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!

Detail Level Ignored with Unlocked Wall Layers

We can unlock a layer or layers in a wall to allow "pulling" them up or down separately from the rest of a wall. This makes it possible to create a brick veneer that drops below a level some distance or pull the stud layer up farther, like this.

To make this possible you need to edit the wall's structure and select a layer to unlock, like this: 1 - Click Modify, 2 - Select the edge of a layer, 3 - Unlock the padlock

Interestingly, in Ceiling Plan views only, when we take advantage of this we lose the ability to show just two lines with Detail Level: Coarse.

I suppose it makes sense somewhat, since they are now distinctly separate but the hope was that we could still see just two line in Coarse. Seems to work fine in plan views though.

Detail Level Icons - Improved

I mentioned the 2010 Detail Level icons in an earlier post as being harder for me to tell them apart than in earlier releases. The new web update has changed them again. This time it is a combination of what it was in 2009 and what it was in the initial release of 2010. The Detail Level coarse icon is an empty white square again and the others, Medium and Fine are the "same" checker board patterns with fewer and more squares.


Looks like they shuffled the icons a bit. A new white square icon bumped Coarse to Medium. The first 2010 Coarse icon knocked Medium out of the game. Fine's icon managed to hang on to its spot. It is certainly easier to tell at-a-glance whether a view is using Coarse detail level again! It's a little thing but I appreciate little stuff too!

Detail Level Icons - 2010

In the previous releases we've had the following icons for Detail Levels: Coarse, Medium and Fine.

With 2010 we now have these.


While I appreciate the more accurate portrayal I do find it "harder" to determine at a glance which detail level is used now. Since they all have the "same" kind of pattern I now have to actually stare at the icon longer. Perhaps it is just my aging eyes but with the previous empty white square it was easy to just glance and see that Coarse detail level was in use or not. It is still harder (for me) to determine whether medium or fine were being used with the older version too but then not a lot of views use Fine by comparison.

Remember that the Detail Level settings are also available in the View Properties dialog. I haven't used that route since the View Control Bar was added though. Well I have altered the setting in the dialog but only because I already happened to be there doing something else.