the Hayne Way: My Favorite Revit Tools

We are a Revit office.  And we have been a Revit office since 2012.  We have a lot of experience working in Revit!  Now Revit is not perfect, you just need to checkout our Conversations with Revit Series to see some of our recurring issues, but it has some amazing tools that we absolutely LOVE!

Here are my top 5 tools:

ONE: THE HAMMER TOOL

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Think of this tool as a virtual “Demo Day”.  There is something very therapeutic about taking an existing layout and starting with a clean slate!  This tool is used on remodel/addition projects and phased projects.

TWO:  MATCH PROPERTIES

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This tool is a lifesaver when you are moving quickly and want a floor or wall to match another one.  This allows me to quickly adjust a model if we want a room to be tiled versus a hardwood finish assembly or if I want the top and bottom of wall heights to match.  All of those retaining walls are going to match the stone wall at the front of the house… no problem!  #matchproperties

THREE: SWITCH JOIN ORDER

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This is a relatively new favorite tool,  probably because I just discovered it (#facepalm)…  This is a great tool to control how elements join one another.  Revit has its own hierarchy when it attaches walls to floors, walls to roofs, walls to ceilings, etc.  When you zoom into your section you may want to reverse this order (for me this almost always!) and this is the tool you would use.

FOUR: PIN

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Bianca is adamantly against this tool, but I like to pin certain elements (think existing walls, floors, building pads, etc.) so that Revit doesn’t “accidentally” shift them.  I cannot tell you how many times this has happened!  Sometimes REVIT does not know best!

FIVE: ALIGN

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The align tool is an absolute MUST.  I want this wall to align with this wall.  I want this cabinetry to align with this wall.  I want these chairs to align with the table center.  And the list goes on and on!

So these are my favorite REVIT tools… what are some of yours?

Stay tuned to see Bianca’s favorite tool list!

-HLJ