Selection Preview Errors

[tgross.197084]

One of my users has run into an "interesting" error. When in a 3D view, the selection preview for elements that he mouses over appears vertically offset. So, for example, he'll mouse over a wall and the selection outline appears 2' higher than the wall itself (including the handles when he picks it).

Using the steering wheel to set the view to one of the preset directions causes the behavior to temporarily stop. I don't believe it has anything to do with the properties of the elements themselves, as the vertical offset varies each time this occurs. Frequently when this starts to happen, he gets a fatal error from Revit and it closes out.

Because the user was in a hurry, he's tossed his local file and made a new one from Central. For the moment, this seems to have cleared it up.

Any thoughts?

[twiceroadsfool]

How far from the origin is the model? And are there any imported DWG files?

I have seen both of the above cause the "ghosting" when trying to select items. Also, when that occurs if you zoom in very close it will cauase an error and close the view, if its the same issue.

FWIW, when that occured to us, it made the wall sections a disaster, cuz even in export to dwg nothing was lined up...

[tgross.197084]

The origin? I thought Revit didn't have a universal coordinate origin?

There is a CAD drawing Linked into the project. I did notice that he tended to crash out once he zoomed in. The thing that I found weird was that the problem apparently fixed itself (temporarily) when he rotated his 3D view to one of the corners or to the orthogonal view.

[tgross.197084]

The origin? I thought Revit didn't have a universal coordinate origin?
****. I'm totally wrong. How did that slip by us? Well, I'll have the user check this out. That's a bad behavior.

[twiceroadsfool]

Go in to AutoCAD, and draw a circle with the center at 0,0,0. make the circle 1' in diameter, or something.

Go in to Revit, in to a floor plan with no crop region, and Link it Origin to Origin. Then find it. Draw a line from it to the closest part of your project (assuming your project isnt near it), and see how far it is. If its FAR (like a half mile or more...) its probably causing your issues.

[Gadget Man]

We have in our template file an "opening" view which tells the user what to do first (see picture). Just as a reminder. As soon as the project starts these notes are deleted...

Of course, we don't need it for ourselves but for other people working for us from time to time (we like them to use our template, so things are organized our way).

I found that it is not such a bad idea...

Also, when I am interrupted and abandoning a project for a while or finishing work for the day, I like to write a nice large message to myself (usually in red and size 15, running diagonally across the screen) reminding me what I was about to do next. It saves me time thinking what I was doing the next time I open this project... Or, in case somebody else is continuing it, tells them what I was planning to do next.

.

[twiceroadsfool]

My template has a NS and EW Reference Plane pinned about the origin as well, for the same purpose. :)

[tgross.197084]

That's pretty clever, jetisart. I'm going to have to implement that.

I've checked with the user and this is indeed what the problem was. Thanks twiceroadsfool for your help!

[twiceroadsfool]

No problem. Get everything moved back to the origin ASAP, LOL...