Every Revit project eventually has the same problem: dozens of floor plans, sections and ceiling plans that are supposed to look identical but somehow drift apart. One view has the furniture switched on, another has the wrong scale, a third uses a different detail level. View templates are Revit's built-in answer. Used well, they make drawing sets consistent and save hours of clicking. Used badly, they confuse the whole team. Here are the best practices that make the difference.
Apply vs Assign: The Concept Everyone Mixes Up
A view template is a named collection of view properties: scale, detail level, visibility/graphics overrides, filters, phase settings, underlay and more. There are two very different ways to use one, and Autodesk's help is clear about the difference.
- Apply (View tab > Graphics panel > View Templates > Apply Template Properties to Current View) copies the settings once. The view is not linked, so later edits to the template do not reach it.
- Assign means setting the View Template parameter in the Properties palette. This creates a live link: change the template and every assigned view updates automatically, and the controlled properties are greyed out in the view.
For production drawings, assigning is almost always the better choice. Applying is handy for one-off views or quick setups you intend to tweak by hand.
Creating Templates the Right Way
Revit gives you a few ways to create a template. The quickest is to set up one view exactly how you want it and save it:
- Set up a view (scale, detail level, visibility, filters) until it looks right.
- Select it in the Project Browser and go to View tab > Graphics panel > View Templates > Create Template from Current View, or right-click the view and choose Create View Template From View.
- Give it a clear name and click OK. The View Templates dialog opens.
- Review each property and decide whether to keep it ticked in the Include column.
- Click OK, then assign the template to the views that should follow it.
Alternatively, open Manage View Templates, pick a similar template, click Duplicate and edit the copy.
Best Practices That Keep Templates Under Control
These habits come up again and again in official guidance and in experienced BIM teams:
- Build them into your project template. Autodesk recommends creating view templates for each view type in the template file, so every new project starts consistent.
- Use a naming convention. Something like discipline, view type, scale and purpose (for example "A-Plan-100-Working") makes the right template easy to find in long lists.
- Use the Include column deliberately. Properties that are unticked are not controlled by the template, so users can change them per view. Leaving things like Crop Region or Phase unticked often avoids frustration.
- Separate working and presentation views. Keep "working" templates looser and "sheet" templates strict, so modellers are not fighting locked settings.
- Prefer filters over manual overrides. Filters stored in a template travel with it, which keeps colour coding consistent everywhere.
- Set a default for new views. In a view type's Type Properties, the "View Template applied to new views" setting means new views start with the correct template.
- Share with Transfer Project Standards. Autodesk suggests using this tool to move improved templates between projects.
- Purge the clutter. Delete unused or duplicate templates regularly so the list stays short and trustworthy.
Quick Checks Without Breaking the Template
Sometimes you need to switch on a hidden category just to check something. Instead of removing the template, use Temporary View Properties from the View Control Bar. Autodesk notes that the view gets a purple border while this mode is active, and turning it off restores the template settings. It is perfect for coordination checks without disturbing the drawing set.
If your team uses add-ins, tools like pyRevit can help audit views and templates in bulk, and Dynamo can automate template assignment for large sets (see our list of top Dynamo nodes).
Conclusion
View templates are one of the simplest ways to raise the quality of a Revit drawing set. Assign rather than apply for sheet views, think carefully about what goes in the Include column, store a tidy, well-named set in your project template and share improvements with Transfer Project Standards. Do that, and every plan, section and elevation will look like it came from the same office, because it did.