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.

[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]

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.

[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]

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

[twiceroadsfool]

Working on the black background seems like a great idea.... Until you want to see something in a shaded 3d view. Then it feels like you hit the hash pipe and stared through a window of drizzling rain for too long...

I have severe muscle strain in both eyes... And even i manage to do fine with the white background. And its monday, and im going on my 20th hour of the week already...

[Rick Houle]

Just so you know,
when a screen is inverted to show BLACK, certain Graphical Overrides do not translate properly, such as black poche walls, for example... The fills do not invert.

So if one person on the team is using black fills to distinguish parts of the model, the person with black background will not not see this. And, of course, using white fills will not achieve the expected print result... food for thought. This was the final word in our office debate about background color...

(as for line color, nah, everyone just takes to the B/W eventually... much cleaner and more visually appealing... to us.)