Masking Region not working in Vector processing?

[CEdwardsUN5MX]

Revit 2025 being used.

I have a line object that I use to show flows of movement (people, equipment, etc) around a facility. To avoid the lines crossing directly, I've included a Masking Region, so the lines will visually break at the crossing (it isn't important which one gets broken).

The result I see on the screen, is what I want, which is not what I get from vector processing, which I'd prefer to use, as it is faster and a better result.

Any solutions?

Revit screenshot, showing what I want is displayed:

The print result, using Export to PDF and Vector processing, this has the lines merging.

The Revit family I created to explain the issue, attached.

I'm using a Line based generic model, with the linework done as Cut type, as I'm controlling colours in my drawing using filters and I need that rather than Projection type.

I'm doing also as Symbolic lines, I've tried Model lines and it doesn't work with the Masking Region which unsurprisingly blanks the model lines.

[azad.Nanva]

this is really weer story,this is just a trick , use a small line in left or right:

this is so simple and weer 😁😁😁

[CEdwardsUN5MX]

Not seeing that result. I'm using Export to PDF, and have tried it in Bluebeam PDF, the line doesn't trigger any change.

I don't have CutePDF installed, or Admin rights to install it.

NB, I already had an Invisible Line that extended through the cut plane, and ensure the Cut was triggered.

I've done this before and found it a useful trick for elements that might live above a cut plane but still need to be seen.

It didn't work either.

[azad.Nanva]

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@CEdwardsUN5MX wrote:

NB, I already had an Invisible Line that extended through the cut plane, and ensure the Cut was triggered.

I've done this before and found it a useful trick for elements that might live above a cut plane but still need to be seen.

It didn't work either.

---

I am not familierwith Bluebeam PDF but you can use PDF Export in revit,but really you understand what i did?did you know it was model line ?

[azad.Nanva]

I test that in Export PDF from Revit:

[RDAOU]

@CEdwardsUN5MX 

I am not sure why the lines are a mix of Model Lines ans symbolic lines and why you are using a generic line based...I would go for all symbolic or all model depending on the use/purpose

• The lines may all be in the line based generic host Family
• The Masking Region you will need to place in a nested Generic model (this will force any pdf driver to capture it)
• Host the Region on a plane above that of the lines
• (If lines are all symbolic set them to alternate once in foreground and another in background)

There are 2 parameters added to the mask

1. Line Weight: to adjust based on the Line Weight vs View Scale
2. Gap Cleanup: Adjust to modify how much the region will mask from the crossing lines

Result as follows: (.rvt and .rfa attached)

[CEdwardsUN5MX]

I've tried model lines already, the masking just masked them, which meant I saw nothing.

Yes, I'm using the Export to PDF/ PDF Export tool in Revit.

[CEdwardsUN5MX]

The line object I created was a test pattern with differing permutations to see what might work, as I got tired of trying one combination after another. Symbolic lines are the preference.

Deleting the 3 redundant lines, and just the one with the mask, gets no result. Which I don't understand, as the masking would cut some of the lines when they were all there, just not all of them.

 

With the redundant lines deleted, so just the single line, what it looks like in Revit:

After Export:

FYI, the object I am working on, looks like this in Revit (bottom).

• The family is created, with repeating text and arrows at each end with intermediate arrows. Arrows are directional for movement of (variously) people, equipment, materials, and so on, and are turned on/off depending on which way the flow needs to go. Mid-arrows only happen if the line is long enough, and are spaced to be centred between every second text. Complex but some of the lines are in real scale over 70 metres long, and intermediates were needed.
• Text is controlled through a Type Parameter, spacing also by Type parameter.
• Lineweight and colour of the object are done by Filters on the type, with the Cut property being used instead of the Projection, as I want to keep the text Black.
• NB this is a development of a very much simpler object I started with, and would be mostly unnecessary if revit allowed us complex linetypes with text, that has been repeatedly asked for in the Ideas forum.

 

[RDAOU · Accepted solution]

@CEdwardsUN5MX 

What you previously described drove my thinking towards a different direction...completely off topic. Those Lines with intigrated labels are not done as a Line based Generic model line!!! They are done using Line Based Detail Item and in such case you do not need to nest the masking region like in the Generic

See below GIF and the attached RVT with the family loaded therein

[CEdwardsUN5MX · Accepted solution]

Line Based Detail Item, with a Masking object (doesn't have to be nested) seems to be the solution to this.

Solves the problem I've had, of symbols ending up on the wrong workset, when these will only ever need to be on a single sheet.

Is there a way to get the text in Black though, while keeping the colour for the linework?

[RDAOU]

@CEdwardsUN5MX 

No it doesnt need to be and it shouldnt be in a detail item

Yes, there is a way to have the text black and lines colored...I did that on the fly so I did not really intend to work it out to that level. So I used Overrides but ideally you would have the lines controlled via Object styles and the label based on the text style you use

Here are the details how to do it

• The Masking region (place in the  Detail Item Line Based)
• The Label is already nested so that you can lock and array it
• The lines
  1. model these in a separate Detail Item (not line based. but should have an instance length parameter)
  2. generate as many Line families with different colors as needed .. Gas, Hot Water, Cold Water, Exit, Fire Escape Route,...etc
  3. place these lines on a subcategory so you could control their color via Object Styles)
  4. Do not create all in the same detail comonent... revit does not like that
  5. Nest all of these into the Line based detail item host
  6. lock their start and end to the reference planes at the start of the reference line and the base of the arrow symbol (or lock their start point to the left refplane and associate their instance length parameter with the Length of the Line based

And thats about it

[ToanDN]

Have you tried solid white filled regions instead of masking regions?

[CEdwardsUN5MX]

That is the way the firm I work for had been doing it. Some projects we work on, we would need more than a dozen variations, and the colours would need to apply to the lines as well as the arrows.

I'm trying (believe it or not) to simplify things, with one object that is then modified at the point where it is needed, without having to potentially manage dozens, and then end up with a significant number of types to control the appearance of it all.

Having a detail item that will only be on a single sheet, is also simpler than dealing with things ending up on the wrong workset.

WYSIWYG.

[RDAOU]

@CEdwardsUN5MX 

I’m slightly confused. If that’s how your firm has been doing it (Line Based Detail Items) why were you surprised and for what reason would you venture off to use generic models?! And if you knew the line colors are controllable via viability graphics why were you  unclear about it in your previous reply?

😄 I am not sure what is the point of this whole discussion if you knew it all!  

[CEdwardsUN5MX]

We seem to be at cross purposes, I think.

My firm had what I started with, using Generic Models, with dozens of linetypes and arrows preset to those colours, using visibility parameters against each type to control them. I didn't want to use dozens of line types and arrows with visibility parameters, had different ideas about how text would be used, and masking so the lines overlap as I wanted, was a problem using Generic Models.

I've now tried using Detail Items as was your alternate suggestion, and that works for me.

The issue that I had, hasn't gone away, I've just ended up with a workaround which makes the original context and the problem it generated, now moot.

So, your engagement with this question has been quite helpful, just not in the way I expected, which is also why I put the question out there....with solutions I try and keep an open mind, as per Shakespeare's entreaty:

In Act 1 Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet says to his friend:

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” 

Anyway, thank you for the assistance.

[RDAOU]

Kind Claudius 😉