How to change Revit 2010 User Interface to Revit 2009 UI??

Open notepad.

Type the following without quotes.

“[DebugModes]

Use2009UI=1”

Save the file as “Debug.ini” without quotes in the following folder.

“C:\Program Files\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010\Program”

Restart Revit.

Now, it will open with an option “UI=2009” Give ok and start using Revit 2010 with 2009 UI.

This is officially given in the Autodesk site, but it is not officially supported by Autodesk. If you have any problems with the old UI, you can always delete the “Debug.ini” file and start Revit with 2010 interface.

Revit Classic UI for 2010!

Legendary Revit Guru Phil Read has come up with some solution to load the classic UI in Revit 2010, replacing the Ribbon UI (http://architechure.blogspot.com/2009/06/nein-nein-nein-nein-nein-nein-nein.html). He says the code for classic UI is still there in Revit 2010 and the latest massing tools are also working fine in the classic UI of Revit 2010. Phil... Tell us how!!!

Hey Autodesk...

The Ribbon UI is really irritating and time consuming with more clicks. We, the end users who use Revit (not our bosses who like the great(!) new look of the software) know that you have done a lot of coding work to introduce the Ribbon. But still, most of us don’t like it and we are more comfortable with the Classic UI. We don’t ask you to change it back to the classic UI, but let them co-exist. If you say that the co-existence of both the UI will cause more errors, I have an idea for you. At the time of installation of the software, give us an option to decide which UI to use. Or, while starting the software every time, give us an option to decide which UI to use.

Are you hearing???

Tip for Toposurface creation in slower computers:

While creating huge topographic surfaces by creating or editing the topo points, the memory used by Revit increases rapidly. The contour lines are generated while editing the points, which require more RAM. While editing more and more points, the memory used by Revit increases and at one point, it reaches the maximum limit. At that point, you face the following error “Not enough memory to save your project”. There is a simple workaround to avoid this error. While creating the topo points, you need to give “finish surface” and “save” after every 50-60 points for a survey drawing with approximately 2000-3000 points. You will know, by experience, the time at which Revit has become slow while working with topo points. At that point of time, give “finish surface” and save it to avoid losing your work.

Note: The problem working with Toposurface is you will never get an auto save reminder until you finish editing the toposurface.

If you have 3 or 4 GB of RAM in a 32 bit Operating system, enable the 3GB switch so that Revit uses your RAM to the maximum. To enable it, go through the following link.

(http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=8018966&linkID=9243099)

Detailed description of how to enable the 3GB switch is given in the above link. This is the gist of that link.

Enabling the 3GB Switch

1. Right-click My Computer. Click Properties.
2. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
3. On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
4. In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, under System startup, click Edit. The Windows boot.ini file will be opened in Notepad.
5. Save a renamed copy of your boot.ini file somewhere on your computer in case you need to revert back to your original version of the file. Note: Boot.ini files may be different from computer to computer.
6. Highlight the following line in the boot.ini file:
   
   multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

7. Copy (Ctrl-C) and paste (Ctrl-V) the line just below the original. Note: Your exact text string may be different from the text string in this document. So be sure to copy the text string from your boot.ini file, not the text string shown here.
8. Modify the copied line to include “ /3GB”, as shown in the example below. Note: Do not overwrite any existing lines.
   
   multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /3GB /fastdetect

9. Save the boot.ini file and close Notepad.
10. Click OK to close each dialog box.
11. Reboot your computer.
12. During startup, select the 3GB option. If you do not select the 3GB option, the system will default to the 2GB total memory setting.

If there are problems at startup, you may need to update some of your drivers.

Revit 2009 2010 keyboard shortcuts.

Revit 2009 keyboard shortcuts

This tutorial is to enable the smooth transition of User Interface from Revit Architecture 2009 to Revit Architecture 2010 without any glitches. It has always been better for most of us, who have started with AutoCAD, to use the keyboard shortcuts than the toolbars. For those who have extensively used toolbars in Revit 2009, it is very difficult to adapt to the 2010 Ribbon Interface. The ones who can learn this interface quicker are those who are very young and dynamic, eager to learn useless interfaces, and those who are starting Revit with 2010 version. For those designers having lesser time for designing, it is a headache to learn this ribbon!

Somehow or the other, Autodesk is trying to impose the ribbon interface over us. When there is no other go than to accept the interface, let us adapt to it using some shortcuts. Let us start using the keyboard shortcuts as much as possible, so that we don’t need to worry about the interface. After so much of opposition from the customers, if and if only they change it back to the old interface or to some other cross platform interface, we can’t be sorry. So, its better we start using the keyboard shortcuts.

Let’s use Revit without any toolbars as shown in the image below. Only the properties toolbar should be visible. If you use it like this, you don’t need to worry about the interface. Try for a week and you will know the joy of keycuts!

I have listed out only the important commands which I use mostly in Revit architecture. Open the “keyboardshortcuts.txt” (There would be two files in the same name – open the one which has more text matter with defined shortcut keys) from the folder “C:\Program Files\Revit Architecture 2009\Program”. Also, don’t forget to take a backup of the Keyboardshortcuts.txt file before editing it, just in case you screw it up...


Window menu
F3 menu:"Window-Project Browser" – To show/ Hide the Project browser.
WC menu:"Window-Cascade"
WT menu:"Window-Tile"

File menu
ER menu:"File-Editing Requests"
RL menu:"File-Reload Latest"

Edit menu
E menu:"Edit-Delete"
F6 menu:"Edit-Paste Aligned-Current View"
F7 menu:"Edit-Paste Aligned-Select Levels by Name"
F4 menu:"Edit-Select Previous"
SA menu:"Edit-Select All Instances"
MV menu:"Edit-Move"
CC menu:"Edit-Copy"
RO menu:"Edit-Rotate"
AR menu:"Edit-Array"
MM menu:"Edit-Mirror"
RS menu:"Edit-Resize"
GP menu:"Edit-Group-Create Group"
EG menu:"Edit-Group-Edit Group"
UG menu:"Edit-Group-Ungroup"
AD menu:"Edit-Group-Attach Detail"
FG menu:"Edit-Group-Finish Group"
CG menu:"Edit-Group-Cancel Group"
PP menu:"Edit-Pin Position"
UP menu:"Edit-Unpin Position"
CS menu:"Edit-Create Similar"
PR menu:"Edit-Properties"

View menu
ZZ menu:"View-Zoom-Zoom in Region"
ZE menu:"View-Zoom-Zoom to Fit"
ZP menu:"View-Zoom-Previous Pan/Zoom"
VP menu:"View-View Properties"
VV, VG menu:"View-Visibility/Graphics"
HH menu:"View-Temporary Hide/Isolate-Hide Element"
HI menu:"View-Temporary Hide/Isolate-Isolate Element"
HC menu:"View-Temporary Hide/Isolate-Hide Category"
IC menu:"View-Temporary Hide/Isolate-Isolate Category"
HR menu:"View-Temporary Hide/Isolate-Reset Temporary Hide/Isolate"
WF menu:"View-Wireframe"
HL menu:"View-Hidden Line"
SD menu:"View-Shading with Edges"
RR menu:"View-Rendering Dialog"
TL menu:"View-Thin Lines"
F5 menu:"View-Refresh"

Modelling menu
WA menu:"Modelling-Wall"
DR menu:"Modelling-Door"
WN menu:"Modelling-Window"
CM menu:"Modelling-Component"
FL menu:"Modelling-Floor"
CE menu:"Modelling-Ceiling"
ST menu:"Modelling-Stairs"
RA menu:"Modelling-Railing"
RM menu:"Modelling-Ramp"
TX menu:"Modelling-Model Text"
DE menu:"Modelling-Decal"
MS menu:"Modelling-Massing-Create Mass"
LI menu:"Modelling-Lines"
RP menu:"Modelling-Ref Plane"

Drafting menu
DI menu:"Drafting-Dimension"
TE menu:"Drafting-Text"
GR menu:"Drafting-Grid"
LL menu:"Drafting-Level"
TG menu:"Drafting-Tag-By Category"
RO menu:"Drafting-Room"
RT menu:"Drafting-Room Tag"
DL menu:"Drafting-Detail Lines"

Site menu
PA menu:"Site-Pad"

Tools menu
WP menu:"Tools-Work Plane-Work Plane Visibility"
MA menu:"Tools-Match"
LW menu:"Tools-Linework"
PT menu:"Tools-Paint"
SF menu:"Tools-Split Face"
AL menu:"Tools-Align"
SL menu:"Tools-Split Walls and Lines"
TR menu:"Tools-Trim/Extend"
OF menu:"Tools-Offset"

Settings menu
UN" menu:"Settings-Project Units"
SN" menu:"Settings-Snaps"

Snap Overrides
SI snapcode:"Intersections"
SE snapcode:"Endpoints"
SM snapcode:"Midpoints"
SC snapcode:"Centers"
SP snapcode:"Perpendicular"
SO snapcode:"Snaps Off"

1. If it is a single letter shortcut, click on the SPACEBAR after typing the shortcut, just like AutoCAD.
2. For few shortcuts I tried, I could not make them work. If anybody knows, please let me know. Example: I tried “PU” for Purge Unused and “DB” for Design Bars. But those were not working.

I am editing the shortcut keys for revit architecture 2010, will post it once its done.