Identical Instances - Not!

[cporter.207875]

So I'm cleaning out the warning dialogue and I've got several of those "Identical Instances in Same Place" warnings. So go the the appropriate floor plan and check first one box to see the element highlite, then I check the other box to see the redundant element highlite... and I see nothing. So I cut a section through the location and try again. Now I see the first one highlite on level 1, but to my chagrin, the second one highlites on level 3. What? I check the properties for both elements and they are associated with their respective levels as they should be.

What's the deal? I have the same warning for several elements that are not, in fact, placed on top of each other. In every case they are at least one level apart from each other. Weird...

[aaronrumple]

What's the deal? I have the same warning for several elements that are not, in fact, placed on top of each other. In every case they are at least one level apart from each other. Weird...

Check the level properties of the elements. Maybe you have a wall on level 1 that has had the base constraint adjuted so it looks like it is on a different level...

[sbrown]

Are they part of a group. Groups have their own level definition which can cause issues.

[cporter.207875]

Check the level properties of the elements. Maybe you have a wall on level 1 that has had the base constraint adjuted so it looks like it is on a different level...

Each one is associated with its appropriate level. These are light fixtures I'm dealing with. The first one is placed on level 1 with a 9'-0" offset. The second one is placed on level 2 with a 9'-0" offset.


Are they part of a group. Groups have their own level definition which can cause issues.

They are not grouped.

Any other ideas?

[sbrown]

do you have an invisible line in the light family that extends past the base ref. level? this may cause them to overlap on the lowest level.

[dbaldacchino]

Interesting. I recently got into a project file and we had a ton of "identical instances" warnings too. Yet when we looked in the dialog and highlighted each object, they were clearly not overlapping (these were curtain walls). We cut and pasted the top element and the warnings cleared up for the top and bottom elements. This was very weird and it would have wreaked havoc if we were deep in the documentation phase as we would have lost all tags and dimensions associated with those objects. You could try cutting and pasting too and see if it gets rid of the issues I would also file it with Support.

[cporter.207875]

do you have an invisible line in the light family that extends past the base ref. level? this may cause them to overlap on the lowest level.
No invisible lines in these families, but good thought.

Interesting. I recently got into a project file and we had a ton of "identical instances" warnings too. Yet when we looked in the dialog and highlighted each object, they were clearly not overlapping (these were curtain walls). We cut and pasted the top element and the warnings cleared up for the top and bottom elements. This was very weird and it would have wreaked havoc if we were deep in the documentation phase as we would have lost all tags and dimensions associated with those objects. You could try cutting and pasting too and see if it gets rid of the issues I would also file it with Support.

I would try the cut and paste, but I don't want my guys to have to re-circuit all these fixtures. The deadline is approaching... This is in RME 2009, btw. Oh, and it's your project, too, Dave: CF#17

[nsinha73]

Check your "worksets" that are turned off in Visibility....we had a similar situation where someone had Workset A Active, but adding walls in Workset F and it kept disappearing (Of they like to throw a tantrum because it was Revit messing things up and not them!)

Yes, we have wall over wall over wall :-D

[dbaldacchino]

LOL Cory, we never met eh? And guess which project had those issues that I mentioned?? Yup, MS#17 :)

EDIT: I understand you don't want to do it, but try opening a detached copy for testing purposes and see if it works. At least you'll verify that the database is somehow corrupt and your next step would then be to send it to Autodesk.

[arb]

we have seen that message a lot and have found that someone wasn't paying attention to the current view phase when copying and pasting (we have many phases unfortunately.) so, we had multiple walls in the same location but on different phases, so we could not see both of them unless we changed the phase or phase filter...very annoying, but i'm glad that Revit caught it.

good luck

- Alex

[cporter.207875]

LOL Cory, we never met eh? And guess which project had those issues that I mentioned?? Yup, MS#17 :)

EDIT: I understand you don't want to do it, but try opening a detached copy for testing purposes and see if it works. At least you'll verify that the database is somehow corrupt and your next step would then be to send it to Autodesk.

Back in the office, so I'll take a look just to verify, as you say. I'll repost afterward.

[cporter.207875]

So I tried the Cut>Paste Aligned trick and it got rid of the "Identical Instances..." warning. Rats! Now I have to file a support request. Oh well, only a week left on this project, so we'll just leave the warnings and move alolng.

Thanks All.

[dbaldacchino]

Yeah something's definitely wrong. It was the exact same issue we had here (curtain walls I believe) but there were no co-linear duplicates.

[cporter.207875]

Update: I got a resolution from Autodesk on this one.... it's just a warning, not an error, so ignore it.

Gee, thanks...

[dbaldacchino]

Uhmm, that's load of bull. It's an INCORRECT warning, so yes...something is wrong.

[twiceroadsfool]

Yeah, thats a completely insufficient resolution. Particularly since "Identical instances in the same place" is one of the EASIER warnings to fix, because (hypothetically, if the warning is accurate) you can pick one of them and delete it without incident.

If people assert that the warning is correct and delete things that ARENT actually indentically instances in the same project, youre going to end up doing rework and LOSING MONEY.

Unacceptable answer.