Simple Copy/Paste From Floor to Floor

The least fun thing fun thing to do in Revit is copying objects from one floor and pasting them on the next floor. Sure you can just go through the floor plan, select what you want, and then go to the next view and paste aligned to current view. But this can really take a lot of time if you have a boat load of stuff in one plan. Plus, you might just select something you don’t want to copy, such as an  exterior wall, window, column, etc.

There must be a simple way! Two words: View templates [and technically filters]. OK so 5 words. You make view templates for everything…so why not a create a view template to just copy and paste stuff? The simplest way to make a view template is to just pick a view, get the view to look how you want, and then Create Template from Current View. Don’t do this yet though! We have not actually done anything.

First, let’s turn off the categories that we do not want to copy. Open up Visibility/Graphics override and turn off windows, columns, curtain systems, curtain panels, mullions stairs (basically anything that does not repeat on the next floor). Unfortunately, you will not be able to just switch off the walls category, so we will need to create a filter for that.

The first filter we will make will turn off ONLY the exterior walls. But before we do that, you must make sure that all the walls that you are using as an exterior wall have their function set to “Exterior”. Select an exterior wall and click on Edit Type under the properties pallet. Then in the Type Properties pallet, make sure that the wall’s function is set to Exterior as seen below. Hit OK.

Press VG to open up the Visibility/Graphics again and click on the Filters tab all the way on the right. Click Edit/New…

Click on the create new filters button and give it the name of “Exterior Walls”.

Scroll down the list and check walls. On the right, change the filter rules to the following (see image below):
– Filter by: Function
– equals
– Exterior

Hit OK once to get back to the Visibility/Graphics. Make sure that you are still on the Filters tab and click on Add. Select the Exterior Walls filter (the one we just created) from the list and hit OK.

The filter will now appear in the list. Un-check the box under the Visibility column and hit OK to get back to the drawing board. All walls with an Exterior function specified will no longer be visible in this view.

Please keep in mind that you will have to repeat this process for other wall types that you do not want to copy/paste between floors (i.e. shear walls that you may have modeled as one continuous wall up the building).

Other family specific items that you might want to hide is the refuse chute if you have that modeled as one “specialty equipment” object going up the building. To do this, create a new filter, but select specialty equipment in stead of walls. Then filter by family name, equals, and select your refuse chute family. Repeat this process as many times as you may need.

Now that all the grunt work is complete, you can finally create the view template. Go to View tab > View Templates > Create Template from Current View.

Give it a snazzy name and hit OK (I prefer Copy/Paste). You can thank me later for all the drinks your coworkers will be buying you to express their gratitude for this time saver. All that is left to do is to select the remaining objects, press Ctrl + C to copy them and go to the next view. Go to the Modify tab, Paste > Aligned to Current View. This will put your object in the same spot as the other view.

You can also make this a keyboard shortcut if you will be using this command a lot. I use AC.

To modify the filter is quite simple. Go to the Properties Pallet, under Identity Data, click on the button next to View Template. The button should say the name of the template you specified.

When you are done copying and pasting you can switch the view template back to what ever you like. If you do not have a view template set up for how you like to work, just go to another view in your project, and create a new view template from that view. Switch the copy / paste template to the new template you created.

Cautionary side notes! Some objects or categories are not able to be hidden. For instance, wall reveals. If you run into this situation here is my work-around.

1. This only works for Revit 2014 (and above I assume). Select one of the reveals, right click, select all instances > in entire project. Then click on the Pin in the Modify tab. Then make sure that you have pinned objects “not select-able”. This can be found in the lower right corner of the drawing window.
2. Don’t use reveals (just kidding, that is not an option)
3. Always check your filter on the Modify tab after selecting your objects to make sure that you have every unwanted category turned off before you copy.