Struct 2011 - views changing family type?!

[will.walburn]

Hi guys,

We seem to be having an issue with a job we are currently working on where views are changing system family types! (FYI we are using worksets with 2 to 3 people working on the job, using Revit Structure 2011, running 2011 Web Update 1 sevice pack, on a Windows 7 64bit machine).

We had a ‘Structural Plan’ that somehow became a ‘Section’ and is now listed under Sections in the project browser, though it still works as a ‘Structural Plan’ view should.

The latest is a ‘Sheet’ that has now become a ‘Section’... the sheet looks fine and is acting as it should, but its system family type is now ‘Section’ and is listed in under Sections, not Sheets, in the browser. All viewports etc on the sheet are still working, and it still contains all the working attributes of the sheet in the properties... I didn’t think this was even possible!

I’ve uploaded a screen shot of the ‘Sheet’ in question (concrete stair details sheet), highlighting the fact it is a ‘Section’ view even though it has all the working properties of a ‘Sheet’...See here:
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9545/sheetorsection.jpg (500kb)

Futher to this, we checked to see if this 'Sheet' that changed to a 'Section' would still come up as a sheet when plotting... and it does! So Revit still knows its a 'Sheet', even though its now categorised as a 'Section'.
There it is in the sheet list when plotting, Sheet 208... http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/7695/sheetorsection2.jpg (136kb)

Has anyone come across this issue? Or know what might be causing it??

Furthermore, how can we revert a view back to its original system family type? Is it even possible??

Unfortunately its not as simple as just editing the ‘Type’ of view/system family ('Section' is the only option we are given when editing the System Family type for this view).

Any help would be very greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
W.

[m20roxxers]

It's a view.

Specifically it's a referenced section view. You have the view selected not the sheet so u will get the views properties.

You need to place the views on a sheet, not include the titleblock.

The fact it resides in the sheet area as well means there is a sheet.

Can you show a list of those sheets in the project brower expanded???

[will.walburn]

Hi m20,

See a screen shot showing the Sheets as listed in the browser, here:
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/8641/sheetorsection3.jpg (434kb)

Notice that Sheet 208 "Stair Details Sheet 1" (the current view selected) is not listed under Sheets in the browser as it should be, even though it is coming up as a sheet when plotting (as shown in my previous post). This is the issue, it was originally built as a Sheet and was a Sheet for about a week or so. Then last week we noticed it was listed in Sections, not Sheets, in the browser, though it retained its Sheets properties and attributes. I presume this is why it is still listed in the sheet list when plotting, even though it is now a View... does that make sense? :-\

Obviously its easy for us to delete this 'Section' view and create a new sheet 208, but we want to know how this happened and how we can stop it happening again. As mentioned in the first post, we had a similar issue with a Structural Plan view that then became a Section view. It still works and acts as a Plan view, but is listed in Sections not Plans in the browser.

We are about to run an audit on the central file of this project to see if this helps at all. Fingers and toes crossed.

W.

[Craig_L]

I would suggest, that someone whilst placing the section views on the sheets, applied a view template. They would have thought it was applying to a selected view, but mistakenly the sheet/titleblock was selected. They have applied a view template for "sections" and that has over-ridden the family type. Also you can change it back by opening the sheet, selecting properties, and then setting it back to what you other sheets are set as.
your workset may also be affecting where this is placing in the project browser, as its grouped under the "views" workset, and is not a view...

[FOUTJM]

very odd.

the section has the parameter "appears in Sheet list" and other Sheet parameters.

[FOUTJM]

i am unable to reproduce this. this definitely should not happen. is the "sheet" editable still? can you activate the views on it and work through them. the only way i can see anything remotely close to this happening is if someone froze the entire sheet with freeze drawing add on(and clicked delete original view). but that's not possible. i think you better have someone from autodesk look at your project and your Revit installs. very strange.

[FOUTJM]

anyone digging around in your API? possibly a surgeon with a chainsaw instead of a nice sharp scalpel?

[will.walburn]

i am unable to reproduce this. this definitely should not happen. is the "sheet" editable still? can you activate the views on it and work through them. the only way i can see anything remotely close to this happening is if someone froze the entire sheet with freeze drawing add on(and clicked delete original view). but that's not possible. i think you better have someone from autodesk look at your project and your Revit installs. very strange.

Hi FOUTJM,

We have tried to replicate this ourselves but to no avail... though we obviously are yet to find out how it happened in the first place...

The strangest part of it all is that this 'Section' still works as a 'Sheet'. I.E. all viewports are useable and, as shown previously, its still got all its sheet parameters and appears as a sheet in the plot list!

As for API, we are not utilising any API customisation at this stage.

We have had an internal Revit expert look at this project file and he is yet to fathom how it happened, or how to change it back. He believes there is some sort of cross-link corruption from one of the sections that has been placed on the sheet, but this is probably only able to be confirmed by looking into the actual coding of the file.

It may also be workset related, and corruption may have occurred when two people saved at exactly the same time, or something along those lines.

Once i have some time i will contact Autodesk about this issue and send them the file to see if they can come up with a plausible reasons as to how this occurred. At this stage we have simply had to just recreate the plan and sheet to continue with this job.

Cheers,
W.

[will.walburn]

I would suggest, that someone whilst placing the section views on the sheets, applied a view template. They would have thought it was applying to a selected view, but mistakenly the sheet/titleblock was selected. They have applied a view template for "sections" and that has over-ridden the family type. Also you can change it back by opening the sheet, selecting properties, and then setting it back to what you other sheets are set as.
your workset may also be affecting where this is placing in the project browser, as its grouped under the "views" workset, and is not a view...

Hi karalon,

View templates are not able to be applied to a 'Sheet' so unfortunately this isn't the issue. As for its workset, Sheet's are applied to an automated workset when created (a unique workset based on the Sheet number/name) and cannot be edited (even if the sheet is made editable). The workset for this 'Sheet' that has become a 'View' can't seem to be changed, meaning it is still acting just like a 'Sheet'.

Regards,
W.

[BecFra]

I was hoarding a file from FOUTJM (hehe) and was out of the office yesterday, but we had the same thing happen.

Another person in another office was working on the file and he said he just saved to central and then the sheet "disappeared." It was going out the next day so i didn’t have time to really look at it, just had to figure out how to get the sheet to show back up so we could edit it. Didn't even look at the section or drafting views cuz im like.. "No way would it have gone there.." Created a drawing list, deleted the bizzarro sheet from that schedule and then created a new on and pulled all the drafting views back onto it.

Well, I saved the corrupt file before I fixed the sheet, so I opened it back up after Fout sent me the link to this post, and sure enough, there the sheet under DRAFTING VIEWS!! Now, all the views on the sheet are drafting views also, but it allows me to pull another live section onto it! WOW!

Revit is still seeing it as a sheet, but it’s just classified wrong. I tried re-sorting the browser list and nothing.

Now my only guess is that the technician that was working on the file likes to organize the drafting views by what sheet they are on by making another drafting view type, so i just wonder if somehow he accidently still had the sheet selected while he was creating another drafting view type. Do you guys do anything similar to that? I can't get it to replicate or even FIX itself in this corrupt file.

[m20roxxers]

I'd say an issue for Autodesk support then.

I assumed it was a "user error" apologies. :) simply because as far as I am aware it's not possible to turn one into the other. they are totally seperate objects.

It would need some internal fixing that only they have the tools for. Damn debug tools so wish we had a copy :) but then we would all break more files :) and they would need another level of debug tools for us which we would then also want :D

[will.walburn]

I was hoarding a file from FOUTJM (hehe) and was out of the office yesterday, but we had the same thing happen.

Another person in another office was working on the file and he said he just saved to central and then the sheet "disappeared." It was going out the next day so i didn’t have time to really look at it, just had to figure out how to get the sheet to show back up so we could edit it. Didn't even look at the section or drafting views cuz im like.. "No way would it have gone there.." Created a drawing list, deleted the bizzarro sheet from that schedule and then created a new on and pulled all the drafting views back onto it.

Well, I saved the corrupt file before I fixed the sheet, so I opened it back up after Fout sent me the link to this post, and sure enough, there the sheet under DRAFTING VIEWS!! Now, all the views on the sheet are drafting views also, but it allows me to pull another live section onto it! WOW!

Revit is still seeing it as a sheet, but it’s just classified wrong. I tried re-sorting the browser list and nothing.

Hi butlerre,

Well this is definitely interesting that you have more or less the exact same issue. Others could possibly be suffering from this without knowing it for some time, especially on large jobs with huge amounts of Views!



Now my only guess is that the technician that was working on the file likes to organize the drafting views by what sheet they are on by making another drafting view type, so i just wonder if somehow he accidently still had the sheet selected while he was creating another drafting view type. Do you guys do anything similar to that? I can't get it to replicate or even FIX itself in this corrupt file.

In regards to the above, as far as i am aware we weren't using separate, custom non-system View types.

As i said in a previous post i also am unable to replicate this issue, but if it happens when syncing perhaps it is a Workset based error?

Hmm.

[BecFra]

the workset still says its View: "Sheet: ..."

Will try to send our file to Autodesk Support once I get the info from our IS person.