Convert Family from Wall to Face Based

Convert Family from Wall to Face Based

Thank you Jarod for posting this! 

Steven Shell

Level of Development Specification

Level of Development Specification

LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT SPECIFICATION

The AIA has finally released a level of development specification draft and it’s pretty in depth and worth checking out

Thank you Brendon for posting this.

Steven Shell

Globally Hide Specific Levels w/ Referencing Spot Elevations

The Need: 

When working on a large project I needed to create a level that allowed me to set a base level of 0’-0” for a stair tower that did not share the same level as the ground floor of the building.  I was then going to provide spot elevations from this 0-0 reference for each landing and level as a means to providing fabrication reference points for the overall 6 story stair assembly.

The Problem:

In a drawing set which contained 100’s of drawings that would inherit the new level (that no one wanted to see) let alone have to hide in every drawing where it appeared, I needed a way to control a single level’s visibility throughout the project.  In my case I had two separate stair towers so I needed to hide two independent levels.  I needed these levels to give my spot elevations for the towers a base reference.

The Caveat:

You only get to utilize this solution if you have created Worksets for a Central project file.  For those one man firms not using a central file approach it’s probably not such a big deal to hide the level in the few drawings where they will appear.

The Solution:

CREATING THE CENTRAL FILE –  In Revit

1. Go to the Collaborate Tab and select Worksets to the far left to enable worksharing.
2. At the Worksets Control Window create a new Workset, mine was named Hidden Levels.  It’s important to uncheck the “Visible in All Views” box where you enter the new Workset’s name.
3. At the prompt to make the Workset Active select “No”

CREATE THE LEVEL YOU INTEND TO HIDE.

CONTROLLING THE SPOT ELEVATIONS:

1. It’s important to use the spot elevation type that is using a “relative” reference.
2. Spot elevations are under the “Annotate” Tab
3. Once you select the spot elevation make sure you are using the Target (Relative) type which shows up in the properties dialog at the top. If not selected go to the drop down arrow to the right and select it from the drop down list.
4. Place the spot elevations as desired.  The spot elevations will reference to the “Current Level” by default.
5. Select the spot elevation you want to reference to the   level you are going to hide.  In this case it will be the “stair base elev ref.” then go to the “Relative Base” drop down shown in the image below.  Note: I have spot elevations referenced to Level 1 and the Stair Base Elev. Ref. as well in the plan level 1 view.
6. 
7. You can hide the level at any time and without affecting the ability to select the hidden level in the Relative Base drop down.

HIDING THE LEVEL:

1. You need to assign the level to the “Hidden Levels” workset you’ve already created above. Select the level to be hidden and in the Properties dialog set the workset to “Hidden Levels”
2. 
3.  Now in the visibility graphics control interface (Key stroke “vg”) go to the Worksets tab and at the far right drop down for the “Hidden Levels” select hide.  As shown in the image below the level disappears globally throughout the project but the spot elevations retain their reference to the hidden level.
4. 

Now all those team members won’t be screaming at you when you add that extra level.

Enjoy
Carl