Dimension to Autocad Link - Problem Reloading

[smoreland395662]

I have an Autocad site background linked into Revit. When I reload the linked file, I get an error message that says Revit "can't create dimension" and it asks me to delete all the dimensions I have added in Revit. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

[sleimgruber06]

Hey,
It is asking you to delete the dimensions that you have created that are referenced to the site plan dwg link, and because you have dimensioned to this AutoCAD link, those dimensions are basically associated with THAT linked view. When reloading you are essentially putting in a NEW linked view. You will more than likely have to re-dimension to the reloaded link.

Hope this helps,

[smoreland395662]

Thanks. I wondered if that would be the case.

The confusing thing though, is that in another project, where I also have a dwg in the background, I tested out adding some dimensions to the dwg linework, and then reloaded that link. That time I didn't get any error messages. I'm not sure what is different between the two projects. Hmmm...

[cphubb]

FYI

it will do the same thing if you dimension to an imported drawing that is later exploded.

[sleimgruber06]

FYI

it will do the same thing if you dimension to an imported drawing that is later exploded.

Yes, this will happen with most, if not all imported dwg links. I do not know if it is the same way with revit links though....I'll have to look into it further.

Hope this helps,

[DoTheBIM]

I've played with this a little in the past week. In my case. I had a dxf linked and dimensioned a wall referencing a wall in revit and a wall (essentially a rectangle) in my DXF. I then proceeded to move the wall in 3rd party software and re-export the dxf to same file. Then reload in revit and to my amazement the dimension actually updated. I thought "well that was kinda cool". Did some more testing like deleting the wall and the error pops up about dimensions. When you think about it, it would make sense that if it's no longer there, Revit would not be able to keep those dimensions. What would be slightly more informative than just deleting them is to show user what dimenions are going to be deleted, so to give some feedback on what has changed in the underlying liked file.

Bottom line... something has changed in your linked file and after reloading it... the references for the dimensions are either not there or changed in a manner that make them invalid for existing dimensioning.