TOPOSURFACE SURFACE PATTERN

[Anonymous]

Hi!

Is there still no way in Revit to have a surface pattern on topography. Maybe any cheat way? 😉

Thank you

[loboarch · Accepted solution]

Nothing has changed with this situation. Surface pattern is not possible on a toposurface element in Revit.

[Anonymous]

So, how would I show patterns on a site plan?  I was going to do a filled region as a stop gap, but I can't select the lines of topography.  What do people do to get around this issue?

[ToanDN]

I don't show any surface pattern for topography in our site plan and I have never come across a Civil drawings showing any surface pattern.  If it is important to you, there is a Dynamo script to draw a floor (or a roof, I don't remember exactly) follow the topo surface.  Then you can apply surface pattern to the substitute element instead of the topo.

[MV4]

Is there work being done towards adding surface patterns to toposurface?

Or has Autodesk opted to neglect the possibility of patterns on toposurfaces

[Anonymous]

All:

Not a real solution, but I have found a trick for hidden line views:

Site Tab/Model Site Panel/More (down arrow BR corner)  gets you to the place where you specify contours.  I set up a new contour (leaving the primary and secondary contours in place) and created a new subcategory in object styles under topo called "hatching contours" (doing this appears to allow you to control visibility separately from the primary/secondary contours you may want to show on your site plan.  I gave the hatching contours a color and then set the contour interval to 1/16" (the smallest Revit would allow).  Yielded the attached image:

The intent was solid fill, but as you can see there are some voids.  I noticed you can set up additional contours at different intervals and Revit will allow tighter start/stop increments than 1/16", but I didn't have time to play around with that.  This suits my purpose. If tightly spaced stripes suits your fancy, there is an interval for that.  Also:  I tried assigning dashes and dots to the contour in object style, but that doesn't seem to work in 3D. 😞

Hope I have helped someone in a pinch avoid being stuck with white dirt.

[KristineSlotina]

this is not really a solution saying that nothing has changed. 

The issue really escalates when I need to print a plan showing site with materials. Site that uses sub-regions, I need to present different material. 

I could use consistent colors or shaded view, though then this goes back in the Revit loop - shaded and consistent does not allow to print in vector (https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/consistent-colors-and-vector-printing/m-p/77...), so I get really bad quality drawing....

then again I could use "hidden line" and set surface pattern with color.. back to the first point, Revit does not allow to set surface pattern for toposurface!!! 

Ridiculous! 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Has anyone made any progress on ways to solve this issue? Seems like such a basic fundamental issue and I am surprised AutoDesk have not fixed it as it seems like people have been complaining about it for over 6 years at least!

I want to add some simple hatches to paths and lawn etc. and I want these to appear in 3D and multiple plans in Hidden Line style. 

Thanks

[loboarch]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Hi,

Has anyone made any progress on ways to solve this issue? Seems like such a basic fundamental issue and I am surprised AutoDesk have not fixed it as it seems like people have been complaining about it for over 6 years at least!

I want to add some simple hatches to paths and lawn etc. and I want these to appear in 3D and multiple plans in Hidden Line style. 

Thanks

---

There has been no change to the toposurface element. It is not able to display surface pattern.

For plans, you can use a filled region to indicate a surface pattern. With the background set to transparent the contour lines of the toposurface will come through.

 

for 3d view you have subregions and can use a shaded display type with different colors representing the different surfaces.

[koert.vynckier]

Topography is Revit's ugly duckling.

It's already pretty bad when you only have New Construction, but when the Existing phase comes into play it gets really bad.

The Graded Region essentially replaces the entire Existing phase with a New Construction copy and Existing is the Demolished in the New Construction phase. So on your demolition plan your entire topography is simply demolished, regardless of what you actually want to see changed.

Applying surface patterns to the parts that actually have to be demolished can't be done except with per view Filled Regions. Unbelievable!

Building Pads are oblivious to phase so you have to use workarounds for that too.

All the while Autodesk representatives tell us we shouldn't expect to see improvements to Topography. They seem to think you should master Civil 3D if you want to make plans with groundwork. As if that is going to make your Revit plans correct.

Easily the worst part of the Revit Architectural experience.

[afshin.bariMP9G6]

Hi all,

Just bumping this thread as its 2019 (2019 in the Revit world) and i'm just wondering if there has been any movement in this... Perhaps a plug in exists?

Thanks

[loboarch]

No change on this.  

I suspect it is a pretty hard problem to solve from a graphics generation standpoint.

[afshin.bariMP9G6]

Thanks for the prompt reply.
That is unfortunate. Hopefully the next update will allow this to happen.

[Anonymous]

 Revit's toposurface and site design functionality in general is a joke and has been for going on a decade. The "Site Designer" add-in is basically DOA. After we get outside the building envelope the "BIM" part of revit vanishes and we are left with filled regions and detail lines to describe phasing and design intent. The problem compounds because we cant even select topography line work to define detail items. Its really a problem for a firm with a refined Revit workflow that also handles a lot of exterior, landscape, and site-design related scope on projects.

Please autodesk, we are all tired of lame workarounds involving exporting to cad and re-importing, filled regions, etc. something has to be done to bring the site related functionality in revit up to par with the rest of the program.

[Corsten.Au]

Hello

Combining these 

1. Topo Intervals

2. Topo Increments

3. Primary Contours

4. Secondary Contours

5. Line Type

6. Colours.. 

7. Filter ( for View )

There is a possibility to achive some desired patterns using combinations...

Like.. if line type is "dots"  you can get that in any colour ...

heres some example ..

Topo Surface

[Anonymous]

Is the answer to the OP just to change the Graphics Display to Shaded?

[ToanDN]

There is a Dynamo approach that converts a topo surface to a floor with modified points.

[Anonymous]

@afshin.bariMP9G6 Don't hold your breath on this. Assume that this is simply not available and will not be available.

Despite its numerous deficiencies Revit is a great platform and probably still the best in class. One way to be happy with Revit is to simply accept the deficienices. If you fight against it you will be miserable. All evidence suggests that Autodesk is not interested in what users actually want and need. Autodesk have their own agenda, and while they're improving the software and moving it some direction it is not the direction that the majority of users on this form are interested in.

[AndycMacp]

Just came across this 2 year old thread not quite believing a pattern can't be assigned?! Any solutions I'm missing other than more contours or shaded views?

[Anonymous]

Rubbish site plans always show a fill for things like wetlands or gravel roads or what have you. This is a serious shortcoming of the software and don't kid yourselves it is dumb.