FIX Line Pattern pull-down (2017+) to show FULL (not HALF) width of names

[lionel.kai]

In 2017+, the Line Pattern pull-down expands to approximately HALF+1 of the width of the longest Line Pattern name (see below). Why not just expand fully?

For years we've been dealing with the Line Pattern pull-down (such as in V/G Overrides, or Phase Overrides) truncating pattern names (most noticeable with imported patterns, which tend to be longer). However, an un-publicized change in Revit 2017 (& 2018) causes it to expand - WOO HOO!

But wait... it still doesn't expand enough. Instead of expanding to the full width of the longest name, it expands to about half + 1. I tested using numerical digits, so it should fit more if the names contain lowercase letters. A 29-digit number (for the Line Pattern name) will cause Revit to show the first 16 digits (the first change beyond the minimum ~15.5-digit width shown above), 30 shows 16, 40 shows 21, 100 shows 51, and 1000 shows 501.

I was trying to jam a Revit 2016 job out the door when I noticed this. I think there was a nested or bound CAD link (but even regular CAD links tend to generate long names). I was making a quick-and-dirty change so I didn't have to redraw or model a bunch of stuff, but I wound up needing to count entries in the pull-down list just to be able to pick the correct one to match the link's line pattern!

Before submitting "expand Line Pattern pull-down to fit longest names" as a feature request, I decided to test it in the latest Revit. When I discovered the change (that wasn't done correctly) I tried submitting a bug report, but was told this behavior is as designed! Who would design it to behave like this?

The current WORKAROUND (if you need to see the full names) is to create a "dummy" line pattern with a name that's twice as long. This is better than Revit 2016 behavior, but still...

Autodesk, if you're going to bother making a change (like this one), why not do it right the first time? If you don't want to expand it to fit the full name, give us tooltips with the full names, or use an ellipsis ("...") so that we can see the end of the name (which is usually the most important). If you're also going to expand the graphical preview (currently always half the pull-down), make it purposeful (expand to show the minimum pattern) - don't just keep expanding the graphical preview along with the rest of the pull-down (taking up unnecessary space).