the top of the ribbon. We’ll take a moment to briefly describe them:
Architecture, Structure, or Systems If you install Revit Architecture you will only have access to the Architecture and Structure tabs in the ribbon. If you install Revit with one of the Autodesk Building Design suites, you will have access to the tools for all three design disciplines, and you can control the visibility of these tabs (Architecture, Structure, and Systems) from the Options dialog box (accessed from the Application menu), as shown in Figure 2.5. These tabs contain tools you will use to create or place content specific to each design discipline.
Figure 2.5 Setting the UI options
Insert The Insert tab is used to link external files (2D, 3D, image, and other RVT files) as well as search for external content via Autodesk® Seek. To insert content from family files, you can use the Load Family command from this tab; however, this same command is available with most modeling commands in the contextual tab of the ribbon. Learn more about linking Revit files in Chapter 6, “Working with Consultants,” and using other file formats in Chapter 7, “Interoperability: Working Multiplatform.”
Annotate The Annotate tab contains many of the tools necessary to annotate, tag, dimension, or otherwise graphically document your project. Learn more about these tools in Chapter 16, “Detailing Your Design,” and Chapter 18, “Annotating Your Design.”
Analyze The Analyze tab contains the tools necessary to modify energy analysis settings and to run an energy simulation via Green Building Studio®. This feature requires an Autodesk Subscription account to access the online analysis engine. Learn more about conceptual energy analysis in Chapter 9, “Conceptual Design and Design Analysis.”
Massing & Site The Massing & Site tab contains the tools necessary to add massing- and site-related elements such as toposurfaces and property lines. Learn more about modeling site context in Chapter 3, “The Basics of the Toolbox,” and conceptual design massing in Chapter 9.
Collaborate The Collaborate tab contains the tools that you’ll use to coordinate and manage the project within your own team as well as across other teams and their linked files. Learn more about worksharing in Chapter 5, “Working in a Team,” and interdisciplinary coordination in Chapter 6.
View The View tab contains the tools that you’ll use to create all your project views, 2D and 3D, as well as schedules, legends, and sheets. You can also modify your UI from this tab, including your keyboard shortcuts. Learn more about creating multiple project views and sheets in Chapter 17, “Documenting Your Design.”
One of the most important settings that you’ll use during your project is Object Styles on the Manage tab. Selecting this option will allow you to manage the global visibility settings for just about everything in your project: how it projects, how it cuts, and its associated color and pen weight. Learn more about this and other project settings in Chapter 4, “Configuring Templates and Standards.”
Modify The Modify tab contains the tools used to manipulate the content that you’re creating in your project. You’ll find tools like Cut, Join, Move, Copy, and Rotate, among many others. Learn more about common editing tools in Chapter 3.
Contextual Tabs Contextual tabs are revealed when specific elements are selected or element creation commands are launched. For example, the Modify | Walls contextual tab (Figure 2.6) is displayed when a wall is selected. These unique tabs are usually colored green to help you distinguish them from other static tabs in the ribbon.
Figure 2.6 Example of a contextual tab
A simple, yet important, setting that may be exposed on the contextual tab when placing model content is Tag On Placement. Modeling commands like Door, Window, and Component allow you to enable automatic tagging to reduce overall documentation time. If you are working in an early design phase, you may wish to disable the Tag On Placement setting.
Within each tab in the ribbon are groups of tools and commands referred to as panels. If you want to make any panel consistently available, you can pull it out of its tab and arrange it anywhere on your computer screen. To relocate a panel, drag the panel out of the ribbon using your mouse pointer on the panel title bar (Figure 2.7). The panel will snap to alignment with other panels you have previously dragged from the ribbon if you hover over other floating panels while dragging.
Figure 2.7 Panels can be relocated anywhere in the UI.
To return a panel to the ribbon, hover the mouse pointer over a floating panel and the panel’s border will appear. Click the arrow in the upper portion of the gray bar at the right of the floating panel.
On some panels, you will find special features that can be accessed from the panel’s title bar. An example of these features can be seen in the Annotate tab of the ribbon. In Figure 2.8, the small arrow on the Text panel is known as a dialog launcher and will open the Type Properties dialog box for Text (not shown in the figure). Clicking the down arrow on the Tag panel exposes an expanded panel that displays the Loaded Tags and Symbols command.
Figure 2.8 Special panel features
Now that we’ve covered the fundamental elements contained in the ribbon, let’s look at other important aspects of the UI.
The Options bar is located directly below the ribbon and is a contextually sensitive area that gives you feedback as you create and modify content. In Figure 2.9, you see the options available below the ribbon when the Wall tool is active. You can also use the Options bar when an object already placed in a project or family is selected.
Figure 2.9 Options appear in a bar below the ribbon.
An especially important and frequently used option is included with any annotation symbol – the ability to include or exclude a leader. This will help you place tags in the clearest location within your documentation while maintaining a parametric relationship to the associated model element. Look for this option when you use the Tag By Category command from the Annotate tab in the ribbon.
The Properties palette contains the instance parameters of whatever you’re currently working on. In this palette, you will find the Type Selector, a selection filter, and the Edit Type button (Figure 2.10). You’ll learn more about filtering selected objects in Chapter 3, as well as much more about parameters in Chapter 14, “Designing
