RAC 2009 - Is there a way to lock a view to prevent it from inadvertently being changed

[designviz]

I have found Revit's dynamic views to be a little too dynamic. Especially in regard to 3D isometric and perspective views. Once i have such a view established for rendering I do not want myself or someone else inadvertently tweaking it in some way and effecting the rendering.

Is there someway to lock a view to prevent it from being modified? If not it should be added to the Wish List if it has not already been. Alternatively what are some Best Practices folks have used to deal with this?

[twiceroadsfool]

Discipline. Discipline. Discipline.

I tell everyone on every project team: NO ONE should be tweaking view settings/visibility settings/etc. Unless the reason is project oriented. This includes view ranges, hidden elements, overrides, filters, etc.

If they have a need to move something, change something, hide something, etc, i encourage them to all make WORKING views in the browser. Its open season if they need THEIR OWN views to edit. But if its named, its part of the project, and shouldnt be touched.

That said, if youre in a Worksetted project, you can "Check out" the view workset and not relinquish it. Then no one can change the view settings. I used to go in to projects as the user "Model Nazi" and check stuff out all the time, LOL...

[designviz]

What I am concerned with isn't a lack of displine, but simply the inadvertent changing of crop regions, or slightly rotating an isometric view. I realize you can't totally control human nature from a computer app, however, even in a well disciplined environment there is the potential for human error, and I just feel some very critical views are just much to prone to accidental manipulation than I am comfortable with. The idea of checking out and not relinquishing the view could have potential though, since most projects will be working in a workset mode. Although, it would still be nice to have a parameter within the View properties to put it into a read-only state of some sort.

[twiceroadsfool]

Well, its not perfect... But crop regions and Section Boxes can be pinned.

And 3D rotation can be rewound (rewind-ed), as long as its in session, and not closed... I know thats not a big saving grace if you forget and close the view, or synchronize...

But as you said, you cant control human nature in an app. Theyll go uncheck the parameter and move it, too. LOL.

[Munkholm]

How about hiding the view from the "regular users" ? You can do that by asigning a project parameter to all views, and have the project browser filtering by that parameter...

Yes I know... users could figure out that there´s a hidden view somewhere, but at least they would have to go look for it....

[designviz]

Although the check-out/don't relinquish works, it is sort of annoying, because you then have to constantly deal with this when saving back to central and/exiting the file. I still feel a parameter to control this should be part of the application.

Other apps I have used allow you to save a view, and then at any point recall that view. When saved it essentially exists in virtual space and can not be overwritten unless you intentionally resave it. It, itself can not be directly manipulated. This way no matter what I do with the view itself, perhaps after several elapsed days between tweaks if eventually, I decide to scrap them all, I just simply recall the previously saved view. No muss, no fuss. Certainly, in Revit I can duplicate the view, and get close, but all views still suffer from the same potential inadvertent manipulation.

[designviz]

Well, I thought perhaps you had something there and I totally overlooked something.

However, I can't see a pin icon when clicking on the crop regions and/or Section Boxes. What am I missing?

If i could get this to work, this probbaly would be all I would need and essentially what I am after.

[designviz]

Wow, I like it, but that seems to be more trouble than this should entail. If I can get the pinning to work that could be fine.

Essentially, I just feel, and your suggestion sort of illustrates why Adesk themselves should build in a parameter for controlling someting like this, and it should not be that difficult.

[designviz]

OK, scratch all that. The pinning does get me part way there by preventing the resizing of boundaries, etc. However, the rotation of the view remains a concern, and as you indicate it is not the in-session that is the problem it is some rotating and accidently saving and then exiting the file, that is problematic.

I wish you could pin the rotate icon :)

[twiceroadsfool]

When i ask the following questions, realize im not doing it to defend the Factorys NOT including this feature... But more, im curious how you would want it to work:

1. A "Parameter" would do what? Lock the view? Or save the views "state" at some point? If the former, whats stopping the same people from simply "unchecking the box?" We have that problem now with pinned stuff, and with the "duplicate" button for types. If it "saves a views state," then what happens when someone ELSE saves a state of the same view? Does it have to save all of them? if yes: Thats a lot of stuff if people keep saving states of views... Better to force them to just keep their own views for editing. If NOT, then it sort of invalidates the cause, yes? Someone writes a view state that overwrites your view state, and were back where we started.

Here, it goes something like this:

The only time you should be in the PROJECTS views, are when you are dropping annotations, dimensions, or notes in the PROJECTS deliverables. If youre modeling, tweaking, editing, whatever... Its better to be in your own view.

Another trick is once a lot of the CD set is cartooned, simply putting the browser on "Views not on sheets" and convincing your users to leave it that way, will go a long way. Then, if they GO to the sheet, theyre less inclined to monkey with crop regions and section boxes.

All in all, im not saying it ISNT a concern, im just saying i dont see such a simple solution, since every parameter you can touch, everyone else can too. Unless its author writes only, which would be a disaster in a real project. (Just like model-nazi tactics when model nazi is out sick, and the rest of the team doesnt know how to change a username, lol)

[TroyGates]

Once you have a 3D view the way you want it, rightclick the 3D view cube and save the view. If someone orbits the view, the next time the file is opened, it will go back to the original saved position.

[twiceroadsfool]

Wow, i forgot about that one. LOL.