Design Options in Revit 6.1

With the addition of Design Options, Revit 6.1 has gone one step further in allowing us to opt for many possibilities in our designs.

Let’s go over the Design Set terminology. An Option Set is a collection of solutions or alternatives used to convey or address a specific design issue. For example, your design issue regards the front entrance of your building. The Options located underneath the Option Set are your variables. Option 1 may show a wall with brick and a revolving door, Option 2 may show a curtain wall. Both of these Options pertain to the Option Set which was the issue with the front entrance of the building.

Steps:
Go to the tools pull down menu and select Design Options. In the dialog box as shown below, select new under Option Set. You can rename this Option Set to make it easier to identify. To add different options to the set, click new under Option. You can rename these options also. Select the option that you want to edit and select edit selected and click close. You are now in the editing mode for that particular option. You will notice that anything that is not part of the Option Set is grayed out. You can use this geometry as a reference but you will not be able to edit anything outside of the Option that you are working on. When finished making the necessary changes to the Option go back to the Tools pull down menu, select design options and select finish editing. You can make any option “primary” meaning that is the option that will be the default option in all views unless otherwise specified.





Options can be assigned to views and schedules allowing you to compare the viability of each option or easily convey information to others in the design team. The image above illustrates three 3D views in which each view has a different option associated to it.

Steps:
Go to the view and select properties. Within the properties dialog box, select visibility. In the visibility/graphic overrides dialog box there will be a design option tab. This tab is only available if the user has design options in their project. Click the drop down arrow under Design Option and select which option you want to apply to the view.

Because Design Options can also influence your schedules, you can choose to format the schedules based on a particular design option.

Steps:
Go to the properties of the schedule. In the Element Properties dialog box click on the edit button beside design option and select the design option that you want to apply to the schedule.

Revit has always been an extremely flexible design tool allowing one to test different variables of a design quickly and easily with its revise instantly mentality. The Design Options in Revit 6.1 allow your team to quickly and effectively address design issues and explore the many possibilities available when designing architecture.