Beam on the wrong level

[Anonymous]

I am drawing my first structural beam.  I set my reference level to Level 2.  The Z Direction Justification was Top and the offset was 0 by default.  

I drew a beam and it's on the floor.  Why is it on the floor?

Note that the control points are on Level 2 at least.  Here are all the settings as far as I can see.

[constantin.stroescu]

Maybe I am wrong , but what I see on your screenshot , it looks that you have selected the beam and it shows elevation 24' 8 47 /12866'-6" at one end and 9' 8 55 /64' ......I am not accustomed with imperial units but anyway they look different .The beam iseems  not to be horizontal....check this in Elevation and in Floor Plane....Just an idea....

[Anonymous]

I deleted that one so I can't look at it in elevation but I think one of those dimensions is the length (the columns are 30 ft on center).  I thought my error was in drawing an arbitrary beam so I did one with a grid line between two columns.  Still on the floor.

When I select the beam it tells me it's on Level 1 (not the case with the first one I drew) and the control points appear on Level 1 EVEN THOUGH I had it set to Level 2 when I drew it.   

[constantin.stroescu]

did you checked the offset to be 0,00?  As an example in my screenshot the beam is Constraint to Level 2 but with a negative offset is placed in reality on Level 1....

[Gary_J_Orr]

To expand on the previous poster's response: The "Reference Level" is just that, a reference to a level. If the level changes in elevation then everything referencing that level will adjust accordingly. But you still need to supply the values for the start and end offsets from that level.

You will find yourself (especially when creating unconnected items) having to adjust property values often after inserting/creating an element.

Depending on current reference planes, your current view, current snaps, etc, creation of new unconnected items may or may not make sense to you as the software may not have been able to determine your intent at the time, but that's why the properties are adjustable.

But if you had a "2nd floor framing" level current at the time of creation you would want it to be created "on the ground" of that level so Revit defaults to that "0" based concept.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

But if the reference level is Level 2 and the offsets are 0, shouldn't the beam be at Level 2?  

Besides, I can't change the offset.  It's grayed out (see my image).

You have to set the Work Plane to the level on which you wish to insert a beam (unsure about other structural items).

I can draw an Architectural Wall with a Base Constraint of Level 1 to a Top Constraint of Level 2 FROM the Level 2 Work Plane and it appears virtually identical to any Architectural Wall of equal constraint drawn from the Level 1 Work Plane BUT I'm betting Revit keeps track of the Work Plane from which it was created via a parameter that does NOT appear in the Properties Palette or Type Properties.  While this does not appear to affect most objects it clearly does affect Structural Beams and I fault the developers for not including the display of this parameter in those palettes.

[nimanoroozi_mer]

Hi.I think you are right. When you set ref plane on L2 and then you make a negative offset so you would get this elevation.just zero that offsets and Z on bottum....