Selecting, Changing, and Replacing Elements |
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Selection |
| Selection is straightforward in Revit. Hover your mouse over an element, and it highlights (turns gray)—click the highlighted element, and it turns red, meaning you have it selected. Once the item is selected, the Options bar adjusts to show you relevant options (Figure 3.1). |
Figure 3.1
The tool set offered by the Options bar depends on the type of element you’ve selected |
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| You can select multiple elements several ways: |
Additive selection Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking new elements to add them to your selection. To remove elements from the selection, hold down the Shift key and click selected elements
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Window selection You can select many elements by dragging a selection window across the view. Do this by holding down the left mouse button and dragging. A right-to-left drag selects only elements completely within the selection window; a left-to-right drag selects anything within or intersecting the selection window
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Chain selection You can select connected lines and walls by holding down the Tab key and selecting a wall or line. All walls/lines that are end-joined to that wall become selected.
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| Select all Instances This option allows you to select all instances of a particular family in the entire model. This is great when you need to perform a wholesale swap of a certain family. For example, if you placed some generic wood doors in your project, and you now want to swap all those with metal doors, this command is perfect. To use it, you select one door, right-click, and choose Select All Instances from the resulting menu to select all the wood doors. Then, use the Type Selector in the Options bar to change the door type. With this command, elements become selected that may not be visible in your view, because this type of selection isn’t limited to what you manually clicked. Remember: You’re selecting all instances of that family type in the entire model |
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| Filtering Your Selection |
You can filter what you’ve selected based on categories using the Filter button located on the Options bar. This allows you to make large, nonspecific box selections and then focus your selec- tion by removing categories from it. For example, if you box-select an entire floor plan, you’ll end up selecting many categories of elements. Using the Filter dialog, you can limit the selection to just the windows category (or the doors, or whatever element you need).
You can try this on a model you have open. Using a box selection, draw a big box around a portion of your model, and then click the Filter button. You’ll get a dialog like the one shown in Figure 3.2. Here, you can deselect categories to limit what you’ve selected. Think of this as a short- cut. Let’s say you need to change the properties of 20 doors in a plan view. It’s much faster to box- select an area of your model and then filter out all elements but doors than it is to Ctrl-pick all 20 doors one at a time. |
Figure 3.2
Use the Filter dialog to limit what you’ve selected |
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| Using the Type Selector |
One of the most effective ways to change your model is to swap out types of elements progres- sively. For example, you may start with some generic walls, floors, doors, and windows initially, and then over time refine the details of those elements. Using Revit, you don’t have to redraw the elements when you decide to get more specific with your design. You make new types or load new content, and then swap out the elements using the Type Selector on the Options bar. The elements on the Options bar are all of the same category, making it easy to locate relevant content.
You can take advantage of this feature the moment you start placing any Revit families. During creation, you can use the Type Selector to choose the type of element being placed. Once you select an element, the same list is available, making it simple to change the types.
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| Selecting by Matching Properties |
The Match Properties button allows you to select one type of element and then apply its properties (type and instance) to another element of the same category. Once you select an element, the eye- dropper appears filled. Each subsequent click on elements of the same category will replace the selected element with the type currently in the eyedropper.
Be careful when you use this tool with walls, because it changes top and bottom constraints of the elements being matched. For walls, if you need to change the type but don’t want any of the level constraints to change, use the Type Selector, not the Match Properties tool |