Window Openings - Existing-Demo-New

[jyount]

Whack-a-mole is getting really bad on Revit 2008.

This is a pretty basic operation that I'm working with and it is driving me nuts at this point. It's the old window replacement issue. Demo old window in existing wall, and put in new window.

Infill doesn't go away, window and infill coexist. I cannot go through and hide every little infill, there are just too many of them. And this software should just work properly. I've had this problem before, but it was usually a matter of "Flip Facing" and/or moving the windows 2 feet and moving them back.

None of that seems to be working anymore. And sometimes it gives me the "Instance not cutting anything line" Now some of my windows aren't even cutting all the way through the wall. This is getting extremely frustrating, I've spent the majority of the last three days trying to get this to work right, and it is not doing that.

Please help, if there is no fix for this, then rehab/preservation projects may become near impossible to do in Revit.

[Mr Spot]

Can you post some images of the windows in question?

It sounds like they are hosted in stacked walls, is this the case?

Have you tried using an intermediate demolition phase? That is, Existing, Demolished, New Construction rather than new infills being created in the New Construction and then demolished in the New Construction also. Revit quite often has issues with that, expecially when the window is the same size as the infill wall causing it to report there is no host.

HTH.

[twiceroadsfool]

Whack-a-mole is getting really bad on Revit 2008.

This is a pretty basic operation that I'm working with and it is driving me nuts at this point. It's the old window replacement issue. Demo old window in existing wall, and put in new window.

Infill doesn't go away, window and infill coexist. I cannot go through and hide every little infill, there are just too many of them. And this software should just work properly. I've had this problem before, but it was usually a matter of "Flip Facing" and/or moving the windows 2 feet and moving them back.

None of that seems to be working anymore. And sometimes it gives me the "Instance not cutting anything line" Now some of my windows aren't even cutting all the way through the wall. This is getting extremely frustrating, I've spent the majority of the last three days trying to get this to work right, and it is not doing that.

Please help, if there is no fix for this, then rehab/preservation projects may become near impossible to do in Revit.

It sounds tedious when typed out, but what we do is actually demo the wall, and put a new wall in.

NOT the entire wall, just the wall a hair around the window. Ill literally, copy and Paste > same place, the wall, then edit its profile down to just the size of the old window. Then ill demo that wall completely. Then ill have a new instance of that wall, and ill place the new window in it. It seems lengthy, but once you do a few they fly.

We went around an entire Precast concrete building where exterior walls were becoming interior partitions to an addition, and the rear exit doors to corridor (in the old wall) kept moving throughout the design. This method worked very well for taking care of it...

[sjsl]

We are experiencing the same problem. We have to move the new window just a hair and move it back. Sucks when you have a hundred windows. This is in my opinion is a bug major and it needs fixing.

Even if you get it to work the next time you load the project some of the windows go back to hiding in the infill and you have to move them all over again.

[jyount]

We are experiencing the same problem. We have to move the new window just a hair and move it back. Sucks when you have a hundred windows. This is in my opinion is a bug major and it needs fixing.

Even if you get it to work the next time you load the project some of the windows go back to hiding in the infill and you have to move them all over again.

I know exactly what you are talking about.

However, the move it a hair and move it back isn't working anymore.

I will attempt to post some pictures.

[jyount]

Can you post some images of the windows in question?

It sounds like they are hosted in stacked walls, is this the case?

Have you tried using an intermediate demolition phase? That is, Existing, Demolished, New Construction rather than new infills being created in the New Construction and then demolished in the New Construction also. Revit quite often has issues with that, expecially when the window is the same size as the infill wall causing it to report there is no host.

HTH.

For the time being, this helped a lot; so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. That was in my company's standard template, but I always deleted the phase because it made things like new openings difficult.

Now, if I need to demo a door and infill it, how do I do that, since if the door is created in New Construction, then no demo is shown in the Demo phase. If it is created in the Demo phase, then the door does not show up as "new" in the new construction drawing.

This has been a problem with Revit since V6. This really needs to be addressed in the next release.

[brethomp]

The trick that has worked for me, is to make the "existing" windows just slightly smaller then the new windows. This way when the new window is going in it is hosted by existing wall instead of the infill wall (since it is bigger then the infill), and you avoid the error of window "not cutting host".

[jyount]

The trick that has worked for me, is to make the "existing" windows just slightly smaller then the new windows. This way when the new window is going in it is hosted by existing wall instead of the infill wall (since it is bigger then the infill), and you avoid the error of window "not cutting host".

Does this seem to work pretty consistently?

Part of my concern is that this is a 60,000 SF building with a couple hundred windows, and I am concerned about having too many things in the files, and making the file too big to calculate things properly.

[brethomp]

Does this seem to work pretty consistently?
In my experience, yes. I only seem to have issues with this infill if the windows (existing and new) are the exact same size. Or the new window is smaller then the old (since it only cuts the infill not the existing wall).

[Mr Spot]

Now, if I need to demo a door and infill it, how do I do that, since if the door is created in New Construction, then no demo is shown in the Demo phase. If it is created in the Demo phase, then the door does not show up as "new" in the new construction drawing.


I can't say that I've actually used this method before, I've just read others have got around these sorts of issues by doing this.

It would mean that in order to show all the demolition you would need multiple plans/sections with current phases set to new construction or demolished. As you've discovered already your new doors won't show their demolished opening in the demolished phase as they aren't created yet. There really ends up being two stages of demolition according to revit...

HTH.

[ws]

FWIW I've settled on using 'Existing', 'Proposed' and 'Completed' sets of drawings to get around the few Phasing display issues that arise with fiddly alterations jobs.

'Completed' is the set the clients get and for Planning Applications etc. and is New Construction Phase with Views set to Show Complete.

The 'Proposed' set is New Construction Phase with Views set to Show All (i.e. ex/demo/new).
These are the working drawings - used for work-in-progress client discussions and ultimately issuing to contractors. Although visually busy, both clients and contractors seem to like these Views.

I notice that in the 'Proposed' drawings some windows replaced by doors and suchlike occasionally show interference in elevation views but as a working set of drawings it doesn't really matter too much.
If it really does not look right then I include the 'Completed' set of elevations for contractors as well or instead.

I also notice that rooflights inserted into an existing roof in 'Proposed' seem to cut out the surface hatch in the 'Existing' phase view of the same roof.

It's still a work in progress as I'm fairly new to Revit but Phasing is such a good feature that I'll put up with a bit of visual interference.

...and being able to sort the browser by Phase ties in very nicely :)