Creating Views — Create and manage plan, elevation, section, and 3D views

Historical Context & Motivation

Architectural representation has always depended on the ability to project three-dimensional spatial ideas onto two-dimensional surfaces. For centuries, architects communicated their designs through hand-drafted orthographic projections — plans, elevations, and sections — each offering a unique slice of the building's spatial logic. The transition from drafting boards to digital tools did not eliminate these fundamental view types; rather, it reframed them as dynamic, parametric windows into a single unified model. Understanding why these view types exist, and how they evolved from manual conventions into Revit's Building Information Modeling (BIM) paradigm, is essential for any visual arts student who aims to work at the intersection of design and technology.

The central question that drives this lesson is deceptively simple: how does Revit translate one three-dimensional building model into the many two-dimensional and three-dimensional views required for design communication, construction documentation, and visual presentation? Answering that question demands a clear understanding of each view type, the projection geometry behind it, and the practical workflows for creating and managing views within the Revit interface.

Core Principles & Definitions

Before diving into specific commands, it is critical to internalize the foundational ideas that govern how Revit generates and organizes views. Unlike traditional CAD software, where each drawing is an independent entity, Revit's views are live projections of a shared database. Any modification made in one view — moving a wall, changing a material, adjusting a dimension — is instantly reflected in every other view that depicts the same element. This single-source-of-truth philosophy eliminates the coordination errors that plagued manual drafting.

Visual Explanation — Projection Types

The diagram below illustrates the four primary view types in Revit and the projection geometry each employs. Notice how the same simple building volume generates radically different graphic representations depending on the direction and nature of the projection. The plan looks down, the elevation looks at a face, the section slices through, and the 3D view shows the full volumetric form.

Each of these four views is an orthographic or perspective projection. Plans and elevations use parallel projection — projection lines are parallel, preserving true dimensions along the plane of the cut or the face being viewed. Sections similarly employ parallel projection but slice through the building's interior. A 3D perspective view uses converging projection lines that meet at a vanishing point, mimicking human vision. Revit also offers axonometric (orthographic) 3D views, where the 3D form is shown without perspective distortion — useful for analytical diagrams and design studies. Understanding these projection fundamentals ensures that you can anticipate what any new view will display before you even create it.

How View Range & Clipping Work

The most powerful — and sometimes confusing — mechanism in Revit's view system is the View Range dialog, which controls precisely which horizontal slices of the building are visible in a floor plan or reflected ceiling plan. The View Range defines four key planes relative to the associated level: Top Clip Plane, Cut Plane, Bottom Clip Plane, and View Depth. Elements that intersect the cut plane are drawn with heavy cut-line graphics. Elements between the cut plane and the bottom clip are shown as projected (thinner lines). Elements between the bottom clip and the view depth appear as a lighter "beyond" line style.

For elevations and sections, the equivalent concept is the far clip offset — the distance from the view's position to the farthest plane that the view can 'see.' If an element is beyond the far clip, it is invisible in that view. This mechanism prevents, for example, an elevation of the front façade from also showing interior walls that sit far behind it. Understanding clip planes across all view types gives you precise control over graphic clarity and legibility.

Detailed Breakdown of Each View Type

Floor Plans & Reflected Ceiling Plans

A floor plan is automatically created for every level you add to the project. By default, the cut plane is set at 1200 mm (about 4 feet) above the level, which conveniently passes through most windows and above most countertops. You can create additional plan views of the same level using View > Plan Views > Floor Plan — useful when you need a furniture plan at a different detail level than your structural plan. A reflected ceiling plan (RCP) looks upward, as though a mirror were placed on the floor; it reveals ceiling grids, lighting fixtures, and sprinkler heads. Despite the mirrored viewing direction, Revit maintains conventional plan orientation so that the north arrow and room layout read the same as in a floor plan.

Elevations

Revit generates four default exterior elevation views — North, South, East, and West — when you start a new project. Each is linked to an elevation marker visible in plan views. You can add new elevation views (including interior elevations) by placing the Elevation tool from the View tab. An interior elevation of a kitchen wall, for instance, shows the cabinetry layout, tile backsplash, and appliance locations in true proportion. Adjusting the crop region and the far clip offset lets you frame the elevation precisely.

Sections

A section view is created by drawing a section line in a plan or elevation view. The head and tail arrows indicate the viewing direction. Sections are indispensable for revealing vertical relationships — floor-to-floor heights, stairwell geometry, foundation details, and wall assemblies. Revit allows you to jog a section line using Split Segment so that the cut plane offsets at specific points, enabling you to show features that do not all lie along a single straight cut.

3D Views — Default, Camera, and Walkthrough

The default 3D view (accessible via the house icon or shortcut 3D) is an orthographic axonometric view that you can orbit freely using the ViewCube. A camera view is a perspective projection with a defined eye point and target point, ideal for client presentations and visualizations. A walkthrough extends the camera concept into an animated path, producing a video-like sequence through the model. For any 3D view, you can activate the section box — a six-sided clipping volume that trims away parts of the model, enabling dramatic cutaway illustrations.

Worked Example — Creating a Complete View Set

Imagine you are developing a small two-story gallery building in Revit for a studio design project. You have modeled walls, floors, a roof, a central staircase, and several interior partitions. Your professor requires a floor plan of each level, a longitudinal section, a south elevation, and a perspective interior view. The following worked example walks through the creation and management of these views.

Strengths, Limitations & Comparisons

Revit's view system is enormously powerful, but it carries specific constraints that visual arts students should understand — especially when comparing Revit to other tools in a design workflow. The table below contrasts the strengths and limitations of Revit views with those of a purely 2D CAD approach and a standalone 3D modeler such as Rhino or SketchUp.

Connection to Advanced View Techniques

The basic view-creation skills covered in this lesson form the foundation for a suite of advanced techniques that you will encounter in upper-level BIM courses and professional practice. These include View Templates, which allow you to save a complete set of view properties (scale, detail level, visibility overrides, view range) and apply them across dozens of views in one click — essential for ensuring graphical consistency on large projects. Scope Boxes allow you to control the crop regions of multiple plan views simultaneously, so that plan extents remain aligned across all floors. Dependent Views let you split a single plan into multiple segments (e.g., East Wing, West Wing) while retaining a parent-child relationship that keeps annotations synchronized.

As your projects grow in scale and complexity, you will find that disciplined view management is what separates a chaotic model from a professional one. The habits you build now — consistent naming, intentional use of crop regions, and a clear understanding of view range — will scale directly into practice.

Practice Problems

Lesson Summary