Detail Level and Interference Check

I've written a couple posts in the past (January 2012 and August 2009) about creating clearance elements for use with Revit's own interference checking. Toward the end of one post I mentioned incompatibility between using Detail Level settings with forms that are intended for interference detection.

I wrote, "Keep in mind that the obvious way to manage visibility by using Detail Level won't help us for now. Why? Detail Level doesn't work with Interference Checking, the solid has to be "visible". If we assign the clearance solid to use a specific Detail Level the Interference Check tool fails to see the solid at all even if we change the view to the correct detail level."

I continued, "The Bottom line, we can't use Detail Level to manage the visibility of clearance solids. We must use sub-categories or Yes/No parameters. Using sub-categories is a broader brush solution while Yes/No is more involved because you have to manage them at the family level. When we use these methods we can turn off the visibility of a clearance solid and the Interference Check tool will still find them."

All these years later the incompatibility remains.

We can re-use common forms for clearance families if we nest them into other families, they don't need to be "Shared" to work. We can use a different category element (for example Generic Model > Clearance) and it will detected as interference based on the host's category. Just don't use Detail Level settings to control the visibility of the nested clearance family either.

I also suggested that Autodesk standardize "Clearance" as it's own category. Alternatively they could establish a sub-category of Generic Model or even for all categories like they did with Hidden Lines (for Show Hidden). This way they could, at a system level, help us define what clearance elements are, how they are defined, what they should look like and how they should behave.

Somewhat related here's a May 2009 post I wrote about Design Options and Interference checking not working well together. It's still the same in 2014.

I wrote, "The Interference Check tool does not filter out results for elements assigned to various Design Options that "interfere" with one another. Keep this in mind the next time you are reviewing the results. You'll have a lot a "meaningless" collisions if you have any number of of options."

Stay interference free my friends!

Primary Primary Oddity

This is curious eh? A primary primary design option! Definitely weird...

Sheet Button is Disabled

Trying to make a new sheet but the button is disabled? Using Design Options? When you are editing an option the Sheet button is disabled. Same for the right click option over the Sheet category in the project browser. Can't make a sheet while editing a Design Option, sorry!!

As you were...

Dept. of Workarounds - Smaller Grids in Large Scale Views

I responded to a post at AUGI with this text (I did tweak this version a little since the thread isn't here to get the context of the conversation):

I hear this complaint, "I need smaller grid bubbles in site plans, they are toooo BIG!", every now and then in the last couple years. In the early days there was usually a "hallelujah" when we realized we no longer had to deal with keeping them the correct size when printed. Irony!

The fundamental issue is that Revit's mandate is, "All annotation must maintain their intended printed size". If the grid text is assigned 1/8" scale and the circle is 3/8" diameter then no matter what scale is used they will maintain that size. This is why they are "so big" in 1:500 views. The reality is they are not bigger, they are exactly the same...the building has gotten much smaller in comparison.

Text, symbols and dimensions all behave in exactly the same manner...except that they only show up in one view, the one you place them in. Grids, levels and reference planes transcend the view specific nature of other annotation to eliminate the need to draft them repeatedly and therefore coordinate them endlessly.

A solution to show different size grid annotation in large scale views involves using Design Options.

• Create a Design Option called Grid Management and two options: Normal Size and Reduced Size.
• Create a Reduced Size Grid type that uses a grid bubble family with smaller text and circle.
• Rename the normal Grid type: Normal Size.
• Add all the Normal Size grids to the project and then add them to both Design Options.
• Edit the Reduced Size view's Design Option and change the grid types to the matching Reduced Size grid type.
• In the larger scale views set their Design Option (via Visibility/Graphics dialog) to display the Reduced Size Design Option.

Now you have smaller grid bubbles and they "look" better...just keep in mind that they are smaller and now harder to read when printed full size, or half size for that matter.

Caution Dimensioning to these grids in a design option and to the rest of the model can have unpleasant issues. Such as the dimension getting deleted or at least disappearing when the relationship between the Option"ed" grids are no longer relevant. This can happen if you toggle the assigned option to another and back.

Design Options - Online Class with Paul Aubin

Paul Aubin asked me to pass along the word that his upcoming Design Options webinar tomorrow has a couple openings left. If you have an hour available tomorrow (September 17th, 12:00-12:50pm) you might be interested? You can visit his site for more details. (btw, the class is not free)

Interference Checking and Design Options

The Interference Check tool does not filter out results for elements assigned to various Design Options that "interfere" with one another. Keep this in mind the next time you are reviewing the results. You'll have a lot a "meaningless" collisions if you have any number of of options.

You can open the report in Word and use Find/Replace to highlight results that include Options as part of the interference information to make it a little easier to "evaluate/ignore" them.

The reporting process could use some more options like: Ignore Design Options, include interference between element in the same option, primary options and main model. It would also be great to be able to check two linked models against each other from within the host.