Aligned dimensions gone when binding a linked .rvt file

[joaorcunha]

Hello everyone...

We need to send our revit file to the client, and she asks us to bind all revit links together, so she doesn't have to deal with multiple files.

However, we are facing an issue when binding the structure file: all aligned dimensions that measure this structure are deleted when we bind the link.

Of course we see the warning explaining that elements will be deleted, but is hard to believe that the geometry has changed after we bind it.

Are we missing something? Maybe there's an workaround?

We are using Revit 2014 with all the latest updates.

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

João.

[loboarch · Accepted solution]

This is basically "by design".  Dimensions in Revit are in a sense "reporting" a position of an edge in AN ELEMENT.  This part is important because by binding the link you are taking the link, which was assigned one element ID and turning it into a bunch of new elements.  The dimemsions no longer "see" the edges of the original ELEMENT anymore since tecnically that element no longer exists (it is a bunch of new elements).  So the dimensions are deleted.  To the database of Revit this makes perfect logcical sense.  To a user looking at the view there is no reall good reason why the dimension goes away, all edges dimensionsed are still there.  To revit it is a brand new element and needs to be dimensioned.

To work around you would have to manually add some reference planes (lines, etc...) that the dimension is actually measuring to so when the link is bound the dimension is not deleted because the element it is measuring to is not going away.

[joaorcunha]

Ok Jeff, thanks for the answer!

I don't know if I should accept it as a solution, though... but as a workaround it's ok!

Regards,

João.

[Alaaeldin_Alsahli · Accepted solution]

Another Alternative solution is

1. Make a copy of the main host file,
2. Then open the main and copied host files.
3. Bind the link in the main host file.
4. Then copy the annotation from The copied host file to the main host file.

Make sure not to change any model's geometry during this process, otherwise these steps won't work.

Here is a video with sound to better visualize it.

https://screencast.autodesk.com/main/details/a4c58062-e8e8-4e1d-adf0-7dd0bcd7da97