topic Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please in Revit Structure Forum

Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

rloVW7ZH — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 00:43:07 GMT

Hi all,

This should be very basic. I'm hoping for a sanity check before I steer my team down the wrong path.

The scenario here is a suspended slab plan for Level 2.
For this example, I've modelled in a door, a window, and a wall opening.
The door is the out of box family, with the masking region deleted.

We want to see linework of the geometry changes below (the boundary of the wall transitions to door, to window and wall opening).
I believe industry convention?

This is what we want to see.

Is this the correct best practice?
Discipline: Structural
Show Hidden Lines: All

Because I'm hearing from some people that it should be set to:

Discipline: Structural
Show Hidden Lines: By Discipline

When it is set to that, all the hidden lines from below don't show up.
But they are saying there would be some other way to force those hidden lines on.
However, they have not been able to provide an alternative solution.

Is "Show Hidden Lines: All" too dangerous for some reason?

Is there a better way to see those openings below?

Thank you

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

k_frain — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 22:23:35 GMT

With regards to the view range for the plan view, check the level of the cut plane.

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

rloVW7ZH — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 22:37:05 GMT

I am not having any issues with the view range.

This seems sensible I think.

-1200 below is enough to catch all 3 openings.

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

jay_colc — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 08:01:09 GMT

It is catching the opening but NOT Cutting the Openings as stated by @k_frain

Compare to an Architectural Plan and the View Range

Applying similar principles to the Structural Plan View Range and Cutting the Level Below

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

hmunsell — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 12:37:45 GMT

Are you saying you want to see the opening from the second floor but also see the dashed lines from the openings below?

Personally, I find "Best Practices" to be subjective 😉. There are plenty that are good and should be followed. Other, not so much, generic best practices should be tried first, but if they do not work for your situation, it doesn't necessarily mean you're doing anything wrong.

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

rloVW7ZH — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 18:45:56 GMT

Yes, that is correct. I am doing a second floor plan.

We want to show the openings below with hidden lines for context.

This is pretty much exactly what we want to see.

Is there anything wrong or dangerous using this setting?

Discipline: Structural
Show Hidden Lines: All

Is there another way to achieve this graphic that might be safer?

Thank you

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

hmunsell — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 18:59:05 GMT

@rloVW7ZH wrote:
Is there anything wrong or dangerous using this setting?

Discipline: Structural
Show Hidden Lines: All

Typically, you would want to keep it as By Discipline to avoid other content in your file, i.g. other discipline links. But in this case, that is how I would do it. I don't see anything wrong with that.

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

k_frain — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 22:25:38 GMT

Create a Level 2 plan view with the view range view depth offset set to zero for the second floor (Associated Level) then create a plan view of Level 1 with the view range (Primary Range and View Depth) all within Level 1. Place Level 2 plan view on a sheet then follow up with the Level 1 plan view. Adjust the Visibility Graphics to suit the required display of Level 1 plan.

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

rloVW7ZH — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 23:40:59 GMT

@k_frain My apologies, I'm a little confused.

Are you proposing to stack 1 viewport directly on top of the other?

Level 2

Level 1

Stacked.

If I do that, the floor slab surface and the wall cut pattern will hide all the graphics below.

Am I missing something here?

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

k_frain — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:02:37 GMT

Yes, stack in the order of Level 2 then Level 1 onto the sheet. Set the Level 2 floor slab and walls to 100% transparency (and any other obscuring elements), thus the previous comment about adjusting the visibility graphics of the view as required.

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

rloVW7ZH — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:18:01 GMT

When I set the floor slab and walls to 100%,
We lose the wall cut pattern as that becomes transparent too.

How do you recommend we maintain the cut pattern?

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

k_frain — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:31:37 GMT

Apply the original visibility graphics settings of the Level 2 walls to the Level 1 walls.

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

rloVW7ZH — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:40:35 GMT

This is the Level 2 and Level 1 plan respectively.

As you can see, if I set the visibility graphics for the lower walls to show the cut pattern,

The pattern won't be in the correct location as it's the Level 2 wall cuts that need to be highlighted.

My apologies, have I missed something really obvious here?

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

k_frain — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:58:37 GMT

What happens when you just set the floor to 100% transparent ?

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

hmunsell — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:34:36 GMT

@k_frain , why would you go through all that for one view when you can just set the Show Hidden to ALL in that one view? I discourage my staff from placing views on views. It ends up causing confusion and creating extra views in the project browser. There are very few acceptances that I have ever used Views on Views as a solution.

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

rloVW7ZH — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 17:51:27 GMT

Thanks for the input all.
@hmunsell I think you and I are on the same page here.

If there are any other reasonable alternatives, I'm happy to explore them.

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

hmunsell — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 18:15:44 GMT

A colleague at work also recommended Plan Regions. Depending on how many you need to see, that may be an option for you too.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2023/ENU/?guid=GUID-594B7B97-0D59-4B03-9544-E403BD03BE48

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

jay_colc — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 19:11:26 GMT

I didn’t mention Plan Regions as we needed to understand what they needed from a single level view!

Re: Revit Basics - Openings Below - Sanity Check Please

hmunsell — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 19:26:56 GMT

@jay_colc: I agree, I did the same ‌😉. I didn't mention it initially, but since the OP asked if there was any other reasonable alternative, I figured I'd throw it out there as a longshot alternative.