Revit Best Practices (RBP) - Line Patterns & Line Weights

[cjneedham]

I am a bit confused regarding the end of your first paragraph. When you transfer them to a new project what happens? "(as part of their definition)" is what I do not completely get. What is the purpose of having them separate and how do Line Styles play into this?

Line patterns are part of a line style's definition (otherwise all line styles would be use a Solid (or 'Continuous') line pattern. Therefore if you were to ask the chicken or egg question (i.e. "which needs to be created first?"), it must be the line pattern.

You could have these all created in a single file, and for a single office this might be deemed a better way of doing it, but for ultimate flexibility, I think that to keep such files separate is better. Also, you can build into the files some samples to print, which can be useful in documenting your standards. You can have a sheet showing line PATTERNS only (no pen thicknesses and no colours). You can have another sheet from the Line Styles project file showing samples of all your line STYLES which incorporate these same line patterns, as well as colours and pen thicknesses.

It's a hierarchical approach, I suppose - just based on what has to be created first, and working your way up the chain until you get to your template and/or project files.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more info.

[hd]

The smallest value a lineweight can be set to is 0.025. Doing so creates more dynamic in the graphics. It simply just looks better. So i always do that. Reserving no 1 for patterns might be a good idea for some users since they are connected to 1. I would then set no 2 at value 0.025 and work my way up. For my use i see no problem assigning both patterns and eg. furniture to no1. thanks for a great forum

[SRobbins1977]

Hi Kevin and all,
Its great to see your persistence in getting people to respond. I started a wiki site and loaded a ton of standards up to it. User involvement has been hard to get. Maybe its because people feel like they know nothing about it. but if something bothers a person about Revit there is probably a standard behind it that can be created. Take a look: www.revitopia.com

Cheers,
~Scott R
NYC
Polshek

[Kevin Janik]

Scott,

Thanks for the reply and I quickly looked at your site and will examine in a bit more this weekend. I just went back to this thread by accident and noticed you posted yesterday.

Kevin

[iandidesign]

Thanks for the reminder about LW1 and fill patterns. What a hassle to isolate that with so many OOTB settings already using it. Hard to believe that all fills use the same line weight. Primitive by today’s standard.

[DaveP]

Thanks for the reminder about LW1 and fill patterns. What a hassle to isolate that with so many OOTB settings already using it. Hard to believe that all fills use the same line weight. Primitive by today’s standard.

We set up Pen 16 as the thinnest possible (0.0020").
Maybe not Best Practice, but since Pen 1 is reserved for Patterns, I didn't want to mess with it.
The OOTB default form Pen 16 is 0.5" and I seriously doubt that we are going to print anything with a half-inch thick line. That's a PLOTTED half-inch thick! So we used 16 as super-thin instead of super fat.

[cstanley]

Still no mention of National Cad Standards?
Management had a hard time digesting the lineweights OOTB. They were just too light. I have implemented lineweights and styles to be as close to NCS as possible now, and in doing so it has boosted all lineweights enough that they plotted results are acceptable.

I gain more and more appreciation for SOME of the NCS stuff, because I do not have to spend valuable time and brain cells on coming up with something from scratch, and it gives me good reasons for backing up the crazy things I do to our standards...

[joshua]

Still no mention of National Cad Standards?

We are in the process of using the ANSI pen weights and using the ISO standards to differentiate the lineweights for the various scales. We are going to try return to the old hand drafting standards and see if we can't bring some of the old fogeys back on board to take a more pro-active role in mentoring the junior staff on drafting quality. We are hoping that by making the nomenclature familiar to them this will be easier. I just wish I could name the pen weights rather than accept 1-16.

j

[MACBIMCAD]

I'm on the fence about getting away from the OOTB lineweights. I've read several articles and blogs that contradict each other regarding this topic. Management is not too thrilled with the way Revit drawings currently look, but they are acceptable. If I get away from the OOTB lineweights, will I encounter any problems bringing elements in from the imperial library? Are their any other major roadblocks I may run into?

[Andre Baros]

We tweeked our lineweights a few years ago (tried a few out before we put them in our template) and haven't looked back since. Not a single issue.