customize and automate many actions and this is not so easy done or sometimes impossible in Revit. These programs are different. That's all...

I admit, on many occasions in the past I complained about Revit too, but not in comparison with some other program (not after I learned better anyway...)

What I have been complaining about (and for sure will many times again) are some half-cooked tools and features already existing in Revit and not functioning as they should. They need Autodesk's attention and resources - not an insignificant face-lift or views align tool...

It's just my view...

[Gadget Man]

As an add-on to my above post, what I meant was that the Original Poster (see quotes below) didn't exactly come here with the peace and constructive dialog in his heart...

Looks like the insanity continues. (...) 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 !! (...) It's an absolute pain in the gluteus max...

One could think after reading these comments that suddenly Revit stopped working and became an useless piece of junk just because you can't align the views on a sheet...

Just calm down! It's not the end of the world...

I just wanted to put the whole context in perspective, that's all...

[twiceroadsfool]

This is one of those requests I hear all the time. Just rolls off a student's tongue as soon as they put a few views on a sheet and start fussing with them. The developers have been hearing it for years too.

What's wrong with expanding on the ease with which we can create orderly documents? All this request is about is improvement. Would anyone really be unhappy if we could align annotation in one view with another? Text...symbols...?

Every release ought to have some new features, fix some problems, and refine the existing toolset. The love it or leave response doesn't really help anyone does it?

Steve-

Im certainly not against having a new tool, for convenience sake, even if its something i wouldnt get much use out of. Where it would irk me in a funny place, is if it was something development started to devote a decent amount of resources too, and in the end we got a product NONE of us were happy with.

The discussion that covered this topic on Inside the Factory demonstrated just a few of the many different ways this potential *tool* could work, and depending on wh ois asking (The OP here, me, you, Scott, Steve, or anyone) we may all want it to work very differently.

1. Being able to snap to modeled objects seems like the simplest one... Except that crop regions can be altered seperately from sheets. In AutoCAD they belong TO the sheet. So how will you maintain consistancy after its placed? Or does it now have to lock?

2. Constrain to a 3D origin. Well, what if its nowhere near the view at all?

3. Constrain to an origin of the view: How does it place the origin on the view with a variable crop region,and does that mean titles are no longer movable independently?

4. "Sheet underlay" mode, where you can snap OTO like viewports do now, but again, it only would work out well for plans / elevations.

5. Ability to Duplicate/Copy floor plans/etc from sheets and paste/current view to other sheets. Of course, this would only work if we could change the associated level of a floor plan on the fly. Something i desperately wish we could do anyway....

So you see, im certainly not saying *love it or leave it* in the face of any possible advancement... Im merely pointing out that we LOVED something that was a specific attribute to a particular trait (That vports belonged to layout tabs, so they were easier to simply copy and paste in original coordinates), and that its more an Old Hat than it is a prerequisite for the ARCHITECTURE to move forward.

[Steve_Stafford]

It is a practical problem that could use an elegant solution. The factory doesn't usually like being told what the solution is, they like to study the problem and get creative. I'm not dabbling with how to achieve it, I just want it and I know I'm not alone.

View title annotation align and the model aligns when views are the same scale. There is no elegant way to align grids in one view with another. Same for level annotation and many other items. I'm relaxed about it...close enough works for me for the most part because it doesn't matter if they are off a tiny bit. The building doesn't suffer, the contractor can get it built.

People are used to being able to be orderly about how they assemble their documents, first with pen/pencils/scale/triangles and then with AutoCAD. Now Revit comes along and effectively says we've all been worrying about silly stuff like creating neat drawings and keeping things neatly aligned. This is disconcerting to many...me included...though I'm much more zen about it now.

Revit is old enough now that we ought to be able to reasonably expect some more sophistication and refinement along with some big ticket cool tools.