Crop Boundary exceptions

[cprettyman]

I know this is a little niche, and a pet peeve.  But - I would like a way to create exceptions to crop boundaries.  Typically - doors.  

We create a lot of enlarged plans that are just one room, and those rooms frequently have outward swinging doors.  We can either expand the crop to include the door, or accept that the door is trimmed off.  Or, create the view from a plan view that is not placed on a sheet, and then create a reference callout on the plan that is placed on a sheet.   None of these is ideal

There are probably other cases for other disciplines, so I don't know if I would limit this to doors - but, however it works, I need to be able to control exceptions for objects in linked revit projects.  

[Ric_Weber]

@cprettyman, if I'm understanding, you are basically saying you'd like the crop region of the view to not necessarily be the same as where the border of the callout is set?   If that is true, would you agree that your idea is the same as this?:   https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/callout-offset-parameter/idc-p/12473017 and more specifically to my comment to that idea?  https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/callout-offset-parameter/idc-p/12473017/highlight/true#M3...

[Susana_Duarte_LMSI]

I think the ideas are connected but not the same based on the example... 

I do not agree with this idea because it would compromise the script we now use to pass the annotation crop offset to the minimum for all views in the project - and that is very handy given the default offset is terrible.

I also think that in your example, if you want to show the door and are already willing to edit the annotation crop manually to show it, then just edit the real crop and leave the annotation offset constant. I don't understand why would you complicate what is logic... 

I admit that it can be examples (specially if you use dependent views for floorplan zoning) where something linke this could be interesting, but I really don't want the down side of that, like I said in the beguining. It's not worth it given the 0,1% of the times this can be an issue that is in fact very easily solved in another much more easy way... (like having 2 anotations in diferent places in my example).

[Ric_Weber]

@Susana_Duarte_LMSI, he is not talking about the annotation crop at all.  (Which I hate and I wish could be set to off when creating callouts.)  The only reason to ever use annotation crop is with dependent views.  Why adjust them in your script?  Why not just make sure they are turned off except on dependent views?

But also the annotation crop would not help @cprettyman's situation with the door example because annotation crop has nothing to do with showing the door swing at all.  See first below snippet.

You seem to be confusing annotation crop with what we want.  We want the border of the callout on the referring view to not necessarily be the same as how much the view actually shows.  Does that help clear that up?   

And if you are saying to create the view, hide it, and create a "reference other view" callout option again, I completely disagree.  As far as your statement in the other post "... the "reference other view" is always the way to go so that we do not lose the callout if the main view is deleted (something that can happen a lot).", I completely disagree with that reasoning as well. Revit now detects that there are dependent callouts and asks if you want to make them independent. 

[Susana_Duarte_LMSI]

Good to know that Revit has that fail safe when deleting parent views (the last time I used them was in Revit 2020 and that was an issue then). Thanks @Ric_Weber.

You are also right about annotation crop not being relevant for the door swings (in my mind I actually thought like you, but maybe revit had some different behaviour now too). 

Anyway, in any case, I don't see why the "reference other view" is not the solution for this problem. It gives exactly what the use wants, independent crops between the real and the one in the drawing. The only problem is if maybe you want to make a change in the crop position in the drawing and have to make them X number of times because they are indendent (when they are repeaded/linked in many diferent views)...  But I'm not reading that as an idea request, I'm only reading the first part in @cprettyman idea. Can you clarify, @cprettyman, maybe?

[Ric_Weber]

@Susana_Duarte_LMSI, the "reference other view" option will work, but is not pretty and is purely a workaround.  Not a "solution".  The solution would be to implement the idea(s).  I do totally agree though that I'd like to hear from @cprettyman   

[cprettyman]

I think   got it, but I will explain what I meant

If I create a callout in an overall plan, like this

The view that Revit creates looks like this.

Note the cropped door.  That's the pet peeve.

my options at the moment seem to be 

- stretch the callout & crop boundary

Or create a non rectangular boundary

Neither case is ideal, and for the second one, especially, I would want the boundary that appears on the plotted sheet to differ from the actual boundary.   

Just as some context, I generated these examples out of an Autodesk sample model - our work is actually AV/IT and Security, so an enlarged plan of a bathroom is unlikely.  But we create enlarged plans of conference rooms and similar spaces every day.  In many instances we are creating a typical plan for a space, so we like to trim the boundaries fairly tightly so we are not showing context from one conference room that is atypical for many similar conference rooms.  

The other idea, about having the callout offset a uniform amount from the view boundary is not what I was after, although I really like that too, and will find and like that idea.  

The discussion of annotation crop was not what I was after, either.  I do wish I could have annotation crop off by default, and I'll like that idea too, but it's not this idea.

What I would like is to be able to create a callout, like the top image, and then open the enlarged plan, select that door (which would be in a linked model), right click, and select "Do not crop this object" so that I get something like this

[Ric_Weber]

@cprettyman  and everyone... the Annotation Crop off by default idea... https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/annotation-crop-default-off/idi-p/14051360

Thank you. 

[Susana_Duarte_LMSI]

@cprettyman , you haven't said if the link reference view option would work for you... I belive it will, and what you miss is the option to make it independent (the warning message Ric showed before) without having to delete the parent view. 🙂 

That would break the connection of the crop limites.

As for the annotation crop discussion. One example that makes me always advise for having the annotation crop on is because we do link by view to get the room tags, or we may space tag everything. Or any other category. Because the element may be parcially seen in the view - take the example showned above by @cprettyman. All those unwanted tags could be visible in the center point of the element (outside of the actual view). So we would have a lot of room tags or pipe/duct7cable tray tags that are out of scope of the room or area you are showing.

That's why annotation crop is a great fail safe to have all the time.

Anyway - I'm all for flexibility, so I have no problem with selecting all views in the project and bulk activate that in the properties - same for deactivate. Just like I'm already doing - so not an issue or request for me... Bigger fishes to frie in here 😉

[cprettyman]

@Susana_Duarte_LMSI 
In the original post, I addressed the reference views - we do that when we have to - either create the actual view from an unplaced sheet, or hide the non-referenced callout.  It works, but it isn't ideal.  In our typical sets, we will have one regular callout, and many reference callouts from other places that are a similar layout - so we are very familiar with reference callouts.  

[_dalewfd]

I'm not sure it would solve OPs scenario (and any solutions that would solve it are pretty ugly and I can see why they would be hard to implement), but just being able to set an offset value between the actual crop boundary and the callout boundary would be a life saver. 

Everyone I know complains about room callout boundaries being buried in walls and often barely readable, and the view reference work around introduces a ton of human error. Purely to solve a graphical issue. Being able to click on the callout boundary and set an (instance) offset value would keep it linked to the live view and live crop area, whilst also giving it some breathing room to get out of walls. 

[cprettyman]

@_dalewfd 
Somewhere in this thread, there is a link to another thread that is exactly that offset, and I think it's a great idea.  I encourage you to vote for it!

[kaleem_ataharLSEMM]

CAD EXPORT CROP BOUNDARIES ISSUE

There is no option to export the CAD with Crop Boundaries from Revit, which is challenging for users who want the crop boundary line in CAD. In PDF, there is an option to show it, but in CAD export, we can't. Also attaching the snaps for your reference

I will request the Autodesk team to kindly review this issue and give the option for the same in CAD export 

SNAP-01

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