Showing objects/tags/model outside view range?

[Ethan_Close]

OK. I've been having issue after issue with Revit since I've started using it but this one was the one that finally broke me.

This issue has to do with showing what I believe to be too wide of a range of objects on the same plan.

Lighting and power are easy enough however low voltage seems to be my sticking point.

This is an issue across both Revit 2020 and Revit 2021. If there is a specific solution for one version versus the other that will still be helpful to know.

Typically for our low voltage plans we want to show the ceiling grid, the room tags, ceiling mounted items, wall mounted items, and floor mounted items. E.g. wireless access points, data jacks, and data floor boxes.

For the hours I've spent trying to get all of them to show I always seem to be missing one of them in some form or fashion.

I've attached a pair of sample files that hopefully show what I am talking about.

We are don't working with our own architectural revit file instead linking whatever file we get from the architect so changes to that won't work for a solution. I tried to replicate that with the arch and elec models attached. 

If there is a solution for either a reflected ceiling plan or a floor plan doesn't really matter so long as all the elements will be visible. In this sample I has a wireless access point, and single data jack, and a floor box all shown. I am hoping that general solution that can be applied to a range of jobs that we work can be found. The typical issues that I have encountered are the room/space tag not showing, the ceiling grid not showing, or the floor items not showing.

One possible note that may or may not impact a solution. Currently the way I am getting floor boxes to show is by creating a filter. Because they are something that we want on both power and on low voltage. So we created the family as a power family and then I am using a filter to show it on low voltage. If there is another way to handle this as well that would be great. We don't want to show the general receptacles just the floor boxes that will have data jacks inside them.

Let me know if I need to clarify or provide more information to help with an answer. If this is impossible to do an explanation as to why would be helpful.

(I miss autocad layers for this.)

[RobDraw]

Can't look at your model at the moment. So, let's break this down and start from the beginning. I would show low voltage on a floor plan without question. There are a couple ways to get the ceiling grid to show. That can be done anytime. 

You asked about showing objects beyond the view range as your topic. So, I'm assuming that you are referring to the floor boxes (The rest of the devices "should" be easy. More on that later.). You can use plan regions to extend the view range in defined areas. This can be tedious or it may be the best solution for you. Alternatively, you can make the family so that it is slightly above the floor within the view range.

Of course, this approach will only work if your content is suited for it. You may need to adjust settings and/or add symbols to ceiling devices so that they show up on floor plans the way you want them to. 

So, this isn't really an issue with Revit but rather a matter of setting up your views and content to suit your needs. 

[Ethan_Close]

I don't think either of those two proposed solutions really work for us without breaking the "reason" we are using revit.

Just showing the ceiling grid isn't the issue I am running into however. It is showing the ceiling grid along with the room/space name and the floor boxes.

The first one with plan regions if I understand those correctly you are specifying an area that has a different view range then the rest of the plan and with some projects having dozens of floor boxes that seems like a pain to try and manage correctly.

As for moving the family such that it falls within the view range. While it would probably only end up being a few inches. As I understand it the reason we are moving to Revit is so that our model can be brought into say an architects model for coordination or something like that.

I am not well versed with the revit family system but it sounds like with your last statement what we can do however is essentially "offset" the symbol rather then the family itself? Or set different elevations for different symbols in the same family (in this case however being the same symbol).

[ToanDN]

If you want all elements (floor mounted, wall mounted, ceiling mounted) at various elevations to show in a single view then there are several of ways:

- Create a floor plan view with cut plane above the ceiling, and the bottom view range capturing the floor level.  Hide or set the ceiling to transparent.

- Create a ceiling plan with cut plane below the lowest element, and the top view range capturing the highest element.

- Add a model line (invisible subcategory) to the ceiling mounted family so that a floor plan cut plane can cut though that line in project and show the elements above the cut plane.

- Create a Shared generic model family, nest in your ceiling mounted family.  Shared generic family will show in project even if they are placed above the cut plane.

[RSomppi]

---

@Ethan_Close wrote:

As for moving the family such that it falls within the view range. While it would probably only end up being a few inches. As I understand it the reason we are moving to Revit is so that our model can be brought into say an architects model for coordination or something like that.

---

What's wrong with putting the devices where they will be. All of those devices that you mentioned have covers that are above the floor. Model it correctly, and they will be within the view range. Easy peasy, right?

[Ethan_Close]

The first one I have used and currently use to show all of the elements. However the next issue I run into with that is showing the room tags. While I imagine we could then handle it the same way one might handle doing room tags in autocad with just a bunch of "dumb" manually placed tags. The second one is the same issue as well.

The third one can you elaborate a little bit on I don't quite understand what you are talking about. Is it just a line that is perpendicular to a majority of the rest of the model that goes beyond what is modeled?

With the fourth is there an issue there with handling multiple floors? E.g. 1st floor items showing up on the second floor.

[Ethan_Close]

So I did some testing with what we currently use as our floorbox. It currently has a 1/4" reveal AFF.

And I found that this works as a solution only with a ceiling plan. I hadn't tried to place my cut plane within that 1/4" space for the reveal that we had. So I had assumed that in order for it to show, the whole family would move up a couple of inches in order to any part of it to show.

It doesn't work with the floor plan. The issue with the floor plan isn't showing the floorbox but rather showing the tags. E.g. with a cut plane at 7' we get the room tags and the floor boxes. However in order to get the ceiling grid to show up the cut plane needs to be up at 10' otherwise it doesn't show. However the room tags disappear right at a cut plane of 8'. Is there a possible solution you can think of for this.