Plumbing fixtures breaking inconsistently

[jmiller]

I am having issues with my plumbing fixtures breaking inconsistently where piping crosses over them. Some of them break some of them don’t. Just to inform I am using Revit 14 and have copied/monitored in the Arch fixtures into my project. I have yet to identify any factors as to why one fixture will break while the other that is identical in every way won’t. It does not matter to me if they break or not I would just like to find a way to have all of the fixtures behaving the same way.  Has anyone come across this odd behavior? If so were you able to fix it? Any and all help would greatly appreciated.

[Martin__Schmid]

Interesting... yes, you're right... if I turn transparency on in 2011/2012, the fixtures don't receive a gap.  I can not explain why it would have that effect... it is counter intuitive that the transparency setting would have any thing to do with MEP Hidden Line gaps... I suspect that the behavior in 2011/2012 was actually a bug that was fixed by work done for 2013, but I'm checking w/ the team to confirm. 

I can understand how it can be frustrating that something that provided a solution in earlier releases no longer works.  It seems that you have a work-around for now by modifying the 'small' families that are otherwise hidden by the hidden line gap.  I've captured the problem you've reported... namely, that the gaps can cause small things to completely disappear from the view.  Off the top of my head, there are a few ways this could possibly be solved in the future:

1.  Select what categories are affected by the gaps (e.g., in your case, it seems you were satisfied with having the Plumbing Fixture category not receive gaps.

2.  Have a setting in the family/type to indicate that the item should not receive hidden line gaps.

3.  Have an instance setting in the project that lets you specify whether a particular instance receives gaps or not.

4.  Have a view override that lets you disable the gap in a specific view.

To get a sense of which is most important to you (and anyone else that wants to contribute), I'm going to give you R100 (that's a form of fake Revit currency)... how much would you be willing to spend on each of the above?  If you think they are all equally important, you'd spend R25 on each... if you think one is the most important, and the others aren't, you'd spend R100 on it. (keeping in mind that the less you spend on any one solution, the lower its priority relative to other more 'expensive' things...)  If you have another idea/preference, feel free to throw it into the mix, and indicate it's 'value'.  You could also respond: I'd really rather spend my R100 on <some other thing in Revit>... this helps us understand how big of a problem this is relative to other things.

Respectfully,

[HMGZak]

I'd say something like:

1.R15.00

2.R50.00

3.R35.00

4.R0.00

I’d say two(2) would be the best option, as we would be able to set mechanical & electrical equipment and plumbing fixtures to not be effected by line breakage. It seems this would give you better control of the elements.

And no. three(3) would almost be a “must” as well. There’s always that exception where you need to change one instance.  

No. one(1) would work as well, but I feel like two(2) and three(3) fit Revit better and gives you more control.

No. four(4) almost seems to close to setting the view to hidden line to, for ME&P at least, and would rarely be used, by us anyways.

Also, thanks for looking in to this for us, I really appreciate it!

~Zak

[Martin__Schmid]

Ah, I see what you mean by 4... I mis-communicated my intent...

What I meant was :

5.  view specific way to set an individual element to not receive gaps.

My thought was that having it on the family/type/instance would have its limitations as a small element in a 1/8" may not want to be gappable.. but in an enlarged plan (1/4" or 1/2"), the gaps may end up working OK.

OK... re-allocate your funds if necessary ;).  

[HMGZak]

Ah, I see what you mean now.

Actually that seems like the best option now that you put it like that. Have a check box in visual graphics that let you specify if the specific families category receive gaps. That would also cover those exceptions as you could just override the specific element in that view. 

New Funds:

1.R5.00

2.R30.00

3.R15.00

4.R50.00