Revit 2020.2 Internal Origin Part Three

John Pierson and Parallax Team Apps recently shared a solution at the Autodesk App Store called Internal Origin Hide-ifier. I thought mine was cool but it doesn't install itself or come with a Doge.

It's only 1,000 bucks...nope its free!! Check it out.

Revit 2017 - Reference Plane Subcategories

As I shared in the What's New post the other day, we can create our own Reference Plane subcategories; in both projects AND Families.

It is my opinion that Families should NOT bring Object Style subcategories for Reference Planes into Projects when they are loaded.

I realize that this is carry on baggage because Object Styles are loaded from a family into a project, that's how it works. However, it would be much better if something we can't even see or actually use in the context of the project doesn't get added to its database.

If people really like this enhancement and start using in all of their content then it could get really messy. The only people that won't incur the wrath of this are those that manage their content library aggressively. I really hope we don't end up with this...

I sure hope this is something the folks at the Building Content Summit will consider discussing to get out in front of it some.

Revit 2016 - IFC Observations

Autodesk recommends that we visit Autodesk Exchange|Apps to download the latest IFC application before starting to work with IFC data.

While testing these features I exported some walls and doors to IFC 2x3 so I could import them as IFC geometry. When I used Link IFC there were Generic Model openings filling the door openings to provide room bounding geometry.

There is a bit more going on behind the scenes when we import IFC. In the past we had to open an IFC which created a Revit project file we could then link. Those extra steps are done for us now as a background operation. There are three files that Revit creates based on the source IFC we link.

If I get obnoxious and delete these files and then open my active project file I get a warning message that Revit couldn’t find a linked file. When I use Reload From and select the IFC file I linked in the first place Revit creates those three files all over again. In the background it’s really just referencing the IFC file named "Linking.ifc.RVT".

I then opened the .RVT file that Revit created during the Link IFC process and deleted the openings and replaced them with Room Separator lines. Rather than doing that we can just leave the Generic Model elements but we need to use a Filter to turn them off. Revit creates a shared parameter file based on the IFC data. We can create a Project Parameter using one of its parameters (ObjectTypeOverrides) so we can create a Filter focused on the Generic Model category.

Once we understand that we can use the same approach to override the appearance of the existing walls, doors and windows so they look more like existing elements.

Filter Filtering Gotcha

When you create or edit a view Filter we can apply a Filter to the list of categories based on discipline.

Filtering the list of categories has a direct impact on the Filter Rules > Filter by: list too. If you tell Revit to only show you Architecture categories then you'll find the available parameters listed in the Filter by: criteria drop down will not include parameters that are related to other disciplines. For example, if you were hoping to use the filter to alter the way MEP elements look when they are linked into your model then you might be confused until you realize that earlier you told Revit to only show you Architectural stuff.

Remember the Filter's Filter. Same thing can happen in the View Templates, Visibility/Graphics dialog and Object Styles dialogs.