How can you save time when duplicating Revit views and sheets? This article starts with an introduction to the basics and then moves on to advanced tips.
A duplicate view in Revit is a copy of an existing view that you can use for a different purpose. For example, you may want to show the same floor plan with different furniture or colors. A duplicate view can have different settings and annotations than the original view.
When I right-click on the view name in the Project Browser, I can select one of three types of “duplicate view” from the menu:
- Duplicate: An Independent copy of the view, which replicates visibility settings, but not detailing.
- Duplicate with detailing: Duplicating a view with its detailing (2D drafting elements).
- Duplicate as a Dependent: Links the parent view to a duplicate that has the same visibility settings and detailing. If I add a detail in the parent view it’s added to the ones tied to it.
I can also “Duplicate Sheet” by right-clicking on the sheet name:
- Duplicate Empty Sheet: Duplicates only the title block.
- Duplicate with Sheet Detailing: Includes annotations and schedules.
- Duplicate with Views: Duplicates all the views in the sheet and the title block.
How can I speed things up?
Duplicate View
Details: Instantly select a view in the project browser to duplicate it from a sheet.
Steps
- Select the view on the sheet.
- Press “FF” on the keyboard.
This hotkey also selects the viewport name when I have it open.
Instant Duplication of Views and Sheets
Assign custom keyboard shortcuts to duplicate a view as soon as you open it from the project browser.
My hotkeys for this purpose are “DV” for normal copies, “DD” for detailing, and “DVV” for independent duplicates.
Is it possible to duplicate all views in a sheet without deleting a title block for each operation? Yes.
Duplicate Multiple Views
To duplicate views in bulk, use either the native Dynamo player or the handy EF_Tools extension to the PyRevit plugin.
In Dynamo, native nodes can duplicate any number of views that are in a given sheet.
For more complex operations, take a look at the Bimorph package which contains two related nodes: Sheet.Duplicate and Sheet.FromSchedule.
Note that Dynamo allows running again only when the state of a node changes. Because you are duplicating sheets, you must force Dynamo to re-compute:
- Switch the run input to false, click the “Run” button, then switch your “run” input to true again > click Run.
- Disconnect an input, run the node, and then reconnect the input > click Run.
And now to the use case of the plugin…
After installing PyRevit, it was a bit tedious to find the “Extensions” button in the main menu.
I first select the views and then go to the EF_Tools bar to duplicate them.
Rename Multiple Views
Since I’m here with the EF-Tools extension and a ton of views and sheets, I guess it would be appropriate to use the rename tool as well!
It works correctly if I expand all views and then select them before the operation.
- Select the first view.
- Hold “Ctrl” and press “Shift” > select the last view.
Duplicate Shared Parameters Schedules
With a normal schedule I would just have to right-click and select “Duplicate”, but with key schedules, this feature is grayed out.
What are key schedules? They contain keys (parameters) linked to families and annotations. I can “Insert Data Row” only in key schedules, room schedules, area schedules, space schedules, and sheet lists.
Since key schedules cannot be duplicated or filtered. I must export them as a project and then import them again as a duplicate or copy their data to a note block schedule.
Here are the steps to reload schedules as duplicates:
- Create a new project.
- Go to the Insert tab > Load from Library panel > drop-down Insert from File menu > click “Insert Views from File”.
- Insert the key schedule into the new project file, and then save it.
- Open the view window of the main project and “insert from file” the schedule back.
The downside is that I have to repeat this every time I update the original.
Alternatively, I can “Insert Data row” in a note block schedule by adding generic annotation symbols to a drafting view.