topic Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES in Revit Structure Forum

MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

markkibui101 — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 07:15:10 GMT

Hi.How do I move a pile to specific coordinates? The only solutions I get are about moving the project not an element.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 21:12:29 GMT

Why not create intersecting reference lines at the coordinate you want and move the pile to that exact location?

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

hmunsell — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 19:45:23 GMT

if you know roughly where it should be, place the pile, tag it with a Spot Coordinate and then move it using the spot coordinate as a reference.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

RPTHOMAS108 — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 01:14:42 GMT

Those two suggestions are generally how I've seen it done. Seems a bit painful really doesn't it? Coming from AutoCAD to Revit it was like someone had un-invented the tape measure (they un-invented user coordinate entry).

I used to have a dwg overlaid in the background inserted at various levels. If I needed the coord to something I would just add it on a layer and reload it in Revit.

Could use Dynamo, create a graph that takes X,Y in Dynamo player to insert marker detail item on the active plan view.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

hmunsell — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 16:35:31 GMT

In Revit you don't typically place an element at a coordinate. You would specify a Project Base Point/Survey Point (PBP/SP). The PBP/SP is what holds the coordinates and everything is built relative to that. The PBP/SP is often placed at a Grid Intersection, corner of a pad/foundation or off a Linked Civil files Survey point.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

RPTHOMAS108 — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 00:17:53 GMT

Probably that depends on your region. In the UK it is common for as-built pile positions to be reported back with northings and eastings by a contractor (you can't always get what you want in terms of design position). You have to then plot those to see implication for your design. The site grid isn't often aligned to our OS grid that the NEs are based on and truncated from.

I think the need to input specific coordinate positions doesn't go away just because Revit doesn't have some convenient way to do it in the UI, you don't eliminate the desire by making it hard to achieve. It just frustrates people really because they know underneath it all there is a coordinate system that can be transformed to and from the other coordinate system they are concerned with.

I know about Revit relative and shared positioning what I don't know is why we can report a position but not plot something such as a detail line at that position? You can but not without RevitAPI or Dynamo, it seems to be a doctrine rather than technical problem.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

ToanDN — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 00:35:46 GMT

It can be done with an adaptive family. See attached.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

RPTHOMAS108 — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 01:28:45 GMT

Yes that is a good way of doing it but it does kind of highlight another frustration of mine in that some types of elements such as adaptive components can be adjusted this way but a pile/foundation/column set to a level can't (what is the reason)?

There are many tricks and workarounds to get it done. It's not impossible it's just not as easy as it could be and it wouldn't take much to make it that easy.

Until recently nobody even knew where the internal origin was. They knew it was at the centre of those elevation markers somewhere but those got shifted as projects became bigger. That paperclip thing was unclipped and clipped many times with some random movements in-between. Two IFC's got exported from differing Revit templates and they never aligned even though relative systems agreed and shared coords matched (that was an IFC limitation).

With the emergence of that internal origin marker the battle is slowly being won, I'm more optimistic as time goes on.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

ToanDN — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 01:31:54 GMT

I woulnd't use a level base family if I needed to locate them at specific coordinates.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

RPTHOMAS108 — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 01:42:51 GMT

Were not adaptive components intended to be pattern based or based upon the parameter of a curve? We all have our own practices. If I have piles based on a level I absolutely want to adjust XY values for those.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

Tawfeek — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 05:43:43 GMT

I use the survey point to do this, you can unclip it and move it to where you want then move it back to its original location.

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

Alex.FTBE2Y — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 17:04:30 GMT

this is smart , thank you

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

boyd_johnson — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 11:53:51 GMT

Hello @ToanDN,

As usual, great input and I like the idea of using (and thanks for providing the .rvt) Adaptive Points. I was hoping to use this .rvt for my desired use. I need to identifying 3 building corners (NE, NW, SE) in two different (scaled) locations within a single coordinate system - it is complicated. It has to do with LiDAR and a Grid vs Ground scaling issue where I need to "move" the LiDAR (not able to move LiDAR in native format) and the subsequent BIM within the coordinate system based on a scale factor and two sets ("A" and "B") of the points (NE, NW, SE). provided by the surveyor.

After the 6 points are identified in the Coordinate system, this will be a "relocate project" operation - the 6 points help to validate the move. The generation of the scaled points has a very slight scaling within the coordinate system, thus the need to validate the new location.

I could do this Civil 3D with 6 points (circles) but I like your idea of using Adaptive Points.

Any ideas?

Thank you!!

Re: MOVING ELEMENTS TO A SPECIFIC COORDINATES

gustavobernardi — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 21:34:55 GMT

It would to be great changing the object using the spot coordinates as it is possible changing elevtion via spot elevation.