Rotatable Section Heads (that don't flip upside down)

[lionel.kai]

This is a re-post of Rotatable Section Heads since that idea was marked as "implemented" even though the current implementation doesn't give enough control over the rotation, but merely makes "Rotate text with component" parameter have an effect. And also partly because the toolbar (to insert images) isn't visible in replies. 🙂

For us, leaving the (now working) parameter unchecked (the pre-2021 behavior) results in the 4 orthogonal conditions being exactly how we'd like to see them [circled green below], with the rotated cuts being different than our standard (but acceptable - i.e. readable). However, checking it (with the R2021+ behavior) results in only ONE of the orthogonal conditions matching, one being acceptable, and TWO being completely WRONG [circled red below] (the sheet number shows ABOVE the detail number). For the rotated cuts, we gain an exact match, but again TWO conditions are WRONG.

It wouldn't be an acceptable solution to use different types for the different conditions because each section cut appears in multiple views (plans AND sections), so we would need view/instance-based control to show it properly. That would help with the Reference Label problem, but would require a lot of manual fiddling (not sure how well that would fly with our users). Maybe separate symbols for plans and sections would help?

There are similar issues with the static text outside of the bubble, but since there isn't an above/below issue, we'd probably be alright with it ends up - i.e. showing on the left vs the right, or above vs below (though having it get too close to the line isn't good).

For a fully-automatic solution, we'd probably need some kind of "angle on sheet" parameter (so we could have 2 or 4 sets of labels/lines and control their visibility based on the parameter). Or some property for each element that made it "readable" vs "fully rotatable" - i.e. some way to designate what elements are part of the "arrow" (and should rotate the full 360°) and what should only rotate up to 90° counter-clockwise (in each quadrant).

I know there are many who were happy to see this feature, but for those who have more than one Label in their Section Heads, I can't see how this has helped.

[florence.piessen]

It's not currently possible to rotate the label within the section symbol.
The label don't rotate along the section head and it isn't the norm for non-US users.
Can you add a parameter which allow the rotation of labels and other elements such as filled regions and lines?

Thank you in advance for taking into account my request.

[ericJ9ZDG]

I have found it helpful to keep things like this simple or you may waste a lot of valuable time. The fact that it creates bi-directional views that all associate is in and of itself amazing. Change your drafting standards to fit in the Revit workflow not the other way around.

[lionel.kai]

That's why I was a little irritated that they called it "implemented". The original Revit behavior wasn't the same as our previous standard, but it was ok - it worked, and honestly we've gotten used to it. But I'm not sure why they've implemented "rotation" the way they have... it's not usable in its current form. I almost posted this idea as just "Control Section Head Graphics by Instance" (which would also help the Reference Label issue and would be like AutoCAD), but the more I thought about it the less I thought we'd actually use it just to make it "look the same" - would be more work for little benefit (and there wouldn't be graphics like in AutoCAD to make it easy to select the type). If something manual was available when we first transitioned, we probably would have used it, but we've gotten smarter now... it needs to be automatic or nothin'! 🙂 BTW, what do you mean by "bi-directional views that all associate"?

[fruity101079]

UP

[MichaelWarwick7522]

Another way to achieve this would be to have a list of heads in the section and elevation settings. Perhaps it could select the family and the types become the options. There is a view setting which controls which head displays at each end of the section which allows you to rotate between head, tail, and none. If there were a variable length list, then on plans the marker could be different to the one used on sections, or alternates for angled situations selected. I'm not keen on trying to fully automate it as undoubtedly there will be times where auto gets it wrong. You'd have to click more times to get it to roll around. Currently I have view references that look like the section head but deal with the odd situations like 45° sections, not quite BIM, but "this is the way".