By Dennis Collin
Revit 2019 introduced some nice new features when it was released earlier this year. One of these was a revised interface and the introduction of Tab Views which remind me of the drawing layout tabs which were incorporated into AutoCAD a few years earlier.
Drawing Tabs in AutoCAD
In previous Revit releases, it was sometimes hard to appreciate how many views were active in a project and switching between these views could be a little tedious unless one uses keyboard shortcuts to get to the desired view.
Old Revit view interface
The Tile Windows function is popular with users to set two views next to each other. This workflow enables model or data changes to be immediately seen in context of other views e.g. editing a part reference in a schedule view and witnessing the corresponding tag update in a plan or section view. When a single view was required users could use the maximise window button to fill the application window thereby reducing screen clutter.
Old maximise view button from Revit 2018
With the advent of 2019 however, the maximise window button disappeared! So, after tiling views for coordination checks, it can seem a little difficult to get the desired view to fill the application window again. Visiting the Views Tab on the ribbons interface shows some slight changes in the View menu with the new TAB VIEWS button. This is effectively the maximise view window function from earlier versions.
Revit 2019 Tab view command
I am a big fan of keyboard shortcuts as they are often the fastest way to perform and access commands.
WT - remains the shortcut to fit views to a tiled layout within the application window.
TW - is the new 2019 shortcut that makes the active view fill the application window with the other views tabbed behind.
CTRL+TAB – Permits an alternate way to switch between tabbed views.
WC – Cascade views in order of tabs.
Close Inactive Windows is also a useful command to tidy excessive Revit views which tend to accumulate during a working day. There is no default shortcut to this command but can easily be accommodated with the Keyboard Shortcut editor command ‘KS’. The command also exists on the quick access toolbar.
After several months I have got quite comfortable with the new Revit 2019 interface, but Keyboard shortcuts are not for everyone and looking through the ribbon for a command can be a little tedious. Perhaps a right click option on the view tab in a future release would improve the functionality further.