Forums >> Revit Building >> Tips & Tricks >> Flipped Work Planes

Bartholomew

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Joined: Mon, Aug 6, 2012
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Though this has been a forum discussion before, I thought I’d bring it up again:

Does anybody pay attention to the direction they draw their Ref. Planes (Named Work Planes)? Did you know that the direction in which a Ref. Plane in drawn effects the placement of a Face-Based Family on a Work Plane?

Place a Face-Based Family on a named Ref. Plane that was drawn from RIGHT TO LEFT, and the family’s geometry will be oriented in the positive Z direction from the Work Plane. However, if placed on a named Ref. Plane that was drawn LEFT TO RIGHT, the family’s geometry will be oriented in the negative Z direction from that Work Plane.

I bring this up again because I’m working with some manufacturer Seek content (Face-Based) that has the geometry’s Visibility States turned OFF in all views except the front elevation view. I’ve been creating instances of it, placing the family on named Work Planes. I discovered today not all them are oriented correctly to their Work Planes; some are flipped because I placed them on Work Planes that were drawn LEFT TO RIGHT. It would be an easy fix (e.g. Flip Work Plane) – IF I COULD SEE AND SELECT THE DARN FAMILY IN PLAN VIEW! ARRGH!

Edited on: Mon, May 2, 2016 at 4:06:22 PM

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WWHub

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Joined: Tue, May 16, 2006
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I will have to check this out. I can't find anything in the help or my trusty User's Guide published in 2006.

Revit has some built in functions that they don't tell us much about.  I have cautioned my users here to pay attention to how they draw grids and levels because Revit always puts the grid head/level indicator at the defined end(s) - 1 or 2.  If you reverse directions in a project, you can't control it universally.  For some reason, ours was initially set to end 2 so we have learned to draw our grid lines backwards from what I would have normally done.

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Bartholomew

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WWhub: For a moment, you had me wondering if I was delusional. But, unfortunately, I can replicate this behavior "all day long, and on Sunday", on another workstation - one that's running 2017.  I just tested it. (BTW: Just noticed a cool new 2017 feature: a new GUI for naming Ref. Planes. Golly gee whiz; just what I always wanted...NOT. Would much rather have the "front face" of the Ref. Plane clearly identified. Maybe a little blue arrow or something? We can only dream.)

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crwinchester

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Joined: Sat, Sep 4, 2010
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This is definitely true of reference lines too when working with conceptual masses - direction affects the normal orientation of surfaces generated from these lines and therefore any pattern based families applied to it. Definitely not readily stated in the help or user guides from what I've seen either. Live, learn, Revit.

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Bartholomew

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Update:

WELL, I’LL BE! Revit 2017 DOES indicate what direction the Ref. Plane was drawn! Click on the named Ref Plane in 2017, and its name is displayed either OVER or UNDER the Ref. Plane, depending on what direction the Ref. Plane was drawn. I’m kinda jazzed about this – in a nerdy way. Also, off the post topic, 2017 allows the creation of Ref. Plane Sub-Categories. I like this as well, although, as it was pointed out to me: it could add to bloating the project with unnecessary/unwanted data. Cheers.  

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