Turn off CAD layers

[azamoraZX47X]

When you insert in Revit the CAD file of a property survey or any another CAD drawing, it generally comes with many layers that are not relevant to show on the Revit model. Right now, it is too many steps to find out the name of a particular layer and then go into Visibility Graphics - Imported Categories and scramble among hundreds of layers to be able to turn off that particular layer. It will be nice to have an icon, like in AutoCAD, where you just touch a layer and it turns off automatically.

[bill_gilliss]

It is extremely tedious to hide unwanted layers in inserted and imported CAD files. If the original is still available somewhere, you can open it in AutoCAD, find out which layers the offending entities are on, return to Revit, and turn those layers off in V/G. If it is not available, you pretty much have to turn them all off in V/G and then turn each one on, hit Apply, decide whether to keep it or not, and keep going until you have what you need but not the rest. So, I'd like to see Revit with a tool like AutoCAD's PICK FREEZE that could drill down into an import symbol, identify the layer of a selected sub-object, and turn that layer off in V/G. Bam. Just that quick.

(And, surveyors, I'm not necessarily calling you guys out especially, but layers named like this are going to take me a while every single time I have to deal with them. And who is RON1? Why TREE and Trees? Give me a break.)

[CFNBen]

I can only assume you are unaware of the Query command when you select a .dwg file in Revit?

When a you select a .dwg file within Revit you get several contextual (please correct me if I'm using this term incorrectly!) commands on the modify tab under the Import Instance palette.

These options are fairly straightforward if you give them a go. 

• Delete Layers gives you a list of the layers in the select .dwg and allows you to select all, none of a combination from this list and promptly delete them from the instance of the .dwg file within Revit. This has no impact on the actual .dwg file, just the information within the .dwg file, within Revit. Reloading the link does not bring these layers back into the model file, you will have to remove the .dwg file and link it into Revit once again in order to get these layers back if you cannot undo your layer deletion.
• Explode is only available if you have imported the .dwg file and not simply linked. It gives you the option of exploding the .dwg file which I believe will bind it to your project and severs the link between the .dwg file and Revit. You will simply have the .dwg elements in your Revit file at this point. Please note I never import .dwg files and therefore do not know whether the information I have given for this option is entirely accurate.
• Query is the option I believe you require. Query lets you select an object within your .dwg file and presents you with information about said object e.g Type (line, polyline etc.), Block Name, Layer/Level, Style by. It also gives you two options Delete the Layer/Level or Hide in View the Layer/Level. I fail to see any change when the Hide in View option is selected however the Delete option will do exactly as the Delete Layers command does detailed above, except only to the layer the selected item resides upon.

Please let me know if this isn't what you were looking for as I am curious if I have helped here or not!

[bill_gilliss]

You know, Ben, I tell my students, when they have a little time to kill before class or whenever, just to try pushing some buttons in Revit and see where it leads them. How long have I ignored the Query button? It does just what I was looking for -- hiding layers just by picking them -- and more. I stand corrected. Thank you for the tip and the detailed reply.

[casquatch]

So there is something that would make things better with the Query tool when you are also using View Templates...if it worked 😄

Here's a similar Idea that I just created for that very thing:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/query-tool-add-ability-to-hide-in-view-template/idi-p/975...

[MiWolff]

Another thing that would make it better would be if it worked for sub-let imports as well. Many users do not link to cad files directly but use a burner file for that purpose which is then linked to the actual project file where you are back to reading the list of layers.

[casquatch]

@MiWolff, you have a Revit file (the burner), with CAD files linked into it, then that burner Revit file is again linked into another Revit project file?

If I'm understanding your setup correctly, something we do for this is setup views within the "burner" file and use the Query tool there. We get them how we want them and then save that file. Within the project file, we just setup our views using Linked Views based on the burner file's already setup views. It works, but isn't ideal.

Having the ability to tab select a CAD file from a linked Revit file and then query those layers would be handy.

[MiWolff]

@casquatch That's the basic idea, yes.

While setting up views in the burner file is a nice approach. It does involve a lot of knowledge about which bits of the linked cad file will be needed later on in the design. Usually those dealing with the actual project file stumble upon one thing or another and need to adjust something in the pre-prepared view in the burner file. Then these users need to enter into another file and adjust the appropriate view - not knowing and no way of knowing whether someone else had already linked to that specific view who needed the info that was just switched off. So yes, not ideal.

I agree with your last paragraph.

[natalijanecajev2652]

Hi, how do you retrieve the layers/ objects that were frozen via Query?

I don't see the layers that were frozen in Visibility/ Graphic Overview

Thanks,

[Lachlan-JWP]

You can use the query function in the Modify tab when a CAD import is selected.

Select the CAD instance, click on 'Query', click on the line you want more information about, a window will pop up telling you what layer it belongs to, and gives you the option to 'Hide in view'. This will perform the same function as hiding the layer in Visibility/Graphics.

[rmc9WR3X]

The Query function often does not work on some elements in an inserted DWG (you cannot select them). The alternative is going one by one clicking the checkbox in the View/Graphics dialog window and mousing all the way over to Apply then back to uncheck and then check the next box, back and forth slowly and accurately.

[Lachlan-JWP]

I haven't yet come across an element in a .dwg link that couldn't be selected with the query tool. What sort of elements aren't able to be selected?

[plawton5092]

The best solution may be to condense the AutoCAD files, to just the layers, linetypes, fonts, etc., that you need, if that's possible.

Some years ago we had a bunch of CAD files to import, so we wrote some quick scripts to move things to new Layers, change fonts, linetypes, colors, etc., then we ran those scripts on the folders of drawings that needed the changes.  It reduced the number of layers from several dozen to around 10, it made the linetypes work better, and it eliminated the importation of many fonts into Revit.

Best of luck

[MiWolff]

DWG handling in Revit leaves much to be desired. Almost every surveyor drawing we get comes with gigantic coordinates and it seems every file ever issued to the surveyor brought into the file as a block. To annoy us further site boundaries often use world zero (somewhere off west Africa) as insertion point of their block.

That written, we seldom have situations in which editing cad files is not necessary. Our 'normal' way of dealing with cad is opening the cad application (which may be autocad) find what we need, mark it, copy it to the clipboard and paste it into an otherwise empty fresh file. Blocks with no units or weird inserts get exploded, as do most proxy entities which cannot even be copied without much ado.

Bettering the ability to handle layers inside Revit is just a drop in the ocean, but take my vote anyway.

[anthonycatana2023]

Just want a simple tool to freeze (Turn off) individual cad layers from linked files, by selecting the lines. Having to turn off layers in a list is time consuming.

This could still be View Template based and only affect the View Template that is assigned.

[MiWolff]

That reads just like what Query a CAD file and Hide in view does already. In what way is this idea different?

[Scott_D_]

I assume it would apply to the view template whereas Hide in View is view-specific (and generally not used because of this, filters are preferable as they apply globally via the view template).

That's how I would want it to work at any rate

[Ric_Weber]

OK, so if @Scott_D_ is correct; that @anthonycatana2023 wants the functionality of turning off certain layers in a linked/inserted cad file within the applied View Template as @MiWolff points out is already possible w/o the view template, then I would back this idea...  but with a warning that could be dismissed once it is displayed once while in a view.  It would be best if that warning would appear once each time you've selected the dwg in question.  {warning says, "This will affect xx views as this change will apply to the view template." ("xx" = the number of views using the view template).  The checkbox would say, "Don't show this warning again this time", or statements to that effect}   I know we all hate warnings, but something needs to happen or you'd really have somebody mess something up big time, not realizing they were in a view template making these changes.