Ceiling grid showing through lighting fixtures

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I work for an architecture firm that is coordinating with other MEP disciplines for a large mechanical ventilation upgrade project. Our team as well as the other teams are all using bim 360 to share and link our models together and we are in Revit 2017. Right now I have the electrical engineers model linked into my architecture model and have his lights showing on my reflected ceiling plan. However the ceiling grid is showing through the electrical engineers lights, is there a way for me to fix it so that the grid doesn't show through the lights? From what I've researched I believe the lights are face based instead of host based. So far we've resorted to using filled regions behind the lights to hide the grid, however it is a fairly large building and doing so is very tedious and time consuming.

Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated.

[cbcarch]

Not quite understanding the problem--Why are grids running through lights?

Normally lights sit in the grid ( 2 x 4, 2 x 2, etc., or recessed can lights sit in the ceiling tiles.)

Can you post a quick image?

[Sahay_R]

Are you in a Wireframe view? Switch over to Hidden.

[barthbradley]

Actually, it looks like something else is going on. Those don't look like ceiling grid lines crossing through the lights. 

[purvigirwin]

Are your light fixtures actually 3D or made from model or symbolic lines? That could cause problems because then they aren't actually masking the ceiling. Do the fixtures have a void in them to cut the ceiling and therefore the pattern?

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

Nothing out of ordinary here.  The reason is the lights are in a linked model so they cannot cut the ceilings modeled in you file.  You need to manually cut the 2x2 ceiling to create the 2x4 holes by one (but not limited to) of the following methods:

- Copy Monitor the Electrical link Light fixture to your model and use them to cut the ceilings

- Place your own 2x4 ceiling based 3d family matching the linked light location to cut the ceilings

- Place your own 2x4 ceiling based 2d family to mask the ceilings

- Ask the consultant to add a mask in their fixture family at a plane lower than the host plane.  They still don't cut the ceilings but they will mask the middle ceiling grid lines.

The first two options modify the actual ceiling geometry so the benefits are correct material take-off, section view, etc...  The downside is that if the linked fixture are face based, they will lose the host because there are only holes where they are.  It may or may not have any negative impact but just to let you know.

The last two options have positive/negative effects the other way around, obviously.

[barthbradley]

...or turn off your ceiling.   

[barthbradley]

Wow, @Anonymous. So you chose the more complicated approach, rather than just turning off your project's (redundant) ceiling grids in the view. I'm curious to learn;  which of Toan's "hoops" did you chose to jump through to resolve this display issue?   

[ToanDN]

I don't think there are ceilings in the linked electrical model. They normally place their face based fixture on the linked architectural model directly. So if she or he turns off the ceiling, there will be nothing left but the fixture.

[barthbradley]

...that's not what I see in her screenshot. But, no biggie. Just wondering. 

Peace, Bro. 

[ToanDN]

Just curious, what do you see?

[kmajorH3SKX]

For any others working in non-architectural models and linking in a model with ceilings leading to this problem:
The pattern of a linked ceiling will also show through lighting fixtures if the underlay setting is checked--hopefully this spares someone else the time I spent tracking this down.