BIM solution Smart Assemblies is highly valued by Revit® users who work with assembly drawings because it saves a great amount of time. Anyway, after a few clients’ questions and requests, we‘ve been looking for a way to save even more time while starting new projects.
In previous versions of Smart Assemblies you could create assembly with automatic dimensions and then drag views to the sheet and use the Sheet as a Template to create other Assemblies within that project. Then, user starts the next project, configurations remain and he can start using them straight away. But Sheet Templates had to be created in each project for every configuration.
In new version of Smart Assemblies (SA) we‘ve managed to solve that and you will not have to create new sheet templates for your assemblies, but use the existing ones from the Template Project.
Now in SA you have two locations you can browse to:
Configuration Files Location – where you store your general Shop Drawing Configuration (SDC) files.
Template Project Location – where you store Template Project which is read by Configurations looking for Sheet Templates (note: if you don‘t have a Template Project yet, select your Current Project).
In Template Project, create Assemblies of all structural elements with defined Shop Drawing Configurations and Sheet Templates.
How to Create Template Project: Main Steps
It is obvious that to make it work properly, user has to have the same Revit elements in Current Project as in Template Project. For example view types, view templates, section types, tags, text styles and so on. All the things you use in configurations and assembly views
If you‘re missing them in Current project you can use two new commands: Transfer Project Standards from Template Project and Load Annotation Symbols & Legends. The first one will open Revit’s Transfer Project Standard window with Template Project selected and all boxes cleared. We can’t automate this process because of Revit’s API limitations, therefore in this window you’ll have to select at least these 6 items manually: Dimension Styles, Filters, Text Types, View Reference Types, View Templates and Viewport Types.
The second command – Load Annotation Symbols & Legends –will load Tags, Callout Heads, Section Heads, Section Types, Title blocks and Legends from Template Project.
After you setup your Template Project Location and are sure you have all the necessary families and templates in current project, you can go ahead and Create Assemblies or Auto Create Assemblies. Your assemblies will have views, schedules and legends placed on sheets just like in Template Project for selected configuration.
So, once again, to make this new feature work properly in Current Project:
- Smart Assemblies in Template Project must be created with SDC defined in Configuration Files Location which you will use in Current Project.
- All Revit‘s elements (Tags, View Templates, Text Styles etc.) used in SDC must be present in Current Project.
We know that this is a long-awaited feature by many users and we hope it will be beneficial for all BIM industry.
For more information about Smart Assemblies check e-help, watch our webinars and getting started videos, and of course contact our support group at support@aga-cad.com if you have any questions.
And here is our video about new Smart Assemblies feature – Template Project:
