Rotate section using the cropbox

[gschnierer]

Hi All,

I am trying to rotate a wall section's orientation so the centre lines are aligned, see first image.

Using the parameter Rotation on Sheet, set to 90° Counterclockwise, the tag is upside down. This is expected and unwanted. The drawing looks unprofessional. Duplicating the tag family and rotating the label upside down might be a workaround, but quite messy in a large project.

Using the alternative method, I select the section's crop region rotate it by 90° (in the opposite direction), the crop region rotates, but the camera is still vertical instead of horizontal.

For me this looks like a bug in Revit 2018 and 2019. I did some tests, rotating the crop regions of plan views and assembly sections, all worked fine. Only sections and elevations seem to be broken. Rotating by other than 90° works, but what I need is 90°.

Any ideas, suggestions?

[Avaris.]

Does it also occur when you use a rotated scopebox?

[gschnierer]

Thanks @Avaris. I checked.

Unfortunately it doesn't help. Using a rotated scope box and assigning it to the section does not rotate the camera, the wall is in the same orientation both in the section and on the sheet.

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[barthbradley]

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles...

[ToanDN]

Create a call-out view from the section then you can rotate the crop region of the call-out view 90 degree.

[barthbradley]

...or just duplicate w/detail the existing view. 

[gschnierer]

Thanks @barthbradley and @ToanDN for the suggestions and and the screenshot. It is good to see it's working for you guys.

So it must be me. I made a screencast and tried rotating both the crop region and the callout, but the camera is still vertical. Could you please check out what am I doing wrong?

Project file can be downloaded from here

[ToanDN]

@gschnierer

No I can't rotate a section crop region 90 degree either.  What I said was create a callout detail view from the section, open the callout view and rotate its crop region.  Or you can change the section view to detail view and rotate it.

[barthbradley]

Can't see your screencast or download anything , but did you follow the steps in the Link I provided precisely?  

[ToanDN]

See attached.

If you are okay with vertical annotation then you can rotate view on sheet.

[gschnierer]

Thanks @barthbradley, I followed the steps provided in the link precisely. For views created with the plan or callout tools, it is working fine! Furthermore, the process doesn't have to be as complicated as described in the link. No need to duplicate. Rotating the crop region of the original view is just fine.

However, for a view created with the section or elevation tool, rotating the crop region is not working for me. 

@ToanDN, as I understand you experienced the same. Thanks for the attached model, I checked it out.

No I can't rotate a section crop region 90 degree either. 

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I guess you were trying with Detail number 2: "Section 1" - this view was created using the section tool.

What I said was create a callout detail view from the section, open the callout view and rotate its crop region.

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This should be Detail number 3: "Section 1 - Callout 1" - Did you create this view using the Callout tool? I guess so, as the name implies.

So far my theory is that for views created as 

- plan or callout: rotation of the cropbox is possible in any angle

- section or elevation: rotation by exactly 90° is not possible. (All other angles work!)

Or you can change the section view to detail view and rotate it. 

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@ToanDN did you actually try this? I did and made another screencast, where I

1) create a section, try to rotate its crop region, no success

2) change the section's type to Detail (callout), try again, no success

3) create a new callout on the section, rotate, success.

So for me the proposed method doesn't work. But I would really appreciate confirmation whether you experience the same.

If you are okay with vertical annotation then you can rotate view on sheet.

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Well, this is the workaround we used so far. But as explained in my first post, it can turn annotation upside down.

I'm working on a large scale project, where loads of views were created using the section tool with 'rotation on sheet' parameter applied. The drafter ignored the upside down issue, and now the client argues the drawings look unprofessional. This is why I'm looking for the solution to the crop box rotation issue by exactly 90° for sections and elevations. 

Screencast will be displayed here after you click Post.

82a6b370-5b5b-4680-9124-6147c4089305

[ToanDN]

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@gschnierer wrote:

1) create a section, try to rotate its crop region, no success

2) change the section's type to Detail (callout), try again, no success

3) create a new callout on the section, rotate, success.

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Use (3)

[gschnierer]

Thanks @ToanDN. From your answer I understand you experienced the same: Only views created as callout (or plan) can be rotated by 90° using the cropbox. Sections and elevations cannot. Changing the view type is not helping either.

Unfortunately, as explained, a lot of sections are already annotated, this would lead to an unacceptable amount of re-work. So this solution will not work for me now.

[ToanDN]

You can copy paste align annotation from a section to a callout view.

[gschnierer]

Good idea @ToanDN, that saves a great deals.

I experimented in the Revit API, made a quick add-in that does the same, selects the cropbox and rotates. Plans and callouts work, sections and elevations doesn't. Maybe I'll have more time to try different approaches (apply transform object for example). Such an add-in could have extra features like re-aligning the crop region to how it was before the rotation, etc. If someone is interested in a project like this, we could make it open source.

[barthbradley]

I curious to know how the method I referenced didn't work. Where did it fail?  

[gschnierer]

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@barthbradley wrote:

I curious to know how the method I referenced didn't work. Where did it fail?  

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The issue which I am trying to solve is:

How to rotate the sections by 90 degree so the annotation is not upside down. And of course by avoiding manual work to recreate the annotation.

@barthbradley, what you referenced, suggests to grab the crop region and rotate it in the opposite direction using the rotate tool. This works fine for views created with the callout or plan tools. However, my views were created with the section tool, for which the proposed solution doesn't work.

The best workaround was suggested by @ToanDN:

You can copy paste align annotation from a section to a callout view.

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Which still include a decent amount of manual work which I wanted to avoid.