unhide element in view

[ja1357]

Hi

Can somebody please explain how I unhide an element (not a catagory) in view.  I select the light bulb which reviels hidden elements, then I select the family right click and the unhide element in view is greyed out.  I have used this command many times before without any problems but now it isnt working.

The family I am selecting is on the mechanical equipment catagory and my view has the visibility of mechanical equipment turned off.

[stever66 · Accepted solution]

Sorry, but you cannot hide a category, and then un-hide one element of that category.

My suggestion is to unhide the entire category.  Then select one of the elements you don't want to see, right click and "select similar elements in view", and hide all those elements.  

Then you can un-hide the one element you want to see.

Another option would be to edit the family you want to see, and change its category, and save it as a new family.  

[pteague · Accepted solution]

To add to the previous response.  You cannot turn a single entity on when it's category is turned off.  I would recommend using filters to make this work for you.

If you need this specific piece of mechanical equipment turned on, put something in the comment field (or some other field for that piece of equipment) that identifies it as the one you need visible.  Then create a filter that turns off all mechanical equipment that don't have "comment = visible on sheet xyz", and make sure that the mechanical equipment category is turned on in the view.

The advantage to this method over the previously mentioned method is that if you add new mechanical equipment, you don't have to worry about remembering to go hide it in the view you're using.  It will be hidden automatically, and if you need to turn it on, you can add the same comment that the filter is looking for.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

The category is off. Your choices are this - turn category visibility on, hide all elements you don't want (tedious and **** for memory/model speed). Create a filter so that only elements with 'x' parameter value are visible within that category. For example, all mechanical equipment we use has a "Hide Elec" y/n parameter that indicates whether or not it requires an electrical connection, and we have a filter that only displays mech equipment with that parameter set to yes. Finally, edit the family, change the category, save, re-load into model. Depending on frequency of use/number of existing filters, I recommend either of the last two options.

[ja1357]

Stever66, pteague & bsammis

Thank you all for the help, much appriciated