Showing lines overhead

[Merlin]

Hi,
I've had several suggestions to this but would like to throw it open to the forums here...When you want to show a dashed/hidden line for something overhead in a plan (e.g. roof over, or a bulkhead over, in a Floor Plan), how does everyone go about it?

Suggestions really vary because as yet it doesn't seem to be an obvious REVIT ability.

cheers,
JMc

[beegee]

There are often many ways of achieving the same result in Revit.


Under View Properties, turn on "underlay" for the level above. Then use the linework tool to change the linework to dashed or whatever for the elements that are to display as overhead. Switch the underlay off and the linework of the overhead items remains and is locked to the element above so that it will move with that element. ...Or
Raise the cut plane in a view's view range then again use the linework tool for the parts to be displayed. When finished, lower the cut plane to the original height and the lnework remains as before for those elements.
Method 2 works for those elements ( bulkheads etc ) that may not be visible in an underlay view.

Of course, you could also just draw the lines for overhead objects, if they doen't yet exist exist as 3D elments, ( say at early design stages ).

[luigi]

What I do as well, sometimes, is to show what I need temporarily as suggested by Beegee, but instead of using the pen tool, I draft the line by picking and locking the line. I do this because I found it annoying (and scary when working with multiple users) when a change is made to the 3d element the line would disappear from my drawing (when using the pen tool).

[beegee]

Luigi,

You are correct If you change the sketch of the roof you'll need to redo the linework.
However if you move walls or other elements that have an association with the roof, or move the roof itself, the linework will remain intact and move accordingly.

[Wes Macaulay]

One old feature (or bug) in regards to use of the linework tool on workset-enabled projects is that if the workset containing the objects which are being shown via the linework tool is turned OFF in the view, the linework would be lost when the workset was turned back on! This has been fixed, thankfully.

If working by yourself, the linework tool is better -- but on multi-user projects I too recommend the locked detail lines over the linework tool if any of your users are newbies.

People don't seem to look at the Status Bar much to see what they're deleting!

[DanielleAnderson]

I would suggest overlaying the layer you want to dash and then tracing the lines (using the line tool in the drafting drawer) and locking them rather than using the pen tool. I've noticed that strange things happen with auto-select when using the pen tool for linework--it wants to always select that dashed layer above and it is very hard to work on the level you're actually on.

[aaronrumple]

To clarify, when editing a sketch - existing sketch lines will remain as defined by the linework tool. New objects will not be automatically included in the view using linework. If you erase a sketch line and redraw it - the linework disappears with the erased object.

However all the objects edges will be highlighted when moused over in then view using linework. This is helpful for identifying lines that may not have the appropriate linework.

There are good alternatives to the linework tool. Don't forget that views are easily stacked. One could place a view of roof over a floor plan and then override the roof plan to be dashed...

[adegnan]

OOH, that's a great one Aaron!!!

[Wes Macaulay]

Don't forget that views are easily stacked. One could place a view of roof over a floor plan and then override the roof plan to be dashed...Exactly. As an example -- some people like to draw site plans showing the ground floor plan of the building, rather than the roof plan which many architects prefer. If the site slopes up too high, the topo shows as cut, and then you get the poche for earth showing on part of your site plan.

If you want to do this but don't want the topo showing as cut, then do this. Turn the topo off in the view showing the floor plan, then create another view at the same scale. In this new view turn the building off, raise the cut plane high enough so that the topo isn't cut, then stack the views on the drawing sheet.