Making a Color Fill Legend for Rooms

In many projects, it becomes necessary to display plans with some additional information about the spaces. Typically during the design phases, clients need to see how different departments are located adjacent to one another. Even in a simple residential design, it can be helpful to see how public spaces such as kitchens and living areas are located relative to the more private spaces of bedrooms and bathrooms.

In the sample building project used in Chapter 17, “Documenting Your Design,” you may want to visually show the various space types in the floor plans. You want to graphically demonstrate which spaces have been assigned to various departments defined in the building’s program of requirements. To get started, download and open the c20-Sample-Building-Start.rvt or c20-Sample-Metric.rvt model from the book’s web page, www.sybex.com/go/masteringrevitarch2016. You will begin by creating a new type of floor plan that will help organize the Project Browser and automatically assign an appropriate view template.

To get started, follow these steps:

1. Switch to the View tab in the ribbon, locate the Create panel, and then choose Plan Views ➢ Floor Plans. In the New Floor Plan dialog box, click the Edit Type button to open the Type Properties dialog box for the Floor Plan type.
2. Click the Duplicate button and then name the new view type Color Fill.
3. Click the button in the parameter field named View Template Applied To New Views. In the Apply View Template dialog box, select Color Fill Plans and then click OK to close the Type Properties dialog box.
4. Using the Ctrl key, select both Level 1 and Level 2 in the New Floor Plan dialog box, and then click OK.
5. Return to the Project Browser and you will see a new heading called Floor Plans (Color Fill). Change the names of the new floor plans to Level 1 - Dept - Color and Level 2 - Dept - Color.

      

6. Activate each of the new color fill plans and use the Tag All Not Tagged tool to add room tags to each plan.

   For more information on tagging, see Chapter 18, “Annotating Your Design.”

7. Open the Level 1 – Dept - Color floor plan and click the Color Fill Legend button in the Color Fill panel of the Annotate tab. This will activate the Color Fill Legend tool and ask you to place a legend somewhere in the active view. Anywhere for now is fine—just place it to one side of the plan or the other.

   Once the legend is placed, you can then define and customize its characteristics.

8. After the legend is placed, you’ll be presented with a dialog box similar to the one in Figure 20.2. This dialog box will prompt you to choose from a list of space types available in the current view and color schemes that have already been established within the model. From the Space Type drop-down list, select Rooms, and from the Color Scheme drop-down list, choose Name and click OK.

   The color scheme will automatically generate a legend based on your room names and color the rooms on the plan.

   If you already created a color scheme that you wanted to use in this view, it would be a simple matter of selecting it from this list and clicking OK, and the legend and view would be complete. The default project template contains a few simple color schemes from which you can choose when you place your first legend. You started with a basic one that automatically assigns a color for each unique room name in the project; however, this type of presentation is not usually that useful.

   In the subsequent steps of the exercise, you will create different color schemes to further explore more complex methods of presentation.

9. After the legend is placed, you can then alter its properties or choose a different color scheme. To modify a legend, select the legend, and in the Modify | Color Fill Legends context menu, click the Edit Scheme button.

   This opens the aptly named Edit Color Scheme dialog box (Figure 20.3). This dialog box allows you add, rename, or delete color schemes on the left side and define the graphic properties and attributes of these schemes on the right.

   A drop-down list labeled Color at the top of the Scheme Definition area appears. This is the property by which the color scheme is being defined. It is currently assigned to color the plan according to room name. Each unique room name in the project is automatically generating its own color for the legend.

10. From the list of schemes at the left, choose Department.

    The Color drop-down list now indicates the Department parameter, but there are no values defined in the list to the right. This is because text has not been added to the Department parameter for any of the room elements in the project.

    Any parameter available to be used in a color fill legend needs to have values in its properties. You can either enter the value in the Properties palette by selecting the item and finding that property or by predefining values in the color scheme. In the following steps, you will predefine values for the departments and then assign them to the rooms later.

11. Now let’s predefine some values. At the left side of the table under Scheme Definition, click the green plus sign to add values to the color scheme for Department. Create four new values as follows:
    • MANAGEMENT
    • OPERATIONS
    • PRODUCTION

    • SALES

    For now, you can use the automatic color and pattern assignments.

12. Click OK to close the dialog box.

    You will notice in the floor plan that the legend now shows the title Department Legend and it displays No Colors Defined (Figure 20.4). Even though you defined some Department values, they will not show on the legend until you assign values to the rooms placed in the project.

13. Back in the floor plan, select the Manager room on the lower left of the plan and look in the Properties palette. Find the Department property and click in the value field to access a drop-down list (Figure 20.5).

    The values available in the list are the values you added to the color scheme in step 5.

14. Assign the two rooms at the left side of the plan to the MANAGEMENT department, assign the LOUNGE space to the SALES department, and assign the SUPPORT space to the OPERATIONS department.

    As you make these assignments, the color fill legend will update and the space will fill with the matching color.

15. Activate the Level 2 - Dept - Color floor plan and repeat steps 7 through 14 to assign some department values.

    Because you already created a color scheme defined by department value, you don’t need to repeat steps 9 and 10.

    Customizing a Color Fill Legend

Although the software automatically assigns colors to each value in a color scheme definition, you’ll likely want to change the colors or the fill patterns to suit your presentation needs. In this section you will customize the color scheme and the legend created in the previous exercises. Because many firms typically have standards for presentation color schemes, it’s a good idea to add your customized schemes to your office template.

In the following exercise you will create a copy of the department-based color scheme to use black line patterns instead of color fills. Download and open the file c20-Sample-Building2-Start.rvt or c20-Sample-Metric2-Start.rvt from the book’s web page. Then follow these steps:

1. Return to the Level 1 – Dept - Color floor plan you used for the exercise in the previous section. In the Project Browser, right-click Level 1 - Dept - Color and choose Duplicate With Detailing from the context menu. Rename the duplicated view Level 1 - Dept - Black. Repeat this process for the Level 2 - Dept - Color plan.
2. Activate the Level 1 - Dept - Black floor plan, select the legend located to the right of the plan, and click Edit Scheme in the ribbon to open the Edit Color Scheme dialog box.
3. Select Department from the list of schemes on the left side and click the Duplicate icon at the bottom of the list. Name the duplicate scheme Department (Black).

4. You can change any of the assigned colors by selecting any of the buttons in the Color column. Doing so opens the Color dialog box (Figure 20.6) and allows you to select colors based on RGB values or PANTONE colors. Change the colors for each of the departments to black (R:0, G:0, B:0) and then click OK.

   After you have defined the colors, take note of a couple of other features in the Edit Color Scheme dialog box, shown previously in Figure 20.3. The first is the Options area at the bottom of the dialog box, which contains a single check box that allows you to pull values from linked projects. If you are working on a large building that is split into multiple files, this is a good way to tie all that information together into a single graphic presentation.

5. The other option you have is the ability to exclude various scheme definition values for a color scheme. Notice the Visible column next to the Value column in the scheme definition, as shown in Figure 20.7.

   Uncheck the box in the Visible column next to the value for OPERATIONS.

   This setting will exclude the selected value wherever this color scheme is applied to a view. In this example, we might assume that the client does not need to see spaces that belong to the OPERATIONS department in color—just the remaining departmental spaces.

6. Click each of the fields under the Fill Pattern column to change the fill pattern to a variety of line-based patterns, as shown in Figure 20.8.
7. Click OK and you’ll notice that the color fills have dynamically changed to reflect the modifications you made in your color scheme properties, as shown in Figure 20.9.

8. Open the Level 2 - Dept - Black floor plan. In the Properties palette, locate the Color Scheme parameter and click the button in the value field that is currently assigned to Department. In the Edit Color Scheme dialog box, choose the Department (Black) color scheme and click OK.

   The pattern fills are automatically placed according to the department assignments. Also notice that spaces assigned to the OPERATIONS department are not colored, nor does the department name appear in the legend because the Visible setting was turned off in step 4.

Modifying Other Settings

By now, you’ve created a color fill legend and placed it within a view, and you’ve seen a number of the settings and properties of the legend. Those settings reflect how the color fill legend will look and react to the plan or view in which it’s placed, but there are other settings you can modify as well. The legend key itself has several properties that control fonts and swatch sizes. Select the legend and click the Edit Type button in the Properties palette to explore some of the other properties you can modify.

Figure 20.10 shows the type properties for a color fill legend. In this dialog box, you can change the font size and type as well as the size of the color swatches that appear in the legend.

An important type property for color fill legends is Values Displayed. The two options for this property are By View and All, and the default setting for color fill legends is By View. You might have noticed that none of the spaces on Level 1 are assigned to the PRODUCTION department, and so that value does not appear in the legend placed on Level 1.

Try creating a duplicate color legend type named All Values and change the Values Displayed property to All. This legend type shows all department names, regardless of the department assignments on each level. This setting does not override the Visible options you specify in the color scheme settings; therefore, the OPERATIONS department will still not display when you use the Department (Black) color scheme.

In summary, you can combine any color scheme with any color legend type—the two are not dependent on each other.

Using Numerical Ranges for Color Schemes

In the previous exercises, you explored how to use color schemes to create presentation material based on specific object properties. You can also create color schemes that display ranges of numerical values. In the following exercise, you will continue with the c20-Sample-Building2-Start.rvt orc20-Sample-Metric2-Start.rvt file. With the Room color fill legend defined, you have seen an example of how to create color fill legends. A variety of other legend types are available, and some of these types allow you to define your own parameters when creating the legend itself. Let’s step through this process again using a different legend type so you can see how you can define your own parameters in a color fill legend.

The next color scheme you will create is based on areas. Whereas the Department color scheme was defined by rooms that were already placed on plans, the area scheme is defined by numerical ranges you will need to define within the color scheme properties. Follow these steps:

1. In the Project Browser, right-click the Level 1 - Dept - Black floor plan and choose Duplicate With Detailing from the context menu. Rename the duplicated plan Level 1 – Area Range. Select the color fill legend in the view, and click Edit Scheme in the contextual tab of the ribbon.
2. In the Edit Color Scheme dialog box, create a copy of the Name color scheme, using the Duplicate icon at the bottom of the list. Name the new scheme Area Range. Also change the Title field to Area Range.

3. From the Color drop-down list, choose Area. Click OK if you are presented with a warning about preserving colors.

   You’ll notice that all the room names and colors will disappear; they are replaced with values representing each unique room area.

   This type of schedule—like a schedule of room names—is probably not that useful as a presentation method. Instead, let’s create a series of colored area ranges to easily identify which spaces are within specific ranges.

4. Next to the Color drop-down list in the Scheme Definition field, select the By Range option. The static area values in the list below are now split into two columns labeled At Least and Less Than (Figure 20.11).
5. Select one of the rows so the green plus button is active. Click that button two times so that you have four rows in the list of value ranges.

6. Starting from the bottom row, change the values to 800, 500, and 200, as shown in Figure 20.12.

   You can also try changing some of the colors assigned to each of the value ranges to make the presentation more meaningful or simply easier to read.

7. Click OK to update the color fill scheme and view the results in the plan (Figure 20.13).

   The rooms now have colors based on their sizes rather than their names.

8. In the Project Browser, right-click Level 2 - Dept - Black and choose Duplicate With Detailing from the context menu. Rename the duplicated view Level 2 - Area Range.
9. In the Level 2 - Area Range floor plan, select the existing color fill legend and click Edit Scheme from the contextual tab in the ribbon. In the Edit Color Scheme dialog box, select Area Range and then click OK.

The rooms on Level 2 are now also represented with the same color range as we assigned for Level 1.

Orienting to Other Views

A quick and easy way to create more useful 3D views is by utilizing the Orient To View command. This command, which is somewhat hidden within the ViewCube,^® allows you to create a 3D view that mimics the settings of a 2D view.

In the following exercise, you will continue to use the c20-Sample-Building2-Start.rvt or c20-Sample-Metric-Start.rvt file. You will first adjust the view range settings for the floor plans and then create a 3D view for each level. Finally, you will assemble the views on a sheet to complete the presentation.

1. Select Level 1 from the Project Browser and go to the Properties palette to examine the view properties. Click the Edit button in the View Range property.

2. In the View Range dialog box (Figure 20.14), change the Top value under Primary Range to Level Above and set the corresponding offset value to –1'-8" (–0.5 m). Repeat this step for Level 2.

   Although you are changing the top of the view range of the floor plans, you will not see any difference in their graphic display.

3. Right-click the Default 3D view {3D} in the Project Browser and create two duplicates. Rename the duplicate views Box-Level 1 and Box-Level 2.

4. Activate the view Box-Level 1 and right-click the ViewCube. Select Orient To View ➢ Floor Plans ➢ Floor Plan: Level 1, as shown in Figure 20.15.

   The view will be set to a plan orientation, but more important, a section box has been enabled that matches the extents of the Level 1 plan view. Try orbiting the view to see the results (Figure 20.16).

5. Right-click the ViewCube and select Orient To A Direction ➢ Southwest Isometric.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the Box-Level 2 view.
7. Create a new sheet using the C or A2 size title block, and drag the Box-Level 1 and Box-Level 2 views onto the sheet.

Place the Box-Level 2 view directly above the Box-Level 1 view and you’ll notice that the views will align vertically. You can align model views of various types on sheets as long as they are the same scale. This does not work for drafting views or perspective views.

You can continue to experiment with the view settings of these 3D views on the sheet. Even though the section boxes won’t print by default, you may want to hide them anyway. You can’t uncheck the Section Box property because the view would no longer be three-dimensionally cropped. To hide the section box, select the viewport and then click Activate View in the contextual tab in the ribbon. Select the section box, and from the contextual tab in the ribbon, click Hide In View (the light bulb icon) ➢ Hide Elements. Right-click and choose Deactivate View from the context menu, and then repeat this process for the other 3D view.

Annotating 3D Views

Once you add a 3D view to your sheets, you’re likely want to annotate it. To add annotations to your 3D view, you first need to lock it before adding text and tags as you would in a 2D view. This functionality is quite simple to implement.

In any orthographic 3D view, you will find the Lock/Unlock View button in the view shortcut bar, as shown in Figure 20.17. Once you lock the view, you can begin to add tags, text, and dimensions, but you cannot change the orientation of the view unless it is unlocked.

In the example shown in Figure 20.18, a section box was first applied to a 3D view and then annotated.

Once you have added annotation to a view, you may need to rotate the view. Return to the locked view tool and click Unlock View. You are now free to orbit the 3D view; notice how your annotations orbit with your model. The annotations will appear a bit skewed as a result of this rotation. If you want to return the view to the originally saved orientation, click Restore Orientation And Lock View. The annotations will reappear in their original locations.