Using Revit Sheet Guide Grids to Simplify Your Construction Document Creation

By: Cherisse Biddulph, ASCENT

Guide grids help you place views on sheets so that all your sheets line up and there is no need to go back to nudge a view so that all your sheets are aesthetically pleasing.  

Some facts about guide grids: 

• You can make as many as you need. 

• You can change the spacing and name at any time. 
• Guide grids do not print. 
• You can delete guide grids from the sheet and create a new one. 

I wanted to share with you how I like to use sheet guide grids to help inspire you. 

1. Open a sheet view; it can be empty or have a view already on it. 
2. In the View tab>Sheet Composition panel, click Guide Grid. 
3. In the Assign Guide Grid dialog, you can choose an existing guide grid or select Create new. 

 
Figure 1 

4. I like to name my guide grids by sheet sizes (e.g., 22×34 or ANSI D) so I know exactly where my views will be placed depending on the sheet size, but you can name them anything you like so long as it helps you when it comes time to put your sheets together. For this exercise, I am going to create a guide grid for my 22×34 horizontal sheet. 
5. Once you click OK, the default 1” guide grid displays on your sheet, covering it completely –which can become very annoying. 

 Figure 2 

6. Select the guide grid by clicking on the outside edge. (Control grips will display.)  
7. In Properties, set the Guide Spacing. You can also change the name, if needed. 

 
Figure 3 

8. In the upper-left side of the sheet, use the Align tool to align the grid to the edge of the sheet. Since you don’t need the entire guide grid, use the control grips to bring it in tight to the upper-left side, as shown in Figure 4. I like to reduce the grid to just two intersecting lines, as shown in Figure 5. 

 Figure 4 

9. Drag and drop a view onto the sheet. The placement doesn’t matter at this point. 
10. Use the Move tool to move the view’s intersecting grids (e.g., grid A and grid 1) to the guide grids intersection. You can only use reference planes, view crop boundaries, grids, and levels for aligning or moving your view. (For example, you cannot snap to a wall’s corner to move it to the guide grid’s intersection.) 

 Figure 5 

11. Now for the next 22×34 sheet I create, I can use the same guide grid and line up my view. 

 Figure 6 

I hope you find this tip useful in your day-to-day work.