I work for a production home builder and we constantly get requests to mirror our projects for full flipped CD’s. Some communities require these for permitting so there’s no way around it and no, they won’t accept dimensions that read backward/upside down. We model full master-set Revit files that contain every option for our plans and full ceiling/roof framing so the files can get pretty heavy. We’ve been using the built-in Mirror Project but IF it even works it can take anywhere from 10-60 minutes to run and there’s still a lot of clean up involved to getting the sheets print-ready. The company is moving away from AutoCad as soon as possible so I need to move forward with a Revit or viewer-based solution. We only work in vector and are currently using DWF but we will shortly move to all vector PDFs for sets.
Here’s a few things I’ve been brainstorming and would love any input on how to achieve any of these:
I know you can print to vector PDF and do mirror output with postscript, but the text is all upside down and backwards. Is there a way to keep the text readable with any viewer software? We currently have bluebeam and autodesk design review, but are open to others as long as the output vector DWF/PDF can work with the programs we already have.
Could Dynamo be used to mirror just the views on the sheets so when exported they’re correctly on the title block and all the text/dimensions are readable?
Is there a way to “freeze” the orientation of all text/dimensions in a mirrored way (ie. all horizontal read upside down and all vertical read backwards) so that when postscript mirroring is used the drawings are still legible?
Could dimension strings be flattened/converted to detail lines and a specific generic annotation family for all length texts > The GA family doesn’t have “keep readable” turned on > Then run a script to mirror that specific GA family on itself across the entire project > Now this could be published as mirrored in postscript
But presumably you’d still have AutoCAD as part of a suite. Anyway, if you do still have it around, what has worked for me is mirroring plans in AutoCAD and linking these into the parent Revit file where you create a new sheet set for the mirrored plans. That way your original model is preserved and if it changes you can just relink.
We use the Revit project position tools to mirror complex projects with good success. Generally, it is just a matter of minor cleaning up a few notes and for that we have a few apps we’ve written to help.
What are the biggest problems you are having? Glad to relate our experience.
A. Are you using Design Options?
B. You’re using a single file for everything, yes?
C. Are wall sections modeled or drafting views?
D. How many sheets is your typical set? Plans elevations, etc?
@NateD@aaronrumple noting this topic hasn’t seen activity in 3 years - unsure how it resurfaced. Rest assured the OP moved on from their original problem by now, hopefully.
Generally most Revit experts I talk to advise against mirroring projects as there are some strange things that can happen such as stair paths not behaving. Most residential firms I have come across use the CAD export/link method described by Nate in my experience,
We’re doing a good bit of “project mirroring” for a multi-building restaurant/pickelball concept that is rolling out multiple prototypes. You can see they are decent size projects. We have to mirror the buildings and put them in different configurations.
Our current methodology isn’t to mirror the actual individual elements. We link those into a master project and mirror/rotate the links as needed. This allows us to keep all the base models as one design and then flip it around as needed for the site. The project model has all the standard details. And a collection of buildings is saved as Prototype A, B C etc. Then we mesh that with a model of everything outside the complex, which is the parking, outside the fence landscaping, roads, etc. So, we can roll all these buildings from project to project with very little re-work.
It has worked pretty well. Signage (model text) was one issue. For that we have design options for the standard and mirrored version. The next one has just been submitted for preliminary planning approval (SD.) Our CD are due to be completed mid-February. Team of 2 Revit seats.
I’d recommend a similar approach for a home builder. Make one model. Then link that into a Right hand and left-hand version of the project. The single base model can be updated and will then update the 2-4 versions of mirrored options you might have. The top-level project can include any handed versions of details. etc.
Working on something similar, we are mirroring the typical floors of a 16-floor building.
Currently the best option appears to be create a copy of the current orientation / position of the mirrored building. The position will be retained, but there will likely be a need to mirror something to get the shared coordinates correct.
Otherwise, I have to assume I can link the project into an “emtpy” file, and mirror / position the project as needed. I can then use the linked views to get very close to mirrored and fully-documente views. Some things shift, but overall, it looks pretty good. I’m very disappointed that this isn’t easier to do in Revit, as it should only really required flipping the axis of the coordinate system.
I’ve tried rotating / mirroring with the position commands, but this delivers some fairly unsatisfactory results with the necessity to review many objects and drawings. An HTML can be imported into excel and easily formated for further use in Dynamo (select by ID) so that we can mark the elements. I get an ominous error-message along the lines of “position might be wrong, review.” That would be ok for maybe 20-30 Elements, but this is attached to multiple thousands of elements.
I’ve also mirrored smaller projects (single-family houses) and it worked pretty well…mirroring a laboratory-building is a bit more complex.
Oh…I also couldn’t bind the mirrored project in an empty file with attached detail groups.
