Controlling the tone of a linked model

[Tom Weir]

Hi all,
I am linking in a Revit Building model from the architect to use as my background. I want to tone the linked file. Unfortunately, as has always been the case, the half-tone check box just does not work well.
The tone check box has no control, and when enabled the toned background cannot be seen on the print. I thought the developer's were going to add some controls to the check box but nothing has happened yet.

So that leaves me with an imported background that cannot be seen when printed. The only other workaround I can think of is it create a phase in the architectural model, and apply overrides in my structural file to try to tone it.

Can anybody give me any other suggestions?

Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[Tom Weir]

Well here is what I did...

I went into the architectural file and overrode all the categoy colors and made them grey. That seems to work fine, and it was not too difficult or time consuming. Now the link is showing all grey.

I would like to hear from anyone else who might have gone through this process. This is all very new and the methodology still needs to be developed. What pitfalls has anyone run across in using the architects model as a background and how did you get around the problem? What experiences have you had in inter-disciplinary model use and coordination.

One thing is that you need to set the views to "Coordination". If you leave them "structural" the arch. walls do not show.

So currently I have my architectural linked in to use as background, and I have toned it and turned off categories I do not want to see, like furniture. And I have the copy\monitor set for grids, columns, and levels.

So far so good.

Have a great day...

Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[kmarsh]

This may or may not be related: I imported (linked maybe?) an autocad drawing (.dwg) file to use as a background (and to create nifty RS column grids from... I LOVE that.) I was able to get the halftone to work but lost visiblity of the background when I added the slab element. Luckily, I found the "Foreground"/"Background" control on the options bar.
May not help with your problem but might point somebody else in the right direction.
Probably could also have changed to wire-frame visibility.

[Tom Weir]

Hi,
With Autocad imports there is more control than with linked Revit files. That is kind of frustrating.
Linked Revit files cannot be moved to the background.
I found that if I make a section through the Architectural link the walls I added are in the background, covered up by the architectural. That's if I am in Hidden View mode. If I go to Wireframe mode my wall is in front. But typically in a section view I would want to use a Hidden view not a wireframe view. So I am stuck there.

I guess it is kind of understandable since the Revit model is not a flat plane like an Autocad 2d insert, that one could move back or forwards. But still in order for Revit Structure and Revit Building to be used together don't we need a method to keep the work in front.

Thanks and have a great day....

Tom Weir
Los Angeles

[tim.lannen]

Hi Tom,

This is a good point. What if you could include visibility graphics of linked files in view templates? Not sure if we could go in that direction, but the first thing that popped into my head.

Tim

[Jos Arpink]

We've run into similar issues with linked Architectural models. The halftone is too faint. We arrived at a similar workaround to Tom's...go into the arch model and apply a color override to all of its categories. Similarly, we changed the lineweight to 1 for both Cut and Projection. This mitigates, to some extent, the effect of the linked architect's model obscuring the host model's geometry.

I've suggested to Adesk that, in addition to the halftone checkbox for linked models, we also have a hairline checkbox to control lineweight.

[Tom Weir]

Tim,
<This is a good point. What if you could include visibility graphics of linked files in view templates?>
That would be a good start. There needs to be much more control ovrer the linked files. The other thing that really bothers me is that once you link a file all the lines are continuous. I have no control over the the lineweights or the linetypes. I have a case where I am linking an existing structure as I add a new addition around it. There is no way to show the existing footings as hidden line below the slab. That's not right.
And while we are add it, you cannot bind in a linked Revit file, which is very unfortunate. So when I finish this new addition, and want one file with the new and old structures there is no good way to bind them together, short of copying and pasting which is a very messy method.
I guess what I want to say is that linking Revit architectural and structural models is the preferred method (according to the Autodesk white paper on the subject), and yet the linked files are not robust enough to handle the task appropriately.

The halftone checkbox for linked models could be useful, but should also have controls so that you can define the toning level. As it is now you cannot even see the halftoned link on the plots.

Tom Weir
Los Angeles