Revit Design Options

Introduction

The design option function in Revit allows you to explore different design options for various parts of your project. The benefits of this way of exploring designs is that it is possible to make different design solutions for different parts in the same model, for example if you want consider 4 options of the main lobby and you want to consider 3 examples of the kitchen layout in the same scheme.

Design Options are parts of your model that are separated from the Main Model. You define Option Sets, in which multiple Design Options can exists. Revit will only show one of the Design Options from a set at any given time, so there is no duplicate geometry. Elements that are in a Design Option should not have a copy in the Main Model. When you add an element from the Main Model to one or more Design Options, Revit removes it from the Main Model and places copies in the selected Design Options. Because Revit will always show one of the Design Options in a given Set plus the Main Model, you have a complete view of your model.

Design Options work well for isolated, distinct elements of the project. Although they can be used at any stage, they are less suited for later design stages, because of the constraints Design Options place on relations between elements. It is not allowed to create relations between an element that is in a Design Option and another element that is not in that Design Option. This can make it difficult to use Design Options successfully in later design stages.

Option Sets

All design options for the same part of your model should be grouped together in an Option Set. So an Option Set is a collection of related design Options.

For any given Option Set, only one Option can be Primary. This is the preferred Option. The Primary option is displayed when you're not editing a specific option (working in the Main Model). As soon as you start to edit a specific option, only that option is shown and the other options of that Option Set are hidden.

Design Options interface

The Design Options Section is located in the manage tab in the Ribbon. Click (Design Options) top open the primary Design Options Interface

Alternatively you can use the Design Options bar in the Status bar at the bottom of your screen:

Here you can control your design options. In this example we are going to draw some different design options for the entrance lobby and some room separation options. In the pop up screen you see option set (this is a group of design options) and option (this is a single design option) a project can have multiple option sets with in this option set multiple options.

First we create a new option set by clicking the New button under Option Set. You can change the name by selecting it and clicking the rename button under Option Set. When you create a new Option Set, by default one Option is created. To create another option, click the New button under Option.

The (primary) label shows which option is your 'favorite'. This option will appear as default in the views. You can make other options primary by hitting the Make Primary button.

Create or change your model for a specific Design Option

To create or change the model for a Design Option, either:

1. use the Design Options Interface (see above), select the option you want to edit and click Edit Selected. Close the Design Options Interface.
2. Select the option you want to edit from the list in the Design options bar in the Status bar. If your not editing a Design Option, it displays 'Main Model'

The main model is now grayed out and everything you create is added to this design option only. Note that you can use anything from the Main Model as a reference, but not objects that are specific to another Design Option (they are hidden).

When you're finished, click on the Finish Editing button in Design Options interface, or switch back to the Main Model in the Design Options bar.

Moving objects to/from/between Design Options

Move object from the Main Model to a Design Option

Make sure you're not editing a Design option, but you're actually working in the Main Model. Select the object(s) and either:

• click the (Add to Set) butto in the Design Options section on the Manage Tab in the Ribbon, or
• click the (Add to set) button on the Design Options bar in the Status bar.

The following interface displays:

Select the option to which you want to add the object, by ticking the check-boxes, deselect the others. When you select all, it is added to all Design Options, but is no longer part of the Main Model.

Moving objects between Design Options

Moving an object from one Design Option to another is actually not as easy as you might expect. When clicking the Add to Set, you'll get an error:

You're not allowed to add objects to a set that are not in the Main Model, so you can't change to which Design Option they belong to.

First you will have to move it to the Main Model. From there you can (re-)add it to one or more Design Options. To move it back to the Main Model, see the next section.

Remove objects from a Design Option to the Main Model

Edit the Design Option that the object is in (The (Pick to Edit) button in the Design Options section in the Manage Tab on the Ribbon may come in handy).

Select the object(s). Press Ctrl+x (Cut), or use the (Cut to Clipboard) button in the Clipboard section of the Modify tab on the Ribbon, to cut the objects to the clipboard.

Finish editing the Design Option, going back to the Main Model.

Paste the object(s) into the Main Model, using (Paste Aligned to Same Place) in the Paste fold-out in the Clipboard section of the Modify tab on the Ribbon.

Design Options Bar

The Design Option bar in the Status bar has some additional settings:

 

When working in the Main Model, this setting (enabled) allows you to only select objects that are in the Main Model. When you un-check this, you can also select and change visible objects that are part of a Design Option

 

When editing a Design option, this setting (enabled) allows you to select and change only objects that are part of this Design Option. When you un-check this, you can also select and change visible objects that are not part of this Design Option

Make Design Options final

When you have decided which option is the best in an Option Set, you can accept that option and remove all other options.

First you must make the chosen option primary. Then you can click the Accept Primary button. This will transfer everything from the primary option back into the Main Model and delete all other options from the same Option Set. There will be a warning that all the other options will be deleted, click yes. Now you have successfully absorbed the chosen options into your model. IF you have multiple Option Sets, you may have to repeat his process for these Option Sets.

Visibility

You can control the visibility of Design Options the same way as other visibility settings in the Visibility/Graphics Overrides panel of the view. When there are design options there is an extra tab in the visibility/graphics overrides panel. Now you can for example duplicate the view and show on your presentation the different design options.

This can be useful if you want to show the various Design Options for comparison on a single Sheet. You could create a View, e.g. a Floor Plan, for each Design Option and use the Visibility/Graphics Overrides settings to specify which Design option to show in each one of them.

My View doesn't show the active Design Option

This happens when the visibility/graphics overrides of the view have been configured to show a specific Design Option, instead of automatic selection of the Design Option to show.

Usually this happens when a view was created within a Design option, instead of within the Main model. Note that when you create a Level, this creates an associated view, so if you create the Level in a Design Option, the same applies.

To change the behavior, select the view, and click the Edit button next to Visibility/Graphics Overrides in the Properties panel. Go to the Design Option tab in the window and change the setting from one of the Design Options to <Automatic>:

Design Options and Types

You can't create new types when you're working in a secondary Design Option.

New Family Types can only be created when:

• You're editing a Design Option that is Primary;
• or you're working in the Main Model.