What's New

New features

• Open a Revit model with Desktop Connector: Revit provides additional guidance when opening files from Desktop Connector. See Open a Revit Model with Desktop Connector.
• Folder path for BIM 360 Linked Models: When you manage your BIM 360 Docs cloud model links, the full folder path and model name displays so you can easily determine which model each link represents.
• Improved Revit Home: Revit Home is more consistent with Civil 3D Home. See Revit Home.
• Work with Large Schedules
  • Freeze/unfreeze schedule header: You can freeze (lock) the main header and column headers in place to keep them visible when scrolling through it. When you unfreeze the headers, they may not be visible in every area when scrolling through the schedule. See About Working in Large Schedules.
  • Active row and cell are highlighted in a schedule: The row and cell that are currently active are highlighted so that you can easily see them in a large schedule. See About Working in Large Schedules.
  • Stripe rows in large schedules (2020.1): When working in wide schedules, you can set the rows to display in contrasting colors to make it easier to follow them across the schedule. This setting can be enabled for the schedule view only, must be enabled for each view separately, and is set only for the current Revit session. See About Working in Large Schedules.

• Path of Travel (2020): Use route analysis to optimize the layout of a design by analyzing travel distances and times between selected points in the model. See Route Analysis.

  • Modify Start and End Points: Start and End points on a path of travel can be repositioned using grips.
  • Reveal obstacles: Visibility mode that allows you to inspect the view and understand which elements are analyzed as obstacles during route analysis.
  • To Room/From Room parameters: To Room and From Room parameters are enabled to display in the Properties palette and can be used in schedules.
  • Add and Remove Waypoints: Add and remove waypoints along a path or travel line to have more direct control over the path. See Add or Remove Waypoints from a Path of Travel.
• Fly Mode for Perspective Views: Use Fly mode in the Navigation bar to fly through and look around in a perspective view in a model. See Fly Through a Perspective View.
• Prevent Missing Element Corruptions: In cases where elements could previously go missing from the central model during a Sync with Central, Revit performs an additional validation during the save process so that the elements are written to the central model.
• Coordinates of linked files visible: Visualize Survey Point, Project Base Point, and Internal Origins in linked models to easily coordinate linked files. See Display Coordinate Origin Points.
• Improve Wall Attach dialog (2020.1): When attaching walls to floors and roof elements, the dialog will remember the selected setting and allow for the notification to be turned off. See Do Not Show Me (DNSM) Settings in Revit.ini.
• Site Collaboration (2020.1): Site Collaboration Workflow (Civil 3D to Revit via BIM 360 Docs) now supports BIM 360 EU projects (Requires Autodesk Desktop Connector version 10.2.0.847 or later). See: Sharing Topography Between Revit and Civil 3D.
• SketchUp models (2020.1): Added support for Trimble® SketchUp® 2019 file format link and import. See Linked File cannot be located message when trying to reload a link in Revit 2020.
• Beginner Architectural Tutorials (2020.1): Online help includes a 13-part, step by step Architectural tutorial to model a small commercial building. Videos and incremental datasets are included as part of the tutorial. See Tutorials
• Advanced Workflow for Energy Analysis (2020.1): Online help includes an advanced workflow topic on energy analysis using Revit and Insight. The workflow topic summarizes the energy analysis process and links to more detailed topics as well as customer success stories as examples of energy analysis tools in practice. See Workflow: Energy Analysis with Revit and Insight.
• Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro Sync Activity Indicator (2020.1): You can view the sync status for a cloud workshared model, including the username of the person who is synchronizing with the central model. See Workflow: Revit Cloud Worksharing.
• Test cloud model upgrade (2020.1): Before upgrading Revit Cloud Worksharing models, you can receive a detailed report of the changes that will occur during the upgrade. See Upgrade Cloud Models.
• Save a workshared model to the cloud (2020): Autodesk BIM Collaborate Pro users can set up worksets and use the Save As > Cloud Model command to initiate a workshared cloud model. See Upload a Workshared Model to BIM 360 Document Management.
• Copy a legend view across sheets (2020.1): You can copy a legend view from one sheet view and paste it to another sheet view. See Copy a Legend View.
• PDF underlay (2020): Import a single-page or multiple-page PDF file into a Revit 2D view to use as a reference for the model. See Video: Place PDF Files in Views.
  • Manipulate the PDF file in the same way as a raster image.
  • Snap to PDFs that contain vector data.
  • The Manage Images dialog displays relative and BIM 360 cloud paths for images and PDF files.

• Create elliptical walls (2020): You can use standard Ellipse or Partial Ellipse draw tools to create walls and curtain walls with advanced geometry. These tools are available in the draw panel when you are creating or modifying architectural or structural walls. See Video: Create Elliptical Walls.

• Materials improvements (2020.1): To improve ease of use and image quality when working with materials, new features have been added to the user interface, and high-quality appearance assets have been added to the Appearance Library.
  • Material Browser user interface improvements (2020): See About Material Libraries. The Material Browser contains the following new features:
    • a new Material Libraries bar to provide easier access to the Library panel
    • the ability to select a larger thumbnail size of 256 x 256 that is easier to view
    • a new icon for 'filter materials by class' to provide a better understanding of the function
  • Materials Appearance improvements (2020): To provide a better visual experience, high-quality, realistic appearance assets have been added to the Appearance Library. (See About Material Properties and Assets.) These assets provide high-quality visual presentation in the following:
    • rendered images
    • realistic views
    • ray trace views

• Enhanced OR condition for rule-based view filters (2020): When an OR rule references multiple categories, you are no longer limited to using parameters common to the selected categories. All parameters from the selected categories can be used in the rule. See Video: Multi-Category OR Filtering.

• Schedule scope boxes (2020): Schedule scope boxes in a view list to help manage the application of scope boxes to views.

• SketchUp models (2020): Added support for Trimble® SketchUp® 2018 file format link and import.

• New operators for filtering (2020): has a value and has no value are now operators available for use in view and schedule filtering.

• Dynamo nodes for steel connections that read analysis results: The updated package introduces nodes that can filter by analysis results read from the Revit model, either from the native Revit analytical model or the data stored by the Structural Analysis Toolkit which can be imported from other applications such as Robot Structural Analysis. See Dynamo Nodes for Autodesk Steel Connections 2020.2.
• Dynamo nodes that load steel connections from libraries: Use these nodes in scripts to load connections from libraries saved in external Revit files. See Dynamo Nodes that Load Steel Connections from Libraries.
• New rebar to rebar constraint types (2020.1): Shape-driven rebar sets can now be constrained together at a specified distance, regardless of the bar shape or style. This parametric association makes it easier to re-use and adjust rebar patterns throughout the project, ensures that design intent is maintained, and that the bars react correctly to changes of layout, bar sizes and rebar set geometry. See About Rebar Constraint Types.
• Intuitive rebar constraints visualization and editing (2020.1): Editing rebar constraints is now more intuitive with easier to select bar handles and constraint targets, and quicker, due to new ways of navigating through the available options. See Rebar Constraints Editing Options.
• Rebar constraints editing performance improvement (2020.1): Editing rebar constraints is now faster for shape-driven rebar in complex structural hosts or for bars in concrete host elements containing a large number of bars, such as a raft foundation.
• Precast double walls (2020.1): Double walls are now part of the precast automation process, following similar configuration rules and workflow as the existing elements. This is available in the new release of the Autodesk® Structural Precast Extension for Revit® 2020. See Create a Precast Double Wall.
• Background processes for detailed steel design (2020): Some of the most commonly used actions for Detailed Steel Design now work in background calculation processes. Actions such as move, copy, align, rotate, delete, element modification and connection creation are performed in background calculation processes. This approach lets you perform other actions while the previous command is still in progress. See Detailed Steel Modeling Background Process.
• Background processes for detailed steel design API (2020)
• Steel connections for Dynamo (2020): This is a new package that enables Dynamo to control steel connection modeling, helping to accelerate modeling of steel buildings in Revit. It can identify similar geometrical conditions for placing standard connections and along with the package you will find several out-of-the box scripts, which can be driven with the Dynamo Player. See Dynamo Steel Connections for Revit.
• Improved rebar copy and move logic (2020): Copying and moving shape-driven rebar is now more predictable, making rebar modelling more accurate and respecting the design intent. This saves time and enables consistent fabrication data. See Rebar Shape Constraints and Cover.
• Multi-rebar annotations to concrete faces (2020): Dimension the position of rebar sets with respect to the concrete host faces, or to any other dimension reference in Revit. See About Multi-Rebar Annotations.
• Multi-rebar annotations for free form rebar (2020): Use multi-rebar annotations to dimension free form rebar sets with planar and parallel bars. See About Multi-Rebar Annotations.
• Rebar in model-in-place stairs (2020): You can now place reinforcement in model-in-place stairs and deliver a fully detailed model of a concrete building.
• Propagate standard steel connections (2020): Propagate a standard steel connection in the current project. The selected connection will be applied everywhere in the model where an identical context is found. See Propagate a Standard Steel Connection.
• Standard steel connection type parameters (2020): The Revit type capabilities are introduced for standard steel connections to ease working with these kinds of elements. Customize types for each connection family based on the connection parameters. Update all the instances of the same type from one place. Reuse the same connection configuration in the same project or in a different project. Match the properties of a group of connections. See Structural Connection Type Properties.
• New standard steel connection instance property (2020): The Override by Instance property was added in the standard steel connection type properties. See Structural Connection Instance Properties.
• New steel fabrication element instance properties (2020): Some new instance properties were added for steel fabrication elements.
• New steel fabrication shape parameters in schedules, tags, and filters (2020): The steel fabrication elements have new parameters that display additional information, available in schedules, tags, and filters.
• Hole parameters dialog (2020): A new dialog allows you to configure the holes for each connected element of a selected bolt or anchor group. See The Hole Parameters Dialog.

• Edit Circuit and Panel Properties in Panel Schedule View: You can edit circuit and panel properties in the Properties palette while in a panel schedule view. See Edit Circuit and Panel Properties.
• Systems Analysis (2020.1):
  • Realize significantly more integrated HVAC systems design analysis and modeling workflows.
  • Create accurate analytical geometry rapidly from architectural models at any stage using Autodesk Insight.
  • Define analytical HVAC zone equipment and central plant.
  • Run HVAC sizing and annual energy analysis, and create custom analysis and modeling workflows using EnergyPlus through the OpenStudio programming interface.
  See Systems Analysis.
• Shorter wire home run length by auto-wiring (2020.1): To make it easier to adjust the length of home runs, when you use the automatic wiring tools to add permanent wiring to a circuit, the default length of the home run is based on the view scale. See Add Permanent Wiring to a Circuit.
• Move to swap circuits on a panel schedule (2020.1): The Move To command can now be used to move circuits to occupied positions, swapping the positions of the circuits when necessary. See Move Circuits on Panel Schedules.
• Customize home run arrows (2020): To improve the readability of home run arrows on printed electrical drawings, you can customize the style for home run arrows, including multi-circuit home runs. See Wiring.
• Electrical panel feed-through lugs (2020): Electrical panels can now be connected using feed-through lugs. You can define the circuit numbers for the child (or fed through) panel to continue from the panel they are fed from. See Select a Connection Type for a Panel.
• Display of cable tray, conduit, and insulated and lined duct and pipe (2020): To improve performance so that views open and update faster, Revit regenerates cable tray, conduit, and insulated and lined duct and pipe only for those visible in the drawing area. In addition, if one of these appears very small in the drawing area, it displays as simplified lines, regardless of the detail level assigned to the view.
• Modify Top Elevation and Bottom Elevation for pipe (2020): To more easily adjust the location of design components, you can edit parameter values to set the Top Elevation and Bottom Elevation for pipe. In addition, Revit now uses the outside diameter to determine the Bottom Elevation. The ability to adjust the Top and Bottom Elevation for duct, cable tray, and conduit was introduced in Revit 2019.2.
• Level height parameters renamed (2020): To improve usability, several parameters for specifying offset and elevation were renamed and relocated on the Properties palette:
  • For pipe, duct, cable tray, conduit, and fabrication parts:
    • Offset is now Middle Elevation
    • Start Offset is now Start Middle Elevation
    • End Offset is now End Middle Elevation
  • For family instance:
    • Offset is now Offset from Host
    • Elevation is now Elevation from Level
• Elevation parameter (2020): To improve ease of use in annotation and documentation, Elevation is now a built-in parameter for use in tags, schedules, and view filters for the following family categories:
  • Mechanical Equipment
  • Plumbing Fixture
  • Lighting Fixture
  • Lighting Device
  • Sprinklers
  • Electrical Fixtures
  • Electrical Equipment
  • Data Device
  • Communication Device
  • Fire Alarm Device
  • Nurse Call Device
  • Security Device
  • Telephone Device
  • Specialty Equipment
  • Air Terminal
  • Generic models
  • Furniture
  • Plant
  • Casework

  The Elevation parameter was renamed to Elevation from Level, and the Offset Value parameter was renamed to Offset from Host. In addition, the Schedule Level parameter was relocated next to the Elevation from Level parameter in the Properties palette. See About Elevation from Level.

• Enable Group in the Fabrication Parts palette (2020): Click Enable Group to select parts from a different group for the selected fabrication service. See Change the Service for Fabrication Parts in Revit.

Not available in the current release

The following features and workflows are not available.

• The project base point clip has been removed in Revit 2020.2. To move a clipped Project Base Point, click Manage Position Relocate Project.
• Communication Center and Favorites have been removed from the InfoCenter. (2020)
• Python macros require a manual installation of .NET Framework 3.5 to run. (2020)
• i-drop functionality has been removed. IDrop.ocx is no longer included with the software installation. (2020)

Subscription features now available to users of Revit 2020

Most new features and enhancements that were made available to Autodesk subscribers in 2019 updates are now available to users of Revit 2020.

For a detailed list of those enhancements, see What's New in Revit 2019.