Misaligned Sections

[ddebaufre]

It seems when I cut a section the mark snaps to Horiz. or Vert., but when I view, the result is a slightly skewed drawing. This is because the section is not actually aligned absolute vert. or horiz. Any ideas why this is happening?

[patricks]

Have you determined this because you're trying to dimension an object and it won't let you because the view isn't perpendicular to the object? If so, it may be the object itself that isn't drawn exactly right. I had this happen on a stair yesterday, it wasn't exactly orthogonal and when I tried to dimension the treads in section it said the view wasn't oriented perpendicular to the stair. I ended up having to re-create the stair.

[luigi]

It seems when I cut a section the mark snaps to Horiz. or Vert., but when I view, the result is a slightly skewed drawing. This is because the section is not actually aligned absolute vert. or horiz. Any ideas why this is happening?What sometimes happens to me is that it seems that the section is cutting perpendicular to the view..but because of some skewed object, it is slightly off...if I would zoom in very close I would see the green dashed line snapping in 2 angles, slightly different....is it possible that this is what's happening to you?

Good luck,

[ddebaufre]

Luigi hit the nail on the head. But this still begs an answer as to why. Is there a setting that will only allow this section to snap to the perpendicular and avoid getting those that are slightly off? I am currently zooming way in to get them straight but was hoping this was a temporary work around. Has anybody found a permanent fix for this? Can't imagine why anyone would want a whole building section slightly skewed.

[LRaiz]

It sounds like the problem is not with skewed section but with skewed walls or grids. Section is just trying to be helpful and provide snapping choice of vertical/horizontal in addition to perpendicular to walls.

Such skewed walls and grids often present additional problems when dimensioning. Revit would not let you dimension between truly horizontal and slightly skewed. There are quite a few posts on this subject in these forums already.

People observed that the most common cause of skewed objects may be traced to Autocad imports. Tracing over skewed dwg will create skewed Revit model. It is difficult to imagine that user really intended to have skewed objects. They are mostly likely need to be straightened out. You can verify if your objects are skewed by making angular dimension and displaying angle value with many digits after the point. The good thing is that Revit makes it easy to correct the mistake by just typing the correct/precise value for angular dimension and letting geometry adjust.

[ddebaufre]

Thank you Mr. Raiz, but the drawing is "square". It was not done from an ACAD import. I was thinking maybe an element in the drawing was not square, but no matter where I cut the section it does the same thing. I did a search on sections in the forum before I wrote this but didn't find what I was looking for. Sorry for the inconvenience...Guess I'll just work thru it on my end.

[GS Fulton]

This is one of my pet peeves with Revit. There is not a real positive snap on placing sections. It seems like there's always a little bit of choice no matter how square the plan is drawn. I'm a long time user and have become extremely careful in placing section marks.

George F

[LRaiz]

Sections were designed to snap to be perpendicular to walls. May be you came across a bug. In that case I suggest to log in the issue with customer support. It is very difficult to guess as to the source of your problem based on available information. Even if you can work around the issue logging it with CS would enable the factory to look at your data and fix the problem for the benefit of others.

Do you sketch your section in plan view? Do you intend for your section to be perpendicular to a wall or to some other kind of element?

[ddebaufre]

Yes Mr. Raiz, I put my sections in on the plan view in most cases. This is how they are in this drawing. The sections are intended to be aligned with the walls of the main bldg. These are bldg. sections I am cutting. In other words, a longitudinal section thru the whole bldg. and a transverse section thru the whole bldg. I am sorry to bother you with this but it seems to have happened only recently. I have never seen this on another drawing before. I have however cut angled sections intentionally. But this one is such a small amount of being off square that it can't be detected until zoomed in tight, then you can see the multiple selections of green lines it offers as snaps. It is not a pressing problem now that I know it happens & how to rectify it.

[LRaiz]

The only thing that I can think of from the top of my head is that since you have many walls then section considers all off them as candidates for snapping. Even if a single wall is skewed it may produce the outcome that you describe. It is worth double checking. One simple way to do it would be to attempt creating a dimension between all these walls. If some of them is slightly off parallel then dimension will object and may give you a hint of which wall is actually at fault.

[luigi]

You don't remember ever getting a "Not accurate direction" warning...do you? If you get that warning it is possible that a line/wall/othe object is not drawn correctly, causing the problem.... I do remember when I had that problem I was also playing with "scope boxes" and if they aren't aligned perfectly with walls (could be off .001 degrees) then the section marks will have problems aligning properly. It will snap correctly to the wall, but not to the view, or correct to the view, but not to the wall.

just food for thought!!!

Peace,

[MartyC]

Hello,

This is an issue. I have a project that has been very carefully set up, every element, walls and footings and associated grid lines are square, ie 90 degrees to 10 decimal places, and also square to reference plane, all is perfect. I can dimension everything in plan, but sections will not allow ANY horizontal dimensions.

If I zoom in, way in, to the wall face in a section view, the lines begin to be come double but we are talking seriously microscopic here.

I would suggest that orthogonal grids may not locate accurately in the x/y axis, and walls may or may not snap or align to these accurately using the tools available, and it seems not locate accurately when placed in a normal rectilinear manner. Note that all other elements in the section such as roof structure etc also will not allow horizontal dimensions.

Short of re-modelling the whole project, is there a work around? I have tried additonal ref planes etc, but no help, same problem..........Finished project to be delivered tomorrow, 60 sheets of drawings!

Comments would be appreciated.

CheersM