@barthbradley wrote:
Where was that written?
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/EN...
RE: the last two sentences of my original post... poorly written but yes, that essentially what i've been using as a work around.
That article is helpful and Ive read through it a few times already. The problem runs much deeper than that. In a way my question should be directed to the software engineers building Revit. I feel the problem lies with how reference planes define "up" and "down" and how the masking regions define "foreground". Let me try to explain:
Open a ceiling based family and make an extrusion on the ceiling reference plane. If you input a positive value the extrusion will extend up, above the ceiling plane. This does not make much sense if you are trying to make a pendant light. To fix this, you must input a negative value so that the extrusion extends down, below the reference plane. This also means that any masking region drawn in the family will define foreground in the positive direction up (just like the extrusion). So if the masking region is on the same plane as the surface pattern, it will always show the pattern (bc when you have two masking regions on the same plane that overlap, they will both show up). And since the "foreground" is above or behind the ceiling plane* (in RCP*) then even if the masking region was "drawn in foreground", it still would not work.
Again the only way ive found to fix this is by making a second reference plane below the ceiling plane (like the "light source" ref. level).
Does that make sense? I dont think there is a solution other than the work around stated above.
