Revit Tip: Revit Design Options: Workflow and Best Practices

Implement Revit Design Options to explore alternate layouts, façades, or structural schemes without duplicating your model. Keep options organized, scoped, and temporary to make decision-making fast and documentation clean.

• Plan your option sets
  • Create one Option Set per design question (e.g., Lobby Layout, Façade Pattern). Avoid mixing unrelated alternatives in a single set.
  • Limit the number of options; two to three strong variants are easier to manage and evaluate.
  • Name options clearly (e.g., “Lobby_Axis_A,” “Lobby_Axis_B”). Consistent naming accelerates team reviews.
• Modeling best practices
  • Keep host/hosted relationships inside the same option (doors hosted by walls, railings on stairs). Cross-option hosting is fragile.
  • Avoid constraints and dimensions that reference elements across different options—use reference planes within each option instead.
  • Group repeated option content (e.g., unit bays), then place groups inside each option to simplify edits.
  • Some categories (levels, grids) cannot live inside options. Establish those globally in the main model first.
• Drive clarity in views
  • Assign each evaluation view to a specific Design Option (View Properties > Design Option). The default shows the Primary Option.
  • Use dedicated view templates per option that fix Design Option, filters, and graphics—especially for plans, elevations, and 3D views.
  • Adopt a naming convention: “A101 – Plan – Level 01 – Option A,” “A101 – Plan – Level 01 – Option B.”
  • Color-code options with temporary filters for quick visual comparisons during reviews.
• Schedules and tags that make sense
  • Duplicate schedules per option and set each schedule’s Design Option to the same option as its views.
  • Lock tag families to report consistent parameters across options (e.g., door numbers) and verify counts with schedule totals.
• Link and coordinate
  • For multi-discipline projects, keep options discipline-local. Architectural options in the arch model; structural MEP alternatives in their models.
  • In Visibility/Graphics for Revit Links, select a specific Design Option from the linked file for each view, or use By Linked View for consistency.
• Decision and cleanup workflow
  • Before client reviews, print or export sheets for each option as a set.
  • When the team decides, set the winning option to Primary and Accept Primary to merge it into the main model.
  • Delete abandoned options promptly to reduce file size and confusion.
• Performance and risk management
  • Keep options lightweight. If alternatives diverge drastically, branch to separate models instead of carrying heavy options.
  • Audit and purge after option acceptance to maintain model health.
  • Document known limitations and rules-of-thumb in your project template for repeatability.

Pro tip: Combine Design Options with Scope Boxes and standardized View Templates to rapidly produce side-by-side comparisons. If you need guidance selecting the right Revit license or add-ons to streamline this workflow, talk to NOVEDGE. Explore current Revit solutions and plugins at NOVEDGE | Revit.

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