“Hide in View”? Yes, please!

“Hide in View” is one of the most important commands available to Revit users. Without it, every view at every scale gets everything that is linked to it in the model. Without selectively hiding information from a view, the picture can become an unreadable muddle of information. The muddle of too much information (TMI) could be a result of minutiae showing up in a small scale plan view or section that needs to show outlines for clarity but suffers with too much detail information that belongs only in larger scale zoom-in views or drafted details. Another source of confusion is out-of-context information that relates only to remote items that are not relevant to the view (like differing floor or roof elevations applicable only to remote parts of a building). Revit allows for these items to be hidden either as an individual element or as a part of a category of elements to be hidden. That should not be rocket science for architects using Revit. A quick look at Google Earth or Google Maps or similar software illustrates how certain types of information appear or disappear as you zoom in or zoom out: main roads may appear at a small scale (zoomed out) and a larger scale (zoomed in), while secondary roads may appear only in the zoomed-in view. You can also experiment with turning on layers of information and features and quickly realize the results of too much information. Architectural drawings and details are similar to the Google map views. The architect or Revit user must manage the information that is seen in a view in order to convey the information that is intended and hide information that is irrelevant or that should be seen only in a larger scale zoomed-in detail view.