How to add doors in Revit: doors, windows, wall openings and new door types

How to add doors in Revit is not hard in terms of clicks. Beginners trip in three places: a door needs a wall to host it, the sizes on your drawings are rarely in the library, and the swing has to be right from the moment you place it.

This article covers doors, windows and wall openings, ordered the way you work, with screenshots from Revit 2027 in English. Door tags are in how to tag in Revit and door schedules in how to create a schedule in Revit. To learn modelling and documentation in full, see the Revit Architecture course.

A Revit door is a hosted element: it must sit in a wall. In return it cuts its own opening, draws its own plan symbol and moves with the wall. Delete the wall and its doors go too, so get the walls right before placing doors.

Step 1 — start the Door tool and load door families

Start the tool from Architecture › Build › Door, or type DR. The ribbon switches to Modify | Place Door with two panels of its own. The Window tool has the same ribbon, so the steps below apply to windows too.

Doors must be loaded from a library, yet a fresh Revit 2027 install does not include a full component library.

Three places to get door families, in order of preference:

Step 2 — create door types to your drawing sizes

Door sizes on Vietnamese drawings rarely match the library. The answer is not a new family but duplicating a type and changing two numbers:

1. Pick the closest door type in the Type Selector and click Edit Type.
2. Click Duplicate.
3. Type the new name in the Name dialog and click OK.
4. Change Width and Height under Dimensions and click OK.

Name the type to your drawing convention now, such as 900 x 2200mm or D1. Renaming later is painful because the name is already in schedules and tags.

Note. A duplicated type lives in the current project only. To reuse it, add it to the office template or save the family out with Save As › Library. Reloading a family already in the project asks whether to overwrite: overwriting updates every door of that family, so loading an old version breaks them all at once.

Step 3 — place the door and set its swing

This is the core of how to add doors in Revit. Move the cursor over a wall and Revit previews the door with two temporary dimensions to the nearest walls. Autodesk covers the tool in Place a Door.

Set the swing while placing:

Note. By default, temporary dimensions run from the door centerline to the centerline of the nearest perpendicular wall. The screenshot measures from the opening edge to the wall face; change this under Manage › Additional Settings › Temporary Dimensions. If your drawings dimension doors to grids, place roughly and then fix positions with the Dimension tool, as in how to dimension in Revit.

Step 4 — edit doors, number them and paste to other levels

Select a door and two pairs of arrows appear with its temporary dimensions.

The Modify | Doors tab now has two buttons of its own:

Door numbers live in each door's Mark, or in Type Mark if you number by type. Mark gives every leaf its own number; Type Mark gives all doors of a type one number. Settle this at the start, because one apartment floor already has dozens of doors.

Copying doors works three ways: CO copies within the plan (copies must still land in a wall), AR arrays evenly spaced windows along a façade, and the Paste menu pastes to other levels.

Pasting doors to another level:

1. Select the doors on the lower floor plan.
2. Press Ctrl + C.
3. Open the Paste menu and choose Aligned to Selected Levels.
4. Tick the target levels and click OK.

Copies keep their type and Sill Height. Doors with no wall at the same position on the target level are skipped with a warning, so open that level and check.

How to add windows in Revit: Sill Height and Head Height

Windows follow the same rules as doors. The difference is height: a door stands on the floor, so its Sill Height is usually 0, while a window needs a sill height. The Metric template's default type is M_Window-Fixed 600 x 900mm, with Sill Height 900 and Head Height 1800.

Four parameters to read when placing a window:

Note. Autodesk's Window Instance Properties page is explicit: Sill Height and Head Height are measured from the level the window is placed on.

On a curved wall Revit bends the opening but the frame stays flat, so on a tight radius split one long window into several narrow ones.

Click Edit Type to see the window type parameters.

How to make a Revit wall opening

Pass-through openings and recesses for built-in cabinets are openings without a leaf. Choose the method by whether the opening must be scheduled:

The Opening panel on the Architecture tab has five tools:

Making a wall opening:

1. Open an elevation or section that shows the wall face.
2. Select the wall and click Wall Opening on the Modify | Walls tab.
3. Click two opposite corners of the rectangle.
4. Select the new opening (Rectangular Straight Wall Opening) and drag its edges or type into its temporary dimensions to resize.

Note. A Wall Opening belongs to the selected wall only and does not cut an adjoining wall. For one opening through two walls, make two openings or use a wide enough leafless door family.

Try it: doors and windows for a villa

This exercise brings together every step of how to add doors in Revit, on a villa model with its walls built.

1. Open plan 1F. Start Door, read the type in the Type Selector and note its name.
2. Click Edit Type, then Duplicate. Name it 900 x 2200mm, set Width to 900 and Height to 2200, click OK.
3. Duplicate a 1600 x 2400mm type for the double front door, using a double door family.
4. Place the front door in the middle of the front wall. Move the cursor to the inner wall face so it swings inward, click, then type the distance to the wall end into the temporary dimension.
5. Place the room doors with 900 x 2200mm. Check each swing with the two arrow pairs.
6. Start Window and duplicate a 1200 x 1500mm type. Set Sill Height to 900 for rooms.
7. Place windows in the rooms. For toilets, change Sill Height to 1500 in Properties after placing.
8. Open a 3D view and check sill heights and swings of every door and window.
9. Select a room door, Ctrl + C, then Paste › Aligned to Selected Levels to 2F. Open 2F, see which doors pasted and which did not, and explain why.

Common door problems

Before using the table, select the door and read Level and the type name in Properties.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I place a door where there is no wall?

A door is hosted and must sit in a wall. Delete the wall and its doors go with it.

I need a 900 x 2200 door but the library only has 750 x 2000. What do I do?

Pick 750 x 2000, click Edit Type, Duplicate, name the new type and change Width and Height.

Where is a window's Sill Height measured from?

From the level the window is placed on. Changing Head Height recalculates Sill Height from the type height.

How do I make a leafless opening that still appears in schedules?

Use a frame-only door family. A Wall Opening does not appear in the door schedule.

Related articles

• How to tag in Revit — door number tags and question-mark tags
• How to create a schedule in Revit — door and window schedules to Excel
• How to create a Revit family — editing door geometry in the Family Editor
• How to dimension in Revit — dimensioning doors to grids