Best New Architecture Features in Revit 2018

Revit 2018 is here! Here are our favorite improvements if you are an architect or designer. Also, make sure to check our favorite features from Revit 2017.1.

Multi-Story Stairs

In older versions of Revit, you had to activate Multi-Story tool in the instance properties. This tool only worked if you had the exact same distance between each level. As you see in the images below, changing one of the level height completely messed up everything. That meant you had to individually model each stair. Ugh.

This feature is now completely fixed and revamped in Revit 2018! Select your stair and click on the Select Levels tool in the contextual tab.

Then, select the levels you want to add by clicking them.

You can always modify the selected levels by clicking Connect/Disconnect.

Now, this is the magic and awesome part. Move a level and the stair will automatically adjust! The number of required risers will be changed. By default, it seems Revit keeps the landing at mid-point and add risers at the beginning and end.

Revit will group all the stairs together. If you modify one of the the stair, all of stairs with the same height will be modified. To modify one of the stair without affecting the whole group, unpin it first.

Railings

In older versions of Revit, modifying the path of a hosted railing was an horrible experience. The railings often had a slope when you wanted them to be flat.

In Revit 2018, everything is fixed and the slope now behave properly.

Also, railings are much more efficient in multi-story stairs. With a single click, you can add railings to all stairs in the multi-story group. Modifying one of the railing will affect all railings hosted on stairs of the same height.

Also, you can now host railings to Toposurface. That might be helpful to model fences and site elements.

Text Graphic Display

The graphic quality of the text was improved in Revit 2017. However, tags still had an odd aliased look. That is now fixed in Revit 2018: tags and text both have that smooth look that you love.

Use Symbols in Text

You now have access to symbols in the text editor. Use the right-click menu inside your text box.

Other New Features: 

COORDINATION MODEL: Naviswork model can now be linked in Revit. Use the Coordination Model tool in the Insert tab.

ENHANCED GLOBAL PARAMETERS: You can now use global parameters with radius, diameter and equality constraints.

GEO-REFERENCE COORDINATES: Have a DWG file that contains real-world GWS coordinates? These coordinates can now be acquired in Revit.

CREATE MODEL GROUPS AND REVIT LINK SCHEDULES: It is now possible to create schedules with model groups and links. 

3D SHAPES IMPROVEMENT: Imported 3D element from rhino or SAT files work much better. The dimension tool also seems to be working better with these imported elements. Also, you can host elements to imported 3D files.