Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to

Revit-alizing Your Office

Nauman Mysorewala – GBBN Architects / PC TroubleShooters

AB218-4
You have been using Autodesk Revit or are new to Autodesk Revit and may have done a few pilot
projects. Now what? Learn the tips and tricks for creating a network deployment for Autodesk Revit.
Learn techniques for standardizing your Revit project templates to match your company standards and
deploy them to your users. Learn how to set up a deployment for mobile users, and how to deploy
custom content to mobile users. Create a company standard for file-naming, folder structure for projects,
and custom content.

About the Speaker:

Nauman has more than 20 years of experience with the Autodesk family of products including
AutoCAD®, AutoCAD® Architecture, Revit® Architecture and 3ds Max®. He is the CAD/BIM Manager
for GBBN Architects Inc., a multi-national Architectural firm. He has a B Arch degree and has extensive
experience working as an architect and CAD Manager. He is a Revit Architecture 2009 Certified
Professional & AutoCAD Architecture 2009 Certified Professional. Nauman also teaches CAD
applications at College of Mount St. Joseph as an adjunct faculty for the Interior Design program. He
also provides BIM implementation consultation services.

Email: bimologist@cadbazaar.com or nmysorewala@gbbn.com

 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

Introduction:
This class is divided into three main topics.
 Understanding the benefits, planning and creating Network deployments
 Standardizing Project Templates and deploying them
 Creating company standards, libraries and deploying to your users
 Training and on-going support

Majority of the time will be spend on the first topic since there are other classes at AU that go into much
more detail of template creation and organization.

Revit-alize?
So what do I mean when I say “Revit-alize”. It is the amalgamation of the four topics mentioned above
plus the support needed from management to utilize Revit for projects.
Most of the BIM Managers were CAD Managers and are now wearing new hats. We learned a lot during
our CAD days of standardizing CAD, having a central location for content, etc. Let us use those same
techniques and create a Revit implementation that is easy to install, update and maintain, both from an IT
and BIM Manager’s perspective. From this point onwards I will be concentrating on the Deployment
perspective in terms of “Revit-alizing” your office.

Let us tackle the first task of creating a network deployment. We will cover the other topics toward the
end of the class. Since using these deployment strategies we can update the end user easily and provide
on-going support.

Technology:
On the topic of company management support to utilize Revit, the other most important support is the
financial support needed to purchase computers that are capable of handling the requirements that Revit
needs. Revit is OS, Processor, Memory, Video Card, Hard Drive, Network intensive. The technological
resources that Revit requires can be reduced by utilizing good organization of the Revit file, like using
Worksets, light families and utilizing linking. It is the education of the user that can go farther than
spending money on adding more ram, etc.
There will be many opinions for system requirements, depending on who you talk to. So here are my
recommendations:
1. Higher single core speed instead of slower multiple cores. (Revit is still mostly single threaded so
it will benefit from the higher CPU speed than a quad core CPU, except)
2. 4GB ram minimum for 64-bit OS, 3GB for 32-bit.
3. Dedicated video card with hardware support for Microsoft DirectX9 or later. Workstation class
video cards are not necessarily better, you can get more power for less money by purchasing
consumer level cards.
4. Windows 7 64-bit Pro.(64-bit OS has a bigger footprint so you need more ram to accommodate it)
5. Gigabit Ethernet (which is mostly standard now)
6. WAN compression technologies if you have multiple offices working on the same file
7. Hard drives, DVD drives, other peripherals are not too critical, but if you are getting a laptop buy a
7200rpm hard drive.
Let us look at the main topic of this session.

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

Creating the Network Deployment

Planning
To successfully deploy Autodesk Revit 2010 within your office(s) you need to answer some questions
first:
 Where is the network deployment stored?
 Which server will be the license server? (for Network Licensing)
 What flavor of Revit is being deployed? (Architecture, Structure, System, all three, just one, or
two)
 Which architecture Revit will be deployed for 32bit or 64bit or both.
 Where is the central content stored & what folder structure you are going to follow (Revit’s,
Custom, or Hybrid)
 How are the users going to access the Revit OTB and Custom content (on server or locally)
 Number of laptop users vs. desktop users?
 Who is responsible for updating content? User rights
 Which template is going to be the default template and where it is going to be stored?

Even though for this demonstration I will be using Revit Architecture, these ideas apply to other Revit
flavors also. I will assume the following answers to the questions and create a deployment. All these
questions must be answered to successfully create a deployment
 Where is the network deployment stored?
It will be installed on \\blackops\software\Revit2010. Deployment creation must be done to
UNC paths only. (we can fix it later for multiple offices and mapped drives).
 Which server will be the license server? (for Network Licensing)
We will use blackops as the license server too. (Deployment, Content and Licensing servers
do not have to be the same.
 What flavor of Revit is being deployed? (Architecture, Structure, System, all three, just one, or
two)
Architecture
 Which architecture Revit will be deployed for 32bit or 64bit or both?
Both 32 bit & 64 bit. (we will have to do two separate deployments)
 Where is the central content stored & what folder structure you are going to follow (Revit’s,
Custom, or Hybrid)
Revit OTB and Custom
 Number of laptop users vs. desktop users?
In my office most of the users are laptop based users so I have to provide local content
access. VPN is the easy answer, but slow access and non network availability can be an
issue. This is why at GBBN Architects, all content is made available locally.
 How are the users going to access the Revit OTB and Custom content (on server or locally)
All content will be made available on users hard drive. This will aide with laptop users. This
document will cover creating a sync batch file to help users be up-to-date with the server.
 Who is responsible for updating content? User rights
This class will cover how to prevent users from changing server based content installed
locally.

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

Creating the Deployment:

Once we have answered all the above questions we need to create the deployment process.
Either use the DVD or you can download the latest Installer from
the Autodesk website http://www.autodesk.com/revit -> Product
Download page. Using the latest installer will reduce the number
of updates you may need to install but greatly increase the time it
takes to create the deployment as it has do download all the
content from Autodesk’s servers. It is also beneficial to have
Revit installed locally on a machine to copy extracted content to
the Standard folders.
We will go step by step in creating the deployment.
Step 1:
Select the Create Deployments from the Installer menu
Step2:
Specify the path where the deployment will be created. It must be a
UNC path, i.e. \\server\software\Revit2010\x86. \\server\software
will later be mapped as S:\
Name the deployment. I usually add the flavor & architecture,
Revitalize-Arch-32 etc. Click Next.
Step3 & 4:
For the dialog box showing which Products to include
just click Next & Accept the Licencing Agreement.
Step 5:
Enter your company serial number, product key, Name and
Company name, then click
next.
Step 6:
It is a good idea to create both a network log and client log for
troubleshooting failed installations. It is recommended that
you turn on “silent mode” to avoid manual interaction with the
installation.
Step 7:
This is the step where you define all the parameters for your
installation. Click on “Configure” first before clicking on
“Create Deployment.” The next eight sub-steps we need to
click on “Next” instead of “Configuration Complete”
7.1: Application Preferences
This page is self explanatory. Select the Language, Units
(Imperial/Metric), Default usage (Architecture/Construction).
You can leave the default installation location as your
C:\Program Files or change it to another location per your
need.

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

7.2: Content Selection

Select all the Family Libraries you want to deploy. In my case
I am selecting North American Imperial. Also select the
templates you want to deploy, Imperial in my case.
Note: Here you need to decide whether you want the content
to be deployed locally or installed on the server. If you select
a local path (%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Autodesk\RAC 2010)
the content will be installed to the users harddrive when
Autodesk Revit is installed on their machine. If you select a
server path it will get copied during the deployment creation.
In my case I prefer the content locally on the users machine
so they can run Revit without a need for VPN connection. It
is important you select all the content libraries you need since
that generates the “content.rcl” file based on your selections
which we will tweak later. Also if you plan to have OTB
content on the server as well, copy that manually after
installing it on the local machine. If you choose server option
here the local content will not be installed and you will have to

manually copy that using the install script.

7.3: Select the License Type
Select the Licence type you want. Multi-License Stand-alone
or Network License. There are different models of Network
Licensing available and are not discussed here as they are
beyond the scope of the class.
7.4: Define File Locations
All entries added here gets saved to Revit.ini file.
Project Templates: Define the default template your company
is going to use. This can be a local or server path.
User files: This location specifies where the Local file of the
user will be stored automatically if the user selects “Create
New Local” option when opening a central file directly.
Libraries: Here you can Add your
Note: User added folders to Placesbar using “Add Current
custom company folders that get
Folder to Places” in Open dialog box do not get saved to
prepoulated in the Places bar in Revit.
Revit.ini. Instead these get saved in the registry at:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Revit\Autode
sk Revit Architecture 2010\Profiles\AllAnavDialogs Adding custom library locations:
Step 1: Highlight Libraries
Step 2: Click the Add button. You will see a Blank Folder added at the bottom.
Step 3: Click on the Blank folder once, click on the blue line to type the folder name.
Step 4: Highlight newly created folder and click Add again to add a path.
Step5: Higlight newly added drop down and click Browse to point to your local or sever content location.

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

7.5: Include Service Pack

If you want you can choose to download and include
available service packs. If you select Do not include Service
Pack, you can easily deploy Service Packs later through
Logon batch file.
Download the 32bit and 64bit Service Packs and save it on
the server. Use the batch file to install the appropriate
Service Pack on the machines.
If you plan to deploy the Subscription Advantage Pack
(Service Pack 3) just substitute reg query line with reg QUERY
"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\ServicePack3"

@echo off
reg QUERY "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\ServicePack2"
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO REGNOTFOUND
:REGFOUND
GOTO END
:REGNOTFOUND
REM REG NOT FOUND. Install Service pack 2
if "%programfiles(x86)%XXX"=="XXX" GOTO 32BIT
J:\ACADarch\LocalSupport\Install\RevitArch2010\updates\Autodesk_Revit_Architecture_2010-x64_Update_2.EXE /q
GOTO END
:32BIT
J:\ACADarch\LocalSupport\Install\RevitArch2010\updates\Autodesk_Revit_Architecture_2010-x86_Update_2.EXE /q
:END

First we are checking the registry whether Service Pack 2 is installed. Then we check whether to install
32bit or 64bit version of the service pack. The /q mean install it without interaction/quiet.
7.6: Configure InfoCenter Communications Center
Depending on the size of your organization you may want to enable features on this page. If you want to
deploy updates administratively then you need to turn off
Live updates. Otherwise the user may get notices of the
updates and install them.
Enabling the Information Channels will retrieve Help
information from Autodesk site and display results in the
Communications Icon at the top-right of the Revit application.
If you plan to publish information using the CAD Manager
Channel, please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/magazine/cc163989.aspx or
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html for information

about RSS feeds and how you can create those.

Some people have recommended to use
WordPress or other blogging platform to create
feed data and point to that blog. In the past the
engine behind this CAD Manager Channel
WsCommCenter.exe has had issues with stability.

7.7: Configure Access to Online Resources

At GBBN Architects we have a general login for
employees to access the Subscription Center but in larger
offices this can be controlled to limited number of

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

employees. If you enable Allow acess to Subscription Center uses/advance users can create support
requests from Revit or also access the e-Learning catalog available to subscription users online
including AU Online.
I highly encourage our users to enter their email address and SUBMIT the crash report. This enables
the Subscription Support team to look at your crash report when you submit a support request. It is a
nice Subscription perk. The submission of crash reports also helps the development team to see trends
of crashes and fix them in future releases.

7.8: Configuration Complete

Click on Configuration Complete button to end Step 7. You
will be returned Step 7. Click on
Create Deployment. This will start
the process for the deployment.
Depending on the libraries you selected, choosing the CD or
online data download this process can take maybe an hour or more.

Once the deployment is created you can install using the icon the setup creates in the root directory of
the deployment. If you want to tweak your settings, or customize your Revit content installation you will
need to follow “Creating an install script” in the document and not use the icon. Remember that you will
need two deployments if you want to install 32bit and 64bit in your office. If in future you want to modify
the deployment to add more libraries, configure CAD Manager channel, etc you can use the Create and
Modify a deployment icon located under Tools directory of the deployment.

Creating an install script:

Now that we have created a deployment, we need to create an install script to allow us to copy local
custom content, copy a tweaked Revit.ini, edited keyboardshortcuts.ini and most importantly a tweaked
version of content.rcl. People have written complex routines to accomplish all this (including me using
InnoSetup) but in this case we will go back to what we all know; DOS. Yes that old DOS batch files are
still king, especially when it comes to automating the installs and copying files unattended. There are
other options too: Windows Scripting, Custom Installers (like InnoSetup, which is what I use in
combination with batch files).
Before you can use batch files, the local user must have administrative rights. I will be using mapped
drives for this demo J:\Standards\Revit. \\server\software directory is being mapped to S:\Revit2010. This
mapping is necessary if you plan to put this install on multiple servers.
Before we start writing the batch file we need to collect few files to customize. Save these files in the
S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks folder
 Revit.ini (put this file in S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\Program folder)
 Content.rcl (put this file in S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\Program folder)
The Revit.ini & Content.rcl file will be found in
S:\software\Revit2010\x86\AdminImage\RevitSetup\RevitArchitecture (or your flavor of Revit)
 Keyboardshortcuts.txt (put this file in S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\Program folder) Get this file from
a local install in the “%PROGRAMFILES%\ Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\Program” folder.
Subscription Advantage Pack for Revit 2010 has a great editing tool from within Revit Views>User
Interface>Keyboard Shortcuts.

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

 Import/export line weight files, fontmap files (put this file in S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\Data folder)
Get these from the “%PROGRAMFILES%\ Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\Data\” folder
 UIState.dat If you want to pre-populate the Quick Access Toolbar (put this file in
S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks folder)
(Vista/Win7-> %LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\, XP
%APPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\)
We will try to achieve the following tasks using the batch file.
1. Copy Tweaked copies of Revit.ini, content.rcl, keyboardsshortcuts.txt & UIstate.dat
2. Launch the install routine for Revit automatically on 32 or 64 bit machines.
3. Copy the company standard content to the local drive, if needed.
4. Install any patches if they are now included as part of the deployment.
. This batch file can be downloaded from AU online
REM Batch file to install Revit 2010 and copy custom content
REM 1. Copy the tweaked files
XCOPY “S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\Program\*.*” /s/e/y/i/d/r/EXCLUDE:S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\exclude.txt “%PROGRAMFILES%\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\Program\“
XCOPY “S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\Data\*.*” /s/e/y/i/d/r/EXCLUDE:S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\exclude.txt “%PROGRAMFILES%\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\data\“
XCOPY “J:\Standards\Revit\*.*” s/e/y/i/d/r/EXCLUDE:S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\exclude.txt C:\OFCStandards\Revit\
REM 2. Decide which Revit architecture to install 32bit or 64bit
:INSTALL
if "%programfiles(x86)%XXX"=="XXX" GOTO 32BIT
echo 64-bit Windows installed
:64bit
S:\software\Revit2010\AdminImage\Setup.exe /qb /I S:\software\Revit2010\x64\AdminImage\Revitalize-Arch-64.ini
GOTO END
:32BIT
echo 32-bit Windows installed
S:\software\Revit2010\AdminImage\Setup.exe /qb /I S:\software\Revit2010\x86\AdminImage\Revitalize-Arch-32.ini
:END
Echo all done
Pause

Next we need an exclude.txt file which will tell XCOPY what not to copy. Start notepad and add the
following text and save it as Exclude.txt file at S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks

.zip
.rar
.bak
.tmp
.cab
.00

A little explanation about XCOPY. There are other more powerful utilities available like ROBOCOPY etc,
but for what we need to achieve XCOPY works great.
Some of the switches I have used in XCOPY
/d: this compares the date of the file and if the local file is newer, it will not copy the file from the server,
avoiding an overwrite of user modified files.
/EXCLUDE: this allows us to not copy certain file extensions. Especially the Revit family backup files that
have .00 appended to it. You can add more extensions in the exclude.txt file as needed.
Tweaking the files:
I have used xcopy to pre-copy the tweaked files to the users hard drive. This can also be achieved using
ORCA MSI editor (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa370557(VS.85).aspx) to create a transform
(MST file) and use that transform to point the installer to the tweaked files (this is what I have used in the

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

past personally). Assign more than one transform by editing the Revitalize-Arch-32.ini (in the
Adminimage folder. The name of the ini will the name of your deployment). Add the custom transform to
TRANSFORMS= line at the bottom of the ini file.
Tweaking Revit.ini:
Most of the tweaking in Revit.ini will be in the Directories section. Open the Revit.ini file from
S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\Program folder. The reason we copied this file is that in case you modify
the deployment in future our changes do not get overwritten by the deployment creator. Changes and
additions are shown in bold & italics. The Revit.ini below is not the complete ini file.
[Revit.ini]
[Directories]
DefaultTemplate=C:\OFCStandards\Revit\MYCOMPANY Imperial 2010.rte
FamilyTemplatePath=C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RAC 2010\Imperial Templates
DataLibraryLocations=Imperial Library=C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RAC 2010\Imperial Library,Metric
Library=C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RAC 2010\Metric Library,Imperial Detail Library=C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RAC 2010\Imperial
Library\Detail Components,Metric Detail Library=C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RAC 2010\Metric Library\Detail Components,My
Company=C:\OFCStandards\Revit\
ProjectPath=C:\RevitLocal
ImportLineweightsNameDWG=C:\Program Files\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\Data\MYCOMPANY-importlineweights-dwg.txt
MaterialLibraryFiles=..\Data\Rendering
ExportLayersNameDWG=C:\OFCStandards\Revit\ MYCOMPANY-exportlayers-dwg-AIA.txt
ExternalParameters= C:\OFCStandards\Revit\MYCOMPANY-SharedParameters.txt
[ExternalApplications]
[ExternalCommands]

You can also add any external programs or tweak other settings that are specific to your needs. If you
add any external utilities you will need to copy their files to the appropriate folders. Best option is to
check your local install of Revit.ini file. Some external tools cannot be copied and added to the ini file
manually and need to be installed after the Revit install. I use InnoSetup to make modifications to the ini
file post install. There are DOS based ini modifications tools also available on the web. Windows
scripting is another tool you can use to push changes to the Revit.ini file after installation.
Tweaking Content.rcl:
If you plan to distribute your deployment to other servers you will need to tweak the content.rcl file, which
copies the OTB content and help files to the users machine. The content.rcl file found in the
S:\software\Revit2010\x86\AdminImage\RevitSetup\RevitArchitecture (or your flavor of Revit) is not used,
rather the embedded one in the MSI is used. So we need to pre-copy our tweaked file. The reason we
are tweaking this file is to make our install non-UNC (or another server) based so it can be copied to other
remote servers. Depending on the libraries you select, the size of the Content.rcl file will vary. The key
here is to change the path. Change all the UNC paths by using notepad and FIND/REPLACE option.
(partial content.rcl file)
[Bundle_NAImperial.cab_2]
……
name=North American Imperial
filename=NAImperial.cab
……
fullpath=\\blackops\software\Revit\AdminImage\ContentENU\NAImperial.cab
Change to
fullpath=S:\Revit\AdminImage\ContentENU\NAImperial.cab

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

Server to Local Content Sync Batch:

Most all companies, that have multiple users, will host the content on their server so all users are

@Echo OFF
XCOPY j:\acadarch\REVIT\GBBN\*.* /s/e/y/i/d/r/EXCLUDE:S:\software\Revit2010\Tweaks\exclude.txt "C:\acadusercustom\Acadarch\Revit\GBBN"
REM Set the custom content read-only so users cannot modify it.
ATTRIB +r "C:\acadusercustom\Acadarch\Revit\GBBN\*.*" /S

accessing the standard content. If you plan to install your office standard content locally then you will
need to create a sync routine to update the local content, yet still maintain the security of users not
overwriting standard content. You can use Offline files, and maybe some other tools, but I prefer XCOPY
again to achieve this simple task. All you need is to ADD the above lines to the users logon script or add
the batch file to the registry under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
e.g. (created using InnoSetup)

Deploying it to the Users

Once you have done all the tweaking, you are now ready to deploy Revit. All you need to do is execute
the Batch file on the users machine. If the user does not have administrative rights, I would recommend
right-clicking on the batch file and select Run as Administrator.

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

Standardization:
As mentioned in the beginning that I am not going to go in detail about Creating Templates and a detailed
standardization, but I want to discuss the important things that you can put in place to create standards
for your office that go beyond your templates. There are other classes at AU that go in much greater
depth on Standardization of Templates and I would refer you to those classes as well. My goal is to touch
on the topics that you can implement within your office to Revit-alize it.
Folder Structure:
You need plan out two folder structures, one for Standard Content and the other for Projects. I would
also recommend a Family Development folder and Family Submittal Folder to house currently worked on
families and for users to submit their families which can later be published in the Standard Content folder.
1. Standard Content
1.1. Copy the OTB content folder
1.2. Depending on the Revit flavor add custom folders e.g. for
Revit Architecture: Details, Generic Models, Groups,
Schedules, System Families, Templates.
2. Project Folder
Many companies have different requirements, but for Revit I
would recommend a few folders to organize the project files
2.1. Current
2.2. Consultant Models
2.3. Families
2.4. Export
2.5. CAD imports (this will house actively used CAD linked files
from Consultants, etc)
2.6. Plots (to house PDF’s,DWF’s,etc)
2.7. Archive (To store past phase files, SD, DD, CD, etc)
File Naming:
 Project files
Every company has a numbering system which should be prefixed to the project central file. Prior
to 2010 release we had procedures to create local files, you can still use those or let Revit 2010
create the local file for the user automatically. The local files will be saved in the location that was
specified when creating the deployment Step 7.4 User Files. I still prefer to name the local file
consistently, i.e. same length, for all users. This way I can use batch rename tool (my favorite
Flash Renamer http://www.rlvision.com) to rename the plot files generated by multiple users.
 Families
My recommendation is to prefix families with a 00Initial of Company (for
standard content e.g. 00G_Family) or Project name (for project families,
e.g. 01_Project Family). This will help sort the Type Selector and makes it
easier to distinguish standard company content from OTB or downloaded
content. Once a downloaded content or project content is approved and
published in the Standard, it should be renamed with the above convention. It is also a good idea
to have a custom text parameter in your families to add a version/date. This way it will be easier
to troubleshoot families in the future.
Also refer to the Revit® Model Style Guide to help you develop consistent, useful Revit models at
http://style.guides.s3.amazonaws.com/Revit_Model_Style_Guide_v2.zip

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

Process Guidelines:
Creating procedures & guidelines can go a long way to maintain consistency and help reduce problems
related to Local files and bloated project files. Procedures include:
 Location of and Naming Local files
 Reload latest or Synchronize with Central when opening the project every time.
 Saving guidelines,
 When and how often to synchronize with central,
 Saving at the End of Day & always Relinquish All Mine

 In Project Browser Switch to before saving at the end of day to

speed up load process for the next time.
 Once a week performing cleanup activities
 Create a new Local file (local files get bloated more than the central file)
 Audit the Central file
 Purge if needed
 Compact the central file
 Rename Standard Families/Types (OTB or Office Standard) before modifying in Family editor.
 Do not switch the scale of the view that has been published on a sheet, unless you are intending
to do so.
View naming Conventions:
Each project type will have different requirements, every company is different, Architecture, Structure and
MEP conventions and needs are different. This will require each company to develop their own
conventions. It is recommended for most views that they be prefixed with a few characters that
distinguish them from working or non plotting views. Prefixing all views that are published on the sheet
with PUB, etc. will help keep things organized. Here are a few examples for naming views in a new
construction Revit Architecture project
 Floor / Ceiling Plans:
When working with Floor Plan it is advisable that there should be two sets for
each Level. One a Working View and the other Published View. This will avoid
problems of items missing from plots or extra things showing up on floor plans.
Working plans are only to be used for modeling and not adding any annotations.
All Annotations and Detail line work must be added to the Published floor plan
only. If you are planning to export to CAD create another set for EXPORT.
Another example for Structural discipline is to add an Analytical Plan.
 Prefix each view with a WRK (working) or PUB (Publish) ENG
(Enlarged) i.e. WRK First Floor, PUB First Floor. WRK Overall First
Floor, PUB Overall First Floor.
 Enlarged Plans:
Enlarged views are grouped together with the Floor Plans. It is important to
name them correctly so they group in the Project Browser. You can
create Enlarged Plans using the Callout Tool and selecting Floor Plan.
Prefix each view with Enlarged : Enlarged - Level – Area e.g. Enlarged - Level 1 – Stair 2,
Enlarged - Level 3 – Core Toilet Rooms.

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

 3D Views:
If you are creating any 3D View for publishing it should be prefixed with PUB – 3D View Desc,
i.e. PUB – Exterior SW, PUB – Camera – Lobby, PUB – Camera – Room 1212
 Elevations:
All Published Elevations should be prefixed with Pub. Before creating an
Elevation view pay close attention to the type selector to verify which type
of Elevation is being created, Exterior/Interior.
 Exterior Elevations: Exterior elevations are to be named with the direction North, South,
East, West. Partial elevations are to be prefixed with Part and a minimal description.
Developed Elevations will get a Dev prefix. E.g. PUB North, PUB Part South at Roof.
 Interior Elevations: Interior Elevations are to be identified with the Room# and Direction.
E.g. PUB 1232 N, PUB 1232 Office South.
 Sections:
Before creating a Section view pay close attention to the type selector to
verify which type of Section is being created, Building/Wall/Interior.
 Building Sections: PUB - Direction - Column Grid #. E.g. PUB - NS
– Col D
 Wall Sections: PUB – Elevation Direction – Nearest Column Grid #. E.g. PUB – N – B,
PUB – E – 13_1(notice no periods)
 Interior Sections: PUB – Room # - Desc. E.g. PUB – 1212 – Casework, PUB – Clg –
1212 – Soffit
 Details:
When using the Callout tool for Details, selecting the correct subset is
important for it to show up in the correct category in Project Browser.
 Interior Details: PUB – Room # - Description. E.g. PUB – 1212 –
Type of Detail
 Plan Details: PUB – Column Grid Intersection – abbreviated Description.
 Wall Section Details: PUB - Wall Section (as named under wall sections above) –
Level/Description
 Misc Details: PUB – Description
 Drafting Views:
Drafting Views are used to create details from scratch or importing details from AutoCAD. If the
Drafting Views published it should have the PUB Prefix. Since Drafting Views can be of wide
variety, naming conventions will need to be developed for your specific needs.
I believe you now have an idea to develop View Naming conventions for other views in Revit. The
key is consistency which will help reduce wasted time and increase efficiency.
Worksets:
Naming conventions and procedures for worksets is very critical. Worksets are not layers, but
remembering our AutoCAD days and the idea of making sure every object was on the correct layer is
similar here. Educating users the importance of creating objects on the correct workset will not only allow
you to manage the project, but it can go a long way to reduce the hardware requirements that Revit has.
It will make your project load faster and users will be more efficient by unloading unnecessary worksets.
Try naming the workset based on system or group, e.g. 1St Floor Exterior, 1st Floor Interior, 1st Floor
HVAC, 1st Floor Electrical, etc

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

Customizing the Template

Before we begin creating templates, we need to figure out what to put in the template and most
importantly what not to put in. Lets begin with what not to put in the template.
What not to put in:
Do not make your project templates heavy, i.e. you do not include everything that a project MAY use.
This is why we have a Standard Content folder with a structure for the user to find the content to be load
easily. So items may be loaded in using Load Family and System Families can be loaded either via
Copy/Paste or Transfer Project Standards.
Details:
Adding details that a project may use will unnecessarily weigh the template down. Some details are
appropriate to add, like standard mounting heights, abbreviations, patterns etc. At GBBN we have the
sheet setup for out Architectural Standards which get put in for every project. Those details are
appropriate to add to the project template.
Worksets:
Revit does not allow to add worksets in template files, so you cannot add worksets. Create process
guidelines for creating and using worksets for projects.

Items to be customized and included in the Template:

Title Blocks:
Add at least the standard size titleblock in the template. You can configure the
Labels and any visibility items for the title block. Other sizes of title blocks can be
added to the Standard Content library. At GBBN we have the 30” x 42” loaded in
the template. The title block contains labels and visibility parameter for Not for
Construction stamp.
Title Sheet:
Most all projects will have a title sheet and most all companies have
standard Title Sheet. Having a pre-made Title Sheet will save time for the
project team. You can use labels from Project Information to save even
more time.
Partition (wall) Types:
For Architectural projects partitions(walls) are needed. At GBBN Architects
we have a standard partition numbering system. All the standard types are
pre-built and available in the wall type selector. Some of the details for the
partitions are also added to the template as all projects use those.
System Families:
Use the idea above for walls to create commonly used system families for the
flavor you Revit being used. Create a system for your system families to ease
their use. Remember to prefix them with a 00 or underscore to put them at the
top of the list.
View Templates:
Creating default View templates will greatly help standardize your company
standards. Explore the View template dialog beyond visibility to create standard
view templates. A good option for MEP or Structural consultants is to preset the
Architectural Links to Halftone.

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

Initial Sheet Set:

Creating some of the sheets for the project will give project teams a
good starting point and help with maintaining company standards. A
Pre-Set Sheet Browser organization system will help too. Like creating
two parameters to
organize you Sheet
Browser as well as Drawing List schedule ordering.

Project Browser Organization:

Every Project and discipline will need to have a Project Browser
Organization system.. You can pre-set a system to give the project teams
a head start.
Miscilaneoous Company Standards:
Annotations:
Callout Tags, Elevation Tags, Section Tags, Arrowheads, Temporary
Dimensions(Center vs face etc) should be visited. Edit what comes out of
the box aligns with your company standards.
Materials & Patterns:
Add or modify any out of the box materials to align with company
standards. Duplicate and rename any OTB materials that are modified. A Prefix or Suffix to identify
custom materials would help with the organization in the materials dialog. An example is the Gypsum
board for Walls which by default has a Sand hatch in Projection mode which can degrade performance
and may be unnecessary, depending on your company needs.
Also visit Line Styles, Weights and Patterns to align those with your company standards.

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 Autodesk® Revit®: A BIM Manager's Guide to Revit-alizing Your Office

Training and On-going Support

Creating all the standards will mean nothing without training. There are many opinions about training the
employees. Some companies prefer to send their users to a Authorized Training Center for a 2-3 day
training. Larger companies have in-house experts to train and will utilize different methods to train. From
using a Boot-Camp method for 2-3 days and then hold project based training. They will also conduct
weekly or bi-weekly topic based training as well.
Whichever method is chosen for the training, it is important to incorporate the process guidelines, naming
conventions and template features in the training. All the topics mentioned in Standardization and
Standard Template Customization need to be taught to the users for successfully maintaining consistency
in your firm’s Revit projects.
Resources for Training:
 Authorized Training Centers
 I have used the Commercial Design book for both corporate and college training and I highly
recommend the books by Daniel Stine as they cover most topics needed to get a user proficient
in Revit Architecture. The users in your office can be assigned chapters as “home work” after
covering the topic in a hands-on class.
 Residential Design Using Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 by Daniel John Stine
ISBN: 978-1-58503-507-6
 Commercial Design Using Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 by Daniel John Stine
ISBN: 978-1-58503-512-0
 eLearning catalog at the Subscription Center. I recommend a general office account which
everyone can use to access the eLearning catalogs.
 Video training DVD’s.
 AU Online recordings and hand-outs are great resources for all levels of users. Visit
http://au.autodesk.com to access the past years classes from 2006-current year. Prior years’
classes are available from http://www.augi.com and selecting the Autodesk University link.
On-going Support
On-going support is really important to successfully use Revit in the office. There
are many resources for Novice and advanced users. First stop is to ask your in-
house experts. They may elevate the question to peers of their local AUGI group.
Posting the question to discussion.autodesk.com or forums.augi.com is another
resource for support. There are many experts who are frequenting these forums
and are eager to answer the questions. Another resource for Subscription
customers is to create a support request at the Subscription Center. This resource
is extremely helpful in recovering corrupt files, or files having errors that in-house
experts cannot resolve. Subscription Center can be accessed from within the
Autodesk Revit application if that option was made available during deployment creation. It can also be
accessed via web at http://support.autodesk.com

Conclusion
We have covered a multitude of topics to help standardize Revit and create a company standard. The key is to educate the
users to follow the standard. It may take a few extra minutes for the users to follow the guidelines, but it will result in a much
streamlined, efficient working project.
If you have any comments or suggestions or need consulting help please feel free to contact me at (513-777-9917) or email
me at bimologist@cadbazaar.com or visit http://www.pctroubleshooters.com
Thank you
Nauman Mysorewala

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