Tag Archives: Tips

Instance based Family System Parameters

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A question came up on how to change a family system parameter from Type based to Instance based.  It made me think of the good old days when we had to start a family, say structural foundation or door family, change it to a generic model family, go into the family types and modify the values from Type to Instance then change the family type back to the original category.  Good news is this changed way back, now all you have to do is select a dimension with this value and toggle the check box in the options bar to Instance.

Stacked Walls and Design Options

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A client was having an issue working with design options and stacked walls the other day.  When the stacked wall was selected it wouldn’t allow it to become part of a design option.  I started an new file and had the same issue as he was having, however when I went to do it again for this post the issue didn’t happen again, then I realized it had been changed in Revit 2013.  I thought I should post it anyway in case this issue does happen for others still using 2012.

As with any element if the host is going to be apart of the design option then anything hosted to it must be part of that same option.  For instance all doors and windows hosted in a wall must be part of the same design option the wall is in.  Stacked walls are the same, each wall type that make up the stacked wall are hosted to the stacked wall (at least we will say that for this situation), so the stacked wall and all of the individual wall types that make up the stack must be selected in order to become part of a design option.  For this to happen the “Tab” key will need to be used to select the individual wall types.

In Revit 2013 they improved on the entire selection process for adding elements to design options.  Most notably if you select a host element now everything associated with that element will become part of the design option.  No longer do we have to select all the doors, windows, etc they just go.  HUGE improvement for working with design options in my opinion.

Brace Framing

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A question came to me this week asking how brace framing can be modeled so that the braces are going in the correct location while having the correct analytical relationship to the columns.  In this case the client wanted the “L” angles to be back to back but still be associated with the center-line of the columns.  The L angle OOTB family has parameters built in so that the centroid of the size can be set, these are “X” and “Y” parameters.  The values in these parameters coincide with the values for the centroid, if the type is duplicated and then these values are set to 0′-0″ then they will be modeled from the back side of the L.

Tags not tagging

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A question came up on why material tags weren’t working on this upgraded file from Revit 2012 to Revit 2013, the problem wasn’t in an upgrade it was in the Visual Style assigned to the view.  Certain commands inside of Revit don’t like the view to be in wireframe.  In this case the we were dealing with material tags, other tags such as spot elevations also don’t like wireframe.  Once a view is changed to wireframe the surface of all elements cease to exist and only the bounding edges are there.  If there isn’t a surface to tag there can’t be any materials on that surface, so tools like material tags don’t have anything to tag.  This is similar to spot elevations, however a spot elevation can see the edge of an element and tag that.

2013 Stair and Handrail Quirk 2

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As I am setting up my new template for 2013 I will be posting all the little quirks I find so everyone doesn’t have to bang their head on the keyboard as I am doing.

At first glance these tools look great, however once you get into the nuts and bolts of them you will find many different quirks.  Today’s quirk is with the Handrail Type and Top Rail and how they display, or how they don’t display.  One of the values both of these have in common is the capability to have a fillet radius at all the joints.  A really nice feature for this release, however the plan views don’t display them, unless the views’ detail level is set to Fine.  Note this is only for PLAN views, all other views display them correctly.

Be cautious however, because sometimes the top rail will disappear when these are adjusted.  I haven’t found the exact reason why this happens, I am still digging into this issue.

 

I don’t want all of my plan views to display in fine so I wanted to show a Visibility Graphics tip to everyone.  The far right column of the Visibility Graphics dialog box allows for an individual category to be set as desired.  For Rails in 2013 I have set this to be Fine so that all fillets will be displayed in plan views.

 

I also am puzzled at the inconsistency of when rails above are being displayed.  In the image below you can see in the inside handrail is displayed all the way up the stair, however the outside rail disappears at the landing.

If anyone has a solution to any of these quirks please comment and let myself and the world know.