Auto Dimension

Auto Dimension

Auto Dimension reads the plan, section or elevation you have open in Revit and lays out a complete, tidy set of dimension strings and tags for it: evenly spaced, never overlapping, and placed the way you would measure it by hand. It dimensions architectural, structural and MEP drawings, can set out from the grids and walls of a linked model, and follows the drafting standard you choose. Run it again after the drawing changes and it updates what is already there instead of piling up duplicates.

When to use it

• A general arrangement plan that needs its strings along every wall, the openings and junctions, and the detail, grid and overall tiers outside the building.
• Sections and elevations: grids, levels, wall heights, sill and head heights, and floor and roof thicknesses.
• Curtain walls, measured by their panels, their mullions, their grid and overall.
• A structural framing plan: grid bays, column centres, beams set out from the grids and footings located from them.
• An MEP plan drawn over the architect's linked model: ducts and pipes set out across their runs from the nearest grid or wall, sprinklers, lights and diffusers spaced in rows, equipment located from the grids.
• Bringing a drawing up to date after the design has moved on, without redoing what is already there.

How to use

1. Open a plan, section or elevation in Revit, then open Auto Dimension from BimCode's plugin list. It reads the open view straight away and draws a preview of every string it would place.
2. Check the package on the left: what kind of drawing this is and which standard it follows. The first time in a project one is chosen for you from what the view shows.
3. Choose what gets dimensioned in the Categories tab beside the drawing, if you want to change it. It lists every category, like Visibility/Graphics, with one tick for plans and one for sections and elevations.
4. Look at the preview. Red will be placed, grey is already there, dashed red will be removed. Drag a string further out or closer in to move it; the move is kept.
5. Click Place. Everything goes into Revit as one step, so one Undo in Revit takes it all back. The report at the bottom says what was placed and lists anything left for you, each with a button that shows it in the model.

The Help tab beside the drawing has the full walk-through, with diagrams.

What is on screen

• Package (left) — the kind of drawing, its disciplines and MEP services, the drafting standard, and the linked models the view shows. Packages are saved, imported and exported here.
• Annotations (left) — whether a run adds dimensions, tags, or both.
• Dimension settings (left) — how each kind of string is drawn: which side of a wall, what walls and openings are measured to, what strings are tied to, the dimension style and units. Spacing and the rarer switches sit under More settings.
• Drawing, Categories and Help — tabs in the middle: the live preview, the category list, and the help.
• Tag layout and Tag groups (right) — where tags go and how their leaders run, and sets of tags you pick on the drawing and arrange together.
• Run report (bottom) — what the last run did.

Every panel can be moved, pinned, hidden or torn off, and the arrangement is remembered.

Packages

A package is a whole way of dimensioning a kind of drawing: which categories, how each is measured and placed, how strings are tied and spaced, the dimension style and the tags. Built in:

• Architectural GA plan, in an ISO, a US and a DIN version
• Structural framing plan
• MEP coordination plan, and one plan per service: HVAC, plumbing and drainage, water supply, fire protection, lighting, power, and low current
• Every discipline at once

Change anything and Save as… to keep it as your own; it is then in the package list in every project. Export… writes packages to a file you can send to colleagues; Import… adds packages from a file without overwriting any of yours.

Good to know

• Works in floor, ceiling, structural and area plans, sections and elevations.
• Never creates a dimension that is already on the drawing, whether you placed it by hand or an earlier run did.
• Anything you have moved or edited by hand afterwards is left alone on later runs.
• Before placing, it checks that Revit will accept each kind of measurement in the view. Anything it cannot dimension is listed under Left for you rather than placed wrong.
• Strings keep off the fixtures and runs they do not measure, leave room for their figures, and stay in their own room.
• A pipe belongs to the service of its system, so a water supply drawing dimensions the cold and hot water pipes and leaves the drainage pipes in the same category alone.
• From linked models it takes grids and levels to set out from and walls to tie strings to. Tick Their elements to dimension the linked elements too, or switch linked models off altogether.
• If the view hides anything beyond its annotation crop, the crop is widened to fit what is placed, in the same undo step.
• Your setup is remembered per project, and your own packages are there in every project.
• The standards named in packages are the conventions applied, not a certificate of compliance. Adjust them to your office manual and save the result as your own package.