Minimum Length of a Line?

[nsinha73]

Hey guys,
Is 1/32" the minimum length in Revit or can I override that?.....
Always a warning "Line is Too Short"

Suggestions?

[aggockel50321]

Go to settings / project units. You can set the round-off to a lower value.

When creating the line segment, you'll have to zoom in tight to avoid the error message.

[patricks]

Go to settings / project units. You can set the round-off to a lower value.

When creating the line segment, you'll have to zoom in tight to avoid the error message.

Wait, the minimum line length is determined by the project unit rounding settings?? I had no idea...

nope, 1/32" is ALWAYS the shortest line you can make, even if project units are set to 1/256" rounding.

[martin.grandbois]

Why would you want ot make a line shorter than 1/32"??? Most printers and plotters won't allow for that precision anyway.

Another comment, contractors have about 1/2'' tolerance when building a project (think of concrete structure as an example). Do not try to be over-precise in your work anyway. It'S just a loss of time anyway.

[nsinha73]

Why would you want ot make a line shorter than 1/32"??? Most printers and plotters won't allow for that precision anyway.

Another comment, contractors have about 1/2'' tolerance when building a project (think of concrete structure as an example). Do not try to be over-precise in your work anyway. It'S just a loss of time anyway.

Hi Martin,
I am doing some detailing using filled regions to outline the window section components.
See pic. I am not a fan of doing nested components. And these components are pretty thin.

[aggockel50321]

Try setting your view scale to 1 (full scale), and see if that helps.

Then, once complete, revert back to the scale you want it to be at.

Or, do the linework in Autocad, import it, and place your filled region boundary with the pick / tab method.

[patricks]

Try setting your view scale to 1 (full scale), and see if that helps.

Then, once complete, revert back to the scale you want it to be at.

Or, do the linework in Autocad, import it, and place your filled region boundary with the pick / tab method.

A 1:1 drafting view still says "line is too short" if you draw it shorter than 1/32".

You can draw something in CAD with lines shorted than 1/32" and import it in, but once you explode it, any lines shorter than 1/32" will disappear with no warnings or error messages.

[nsinha73]

Is there any walk-around to what I am tryin' to achieve? I definitely don't want to have it as a nested dwg in my component. Any other method is appreciated....thanks guys

[Andre Carvalho]

Is there any walk-around to what I am tryin' to achieve? I definitely don't want to have it as a nested dwg in my component. Any other method is appreciated....thanks guys

What about bringing it as a JPG! :) Just kidding...
I don't think there's a workaround for it, unfortunately.

Andre Carvalho

[nsinha73]

Jpg?!! :-D Cut & Paste in Revit!!

I guess I have to trim my lines no shorter then 1/32" to get what I want....No big deal....with lines on, it's not that noticeable...

Thanks All!!!

[twaldock]

I guess I have to trim my lines no shorter then 1/32" to get what I want....No big deal....with lines on, it's not that noticeable...


Hey, this is a big deal when you are working on titleblocks - which are always at 1:1 scale. How many times have I tried to properly integrate a company logo into Revit - using jpegs and imported DWGs for the logos always causes problems, especially when you try to export them again later. So it is much better to trace over them to create a filled region, and this is when you need short lines lengths to get them looking good.

Another example is when creating annotation symbols where it won't let you move a line by a distance less than 0.8mm (for those of us in metric), so you have to move it twice. Strangely Revit lets you "offset" much smaller distances.

This is one of those abitrary decisions that the original programmers probably made, and it drives me nuts.

[Mike Sealander]

After ACAD's practically infinitesimal accuracy, Revit is a bummer in this regard. I wonder why?

[Munkholm]

Well... Short lines (VERY short lines), shorter than 1/32" IS indeed possible in Revit !
The trick is to draw everything in a larger scale (ie: 12:1) and when finished, simply rescale everything by using "scale"

Yes, it sounds like an april fool, but revit actually allows this "cheating"

[patricks]

Well... Short lines (VERY short lines), shorter than 1/32" IS indeed possible in Revit !
The trick is to draw everything in a larger scale (ie: 12:1) and when finished, simply rescale everything by using "scale"

Yes, it sounds like an april fool, but revit actually allows this "cheating"

No, it doesn't. I just tried drawing some lines with one segment 1/16" long. When I tried to scale all those elements to 1/4 size, it gave me an error that a line was too short. That 1/16" line should have scaled to 1/64", but it still does not work.

*edit* also, filled regions or masking regions don't even give you the option of using the scale tool. So that's out for those, as well.

[m.thomas]

Hi Martin,
I am doing some detailing using filled regions to outline the window section components.
See pic. I am not a fan of doing nested components. And these components are pretty thin.

I'm pretty sure I have managed to overcome the problem by using detail components.

Whilst drawing in a detail component family it does not let you draw a line smaller than the revit minimum size, but if you draw it longer and then use the trim command you can generate lines which are smaller.

The detail component then loads into the project and displays correctly.

[Munkholm]

No, it doesn't. I just tried drawing some lines with one segment 1/16" long. When I tried to scale all those elements to 1/4 size, it gave me an error that a line was too short. That 1/16" line should have scaled to 1/64", but it still does not work.

*edit* also, filled regions or masking regions don't even give you the option of using the scale tool. So that's out for those, as well.

My bad - the trick seems to only apply to fammilies (tested with detail components)
Normaly Revit wont allow lines shorter than 0,8 mm - But a 5 mm line, scaled by 10:1 will convert to 0,5 mm

And you´re right about the filled regions and masking regions.

Changing scales, tolerances etc. seems to make no difference at all....

Anyway, have only needed a line shorter than 0,8 mm once in the past years... so no big deal (for me anyway)

[hand471037]

After ACAD's practically infinitesimal accuracy, Revit is a bummer in this regard. I wonder why?

Revit is just as accurate as AutoCAD. We do CNC work directly out of Revit, if things were off a 1/32" we'd notice right away.

It's that Revit doesn't let you draw something that's shorter than 1/32" in some contexts. Which does stink. ;-)

[t1.shep]

What I've found is that detail components will allow you to use lines that are shorter than 1/32". It won't let you draw them that long/short, but you can trim them to be shorter. You can also import dwg files and have them to CAD tolerances and they'll come in shorter than Revit will natively allow, to a point. ( I think there are still some limits for the line length in Revit, but this will allow you to go shorter than 1/32")
However, if you try to make a 3d component, it won't let you get anywhere close to the tolerances of the detail component or the CAD file. So you're left trying to made the 3d close and then use the detail component in its place (which is like doing twice the work and is extremely frustrating).
We produce very tight and detailed aluminum extrusions and this limit on the ability to do short lines and radii is very problematic and time consuming.

Anyone know if 2010 is any different?

[Scott Womack]

No Changes in this Regard

[wmullett]

I really don't understand why you need to draw lines that short. Yes... in CAD, we can draw very short lines - so people do. So we all zoom in in CAD views and see these nice really short lines. Can you zoom in on a print? DUH...

I really get upset with these manufacturer drawings that show things at the same detail level they need to manufacture them. We don't need that. I clean these details up and use lines that work in REVIT. And sometimes that means those nice 1/32" radius become right angles or a chamfer. They print and look just fine at the scale they are meant to be viewed at but don't you dare zoom in on my print!

[t1.shep]

I really don't understand why you need to draw lines that short. Yes... in CAD, we can draw very short lines - so people do. So we all zoom in in CAD views and see these nice really short lines. Can you zoom in on a print? DUH...

I really get upset with these manufacturer drawings that show things at the same detail level they need to manufacture them. We don't need that. I clean these details up and use lines that work in REVIT. And sometimes that means those nice 1/32" radius become right angles or a chamfer. They print and look just fine at the scale they are meant to be viewed at but don't you dare zoom in on my print!

I understand that a printed drawing (usually) can't show that level of detail. However, we do show details at 1:1 or 1:2, and you can see to a level of detail finer than 1/32".
Also, we do manufacture our product and need to be able to draw to a level of detail greater than 1/32", or parts won't fit correctly. Not sure why you'd be upset for having accurate drawings? For instance, in some of our aluminum extrusions, we have a small groove that allows for alignment of self-drilling screws, but that groove is less than 1/32" wide and not 1/32" deep, but needs to be drawn for fabrication. On the architects end, that groove, which correlates to the fastener location, might need to line up exactly with a joint or some other architecturally significant feature on the building. Now, while we could probably just put a tick mark for the architectural drawings, it won't work for actually producing the part.
It would be one thing if Revit could only dimension to 1/32", but the fact that you can dimension to 1/256" but can't draw anything to that level of detail doesn't make sense to me. In addition to the fact that you can import and explode lines from CAD that are shorter than Revit can draw, it seems like the capability is in there. I think that if you can see it in real life, you should be able to draw it in Revit. And you can see things that are shorter than 1/32". What kind of example does that set? It's like saying, "well, concrete guys usually only build to 1/2 tolerance, so the shortest line Revit should be able to draw is 1/2""

[wmullett]

REVIT is a BIM program - Building Information Modeling - not a CAD program. Building tolerances are much larger than manufacturing tolerances. Revit is good at what it does because it limits what it has to deal with. You are trying to make it work for manufacturing and if you can, then great, but because it doesn't deal with those tiny dimensions it works faster for us as a BIM tool.

On the architects end use of your product, we might just need a line to represent that grouve you are talking about but we sure don't need it modeled. When and what to model is something that everyone struggles with at first with BIM and it all relates to the detail required to show what we need to show.

[josh.made4worship]

I've actually got a Company logo that I would like to convert from the image I am currently using to Revit Objects. The logo was created in AutoCAD, and there are some areas of the text that are 3/256" tall, and you can tell if it's not right...it has to do with the text size.

Another interesting thing...all of it was almost like exploded text...it was a consistent looking font, but it was all linework. So to get the custom look, I would have to repeat this in Revit, but some of the lines are too small.

The tip to do it at a bigger scale in a family (works in Generic Annotation family too), and then scale down, was a really good one, and worked great for me. I just brought in the CAD file, scaled it up x10, and xploded it. Converted all the linework but a few lines, which I will correct and scale back down, and bring into my TB as an nested family.

This is a good tip!

[josh.made4worship]

Addition/correction,

This works in theory as well in the Generic Annotation family, assuming the lines aren't ridiculously small to begin with in AutoCAD...some of the lines used to draw the dots above the 'i"s are 0.00269294" long. That's really, really small, and with that said, this method still doesn't work, because when I reduce it back down after scaling it up, these lines are smaller that whatever the smallest line Revit will actually allow...which I think is 1/256"??

Anyhow, looks like I'm still gonna be converting all these segemented polylines to splines and hope that they scale!