Provide an Option to Preserve the Door Opening Instead of Automatically In-Filling When a Door is Demolished

[luis7SJJ3]

In many real-world refurbishment projects, when a door is removed from an existing wall, the resulting opening is often retained—or filled in a way that differs from the original wall construction. In Revit, however, demolishing an existing door automatically triggers an “infill” behavior that closes up the opening with the original wall type. This is both unrealistic and irreversible, forcing users to accept an unwanted wall patch.

In actual practice, once a door is removed, the opening may remain as-is, be filled with a different wall type, or be repurposed in other ways. Having Revit automatically restore the original wall type is counterproductive and does not reflect typical site operations. It also removes the ability to keep a true opening without cumbersome workarounds.

Proposed Solution

1. User-Controlled Infill Settings

   • Provide a setting (at either the project or element level) that allows users to choose whether an opening should remain or be automatically infilled when an existing door is demolished.
   • Let users specify which wall type (if any) is used to fill the opening.

2. Flexible Phase Behavior

   • When a door is demolished in the Existing phase, give the user the option to leave the opening intact or fill it with a new wall.
   • If the user wants to keep the opening or place a different wall, Revit should not force the infill to match the original wall type.

3. Better Alignment with Real-World Workflows

   • This change would more closely mirror actual construction processes, saving time and effort in creating workarounds or re-modeling openings.
   • It would also provide clearer phasing documentation and more accurate takeoffs for demolition and new work.

By introducing a user-defined or project-wide “Preserve Opening” setting, Revit’s demolition workflow would become more flexible and realistic, significantly improving modeling efficiency for renovation and refurbishment projects.

[mhiserZFHXS]

@amcdesignstudiiThis is a horribly un-BIM workaround... You'd be far better of using filters to either hide the door, or better yet, use the demolition parameter on the door as intended, and then use filters to control the infill.

[kimbD79KU]

It would be great that when demolishing a door in a wall with a wall sweep like a base be a part of this needed function.  Right now when you delete a door from a wall it also auto fills in the sweep.