Beam display- floor plan

[johnf.77896]

I am trying to show my structural gluelam beams on my floor plan as dashed lines. They do show up until I move the component end to make the beam longer. If I move the shape handles the beam will stay visible. What would cause this to happen. See attached pdf.

Thanks
John Fleming
GMK Architecture, inc.
www.gmkarch.com

[mibzim]

First you should understand a little about these revit beams. The blue dot represents the analytical end of the beam (to column or wall centres for instance - generally for the structural engineers) and the Drag arrow represents the beam end offset (for cantilevers, connections etc).

Now to your question. It really depends how you have modelled the beam, and how you have set up the dashed lines to show. If the beam just automatically shows up on the floor plan and you have used the lineweight override, the analytical projection (down the bottom of the beam propertiues dialogue) is probably set incorrectly. Often the automatic detect doesn't work properly either. Usually i set this to centre of beam to get them to show on the correct plans etc. By dragging the analytical end (blue dot) it might be automatically joining itself to something and realising where its correct projection should be (ie, the auto-detect starts working properly), and doesn't show up on the floor plan anymore.

The best way to get beams to show dashed on the floor plan is to make sure they are displaying correctly. (Tip, always use the start and end 'level offset', as opposed to the geometry offset, and set the beam's analytical projection to 'centre of beam'). This should turn the beam off on your plan, but you should see it on the ceiling plan. So, underlay a ceiling plan, use the lineweight overide tool and then turn the underlay off.

[johnf.77896]

First you should understand a little about these revit beams. The blue dot represents the analytical end of the beam (to column or wall centres for instance - generally for the structural engineers) and the Drag arrow represents the beam end offset (for cantilevers, connections etc). Mibzim, thanks for the response. I do understand the beams, my question is why when I pick the component/ analytical end my beam display disappears but not when I pick the drag arrow/ shape handles.


Now to your question. It really depends how you have modelled the beam, and how you have set up the dashed lines to show. If the beam just automatically shows up on the floor plan and you have used the lineweight override, the analytical projection (down the bottom of the beam propertiues dialogue) is probably set incorrectly. Often the automatic detect doesn't work properly either. Usually i set this to centre of beam to get them to show on the correct plans etc. By dragging the analytical end (blue dot) it might be automatically joining itself to something and realising where its correct projection should be (ie, the auto-detect starts working properly), and doesn't show up on the floor plan anymore. What I did was take the beam created by Revit and modified it. Took the outline and changed it to its own object style (gluelam beam) then when it is in my model I turn that off and the hidden lines will show on my floor plan. This seems to make sense to do it that way.


The best way to get beams to show dashed on the floor plan is to make sure they are displaying correctly. (Tip, always use the start and end 'level offset', as opposed to the geometry offset, and set the beam's analytical projection to 'centre of beam'). This should turn the beam off on your plan, but you should see it on the ceiling plan. So, underlay a ceiling plan, use the lineweight overide tool and then turn the underlay off. I already have the roof plan as an underlay to show roof edges, also I like the update ability of having the actual item shown. I prefer not to use the lineweight override tool unless it is a last resort.