Create Drawing

Create Drawing is the main A+ Tools command. You pick a curtain wall and a point to look at it from, and A+ builds the full drawing set for that wall: an elevation and a plan, optional schedules, divided glass panels, automatic dimensions, tags, a name taken from the wall's own parameters, and placement on your sheet. All of this comes from one set of saved settings, so every curtain wall in the project is drawn the same way. Use it for type elevations of glazed partitions and curtain walls, or for one drawing per wall instance.

What you get

Each run creates one drawing set per curtain wall:

• Elevation view: a section view looking straight at the wall from the side you picked. It is cropped to the wall, uses the view type and view template you chose, and is named base name + elevation suffix (for example GP01-elevation). In the Project Browser it appears under the branch for the chosen view type, normally Sections.

• Plan view: a floor plan on the wall's base level, rotated so the wall runs horizontally across the view. It is cropped around the wall and named base name + plan suffix (for example GP01-plan).

• Schedules (optional, up to three): each one is named base name + schedule suffix and filtered so it lists only this wall (see Schedule filters).

• Panel division (optional): oversized glass panels are divided to your standard width, or the whole wall is laid out with a repeating custom pattern.

• Dimensions on the elevation:

  • overall width (top) and overall height (left)
  • detailed chains for panel widths (bottom) and panel heights (right)
  • a segment chain under the bottom chain that measures each run of panels of the same kind

  Optionally, equal widths can be replaced with letters and any dimension can be given text overrides.

• Tags on the plan (each one optional): room tags, door tags for the doors in the wall, and a tag for the curtain wall itself.

• Sheet placement: the elevation, the plan and the schedules are stacked as one set and placed on your target sheet, using the dynamic, centred or grid layout. If the sheet is full, A+ creates the next sheet in the same number series, with the same title block and sheet properties.

When the run finishes, A+ opens every sheet it used and makes the first one active.

A typical result: elevation with overall, detailed and segment dimensions, the plan with room and door tags, and a schedule, placed together on the sheet.

Before you start

• Sign in or start a trial. The button is greyed out until an account is signed in or a trial is running. See Getting started.
• Open a model view. The button only works in a floor plan, ceiling plan, structural plan, area plan, elevation, section, detail view or 3D view, because those are the views where you can click a wall. It is greyed out on sheets, schedules, legends and drafting views.
• Have the project content ready. The settings refer to things that must already exist in the project: view templates, view types, dimension types, tag families, the glass curtain panel family, schedule view templates or schedules, and the target sheet. A+ never invents a sheet, so create the sheet (with its title block) first. If your company uses an A+ repository, loading settings from it can bring this content into the project for you. See Settings profiles and repositories.
• Check the wall. Straight curtain walls and single-curved (arc) curtain walls are supported. Double-curved (spline or ellipse based) walls are not.
• First run in a project. If the project has no A+ settings yet, or a setting points to something the project doesn't contain, the Curtain Wall Drawing Settings window opens automatically before you pick anything. Fix the fields shown in red, then click OK.

Step by step

The Create Drawing button on the Curtain Wall panel.

1. Open a plan, elevation, section or 3D view where you can see the curtain wall.
2. Click A+ Tools › Curtain Wall › Create Drawing. If the button has become a dropdown, pick a profile (see Running a profile from the ribbon).
3. A+ checks your licence and the project's settings. If something is missing, the settings window or a message appears first (see Messages you might see).
4. (Optional) Before you pick a wall, use the controls Revit shows for the command (see Options bar):
   • Multiple keeps the command running so you can draw several walls in a row.
   • Settings opens the Curtain Wall Drawing Settings window.
5. The status bar says Select curtain wall (Press Escape to finish). Click a curtain wall. Only curtain walls can be selected. If walls were selected before you started the command, A+ ignores that selection, so you always pick the wall here.
6. The status bar says Pick observation point (Press Escape to finish). Click a point on the side of the wall you want to look at. The elevation looks at the wall from that side. With Custom Pattern division, the pattern also starts in the bottom-left corner as seen from this point.
7. A+ creates the drawing set and places it on the sheet.
   • Single mode (Multiple off): the command finishes, commits the work and opens the sheet.
   • Multiple mode: you go straight back to step 5 for the next wall. When you're done, click Finish or press Esc.

Note: once you have picked the first wall, Multiple and Settings are locked for the rest of that run. Settings changes therefore always happen before any drawing work starts.

Running a profile from the ribbon

When at least one profile is flagged "Add as menu item to ribbon", the button becomes a dropdown.

A profile is a named set of Create Drawing settings saved in the project. When you switch on Add as menu item to ribbon for one or more profiles (in the profile bar at the top of the settings window), the Create Drawing button becomes a dropdown:

• One item per flagged profile. The item has the profile's name and the tooltip "Runs the command with the 'name' profile." Clicking it makes that profile the selected one and runs the command straight away. Up to 20 profiles can appear.
• Settings… (at the bottom, below a separator) opens the Curtain Wall Drawing Settings window. Click OK to save and immediately run the command. Click Cancel to just close.

When no profile is flagged, the plain button comes back. Profiles are stored per project, so the dropdown changes when you switch between projects. If a menu item is out of date (for example after an Undo removed a profile), A+ refreshes the ribbon and asks you to pick again.

Options bar: Multiple, Settings and Finish

Revit 2026: A+ adds its controls to Revit's Options Bar while the command is running.

While the command runs, A+ adds three controls next to Revit's own command options. They disappear when the command ends.

Revit 2027: the same controls appear as a panel on the Modify tab (a large Settings button, with Multiple and Finish next to it).

Note: Revit 2027 no longer has the Options Bar strip, so in the 2027 edition the controls appear as a temporary panel on the Modify tab instead.

If the controls don't appear. If A+ can't find a place for the controls (for example after a Revit update changed the window layout), two small fallback buttons appear on the Curtain Wall panel to the right of Create Drawing:

• Settings opens the Settings Manager.
• Multiple: OFF / Multiple: ON toggles multiple mode.

The fallback buttons disappear again as soon as the normal controls can be shown.

Finishing, Esc and Undo

• Esc before anything is drawn ends the command quietly. Nothing is created and no credit is used.
• Esc after one or more drawings (multiple mode) opens Commit Changes?, which shows how many drawing sets you have created and on how many sheets. Choose one of:
  • Yes - Commit changes and finish: keep everything.
  • No - discard: remove everything this run created.
  • Continue: go back to picking walls. Closing the prompt also continues.
• Finish on the Options bar is the same as Yes - Commit changes and finish, without the prompt.
• Undo: a whole run, with all its walls, is a single Create Curtain Wall Drawing step on Revit's undo list.
• Settings are separate. Settings you confirm with OK or Apply, even in the middle of a command, are saved as their own undoable step (Save A+ settings). Cancelling or discarding a drawing run never throws away settings you applied. To revert a settings change, use Undo.

Pressing Esc after drawings have been created in multiple mode.

Settings

All options live in the Curtain Wall Drawing Settings window. You can open it in four ways:

• the Settings control while the command runs
• Settings… in the ribbon dropdown
• the Curtain Wall page of the Settings Manager
• automatically, when the settings aren't valid for the project

Settings are stored in the project as named profiles. They are not stored on your computer, so everyone working in the model shares them.

The settings window: profile bar at the top, five tabs, a reference image on the right, and the buttons at the bottom.

Lengths are entered in your project's length units, and every length field shows the unit in its label. The defaults below are given in millimetres.

Profile bar

The band at the top of the window chooses which profile you are editing. From here you can also:

• duplicate, rename or delete a profile
• flag a profile with Add as menu item to ribbon
• Load settings from a repository or another source
• Push to repository… (repository managers only)

An Unsaved changes badge shows when you have edits that are not yet applied. The bar is the same in every A+ settings window. See Settings profiles and repositories.

General tab

General: how views are named, which view types and templates they use, and which schedules are created.

Naming and Filtering

Drawing Views

There is one row for the elevation and one for the plan. Each row has four fields:

Schedule Views

Each schedule row: what to base it on, how to filter it, and its name suffix.

Dimensions & Tags tab

Dimension types and line offsets for the elevation, and the tags placed on the plan.

Dimension Types on Elevation

Note: on a wall whose grid has an angle, only the overall dimensions are created and you are told about it (Detailed Dimensions Skipped).

Tags on Plan

Overrides and Substitutions tab

Choose a dimension, type the override text, and check the result in Configured Overrides.

Dimension Text Overrides

First choose a dimension in Select Dimension Type to Override. The list is grouped by these headings:

• Overall Dimensions: Top Dimension, Left Side Dimension, Segment Dimension
• Glass Panel Dimensions: Bottom Dimensions, Right Side Dimensions
• Door Panel Dimensions: Bottom Dimensions, Right Side Dimensions
• All Other Panels: Bottom Dimensions, Right Side Dimensions

A line under the list explains what the selection applies to, for example "Applies to all panels of type: your glass family". Then fill in any of these fields:

All text fields accept parameter tokens, as the tip in the window says: {parameter name} for instance and [parameter name] for type parameters, resolved at run time. For the overall and segment dimensions they are read from the curtain wall. For the panel rows they are read from each panel, so you can put a door's own mark on its dimension.

Glass panel rows add a Don't apply to column, so you can exclude standard-width panels or lettered values.

For the Glass Panel rows, each field has a Don't apply to group:

• Standard panels: skip panels whose width equals the Standard panel size on the Panel Division tab.
• Substituted values (Text above and Text below only): skip values that have been replaced by a letter.

Configured Overrides

This panel lists every dimension that has an override or letter substitution in the current profile, with a short summary of each one. For example: Suffix: "mm" (Does not apply to standard panels), or "Equal measurements will be substituted with a letter." Click Remove to clear that entry. When nothing is set, it says No overrides configured.

Panel Division tab

Standard scheme: glass panels wider than the standard size are divided.

Layout Scheme

Choose Standard or Custom Pattern. The selected scheme shows in bold, and only its own fields are shown.

Standard: divides glass panels that are wider than the standard size. Doors and other panels are not touched.

As the note in the window says, panels created above an added horizontal division are switched to the type of the leftmost glass panel on the wall. For example, the panel above a door becomes glass instead of a copy of the door.

Custom Pattern: the whole wall is laid out with repeating patterns.

Custom Pattern: lays out the whole wall with repeating patterns. It only applies to walls where every panel belongs to the glass family. Doors are added by hand afterwards.

Important: panel division never runs twice on the same wall in a consecutive run. If you draw a wall that already has drawings, and choose Continue with sequence number, the new drawing is made without dividing panels. Re-dividing a wall that already has dimensions on its grid would cause a flood of Revit reference errors. To re-divide an already drawn wall, use Create Panel Divisions and then Redimension Elevation.

Layout tab

The Layout tab has two sub-tabs: Sheet Layout and View Spacing and Cropping.

Sheet Layout: target sheet, layout mode and sheet margins.

Sheet Layout

View Spacing and Cropping: spacing on the sheet, the elevation's depth and the plan's crop.

View Spacing and Cropping

Tip: the dialog accepts 0 in the offset and depth fields, but the command needs them to be greater than 0 when it runs. With a 0, you get a Configuration Error when you start the command.

Reference image

The right-hand column shows a Reference image: an example of a finished A+ drawing set, with the overall and detailed dimensions, the plan with room and door tags, and a schedule. Use it to see which part of the drawing a setting affects. It is an illustration, not a live preview of your settings.

Buttons, validation and shortcuts

Fields that fail validation turn red, and the tab shows how many problems it has.

The window can be resized. Number fields don't accept letters. Percentage, row and column fields take whole numbers only.

Naming with parameters

The base name is the most important setting. It names the elevation, the plan and every schedule. It is the default schedule filter. It is also how A+ refers to the wall in its messages. It is built from the pattern in Name views and filter schedules based on.

Token reference

• Not case-sensitive: {mark}, {Mark} and {MARK} all find Mark.
• Values appear as Revit displays them. Numbers and lengths follow your project's formatting. Parameters that point to another element show that element's name, so {Base Constraint} gives the level name, for example Level 1.
• You can combine as many tokens and as much text as you like, for example [Type Mark]-{Mark}.
• Tokens also work in the view and schedule Suffix fields, the schedule Filter fields, and every dimension text override.

How the names are built

If the name already exists. Before drawing, A+ checks whether a view named base name + elevation suffix already exists. If it does, you get Duplicate View Name, with these choices:

• Continue with sequence number: A+ appends 1, 2, … to the base name (for example GP01 1-elevation and GP01 1-plan). Panels are not re-divided on that wall.
• Cancel
• Stop and commit changes (multiple mode only)

When a parameter is missing or empty

Worked examples

These examples use a wall with Mark = A1 and Base Constraint = Level 1, whose type is called Glass Partition 2700 and has Type Mark = GP01. The suffixes are left at their defaults.

Tip: choose the token by what one drawing represents. Use [Type Mark] or [Type] for type drawings: one sheet per wall type, which is what the reference image shows. Any other wall of the same type then triggers the duplicate-name prompt. Use {Mark} or your own instance parameter for one drawing per wall.

Tip: for full control, add a project or shared instance parameter to walls (for example "Elevation ID") and use {Elevation ID} as the pattern. You decide every name in the model, and a schedule can filter on the same parameter.

Important: always include at least one token. A pattern of plain text only (for example Partition) gives every wall the same name. With schedules enabled, A+ also has no parameter to filter on, and the drawing fails when it creates the schedule.

Tip: keep names unique. If two walls give the same base name, the second one gets the Duplicate View Name prompt, and continuing creates … 1 names without panel division.

Schedule filters

Each schedule A+ creates gets one equals filter, so that it lists only the wall you drew. A+ works out the filter like this:

1. The field. With the default (empty) filter, the field is the first type token in your naming pattern, or the first instance token if there is no type token. [Type Mark] filters on Type Mark, {Mark} filters on Mark, and [Type] filters on the wall's Type.
2. The value. With the default filter, the value is the whole base name. That's why the default only works when the pattern is a single token. If you add text or a second token, also fill in the Filter box.
3. A custom filter (anything typed in the Filter box) is resolved like the naming pattern. If it contains a token, that token sets the field. If it is plain text, the field from the naming pattern is filtered on that text.
4. If the custom filter can't be resolved (missing or empty parameter), A+ falls back to the default and tells you (Schedule Filter Configuration Error).
5. If the naming parameter itself is missing, the filter value is left empty. A+ then filters the field that the schedule base already filters on, with an empty value, so the schedule shows (almost) nothing instead of every wall in the project. If the base has no filter at all, the schedule is left unfiltered.

How the filter combines with the schedule you based it on:

• A filter that the base template or schedule already has on the same field is replaced with A+'s per-wall value.
• Filters on other fields are kept as extra conditions.
• The field is added to the schedule if it isn't there already.
• If the base filters on a different field than the one A+ will set, you get Schedule Filter Mismatch before the drawing is made. You can continue anyway, or cancel and fix the template or pattern.

Suffix rule. Each schedule is named base name + suffix. Only one schedule may have an empty suffix, and the others need different suffixes, for example -panels and -doors.

Tip: build one schedule view template per schedule kind, with a filter on the same parameter your naming pattern uses (for example Type Mark equals …). A+ then simply swaps in the value for each wall, and the mismatch warning never appears.

Custom pattern syntax

The Vertical pattern (both schemes) and the Horizontal pattern (Custom Pattern) use the same simple format:

• Sizes are written in your project's length units, separated by dashes: 400-1200-800. A semicolon or a space also works as a separator.
• Decimals use your Windows decimal separator, for example 612.5.
• Every size must be greater than 0. An empty box means "no divisions in this direction".
• The pattern repeats until the wall is used up.

The vertical pattern is measured from the base of the wall, including the bottom mullion.

When the horizontal pattern doesn't fit exactly, Pattern placement decides where the leftover goes. Either it is split into two equal end panels, giving up trailing bays when an end panel would be smaller than the Minimum panel width, or it is kept as one panel at the far end.

Under Custom Pattern, a wall where not every panel belongs to the glass family is skipped. You see Custom Pattern Not Applied straight away, or in a summary at the end of a multiple run. The rest of the drawing is still created.

Overrides and letter substitution explained

Letter substitution makes an elevation easier to read. Equal panel widths are replaced with letters (a, b, c, …) instead of repeating the same number.

• It works per panel kind: Glass Panel, Door Panel and All Other Panels each have their own Substitute equal measurements switch.
• Only widths that occur two or more times get a letter. A width that occurs once keeps its number.
• Panels of the Standard panel size always keep their number, so the standard width reads as a dimension and the odd sizes as letters.
• Letters start at the Base letter (default a). Each panel kind starts again from the base letter.
• Values within 1 mm of each other count as equal.
• On a wall with several rows of panels, only the bottom row of full-height panels is lettered (low strips along the floor are skipped), so the letters describe what you read at floor level.
• While substitution is on for a row, Replace with text is greyed out for it.

Example: a wall of glass panels 800 - 650 - 650 - 800 - 1040 (door) - 800, with a standard size of 800 and glass substitution on, gets a bottom chain reading 800 - a - a - 800 - 1040 - 800. Then:

• adding the suffix mm with Don't apply to › Standard panels ticked puts "mm" only on the non-standard glass values
• the door's Text below set to {Mark} shows each door's own mark under its width

Text override fields:

• Prefix and Suffix frame the value, for example ca + 2970 gives ca 2970.
• Text above and Text below add a line over or under it, for example (ÖM) or GLASS.
• Replace with text swaps the value completely, for example VARIES.

A good use for the overall dimensions is to mark them as approximate: set the Top Dimension prefix to ca and the Text below to (ÖM), as in the reference image.

Tips

• One profile per wall family, on the ribbon. Create profiles such as "Glazed partitions 1:50" and "Facade 1:100", each with its own templates, dimension types and naming, and switch on Add as menu item to ribbon. Your team then picks the right setup straight from the Create Drawing dropdown, with no settings window needed.
• Let view templates do the styling. Scale, detail level, visibility, phase and crop region visibility belong in the elevation and plan view templates. Avoid (none): it uses the default scale and triggers a warning on every run.
• Use dedicated view types. A separate section type and floor plan type for A+ views keeps them together in the Project Browser and lets each type assign its own template (choose (from view type)).
• Prepare the sheet once. Create the first sheet of the series with the right title block and number (for example A400). A+ fills it and continues with A401, A402 … with the same title block and properties.
• Batch runs (paid plans). Switch on Multiple, pick wall, point, wall, point … and click Finish. The whole batch is one undo step, and the dynamic layout packs the sets row by row.
• Draw walls of similar height together. The dynamic layout works best when consecutive walls are roughly the same height. For mixed heights, try Grid layout.
• Pick the observation point from the "front". The elevation looks at the wall from that side, and the custom pattern starts in the bottom-left corner as seen from there. In a plan view, click a little way in front of the wall on the room side you want to show.
• Base the schedule on an existing schedule when you need exact column widths, a different category (for example curtain panels), or formatting that a template can't carry. A+ duplicates it for each wall.
• Check the plan crop before a big batch. If room tags are missing, the room's visible part is probably below Min. room area to tag (%) of the crop. Increase the Y-axis offset or lower the percentage.
• Repeat a wall without re-dividing. A consecutive run of the same wall never re-divides panels, so re-running is safe for the grid. Use Redimension Elevation to refresh dimensions on an existing elevation instead of creating new drawings.
• Share settings through a repository. Push a tested profile to your company repository so new projects start with the same setup. See Transfer Settings and Settings profiles and repositories.
• Free licence or trial: you are charged once per drawing, and only after it has been created. Cancelling, pressing Esc before a drawing exists, or changing settings costs nothing.

Messages you might see

This is a short list. For more detail and other messages, see Messages and troubleshooting.

Related pages

• Getting started
• Create Panel Divisions: divide panels on an existing wall without making a drawing
• Redimension Elevation: redo the dimensions on an existing elevation
• Settings Manager
• Settings profiles and repositories
• Transfer Settings
• Licensing and credits
• Messages and troubleshooting

Last updated 2026-10-02.