What’s New in Revit 2022?

Well it’s that time of year again… no not tax time. It’s time for the new release of Autodesk products. (It’s also tax time, but that’s an article for someone else to write). But speaking of tax time, this time of year I always get completely confused as to what year it actually is? If you are in the US, you are doing 2020 taxes, the calendar says it 2021 and Autodesk says it's time for 2022! Good thing we don’t write checks anymore, as I would have no hope of getting the date right.

Now that we have the year sorted, it is time to talk about what’s new in Revit this year. The answer is PLENTY! In fact, just in Architecture and platform, the list I have includes nearly 60 new features and/or enhancements! Add to that the new MEP and Structural features and that means that there is likely something new in 2022 just for you (OK, I'll stop the silly rhyming now). However, don’t go looking for a major change to the user interface or a giant shiny new button. Many of the new enhancements are just below the surface (so to speak). Therefore, they might take a little discovery after installing the new version.

I suspect that there will be plenty of comprehensive lists showing up on social media right around now (I have already seen some), so for this rundown, I will give you my personal favorites as we go through Paul’s “What’s new in Revit 2022 top ten”.

Ten

Let’s begin with improved interoperability. Rhino (by Robert McNeel Associates) has become increasingly popular over the years. And with this increased popularity, we have seen progressive improvements in the way that Revit handles native Rhino files. We have been able to import them for a while now, but new in Revit 2022, we can now link to Rhino (3DM) files directly. So, if your workflow includes regular interoperability with folks designing in Rhino, this should be a welcome addition for you.

Nine

More customized wall geometry. Slanted walls were added to 2021. In 2022, we can now use edit profile on a slanted wall. The interface is the same as when editing a standard vertical wall. Simply select the wall and then on the Modify tab of the ribbon, click the Edit Profile button. This will place you in sketch mode and the sketch will be drawn in the plane of the slanted wall.

While we are on the subject of customizing wall geometry, walls can now also have their cross section property set to: Tapered. This enables two sloping parameters, one for the interior angle and one for the exterior. These parameters are applied to a single layer within the wall’s assembly which you must designate in the wall type properties as “variable” before you can set the wall’s cross section parameter to tapered. (Tapered walls do not support edit profile).

Eight

I have been waiting for this one for a long time. Key schedules now support shared parameters. This means that if you create shared instance parameters, you will be able to use a key schedule to speed up input of their values.

Common examples include door hardware or room finish information. You could always add shared parameters for these kinds of items, but until now you could not use those shared parameters in a key schedule. This limited the usefulness of key schedules as a data input tool. With this new feature, that limitation is removed!

Seven

Have you ever wanted to tag more than one item with the same tag? Well now you can! Tags can now have multiple hosts. To use this feature, simply select a tag and then on the Modify ribbon, you can click the Add / Remove Host button. This will allow you to select additional elements directly onscreen that you wish to be added to this tag. This feature will work best when selecting elements that report type-based information and that are of the same type. (Items like walls or windows for example). If you select two hosts that have different values, the value in the tag will be replaced with the designation: <varies>. This designation can be customized however (see number Six next).

Six

For years I have been showing people what happens on the Properties palette and in shared fields when you select two or more elements that have varying properties for the same parameter. Revit would simply blank out the field and show nothing. This was always potentially dangerous as you could edit that field and inadvertently change many items without realizing it. In 2022, when you select two or more elements, any fields that have differing values for a parameter will now report <varies> instead. This is a seemingly simple new feature, but I think it is long overdue and will greatly enhance the quality of user experience and the data that they input. If you wish, you can even customize this from the Manage tab, Additional Settings menu. Choose the new Multiple Values Indication item and input your preference. (There are separate settings in the Schedule Properties window for each schedule).

Five

If you have ever added a sweep to a wall, then you have likely shared my frustration that the Wall Sweeps dialog was not resizable. I say “was” because now it is! This many not seem to warrant a number five on the list, but I am just that pleased to have this dialog resizable. If you build a lot of wall types with sweeps, I think you will also be pleased. Now if we could just make it a little quicker (fewer clicks) to get there…

And while we are talking of resizable dialogs, there are several others that have gotten this small enhancement this time. These include: Warning dialogs, Purge Unused, Transfer Project Standards, View Filters, Multi-line Text editor and Synchronize with Central.

Four

Do you work on large projects? Do these projects have large schedules? Do you need those schedules to placed on sheets? If so, you know the hoops you had to jump through in previous Revit releases to span a schedule across more than one sheet. Well, those hoops and all their commensurate jumping are a thing of the past. In Revit 2022 you can simply split a schedule and then place each split section independently (on the same or separate sheets). When you split a schedule, each split section will appear indented beneath the parent schedule on the Project Browser. Each split section can be dragged and dropped independently to place them. Best of all, no filtering is necessary in the schedule.

Three

If you build custom Revit content, you know that it can be challenging choosing an appropriate category. Sadly, many content creators solve this dilemma by simply modeling most items as Generic Models. Having too many items categorized as Generic Models can cause management and visibility challenges. To help alleviate this situation, Revit 2022 now includes several additional categories that allow generic modeling capabilities. These include: Abutments, Audio Visual Devices, Bearings, Bridge Cables, Bridge Decks, Bridge Framing, Expansion Joints, Fire Protection, Food Service Equipment, Hardscape, Medical Equipment, Piers, Roads*, Signage, Structural Tendons, Temporary Structures, Vertical Circulation and Vibration Management.

None of these new categories will include new family creation templates. So to create elements in any of these categories, start with a Generic Model and then change the category to the one required. New categories fully participate in schedules, visibility/graphics and tagging. A really interesting feature of these new categories is that you can decide if they should be cutable or not (Enable cutting in views checkbox). I would love to see this functionality extended to other categories. Unfortunately, these new categories do not support join geometry. So if your family requires joining behavior, you may still be forced to stick with Generic Model for now.

*The Roads category has been there forever, but you can now actually put geometry on it.

Two

Revit 2022 has many new schedule enhancements. I could almost fill the top ten with just them. But one of my favorites is that schedules can now be filtered by Family and Type. Previously if you wanted to filter a schedule, the Family name or Type name were not available to filters even if you added them as fields to your schedule. That limitation is now removed making it easier to limit a schedule to certain combinations of specific families and/or types.

Other schedule enhancements include export directly to the CSV format, Workset can now be included as a field in schedules, searching and filtering tools on the Fields tab of the Schedule Properties dialog, There are helpful tooltips for each field, Material takeoffs and schedules support all the new categories, system families are added to multi-category schedules and the items already mentioned earlier such as splitting schedules and shared parameters in key schedules.

One

And my number one favorite new feature in Revit 2022… drum roll please…

View Filters can now include phasing parameters. Now, if you don’t do a lot of multi-phase projects, you may not agree with me on this feature’s being number one. But in my view, the implications of this new feature are huge! In fact, they have to the potential to completely overhaul the way you use phasing, and eliminate the need for the Phase Filters and Overrides in the Phasing dialog.

The feature is quite simple. Set up a View Filter just like you normally would. The only difference is that when you choose the criteria for the filter from the drop-down list, you will now see Phase Created and Phase Demolished. This means you will be able to set up your own combinations of filters that include one phase, multiple phases, or special combinations like: phase 1 and 2 new construction but not demolition. You will even be able to create phases for future work or temporary construction and then use the filters in Visibility/Graphics to completely customize any or all views in the project. And because each filter can have its own graphics, you can now show multiple phases simultaneously using custom graphical display. Awesome!

Bonus: Another nice enhancement to the Filters tab in Visibility/Graphics is that you can now select more than one applied filter in the list using your SHIFT or CTRL keys. This makes it easier to edit multiple items at once.

For simple projects that use only existing and new construction, you can continue using the built-in Phase Filter functionality if you wish; or you can still leverage this new approach. But for any project with more than the two default phases, this is a game changer!

Honorable Mentions

Betcha can’t do just ten… Here are a few more that would rank maybe at eleven or twelve…

• If you are a coder, there are many API enhancements. These include a new API for sketch-based elements (including ceilings), new color fill API, View title placement API and a slew of new Dynamo nodes.
• Someone in a recent Zoom call asked if Revit could do a spot slope for Ramps. I had to bite my tongue and avoid the answer, but I am happy to say that this is now possible in 2022.
• You can now tag curtain wall mullions.
• Revit now has its own built-in native PDF exporter!

Want to learn more?

But wait, there's more... Over the next several weeks, I will begin covering many of the new Revit 2022 features in my weekly series (Revit: Tips, Tricks and Troubleshooting) on LinkedIn Learning. This will include many that I have mentioned here and some others as well. You can visit the series here.

Look for new tips at the top of the table of contents beneath "This week's tip".

Each new tip is free for the week when it is published. To watch the previous tips in the series, you must be a member.

Also keep a lookout for my new courses on LinkedIn Learning for Revit 2022: Revit Essential Training for Architecture and Learning Revit 2022.

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