Using the Matchline Tool in Autodesk Revit for Large Plans

In this blog, we’ll show you how to deal with creating construction documents for large buildings in Autodesk Revit. While it’s nice when the entire building we are working on fits cleanly on a sheet, that is often not the case. A common way of dealing with this issue is to use a “Matchline”. Using a Matchline in Revit helps break a large project into smaller parts to accomplish one primary goal. We want to always keep the drawing at a scale that is legible and clear when we create sheets.

An Example of Matchlines in Revit

First, we’ll create a floor plan. The size does not matter for the example.

Next, we’ll break this floor plan in two plans. To do this, make a duplicate of the floor plan “As Dependent”. This is the most important part to using Matchlines. See below.

Rename the floor plan as AREA ‘A’.

The duplicate will be named AREA ‘B’

This is the result of renaming the two plans.

We will now create two sheets. One for area ‘A’ and one for area ‘B’.

Place the two plans on the two sheets respectively and crop them to size using the view crop window.

This is what that looks like for AREA ‘A’.

Now before placing the Matchline, we will load a “View Reference” tag family from the annotation folder within the library by using the “Load Family” button on the Insert tab. Matchline will not work without loading a tag.

Once the tag is loaded, it’s time to sketch the Matchline.

Activate the viewport on the sheet and select the Matchline tool in Revit.

View tab>Sheet composition panel>Matchline

Draw out the Matchline as shown below.

Once the Matchline is drawn, we can tag it on both sheets by selecting the “View Reference” tag tool.

What we end up with is an automated tag that will provide a reference to where the other half of the plan is within the set.

If you have a very large building, you can make multiple Matchlines through the project. For example, if you want to break a hospital into wings.

Matchline is a great and automated numbering tool.