Revit Elements and Tools: A Comprehensive Dictionary

Annotation Elements

Used to notate and clarify the information presented.

Annotate Ribbon

Buttons: Aligned, Linear, Angular, Radial, Diameter, Arc Length, Spot Elevation, Spot Coordinate, Spot Slope, Detail Line, Region, Component, Revision Cloud, Detail Group, Insulation, Text, Check Spelling, Find/Replace, Tag By Category, Tag All, Beam Annotations, Multi-Category, Material Tag, Area Tag, Room Tag, Space Tag, View Reference, Tread Number, Keynote, Duct Legend, Pipe Legend, Color Fill Legend, and Symbol.

Annotate Ribbon Tab

Panels: Dimension, Detail, Text, Tag, Color Fill, and Symbol.

Application Menu

File access and management tools are grouped in this menu. This menu is designated by the large ‘R’ in the top left corner of the Revit screen.

Commands: New, Open, Save, Save As, Export, Publish, Print, Close, Options, Exit, Licensing, and Suite Workflows.

Architectural Ribbon

Buttons: Wall, Door, Window, Component, Column, Roof, Ceiling, Floor, Curtain System, Curtain Grid, Mullion, Railing, Ramp, Stair, Model Text, Model Line, Model Group, Room, Room Separator, Tag Room, Area, Area Boundary, Tag Area, By Face, Shaft, Wall, Vertical, Dormer, Level, Grid, Set, Show, Reference Plane, and Viewer.

Architectural Ribbon Tab

Panels: Build, Circulation, Model, Room & Area, Opening, Datum, and Work Plane.

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

A complete representation or depiction of a building that aids in its design, construction, and potentially continuous management. This is an evolving concept as it will continue to change as the capabilities of technology improve.

Curtain Walls

Panelized wall systems comprised of a curtain grid pattern in both the horizontal and vertical directions. If an existing basic wall with doors and/or windows is converted to a curtain wall, the doors and/or windows will be deleted.

Datum Elements

Establish planes of reference in three-dimensional space and are useful for establishing benchmarks and working planes for the project’s geometry.

Detail Line

Designed to appear only in the view in which it is placed. It is treated as an embellishment to that particular view only and will not be added physically to the building model.

Dimension Command

Has five separate types: Aligned, Linear, Angular, Radial, and Arc Length.

Drafting View

Provides a blank sheet of paper suitable for importing legacy CAD details, image files, or natively drawn sketches and is not linked to anything in the model.

Elements

Classified into the following classes: Model, Annotation, Datum, and View. Examples of elements include walls, doors, windows, roofs, and furniture.

An element in Revit is a discrete building block or piece of data like an object or drawing sheet. The four basic types of elements are:

• Model Elements (Walls, Doors, Roofs)
• Datum Elements (Levels, Grids, Reference Planes)
• Annotation Elements (Tags, Text, Dimensions)
• View Elements (Plans, Sections, Schedules)

Family

An object designated for a particular purpose that has a collection of parameters and behaviors.

Floor

In Revit, floors are sketch-based objects that require you to sketch out their basic form with simple 2D sketch lines. This line work is then used to generate the 2D and/or 3D for the final object.

Insert Ribbon

Buttons: Link Revit, Link CAD, DWF Markup, Decal, Point Cloud, Manage Links, Import CAD, Import gbXML, Insert from File, Image, Manage Images, Import Family Types, Load Family, and Load as Group.

Insert Ribbon Tab

Panels: Link, Import, Load from Library, and Autodesk Seek.