Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Importing Cad to a specific reference plane

euchid

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Up to now i've only imported CAD into revit for plan views which is a pretty straight forward process.

I'm working on cabinetry and have imported an interior elevation from CAD into one of my REvit elevation views. At first it seemed to import fine but wouldn't be visible as it was behind geometry and for some reason setting my view to wireframe didn't help. Brining to front and setting the object's draw layer property to foreground didn't make a difference either. What fixed that issue was increasing the view range of my elevation. This got me thinking that the cad object was being brought in on a specific reference plane in space which i couldn't see.

Is there any way to set the workplane for an imported CAD object? Or somehow constrain a 2d CAD object to a specific reference line or plane so i can use the plane as a kind of depth slider in order to bring the 2d geometry in front of or behind objects?

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euchid

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Okay, my workaround (and someone let me know if i'm going about this all wrong) is to make a new face based family, i'mport my cad into it and then bring in that new family into my project. Then i can host it on a reference plane and move the reference plane around as needed.

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WWHub

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Set your work plane in the elevation view before you import the CAD drawing. Home tab / work plane.

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euchid

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Ack! That's smack my forehead levels of obvious! I knew i was missing something simple.

Thanks for answering. This website has made the transition to revit so much less painful.

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oompal

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even after setting my work plane to something that's perpendicular to the horizontal, when i go to link my cad the "place at" drop down only has a "level 1" option....my cad is only coming in horizontal...any ideas?

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WWHub

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Are you importing in a view that looks at your work plane?  It sounds like your importing in a plan view.

Your best reference is one you draw in plan that you see from a parallel section or elevation.  (Name the ref plane after you draw it.

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oompal

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yes, it will work in my section view but only if I have the "this view only" checked...i wanted to see the section dwg import in a 3d view

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WWHub

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I think you will have to rotate it in CAD so it lies along the z axis in CAD.   Then you can import into a plan view using the plan's work plane.

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