By default, the revision number is the sequence number in the Revision Schedule. Revit will assign the first revision as sequence #1. But what if you need to start your revision number as a different number other than 1 per your client’s request, for example ‘0’?
It is embarrassing if we have to explain to our client that your request cannot be done because Revit doesn’t allow us to do so. Fortunately, there is a way to get around this, it is not the perfect solution, but will definitely get you the end result you wanted. Remember, our goal is to serve our client, Revit has a tool helping us to provide the service to meet our client’s need, we are not a slave of the software. By the end of the day, all we care is whether we can get the work done and our client is happy.
Sorry, it was a little off topic, let’s get started! In this tutorial, we will need to go back and forward between the project and the families. All text in Green are related to the Family editing.
In our Project File, Go to View tab > click Revisions (under Sheet Composition Panel).
With the Revision Schedule opened, notice the “Issue to” and “Issued by” column? We rarely fill out these 2 columns, so instead of using it as what it is intended for, we can use one of them as our Revision Number column! In this example, I used the “Issued to” column. Let’s say I need my Revision Number to be “15”. Type in “15” in the “Issued to” column, click OK.
For the purpose of this demonstration, we need to create a Revision Cloud. Go to Annotate tab > Revision Cloud (under Detail panel), and start drawing a revision cloud.
With the cloud selected, go to Properties and assign it to the revision we just created. To give a delta revision tag to the cloud, go back to Annotation tab > Tag by Category (under Tag panel, see image above). The revision number should still read as “1” in both the title block and revision delta, but don’t worry, we haven’t done our magic yet.
Open up the Title Block family, in the Project Browser > Views (all) > Schedules > Revision History (every firm may name their Schedule differently, in this tutorial, I name the schedule “Revision History”). With “Revision History” schedule selected, go to Properties > Fields (under Others) > click Edit.
Select “Revision Number” from the “Scheduled Fields” (right box) and Remove it. Then Add “Issued to” from the “Available Fields” (left box) if the parameter is not in the “Scheduled Fields” box yet. Select “Issued to” and Move it to the top of the list if you haven’t done so.
Continue to click the Formatting tab, select “Issued to” and make sure the Hidden Field box is unchecked. Save the family and reload it back to the project.
Back to our Project file, check the Title Block on the Sheet with the revision cloud and you should notice the Revision Number 15 now appears on the Sheet.
Let’s move on to changing the revision number tag that is associated to the cloud. Open up the Revision Tag family, select the number inside the delta. Go to Properties > Label > click Edit
Remove “Revision Number” and Add “Issued to”. Save the family and reload it back to the project.
Go back to our Project file, the revision delta should read 15.
If you need to add another revision, just go back to View tab > Revisions (under Sheet Composition Panel) > Add a new Revision (see the first image in this post). Input the Revision Number in the “Issued to” column. Cloud and tag the changes, the newly added revision will show up on the Title Block.
With this method, we basically ignore the Revision Number / Sequence Number that is automatically assigned by Revit and replaced with our manually entered Revision Number.
Want to learn more?
When you work in a team, it is important to properly set up project orientation to get everyone on the same page. I wrote several posts about this topics:
- Project North vs True North
- Setting up True North for a Project
- Setting up True North for a Project – Best Practice
This was an excellent article and exactly what we needed to do in my Company! I applaud your ingenuity! Thank you, so much for posting this!
Thank you. I am glad you find this article helpful.
This works to a certain extent. However when Revit is pulling through the sequence number it is refering to the number of revisions already on the sheet rather than the number in the ‘Sheet Issues/Revisions’ dialogue box. As a result manually entering the number into issued to and assigning the label to this rather than allowing sequencing to dicate the revision number will cause all kinds of problems? For example we were trying to call our revsions B1, B2, B3 and then after this stage refer to revsions as P1, P2 etc to determine the different stages of the construction process. The problem will arise when a drawing is on its fist revision but as we are pulling through manually entered text rather than the number sequence it will be listed as B2. Do you not agree or am I missing something…
I do not quite understand your question, but I will try my best to explain the concept to you. This post is a get around solution for users who do not want to start with revision/delta #1. We cannot modify the sequence number in Revit and it will always be 1,2,3… The sequence number is used to keep track of the revision order and you are always free to change the order by moving the row up and down in the Revision Schedule (View tab > Revisions). However, once a revision is issued, I will not change the order or the revision number. For best practice, I always checked the “Issued” check box once a revision is issued. This is to prevent the revision cloud accidentally deleted or modified. No matter what number we called the revision in “issued to”, it will not affect the order because Revit only knows sequence 1 is the first revision. If you are following the method in my post and change your revision from B1 to P1, it will not affect the sequence order, it is only changing what “delta” number is shown on the construction documents. It will not change the revision order in the Revision History on the Titleblock. Base on your scenario, are you changing the revision from B1 to P1 along the construction process? Would that be confusing for the contractor to keep track of the changes since at certain point you will issue another B1 while the “old” B1 is now considered as P1? Just a thought.
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Awesome trick! Thank you for sharing!!
All the best!
Hi!
This is a great tip!!! I wanted to ask one question. I edited the title block and revision bubbles as stated above and it worked great. The only thing is…….when the revisions show up in the title block I need for them to be in sequence by sheet (because we organize revisions by sheet not project). For instance: a revision may be named ‘Revision 4’ and be numbered as #4 but it would have a different sequence number on each title block depending on how many revisions appear on each sheet. Does that make sense? Any help you can provide would be great. I tried to put the Revision Sequence parameter back into the schedule but the numbers remained the same.
Any help would be great and thanks for this tip!!!!
Oops I just read more of your other posts and I think you answered my questions above about sequencing.
You have a great Blog! I ve sent it to my friends
i want to edit my revision
right now it is 1 but i want to change it with 0(zero)
please suggest me how can i change this revision??
thanks and regards,
vinod
If you follow thru the steps in this tutorial, you should be able to enter whatever number you want at the “Issue To” column to customize the revision number you want to show.
This procedure only works if you are utilizing the revision based on Per Project instead of Per Sheet. Another work around is to add a 0 in the first Revision line inside the title block family.
When Adding the first Revision, select the none option in the Numbering Column. This will allow you to have you first revision to have no sequential number and take on the 0 you manually added to the Title Block family. The NExt Revison can start with the numbering sequence and it will be Revision 1 🙂
Thanks for your input. You trick can buy one more revision spot before it start the sequence, which is helpful to some project. However, I also wanted to take this time to clarify my tutorial, this solution allows you to enter any sequence number you like, for example, R1, R2, A1, etc… which is required for some project. 🙂
Hi,
Dear Sir,
how to add scheduled fields in revision properties . because in out standard sheet format we have drawn by, chk by, and app. by fields , so i am not able to add fields other than 6 fileds, pl. help me ,or can i rename issue to field ?
Than you
I didn’t finish the whole steps to change the revision number, I only did the revision cloud and tag by category to be able to achieve it. It is great because I was struggling for hours haha. Thanks so much. And I don’t know what else I did because I was playing around with it so much, but however I have changed the revision number now. THANKS