topic Re: Cannot Create Area Boundary in Groups in Revit Architecture Forum

Cannot Create Area Boundary in Groups

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 01:50:58 GMT

Hello,

I can successfully create a group of Area Boundary Lines, and I can successfully Copy/Paste or Add to the group, however when editing the group, I cannot Create Similar nor can I create New Area Boundary lines. Is there any workaround for this? It seems peculiar -- there aren't problems like this with Room Boundary Lines.

Thanks!

-Jon

Re: Cannot Create Area Boundary in Groups

ToanDN — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 03:12:54 GMT

Create the new Area boundary and Area first, then edit the existing group and Add them in. See below:

Re: Cannot Create Area Boundary in Groups

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 15:18:38 GMT

Hi ToanDN,

I recognize that I can Add to group, but I cannot use the Area Boundary command when I am in the group. I also cannot Create Similar. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

Re: Cannot Create Area Boundary in Groups

ToanDN — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 17:08:10 GMT

My thought is you may want to use an alternate method that achieves the
same goal. Personally, I don't care if it a off-the-book or a workaround
method, as long as it works then I am set.

Re: Cannot Create Area Boundary in Groups

jnelsonT5PWX — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 22:46:56 GMT

Why in world is this part of the functionality? As far as I can tell, this is an oversight/error. Autodesk needs to fix this--you should be able to draw new area boundary lines in groups. The workaround (draw additional line, then select add to group) is unacceptable.

Re: Cannot Create Area Boundary in Groups

David_Knight — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 15:13:27 GMT

You can copy a line when in group edit mode as well. it stays in the group.

We're dealing with this now. it's no that big of a deal.

Re: Cannot Create Area Boundary in Groups

yuli4DYZR — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 17:31:43 GMT

It seems that the bug preventing the drawing of area boundaries within an area boundary group has been resolved in the latest version of Revit. However, I’ve encountered a new issue that still makes the area boundary group somewhat unusable.

We are working with an organic-shaped building, which makes it difficult to trace the boundary multiple times for different area schemes. To address this, I created an enclosure area boundary group and copied it into three area plan schemes (Gross, Rental, Egress). This worked fine initially, but when I add a new boundary line to the group in, for example, the Gross area scheme,

I encounter the following warning: "Highlighted lines overlap. Lines may not form closed loops. You can tab-select one of the overlapping elements to exclude it from the group instance."
The newly added boundary line appears three times in the Gross area plan but is not visible in the Rental/Egress area schemes' group.

I believe this is due to area boundary lines being somewhat view-specific, as once they’re created, they are locked to the current view—similar to the behavior of linked CAD files with the "current view only" setting.

However, copy/paste can alter it's view specific value and it's my current workaround:

Delete all the groups, leaving only one instance in Revit (get a lot of area not enclosed warnings for sure).
Add boundaries to the group.
Re-copy the group back to the other area schemes.

This process works, and all new created lines are visible in the group in the plan where they were copied to.

However, it's def not ideal. Every time I want to add a new boundary to the group, I have to Repeat this process, and if you can imagine, just when you completed the process and finished copying them back, you realize you need to add one more boundary.................all over again.

The area boundary group would save us a significant amount of time if we could avoid tracing the same boundary in each area scheme—especially in cases like this with complex building shapes.

Could Autodesk please look into this issue?

Thanks so much for your help!

Best,
Li

Re: Cannot Create Area Boundary in Groups

TripleM-Dev.net — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 21:03:29 GMT

Hi,

I never use groups with Area Boundary lines in different Area Scheme's. One of the reasons is this behaviour. (Always have seperate group for the boundary + area, some place them even in Model Groups which makes them difficult to manage)

But also, because we often also have the Area's in the That group.

Area's and their Boundary lines are a different kind of element then 2D or 3D elements.

The lines / area's are model elements but not view owned elements, they are Area Scheme "owned" elements and thus behave different.

If you copy a group with lines in a AreaPlan, at that moment those line become part of that AreaScheme (and a Area of another scheme won't be visible).

A new line in AreaScheme A won't be visible in AreaScheme B even in groups, this would "break" the use of AreaScheme's (any area boundary line would be visible in all AreaSchemes)

Can't you use one AreaScheme and define propeties indicating if a Area is "GROSS" and/or "RENTAL" etc.

And use multiple views with ColorFills and filters?

So in the "GROSS" plan, filter out any Area that isn't defined as being "GROSS", but that area can also be defined as RENTAL etc..

If you only need 2D output and schedules that's what I would do (if the boundaries match a lot between the AreaScheme's)

Just a idea.

Gr. Michel