Wall sweeps in wall definitions - visibility

[MRV]

We are adding a brick water table accent in our wall definitions by modifying the vert. structure and adding a sweep. I'm trying to control visibility on plan views by making a new wall subcategory "water table" and turning that subcategory off in plan view. However, it appears that there is no way to assign the sweep to a new wall subcategory when added to the wall definition.

If you add a sweep to a wall "host>wall sweep", you CAN change the subcategory and control visibility. Why the difference?

Michael Vaughn
BWG Architecture

[dbaldacchino]

I don't know why. I do have another question that would be kinda appropriate under this thread's heading though.

Is there a way to control visibility of a sweep defined in a wall type, but by instance? I have a wall and I defined a coping at the top as a sweep (6" CFMF with 2" rigid insulation and brick veneer). I'm using the same wall in a recessed entry situation (like a porch) and the wall goes up to the ceiling and does not require coping. In plan, the coping shows up in an overlay, which is annoying and incorrect. In section, it's also incorrect, although I might be able to use the linework tool to hide the sweep. I don't want to create a new wall type just for this and I don't want to place copying manually on every single wall. The only way I was able to "fool" Revit in this case, was to unlock the layers in the wall type definition and then drag the top of the layers down, generating a warning because the sweep couldn't be created. I'm not sure if this would cause a problem in the long run, but it was the only way I could get rid of the coping without creating a new wall type.

I don't know of any workarounds. I would like to have some control at the instance level over sweeps and reveals defined in the wall style. What do you guys think? Is it worthy of a wishlist? Thanks!

[tamas]

We are adding a brick water table accent in our wall definitions by modifying the vert. structure and adding a sweep. I'm trying to control visibility on plan views by making a new wall subcategory "water table" and turning that subcategory off in plan view. However, it appears that there is no way to assign the sweep to a new wall subcategory when added to the wall definition.

If you add a sweep to a wall "host>wall sweep", you CAN change the subcategory and control visibility. Why the difference?

Michael Vaughn
BWG ArchitectureWe do feel your pain here, but this is the technical explanation:

If you define a wall sweep embedded into a wall type, you do not use an existing wall sweep type. Rather, just set the profile, material, offsets, etc. params. This works ok, as long as you think of your embedded "wall sweeps" as a chunk of the wall. after all those params are held by the wall type. That is they only react to wall category changes. Wall sweep category settings apply to real wall sweeps.

We are contemplating to change the UI to use real wall sweep types when embedding to walls. Similar to the stacked wall type interface.

Tamas

[MRV]

Thanks Tamas,

I see your viewpoint, from a programing point of view - you are dealing with an object "profile" and it is treated differently depending on where it is used. To an architect; however, it is the same object. We do need the capability to turn off the visibility of sweeps in certain "plan" views, i.e. I don't want to see stone caps or water tables or any other projecting items in certain views. I hope the factory can rethink this... Thanks again.

Michael Vaughn
BWG Architecture