Place views on sheets

Setting up sheets and placing views onto them is necessary for documenting any project. Depending on your preference, there are generally two methods to achieve this in Revit. The first is to create multiple empty sheets (View > Sheet Composition > Sheet) and then retrospectively place the views on the associated sheet. Since the release of Revit 2022, this process has been made somewhat more manageable with the ability to ‘duplicate empty sheet’ and hence retain all of the sheet’s properties. Even if the sheet creation process is automated, such as our Sheets from Excel Dynamo graph, manually placing views onto the sheet is still very manual.

The second method involves creating the sheet and placing the views automatically onto the sheet at the time of creation. For example, if an assembly has been created (Modify > Create > Create Assembly), the assembly’s views and sheets can automatically be created, and the views placed onto the sheet. However, the problem is that this workflow only applies to assemblies.

Place views on sheets with Dynamo

To solve this problem, Parametric Monkey has developed a Dynamo graph, which is available as part of our Dynamo Package Development service. The graph will take the selected views in the Project Browser, group them based on a naming convention, create an associated sheet, and then place them onto the sheet. This workflow is highly beneficial for placing multiple views onto a single sheet, such as for room data sheets. 

Before running the graph, ensure that all views to be placed on the sheet have been created. Ideally, the views already have a view template applied, are at the correct view scale, and have been cropped accordingly. For the views to be grouped correctly, the views must have a consistent view naming logic. Next, in the Project Browser, select the views to be placed. 

Tip: Configure the Project Browser organisation with the necessary grouping and sorting to select views quickly.

To run the graph, specify the following settings in Dynamo Player, then press Run:

View settings

• Define the view naming separator (#1). The graph will use this value to split the view name to identify the naming convention used. For example, if the view’s name is “101 – FLOOR PLAN”, use “-“.
• Define the naming value to reference for grouping (#2). The graph will use this value to identify which views should be grouped. For example, if the view’s name is “101 – FLOOR PLAN”, use “Prefix”.
• Specify the number of view groups per sheet (#3). Depending on the view scale and the sheet size, multiple view groups may want to be combined into a single sheet.
• Define the view type sorting order (#4). Collected views will be sorted in this order when placing the viewports to ensure the detail number sequence is as desired. For view type enumeration, refer here.

Sheet settings

• Specify the title block family type to place on sheets (#5). 
• [Optional] Define the sheet number prefix (#6). This value can be left blank if desired.
• Define the sheet number start sequence (#7). This option allows batch processing depending on your naming convention. For example, Level 1 views may have a start sequence of “100”, whereas Level 2 views may have a start sequence of “200”.
• Define the sheet number step value (#8). For example, if the sheets are to be numbered sequentially, for example, 101, 102, etc., the step value is “1′. If, however, general arrangement floor plans are being created, the step value might be “100” to obtain 100, 200, 300, etc.
• [Optional] Define the sheet number suffix (#9). This value can be left blank if desired.
• [Optional] Define the sheet name prefix (#10). This value can be left blank if desired.
• [Optional] Define the sheet name suffix (#11). This value can be left blank if desired.

Viewport settings

• Specify the viewport type (#12). This setting controls how the viewport title will be displaced.
• Define the viewport naming convention (#13). When created, the viewport’s Detail Number will be numbered numerically, alphanumerically, or a combination of both (hybrid). If hybrid is selected, then input #14 must be defined to specify which view types to use for alphanumeric. The remaining view types will be numbered numerically. 

Computational logic

The graph collects all views currently selected in the Project Browser. Any views already on a sheet and, therefore, cannot be placed on another sheet are automatically filtered out and returned separately. The view’s name is then returned, and the grouping logic is extracted using inputs #1 & #2. For example, if the selected views are “101 – FLOOR PLAN” and “101 – ELEVATION 1”, these views will be grouped assuming the separator (input #1) is “-” and the naming reference (input #2) is “Prefix”.

Once all the views are grouped, they are sorted based on their view type and viewport detail order logic (input #4). The sheet naming convention is then generated (inputs #6 – #10), and the sheet number is checked against existing sheets in the model. If an existing sheet is found with the same sheet number, then the views are excluded, and no sheet is created. New sheets are created for the rest, and the views are placed on the sheet.  If multiple view groups have been placed on a sheet, then the sheet name will contain no view reference value (input #2), e.g. “101”, and will just be named as per the prefix (input #10) and suffix (input #11), e.g. “ROOM DATA SHEET”.

Viewports are then numbered based on input #13. The location of the viewports is based on a simple grid layout, left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and does not factor in the viewport’s size. To customise the viewport placement, manually locate the viewports on a “template” sheet and then use the align viewports on sheet graph to synchronise viewport alignment among the other selected “target” sheets. Separating the sheet and viewport creation from the viewport alignment enables the sheet layout to be modified multiple times without deleting pre-created sheets.

Conclusion

To find out more about our Dynamo Package Development service, drop us a line and discover how we can automate your Revit workflows.