Do not automatically join walls in different phases

[purvigirwin]

As someone who almost exclusively used Revit for renovation and other existing building projects, the fact that new and existing walls automatically join is maddening. There is rarely a time when you want this to happen. The API should be changed so that elements created on different phases are automatically disjoined from each other, with the option to join if desired, not the other way around as it is now. 

So many people complain that Revit is not good for existing buildings. Changing this would help toward getting rid of that general perception.

[mp_thompson]

I'd like to see an option (tick box like Constrain etc) that lets you opt to disallow join for walls in a new phase.

When we're modelling alteration works I'm forever disallowing join for walls so that proposed walls don't alter existing walls when they join.

[lionel.kai]

The phasing behavior in general needs an overhaul - for beams, cols, shaft openings, etc. - too. Anything "newer" should not take precedence over anything "older" unless you specifically tell it to (like blowing a hole through a wall to add a beam, etc.).

[Anonymous]

We also need the ability to select the order of existing/demolished/new elements. Especially for intersecting walls - often new walls run over demolished walls (but I need no new wall were I demolish an existing one). Just like in AutoCAD "send element to front/back".

[lionel.kai]

broader idea: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/lock-everything-of-the-existing-phase/idi-p/6947055

[Basam.Yousif]

Wow I just came here to post this exact idea 🙂 🙂

[Basam.Yousif]

..... and I think the OPPOSITE can be said about rooms. Rooms in many cases remain across phases, but Revit does not accommodate that.

[Zsolt.Varga]

Dear Users of the Revit Ideas Community Platform, 

You find another reported scenario, where the automatic joining/cutting of walls in different phases leads to an unexpected display result in certain views, depending on the drawing order of the wall elements: 

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/article/Revit-inconsistent-display-of-wall-joins-of-different-project-...

Please, consider this scenario as well, keep voting on this idea and let our development team hear your thoughts and wishes in regards of what product design would fit best to your needs, how do you imagine an optimal user interface best dealing with the challenges you are facing when working with walls in different project phases.

Your feedback will be much appreciated!

Best regards, 

Zsolt Varga - Autodesk Technical Support

[purvigirwin]

Zsolt Varga,

Thank you for your response. One of the previous comments does talk about that issue that you linked to. I think that phasing in general needs to have an overall re-thought in terms of modeling how things are actually built. Do you have any types of user-groups or listening sessions where people can provide input in real time?

[Darin_HDR]

From a pure constructability standpoint, walls are never built "joining" to existing walls. They,for the most part, always just butt into them. So why does Revit always join a new and existing wall. It is very frustrating to have to constantly go in and "disallow joining" of new walls that connect to existing walls. This join causes issues both graphically and with functionality of the model.

My idea is that by default (as it could be changed) whenever a new wall is created, it only joins to walls of the same phase and if it butts into a wall of a previous phase the end is set to disallow joining.  

You could take this a step further and make this an program wide option so those who thought it was a horrible thing, could turn it off (although I don't know why you ever would). 

Another option would be to give us the option to turn off wall joining by use of the control button similar to turning off copy when mirroring. Then you could hold the control button down when you first click to start drawing a wall to control that end and/or the second click when you end the wall to control joining of the second end. That would be super awesome and extremely helpful and time saving. Man, that's such a great idea, I'm going to fantasize about it in my dreams tonight.

[Darin_HDR]

Is it just me or does my HUGE profile picture make it so you can't read my post either. Is there a ideas forum for the forum where I can suggest fixing this...?

[Darin_HDR]

Looks like it is just in the comments thread and you can still read it in the forum log or ideas lists or whatever you want to call the page up from this one.

[dplumb_BWBR]

I'm with you.

Seems like about a month ago, something happened to the profile pics & some of them got huge, thus overlapping the text.

I often have to drag my mouse over the text to highlight it, which also bring the text on top of the image.

[lionel.kai]

@Darin_HDR Dude! "use of the control button similar to turning off copy when mirroring" - that's awesome! How'd you figure that one out? It's not in any of the tooltips... (though I notice that it's on the help page). Now I'm always going to be wondering if there's hidden functionality with every command I use... or reading all the tips in the help pages (which are usually useless). THANKS!

[Darin_HDR]

@lionel.kai, I discovered it through a forum post somewhere on my travels through the internet. Mirror is the only command I know of that uses the control function. Not sure why Revit doesn't make more use of this though. Again, being able to turn on and off wall join by holding down the control button would be a huuuuuuge time saver and one I don't think would be too hard to write into the code. I'm not a code writer but I have to imagine this could be done pretty easily (again, just a guess). I would think the time spent implementing this into a Revit build would be minimal to the immense impact it would have on time spent meticulously finding the end of a walls, right clicking them and selecting disallow join (again and again).

[Crow_T_Robot]

Having to manually "disallow join" every connection where walls of different phases connect is a significant waste of time. It would be fantastic if there were an option that let you"disallow join" of all walls of differing phases.

[sdbrownBECK]

great suggestion!, voted up.

[tw_nordic]

Walls in New Construction Phase should not join with walls in Existing Phase.