by Garry Stockton
In Revit you can duplicate any view such as a floor plan, elevation and section, but did you know there are three different types of duplicate views.
- Duplicate
- Duplicate with detailing
- Duplicate as dependent
Please note: In Scheduling you can only Duplicate; in 3D and Detail views Duplicate and Duplicate with Detailing.
So what is the difference between these and when should you use them?
Duplicate
This is the most common way to duplicate a view and is likely what you have been using all this time. The main features of Duplicate are:
- Copies visibility settings
- No detailing
- Independent from original view
This allows you to make multiple copies of a view such as a floor plan, but use them for different reasons such as fire escape plans, room area plans & dimensions. Each view will be of the same floor plan, however they can individually be customised.
Duplicate with Detailing
This is similar to duplicate, however as the name suggests, it will also copy any detailing such as dimensions and text. The new duplicated view is still independent from the original allowing you to fully customise the new view.
- Copies visibility settings
- Copies detailing
- Independent from original view
This can be useful if you will be using the same detailing as on the original view, for example you want to use the same view but at different scales or colour schemes.
Duplicate as Dependent
Duplicating as a dependent will create identical copies of the original view. The new views are also tied to the original view as child objects. What this means is if you add a dimension in the ordinal view all dependent views will also have the new dimension.
- Shares visibility settings
- Copies detailing
- Is synchronised to the original view
This can be extremely useful if you have a large floor plan and you want to make several views which are cropped to specific regions.
Conclusion
Understanding the difference between the different duplicate views and how they can be used is extremely useful, however little used. On larger projects Duplicate as Dependent has a lot of uses.