Objects not staying selected in 3D view

[allstardrafter]

I've got a question about object selection in Revit Structure 2011. I thought that when an object or element was selected, such as a bar joist on a roof plan, that it would stay selected in all views including the 3D model. In my Revit drawing I can't get selected items to stay selected when switching from plan or section, to the 3D model. Or vise versa, when I select an object in the 3D model, it won't stay selected when i switch to a plan or section view.

If I'm in my roof plan, for example, I can select one of my bar joists. It will highlight and show me the end point 'grips', the filter icon in the lower right corner with show a 1, and if i click on that filter icon it will show that one structural framing (girder) is selected. When I switch to a section cut through that bay, it will still show my bar joist highlighted, with the end 'grips' showing, and the end offset elevations will be shown (-0'-2 1/2"). So all is good, but when I switch to my 3D model view, my bar joist is no longer highlighted. The filter icon in the lower right still shows a 1, but now when I click on the filter icon, it shows that 1 'view' is selected. WTF?

Same thing happens in reverse. If I select my bar joist in the 3D model, it will highlight and show the end 'grips' just fine, but when I switch to a plan or section view, that bar joist is no longer selected. The filter icon in the lower right will still show a 1, but now when I click on the filter icon, it shows that 1 'view' is selected.

Any ideas?

[kathryn.langan]

How are you changing in between the views? I've recorded a quick video below illustrating that if I select a beam in one view I can switch between the views and into 3D while it still remains selected (and the same in reverse).

[allstardrafter]

Thanks for the video. At first it didn't clear anything up, because I was doing it the same way you were, then I noticed that your properties bar and project browser were docked within your Revit window. Whereas I'm using dual monitors, so i've got my properties bar, and project browser undocked and moved to my other screen so that my drawing area is bigger. (See the two attachments) When I docked my project browser back into the Revit window, all of objects would stay selected between all views. So appearently my issues are coming from having my project browser undocked.

This is very discouraging because one of the things that I heard over and over when first discussing making the switch to Revit, was that having dual monitors would be a big help so that you could put your toolbars and such on one screen and have the other screen for drawing area. I wonder if there's any way to fix this issue?

[kathryn.langan]

I undocked my Properties palette and Project Browser as shown in your screenshot and the behavior was the same. I tested with Revit in the Primary monitor and the palettes in the Secondary and vice versa, and elements stayed selected as expected.

I have a few questions for you:

1. What build of Revit 2011 are you running (found in the Help > About dialog)?
2. What graphics card do you have installed and what is the driver version?
3. Do you have Hardware Acceleration enabled?
4. Can you reproduce this consistently or is the behavior sporadic?
5. Can you reproduce this on multiple machines?

[allstardrafter]

My build of Revit 2011 is: 20100903_2115(x64), web update 2 service pack.

My graphics card is NVIDIA Quadro FX570, with driver 8.17.12.5981 (latest from NVIDIA)

Hardware acceleration is enabled.

This issue is consistent any time the project browser is undocked.

There is one other drafter in our office using Revit, and he has the same issue when his project browser is undocked. So it can be reproduced on different computers. The only difference in our two computers is the video card. He has a NVIDIA Ge Force 9800GT, with driver 8.17.12.6099 (latest from NVIDIA)

Hope this information helps.

[kathryn.langan]

The newest graphics card driver is not necessarily the best to use. When determining which driver version to run with Revit, I would definitely suggest checking the Revit Graphics Hardware List, as those are the cards and drivers that development has tested with the application. For example, for your NVIDIA Quadro FX570, the recommended drivers for Revit 2011 SP2 are:

6.14.11.9703
Windows XP 32-bit
Windows XP 64-bit

8.17.11.9703
Windows 7 32-bit
Windows 7 64-bit
Windows Vista 32-bit
Windows Vista 64-bit

So I would suggest rolling your driver to the supported version depending on your OS, and seeing if the problem persists.

I would also test to see if it occurs with Hardware Acceleration disabled as well.

[allstardrafter]

I'm running windows 7, 64 bit, so I tried the 8.17.11.9703 driver, and that didn't help. I also tried turning the hardware acceleration off, and that didn't help either. So i'm not sure what's going on. Our IT guy here doesn't think it's a graphical issue, as much as he believes it's a Revit programing issue. I would tend to agree with him, but it's funny that you're not having the same issue, which makes me think that it might not a Revit programing issue. What version/build of Revit are you using?

[allstardrafter]

So I've got a new update for my problems with object selection. I had decided from my previous bad experiences, that leaving the project browser docked was going to be the easiest way to fix my selection issues. But now my job has progressed and I've got many views and my project browser is very long and requires scrolling to get from top to bottom.

So now my problem is back. When I select an item in a plan view, in order to select a section to switch to I have to scroll down in the project browser. But when I click into the project browser to scroll down to the section that I want to view, my object will be automatically de-selected. So when I get the section brought up on screen, it won't show any objects highlighted, and my filter icon in the lower right corner will again show 1 view as being selected.

Of course the same thing happens in reverse. If i'm in a section and select an object, in order to get back to a plan view, I have to scoll up in my project browser, so my object gets de-selected and then isn't highlighted when I get to the plan.

This very frustrating, but then again fustration is the only consistant thing that I've found with Revit!