Generic line based family

[jpe]

Hi.

I am trying to make a generic line based family, where the generic part only shows i 3D and with a detail family which shows in front views. It is working ok when I place it on a work plan or on face of a wall, but when I place it on face of a roof the generic part is visible in all views. Why???

[CoreyDaun]

Hi, and welcome to the Discussion Groups!

Detail Items, Generic Annotations (a more complex issue), and Symbolic Lines are only displayed in Views that are parallel to the element. Since your Family is hosted to the sloped Roof, it is not parallel to the Plan View so your Detail Item is not visible.

Here's another example using a Family that contains a nested Generic Annotation:

[jpe]

The problem is not the nested detail. The problem is, that the generic part of the family is displayed in all views, when I draw it on the face of the roof. If I draw it on the face of a wall, it is working perfect = The generic part only visible in 3D-views.

[CoreyDaun]

Right, but it's the same cause. I'm assuming that, in the Family Editor, you have set the Visibility/Graphics Overrides for the model objects that you don't want to see. In that dialog (see image below), even if "Plan/RCP", "Front/Back", and "Left/Right" are all disabled, the element will still display in a Floor Plan if the element in on an sloped surface. These visibility settings are relative to the orientation of the Family to the current View, so since the element is not parallel to the View, none of those are applicable, thus the element is displayed, regardless. They only way to prevent the model elements from displaying in this case is to either disable the object Visibility entirely, place them on a Subcategory and turn that off, or make those elements only display on a certain Detail Level.

[jpe]

Hmmm... I was told by an Revit expert that this was how I should do it...

But thanks for the explanation - It makes sense  🙂

[CoreyDaun]

A while ago, I had modeled a Lighting Fixture Family (represented by a specific nested Detail Item Family) that was intended to be placed on a sloped ceiling. I ran into this same situation, and couldn't get the Detail Item to display in lieu of the Family's geometry. What I ended up doing was create a special version on the Family that would remain parallel to the View (Always Vertical) but internal parametric controls allowed the user to manually input the ceiling's slope into the Lighting Fixture so that the Geometry would be rotated within the Family, thus displaying the Detail Item on Plan and showing the correct 3D Geometry.