Possible Bug? - rotating wall deletes window

[jordanlatta]

I've had this problem with certain doors and/or windows that cut through a wall that has horizontal reveals. If the window or door touches the edge of a reveal, it (sometimes) spits out one or both of the following errors and causes the door or window to be deleted. 

"Can't cut instance of window/door out of wall"

"Could not create integral wall sweep for wall instance. Failed to cut wall."

At face value, I understand these are common user-errors and I could be doing something wrong. But the odd part is this: if the wall is in one orientation, it seems fine, but if it is rotated or mirrored say 90 degrees or 180 degrees, Revit can no longer calculate the void intersections for some reason and it deletes the objects. See attached screen capture and model.

Is this a bug, or is Revit supposed to act like this?

Is there a better way to get window/door openings to cut through reveals cleanly?

Thanks

[RDAOU]

@jordanlatta 

It is not a bug, the issue is in the family you have modeled or downloaded. It is not constrained properly to the host (ie: the wall in the family environment). I think you have used a void instead of an opening and that void was not locked properly to ref. planes or a host element.

See GIF below...using simple basic/ootb families and as you can see, there are no issues with rotating the wall and the inserts will follow

[jordanlatta]

Nope, I based that family off the out-of-the-box revit window family template that uses an opening, not a void. Unfortunately it still happens if I use an out-of-the-box Revit window family, like "Opening-square-window.rfa" so I think it has something to do with the reveals.

I've added a revit file to the original post for troubleshooting, see above.

[jordanlatta]

Bump. This is still an issue. Any solutions or experience with this problem?

[RDAOU]

Post the file

[jordanlatta]

I did, see first post...

[RDAOU]

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@jordanlatta wrote:

I did, see first post...

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@jordanlatta 

What you attached is not the same family as the one shown in the MP4 video you posted. The .rfa family you shared for the opening works perfectly fine—see the GIF below. I used the same rotation angles you did, and there were no error messages or inserts falling out of the host.

When rotating, it is sufficient to rotate the host (i.e., select the wall and rotate it). If the inserts are properly modeled and not clashing with the wall reveals/sweeps, they will rotate with the host. Do not use a crossing window to select. If the inserts (door/window/opening) do not rotate with the host, that’s another indication that the family is not properly modeled or constrained.

PS: make sure you are using the latest build of the revit version installed (ie: all updates installed)

[jordanlatta]

When rotating much past 45 degrees (for instance, all the way to 80 or 90 or up to 180 degrees) is when the error occurs.

Try that. In your GIF from 04-12-2025 03:13 AM, it looks like you did not rotate it past 45 degrees.

See the GIF in my reply from 04-03-2025 05:59 AM, using the out-of-the-box revit opening family, where I get the error when rotating or mirroring it to 90 or 180 degrees. This GIF shows the revit file that I attached in the first post. (I went back and added that file later for anyone who stumbled upon the post so they didn't have to dig in the comments to find the file.... I went back to using the out-of-the-box family after your first reply, to show that it still makes the error happen, so that's where the discrepancy is from the initial video I posted... sorry for the confusion)

I'm using the latest release of Revit 2025.

The firm I work at is not using 2026 yet.

[RDAOU · Accepted solution]

@jordanlatta 

There you go. Rotated as requested.

However, after looking further into the .rvt file you attached, it seems that the issue on your end might be caused by the integrated sweep highlighted in the image below. If you adjust the profile to correct the alignment at the lower point (which shouldn’t be so acute), it should resolve the error you're encountering.

[jordanlatta]

Ah, ok. I used that thin sweep to achieve a certain surface material color since the wall paint tool only paints the surface of the wall and not into the nooks of reveals. I suppose I could make it thicker so it does not have this error. Although I'm still not sure why on my end it works in certain orientations and not others. Seems buggy. Maybe I'll try reinstalling the program.

Unfortunately, the desired orientation of the opening is exactly as it is placed in my revit model... with the opening slighly overlapping the reveal. That's how our Precast Manufacturer does it, to achieve a chamfered corner on the top edge of the window opening. I think this might also be part of the problem.

Is it generally a better idea to use instance reveals/sweeps instead of ones that are integrated into the wall type?

[GaryOrrMBI · Accepted solution]

It's the sheer number of sweeps and reveals that you have attached to that wall definition that is creating the issue (combined with their locations and the location of the top of the opening).

When Revit rotates the wall it has to rotate all of the components in the wall (whether builtin components or inserts). To do this it has to translate all of the points of all of the components then create the "new" components relative to those points, but, the order in which it performs those translations and the math for translating them varies depending on the component, how the attachment is calculated, and what the angle is.

Once you hit an angle beyond a certain point the math changes and it simply can't figure out how to make all of those translations at the same time anymore. The opening and one of the sweeps and one of the reveals create a conflict due to the way they come together and Revit simply can't determine how to resolve it and deletes the opening.

You will find that making the wall taller, or lowering the opening, just a few inches will allow the rotation to take place without the error as it can solve the location of the opening and the position of the sweep and reveal independently of each other. But then, trying to reset the height of the wall or opening to what it was recreates the conflict and the opening is deleted again.

-G