For all the work you do in Revit, there’s a keyboard shortcut that can help you do it faster.
Here’s a roundup featuring some of my favorite Revit keyboard shortcuts to create and organize your model. Keep reading to learn how to create your own shortcuts.
Create and Modify Elements
CS – When element is selected, creates new similar element
DL – Create detail lines
DR – Create Door
M + Space – Match properties
MV – Move
UP – Unpin
RM – Create room
RT – Insert room tag
SL – Split elements
Select Elements
Arrow Keys – Nudges the selected element
Shift + Arrow – Nudges the selected element 10x.
CTRL – Select multiple elements
MD – Activate the Modify tool
TAB – Cycle through multiple overlapping elements
SHIFT + TAB – Reverse the order of TAB cycling
Views
HI – Isolate element
HH – Hide element
HC – Hide category
SD – Shaded with edges
TL – Thin Lines
VV – Visibility / Graphics dialog for the current view
WF – Wire frame
ZE – Zoom to fit
SHIFT + Middle Mouse – Orbit in 3D views or pan in 2D views. Selecting an object before pressing SHIFT + Middle Mouse will cause the orbit to rotate around the selected object.
File Operations
CTRL + O – Open a new file
CTRL + N – Create a new project file
CTRL + S – Save the current file
Miscellaneous
ALT – Activates the keyboard designation for all the items on the interface. Might be useful if your mouse kicks the bucket before you’ve saved your file.
Create Your Own Revit Shortcuts
You can easily program your own Revit keyboard shortcuts. To do so, go to View > User Interface > Keyboard Shortcuts or type “KS”.
This will open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box.
All of the default keyboard shortcuts are listed. Any shortcut listed in gray is a system shortcut and cannot be changed. To add a shortcut, find the command in the “Command” column or enter the command name in the “Search” field. Once you’ve selected the command, enter the shortcut combination in the “Press new keys” text box then click the “Assign” button.
You have a lot of flexibility assigning shortcuts. A single command can have multiple shortcuts. Likewise, a single shortcut can be used on multiple commands. In this case, you use the arrow keys to cycle through the commands as displayed in the status bar. Once you have the command you want, press the space bar to execute the command.
Some custom shortcuts you might want to consider are:
33 – Default 3D View
AA – Activate view
DD – Deactivate view
JJ – Join geometry
ML – Manage Links
MM – Macro Manager
SAV – Select all instances in view
SAS – Select all instances in project
WS – Worksets
WW – Create walls
Want some more suggestions? Check out this discussion on LinkedIn.
Naming Your Shortcuts
Speed is king when it comes to naming your shortcuts. Consider defining your shortcuts using the same letter or letters closely located on the keyboard. JJ for Join Geometry or AA for Activate View are two good examples.
You can even create three or four letter shortcuts if you need similarly named shortcuts. You could define WW for Create Wall and WWW for Worksets.
This method minimizes the amount of hunting and pecking required to find your shortcuts. It lets you keep one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse.
So how about you? How do you save time in Revit? What are your favorite shortcuts? Leave a comment below!
This is very important topic that most of Revit users don’t take advantage of!
I use it always. But today’s article opened my eyes to (AA & DD), activate and deactivate views as 2013 ver doesn’t use mouse double click.
Thanks Michael!
It is very appreciate for helping the Revit modular.
Keep Going, I will also provide some use full content
Hi Michael. In addition to those shortcuts listed above I also use (user defined) IC and IE for ‘isolate category’ and ‘isolate elements’ – great for quickly isolating a view enabling you to edit and make changes. Then I ‘unhide’ with UH. Setting up a user defined shortcuts for trim individual (ST) and multiple (STT) is also pretty handy. Why AD haven’t done this already with factory settings is a mystery!
Cheers
André
Hello
Interesting post – I’m really fond of keyboard shortcuts.
My favourite ones are:
EE: open edit mode (floor, wall profile, extrusion…) – you can have the same shortcut for all
FF: finish edit mode (floor, wall profile, extrusion…)
CC: exit edit mode and cancel (floor, wall profile, extrusion…)
² : Align tool
QZ: open default 3D view
QQQ: close all windows
AT: attach / TA: detach
Great suggestions. I really like QQQ for close all windows. I’m going to add that to my shortcuts. Thanks!
yes, it definitely has a relaxing effect !
I am amazed at how many people don’t use shortcuts. There are commands that I use all the time and if I didn’t have shortcuts for them the work would take forever. I like to tell people to look at the full list of commands available to be shortcutted and determine which ones they use the most often. Depending on your working style or your position in an office, the needs of a conceptual designer might be different from a person doing the technical drawings.
Some of my favorites
DI = Dimension
HC = Hide Category
HE = Hide Element
SV = Create a Section
SE = Spot Elevation
SS = Spot Slope
CHW = Close Hidden Windows
ETC = Export Current View to CAD
TX = Text
AV = Activate View
DV = Deactivate View
Shortcuts are really a way of thinking ! Now I’m so used to them that I use them in my everyday language. You’ll often hear me tell my colleagues : “Now, SA your walls and VD them.”
You can even go further by using shortcut combos
I often have to “split” a set of floors that have been all drawn in the same sketch
For instance I would click the floor, and then
EE (enter edit mode)
window select part of the floors to split
CTRL-X
FF (finish edit mode)
CS (create similar)
XS (paste same position)
FF (finish edit mode)
et voilà !
It’s so great to see so many shortcut lovers. Autodesk really needs to consider a whole lot of these as OOTB.
these are so important. great way to speed up productivity. i have a baseline that i have set up for our office, and ask people to print them out and keep it at their desk pinned up somewhere.
Hi, folks,
yes, shortcuts are great. I like to use identical letters to be superfast :
II isolate Element in view
RR reset above
AA activate view
DD deactivate view
HH hide element in view
UU unhide element in view
CC copy
MM move
TT tile (windows)
FF halftone element in view (this is a visual override)
etc.
Note : I make sure that there are no duplicate definitions, i.e. if CC was used for another revit command, I remove it (same method one adds shortcuts one can remove them).
And here another absolute winner :
F2 button : project browser on/off toggle
F4 button : properties on/off toggle
This is most fantastic to free monitor space if you only have a single monitor.
Best Regards,
Ingo from Cape Town
I too like the double letter shortcuts. They’re fast! Setting F2 and F4 for the project and properties windows is a great idea. Thanks for the suggestions!
Autodesk recently released a guide outlining all the default Revit shortcuts. You can download it here: http://www.autodesk.com/shortcuts/revit
Hi everyone,
Shortcuts are always a smarter way. Also besides shortcuts I also find very useful to add any command in a quick access toolbar. 🙂
Hi All, has anyone tried to create a keyboard shortcut to close only the current window ? if so, could you please let me know ? TIA
Hello,
“Ctrl+F4” closes current window, it is a default shortcut. I think one cannot change it.
Your post should mention creating a shortcut for ‘finish group’ for when a user’s finish group toolbar goes astray / disappears from the ribbon and cannot close out from editing group(s).
I set all Finish Edit and Finish Edit Modes to the Shortcut “FF”, it will give you a warning about duplicates but they depend on the editing mode you are in so duplicates are allowed. That has been my most effective additional shortcut key.
Finish Group “FG” is also helpful.
I just got a programable mouse, I am looking for suggestions on revit buttons that are useful. I have esc and tab which I use a lot but those can go if I find more useful replacements (very easy keyboard keys)
M – Measure
double tapping M -MM is Mirror that got a key
AL- Align got a quick button because its a difficult one handed shortcut.
More suggestions please- I have 8 buttons to work with.
Hi Michael, is it possible to create a shortcut to export out a schedule?
Not sure if I’m doing something wrong, but I put “xs” as the shortcut and when I open the schedule I want to export and type “xs” it puts those letters on the schedule, either in the title or the first column. And it doesn’t export. It is kind of a paint to have to go to the application menu and scroll down to reports for every schedule.
thank you so much for your help.
Isabella – It doesn’t look like you can create a shortcut for that command. That said, I do have a macro that will batch export schedules to CSV files. It’s available for download in the ArchSmarter Toolbox. Since you’re already a subscriber, I’ll email you the link.
Hi, good to see all the messages above. I was using the same letters combinations as shortcuts for about last 3 years. Good to be confirmed here, that was a good invention and some other users find this extremely improving performance. I am trying now a gaming mouse with a numeric keypad on the side to avoid moving my hand from the mouse when I need to input numbers. It needs some adjustment at the beginning, but it will help with performance significantly at the end.
Hi All,
This post is a bit old now but something I tend to encourage users not to do is change the default Revit shortcuts already provided, for two reasons:
1: Keeping the default shortcuts ensure that users learn the basics and if they either move between Revit versions, PC’s or in fact Offices, they have already learned the standard ones.
2: I always recommend “adding shortcuts to the fields that are empty”. This way, Users/BIM Manager can Export their “Customized” shortcuts and share with others. Then when Imported back into a different machine, there are no interruptions with the default ones when merged.
These are great tips! Thanks for sharing Andrew.
CV=Paste aligned to current view
This is one of my favorite custom ones not included int eh list above.
I have found creating custom shortcuts to be one the best ways to speed up modeling.
For the most used shortcuts i always keep keyboard travel distances to the absolute minimum. for example
align – aa
copy – cc
move – mn
offset – oo
mirror – mm
I use the quick access toolbar below the ribbon with everything else commonly use – no more navigating the ribbon tabs!
I had to revisit this topic hoping for the answer to my question, but it is not there 🙁
Maybe someone can help?
When you have the schedule open in edit mode, you cannot use any keyboard shortcuts! it basically starts typing inside your schedule filed as if you are trying to change a value of a cell. So if you want to use WT for example, you have to activate ANOTHER window and then use that shortcut. Lame, but doable. but here is the issue, for some shortcuts (like export schedule to report) you need to ACTUALLY HAVE THE SCHEDULE OPEN in order to use that shortcut! but then, you cannot because you’ll be changing the table values as described above… It is funny that Revit DOES have an option to assign a shortcut the export schedules, so technically there should be a way you can do that….What is the solution??
greatttt!!
i’m using shortcut since 10 years and when i started revit many people told me… “that’s not a good idea, its a ACAD way of thinking”
i think i much more efficient and fast then to spend my time to click … well revit is a deep software, i still need to click but on ACAD it’s 99% shortcut!! 🙂
thanks