What's going on, guys? Balkan Architect here. And in today's video we're talking about dimensions and annotation inside of Revit. Now this video is a part in my Beginner to Pro series, which means that they take take a topic in Revit and I explain the basics of it and then I go to some more advanced explanations so you get the full picture of how that tool or tool set has been designed to work inside of Revit. Before we jump into the tutorial, I would just like to ask you to check out my website, BalkanArchitect .com. I'm going to link it up just below this video in the description and also up in the cards above if you're serious about learning Ravit, it's really the best place to start. I have a whole beginner to intermediate level course followed by an intermediate to advanced level course that pretty much covers all tool sets and topics inside of Revit to kind of get you started. And then also I cover numerous advanced topics inside of Revit there as well. Overall, there is over 130 hours of content and I'm adding more each month. In addition to that, there you can find some of my customized Revit templates. You can find some really high quality Revit families as well as a plugin. And finally, I would just like to ask you to like this video. It helps me out a lot and also make sure to subscribe. Not only does it help you not miss any of my future videos, but also it makes the alpaca happy. And let's be honest, that's why we're all here. Okay, now let's jump into Revit. And as you can see here on my screen, I have just a regular floor plan. It's just an apartment. And now let's explore adding some dimensions to this model. So for dimensions, you can find the dimension tool here on the entity tab. Under the dimension panel, we have the aligned dimension. We also have the linear dimension. The only difference is that the aligned dimension, as you can see it's following the wall. So it's aligned to the object that you're dimensioning, whereas the linear dimension is always going to be keeping a horizontal or a vertical orientation. So just something to keep in mind. In addition to this, you can also find the aligned dimension here, which is really useful. So this is the Quick Access toolbar and all of these tools don't change. So whatever tab you are on in Revit, the alliance dimension is going to be over here so you can always get to it quickly. And then finally you can see there next to align dimension, we have Di in parentheses and this basically means that if you type in Di on your keyboard, it's a keyboard shortcut and it's just going to bring that kind of command up. So it's probably the quickest way to get to it. Okay, now let's start dimensioning. So let's click on the aligned dimension and now let's get started. So the first thing that you want to do is you want to make sure that all of these settings are correct. So the first thing I'd like to explore is the properties panel and to see which dimension style or which dimension type am I using. So this kind of works like a system family, just like any other system family in Revit. And we're going to be exploring creating new dimension styles and dimension types in a few moments now. But for now, you're just going to specify which one you want to use. And by default, I'm just going to use this regular one. This is the one that comes with the metric template. So let's just use that one. And then here on the ribbon, on the modified tab, we have the wall center line. And when I expand this, basically you're saying to Revit, what do you want to mention when it comes to walls? They mentioned the wall center lines. So that's kind of the center of these walls. Do you want to have the center? Do you want to have a wall facing which is going to be outside and inside wall faces? Do you want the center of core? The core is basically the structural material here in the center. So do you want the center of that or faces of core with the faces of that? In most cases, you're going to be going with wall faces. So I'm just going to select that. And then here you have pick either individual references or entire walls. So let's start with individual references for now, and then I'll show you entire walls because that one is really cool. So let's start with individual references. So when you have that now when you come in here and if you click so let's come in here and then we can just come and click. And also when it comes to dimensioning, you're going to be zooming in a lot. So what I recommend you do is turn on the ten lines so you can see all of the individual layers here. I left it on in our wall. So let's go back to individual references. And here you'll see that by default it's going to want to snap to the wall faces, see how it's just going to snap to the inside or outside wall face. However, if you do Zoom in, you can get the wall central line. And I think if we use the tab key, so if you use the tab key, you can select individual layers. So even though this has been set to wall faces, if you use the tab key, so you just click the tab key once or twice, it's going to tackle that and it is going to override that wall faces option. So let's click this wall face, then let's go to this one. Then we can go to this one, to this one, and so on. So this is basically how you place a dimension. Now let's say I made a mistake. So here you can see I've dimensioned the center line of this wall and I don't want that. How do I fix that? I only want to have this face here. I don't want that central line. Well, you just come to that reference and you just click and it's just going to remove that. So at any point you can just remove what you're dimensioning by coming back and clicking on it. So that's basically how it works. And then you can come to here. Oops here, I made a mistake as well. So again I would click and then place it here. Okay, how do we now place the dimension? Sometimes people in an accident and escape out of that. It will eliminate everything you have created so far. So what you do want to do is just move it out, make sure that it's not picking up any references. So it's just kind of in blank space. And then once you're happy with the position of it you just click and then it's done. So your dimension is done and then you can hit the escape key a couple of times. Now if you want to continue or make any edits or continue dimensioning, you can always select this and then go to edit witness lines. You can see EW is the shortcut for that. And then once you click you can just now start adding items here just like that. And then also you can come in back and remove any of the references that you don't want to have there. So that's another option. And then once you're done again you're just going to click and empty space and there we go. So it's back at allowing you to edit the dimensions. Now moving forward, you can make some manual edits here. So when you come in here you have a couple of these lines. So this one moves the witness line and this one drags to set the gap. So basically this will move what the witness line is they mentioning. So if I move it here, they mentioning that if I move it here, move it here. As you can see it's just kind of moving what I'm mentioning and then this is just making kind of just determining how long this whole line is. So you can kind of customize it if you want. So you can just do that for all of these. Sometimes it might be tricky to find it. So here it's actually there. So as you can see this is where the middle one is and then this is where the edges. So when you're mentioning in the middle of the wall like this, it can be a little bit tricky to determine which one is which. But usually if it's in the center of the dimension line that means that one moves the witness line. So that's how you can move that. And then here it is so just make sure you don't select the wrong one. In addition to that, sometimes you might find yourself in a situation where the dimension lines or dimension text is a bit too close and it's overlapping like we have here. Well, again, you just select the dimension and then below each of these texts or the numbers you have all drag grip. And then you can just move this off to the side. So basically you can say, okay, there we go. So this is just showing what's here and this is what's showing what's here. So it's not the most elegant solution, but when you have a bunch of things close together and you want to get all the dimensions, that's just how you do it. You have to do it that way. Okay. Let's now move forward and explore how to be dimension entire walls, because in some cases we might have quite a few things that we want to dimension and we might not have enough time to go and slowly dimension all of these. So in those cases, what we need to do is we need to use the dimension entire walls, because then it's just a few clicks and you get all of this job done. So let's see how that can be done. So what I'm going to do here is again, go to let's go here to Annotate and then go to align dimension. It's asking me to save the project. I'm just going to do that later. Okay. Now here I'm going to leave this at wall faces. But instead of individual references, let's pick out entire walls and then we get this options, which was grayed out previously. So here I cannot click it. But here I can now click on that. And for the options, it's basically for automatic dimensioning options. And here we have the references which we can select to be dimensions. So we can use openings, intersecting walls and intersecting grids. So how does this work? Well, let's turn on the openings or yeah, let's check them on. And then you can either dimension the centers of each opening like this or the width. So that would be the kind of the beginning and the end of the window width in most cases, as far as you know, everybody dimensions, the width, the central lines, I don't find them that important. So I'm just going to set it to that the intersecting walls. This in my opinion, it makes sense for perhaps interior walls when you're making interior dimensions, but for exterior dimensions, it doesn't make too much sense. So I'm just going to leave that checked off. And now let's see, how does this work? So let's click OK. And now I can just come in here and click on this wall and I get the dimension. If I click on this wall, it's going to add that. And if I click on this wall, it's going to add that. And can I include the curtain wall. No I cannot. So let's not include that one and then you can just place it wherever. Okay. So as you can see here we do have this dimension. Obviously we have some errors that Revit made. It's not always going to be perfect. Sometimes it does things quite perfectly but in this case it didn't. So we do have to select this dimension and then I can go here to edit witness lines and then I can just remove this because I don't want that dimension and then I can add the curtain wall because I do want that dimension and then I can just hit the escape key and I don't want that. So I made that mistake. That all beginners make. So let's do that again. So remove this and add these two references and then you don't hit the escape key, you just click in empty space and then you're done with changing your dimension and then this is what that looks like. So it's a really quick way of dimensioning your walls and then we can go and let's do one more and in this case we can go with just individual references because in this case it's going to be quicker. Just go like that and place it here. Now what you'll see here, it's going to snap. As you can see here how it snaps and we get that dashed blue line. That means that it has been set up to snap to a certain distance. So there is a certain gap between these two lines to which we're going to get that snap. And I'm going to be explaining how do you set that up a little later on. But I think it's just really important to mention. But anyways there we go. That's how you create these how they mentioned the walls in a bit of a quicker way with using that entire walls set up. Okay, so now how do we change these dimensions? So you can change dimensions or make edits to the appearance of the dimension by selecting it and then going here to edit type and then you can see all of the parameters for that type properties for that dimension style or dimension type. So as you can see it's just regular parameters. Just like anything else in Revit. Just like you would have for curtain walls or regular walls or stairs or whatever. It's just a set of parameters. So I'm just going to give you a quick glance over all of these and just a quick explanation. So the dimension string type is continuous but also it can be baseline and ordinary. So basically this is when it goes from one item to the second to the other baseline I think it goes from the one and then it just gives you the distances from that and then ordinance is something else. The ordinance is basically like this going from zero and then how far it goes from there. So it's a little bit odd in most cases, let's go to baseline. Yeah. So this is going to break everything up. Ordinance I guess doesn't do that. So yeah, this is going to break everything up. So I don't want that as well. So let's go back here to edit type and let's go back to continuous hit apply and there we go. So it's going to go back to our regular dimension. So in most cases you're just going to be using a continuous dimension. Then let's go back to edit type, then we have the leader type. So basically do we want to have a leader that's an arc or a line, if you remember here where we cannot see that, let's go back. So here when we've moved these, how we get that little arc. So that's the leader. So if I select this and then go into edit type, if I change this from arc to line and then hit apply, as you can see, it's just going to be a straight line. I don't know, you can pick out whatever you want. I don't think it's that important. Anyways, let's go further. So we have the leader tick Mark. So if you want to add a tick Mark here, you can do that. So you can add like an arrow if you want. I don't know, you can do that if you want. Also we have the show leader when text moves. So either when we move it away from the origin or beyond the witness lines. So basically if I move it to beyond the witness lines, it means that if this is up here so it's still kind of within the witness lines, it's not going to have that arrow, it's only going to appear when we move past the witness line. See here is where it appears. This is the witness line. So that's basically that setting. So yeah, again I don't find it that important. What you do find important is the tick Mark. So the tick Mark is the diagonal three millimeter and then you can use a filled box filled dot. I really like dots but these are way too large. So usually modify them to be smaller. But yeah, you have those dots, usually everybody is going to be using the diagonal three millimeter thick marks. So let's leave it at that. You can change the line weight of the whole line. So here if I change the line weight to four and of course we have the ten lines on see how now everything is a lot thicker because that weight line of the line was changed. So if I go back here, let's change that back to one, hit apply, it's going to look like this and then here we have the tick Mark line weight. So if you want it to be the same as the rest, you can just apply that. And as you can see it's now it's ten or you can make it thicker. So you can make it four, do whatever you prefer. Then we have the dimensionline extensions. So this is the dimension line. And if I just move to the edge here. So this is basically the extension of that dimension line. So if you want to edit that. Yeah, you can do that. Let's make this smaller. Yeah. So you can just change that to 2.4 to 2.5 or something and that's going to extend a little bit. Let's use 6 mm and now it's way longer. So, yeah, so that's basically where you change that. You have the witness line control. So do you want it to be gap to element or fixed two dimension lines? So basically the control of this witness line. So you have that setting, I'm just going to leave it at gap to element. So basically that means that it's just going to go straight to the element and then leave a small gap. If you change it to fix the dimensional line and then hit apply, as you can see that it's all the way away from the elements. So that's the difference for that. So those are kind of the main settings. I'm not going to go too much into that. What I do want to explain is how the scaling and the sizing of this thing goes. So by default for this type, as you can see, this is a 2.5 millimeter type and the text size is 2.5 mm. But if I come in here and if I change the scale to one to 50, everything is going to become much smaller. So why does this happen? Well, that's because the scale basically means that when we change the scale the dimensions become smaller because they are going to be printed on a larger paper and this whole floor plan is going to be larger. So the 2.5 millimeter reference is basically referencing to the size of the dimension on the paper. So it's obviously going to be two times smaller on one to 50, then it would be on one to $100. To explain this a bit further, let's go here to the sheets and let's open up this sheet that they have here and let's place this floor plan here just like that. Okay. So we have the floor plan and right now the scale is set to 1100. So if I jump in here and if I take a quick measurement like this, as you can see, it's 2.5 mm. Right now, if I select or if I go back to the floor plan here and change the scale to one to 50, go back here. As you can see, this is now way larger. But still if I Zoom in and if I make the measurement, it's still 2.5%. So basically this will change depending on the scale. So sometimes I see people making errors where they don't like the dimensions and then they just change the scale. That's not the right way to approach that. What you want to do is go back here. Let's go back to 1100. If these numbers are way too large, if you're not happy with their size just selected, go here to edit type and then change it. So usually I like to have my text at 2 mm so I can make it smaller. And also the text offset. So the offset from the dimension line, it's usually way too large. So let's make it zero point 75. There we go. I think this is much better. So you can play around with that. We can make it even smaller. Can we make it like this? Yeah. Okay. This now looks much better. So you can play around with that. And as you can see, that's basically where you set up the scale. Okay, moving forward, let's talk just quickly about the units. So the units here are millimeters. And let's say that I like to work in millimeters, but I want to present my dimensions in centimeters. How do I set that up? So again, I'm just going to select the dimension, go into edit type and scroll all the way down until we have the units format. And here I'm just going to click on this and Uncheck the use project settings. And now I can change the units. So here I can make this in centimeters. I can even add like a symbol if I want. I can control the decimal places if I want. But anyways, if I just click. Okay, apply. Okay, now this is in centimeters, but if I want to move any of these dimensions or any of the walls, these dimensions here are in millimeters. So that basically makes it a lot easier for me to work on my model if I prefer working in millimeters. But I still have to present in centimeters. So that's important. And there we go. I think that kind of gives you a basic understanding of how dimensions work. So you can kind of set them up, place them and modify them to look exactly how you want them to look. If you want to learn more, as I said, I have that beginner to intermediate level course there you actually get a PDF for the dimensions where I explain each one of these graphically. So you can just have a quick glance at that PDF and then you know what's going on here with the dimensions. It's just kind of a quick way of using all that information. So there we go. If you want to go further, want to learn more? Check out that course. It's going to be the first link in the description of this video and also up in the cards above. Also, if you want to get my Revit project files, those are available on my Patreon page. It's also going to be a link down in the description of this video and also up in the cards above. Thank you for watching guys. Make sure to check out my website BalkanArchitect.com for more Revit courses. There I have over 120 hours of content and I'm adding more each week. Make sure to subscribe for more videos and also I've added a video over there that might interest you as well.
