I find myself taking issue with the way that Navisworks structures a Revit file in the Selection Tree.
I've noticed that when an element in Revit has no materials assigned, that the resulting geometry in NW is classified as 'Composite Part'. For the most part, a Composite Part is useless when it comes to applying materials to geometry in that item, as well as doing any form of Quantification.
Now, if the element in Revit has materials applied before sending to NW, then in the Selection Tree the item will be broken down further so that the geometry is sub-grouped by material. This is good because I can now apply different materials in NW as well do a take-off.
But, in a Revit model and in particular one which is purely for documenting, not all elements have materials applied. So this model is now impossible to use effectively when a downstream user is working in NW.
My question is, why can't we export from Revit so that geometry in the Selection Tree is sub-grouped using the Revit Family Sub-categories?
All good Families will be sub-categorised, but not always materialised.
I feel that the above limitation breaks an otherwise good workflow.
Can Autodesk provide some comment on this?
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by Chad-Smith. Go to Solution.
Just to add some more detail.
You can see in the image I have a Window which is showing as all Glass. But the reality is that the Frame should be a different material.
The Glass and Frame as noted in the image are sub-categories in Revit, but are incorrectly being treated as the same element/material.
I would like to apply a material to the Frame, but can’t.
Where are the sub-categories?
Update.
Autodesk have confirmed that this workflow is lacking and will look into it for the future.
I note your post was in 2014. Do anyone know if this has been addressed at all? I am currently using 2019 Navisworks Manage and I still don't see any sub-categories! Come on surely by now it is included? Or have I missed checking one of those "option" that display extra info Option Editor? It would be very handy to have when performing clash detects and combining models from different cad formats etc.
Hi, i know this is pretty old but i run into the same problem today.
However, I guess this is due to materials applied to different elements inside the family. I guess Revit recognices only the transparent material. I created another ojbect in the model, and I assigned a new default material and applied. Then The Revit recognized the difference between the transparent material and the the new one so it fixed by it self.
This limitation is currently a blocker for our workflow clashing with Navisworks. Anyone have any updates on this?