Walls in electrical view plot to light... can't seem to fix.

[MuirEng]

Hi, this is probably an easy one...

In a plan view, discipline set to electrical. Everything displays and plots how I want but the walls are too light. Walls are native to this file, not linked.

Setting disciple to architectural, structural, or coordination fixes that problem but then other stuff isn't the right darkness.

What I don't understand is why the VG settings don't seem to affect the walls. I can use VG to turn them on and off but changing weight and colour does nothing... Walls are "Basic Wall, Generic 6".

help?

I can post a link to the file if anyone wants to take a look at.

thanks!

[L.Maas]

The electrical discipline settings overrides the VG settings.

As far as I know the only remedy will be to work the other way around. Set discipline to another one (e.g Archtitectural, Coordination) and use VG settings to control the different categories. As soon as you are happy you can of course turn that into a view template and use it in ohter views/projects/templates.

[CoreyDaun · Accepted solution]

As EnlInt suggested, if the View's Discipline is set to Electrical (or Mechanical), Revit automatically applies a Halftone appearance to all non-MEP elements. This is hard-coded behavior. If the Half-Tone effect is making things too light, you can adjust the settings under Manage tab » Additional Settings ▼ Halftone/Underlay. In the following dialog, use the "Brightness" slider to increase/decrease the Halftone effect globally.

It is also possible that this problem is being caused by a "doubling-up" of the Halftone effect. If an element is being affected by more than one source that applies a Halftone appearance to it, the effects will compound, and make the element even lighter. For example, if the View's Discipline is set to Electrical and the Walls Category (under V/G) is set to Halftone and the Linked Revit Model is specifically set to Halftone (under V/G as well), then the Walls in the View will appear very faint because they are under the Halftone effects threefold.

[MuirEng]

Great, that works, thanks!

[MuirEng]

Hi guys,

I've been chasing this a bit more. I'd like to bring the walls out in my plots and keep the other details in the architectural file mid gray. Objects in my file are plotting nice and dark.

Situation is this

- view template is "none". Detail: fine, display model: normal, set to hidden line

- linked .rvt file

- in VG settings the only area dealing with the link seems to be the last tab. There both halftone and underlay are not checked

- under revit links, display settings, custom I have set like so:

(I experimented with "Discipline", set it to architectural, but nothing changed)

I've trying cranking the wall linewieght under Revit links, model categories but it refuses to budge.

It is behaving like the linked file is set to halftone, just as you explained above, but I can't seem to shake that out.

Any thoughts on where I need to look?

[jkarben]

With your view's Discpline set to Mechanical, Electrical, or Plumbing in the host model you won't be able to shake that initial halftone.

You can further lighten up the elements in your view's VG > Model Categories to help the walls stand out. Play with a thinner line weight and/or check halftone for the Categories that you want lighter than the walls (casework, doors, windows, etc.). Checking halftone for a category will apply an addition halftone, essentially halftoning the halftone from the Discpline setting. Keep the link set to <By host>.

Another option is to set the view's Discpline to Coordination. You won't get that initial halftone but you'll lose Hidden Lines.

About the View Discipline

Sure wish there was a Discpline setting of <None>.

[MuirEng]

Yes, thanks. I discovered in parallel that views based on coordination look much better for me, and I built up a couple of view templates. But I didn't know about losing the hidden lines. Perhaps I need to rebuild them using the electrical discipline, but with halftone set full dark, and then hit everything but walls and such with the halftone setting in the link, VG, model categories. Does that sound reasonable?

thanks for all the hand holding!

[jkarben]

Setting Manage > Additional Settings > Halftone / Underlay to full dark "100" will nullify any halftone effect. Wouldn't help you.

[CoreyDaun]

In order to achieve your goal, here, I believe you have but two routes to take:

1.) Set the View Discipline to Coordination in order to disable any automatic Halftone effects. Then, you can mark every architectural Category Halftone, except for those that you wish to keep at full darkness (i.e. Walls, Windows). You can also create a single View Filter (applied to the same Categories), leave the rules blank, and add it your your View's with the Halftone settings. As stated previously in this thread, you will lose the MEP Hidden Lines function.

2.) Leave your Views alone, and as their appropriate Discipline. Create an additional View of the Architectural Discipline that displays only those Categories that you want shown at full darkness. Then, overlay that Viewport on top of your normal Viewport. It's easy to replicate this on multiple Sheets by Duplicating this View as Dependent for each. Once one the Sheet View, you can either create a new Viewport Type that hides the View Tag or you can select the Viewport and Hide Element. This will cause the View Tag to become invisible and make the View un-selectable (but still printable), which is a good thing if you work via active viewports (because you can't accidentally activate the hidden overlay).

[MuirEng]

hmm, I understood the halftone settings were cumulative, but cumulative 100% is still 100% I guess.

[jkarben · Accepted solution]

Discovered something today...you CAN indeed shake that initial halftone with the Mechanical, Electrical or Plumbing Discipline.

Go to Manage > Additional Settings > Halftone / Underlay > and uncheck the Underlay...Apply Halftone > BINGO...all elements are full weight. With that you will have full control of each of the Model Categories via VV/VG where you can apply the halftone or not.

[MuirEng]

hey, look at that.

Thanks for pointing it out!

[CoreyDaun]

Well, THAT is a nice little discovery; Kudos jkarben! I was, probably as everyone else was, under the impression that disabling that would disable ALL Halftone effects, but it appears to just affect the Discipline Halftoning and the objects in an Underlay. If only that option read something like "Apply halftone to underlay elements" - just something that would give an indication of what it actually did.

[chrisplyler]

Well... it is a checkbox for halftone under the Underlay heading.

[CoreyDaun]

True, I'll concede that. I should have worded that to indicate that Discipline-based Halftoning counts as Underlay, rather than just the literal Overlay.

[chrisplyler]

Yes, that's a good point. It would be an improvement if that distinction were made clear in the dialog. Perhaps even if there were two separate check boxes; one for the discipline view underlay, and one for the standard view underlay parameter. I know it was a while before I figured out they are two different things!