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Ideate StyleManagerUsing Ideate StyleManager
  • Line Styles and Line Patterns

    • Line Style and Line Pattern Management

    Analyze, rename, merge or delete unused Revit line styles or line patterns found within Revit projects, templates or family files with Ideate StyleManager.

    Line Styles

    Line styles are used to indicate different effects, such as a dashed (------) line for reference planes. Line styles are used in many ways within the Revit project or template files including, but not limited to: lines, sketch lines, CAD Imports, views, groups, etc. Line styles do not apply to family files so this tool is disabled when editing .RFA files.

    Topics in this section:

    Understanding Duplicate Line Styles

    A duplicate line style is one that has the same line weight, line color and line pattern. These duplicates are flagged with a color to make it more obvious that there is a duplicate. When the ‘Isolate Duplicates’ filter is checked, these line styles will be grouped together to make the review process easier.

    Reserved Line Styles

    A few select Line Styles are not editable or displayed in StyleManager as they are a special category of 'reserved' built-in styles:

    Analyze Options

    Line Styles include an analyze option for Schedules. The purpose of this option is to limit a performance burden associated with checking schedules for cell overrides with built-in line styles. When reviewing a built-in line style such as <Hidden> you may* notice a Schedule Override usage under the "Not Analyzed" grouping, as shown below. You will need to use the Analyze Options → Schedules checkbox to fully analyze this built-in style.

    Revit Line Style usage as an override within a schedule

    To use this option, which is only needed for built-in line styles:

    1. Select a built-in line style that has not yet been analyzed. It will have ?+? displayed for the count.
    2. Double-click on the line style to do an analysis. If there are 6 usages it would now display 6+? for the count and within the usage panel there will be a Not Analyzed>Schedule Overrides listed.
    3. Select the Analyze Options → Schedule checkbox, then double-click again to analyze the built-in line style. This process may take a while. When done, the full count will display and the checkbox will be unchecked again to prevent undesired over-analysis.

    *In projects with less than 25 schedules, the usage of built-in line styles will always include any Schedule Overrides when analyzed, so this option will not be needed.

    Tips for Line Styles

    1. If an in-use line style is deleted, the style of the element reverts to the built-in style called Lines. The lines will not be deleted.

    2. Line styles shown in italics (e.g. Lines: <Overhead>) indicate a built-in style. These styles cannot be deleted or renamed but you may merge the elements into another line style.

    3. Use the merge option to swap all instances of one line style for another.

    4. Use this tool in all your template files to prevent downstream garbage in your projects.

      Related Topic: Known Issues - Line Styles

    Line Patterns

    Line patterns are used to define one aspect of how lines display. A line pattern is composed of dashes, dots, and spaces. Line patterns are used in many ways within the Revit project, template and family files including, but not limited to: line styles, object styles, view graphic overrides, phase graphic overrides, etc.

    Topics in this section:

    Understanding Duplicate Line Patterns

    A duplicate line pattern is one that has the same dash, dot, space sequence as displayed in the Style Info area shown below. These duplicates are flagged with a color to make it more obvious that there is a duplicate. When the ‘Isolate Duplicates’ filter is checked, these line patterns will be grouped together to make the review process easier.

    Tips for Line Patterns

    1. If an in-use line pattern is deleted, the style of the element reverts to its default state such as <by Object Style>, none, or solid depending upon the element type.

    2. Line patterns can be batch deleted by selecting one, then using Ctrl+Shift to select more, making it easy to get rid of 100s of CAD Import line patterns all at once.

    3. Use this tool in all your template files to prevent downstream garbage in your projects.

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