REVIT® ARCHITECTURE

WHITE PAPER

An Introduction to Revit Architecture

Revit® software is the Autodesk platform for building information modeling, built on parametric
building modeling technology. Discipline-specific applications available or planned on this
platform include Revit® Architecture, Revit® MEP, and Revit® Structure software applications,
as well as products for integrated modeling for building services engineering, analysis, and
documentation. Products built on the Revit platform enable customers to take full advantage
of technology to improve their businesses and gain unparalleled improvements to
productivity, coordination, and quality of building information modeling, from concept through
construction.
Revit Building software is the building design and documentation system that works the way
architects think—it treats design information in terms of the entire building, rather than
separate floor plans, sections, elevations, and schedules. And fully parametric change
management increases coordination and quality, while providing the most accurate and up to
date information for decision making.
Purpose-built for building information modeling (BIM), it simply offers you a better way of
working so you can improve your businesses with better work completed more easily.
In the Revit Architecture parametric building model, every drawing sheet, every 2D and 3D
view, and every schedule is a direct presentation of information from the same underlying
building database. As you work in familiar drawing and schedule views, Revit Architecture
collects information about the building project and coordinates this information across all
other representations of the project. The parametric change technology in Revit Architecture
automatically coordinates changes made anywhere—in model views or drawing sheets,
schedules, sections, plans, renderings … you name it.
Revit Architecture supports all phases of the building process, preserving all information from
beginning to end. The same model that is rendered in design generates quantities exported
to an estimating database after construction documents are prepared.
For more information about building information modeling and Autodesk’s strategy for the
application of information technology to the building industry, please see our white paper on
the subject at www.autodesk.com/bim.

Contents
Contents ................................................................................................... 1
An Overview of Revit Architecture ..................................................................... 2
Revit Architecture - Building Information Modeler ................................................ 2
Support for the Building Team ....................................................................... 3
Concepts and Features of Revit Architecture ........................................................ 3
Bidirectional Associativity ............................................................................ 4
Integrated Scheduling................................................................................. 5
Visualization and Presentation ...................................................................... 5
Changes in Section Views ........................................................................... 7
Coordinating with Consultants ....................................................................... 8
Working in Large Teams ............................................................................. 8

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Working with Large Projects ......................................................................... 9

Support for Unusual Geometry .....................................................................10
Sharing Data with Other Applications .............................................................11
Integrated Site Modeling ............................................................................11
Improving the Design and Construction Process ...................................................12
Summary .................................................................................................13

An Overview of Revit Architecture

This section introduces the history and design philosophy behind Revit® Architecture
software.

Revit Architecture - Building Information Modeler

Work was begun on the software that was to become Revit Building in late 1997 by the
technologists responsible for introducing the first parametric CAD (computer-aided design)
technology to the mechanical CAD market. In less than a decade, that software transformed
mechanical CAD from an industry that worked only on 2D graphics to one that works
primarily on digital models.
Applying this same idea to the building industry required that two basic problems be solved.
The first problem was ease of use. Because CAD technology can be difficult to use, many
firms have many employees who simply do not use CAD. The solution was to create a
product in which items of interest to architects—things like walls, windows, and doors—are
models of their real-world counterparts. So, to draw a wall, you simply select a wall
component. Windows are windows, doors are doors, and these objects relate to each other in
ways that model the real world. For example, windows are contained in walls, and you cannot
place a door in a wall on top of a window. You must be able to move or alter walls or other
components, yet still preserve your design intent. Most significantly, you need to be able to
change the behavior of a component, or the way it relates to the rest of the design, without
programming or coding of any kind.
The second problem was scale. Even though the mechanical CAD industry was using
parametric technology to design big products like airplanes as digital models, the technical
challenge of handling relationships among components in a building model remained to be
solved. In a typical building with hundreds of thousands of components, the issue of change
propagation had inhibited the development of architectural design software. Yet, automating
and tracking change is the one thing good software should do.
A new technology was invented to solve these two problems: a context-based parametric
change engine. In this technological breakthrough, the burden of change is transferred from
the user to the parametric change engine, vastly improving ease of use. The change engine
keeps track of the relationships among components in the building model. As a result, the
components themselves can be digitally represented as things architects and other building
professionals are familiar with.
It’s a basic division of labor. In 2D drafting systems, you draw lines and keep track of what
they all mean. In a building information modeler, you sketch digital representations of things
that behave the way you expect, and you rely on the computer to keep track of them. The
concept is simple: making CAD easy to use is a matter of making the computer work harder.
Revit Architecture is a building design and production software system in which your design
and all the interrelationships among the elements of that design are tracked, managed, and

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maintained by the computer. In addition, it gives you complete control over consultant
coordination and construction documentation as natural outputs of the design and change
management process. Revit Architecture is to 2D drafting as a relational database is to a
punch card.

Support for the Building Team

Revit—for “revise instantly”—was introduced first to the architectural community and offered
support for architectural design and documentation. However, the underlying technology, the
building information model and the parametric change engine, is engineered and optimized to
support the creation and management of information for the entire building enterprise. The
building information model is an advanced database infrastructure that supports the
information needs of the building design and production team. Revit Architecture extends the
power of this information infrastructure to structural layout, construction, and site design work
for the building project.
The work products of the building team, their “deliverables,” are most often graphic, textual,
or tabular presentations of information created by individual project team disciplines but are
also with increasing frequency specifically formatted digital data. A program analysis diagram
by an architect, a bracing elevation by a structural engineer, a site-staging plan by a builder,
and a quantity survey by a construction manager are examples of graphic, textual, or tabular
deliverables. A DWG™ file underlay that an architect provides to a mechanical engineer, a
spreadsheet documenting all the leasable area in a speculative office building, and a
relational database of all materials required to construct the building are examples of digital
deliverables.
The creation of information in the building design and production process is both concurrent
and continuous, but the production of these deliverables is only sequential and intermittent.
The episodic creation of deliverables is a hindrance to the building design and production
process and takes effort away from the real work of the team. Conventional software tools for
the building industry have automated discrete tasks of information presentation. The
production of plans, visualizations, cost estimates, and quantity take-offs are each supported
by specific, purpose-built tools. This has perpetuated the sequential and intermittent
presentation of information in a process that is naturally concurrent, continuous, and iterative.
It has also created artificial technology boundaries between disciplines and project team
members.
The application of advanced information technology, the building information model and
parametric change management, to the building design and production process addresses its
underlying information needs. The building information model enables deliverables to be
available concurrently with the design and production process. Because deliverables are
available concurrently, the energy required to produce them manually or through task-specific
software tools is reduced, and that energy that can now be spent on the direct design and
production effort.
Fundamentally, the building information model makes information in the form of deliverables
continuously available to project team members in the way they need to see it and are
accustomed to seeing it.

Concepts and Features of Revit Architecture

This section provides an overview of some of the more important features in Revit
Architecture that contribute to a better design environment, enhanced productivity, and faster
construction documents. For a more detailed look at Revit Architecture, we encourage you to
try the product itself. Revit Architecture is available on CD or by download at
www.autodesk.com/revitarchitecture. The CD package includes a printed copy of Getting

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Started guide, a step-by-step tutorial that demonstrates the power and functionality of Revit
Architecture.

Bidirectional Associativity
Bidirectional associativity in Revit Architecture helps ensure that any change to the
relationships among objects is concurrently reflected by the parametric change engine
throughout your design. Bidirectional associativity is at the heart of the mechanism by which
Revit Architecture maintains consistency in your model at all times.

Figure 1: Bidirectional associativity means Revit Building allows you to easily lock in design intent.

Bidirectional associativity is applied automatically to every component, view, and annotation

in Revit Architecture. Consider what happens when you alter a dimension annotation (Figure
1). When you edit a dimension, you change the underlying geometry of the object associated
with that string.
What may not be apparent is that bidirectional associativity is not an editable property of the
wall. You don’t turn it on or off. In Revit Architecture, bidirectional associativity is automatic
and managed at all times by the parametric change engine. This is the essence of making
the computer do more work and enabling users to make changes at will. Bidirectional
associativity in Revit Architecture is universal, meaning that you need not refresh or
regenerate any view, annotation, sheet, or other component. Contrast this behavior with other
3D add-ons to 2D drafting systems, which often require you to edit in one view to reflect in
another or which require refreshing ancillary views or annotations.
A designer can lock design intent into the model by aligning two interior walls and then
clicking a lock icon to instruct the parametric change engine to always maintain this condition.
The change engine is capable of handling locked intent across the entire model and features
technology that manages all associativity so that Revit Architecture is able to scale to large
buildings while maintaining consistency at all times.
In Revit Architecture errors do not creep into a design. To change the size of a wall, all you
need to do is directly manipulate the wall or the dimension annotation, and the software
automatically updates all other annotations and components to reflect the change. And it all
happens right away.

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Integrated Scheduling
Integrated scheduling in Revit Architecture is an excellent example of how a parametric
change engine can deliver real results in your projects. Schedules in Revit Architecture are
simply another view of the integrated model. As you would expect, bidirectional associativity
means that when you change something in the view, the schedule changes. And when you
change a component in the schedule, the component changes in all associated plans,
elevations, sections, and other views.

Figure 2: Integrated schedules in Revit Architecture are always accurate.

Figure 2 shows an example of a schedule with a plan, section, and two 3D views displaying a
wall that was moved. Using conventional CAD products, this would require significant rework.
In Revit Architecture it’s a snap. All you do is select the components to be deleted or
changed, make the change, and let the parametric change engine reflect the change
throughout the model.

Visualization and Presentation

Revit Architecture makes it easy to create and modify presentation materials directly in the
model. Impressive presentation materials do not require add-on products.
Revit Architecture includes AccuRender® raytracing and radiosity (see Figure 3). In Revit
Architecture you can use AccuRender for rendering, and for export and import of bitmap and
other graphic file formats. Revit Architecture also features walkthrough animation exportable
to AVI files, interactive panoramic file export, procedural plants, and full control of range,
resolution, and image sizing. Rendered images can be saved in the project and included on
plottable sheets just as any other view, drawing, or schedule in the project. Renderings can
also be created at any size and resolution, and can be saved outside the project in various
graphic file formats for presentation and publication. Revit Architecture includes PANTONE®
color matching for complete accuracy of your printed and plotted output. Revit Architecture
also includes support for RPC™ content from ArchVision™, and several RPC files are
included with the product. This innovative image-based rendering technology is capable of

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reflecting rich detail through synthesized image data rather than relying on complex geometry
to represent objects in 3D.

Figure 3: Revit Architecture includes AccuRender for in-product visualizations.

Revit Architecture also effectively automates tasks that have previously required many
different tools and significant expenditures of time. Consider how Revit Architecture creates
color-filled diagrams that show space utilization, material usage, or other categories of space.

Figure 4: Color-filled diagrams can be produced for an unlimited number of categories.

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In Figure 4 the designer is filling in the names associated with each room in this building.
Revit Architecture automatically color-fills the plan and updates the legend on the plan.
The designer has added a new room to the list, and Revit Architecture will changed the
legend and associated a new color with the new department. Although this example
illustrates departmental usage—and totals the square footage in the accompanying
schedule—Revit Architecture is capable of creating color-filled diagrams for any number of
categories, such as floor finish or public/private space analysis.

Changes in Section Views

Section views are an especially powerful illustration of the potency of a parametric change
engine. In Revit Architecture, you can draw a section simply by using the section tool and
indicating where you want the section cut. Flipping the section is as simple as toggling the
section head. Most importantly, you can move the section line anywhere you want in plan,
and Revit Architecture re-presents the section view rapidly and accurately.
You can create a section through this building by simply drawing the section on the plan view.
Revit Architecture can cut the section precisely where instructed to do so. You can open that
view by double clicking directly on the section tag.

Figure 5: Create sections quickly and easily.

This is not a static view—there’s no such thing in Revit Architecture. This is a live, parametric
view of the model, and you can place windows, doors, and other components or modify any
part of the design directly in the section view. In Revit Architecture, any changes made in
section are automatically reflected everywhere else in the design.

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Figure 6: Sections are parametric views and are always consistent.

Coordinating with Consultants

Revit Architecture, using Autodesk’s RealDWG™ toolkit, not only provides the DWG
compatibility—allowing import, export, and linking of your AutoCAD® data—but also supports
import, export, and linking to DXF™ files and MicroStation® DGN files. Revit Architecture
enables you to always provide up-to-date underlay shell drawings and other deliverables to
your consultants.
Exported files present the proper level of information expected by AutoCAD or MicroStation
software users when opened in those systems. The component and element categories in
Revit Architecture are properly mapped to the layering standard of your choice, specific sets
of geometric entities appear as blocks, and the correct pen and plotting information is
provided in an associated file. You can also bring native DWG files directly into Revit
Architecture to use as reference geometry, library components, or as the starting point for a
new design. In addition to direct support of DWG and DGN file formats, any CAD system that
supports these file formats can work effectively with Revit Architecture.

Working in Large Teams

Revit Worksharing distributes the power of the Revit Architecture parametric building
modeling environment across the project team. Revit Worksharing provides a complete range
of collaboration modes from entirely on-the-fly simultaneous access to the shared model,
through the formal division of the project into discrete shared units, to complete separation of
project elements or systems into individually managed linked models. Revit Worksharing
allows the team to choose the best way to collaborate and interact based on their workflow
and the project requirements.
Revit worksets enable communication, collaboration, and coordination across multiuser
project teams. Worksets enable team members to select the portions of the project they are
responsible for; check them out from the single, integrated building information model;
change them at will; and then check them back in. When returned to the shared model,

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worksets reflect all changes back into that model with full bidirectional associativity,
maintaining consistency across the entire project.

Figure 7: Worksets enable large teams to collaborate using a single building information model.
Worksets are dynamically reserved and released by team members over the network as they work. The
Worksets dialog box always shows current information about who is working in what workset.

Worksets can be thought of as a distributed building database, one in which the entire team
can move from stage to stage, process to process, to easily and quickly create whatever
portion of the project is required. With Revit Architecture, the computer works harder—
providing consistency across multiple team members—while the essential ease of use is
maintained and the integrated model preserved during the entire design and documentation
process.
With Revit Architecture, large teams can now work in a model-based environment on major
projects in a distributed mode while relying on the computer for consistency. In Figure 7,
some parts of the building have been marked editable and some have not. Those that are not
editable are available for other users to edit; here you see the project standards workset—
where the team shares common design parameters that are being changed so that the entire
team can benefit from a global revision.

Working with Large Projects

Large projects involving multiple buildings or building wings can be developed by linking
together several separate Revit Architecture project files (Figure 8). Users can work on the
files individually while the building geometry from the other individual linked files is visible.
Presentation materials and other deliverables, including all the parts of the project assembled
together, can be prepared from the linked files.

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Figure 8: One Revit Architecture project model can be linked into another Revit Architecture project to
develop composite deliverables of projects involving multiple buildings or building wings.

Support for Unusual Geometry

Revit Architecture supports architects and designers in creating their most imaginative
designs within the industry’s most powerful building modeler, as shown in Figure 9.
Designers can use splines to easily create free-form sketches for walls, roofs, floors, and
family (parametric building content) elements. Advanced wall geometry provides tapered and
battered walls, cornices and reveals, and curtain walls spanning any two lines, arcs, or
splines. Roof geometry supports 3D-path sweeps to create fascias, eave conditions, and
soffits for the most detailed roof designs. Roofs can incorporate skylights within any
condition. The ability to divide wall faces and other surfaces into multiple separate regions
enables designers to sketch and describe areas of different appearance, design, color, or
texture on any model surface, providing highly detailed renderings and other documentation.

Figure 9: Revit Architecture supports the most elaborate geometry while maintaining a faithful
description of the building project. Here, this curtain wall is made up of schedulable mullions and glazing
panels.

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Sharing Data with Other Applications

Revit Architecture provides for export of the building information model to industry-standard
open database connectivity (ODBC) compliant relational database tables. Using the digital
quantification of the building and any of a number of common analysis tools from
spreadsheets to traditional cost-estimating packages, industry professionals can now reliably
estimate what is in a building project and how much material is needed. Using Revit
Architecture to create this business data minimizes the expensive and error-prone activities
of measuring a building from drawings and recalculating results when the design changes.
Substantial reductions in cost and scheduling rework and error along with increases in quality
result from the unique ability of Revit Architecture to automatically provide business data from
a model created simply by drawing the building.

Figure 10: Revit Architecture integrates the building information model with the site. Parking spaces are
parametric components placed in plan and scheduled in bidirectionally associated views of the project
database.

Integrated Site Modeling

Revit Architecture is the first building modeler to integrate parametric site modeling. Site
surfaces can be imported from existing survey information or created using Revit Architecture
and coordinated with the building design. You have direct control over triangulated surfaces
and contour displays. Revit Architecture components placed on the terrain automatically find
the terrain surface to attach to, and, because the site is an integral part of the overall project,
section cuts automatically reflect changes in the terrain should any part of the building be
modified.
Parking spaces and plant materials are parametric components placed in the Revit
Architecture model (see Figure 10). Parking spaces are inventoried and scheduled in the
model, and plant materials are scheduled by their proper scientific names.
Now, designers can study grading, create realistic sections, and further reduce preparation
time for construction documentation.

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Improving the Design and Construction Process

In Revit Architecture, the design and documentation process is a cycle of team-based tasks
that are constantly iterating from stage to stage, not a series of discrete, serial steps ending
in a set of construction documents. Revit Architecture is the single, integrated tool you use to
move through the entire process. Here, we illustrate just a few of the common tasks you may
have in the design and documentation process. The objective isn’t to detail features; it’s to
encourage you to rethink your use of CAD by demonstrating how Revit Architecture helps
you create construction documentation directly, while making it easy to cycle through different
tasks in your project.
Revit Architecture Maker is a powerful conceptual design and modeling environment that
takes any overall building form described conceptually and maps it to real-world building
entities like roofs, curtain walls, floors, and walls, allowing for a cumulative understanding of
the relationship between expressive and built form as the design develops.
Massing capabilities in Revit Architecture enable multiple iterations of the earliest design
concepts—much the way you would create models from rigid foam blocks—while protecting
that investment of time and effort by allowing the massed forms to be developed all the way
into construction documents.

Figure 11: Revit Architecture Maker conceptual modeling environment.

Revit Architecture also supports phasing information in the building information model.
Drawings that represent different phases of construction are easy to create.
Revit Architecture allows each component to be assigned to a phase, which determines how
it is displayed at various points in time. And, because every view in Revit Architecture is
always associated with the model, the phased components and views automatically reflect
any changes to that model.
Finally, Figure 12 shows a series of sheets ready to be printed or plotted for a well-
documented construction project.
Sheets in Revit Architecture are “what you see is what you get,” meaning that you can
change the scale of the elevations, plans, and so forth, without complex layer management

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(there are no layers in Revit Architecture). You can even make design changes directly on
the view contained on the sheet and be assured that Revit Architecture will reflect that
change automatically throughout the model. Call-out annotations are up-to-date and accurate
because the parametric change engine is responsible for keeping them current, not the user.

Figure 12: Construction documents are easy to produce and revise at any time in Revit Architecture.

Summary
The Revit Architecture software for building information modeling enables building design and
production professionals to use a single, integrated digital model from the beginning of a
project through to completion, and on into the lifecycle of the building. It does this by
providing the easiest-to-use interface available for the building industry coupled with a
sophisticated parametric change engine that transfers the burden of coordinating change
from the user of the design tool to the computer, where it belongs.
For more information about Revit Architecture, please visit
www.autodesk.com/architecture.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, DWG, DXF, RealDWG, and Revit are registered trademarks or
trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and other countries. All other brand names, product
names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter
product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for
typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
Occasionally, Autodesk makes statements regarding planned or future development efforts for
our existing or new products and services. These statements are not intended to be a promise
or guarantee of future delivery of products, services, or features but merely reflect our current
plans, which may change. The Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-
looking statements to reflect any change in circumstances, after the statements are made.
© 2007 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

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