Managing Levels...

[Calvn_Swing]

Our project has a ton of levels, some of which are not even used, and some of which are redundant. Is there are built in tool in Revit that would allow us to manage what levels we have? Alternatively, is there any way to make a schedule of the levels that exist and their elevations so that we can easily edit them? We have somewhere around 35 in a two story building, and it is a bit excessive! (It is also almost impossible to manipulate them as they all overlap and obscure each other.)

Thanks!

[Calvn_Swing]

Our project has a ton of levels, some of which are not even used, and some of which are redundant. Is there are built in tool in Revit that would allow us to manage what levels we have? Alternatively, is there any way to make a schedule of the levels that exist and their elevations so that we can easily edit them? We have somewhere around 35 in a two story building, and it is a bit excessive! (It is also almost impossible to manipulate them as they all overlap and obscure each other.)

Thanks!

[aaronrumple]

Our project has a ton of levels, some of which are not even used, and some of which are redundant. Is there are built in tool in Revit that would allow us to manage what levels we have? Alternatively, is there any way to make a schedule of the levels that exist and their elevations so that we can easily edit them? We have somewhere around 35 in a two story building, and it is a bit excessive! (It is also almost impossible to manipulate them as they all overlap and obscure each other.)

Thanks!You are correct - that's too many.
A two story building needs at the min. 2 levels and maybe as many as half dozen - but probably no more.

Look at the spot elevation tool to document heights that do not need a plan associated with the level.

I suggest you make an elevation with everything turned off but the level lines. This would give you a good graphical "schedule" of where everything is. Then I'd look at seeing what could be deleted.

[Calvn_Swing]

Thanks for the reply...

Is there no way to schedule something like this? Doing an elevation view with only the levels turned on is still pretty much useless in terms of the levels overlapping, obscuring, etc...

As for dropping it down to half a dozen, I don't know how we'd do that. At least with how we're using levels at the moment. We have a level for most of our standard heights. This goes for our Floor levels, Finish Floor levels, Ceiling Heights, and our T.O.Steel/B.O.Deck. We also have a reveal system that is tied to levels so that we can easily adjust it. The building is going through a lot of changes, so having these things constrained to a level means changing one thing and not 20. The problem is that people actually created new levels and left old ones when some changes were made, and we had an over-bloated template file that came in with a lot of levels.

I think we could possible pare it down to 20 from 35 as we use it now. Is there a better way to constrain things so that we don't have so many levels? (In general, we only have levels that we would have in out CAD drawings anyway.)

[lhanyok]

Just out of curiosity, what have you been using the levels for?

[aaronrumple]

Thanks for the reply...

Is there no way to schedule something like this? Doing an elevation view with only the levels turned on is still pretty much useless in terms of the levels overlapping, obscuring, etc...

As for dropping it down to half a dozen, I don't know how we'd do that. At least with how we're using levels at the moment. We have a level for most of our standard heights. This goes for our Floor levels, Finish Floor levels, Ceiling Heights, and our T.O.Steel/B.O.Deck. We also have a reveal system that is tied to levels so that we can easily adjust it. The building is going through a lot of changes, so having these things constrained to a level means changing one thing and not 20. The problem is that people actually created new levels and left old ones when some changes were made, and we had an over-bloated template file that came in with a lot of levels.

I think we could possible pare it down to 20 from 35 as we use it now. Is there a better way to constrain things so that we don't have so many levels? (In general, we only have levels that we would have in out CAD drawings anyway.)
Floor Level - you need it.
Finish Floor Level - you don't need it. Floors have a "Height Offset from Level" parameter. Just place the fin. flr. at Level Whatever and then move it up the thickness of the finish. Since we have 2D details for floor transitions - I just make all my finished floors 1/4" thick. They all sit in one workgroup so it is very simple to select them all and globally set this value. If you wanted to use exact thicknesses you could set the value by each floor type by doing a select all instances in the project browser.

Same with TOS and BO Deck. Just use the offset values. You can create the graphics of a level line using the spot elevation tool.

Again for reveals I never use levels. I might use a ref. plane - but most of the time I just run a string of dimensions in an elevation view and use that to control the relative height above the floor level. Locking the needed dim's will keep everything parametric. Again spot dimensions can replace the level line if you need the look of a level line.

[Steve_Stafford]

Regarding scheduling the levels, if you do as Aaron suggests, setting up a view to just show them...also change the view scale to something finer so they stop overlapping each other. It's not like you are going to plot that view :smile:

[Calvn_Swing]

Lots of good suggestions.

However, unless I'm missing something, when I have 20-30 reveals all at the same elevation on the exterior of the building, how can I control them with one single dimension?

Our rule of thumb has been that if we have more than about 10 things at one elevation we try to create a level for it. I suppose I could do the same but with a reference plane instead. I had only used them inside sketch mode up to now, but I did a quick test and it seems to work the same.

Thanks again!

[aaronrumple]

Lots of good suggestions.

However, unless I'm missing something, when I have 20-30 reveals all at the same elevation on the exterior of the building, how can I control them with one single dimension?

Our rule of thumb has been that if we have more than about 10 things at one elevation we try to create a level for it. I suppose I could do the same but with a reference plane instead. I had only used them inside sketch mode up to now, but I did a quick test and it seems to work the same.

Thanks again!
Don't even need the dimension.
Select one. Right click, Select all instances... Change the offset from level.

Or - if you make them all one sweep - they will move together. The sweep doesn't have to be one continuous sweep. It can be applied to 3 walls here, four walls there, etc... It will still act as one. Use add remove walls to extend the swwep to other walls.

[Calvn_Swing]

Wow,

The things I don't know!

Thanks, that works beautifully!

[michael.deorsey]

If you need a datum for something like the reveal, and you can't make them all in one reveal, you should use a reference plane, that way your not creating more levels then you really need.

HTH
Mike