Un-hiding selected Elements when Category is Hidden In Visibility Graphics

[Anonymous]

I am working in Revit LT 2017. I have separate sheets for my 'Floor Plan' and 'Electrical Plan'. All of my electrical fixtures I have created by inserting a generic annotation into an Electrical Fixture family and inserting the Electrical Fixture family into my project (so I can make a schedule of all my fixtures).

I have unticked the visibility of electrical fixtures in the 'Floor Plan' view template as I do not need them all to be showing. However, I want the Smoke detectors to be visible in the Floor plan. When I reveal hidden elements and select a smoke detector it only gives me the option of unhiding the whole category of electrical fixtures.

Any recommendations apart from unhiding the whole category and hiding individual items or having to insert the generic annotation in it's place would be absolutely amazing.

Many thanks.

[ToanDN]

Change the smoke detector family to a different category, e.g Fire alarm device.

[Anonymous]

The Problem with Changing the Category is that I have a schedule of all my electrical fixtures and if I change the category it doesn't appear in the schedule.

[Anonymous]

you can make a filter in your schedule to fix this issue

[ToanDN]

There are several ways to deal with your issue, each comes with its pros and cons.  Below are a few basic ones:

1. Put them in separate categories like I mentioned:  use multi category schedule to get them in a single schedule
2. Create subcategories within the electrical fixture category and separate them into these subcategories.  In your project, you can choose to hide a subcategory in Views
3. Create view filter use a criteria such as type name, classification, or any other value that you can use to differentiate the smoke detectors from other electrical fixtures.  For example, create a filter by type name not equal smoke detector.  Assign that filter to the view and uncheck the visible box.  All electrical fixtures except the smoke detectors will be turned off. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thankyou for your replies.

Was unsure how a filter would fix as it depends on what fields you have selected, I must be missing something.

Someone on another forum gave more detail for a solution and suggested I set my Electrical Plan to 'Medium Detail' and my Floor Plan is already set to 'Fine Detail' and make all my Electrical fixtures only visible in 'Course' and 'Medium' Detail except the smoke detectors are visible in all Detail settings.

I wasn't using medium detail on any other sheets.

[ToanDN]

That is also a good and simple solution.

[BIM.Consultant]

Go to view > filters > new (define criteria) > Choose electrical fixtures.

Make the criteria by type or family name, does not equal to what you want to keep.

Then in your floor plan, open visibility overrides (VV/VG), go to filters tab, add your filter defined earlier, and uncheck its visibility box. All elements defined in your criteria will not be visible in this view.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your solutions, they are very viable ways of solving problems very similar to mine.

I was puzzled as to why I couldn't find the "Filter" button, after doing some research I found out that Revit LT 2017 didn't include this feature in this version of the program, unsure as to why as it seems like a core feature in the program.

I also tried making a Multi Category Schedule but you can only do it for one Phase and I need it to include two phases of building.

[ToanDN]

Yeah too bad they chop filter off LT variants.  As for phasing of a multi-category schedule, it is the same as all other schedules.  If you want to include more than one phases, set the schedule to the latest phase with show previous and new.