Datasheet
element ORganIzatIOn
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As the name implies, View-Specific elements only exist in the view in which they are placed,
with dependent views the exception to the rule. Dependent views are child views to a single
parent view and share all view-specific elements with the parent and its other children. An
example of a dependent view is a large framing plan that needs to be divided into several sec-
tions so it will fit onto your title sheet.
Model elements, on the other hand, appear in every view whose extent they intersect. That
saves a lot of time and coordination effort when you are making significant changes in the
design. And remember you can work on the model elements in any view in which they appear.
Element Organization
All of the elements used throughout Revit are logically organized into a hierarchy of categories,
families, types, and instances:
The categories represent the different parts of the building, such as structural foundations,
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columns, and beams.
Within each category are different families of objects. The structural column category has
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steel column families and concrete column families.
Within each family are different types of the same object,.The steel wide flange column
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family has many sizes, such as a W12x26 and a W24x55. These are different types of
one family.
Each type can be placed many times in your project, and with various settings, which we
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call instances of a type. One instance may be a one-story column; another instance may be
a four-story column.
Next we will examine these different parts of the element organization and how they work
together in your virtual model as you work through the design process.
Categories
The basic set of object categories can be viewed and edited in the following way:
1. On the menu bar, click Settings Object Styles, or on the menu bar click View
Visibility/Graphics.
2. In the resulting dialog box, click the Object Styles button at the bottom.
Figure 1.16 shows the Object Styles dialog box. Checking the Show Categories from All
Disciplines check box will allow you to see additional categories primarily used by the Revit
Architecture and Revit MEP platforms. This dialog box organizes the categories into three tabs:
Model Objects, Annotation Objects, and Imported Objects.
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