Using custom parameters to sort your Revit Project Browser? There is another way…

When views begin to accumulate in your Revit Project Browser, it becomes very important to organize them so that you can find the view you need quickly and easily. There are a few approaches that you can take to managing your browser organization. A very popular way to do this is to use custom parameters. In my last article I discussed creating custom parameters.

In that article I focused on creating those parameters via a schedule. But you can also create custom parameters on the Manage tab and apply them to other uses; like sorting and grouping the views in your project browser. A few years ago, I wrote an article on this on my blog. You can find it here. The screen shots in the article are a little dated, but the essential procedure is still valid.

As effective as custom parameters can be, there remains one significant limitation. When you sort the browser by custom parameters, you must manually input the desired value into the browser sort parameter in order for it to appear in the correct location in custom browser sort. If you do not assign these values, you will get the dreaded question marks branch on the browser.

If properly managed, this small limitation can easily be overcome and even embraced. One of my clients likes the question mark branch as it tells him when users have neglected to organize all of the views they are creating. Then he can send out an email with a message stating that all views in the question mark branch will be deleted this Friday unless they are claimed… It is sort of like the yellow post-it note on the office refrigerator telling you to claim your old leftovers or they will be disposed of.

Today I’d like to discuss an alternative approach to taming your project browser sorting and grouping: Creating custom View Types. Like most other Revit elements, views have types and those types can be duplicated to create new ones. This is easy to do on the Properties palette.

You can assign other properties as well such as indicating a particular View Template to load when this view type is used. This can be helpful to enforce office standards. But if your aim is to organize the Project Browser, then a unique name is all your duplicate view type requires. And here’s the best part: You do not need to build a custom Browser Organization! The default Browser Organization is based on view type already. So this means that as soon as you create a view from this new type, or assign this type to an existing view, a branch will appear on the Browser based on the type’s name.

Of course you can still build a custom browser organization if you like and customize it further, but what is most compelling about the view type approach is that it occurs automatically. There is no need to assign a custom project parameter nor to input a value manually in that parameter. So it is certainly an alternative worthy of your serious consideration.

If you want to see the creation of custom view types in action, check out this week’s tip in the weekly Revit series: Tips, Tricks and Troubleshooting at lynda.com.