10 December 2007

Revit Trick: Invisible Level Lines

On occasion while using Revit I need to define a level to attach to but don't really want to see these 'attachment' levels in every elevation view that might hit it. Of course with Revit, there are a few workarounds for having access to these levels but not having to actually see them.

1. Turn them off. Yep, it is a pain but you can select and turn them off in your views. You could also put them into a filter and turn them off by applying the filter to each view. The con here is having to do the work, and repeat it for each new view. Also a con is you can't actually pick the level in your elevations - since they are off. Lots of on/off happening in this method.

2. Make them small (and put them in the corner. Sure, make them postage stamp size by using X-X and Y-Y elevations to shrink them down such that normal views don't interface with them. Again, not the best method since again you can't pick them in order to be used. If you use of these levels is strickly via property changes then this may be a good option.

3. Make them white! Yep, sounds odd but try it before judging. Create a level line style that has the level head turned off and make the color of linetype white. When printed you won't see anything. And the best part these little 'white' lines don't show in your views but you can highlight/pick or otherwise use them - since you can actually select them. A con with this method is they will of course export to DWG, so if you plan is to provide 100% complete drawings this might not be the best option.

Have another level line technique, email me. I need blog material. ;)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would email you if I could find an email address or a hyperlink

Justin said...

I like your ideas! Although I don't have any other/better ideas about level lines, you did mention you needed blog material. So....

I was hoping you could possibly show how to change the appearance of the brace symbol in plan. I've tried to alter ours with little success. Our office uses an "x" parralel to the bracing, spaning the length between the two columns.
(I hope that makes sense)

Thanks,
Justin

Anonymous said...

David -

(It was nice meeting you in Vegas; normally I feel pretty tech saavy, but I can't seem to find your e-mail!)

You forgot my two favorite methods! They also work great for controlling the display and extents of gridlines:

4. Scope boxes! I typically draw a scope box for the entire project to control the extent of my grids in plan. Simply create another scope box, assign the "troubled" levels (or grids) to it in their properties. Then, in the properties of the scope box, override it's visibility to "Invisible" in nearly every single view. PS: This makes a great April Fool's prank if you make the Scope Box invisible in all views...

(And now my favorite)

5. Worksets! Simply create a workset named Invisible Levels and Grids. Uncheck the box "Visible by Default in all views". Now assign the troubled grids and levels to the Workset. This also works great when you have minor grids (i.e. 1.15) that you don't want plotted.

I also use this technique when my manager/client tells me to delete a portion of the building that I suspect may come back later.

Anonymous said...

Great tricks...

I'm looking for the opposite. I have a set of levels which I want to delete and I can't find them. I know they are there but if you can't pick 'em then they won't delete. Any thoughts. ....Carl

PS - another user created the levels for stair landings but now I want to get rid of them. the stairs and landings are already gone.