Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Revit 2016 R2 - Changes to Underlay

They've reconfigured the Properties Palette and changed how they describe and provide access to the Underlay concept.


As you can see above, the Underlay concept now has its own Group Header in the Properties palette. They've renamed the Underlay parameter itself to Range: Base Level. The new Range: Top Level is a read-only value that just reports the next level above the Base Level. That can be helpful when it isn't the one you expected, for example when there is an intermediate level for a stage .


Keep in mind that if a view is created for a level we can't prevent that level (like Stage above) from being the next one, the one that appears in Range: Top Level. I think it could be better if a Level's Building Story parameter could influence this condition so a view could exist for the level but not be factored into the Underlay's display process, allowing it to skip past or ignore the Stage level.

The Underlay Orientation parameter kept its name but the words used to describe its choices are now Look up and Look down. The plainer language seems to help people understand what Underlay is really doing. At the very least Look up is more accurate than implying it is really generating what we have learned is meant by Reflected Ceiling Plan.

Also very worthy of a mention is that new plan views have their Underlay - Range: Base Level assigned to None instead of the Level Below like in earlier versions.

Hmm, writing that last section, it occurs to me...this feature used to just be called Underlay, a parameter AND concept on its own with a second related Underlay Orientation parameter. Now we have a concept of Underlay with three parameters.

Experienced users will now confuse new users by asking them, "What's the view's Underlay assigned to?" or telling them, "You need to change your Underlay setting."  ...ah progress...

Oh, and Hat Tip to Niklas Strannefors, an Autodesk Application Engineer in Sweden, for prompting me to write about this subtle change.

11 comments:

Barrie Sharp said...

Good shout on using Building storey as a default. Better yet, allow users to change top level. I think it would be better if underlays could reference other views so we have complete control over view range and visibility graphics. Another subtle but old feature of underlay is that linked files set to underlay use the underlay direction even when level is set to none and it's greyed out.

Have you figured out what else the level parameters building storey and structural do other than allow filtering? Always felt that would affect level above settings for floor plan and structural plan

Steve said...

I believe Building Storey is only used for Energy Analysis and Structural factors in for structural analysis.

Unknown said...

I'm so glad i found this. It seems to make plumbing plan views that 'need' to see the drains above much easier to generate.

Do we know yet if there is an ability to develop this parameter into a View Template? Perhaps it has a different name that I'm just not noticing.

Unknown said...

This is fantastic. Plumbing plans that need fixtures above become much easier to generate.

Do we know if there is any way to apply the Base Level to a View Template yet? Or perhaps the ability to see that parameter in a View schedule. That would be super neat.

Steve said...

View Templates do not have influence over the Underlay feature. It's a common request or irritant.

Anonymous said...

I'm running Revit 2016 R2. Previously the Underlay was displaying as per this post however now my Revit is showing the old version of Underlay which isn't in its own group header and sits below Graphic Display Options.

Any ideas? Has only affected my Revit as others on the same project have the new Underlay graphics.

Steve said...

Sounds like the version you see this on is not actually the R2 version, perhaps just Update Release 2 which is quite different. Unfortunately the terminology is similar and confusing.

Anonymous said...

It was fine how it was. Then we indeed had FULL control over what view was set to underlay. The new interface is in my opinion a HUGE step back....

Why did they changed it...

Anonymous said...

This "new" feature sucks!

I hoped, they turn it back to how it was in version 2017, but they didn't...
Perhaps in the 2018 version... I WANT BACK FULL CONTROL OVER THE UNDERLAY!!

The person who changed it in 2016 should be fired!

Unknown said...

i want to underlay the PCP onto the plan and the plan onto the RCP for residential unit layouts so i can see in both the plan and RCP the relationship between the cabinetry and the dropped ceilings, but because the range top level is automatically the level above without being able to control an offset, I am seeing furniture form the level above - how could this new feature not be tested thoroughly before launching it? this sucks so bad - was fine to work with in R17, now they screwed it.

Unknown said...

(I know this is a very old thread / post)

Yes, this is annoying, although, I just realized that you can set the base level to whatever level is below the desired level, this will not show that level on your current plan. In Steve's example if there is a Stage level, set Stage to Base and the level above will be what is viewed as the Look Up Underlay. Please can anyone else confirm this? I am seeing it work out on my end for a team that had this issue with multiple buildings in one model with different ground floors on a sloping site.