Plotting Line Weights in Revit

[Argyll9846]

I know this has probably been asked a million times before and you're all pretty bored reading about it but I am coming from AutoCAD where I use colour and colour number to identify line thicknesses (mm) thus:
1 = Red = 0.18
7 = White = 0.25
2 = Yellow = 0.35 etc.
Pretty easy to tell onscreen what line thicknesses are and not really rocket science. So how do I do a similar thing in Revit ie assign pen thicknesses to colours. No point making all lines black and setting the line thickness as they all look pretty much the same when your zoomed out of the drawing.

[aaronrumple]

You leave the line colors black and toggle off thin lines (the default anyway.)

Revit shows the lineweight right on the screen. No need for colors and the colors you mention will be hard on the eyes on a white background.

There are other good reasons not to use color in Revit. You'll want to print using the gray scale option to get nice halftones on the prints. Revit will interpret all the colors to a gray value and then you would be forced to use print in black and lose all your halftone.

But if you must (and it is a bad idea) you can use the linestyles and object styles to match color to pen weight. However - at some point you'll override a veiws setting and then the color is meaningless again.

[Andre Carvalho]

Revit is meant to be "what you see is what you get", but if you want to still work as in old CAD days (I wouldn't), you will have to work with these two menus:

Settings > Object Styles and
Settings > Line Weights

Under the object styles dialog, you will find all the objects listed showing their pen number in projection, cut and their colors. For instance, if you change a column to be magenta, and a door to be magenta, it doesn't mean that both will print the same. Only the color. To make them the same, you have to change their projection and cut pen numbers to match.

After that, you will have to define the line weights for the pen number you assigned. To do that, go to the Line Weights dialog box and set them there. Note that they are related to the scale you are printing.

At the end, you may just realize that it is better just to work the way Revit is meant. I have seen people turning they background colors to black to make Revit looks like AutoCAD, but they turn it back to white when they realize how friendly it is. Just give it a chance.

Welcome to AUGI, by the way.

Andre Carvalho

[Argyll9846]

You leave the line colors black and toggle off thin lines (the default anyway.)

Revit shows the lineweight right on the screen. No need for colors and the colors you mention will be hard on the eyes on a white background.

There are other good reasons not to use color in Revit. You'll want to print using the gray scale option to get nice halftones on the prints. Revit will interpret all the colors to a gray value and then you would be forced to use print in black and lose all your halftone.

But if you must (and it is a bad idea) you can use the linestyles and object styles to match color to pen weight. However - at some point you'll override a veiws setting and then the color is meaningless again.

I use a black screen as it's easier on the eyes than the white screen of Revits so coloured lines stand out really well. When it comes to printing in AutoCAD you can use either a halftone method of a monochrome method (my preference). Generally I don't like the halftone look. Sorry but having a bunch of black lines onscreen doesn't seem like a pretty good idea to me. It strikes me that if Revit can't handle colours for plotting then that's a defect in the plotting routine and the program. I don't really mind my drawings looking like a mosaic of colours as they all make sense to me, and generally speaking most other AutoCAD users.

[aaronrumple]

....most other AutoCAD users.

But not most Revit, Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Archicad, Inventor and Ms Office users.
AutoCAD users fail to realize that AutoCAD is the odd ball program with its back background and strange association of color and pen weight. The rest of the world is WYSIWYG.

Because of Revit's flexible display system where every view can have different pen settings - having a color based system would be a nighmare. It would mean having something like a new CTB for each and every view. That would be a hugs time waste. Heck - managing colors and pens in AutoCAD is a huge time waste (we had a staff of 3 sitting around for several days trying to sort out all the pen and layer settings for implementing Civil 3D.)

[Argyll9846]

Revit is meant to be "what you see is what you get", but if you want to still work as in old CAD days (I wouldn't), you will have to work with these two menus:

Settings > Object Styles and
Settings > Line Weights

Under the object styles dialog, you will find all the objects listed showing their pen number in projection, cut and their colors. For instance, if you change a column to be magenta, and a door to be magenta, it doesn't mean that both will print the same. Only the color. To make them the same, you have to change their projection and cut pen numbers to match.

After that, you will have to define the line weights for the pen number you assigned. To do that, go to the Line Weights dialog box and set them there. Note that they are related to the scale you are printing.

At the end, you may just realize that it is better just to work the way Revit is meant. I have seen people turning they background colors to black to make Revit looks like AutoCAD, but they turn it back to white when they realize how friendly it is. Just give it a chance.

Welcome to AUGI, by the way.

Andre Carvalho

Now pen numbers is REALLY old hat and refers way back to the stone age days of CAD when we actually used pens on plotters, hey I was just a boy back then and discovered how easy colours were to understand! As a purely personal opinion, I think that they was Revit colours don't work sucks but hey if your stuck with a box of lemons in the middle of a desert and there's nothing to drink, you better learn how to suck and enjoy them. Now you can't seriously tell me you find working on a white screen all day doesn't hurt your eyes? I regularly put in 16 hours days using a black screen then watch a couple of hours of TV and read a few chapters of a novel before turning out the lights because the black type on white paper makes my eyes tired. I tell you that when Obama gets elected president of the United States, Revit screens will be black. hehe kidding mate! Seriously though, I've never liked working on a white background and the closest I get is a mid grey in 3ds max as I hate the charcoal grey colour scheme - so I'm not a purely black screen guy.

[jeffh]

It strikes me that if Revit can't handle colours for plotting then that's a defect in the plotting routine and the program.

It is NOT a defect it is simply the way it is designed. Just like cars are designed to roll on 4 wheels and motorcycles are designed to roll on 2. Both get you from point A to point B

AutoCAD plots using a color association system and Revit uses a WYSWYG printing system. The user can achieve the same results using either system they just have to work with the tool as it was designed.

Both systems also have pros and cons when using them.

[Argyll9846]

But not most Revit, Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDraw, Archicad, Inventor and Ms Office users.
AutoCAD users fail to realize that AutoCAD is the odd ball program with its back background and strange association of color and pen weight. The rest of the world is WYSIWYG.

Because of Revit's flexible display system where every view can have different pen settings - having a color based system would be a nighmare. It would mean having something like a new CTB for each and every view. That would be a hugs time waste. Heck - managing colors and pens in AutoCAD is a huge time waste (we had a staff of 3 sitting around for several days trying to sort out all the pen and layer settings for implementing Civil 3D.)

I'll take that as a personal view on account of the fact that I might come round there and bop you one. hehe
Colour is easy to work with given it's thought about. Revit has boxed itself into a corner with it's different views and I can see that's a problem the program is stuck with, or should I say stuck the user with and called it a WYSWIG.

[Argyll9846]

It is NOT a defect it is simply the way it is designed. Just like cars are designed to roll on 4 wheels and motorcycles are designed to roll on 2. Both get you from point A to point B

AutoCAD plots using a color association system and Revit uses a WYSWYG printing system. The user can achieve the same results using either system they just have to work with the tool as it was designed.

Both systems also have pros and cons when using them.

I'm going to bed.... all this reading black type on a white background is making my eyes sore. Besides, it's after midnights and I'm about to turn into a pumpkin - an orange one not a black one hehe.
You're right Jeff, both systems do have their pros and cons.

[Andre Carvalho]

Sorry but having a bunch of black lines onscreen doesn't seem like a pretty good idea to me.

Even paper is not black. How did you deal with a bunch of black lines when drawing by hand on paper, if you ever did?

Andre Carvalho