Cut Plane of Cut Geometry

[smharch]

Hello all,

I have a curtain panel family that is being cut by a sloped mass (workaround to building adaptive panels). The curtain panel family does have shared nested generic models within it. The mass is modeled in-place. When the panels are cut by the mass they stop being cut by the views cut plane (see image).

Have any of you seen this before or know whats going on?

Thanks in advance,

Steven

[barthbradley]

Huh?  Want to post your file so we can see what the heck you are doing?  😉

[smharch]

I have made a sample file for your viewing. In the process, I learned some more. 

If the mass category (or Show Mass under Massing & Site) is off then the panels will not cut. If one or both of them is turned on then it shows the cut panel (however the line weight changes(odd but not really a problem)). 

See the new attached image and sample file. 

EDIT:

The Cut curtain panels cut linen weight is now set by the mass category. 

[barthbradley]

What are you modeling? What the purpose of the Mass?  

[martijn_pater]

I've tried something similar cutting with solids as attached. You could try to cut with solid family assigned to subcategory, which is another workaround for cutting cw panels, here i've only made it show on course view detail in plan/section. However it might mess up your subcategories also if you want to set lineweights correctly etc, don't know exactly how that works out for you.

[RDAOU]

@scubaman120 

It is not cutting because you have used the Curtain wall to cut the mass... you should reverse the selection (element to be cut first then the element to cut with) follow below steps and see screencast below

1. Uncut >> select the Mass 
2. Start Cut command
3. First Select the element to be cut (Tab select the Panel in the curtain wall)
4. Then Select the element to cut with (Select the Mass)
5. Repeat for the Mullions (Tab select the Mullions >>> then select the mass to cut the mullions)

[smharch]

Barthbradley,

The top of our curtain wall is sloped. Curtain panels need to be rectilinear unless they are built as an adaptive component. I could build them but they are a pain to work with and hard to edit. 

Martijn,

Your solution does work but the same problem presents itself (I just now figured this out). I change your cutting family's category to Furniture. I then change the Object Styles of Furniture to have a Line Weight of 8. As you can see in the image the curtain panel and the nested Generic models have taken on the graphical appearance of the furniture category. 

RDAOU,

I left one of the panels uncut on purpose to display the problem. Your video does a much better job though. Take a look at the right CP in the view with the "Mass Category Turned Off". At the start of your video, you can see the CP is being Cut by the view plan. Around 30 seconds when you cut the panel you can see the CP is no longer being cut by the cut Plane of the view. 

[martijn_pater]

@smharch yes, the line weights can be problematic with this workaround. Opened a topic on that myself a while back. Not much to be done about that I'm afraid... it has to do with join behavior which appears strange for this situation, but then again... happening only because of the workaround itself... you can use Linework (LW) tool though for your drawing/view to correct it I guess...

[smharch]

I should have mentioned this before. We have turned on the mass category and set the line weight as desired. All of our cutting masses were already on a workset and set to not be visible. It is really strange that when the mass is not visible it stops cutting the element in plan and section. 

For now, without a solution, I recommend a best practice for the Cut Geometry tool of the cut and cutting elements are of the same category. This will prevent funny things from happening. 

Thank you for your help because, without it, our drawings would still look incorrect. If anyone wants to continue this conversation to figure out what is going on I would love to get to the bottom of this. We are good though to continue on in our documentation though. 

[RDAOU · Accepted solution]

@smharch 

I don't find anything odd about that...it is how curtain walls behaved for as long as I can remember.. When cut by a mass or another element, that overrides the views cut plane and CW graphic display. The cut part of the curtain wall inherits the properties of the cutting host...ie: if you cut by a mass...the cut lines and pattern of that part reflects the graphic properties of mass category … that is how it is intended

Switch the category off in visibility graphics is like leaving a command line blank

1. the panel is cut,
2. Revit knows that and the panel knows it too
3. The cut element expects that it should display as per the visibility graphics of the cutting element's category (in this case Mass)
4. BUT the USER switched that Mass category off => no input => Thin lines and no pattern to apply

The thing with curtain walls is that they consist of multiple unique  categories (the system/ the panels/ the mullions) and their graphic display is divided among those categories...meaning you cannot place a single cutting element ( generic model or mass) and switch it's category to "Curtain Panel and Curtain Mullion) in order to preserve the same graphic display shown for an uncut Curtain Wall... 

I personally do not find anything wrong with that and sometimes use it as an advantage to highlight parts of the curtain system which is not regularly cut by the View Range cut plane

[ToanDN]

You can assign the Mass Form to a specific Subcategory and set the lineweight to match your Curtain Wall's.

[barthbradley]

I still don't understand the purpose of the Mass, Scoobie. Care to share?    

[ToanDN]

[RDAOU]

@ToanDN 

Works only when you are not differentiating between the elements of the curtain wall...

The graphics of  the curtain wall (when not cut) are controlled by multiple categories...however, when Cut using a mass it becomes all one category unless you intend to create several mass elements each of a different subcategory (Mass Mullions, Mass Panels, Mass Rainscreen...etc) each cutting a component in order to differentiate between all the nested elements of the curtain wall (doing it manually would be quite a pain but easy using dynamo - done it on an airport project)