The magic wand is truly magical, but use it with caution!

Revit is hard to love. (and not for the lack of trying!).

The myriad of tables that need to be filled out to get to almost anywhere

(I know, there are alternative ways, still...)

and the names the software developers choose for their tools!

Example: “families”! Sorry, that is totally uncool.

What self respecting 20 year old would like to be associated with creating “families” at work?

Others offer the ‘magic wand’.

In reality what it stands for more often than not is clicking on the space bar to trace around something. Sounds cool.

The magic wand is truly magical, but use it with caution!

Take for example the terrain we created for a project a couple of years ago. While most modelling tools allow you to import XYZ coordinate files form surveyors we often model the site by creating contours from a flatcad survey and give them appropriate heights.

For me the process has the additional benefit of getting to know the topography as the mass is shaped.

The trap is in using the magic wand (spacebar) for tracing a Flatcad contour.

Whereas within seconds you can create a large site – it can turn into a monster that will bug you as long as you have it within your file.

So, tracing those contours manually may be a better option on the long run.