Ceilings disappear in vector print

[Anonymous]

Hi all, have searched the forum for this issue and found some very old threads (2010 and earlier) about this, but no solution.

I've just created an RCP with a number of ceilings. All the same phase, same workset, 3 different types of the same family - only difference is surface pattern of the finish (still quite conceptual).

In sheet view, everything looks fine. But when printing (either pdf or regular printer) some of the ceilings disappear. It appears to happen mostly (but not exclusively) to ceilings that were initially made with the "automatic ceiling" function as opposed to hand drawn boundary. However, they don't show up when I then hand draw them instead. I have tried restarting computer/ Revit, as well as printing on a colleagues computer.

Any ideas what could cause this?

Working in Revit 2017.

[Anonymous]

Having played around with this a bit, I got it to work by offsetting the ceiling boundary inwards by 1mm... which I definitely don't want to do for all the ceilings.

I tried creating two brand new families for wall and ceiling, from copies of the basic system families to see if there is some interface problem, but the same issue occurs. What is going on?

[Viveka_CD · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous

I see that you are visiting as a new member! Welcome to the Autodesk community! 

Its been a while and I wanted to check on this post - there have reports that some Revit ceiling grids don't print (either to pdf or on paper) with Vector graphics when there is a basic ceiling in the same area.

A possible workaround is to set raster processing at the Print Properties, because the issue appears only at vector processing.
It seems an overlapping ceiling element is responsible for this issue. See HERE for a workaround

Please mark this response as "Accept as Solution" if it answers your question. Kudos gladly accepted.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Viveka_CD

Many thanks for your reply! 

Yes, raster printing is a workaround, however even at high quality it doesn't look as good as vector printing. As we are issuing drawings as pdfs mostly, this isn't really an option - the quality just isn't good enough. The printing process takes anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes per drawing, so from a workflow point of view it isn't great either. 

I have checked and we don't have any double ceilings, although we do have a mess of floor slabs (different phases) some of which might be intersecting partially with the ceilings. However, that is a common condition and there's places where I know a floor intersects with the ceiling and it doesn't cause a problem.

My current workaround - offsetting the boundary by 1mm away from the walls - has me suspecting it has something to do with that.

Since this appears to be an active Autodesk investigation, perhaps this information could add to a possible solution.

Look forward to this being solved.

[chrisplyler]

I'm not entirely clear what you mean by "disappears." Since you say that offsetting the boundaries in a mm solves the problem, I'm IMAGINING that your problem is simply that you couldn't see the boundaries because they were coincident with wall lines. But I'm assuming there's got to be something else going on for you to consider it a problem.

Can you describe more specifically what is disappearing? Or maybe give us a couple of screenshots that show the same ceiling in two different states so we can see what you see? Do you perhaps mean the surface pattern OF the ceiling is disappearing?

[Anonymous]

Thank you. this was super helpful. 

Madara

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@Viveka_CD wrote:

Hi @Anonymous

I see that you are visiting as a new member! Welcome to the Autodesk community! 

Its been a while and I wanted to check on this post - there have reports that some Revit ceiling grids don't print (either to pdf or on paper) with Vector graphics when there is a basic ceiling in the same area.

A possible workaround is to set raster processing at the Print Properties, because the issue appears only at vector processing.
It seems an overlapping ceiling element is responsible for this issue. See HERE for a workaround

Please mark this response as "Accept as Solution" if it answers your question. Kudos gladly accepted.

---

[Viveka_CD]

Hi @Anonymous

Glad you found this helpful!

Let us know if you have additional questions.

Regards,

[cathyRPQA5]

I have been having the same problem.  Raster printing is a work around, but it is far worse quality and not ideal by any means. Has this issue been solved by AutoDesk as this was several years ago?

[ToanDN]

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@cathyRPQA5 wrote:

I have been having the same problem.  Raster printing is a work around, but it is far worse quality and not ideal by any means. Has this issue been solved by AutoDesk as this was several years ago?

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I can't replicate this issue.  Do you have a file to share?

[MBernardKDPDZ]

Cut and *paste (align) in the same place* the ceiling and it will print on vector.