Getting to the Penpoint in Revit MEP

Got a call from one of my techs today saying he didn't like the way the architectural and structural backgrounds look in the MEP electrical/mechanical disciplines, when he printed them out.

I love the way the background is already lightened, but occasionally (ok, all the time), I gotta tweak the defaults to keep the higher ups happy. Two ways to do this.

1 - In the Print dialog, go to Setup - change the default for Replace Halftone with thin lines. One note - penweight settings for anything that was set to halftone in the VG dialog were disabled when this option is checked, so expect them to be thin.

2. Leave the print setup options - but go to object styles. Make sure you turn on the option for showing all disciplines - for each architectural or structural object that you want to make thicker, change the lineweight for projection to a heavier pen.

A couple of other plotting tips -

• Set the object style display options to coarse in MEP views for architectural objects such as walls - that turns off the patterns.
• Just want to turn off the patterns? Go to the VG settings (I also do this in my view template), under Projection/Surface > Patterns, uncheck Visible for any patterns in the walls - that leaves the boundaries but turns off the hatch.

Just helpin' my engineering peeps to keep making better quality sheets of paper...in a digital society...

later - David B.