In this chapter I will explain in more detail all the options related to inserting CAD drawings (Import). To that end, I have already opened a new Revit project, and you can see its name at the top of the screen. Since the file of the same name exists in the folder with practice examples, it would not be a bad idea to repeat the shown operations yourself after watching the lesson and thus consolidate your knowledge.

The function for inserting CAD drawings is located in the Insert section, so I will first click on this item and then look for the icon labeled Import CAD. In the frame that follows, all AutoCAD files that are in the same folder as the currently active Revit project will be automatically displayed, so it will not be difficult for me to click on the appropriate item and go to the bottom of the frame because there are options that allow me to control the colors of the inserted elements. Before I go any further, I would like to draw your attention to the colors found in the original CAD drawing. As you can see, it is dominated by red lines, and if I select the Invert option from this list, slightly correct the position of the new element and close this box with Open, a completely different drawing will appear on the screen. As you can see, Revit has completely changed the original colors, so now the inserted plan is dominated by light blue instead of red. This kind of change means nothing to me, so I will undo the last step by selecting the Undo function and return to the initial state.

If you do not want any changes to be made on the drawing when you insert it, simply select the Preserve option. To that end, I will repeat the entire procedure and keep the currently selected options because it suits me best to download the entire drawing in its original form.

To show you what effect can be achieved by using the third option from the Color menu, I will first cancel the previous function and then repeat the whole process and select the item called Black and White. I will use this opportunity to slightly correct the position of the future drawing by selecting the Auto – Origin to Origin option, and as soon as I click on the Open button, a drawing should appear in front of you where all the colors have been replaced with black. You’ll see it even better if I change the view a bit and show more of the plan. I like this display mode the most because it gives me the opportunity to choose different colors for new elements, while what is in the background remains in the background.

Before I finish this lesson, I’m going to use the Undo function one more time, because I don’t want to change the contents of this project.