Pipe Rise and Drop Wrong Size

I had a job the other day and my pipe rises were gigantic!

These are the annotation symbols in single line. To fix things, click on the little angle arrow next to the Plumbing and Piping group label and ensure annotation scaling is being used then change the Pipe Rise/Drop to a smaller scale. Fittings can be changed separately.

You may find that every time you change to a smaller scale it reverts back to the original scale. This is probably being caused by the fact that units for pipe size do not go to a scale that precise. To change that click "Project Units" on the Manage tab, set the discipline to "Piping" and set the rounding to the required precision.

Now take a look at your symbol. Hopefully, things have gotten a lot easier to read.

Imported DWG Files Have Thin Text

There are times when AutoCAD files are required to be added to Revit project files. There two ways to incorporate AutoCAD DWG files into Revit. One is to Insert the DWG and the other is to Link the DWG file. Inserted DWG files remain static and don’t change in Revit when they are updated in AutoCAD. Linked DWG Files update each time the Revit project file is opened or when a reload is forced from with the Revit project.

Inserting is preferable when the DWG file will not need to be updated like a legend, note, existing background, or detail. Inserted DWGs can be placed directly onto a sheet, view, or into a drafting view, depending on its use. 

Linking is preferable when the DWG file will be updated as the project progresses. 

Either way, if your standard text font is Simplex for AutoCAD, when that file gets into Revit it plots too light. My solution is to change the text style in AutoCAD before Importing or linking to Revit.

1.    To maintain the readability of text, use the Style command in the AutoCAD file to be Inserted/Linked and change the Standard text styles font to Zurich Lt BT. 

2.    Navigate to the View or Sheet that requires the Inserted/Linked DWG. (Create a drafting view by selecting the Drafting View tool on the View tab of the ribbon if required.)

3.    Select the Import CAD tool or the Link CAD tool on the Insert tab of the Ribbon.

4.    Browse out to the required DWG. Before clicking the Open button, Select from the drop downs of what Colors, Layers, and Positioning.  

5.    Click Open to place the DWG file in the View/Sheet.

AUGI Revit MEP Wish List Voting

Please go to the AUGI Revit MEP Wish List and vote for your top 10.

Can't See Spaces

I had a user today who could not tag or see spaces. He had everything on in the model and the linked model, the worksets were good, and everything he tried... failed.

The problem was the cut plane of the view range was set to 14'-4" because of the strange composition of the building. The architects room objects along with the spaces topped out at 8'-0". When we dropped the cut plane down to intersect the spaces... Wa-shaw! there they were after all.

The solution that works best for us is actually to make the top of all the spaces reach for a new level we added above the whole building. None of the spaces actually get there because they all hit room bounding structure before they got there. 

Linked Models Disappear when using Remote Desktop Connection

When using remote desktop to access my PC to deliver training, I have been bummed in the past to notice that linked modeled objects did not show up on the display screen. They are there, and if I went back to my PC I could see them. In fact, if I selected a window, Revit would tell me that I have selected objects.

I found out later that using or not using hardware acceleration caused the issue. If the same happens to you, make a change in the Graphics tab of the options dialog and reopen Revit.

Now everything should be visible and the training can continue.

Gaps Between Pipes and Fittings

Using out of the box fittings and pipes, I have gotten unexpected results, like those pictured below. When connecting 2 pipes, Revit MEP is leaving a gap between the fitting and the pipe.

Solution: Select the fitting and toggle the "Use Annotation Scale" check box instance parameter.

Wa-Shaw!

Unassigned Linked Rooms

A few weeks ago we noticed that we had a linked architectural model with named and numbered rooms. The weird thing is some of the linked spaces in the MEP model were showing up as “unassigned”. Not all of them, just some.


For the life of me, I really couldn't figure out what was different about the rooms that the names and numbers were not translating into the spaces. They even seemed to follow a line, like the left hand side would work but the right would not.


I don't know why this worked but it did. We changed the linked architectural file's volume computations to "Area's Only" instead of "Areas and Volumes".


For what ever reason, all the spaces worked after that. I mostly like to know why things work, but in this case I will just happily accept that they did.