By Dennis Collin
A common issue from Revit users is elements not showing correctly, or at all, within a view. If the view is of a plan type, then a common cause is an incorrectly set view range.
This is an area where many new or occasional users often struggle.
View range is a property available to structural, floor and reflected ceiling plan views.
This range defines a series of offsets which determine whether and how an element displays within a view.
The horizontal planes are Top, Cut Plane and Bottom. The top and bottom clip planes represent the maximum and minimum portion of the primary view range. Elements that fall inside these offsets will display on screen if enabled for visibility and will be represented with a projection line.
The cut plane is a plane that determines at what height certain elements in the view are shown cut. If the category is cuttable and enabled, the elements will display with a cut line which is usually set to be thicker than a projection line.
View depth is an additional plane outside of the primary range. This value can set the level of view depth to show elements below the bottom clip plane. This is useful to show elements below a floor slab such as beams, foundations and underground services. In the default architecture template, the view depth is coincident with the bottom offset. In structures the view depth usually is set to be about 2 metres deeper to show relevant structural features. Elements that fall into this area and are enabled are assigned a 'Beyond' line style, that is usually set to a thinner and fainter line appearance, often with a dashed pattern.
Elements that lie outside of the view range do not display in the view. The exception to this is if a view underlay is enabled. I will discuss Underlays in a separate post.