Every Step Matters - Working with Revit Content built wrong

[3dway]

I'm in the in-between stages of learning Revit. I'm at that place where I've just passed hopelessness and I'm starting to get an understanding of what Revit likes and doesn't like.

One thing that I've learned is that it matters what steps you take and when you take them. Something as simple as drawing a wall has a method that you MUST follow if you want it to perform predictable later in the model's life. For example: If I want the foundation wall to move with the ground floor wall when I make a change to the ground floor later in the model life, I MUST draw the foundation wall by using the "Pick Walls" option. If I don't, they don't move together later on.

This situation causes me some problems:

1. If I have, say, a cantilevered fireplace, the length of ground floor wall along that side of the building is made up of five walls. The three walls of the fireplace box and the two walls on either side of it. The basement wall runs full length under the cantilever and is one wall. Which wall do I associate the basement wall with.

2. If I have a model where these relationships are broken, or weren't created to begin with, how do I created these without using constraints? Many constraints are a best practice No-No, and I've already had the "can't keep anything joined" errors problem associated with too many constraints.

Thanks for any insight you can share.

[aaronrumple]

1. Doesn't matter when the walls are in a straight line. However for best parametrics lock the adjacent walls segments together using the allign > lock tool.

2. Either use align > lock or create a locked dimension between items you wish to constrain.

3. Unjoin geometry isn't an error related with too many constraints. All it means is that the objects no longer touch. Typically you would just use the "Unjoin - So what?" Sometimes if I have joined objects and am moving them all around and know they will be joined when the final editing is done - I'll use the "Ok - So What?" button. This save me from re-joining the geometry later.

You don't have to use the pick walls to get walls to move together. As long as they touch verticaly - there is a relationship. Also you can use 1 or 2 above.

[3dway]

1. Doesn't matter when the walls are in a straight line. However for best parametrics lock the adjacent walls segments together using the allign > lock tool.

2. Either use align > lock or create a locked dimension between items you wish to constrain.

3. Unjoin geometry isn't an error related with too many constraints. All it means is that the objects no longer touch. Typically you would just use the "Unjoin - So what?" Sometimes if I have joined objects and am moving them all around and know they will be joined when the final editing is done - I'll use the "Ok - So What?" button. This save me from re-joining the geometry later.

You don't have to use the pick walls to get walls to move together. As long as they touch verticaly - there is a relationship. Also you can use 1 or 2 above.


My mistake in the description. I think it's a "can't move" error, then it has to unjoins things, and often says it has to delete an element.

[Andre Carvalho]

My mistake in the description. I think it's a "can't move" error, then it has to unjoins things, and often says it has to delete an element.

When moving, try selecting the "Disjoin" option in the options bar if you don't want to have this problem.

Andre Carvalho

[Calvn_Swing]

All that does is let you move the one object regardless of constraints, which resolves the error or having to delete an element, but doesn't resolve the original problem of walls not moving together as expected...

Unfortunately, there is still a lot of improvement needed in the program regarding project level constraints. It works exceptionally well at the family level at least. My answer would be to create a reference plane for that condition you want to line up and then either align and lock or dimension and lock to that reference plane. This usually prevents a lot of errors that crop up when you lock objects to other objects, but still allows you to move the reference plan and have all the objects move with it. It doesn't prevent all the errors, nor does it work 100% of the time, but we've had a lot more success with this than with any other in-project parametric relationships. (And worst case, if you get a delete object error, you can delete the reference plane and remove all constraints without having to delete a real object!).

Best of luck!

[3dway]

As I look back, I think this thread was a "wish" on my part about how Revit should behave. I've since learned that walls don't move together unless they're touching (I think). I've given up on this. Cad didn't move the foundation wall for me. I'll just continue moving both or using a grid line. Likely I'll move the parts, since the grid seems to give me errors.