Mysterious Happenings

[sultarc]

I'm doing this building that has a detached wing but all under one roof. Many times when I sign out and then the next time I open up the project, things have been moved. Its getting quite annoying. The wing which is supposed to align is off or something else has moved like the grab bars in the toilets. What gives?

[beegee]

Sounds like there may be constraints set which are moving elements when you change other elements.

Select the elements that moved and see if any constraints show.

[sultarc]

you mean are there locked items? I thought that was how you kept things from moving.

[beegee]

No - locked items mean that they are aligned to other items and will move when those items move.

Use the "pin" tool to fix items in 3D space.

[sultarc]

OK, I found the pin tool. What is this used for exactly? And how do you de-activate it once on? By the way, when I selected the wing in question there were no locks or pins.

[beegee]

When you pin a modeling component, it cannot be moved. If you try to delete a pinned component, Revit Building warns you that the component is pinned. A graphical push pin appears near the element to indicate that it is locked. If you click this pin, it will display with a red line through it, indicating that it is now disabled.Re click to re-pin.
You can also use the hot key UP to UnPin. Or select via the Edit menu.
If you pin a component, it can still move if the component is set to move with nearby elements or if the level where it is placed moves up or down.

Its likely to be an element or group of elements that are constrained in the building wing. Try selecting walls that may be causing the other elements to move. Make sure that "constraints "is turned on under Visibility Graphics - Annotation Categories.



OK, I found the pin tool. What is this used for exactly? And how do you de-activate it once on? By the way, when I selected the wing in question there were no locks or pins.

[beegee]

There are also "relationships "that Revit assumes even though explicit constraints are not defined.

A classic example of this is an L shaped wall. Moving either leg of the L will cause the other leg to extend so that the join is maintained. To avoid this, use the "Disjoin "tool when moving.

It's difficult to say exactly what could be causing your problem, given that there are a wide range of possible factors.

[sultarc]

Now that we are discussing it. It may be connected to my moving something else. I did a test pin where I highlighted the whole wing and pinned it. It created a multitud of pins which I then could not turn off. This is the first talk i've seen on pinning. When is it appropriate? Should I pin everything on the wing thereby creating these multitude of pins showing up, or just the walls?

[aaronrumple]

If you're an experianced user, you may never need to pin anything. If you have a bunch of idiots working with you - you may need to pin everything....

[patricks]

sometimes I will pin down things like structural grids, and maybe columns, as well, to make sure I don't accidentially drag and move one of them while doing something to another object.

[sultarc]

I'm afraid the only idiot here is me Aaron.

[sbrown]

I typically use them for imported jpgs I'm tracing over or imported dwgs. Very rarely model objects.

[sfaust]

Sometimes when I get all the walls & grids where I want them I pin them in place just so I know I would get warned if I accidentally moved them somehow.

[beegee]

My "Best Practice " advice is to pin grids and imported dwgs / jpgs , if those are to be traced and / or referred to later.

[rod.74246]

The other thing to avoid is having walls extending through more than 1 storey. Particularly if you aren;t used to Revit. Very often you will find moving a wall on the basement that extends through 15 floors will start effecting the location of other walls on the 15th storey. Sometimes Revit is a bit TOO smart and loves to move things around to retain relationships that you really didn;t want it to.

As far as the pinning and locking goes, so far have found the best thing to do is grid lines and major structural elements. Avoid locking until you really get used to the constraints, we tend to find more often than not you end up locking critical dimensions and thats about it.