How to use Revit Revisions and Clouds

When you’re working on a project, it’s not unusual for designs to go through several modifications as new insights are gained or mistakes are discovered. That’s why it’s important to clearly communicate the changes. Revit has a Revisions built-in tool to keep track of changes.

If you need to make clear what has been changed in the model, you can use the Revisions tool and Revision Clouds at the desired location. The Revision Cloud can be tagged with a number or character. Moreover, you can create a schedule for Sheets to make clear what Revisions have been issued.

In this article, we are going to take a look at how to add Revisions and Revision Clouds to your Revit model, how to add these Revisions to a sheet, and managing multiple revisions with the help of schedules.

Revisions

The Revisions feature in Revit can help you track changes made in the model. This way, you can easily refer back to the revision history to understand why and when changes were made, as well as who made them.

The most common workflow for Revions is:

1. Entering Revision information in the Issues/Revisions dialog.
2. Add Revisions Clouds to indicate areas that changed and Assign Revisions to these Clouds.
3. Tag the Revision Clouds.
4. Check if sheets contain the right information in the Revision Schedule and Issue the Revisions when completed.

Step 1 – Add Revisions in Revit

Let’s start by adding Revisions to your Revit project, you can open the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog by following the next steps.

1. Open the View tab
2. Click on Revisions in the Sheet Composition panel > Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog opens

3. In the Issues/Revisions dialog click on Add
4. Change the Numbering, Date, Description, etc, to your requirements
5. Click on OK

A – Sheet Issues/Revisions Column Options Explained

• Numbering: As you can see there are three locations in the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog where you can find Numbering. In the Column, you can set a preset Numbering Sequence. By default, there are three options: Alphanumeric, Numeric, and None.
• Date: You can enter the date you made or submitted revisions for review in this column.
• Description: This column allows you to enter a description for the revision to display in the schedules on sheets.
• Issued: Once you have completed the revisions to the project and added the updated view to a sheet, you can issue the revision to mark it as closed. Note that once “Issued” is checked, you can no longer modify any information, reassign the Revision to another Cloud, or edit any Cloud Sketches.
• Issued to / Issued by: Use these columns to indicate a person or organization to whom the revision will be issued or who will issue the revision.
• Show: This option allows you to choose between one of the following values:
  • None: Select this option to not display the Revision Cloud and Tag inside the drawing.
  • Tag: Select this option to display the Tag without the Revision Cloud. You can still hover over the area to highlight the cloud and select to edit.
  • Cloud and Tag: This default option allows you to display both Revision Cloud and Tag inside the drawing.

B – Sheet Issues/Revisions Sidebar Options Explained

• Add: To add new Revisions. Note that the initial Revision already exists (by default) and is editable.
• Delete: You can remove Revisions and the associated Clouds/Tags from the project. It is possible to delete multiple Revisions at once by holding the CTRL-button. Be aware that it is impossible to delete any issued revisions, and the last revision of the project cannot be removed. Once revisions are deleted, the remaining ones will be re-arranged accordingly.
• Numbering: You can modify the existing presets or create a new one by clicking on Numbering… in the Customize Numbering panel.
  • Numbering Per Project: You can use this default setting to automatically number the revisions according to the sequence of revisions in the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog.
  • Numbering Per Sheet: Use this option to number the clouds relative to the sequence of other clouds on the sheets. In other words, this renumbers the clouds on the sheet while maintaining the project-based Sequence number.

Tip

You can create a combination of Letters and Numbers for your new preset. For example, A1, B2, C3 or A1, A2, B1, B2, etc.

• Move Up / Down: This option allows you to change the sequence of the revisions, which automatically updates the assigned number for each revision.
• Merge Up / Down: It’s possible to combine revisions into a single entry. When you merge revisions, the revision being merged to will remain, but the details of the revision being merged will be lost. Note that the Revision Cloud will stay and get the Revision Number of the one being merged to.
• Arc Length: You can adjust the value to modify the Arc Length of all Revision Cloud annotations inside your project. Increasing the value results in a larger Arc Length.

Step 2 – Add Revision Cloud in Revit and Assign

After you add and manage the Revisions, you can continue by adding Revision Clouds to the drawing and then assign them to your already created Revisions.

1. Open the Annotate tab
2. Click on Revision Cloud in the Detail panel

3. Go to Properties Browser > Identity Data > Select a Sequence for the Revision parameter
4. Choose an option from the Draw panel
5. Create a Sketch around the designated area
6. Click on Finish Edit Mode

Step 3 – Add Revisions Cloud Tag in Revit

After you place the Revision Cloud, it is possible to add some Tags to the Clouds. The tag will show the Revision Number by default for each Cloud.

Once you have positioned the Revision Clouds and Tags, you can easily modify their appearance using one of the various methods you can find here.

Revision Tag Family

By default, the Revit Templates have a family for the Revision Cloud Tags which is called: Revision Tag.rfa and can be found in the Annotation Symbols category of the Project Browser. If this is not the case, you can load in the default family by following the next steps.

1. Open the Insert tab > Load from Library panel
2. Click on Load Autodesk Family > Search for Revision Tag > Click on load

Optional: You can also create your own Revisions tag by creating a new family: (Metric) Generic Tag.rft, don’t forget to change the Category to Revision Cloud Tags before placing the labels.

Tip

You can modify the Revision Tag family with additional Category Parameters, such as Revision Date, Description, Issued to, etc.

Add Revision Tag

Once you have loaded or created a Revision Cloud Tag family, you can continue to add them to the Revision Clouds by following these steps.

1. Open the Annotate tab
2. Click on Tag by Category in the Tag panel

3. Hover over the Cloud or use the Tab button to select > Left-click to place the Tag
4. Optional: change the Graphics instance settings in the Properties Browser

Step 4 – Add Revisions on Sheet in Revit

In the final stage of the Revisions workflow, you can show the Revisions in the Revision Schedule on the sheet. The schedule will display the details about each Revision associated with the sheet.

To include Revisions in the Revisions Schedule on the sheet, follow the steps outlined below:

1. Open a Sheet > Go to the Properties Browser
2. Search for Revisions on Sheet parameter > Click on Edit…
3. In the Revisions on Sheets dialog select the desired sequences to show in the Revisions Schedule
4. Click on OK when finished

Note

If a Cloud or Tag is already assigned to revisions in the view on the sheet, they will automatically appear in the Revision Schedule.

Issue Revision

Once you’ve completed the necessary tasks related to a Revision (from the description), you can open the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog and confirm the checkbox “Issued”. Note that the parameters will grey out and become read-only. You can no longer edit the parameters and Clouds before you uncheck Issued again.

Add Revision Schedule to Title block

If your Title block doesn’t have a Revision Schedule, or if you want to make some adjustments to an existing schedule by adding fields, you can open the Family and follow the next steps.

New Revision Schedule

1. Open the View tab
2. Click on Revision Schedule in the Create panel

3. Add the desired available parameters from the field
4. Click on OK
5. Drag the Revision Schedule from the Project Browser onto the Title block > Load into Project

Adjust an Existing Revision Schedule

To adjust an existing Revision schedule, go to the Project Browser > Select the Revions Schedule > Go to the Properties Browser > Other > Click on Edit… to start the modifications to any of these parameters.

Cloud and Tag Graphics

There are various ways to modify the appearance of the Revision Clouds and Revision Cloud Tags. However, the most commonly used approach to do this is through the Object Style settings, which will override the project-wide settings.

1. Object Style

To change the Object Style of the Revision Clouds and Tags follow the steps below:

1. Open the Manage tab
2. Click on Object Styles in the Settings panel > Object Styles window will open

3. In the Object Styles window click on the Annotation Objects tab
4. In the Category column search for Revision Clouds / Revision Cloud Tags
5. Change the appearance settings in the Line Weight, Color, and Pattern columns
6. Click OK when finished

2. Visibility/Graphic Overrides

In case you need to modify the appearance of the Revision Cloud and Tags for a specific view separately, you can use the Visibility/Graphic Overrides setting (shortcut VV/VG).

1. Open the View tab
2. Click on Visibility/Graphic Overrides in the Graphics panel > Visibility/Graphic Overrides window will open

3. In the Visibility/Graphic Overrides window click on the Annotation Categories tab
4. In the Visibility column search for Revision Clouds / Revision Cloud Tags > Click on Override… in the Projection/Surface Lines column > Line Graphics window will open
5. Change the appearance settings in the Line Graphics window for the Line Weight, Color, and Pattern
6. Click OK when finished

3. Override Graphics in View

If you like to make quick adjustments to Revision Clouds and Tags for a specific view, you can use the Override Graphics method.

1. Right-click on the Cloud / Tag or both by holding the CTRL-button
2. Hover over Override Graphics in View
3. Click on By Element…
4. Change appearance settings in the View Specific Element Graphics dialog > Click on OK

Revit 2024: Schedule Revision Clouds

Last but not least, Revit 2024 introduced the Revision Clouds category to the Schedules. This means that you can create a schedule to manage all Revision Clouds in your project and see on which view or sheet they belong. By using this method, you can check each Revision in your model and make adjustments directly in the Schedule columns.

To create a new Schedule for Revisions Clouds follow the steps outlined below:

1. Open the View tab
2. Click on Schedules in the Create panel > Choose Schedule/Quantities

3. Select Schedule building components
4. Choose Revision Clouds from the category list > Optional: change the default Schedule Name
5. Click on OK > Schedule Properties dialog opens
6. Add parameters from the available fields such as Revisions Clouds, Revisions, Views, Sheets, or Project Information.
7. Click on OK when finished

After you created your Revision Clouds Schedule, you can see an overview of all Clouds in your model. Note that you can add custom Shared Parameters to the schedule but are limited to instance-based parameters only. You can read more about creating shared parameters in this article. Furthermore, it is important to know that the schedule cannot include Revision Clouds from linked models.

Wrapping Up

It’s not unusual for designs to undergo several modifications as new insights are gained or mistakes are discovered. To communicate what changes you have made in your project model, you can use the Revisions tool in Revit. The built-in tool for Revisions, which includes Revision Clouds and Tags, is a great way to assist you in keeping track of modifications.

Don’t forget to use the Revisions Schedule on Sheet to show what Revisions have been issued on the associated sheet. By using the Revisions features, you can make sure that your project will stay organized and that every project member is up to date on any changes that have been made.

I hope you found this article helpful, if you have any questions, just drop a comment below.