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Hatching horizontal/vertical sections for families


gmarkov1

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Hi everyone. It has been a long time since I posted here.

Several weeks ago I started learning Revit. Just to mention that I have huge experience with AutoCAD and almost no secrets exist for me there. Revit was my next step. At first, it looked pretty logical but now I got stuck.

My field is casework shop drawings. I learned how to create families with all parameters and so on. But when I finished the modeling I started applying materials and especially cut pattern. Then placed a Section into my project, opened it as a View but unfortunately no hatch was visible. And I was not able to figure it out why that was. May be I am in a wrong direction? My logic is that once you add a hatch into the cut pattern it will appear whenever you place a section through that cabinet.

Can you please give me some guidance?

Thanks in advance to all of you.

PS. All wall hatches, incorporated into Revit, are OK, but mine aren't. Obviously it's my mistake ot misunderstanding.

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The changes you make in the Family don't necessarily come over when you reload it into the project. My first guess would be that you already had the Casework Family in the project, then you made some additional changes subsequent to the initial load, then reloaded it. The problem I've had in the past is once a Material comes over into the project the first time, the Material doesn't get overridden. So in the Project you'll have to go to Manage Tab > Materials, find the Material and inspect it. Make the changes necessary if they did not come over. Now try it out.

 

Another thing to consider is to ensure you're using an actual Casework Family. Family categories have both "cuttable" and "non-cuttable" types. Basically this means when a Section is cut "through" the Family, it represents literally as if it were being sliced. The non-cuttable Families will never actually display literally "cut" but you'll only see the face, as if it were an elevation.

 

More here:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/Revit-Customize/files/GUID-3253EFCA-F38F-4086-9A4D-C873D8D04867-htm.html

 

Hope this helps. If this didn't correct your problem, provide more details so we can further assist you. And as always, providing the Family or Project itself will allow us to interact with the files directly to uncover the issue.

 

-TZ

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Thank you very much for your advices.

Let me clarify few things:

1. Obviously I neglected to mentioned that the problem occured while I had been creating a Coffee Table Family, starting from Furniture template. No hatch was visible through a section. Should I use coffee tables also in Casework template? And what about (rare cases) if I need to draw a bench with upholstery and vertical section through it? Again, from Casework?

2. Why I have, let's say 10 hatch patterns (pretty basic ones) into the Family creation process, while in a Project they are at least 20? Is it possible to load, somehow, those from Project to the Family because otherwise I do not see any logical point of correcting every family hatch over and over again?

3. If something is "uncuttable" then what is the point of adding "Cut Pattern" option if it will be invisible later on?

This is the first major setback I am facing with Revit and that's why I am confused. Somehow, those hatch practices do not seem logical for me. But still, I assume, that Autodesk guys are much smarter than me 8) Everything else in Revit was no pain at all, but those hatches just hit like a train.

I will be looking for your reply, sir.

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1. Furniture Families are not cuttable:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/Revit-Customize/files/GUID-00DC7EDC-996D-4BA0-8263-58E8B1771078-htm.html

 

You'll have to use another Family. If you absolutely need a Family to cut, you can always default to Generic Model. All Generic Model Families are Cuttable. Futhermore, you can add Sub-Categories to help organize them for additional function in visibility control, such as Filter and Category selections.

 

2. Yes you can: on the Ribbon use Manage Tab > Transfer Project Standards. It's a straight-forward process.

 

3. Everything is still cuttable in 3D View. Cuttable vs. Non-cuttable only applies to the other non-3D Views. A Revit Project has five fundamental Views for the model: Plan, Elevation, Section, Callout and 3D Views. More info here:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Revit-DocumentPresent/files/GUID-8B1294DC-617E-48F9-AC18-A998F43384C9-htm.html

 

So if you use a 3D View, rotate the objects in a standard Isometric orientation and used the Section Box to isolate non-cuttable objects and "slice through" them, you'll see the Cut Pattern. So cuttable still applies in that sense, but this isn't a typical project view. Cuttable vs. non-cuttable has its reasons, though. For instance, Mechanical Equipment is not cuttable. Never do you want to see a piece of equipment "cut". You always want to see it as a Plan, Front/Back or Side Elevation, always, so it doesn't confuse the person reviewing the plans. Same with furniture... if you slice a View Range at 12" above floor, tables and chairs would only show legs and people wouldn't be able to decipher the object. This is why certain things are cuttable and certain things are not. Hope I made sense on that.

 

Hope this helps. 8)

 

-TZ

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It's me again. And I got stuck with another hatch problem: Now, I put a hatch (worked fine) to a back of a base cabinet. I placed a vertical section, into the Family, and everything was fine. The hatch was scaled properly and it was visible on the "Section" view. But when I decided to place a hatch on the sides (of that base cabinet) I was not able to cut it (the cabinet) through horizontal section (plan section) to see if the hatch was fine. So, what am I doing wrong??? May be I am just too obsessed with AutoCAD workflow.

Till those hatch obstacles everything in Revit seemed so logical to me. But now... I am not so sure.

Thank you in advance.

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I'm not fully understanding your question. Can you elaborate, possibly provide screenshots?

 

Furthermore, you're confusing me when you say "Hatch". Hatch is an AutoCAD term, and Pattern is a Revit term - please use the appropriate terms. Also, you state that you "placed a vertical section into the Family" - I'm not following this at all, you'll have to rephrase this entirely. You cannot place a section of something into a Family and I cannot even think of how you may have misused terminology.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

-TZ

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attachment.php?attachmentid=56245&cid=1&stc=1attachment.php?attachmentid=56246&cid=1&stc=1attachment.php?attachmentid=56247&cid=1&stc=1

 

OK. Sory for the confusion. I will try to explain it thoroughly:

1. I created a Base cabinet Family (see picture: 3D View)

- Parameters applied. Everything works fine.

2. I started applying Materials and Finishes. I added Parameter accordingly. Then I opened Material Browser > Graphics > Cut Pattern (I am interested in it only. Both Shading and Surface Pattern I left without attention because they are not part of my work).

3. The first part I applied a Cut Pattern to was the cabinet back.

4. I wasn't sure what the visual effect would be so I placed a Section (View>Section) -see picture: Vertical Section. That Section (see the rectangle under View Tab) was with only one purpose: just for me to see how Cut Pattern looked like i.e. for verification purposes only. Once I saw that everything was fine I deleted that Section View.

5. (In millwork drawing that view is called Vertical Section)

6. Then I started applying the same Cut Patterns into base cabinet sides and doors.

7. Once again I was curious how those Cut Patterns looked like. So, in order to be able to see it, a horizontal cutting plane needed to be placed i.e. to cut that base cabinet through a certain point (see picture: Elevation with a reference). For verification purposes only.

8. (In millwork drawing standards this is called Plan Section or Horizontal Section).

9. I was not able to find a way to place (just temporarily, for checking purposes only) such horizontal section.

10. Then I decided to load that Family into a Project, to create a level through that base cabinet hoping that then I would be able to see the Cut Pattern (through sides and doors). Unfortunately I did not see anything.

11. Now, my confusion, based probably on the AutoCAD logic: When you draw a 2D shape, you are always able to hatch it (Pattern it in Revit), most commonly in Top View. So, the client may see Vertical Sections, Horizontal (Plan) Sections wherever it is necessary. For Example, if you have a Kitchen, one Plan Section will be through base cabinets and second one through wall (upper) cabinets. So, the client will have all the information needed via those two horizontal sections.

- In AutoCAD everything has to be drawn manually i.e. a chance of mismatching (a drafting error) between different views is significant. In Revit, I assume (if I am not mistaken), that process can be made straightforward, annulling any chance of mismatching. That's why I am trying to apply those casework drawing into Revit instead of AutoCAD.

 

Thank you immensely for your time and kindness of helping me.

Regards and Respect.

3D View.jpg

Elevation with a reference.jpg

Vertical Section.jpg

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Upon a very quick assessment, here's what I came up with. Click the two images below for the full resolution.

 

http://i.imgur.com/yXkKCTg.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/95DzRGF.png

 

In the first image, I couldn't get the View Range to "cut" through the Casework Family. So what I did was in the Section View, I created a Section (which only let's you place one vertically) and I rotated the Section 90° to face down. This worked. I can see the cut pattern, which makes sense because it's a section cut, not a View Range cut in a Plan View. So, I'm going to assume, until proven otherwise, that this is the only way to achieve what you're after, which is fine actually. I'm guess Revit, for a good reason I'm assuming, does not want the Plan View to truly "cut" through casework since it's very rare that Architects will want this to truly "cut". But some like yourself, you in fact do want this. So go this route for your plan views.

 

Second image, I realized the Casework Family has one additional function in the Visibility Settings (highlighted in red). I thought this would surely "cut" in Plan View, but I think it's more of a partial cut, not a full cut. I'm not sure. This is interesting though, and you may be able to find the casework can in fact be cut via the View Range.

 

So, that's what I came up with. Hope this helps you some. At least, with Section Views rotated, you can certainly get things rolling the way you need.

 

-TZ

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Sir, thanks a lot once again.

Actually I found the same solution (as your first one) but I had been thinking that there should be another (more user-friendly) option. IMHO, it is so short-sighted for creating such a complex software and stopping short of making it perfect. But...

 

One more, I hope final, question concerning my fight with Revit: Is there a chance to rotate those cut patterns i.e. to place them correctly. Attached are pictures with plywood pattern because it is so common in casework drawings:

attachment.php?attachmentid=56251&cid=1&stc=1attachment.php?attachmentid=56252&cid=1&stc=1attachment.php?attachmentid=56253&cid=1&stc=1

 

As you can see, the Pattern is not aligned correctly, I mean that picture 1.1 (Vertical Section) is not correct (If I give another example with Auto CAD, the Hatch angle would be 90 degrees). So, I tried all options into Cut Pattern > Edit > Orientation in Host Layers. I also searched into the web but nothing...

I think that those Cut Patterns will be the only (but significant one) hurdle towards implementing my skills from AutoCAD to Revit.

 

Thanks once again. And once again I truly rely on your advices.

1.jpg

1.2.jpg

1.1.jpg

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Not sure about rotating Patterns... you may want to jump over to RevitForum.org for more advanced Revit guru's than I.

 

And don't forget that you can always lay a Patter in the View over the model. This is normal practice. Everything I've helped you with up to this point is to avoid that step and try to fully automate the process. I'm certain the pattern can be rotated, but it may take duplicating the pattern and adjusting the pattern file itself, rather than rotating the orientation of the current pattern.

 

As an MEP guy, I believe I have taken you as far as I can with my own knowledge without personally digging in, which I'm simply too busy for at the moment. :)

 

-TZ

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