Monday, March 12, 2012

Revit Level Elevations Project and Shared

Revit levels can show a project elevation or a shared elevation. The project elevation is the possibly arbitrary height of the levels relative to zero elevation, like in the stock templates. If you change the elevation of the project via Relocate Project (sleight of hand) or via Shared Coordinates (actual change) you can alter the levels to show one or the other. Via email I got a question that I've been asked before, "I want to show both on the level, both project and shared. Is it possible?"

The first off the cuff answer is nope. The elevation base parameter is a Type Parameter and the labels used in the  assigned annotation symbol family responds to the level, not the other way around. So while I could show alternate units in the same level annotation I can't show alternate elevation base settings. Time for workarounds?

My normal suggestion is to place spot elevations that use reduced graphic options so they just show a value. Place them on the levels in the views you need them in...set and forget. Hopefully it's in the later stages of documentation?

Another possibility is to use a linked project that has its own levels that show the Shared elevation instead. It's tricky though because it may be difficult to get the annotation to sit still, stay in the same correct locations in all views...according to scale and orientation.

If levels could be assigned to Design Options it would be another way to approach it...no joy there.

You could create new level types for each level and use either text in the annotation family (separate multiple families) or assign a prefix/suffix to the label and literally type in the shared elevation values. Yuk...double yuk...but it would give you the result most people want to "see". Need to double/triple check that before every print cycle though.

Along the same lines of yuk, double yuk would be text placed in views directly, possibly as detail groups to manage the data entry.

Anything I'm forgetting??

It would be so simple if it were possible to assign the elevation base setting at the label formatting side of the equation. So close yet so far sometimes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The simplest solution that comes to mind is to just double up on the levels. Sure it adds to the pulldown selection but with a consistant suffix it doesn't hinder things to much.
Create a Symbol for the "Actual Elevation" that omits the location, and moves the elevation text forward or aft of the shared value assigning a prefix/suffix if necessary.
When naming the levels whichever type omits the level name add a suffix of (actual or shared).

John Powell said...

I haven't tried this, but I have considered creating a shared parameter in the level for the second elevation I wanted to show (e.g. if the level is set to read the project elevation the parameter would show the shared elevation). Unfortunately it seems impossible to do calculations to generate the value of a parameter from other parameters in a system family, so you would either have to enter this value in manually (not intelligent!) or rely on something like Ideate's Bimlink to do the calculations in an external spreadsheet and push the value back into the parameter.