The new Toposolid in Revit 2024 may have some new developments that are advantageous, but the work flow and graphics when editing points on a Toposolid are terrible and major hinderance to design and production.
When editing a Toposurface in 2023 and prior, as points are added/modified contour lines between points are shown in real time, based on Site Settings. The background visibility is dulled, but detail lines, images, etc. that may be used as reference are still easily visible.
When modifying a Toposolid in 2024, as points are added/modified, contour lines are NOT shown in real time, but folding lines are shown triangulating between points. When placing points, Revit wants to snap to these folding lines. The background visibility is dulled much more, such that detail lines, images, etc. are dulled to the point where they are barely visible and very difficult to use as reference.
The only way to see contour lines is to exit out of edit mode to see the results. With Toposolid Revit even more aggressively makes contour lines between points in close proximity at curves, creating contour lines that go across curves at multiple points rather than following an intended path. Having to go in and out of edit mode to see contour lines is very time consuming and disruptive to productive work flow.
The Folding Lines are generally meaningless. There's no point in showing them, anywhere. They maybe there for Revit to do whatever it needs to do in creating Topography, but we do not need to see them and have no use for them. That Folding Lines are visible in edit mode, and Revit want to snap to them, is absurd. We need to see the contour lines as points are added/modified, not Folding Lines.
Toposolid editing is also much slower than Toposurface because Revit is constantly triangulating between every point in real time. Adding multiple points along contour lines has now become painfully slow. With Toposurface, multiple points could be added very quickly and contour lines generated instantly. There's even an add-in called Auto Clicker which allows you to move the the cursor along a path and points are added by setting an auto click interval, instead of clicking for every point. This is not possible with Toposolid because the response time is so slow.
It's annoying AF that Revit is constantly making multiple contour lines between points in close proximity at curves rather than following an intended path. But there's a method to force Revit to do what you want by adding points that are +.1 or -.1 adjacent to points that are intended to define contour lines. It's a lot of extra tedious work, but it gets contour lines to behave. Since contour lines are not visible in real time when editing Toposolid, you have to go in and out of edit mode, and it makes the process even more tedious and slow.
When Autodesk bought Site Works from Eagle Point Software, and renamed it Site Designer, it had some very functional and efficient tools for site grading. such as Feature Lines. then Auto desk decided to discontinue it. These tools were adopted from Civil3D and intended for use by Architects. So it is possible that efficient & effective site grading tools can be developed.
Revit needs to be function in a manner that supports the way Architects work. Topography has always been lacking in functionality. One of the most basic functions of topography is site grading, and it's been made even more disfunctional with Toposolid. Autodesk has done a major disservice to it's customers by not provided an easy and efficient manner to grade a site with contour lines, cut/fill, etc.
