Revit 101

Aug 7, 2026

PSA: You Can’t move the origin of a generic annotation symbol.

Did you know that you can’t actually change the origin point of a Generic Annotation family? For example, if you wanted to change the origin reference plane of a Generic Annotation nested into a parent family so that you can constrain it at the end instead of the center of the symbol.

Oct 14, 2016

Tutorials

[Solved] Revit Error: Unable to make the necessary Workset (Project Info) editable in the Linked File in order to change the Shared Coordinates.

While attempting to link an architectural Revit model into my electrical model, an interesting error message popped up: “Unable to make the necessary Workset (Project Info) editable in the Linked File in order to change the Shared Coordinates.” This was a new one for me. When attempting to open these models, you can’t uncheck the…

Oct 5, 2016

Tutorials

[Solved] Revit does not display vertical elbows (i.e., risers in shafts) properly in plan view

Let’s talk a little about Plan Regions in Revit. In a nutshell, this tool helps to show areas of a View that may need to deviate from your view’s View Range. Aside from the common uses for this in architecture, mechanical designers can actually get their risers to display properly when using a vertical elbows. The Problem Mechanical…

Sep 26, 2016

Tutorials

Revisions from a revision schedule in a titleblock family are not populated on sheets

Today I was challenged with figuring out why a revision schedule from a titleblock family was not showing the revisions on the sheet that the titleblock was placed on. I found a subtle setting in which I’ve never used before – it is to set a fixed Height of the revision schedule. I suppose this could…

Sep 23, 2016

Tutorials

Rotate a section to line up to an angled element in Revit

I remember my early days of Revit and working with architecture that had several angles in plan view. Cutting a section without knowing the exact angle is difficult in Revit and the Align tool currently does not work on section lines. Here is a workaround to rotate your sections to align with any angle within Revit. 1) Draw…

Aug 19, 2016

Tutorials

Here’s why your Revit families hosted to reference planes may appear upside down

Hosting elements to reference planes in Revit is a technique used by many, but only fully understood by few. The most overlooked part of the entire process is drawing the reference plane itself. Did you know that there are differences between drawing a reference plane from right to left versus drawing one from left to right?…