Revit 2015 R2 and Shaft Openings

Another subtle change within the new R2 release (only available to active subscription customs) affects Shaft Openings. These now assume a Base Constraint equal to the associated level of the view you create it in. They also changed the order of the parameters so they are the same as the parameters as other elements that have a Base Constraint, Base Offset, Top Constraint and Top Offset.

The settings we see above are the result of creating the shaft in the floor plan view for Level 1, before I extend it any higher. If you create a Shaft Opening in a 3D view it will assume the Base Constraint of the view's active work plane.

Shaft Opening and View Range

Cool tool the Shaft Opening, it cuts floors, ceilings and roofs that it comes into contact with. It also provides a way to display symbolic lines within the sketch so you can generate graphics to indicate openings more efficiently than drawing them separately or using detail components.

This post is concerned with the display of symbolic lines when you don't expect them to appear. If the View Range setting for Top-Offset of a level below a Shaft Opening has a Top-Offset setting that is high enough to intersect with the Shaft Opening the symbolic lines will appear. They will appear even if the shaft itself doesn't interesect with the cut plane of the lower level. Here's the view Range dialog and the Top Offset is set higher than the level above (11'-0" above Level 1).

This is the resulting Shaft Opening in the view of the level below, just symbolic lines, no opening in the floor.

In my perfect world a shaft would not show symbolic lines unless the cut plane of the view intersected the shaft, not the primary range itself. Fortunately the instances I've encountered are usually due to unnecessarily high settings of the Top-Offset value.

Added THIS POST to the HOK CAD Solutions Blog.