Forums >> Revit Building >> Tips & Tricks >> Stair Sections, show Treads Beyond in Hidden Lines, no Linework, no Detail Lines

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Okay Just Battled Through this a bit, but finally was able to get Revit to output what we wanted. In our stair sections we like to show the actual treads and risers on the return run (just seeing the stringer isn't all that useful). This Method requires very little overrides and NO Detail lines, or Linework Tools.

1. Cut your First section through the first Run of the stair, looking towards the return run, and set it's depth to the far side of the stringer of the first run. Give this view the name you want on your sheet
2. Cut a second section through the return run through the closer stringer looking the same direction. Name this the same as #1_BehindWe setup a template to apply to multiple stair towers, but heres the basics you need to set.- In Visibility/Graphics (Or Template) Set ALL Model elements to Half tone, In Annotations turn all categories to    off (We left door, window, and room tags on)- Under Stairs in V/G set your treads and risers to hidden 1/16" (Or whatever you want)- Set the Model View to Wireframe (IF you dont care about the return's Guard/Handrail you can keep Hidden line and move the section into the stair run instead of on the first stringer)
3. On a Sheet place your _Behind view on the sheet first (Revit layers in order placed on sheet.
4. Place the #1 section on top of the _Behind Section using the model aligning snaps to get them exactly aligned.
5. Tab into the _Behind View and Choose a viewport style with no title.
6. Goto the behind view and set it's property "Hide at Scales Coarser Than" to ' 12" = 1'-0" ' so the behind view doesn't show up anywhere in your model. (Didn't do this in the screenshot below so you could see where it was cut)
7. You will also need to reset the view numbering, we choose to use the detail # ("4" for example) and then added a "B" (So '4B') for the behind view. this way it doesn't mess up automatic numbering too much.

In our view we had overridden the railing to hidden by element, but in reality it should be a solid halftone line.

Similar layering of views can work in elevation to halftone everything beyond primary face. Just set your view depth shallower than the behind features, and cut the "Behind" elevation through the building (basically a section at that point), Follow similar halftoning/Annotation V/G settings.  

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mccoolj

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Joined: Wed, Dec 29, 2010
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Interesting. We've desired the same look since we used to show that in CAD drawings and it really is more descriptive. What was particularly frustrating was that the return stairs would appear when you hovered over them with the mouse, but we couldn't make them stay visible in hidden lines without doing a bunch of linework that would only get set back to default if anything changed. A little tedious-sounding, but it's better than not being able to do it at all! Thanks! Hopefully, Autodesk will add that functionality at some point...

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WWHub

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This is a creative solution but I'm not sure it is easy ... and it is hard to coordinate - especially for multi-level stairs where you might splt the section to show just top and bottom.  The other problem is annotations.  .... oops - wrong view.... oops wrong view....

In the past, I just set the view to wireframe, traced one tread and riser with hidden lines, then I grouped those and placed copies up the stair.  If needed, I copied one level of groups to the next.  Yes - 2D linework always has to be error checked if the stairs change.

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Selecting the wrong view hasn' really been an issue because the view depth doesn't include the stuff beyond.. As long as your not working from the sheet in an activated view you can only see what you can annotate. We also have been trying to keep as much of the annotations on the front view as possible (we're just starting this project, so we'll see how bad it becomes). 

We havn't really considered splitting the stair, we usually pull a callout off for the top and bottom connections anyways but splitting the view would create some coordination troubles, but you could use a break-line detail item to set your crop line instead of the view box and copy / paste aligned to view to make sure the breaks are exactly the same.

Since we configured it as a view template of "Stair Section" and "Stair Section behind" we've been able to reuse it on two other staircases in the project where it only takes a few minutes to create a decent looking section. 

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naterfisher

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Joined: Tue, Oct 28, 2008
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The work around I came up with here was to select the set of stairs, override graphics in view and set the transparency anywhere from 1% to 100%. That way you can see the stairs on the return set and dimension them still if you like.

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Archidomus

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Great workaround naterfisher, just came across this issue with tread numbering in a split section.

Also as this is my first post, just want to send a massive thankyou to the Revit City community for your life saving tips. 

Will endeavour to add to this great knowledge base.

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