Structural Template File - Linked Arch Model View Settings/View Range

[ianpM59BG]

Hello,

I'm looking for ways to improve our workflow.

When we start a new project with an architect's Revit model linked in, our template and view range overlaps with the architect's model in ways we'd like to solve.

• Our view range takes in the arch elements on the floor we're framing as well as the arch elements below, see screenshot of our template view range. IE - We see First and Second Floor walls when we're doing the Second Floor Framing Plan
• 
• We'd like to figure out a way to hide arch elements above Our View Level in the linked model, without having to do individual select and Hide In View commands.

I'd love all your ideas/standard workflows to draw inspiration from.

Our current practice is to set up our framing plans with our standard view range, set the Revit Link Display to "By Linked View" and find a floor plan in the arch model that matches the floor below, so we know what walls exist below the floor we're framing. This does ok but has some drawbacks:

• It's a really manual process and involves a lot of hunting for good views on large arch models, and can break if the arch model is updated with changed names
• The arch model view often has elements we don't want to show for structural plans (furniture, etc), and doing a "By Linked View", then going into the custom v/g for Model elements is tedious to do every time in every view.
• While this isn't deep, hard Revit work, a lot of engineers at our firm are much more engineers than they are draftsman, so if we can make our templates as hands-off as possible, it would speed up a lot of the staff's time.

We already set up our standard structural template with an example linked arch file, so I'd love to figure out a way to set up filters or view templates that will basically hide arch elements from "Associated Level" of view range up to "Top", or any other way to solve that problem.

Thanks all!

 

[jay_colcombe]

If you want an honest reply, it will be a lot trial and error in the first instance where you Set-up Filers and View Settings for your needs and then Create a View Template from this  you can then use Manage > Transfer Project Standard sand Copy that View Template into your Company Template for future use!

Unfortunately these may change based on how the Architectural Model is displayed on a Project by Project basis so often I start with a Base View Template for Linked elements and Filters only and then maybe teak a few things here and there if needed then from the Project Browser I select ALL the Views I wish to Apply the View Template, then Right Click > Apply Template Properties

(This is Apply NOT Assign so forces all visual changes but not keep the View Template associated to the view so other graphical changes can still be made and not locked out)

A perfect example is hiding Grids and Levels in Linked Files - Set up a New View Template with them Turned OFF in the RVT Links > Custom > then Apply to ALL Views

[victor_vijeuKD42L]

Hello @ianpM59BG , 

I have the exact same problem with my architect piers. I cannot save custom visualizations in Revit Links as templates, for further reuse. I have to open every single Revit Link and set up filters in there. And since every project will have different Revit Links, you can't automate this process.

Simplest solution for everybody would be to create in the Arch revit file some "bare walls" views with View Range and all the visualization filters (colors) the engineer needs. "bare walls" means no finishings, no painting, no thermo-insulations, no doors, no windows, no other architectural details. To automate these "bare walls" views you can create a view template for "bare walls" in the Arch revit file. In the Structure revit file, you link the Arch revit file, create your structural plan view as you need, then link the "bare walls" view from Arch file in your structural plan view.

[jay_colcombe]

Agreed - I typically set my Wall Filter to be based on Structural Usage whereby in Architectural Template with is not ticked in the Properties Palette 

[ianpM59BG]

Hey Everyone,

Great thoughts all around. Yeah, it seems to confirm that there are kind of 2 approaches:

• Use pre-existing views from the arch model, and use custom V/G settings for the linked revit views to hide furniture, generic models, etc, and then also use filters that must apply to both our model and the linked model to try and eliminate most other issues, OR
• Work with an architect to set up a template/filter set/workflow that would play with us more seamlessly (for example, I know another larger firm that gets their architect partners to label their walls with Level (1,2,3,Roof, etc.) and Structural Usage (BW, SW, etc.) so that the structural model can filter on those terms) but we're in a smaller market that probably won't go for those accommodations.

I think we'll stick with our strategy we're going with and work on setting up good view templates to get the linked Revit views pre-processed. Good to know. If anyone ever sees this thread and has a great workflow for this, I'd love to see it! I'm halfway between engineer and draftsman at my firm and I'm trying to make it easy for the engineers to start setting up projects with as little fine tuning and "getting under the hood" as possible. Something I can put in a couple page How-To Document, or drafting view in our template.

Thanks all!

[victor_vijeuKD42L]

@ianpM59BG : I kinda found a "dirty" way to override visualizations in linked Arch revit file. I created several filters in my Structure revit file for architectural walls: existing masonry, demolished mansonry, new GK walls, etc. Each filter has different color and fill. It is "dirty" because the Filter Rules are not created by revit categories , but by masonry family name + Phase Created + Phase Demolished, and by GK family name respectively. It works for those family names containing GK or mansory. If the architects are changing those families with other (different) names, you have to create other filters for those names or edit the filters to match the new names of the wall families.

The good side is that these Filters are in your Structure revit file and you can save them in a View Template in your file.

P.S. You have to pay great attention at the colors you're using in filters. Revit combines the colors and creates unexpected results.  E.g. A brick wall has RED brick fill pattern and GREY continuous lines for contours in the V/G Filter. RED + GREY = GREENISH lines for contours.

[ianpM59BG]

@victor_vijeuKD42L Yep! I've got a bunch of filters in our view templates based off our internal wall categories (e.g. Any wall with "SW" in the Type Name shows with a hatch), and if we get a really great architect partner who wants to help us out, I could pass along a lot of our filters to get faster project results, but for the most part we haven't brought that up. Right now, we're working on making our internal work flow a little better, and maybe I'll talk it over with a client at some point.

Colors-wise, I wasn't familiar with that strange mixing issue - we work exclusively in Black, White and shades of Gray so I haven't come across it.

Thanks!

[ianpM59BG · Accepted solution]

Going to close this out with an Accept Solution for this issue for now - we'll stay with finding and loading an Arch View from the Linked Revit on each of our framing plans as a background and then model using our standard view template and view range so we can see the elements we want to see in our model.

Again, if anyone comes across this in the future and has a better workflow that will allow us to link aRevit model without having to individually link Arch Views in our framing plans, please respond!