Mike MasseyApril 6th, 2023
As my children were growing up, I loved surprising them with new toys for their birthdays and Christmas. Seeing their excitement was so much fun as they ripped into the wrapping paper and struggled with the tape on the boxes to see what was inside. In our house, everyone knew that Mom and Dad's closet was off limits anytime around a holiday or birthday because that was our only hiding place. Odley, as far as I know, my children never snooped inside our closet to find out what they were getting. Or, I could be totally deceived, and they always knew. Either way, they always acted surprised and excited when they could finally rip off the tape.
My reaction is similar each year when Autodesk rolls out its new software versions. It is like Christmas morning when the new release of Revit comes out. I cannot wait to dive into the new version to look for all the new features. Some features are quick and easy to find. Some are not so prominent and not discovered immediately. Revit 2024 is officially out, and there are new features to discuss. We do not have to wait or try snooping through beta sites to learn what has been added. As I ripped the tape off of Revit 2024, I want to share 5 new features that excite me the most.
So, here we go. Let's start ripping the wrapping and peeling the tape off Revit 2024!
DARK THEME
Autodesk has finally given us a Dark Theme inside of Revit. We can now set our theme to either Light or Dark. This will make it much easier on your eyes as you are working. Revit supports Dark Theme for all 1st-level Revit user interface items. The question is, what is considered a 1st level item? It includes the most common items: the Properties Palette, Project Browser, Options Bar, Status Bar, and View Contol Bar. But as you get into the commands with dialog boxes, like the Phase or Design Options dialog, they are still white.
To change to the Dark theme, you will see a new Options header in the Options dialog named Colors. You will be able to set them to Dark, Light or to use System Settings to match your Windows settings.
On the View tab, a new tool called Canvas Theme allows you to toggle between a dark or light canvas while not changing the rest of the U.I.
TOPOSOLID
The site tools on the Massing & Site tools have been totally revamped. The new Toposolid command is available to create a topography. This new element type in Revit can be created by sketching lines and manipulating points or by importing a CAD or point file.
Toposolids are considered a System Family with both Instance and Type properties. The Type properties allow you to define the structure of the surface, similar to floors or roofs. The toposolids can be used as room-bounding elements.
A Toposolid can be subdivided to indicate parking, roads, or other site elements, and a unique material can be assigned to the subdivision.
Building Pads are no longer available, but you can use families or masses to model excavations or tunnels. Toposolids can also be cut with walls, floors, structural foundations, and elements from a dozen of other categories.
Toposolids act as a host for Site components, parking elements, railings, or floor-based elements. These new tools to develop site topography will improve design quality and documentation in landscape design
OPEN SHEETS FROM A VIEW
Quickly opening a sheet on which a particular view is placed has gotten easier in Revit 2024. Sheets can be opened now through a right-click menu without locating the sheet in the lengthy Project Browser.
If the view is a view type that is allowed to be placed on multiple sheets and the view is placed on multiple sheets, or if multiple views are selected, then a dialog will appear indicating that it will open up multiple sheets.
RESIZE SCHEDULE ROWS
In prior versions of Revit, the heights of rows in schedules were not editable. Rows would automatically resize if the text in the row required a word wrap or if an image in the row required the row height to be adjusted. New in Revit 2024 is the ability to resize all row heights in a schedule to any value desired. This will allow your schedules to look more uniform, and you will be able to ensure that all rows look consistent. In the properties of a schedule are two new parameters; Resize Rows and Row Height.
REVISION CLOUD SCHEDULES
A new schedule type is available in Revit 2024 to create a Revision Cloud Schedule.
This is not a revision schedule that is placed on the titleblock to list the revisions. This is a schedule to help you manage your revision CLOUDS. Views, Sheets, and Revision Clouds fields are available to include in the schedule columns. The schedule columns can also use fields from the Revisions, Views, Sheets, and Project Infomation. Schedule key and Shared parameters can also be included.
Create revision cloud schedules to better review and manage your project's revision clouds and see which view or sheet they belong to. This way, you can easily see each revision in your project and make modifications or directly edit the schedule fields if necessary.
MANY MANY More...
These are just my favorite features that have been added to Revit 2024. Many other features await you to rip the tape off and unwrap.