topic Re: Today on things I need to vent: Filters in Revit Architecture Forum

Today on things I need to vent: Filters

ToanDN — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 16:59:06 GMT

I admit that I use View Filters a lot. I also have to admit that I hate its interface. I really do.

It does not follow the duplication rule. When you duplicate a view or a family, the copy appears right below the original and highlighted. When you duplicate a Filter, the copy goes to the very bottom. You won't see it if you have a long list of Filters. You have to manually scroll down to the bottom and proceed to rename the copy.
It must be the only thing in Revit, that does not allow you to select multiple items at the same time. You cannot SHIFT select, nor CTRL select more than one Filter to delete them. They are fricken Filters, not a President, nor a spouse. Let me select multiple at a time for sanity sake.
Filter multiply themselves for reasons unclear. I sort of know it all along but chose to ignore it. Unntil now. I had spent hours to kill the duplications. A few days later, they spread and rise allover the map again like Trump's supporters. I think it may relate to View duplications. Or it may not. The bottom line is that they should not duplicate themselves unless I choose to.

Re: Today on things I need to vent: Filters

Keith_Wilkinson — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 11:45:44 GMT

Toan, I feel your pain. I too use filters a lot and get equally frustrated.

With regards to where the filter is created - this is because for some reason in this dialogue the filters are shown in the order they were created, not alphabetically - it's a pain. When you go to add a filter to a view they sort correctly. It's possible this is just an oversight on the developers part but it would be nice if it was fixed, as far as I can tell it's the only dialogue that behaves like this.

Re the duplications. Do you find this only happens on workshared projects? I've seen the same thing here and it seems to be something to do with the syncing process and the avoidance of duplicates although why it does it when the filters haven't changes I don't know... I would like to hear more as to why this is and if it can be prevented.

Dynamo might be a route to delete duplicate filters... but given the choice I'd rather have the shift / ctrl select option sas you suggest.

the ability to group filters would also help with navigation... just wee additional thought.

Re: Today on things I need to vent: Filters

ToanDN — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 20:59:06 GMT

Yes all my projects are worksharing, which may trigger the frenzy multiplications of filters when synching. Regardless, why it only happens with Filters and nothing else is beyond my comprehension.

You are also spot on point regarding the sorting inability of Filters from the dialog. I did forget to rant about it.

Overall, it is a well intended function of the software, couped with a terrible operability. It seems to me that a talented geek developped the initial codes, earned a boat load of money, left the team to get high in some Caribbien resort. And dissapeared forever. Meanwhile, the function remains unchanged for a decade because Autodesk has been busy making useless stuff like Revit LT or AutoCAD for Mac.

Re: Today on things I need to vent: Filters

ToanDN — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 18:53:38 GMT

I am finally fed up with it so that I created a dynamo script to get rid of the unused filters. Down from several thousands to just over a hundred.

Re: Today on things I need to vent: Filters

Keith_Wilkinson — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 08:09:18 GMT

Good idea. I've not had that big an issue with this yet to push me to try this but certainly a good use for Dynamo!