Origin of Drafting Patterns

[cboersen]

I am trying to find out how the drafting pattern origin is determined in Revit 2013.  A model pattern is very easy to adjust, but this is not true of a drafting patterns.  I am just curious if anybody knows how the drafting patterns even determine what their origin is.  Is it centered on a project extents - therefore changing as the model expands, or is it set by a 0,0,0 origin similar to AutoCAD (but hidden).  In an event it does not seem that this origin is adjustable (unless someone out there knows some Revit magic) so perhaps it does not matter, but I would like to know.  Thanks.

[cboersen]

Nobody knows?  Nobody?!!!  Come on, somebody has to know.

[CoreyDaun]

The origin of the Drafting Patterns seems to be based off of an internal 0,0,0 origin point of the Family or Project.

In a Family, the intersection of the origin Reference Planes will indicate the "true" origin, however, they do not define it. Moving the origin Reference Planes does NOT change this internal origin point.

In a Project, the internal origin can be located by the site Survey Point and Project Base Point (use Reveal Hidden Elements to see them). Moving these points does NOT change the internal Origin point.

Image is from a Project showing the base points.

[cboersen]

Thank you for the information.  As I suspected there is really nothing that can be done with it.

[rosskirby]

Correct, the origin of the drafting pattern cannot be changed.  Which brings up a question: why would you want to?

Drafting patterns are meant to be diagrammatic, so the origin should be irrelevant.  If you want to control where the pattern begins/ends/rotation/etc., then use a model pattern.

Could you clarify in what you're using a drafting pattern that would benefit from being able to control the origin?  Just curious...

[cboersen]

Sure,

I wanted to add a block coursing pattern to block walls, so in small scale building sections the walls would still show coursing.  My idea works fine accept that you cannot control where the coursing starts - which sort of defeats the purpose.  If I could add a model pattern to walls then I would be all set, but only drafting patterns are allowed.

I did come up with two other ideas.  One - I made a block coursing component which works fine it is just a lot of work to add it to every wall in a building section.  Two - I made a block coursing model pattern which I used in a region and I add over the walls.  I made it transparent to the hatch shows thru, and I use align so it stays aligned with the wall if it gets moved.  This also works well, but it is not as convent as just using "override graphics" to change the hatch pattern in all the block walls.

Any thoughts?

[kjacobs]

You can add model patterns to walls! You do so by editing their structure in the type properties and selecting a material that has the model pattern that you want.