Elements on wrong level

[dzatto]

I have a building with 3 levels. Basement, finished floor, and mezzanine. I have 2 elements that are inserting in the basement level, when they should be on the finished floor level. This only happens in my composite model file which has most of my constructs and elements in it. Another file that has most everything in it is my cross sections, they are inserting at the correct level there. All the constructs insert at the correct levels in both files. Any ideas?

[stelthorst]

I have a building with 3 levels. Basement, finished floor, and mezzanine. I have 2 elements that are inserting in the basement level, when they should be on the finished floor level. This only happens in my composite model file which has most of my constructs and elements in it. Another file that has most everything in it is my cross sections, they are inserting at the correct level there. All the constructs insert at the correct levels in both files. Any ideas?

Hi Dan.

Are the elements part of a construct? If they are they should insert at the elevation of the construct. If you inserted them into the view you will need to add elevation since they will come in at 0 elevation.

Hope this helps,

[dzatto]

Hi Dan.

Are the elements part of a construct? If they are they should insert at the elevation of the construct. If you inserted them into the view you will need to add elevation since they will come in at 0 elevation.

Hope this helps,
How do I make it part of a construct? When I create an element, it just asks for the name, it doesn't ask for any level info.

It makes sense that they would come in at 0 elevation, but why is it correct in one view file but not the other? They both have all levels checked since one is for elevations, and one is the composite model. I'm sure I missed something somewhere. It's not that big of a deal to give it an elevation in one of the files.

Thanks for the info Scott. :beer:

[dkoch]

You should not be directly referencing an Element file that represents building geometry in a View file. While there may be other uses for Element files, the primary intent when building geometry is involved (ie, stuff that gets built) is that Elements are for creating a group of geometry that occurs multiple times in the building. You do not assign a level or division to an Element file because Elements do not have levels or divisions. A particular instance of an Element acquires a level and a division by being referenced into a Construct file, which does have a level and a division assigned.

Depending upon the nature of your work, it is possible that a given Construct file could have no "live" geometry in it, consisting instead entirely of referenced Element files. But you still need that Construct file to pull together all instances of those Element files for that Construct's level and division in order for PN to be able to "see" those Elements at a particular level/division.

[dzatto]

Ahhh, that's probably the problem. Since most of my elements are in the basement level, they come in at level 0 in the view file and are correct. It's just the 2 elements on the first floor.

But why would they come in correctly on one view file and not the other?

[dkoch]

This is just a guess, without seeing exactly what you are doing, but perhaps the View file where they come in correctly does not have any basement items? Then the First Floor references would be at Z=0 and the Elements you intend to be on the First Floor would be at the same level.

[dzatto]

Nope, both have the basement level. It's not that big of a deal, I just like my drawings to be clean with no problems!

Thanks David. :beer:

[burchd]

I have the same problem with users some times... .2 places seem to resolve the problem.

First to check is in the propery of the construct and confirm that the correct level is selected for the construct. (right click on the construct, select property)

Second place is in the property of the view. confirm that the levels applicable are selected there. Even if they have been selected incorectly , you can change them and update them.

Some times, users accidentaly set the level to the level below. you would need to move the offending entities to 0, on that drawing.

[dzatto]

I redid my views, took out the elements and placed them in my constructs and its so much cleaner. I don't know how I skipped the whole "elements are only for constructs" part, but I did!

thanks for setting me straight guys. :beer: