Snaps in viewports

[Anonymous]

A few days ago I used this YouTube tutorial to set up my plans in an aligned position on my sheets. I believe at the time I was able to make my detail line in the sheet snap to the corner of my reference plane in the viewport. However I'm trying to do it again and I can't seem to snap to anything in the viewport without activating it, at which point I then can't snap to anything on the sheet. I'm not aware of having changed any settings but I can't explain why this worked a couple of day ago but doesn't now.

BTW - I am also happy to accept alternative suggestions for aligning plans on sheets - I would have kind of thought that this would be a very easy (and convenient) function to incorporate into Revit but evidently not...

[ToanDN]

Drafting lines on sheet only snap to Reference Planes, Grids, and Levels in Views.  What are you trying to snap to?

The documented method is using a Guide Grid to align Views on Sheets.  I personally use the method showing in your YouTube video more often.

[Anonymous]

I created a Reference Plane in the model so that I have a common point visible on all plan sheets. I am then trying to draw a Detail Line on my Ground Floor Plan which I want to snap to one end of the Reference Plane line. The idea is to then paste in place through on all of my plan sheets and move the viewport on each sheet using the corner of the Reference Plane (just as is done in the tutorial). It seemed to work fine when I tried it before but now in sheet view I can't get my Detail Line to snap to the end of the Reference Plane line. Is there a setting that toggles this on and off?

[Anonymous]

I created a Reference Plane in the model so that I have a common point visible on all plan sheets. I am then trying to draw a Detail Line on my Ground Floor Plan which I want to snap to one end of the Reference Plane line. The idea is to then paste in place through on all of my plan sheets and move the viewport on each sheet using the corner of the Reference Plane (just as is done in the tutorial). It seemed to work fine when I tried it before but now in sheet view I can't get my Detail Line to snap to the end of the Reference Plane line. Is there a setting that toggles this on and off?

[ToanDN]

- Make sure Snaps are On (under Manage ribbon).

- Make sure you see an end of the Reference Plane (not clipped by the viewport).  It is better to have two Reference Planes so that you can snap to to the Intersection.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Still not working. I've taken a couple of screen grabs for reference:

- The first one shows my viewport on and I am able to get a detail line to snap to the vertex of the reference planes.

- The second one shows my viewport off but you can see that snaps are still on as I am able to snap to the corner of my sheet outline

- The third one shows my view off and I have started a detail line but I can't snap to the vertex of the reference planes

[ToanDN]

No images attached.

[barthbradley]

Are you executing the move command? 

Select viewport, click Move, then snap to endpoint. 

[Anonymous]

I haven't gotten that far. In order to make sure the plans are lined up precisely, I want to make sure that the end of the Detail Line snaps onto the end of the Reference Plane line but I can't get them to meet each other. I'd really prefer not to eyeball it when it comes to getting drawings aligned (after all that way madness lies...)

[Anonymous]

I haven't gotten that far. In order to make sure the plans are lined up precisely, I want to make sure that the end of the Detail Line snaps onto the end of the Reference Plane line but I can't get them to meet each other. I'd really prefer not to eyeball it when it comes to getting drawings aligned (after all that way madness lies...)

[ToanDN]

Can you draw two reference planes see if you can snap the detail line to the intersection?

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

I'm not understanding your workflow. I just tested the YouTube video you posted, following the guy's workflow precisely.  His workflow works perfectly. Where are you getting stuck? 

...is "Constrain" (Option Bar) turned ON by chance? 

[Anonymous]

I reviewed the YouTube video as well and found the issue. The Detail Line will only snap if the Reference Plane is drawn on a horizontal axis, not a diagonal one (pictures attached). I can't fathom why this would be the case, but in any event I now know the issue and will be able to avoid it in the future!

Thanks for everyone's help! It's always easier to solve a problem when you have people trying to help you through it!

[barthbradley]

This is way too funny! The first thing the guy said in the YouTube video was: "MAKE SURE YOU DRAW THE REFERENCE LINE HORIZONTALLY. I'LL EXPLAIN WHY LATER." But, he never did. HA! 

I guess the lesson learned here is: DON'T IMPROVISE ON A PROVEN WORKFLOW.

Fun Thread. I enjoyed participating in it. 

Cheers all! 

[Anonymous]

I know right? Which explains why I didn’t have any trouble the first time – I was literally following along to the video. But when I went back to do it again a few days later I totally blanked on the whole “Horizontal line” requirement!

Also – it turns out my office has a protocol for aligning views in sheets that is more efficient if you’re comfortable with using macros. We actually have a video posted for anyone who’s interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYeveLilz74

It seems unnecessarily complex but until Revit incorporates a process for doing aligning views in sheets as part of the regular workflow, I guess this is just what we do.

[Scott_D_]

Sorry for posting in such an old thread but i've been searching for a solution to this for quite a while.

If the view you are trying to move has grids displaying from a linked model and you try to snap to the grids you will be unable to do so until you copy/monitor them into your own model.

That took quite a bit of head scratching to work out...

[andrew_dunn1]

No problem with posting in old threads.. lots of Revit problems have existed for years and old stuff is still really helpful. We have found this limitation with grids from a linked model as well, but even more obscure is the problem with snapping to copy monitored grids (ie your own grids in your file - not linked) if the grids are not horizontal or vertical!

If you have a project where the grids are all at angles to the sheets, you will need to place reference planes specifically for aligning sheets, and those reference plans must be horizontal and vertical to use the intersection.

This is yet another frustrating and illogical Revit limitation!