Importing and exporting details - Revit Tutorial

of details in various projects, is how can I quickly and easily reuse these things in other projects. And, so, you have a few options there, but there are a few built-in tools that I want to share with you that will make the process just a little bit easier. Now, it's much easier with drafting views because there's no references. The model views are a little bit trickier but we can achieve some success in both cases. So, let's start by importing some existing details that I already have in another project file. So, all you have to do is go to the Insert tab, and choose Insert Views from a File. You browse to the location of that file, and I've simply called mine Detail Library, but there's nothing special about that name. It's just a Revit project file that contains some details. So, I'm going to open that up. And, it will display all of the views in that file that are eligible for import with this tool. And, so you can see here, they're all drafting views. Now, what's really nice is you've got this preview here and you can kind of click through it and see what each of those details looks like or you can even do Check All. So, I'm just going to do Check All, why not? And click OK to bring all of those details in. Now, you'll almost always get this duplicate types window, or materials that have the same names, you can see there's also a Callout tag here that has the same name. and what it's saying is that it's going to use the one Now, despite the fact that it told us and then purge out the duplicates. So, you can see that one in that branch. called Drafting Views (Partition Types), Now, this particular view is using keynotes, of the keynotes lost their references. to this carpet transition right here, So, this particular detail may have been pointing So, sometimes you do have to do a little bit of cleanup there to deal with issues like that. But, for the most part, as you can see here, most of these details came in rather nicely, and they're now available for us here in this project. So, that's how we can bring in drafting views, pretty straightforward. What about hybrid views? Well, if I come up here to the top of my browser, and go to the Floor Plans Details branch, some of the views that were hybrid details, like this Column Pier here for Masonry. Now, if I kind of move this out of the way, between these two versions of the detail is this one here has drywall on the inside, and the one we're importing from does not. So, those two details are slightly different from one another. And there's also an option here And there's also an option here to transfer the view scale. to transfer the view scale. So, I'm not sure what scale So, I'm not sure what scale this particular detail was created at, this particular detail was created at, but if you want to change the scale but if you want to change the scale of the view that's coming in of the view that's coming in to match that view scale, you can click that, to match that view scale, you can click that, and then click OK. and then click OK. And, if necessary, it'll change the scale, And, if necessary, it'll change the scale, if not, it'll leave it alone. if not, it'll leave it alone. We get that same warning about duplicate types. We get that same warning about duplicate types. And then, you can see that it kind And then, you can see that it kind of puts me in a paste mode. of puts me in a paste mode. So, what that really did was, So, what that really did was, it went and selected all the 2D geometry, it went and selected all the 2D geometry, copied it to the clipboard, and now I'm pasting it. copied it to the clipboard, and now I'm pasting it. So, kind of click somewhere on the screen to start, So, kind of click somewhere on the screen to start, but then it's really important but then it's really important that you don't click anywhere else yet, that you don't click anywhere else yet, because if you do, you'll drop the selection because if you do, you'll drop the selection and you'll lose the opportunity to move this stuff. and you'll lose the opportunity to move this stuff. But, you're still kind of in But, you're still kind of in a modified move mode right now, a modified move mode right now, and I can go right to the Move command. and I can go right to the Move command. And, I'm going to zoom in slightly here, everything's kind of grayed out, so it's a little tough to see, but right about here, if I do si, which is the shortcut for Snap to Intersection, you should find the grid lines you should find the grid lines from the original detail. I can snap to that as the base point. Then I can find the intersection of the grid lines in the current files, type si again, make sure that I'm getting the grid lines, and then click, and now all that geometry being pasted in lines up perfectly with the current detail. I'll then click Finish to complete the operation. I'll then click Finish to complete the operation. Now, it is complaining that some of the dimensions are no longer valid, of the dimensions are no longer valid, that's not a big deal, so I'll click OK, and it will just simply remove those dimensions that it can't create. that it can't create. Now, naturally when you zoom out and take a look, you can see that some of this geometry doesn't match up correctly anymore. doesn't match up correctly anymore. You know, like this anchor here, maybe we want to flip that over to the other side, maybe we want to flip that over to the other side, or make any other modifications, this guy may not be necessary, this guy may not be necessary, this guy may not be necessary. So, you do whatever cleanup is required to finish up and finalize the detail. But, it certainly is a little quicker But, it certainly is a little quicker to bring that geometry over from a similar detail in another file from a similar detail in another file than it would be to start from scratch. than it would be to start from scratch. So, those are the two ways that you can go out to an existing project file and harvest the detail components from those files and harvest the detail components from those files and reuse them in your current project. Now, what about going the other way? Well, we can export from our current project Well, we can export from our current project and create one of those library files just as easily. So, we're going to go to the File menu for this, So, we're going to go to the File menu for this, under Save As, then to Library, and finally View. under Save As, then to Library, and finally View. This will display a dialogue This will display a dialogue that looks very similar to the one we were just in. that looks very similar to the one we were just in. So, I'm not going to export the one So, I'm not going to export the one that I haven't finished cleaning up yet, that I haven't finished cleaning up yet, that we just imported in, that we just imported in, I'll export the original version instead, I'll export the original version instead, which is already all cleaned up which is already all cleaned up and looks pretty good. and looks pretty good. And then I'll click OK here. And then I'll click OK here. And then it will simply ask me And then it will simply ask me where I want to put it and what I want to call it. where I want to put it and what I want to call it. So, I'll just put this on my desktop, So, I'll just put this on my desktop, accept the default name, and save it. accept the default name, and save it. And, so, that's all there is to exporting existing views And, so, that's all there is to exporting existing views or importing existing views to reuse in other projects. or importing existing views to reuse in other projects. So, anytime that you have a detail So, anytime that you have a detail that you've already created, that you've already created, it's usually going to be a little faster it's usually going to be a little faster to start with that than it would be to start with that than it would be to start from scratch, to start from scratch, so you can use these built-in tools so you can use these built-in tools to help you do that. to help you do that. And, of course, you always have copy and paste, And, of course, you always have copy and paste, if all else fails. if all else fails.