Realistic Elevation Printing Issue V2

[DYoung-ORW]

Hey there,

One of my team members and I have found a few weird printing bugs when dealing with Realistic elevation views in Revit 2021.1.3. I have tested this bug on multiple projects, and I am able to replicate the issues, with varying results.

Here is what we have found:

Problem:

1. Printing a realistic elevation view from a sheet with a view break (vert or horiz) will result in an incorrect print. Depending on the appearance raster quality of the print will change what happens to the print.
2. Printing a realistic view with a masking region, the masking region will match the color of the user's drawing area background color.
3. Printing realistic elevation views with the crop region visible on, Revit will randomly ignore the printing option of hide crop boundaries and will print the crop region boundary.

System:

• Revit 2021.1.3
• Windows 10 Ver 20HS Build 19042.985
• 64GB Ram
• NVIDIA Quadro P2000 – Latest driver 462.31
• Bluebeam 20.2.20

Experimenting:

1. Switching to any other model visual style fixes all the problems mentioned above.
2. Switching between vector and raster processing, made no difference.
3. Switching Raster quality. Medium to Presentation will create blocks, duplicate, or wireframe. Low quality will sometimes work but you must turn off the crop region and set the background to white if you have any masking regions.
4. The masking region will always match the user's background color when printing a realistic view.
5. Tested these bugs across (3) projects. The initial project is an R19 upgraded to R21. The second test project is native R21. The third test project was started from scratch without a template in R21. All projects suffered from these problems in varying ways.
6. Tried printing through Bluebeam PDF, Microsoft Print to PDF, CutePDF, Bluebeam Create PDF add-in, and direct to a printer. All attempts had the same result.

Screenshots:

On the left is Revit running the third test project mentioned above. It shows the sheet and view as it was printed to Bluebeam PDF. On the right is the result from that print. All images are (4) walls and a roof with a masking region at the base of the wall. The crop region was left visible but with the print option of hide crop region on. The view break varies per image.

Realistic View - Black User Background - Vertical View Break - Presentation Raster Quality:

Realistic View - White User Background - Vertical View Break - Low Raster Quality:

Realistic View - Blue User Background - Horizontal View Break - Medium Raster Quality:

Realistic View - Blue Background - Horizontal View Break - Low Raster Quality:

Realistic View - Pink User Background - No View Break - Medium Raster Quality:

Hidden Line - Black User Background - Vertical View Break - Presentation Raster Quality:

Out of all the images above the only one that does not have a printing flaw is the hidden line. Here is a snippet of the initial project where it is shifting the building, erasing some of it, and wireframing next to the view break.

Realistic View - White User Background - Vertical View Break - Medium Raster Quality:

[_Vijay]

You export to PDF. did you tried that?

[RDAOU]

When running end user tests to identify code bugs, the tests are usually carried out in different environments and different setups (hardware/OS/application). What is reported in the OP could/may just be coincidental considering that his results are based on a specific setup (described in his/her post). 

Revit does not do the conversion/printing. That part is processed by the PDF Printer/Driver. Hence, if any bug checks/tests must be carried out, one should start with the 3rd party driver which is processing and converting the information. 

Looking at the OP's date and Revit related Bluebeam support articles issued in 2021 Content issues when printing from Revit | Bluebeam Technical Support apparently AN ISSUE (not a bug) has been identified just about the same time of the post and the cause identified is not REVIT. 

Again the above reported incident at Bluebeam might also be coincidental and it might not be related to the issue which the OP is struggling with but there is one thing I can confirm: What the OP referred to as a Bug is not caused by or related to Revit. We are able to print both views and sheets in the same Revit display context described in the OP, straight via Bluebeam as well as the Plotter/Exporter tool in CTC BIM Batch Suite (Revit 2022, 2021, 2020)

[DYoung-ORW]

All, Thank you for your response.

@_Vijay The issue I am having is in Revit 2021.1.3 which does not have native PDF exporting. You did spark my curiosity to test the issue in our recently installed Revit 2022 and I can not replicate the issue. Good to know that the issue is resolved in R22.

@RDAOU I was aware of the mentioned Bluebeam issue and was multiple updates ahead of their recommendation. Bluebeam suggested in that post to be running updates 19041.870 & 19042.870 and at OP I was running 19042.985. The reason I believe that this is a Revit issue is due to the likeness of a previous Revit update that fixed an issue where Realistic Views print in Wireframe. I have since tested the same issue in Revit 22 and I can not replicate it which leads me to believe that in some portion this is an issue in Revit 21.

I recently tested this issue on multiple workstations, all at varying points of Bluebeam, Windows & Revit updates, and I am able to replicate the issues across all of them in Revit 21 specifically. The issue also happens when printing directly from Revit to our printer and plotter which also leads me to believe that is not just a 3rd party issue. Thank you for testing it on your end, I'm glad to hear that it might be more of a contained issue, but still an issue nonetheless. 

[RDAOU]

@DYoung-ORW 

I didn't say you are not having an issue ... it is obvious from the images that you are. I only said it is not a bug otherwise we should be experiencing the same at our end. no? PS: Not ruling out that it could be caused by Revit though, it being incompatible with something that you have running on your systems there. In the end Revit is a delicate software.

Try the PDF exporter from CTC BIM Batch suit on 2021...I think they should have a trial version. Might help you narrow the causes of the issue down.

[DYoung-ORW]

I am unable to test CTC BIM Batch due to not having a subscription and I have previously sampled their software so my free trial period is over. I have however tried Bluebeam PDF, Microsoft Print to PDF, CutePDF, and I just tried Adobe PDF as well as printing directly to a printer. All attempts come back with some variation of the problem. With the idea that it might be an add-in issue, I disabled all of my add-ins, ran Revit as vanilla as possible (minus a reinstall) and I am still able to reproduce the issue in a new <none> imperial project.

[RDAOU]

@DYoung-ORW 

Adobe PDF and Microsoft PDF exporters we gave up on long time back...they sometimes work fine and other times give unexpected or odd results... CutePDF cant install for strict IT policies. We have 2 machines with bluebeam just as backup otherwise we have been relying mostly on CTC and we havent been having any issue for quite a long time

If you have a one of the test sample files maybe you can upload it and I can check it tomorrow morning for you on CTC how it exports

[DYoung-ORW]

Sure thing. Attached is a basic 4 walls and a sloped roof with native Revit materials painted to a single side. The view has a vertical break and a masking region at the base of the walls. I saved a print setting where I only adjusted the print size to Arch D. When I print the view or sheet the masking region always prints the same color as my user background. Depending on the raster quality or paper size there will be varying additional or missing elements in the print.

Per the shot below, which was made from the attached model, I have a black user background so I get a black masking region. Printing an Arch D sheet at High quality and my PDF has a dormer on the right and less wall and roof on the left of the view break.

Thanks again for your time.