Best Practice - 3D labeling / navigation

[steve922542]

On the current project I'm working on, (15 levels) I have found myself working with two windows. I will model something in plan and verify it in a 3D view. I frequently notice something in 3D from a different level that needs to be adjusted and then don't have a one step way to go to that level's plan.

There are, of course, plenty of ways to figure it out. You can select any slab, or other object and see from the properties window which level it is on, and then switch over to that level. You can visually count up or down from a known level and select it directly in the project browser. On a small project, making the workplane visible might help, etc. etc.

I wish that there were a way to toggle non-printing watermarks on the slabs that have the level names. These could span floor to floor along the enclosure of the structure as well. They could even be hyperlinks to the appropriate plan or elevation just as callouts and section markers are in other types of views.

I also find myself wanting to double click the slab and have the plan open, but I know this is just the CAD talking. It would be nice if hovering over the slab object identified the level instead of just the family.

Can anyone shed some light on best practices or elequent solutions here? It seems like this would be a fairly common desire so am I a missing an obvious tool?

[patricks]

You could set up separate worksets for each floor level, and then the workset name will appear in the temporary element ID when you hover over that element.

Another option is to create different floor types for every level, but the workset option would be much easier, and would work for all model objects on every level.

[Andre Carvalho]

It is just a thought but the new Macros coming in Revit 2009 will allow us to "compile" a series of tasks in one click. Maybe with this new function, there will be a way to create a family or a tag that will call the Macro and if the Macro can include something like a "Go to view", there will be no problem accomplishing what we are discussing here. :roll:

Andre Carvalho

[Dimitri Harvalias]

You could create a series of working 3D views with section boxes so each floor would have that level isolated by the section box.

[Steve_Stafford]

A few things come to mind as well...

You could create a family that you place adjacent to a corner(s) of the building that would be visible in 3D views that identifies the floor...you wouldn't display them in plan views or other views most likely as they aren't needed.

You can create dwg file that you add to the model at each level.

David Kinghams blog (http://bimmanager.blogspot.com/2007/10/revit-grids-in-navisworks.html) mentioned a technique he used for grids and Navisworks but you might be able to do something like it.

[tomnewsom]

You could create a series of working 3D views with section boxes so each floor would have that level isolated by the section box.
This is what I do.