Upside down lighting fixtures

[Anonymous]

Would anyone know why my lighting fixtures are coming in upside down and is there a way to flip them over?  I'm brand new to Revit MEP and am hoping there is just a setting I'm missing.  Even the little preview in properties shows the fixture upside down.  Any help would be appreciated.  Many thanks...

[Anonymous]

Where did you get the file?  Sometimes family files are just created incorrectly.  I've experienced this with some HVAC and plumbing families.  You might have to edit the family to see if you can fix it, or just find a new one that works. 

Also, check to make sure that the plane you're defining for placement is the one you want. 

good luck and patience (the Revit mantra) 🙂

-Luke

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I got it worked out.  I used the "Place on workplane" option and then used the "#" button to flip the fixture.  Thanks for the reply though!

[Anonymous]

Glad you got it worked out.  So the "#" key will flip a fixture?  Good to know! 

Thanks,

Luke

[Anonymous]

The fixture is modeled upside down for placement in a reflecting ceiling plan.  Place on face hosting will flip the fixture to the correct orientation in the Ceiling Plan. Without using the reflected Ceiling Plan the best method is in an elevation view draw a reference plane from RIGHT to LEFT and name it and set the elevation. Then in plan view you can select Place on work plane select the plane you just named and the fixtures will orient correctly. The fixtures hosted to this plane will move together if the elevation changes.

[Anonymous]

Do I go to a reflected ceiling plan or floor plan after creating the ref plane? for placing fixtures

At what point is the # key used? upon placement or can I have multiple fixtures selected and do a global flip.

Thanks jn advance for your help. 

I have a whole model where the pendant fixtures where placed on view level (ie floor) and upside down apparently in plan view.

Also are you using the default pendant fixture family from Revit?  I thought the family was quirked but??? I wonder what  the original process intent was and or is. I am in 2010 MEP for above mentioned project But also using 2011 for others.

🙂

[bvanallen]

I'm getting upside down fixtures from a batch copy monitor. I can correctly insert the same (face based) family on my ceiling face but when I replace the arch fixtures they come in wrong. I've tried using # (shift-3) to flip them but that doesn't work. Can anyone please help?

[CoreyDaun]

Have you investigated the fixture in the Arch link? Are they ceiling or face-based in their file?

And by the "#" button earlier in the post, I assume he meant the "Flip Work Plane" icon that appears when you select an element:

[bvanallen]

CADastrophe,

The arch fixtures are based on a workplane. You're quess was correct but I still couldn't see the "flip work plane" button before. I read a few other posts and found out that it won't show up when you have multiple fixtures selected (not sure why, you can rotate multiple fixtures why not mirror too). At least I can go though and edit them now. Thanks.

[CoreyDaun]

In a test (RMEP 2012), I hosted a few lights to a plane incorrectly, and then used the "Flip Work Plane" to correct them. When Copy/Monitored from a host project, they did retain that information, and copied over correctly. Are you using Type Mapping?

[bvanallen]

For this project I was not. We copy/monitored the arch fixtures since we didn't have types selected at the time. Now I'm going back and changing them to the updated families we want. They were coming in all mis-aligned (which I figured out how to change their insertion points), rotated (which I also figured out how to rotate them), and upside down to boot (which I now know how to fix as well).

[Anonymous]

same problem even am facing am not able to rotate the light fixture 

can anyone help me?

[Anonymous]

The direction in which you create the reference plane affects the direction in which you fixtures are placed. If you create the reference plane from left to right, the fixtures will mount to them upside down in your 3D view. If you create the reference plane from right to left the fixtures will show right side up. Go back into your elevation views and redraw your reference planes by dragging your new plane from right to left. You will have to reattach your fixtures to the new reference plane but any future fixtures you place on the plane will host in the appropriate direction. I hope this has helped.

[Anonymous]

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!

I was having this issue as well and nothing was working! But drawing a new reference plane in a specific direction did work to flip the component, so thank you sooooooooo so much I can stop wasting my time now. 🙂 

[BIM.Champ]

Many thanks! This is the solution ive been looking for! Reference plance are different when drawn left to right or right to left

[Anonymous]

🍷

[kadmonkee]

all the work around fixes are great and thanks for sharing your pain and success.

we have experienced what you posted on a previous project.

1) avoid copy monitor Light fixtures from the Architects model- they don't own them.

2) always place hosted light fixtures in a ceiling plan view to avoid the previous issue.

3) only if necessary create a reference plane to align and place your hosted light fixtures

4) we use non hosted light fixtures and avoid more issues than then with hosted

the Benefits are :

     we dont lose instances of light fixtures if the ceiling is deleted

     we don't lose circuiting if the ceiling is deleted, we assign the correct offset from the level

     we don't experience multiple coordination review errors from linked models, inherent from copy monitoring.

     we avoid duplicating light fixtures or other families when orientation is incorrect

     If the Architects change the ceiling height I only have to adjust my offset in those specific areas 

I hope this helps 

[Scott_D_]

Lights don't disappear when a ceiling is deleted, they become unhosted. At least they do in the modern versions of Revit.

I always host to a ceiling, hosting to a workplane is a last resort.

[kadmonkee]

correct from 2012 they fixed the un-hosted or disappearing light fixture issue, previous version they disappeared

I avoid this from happening by using all NON Hosted families regardless of version

we do not always have a ceiling to host to from the Architect in some spaces, so reference planes are a last resort

[Anonymous]

I realize this is a few months old, but I'd like to share what I found so far this weekend. I've been toying around with copy/monitor off and on the last few months. Our schedules seem to continually get tighter. I'm an electrical designer with an SMEP engineering firm by the way. I am always searching for shortcuts and ways to cut down any drafting hours that I can.

Anyway, back on track. The thought hit me that if C/M causes the fixtures to seat upside down, what would happen if I inverted a fixture in the family itself? I got a 2x2 to do just that. Kept the annotations just as they were and all the details for night and e-lights. All i changed was the 3d extrusion of the face based family.

Although I don't agree with it, the architects always get the ownership of the fixtures. It's something that is just dealt with and accepted for the moment. We specialize in mid-rise hotels while raising eyebrows at the medical industry. If I can make this do-able with C/M, that would be somethin'. But surely im not the first at trying this. So anyone else try a similar venture? What obstacles am I doomed for, or is it even viable? Looking for a little feedback before I jump in with both feet. Thanks in advance.