When creating a room data sheet, say for a healthcare project, it is often necessary to create a 3D axonometric view per room. While every organisation will have their own graphic standard, typically, any foreground walls obstructing the main room layout will be overridden. For example, these walls (and their dependent doors and windows) may be shown as transparent with a dashed projection outline.
The problem
Since the elements to be overridden vary from view to view, the process can’t be standardised through filters or view templates. The override must be done on a view-by-view basis (Override Graphic in View > By Element), which is time-consuming. Additionally, if the graphic style needs to be updated, the whole process must be repeated for every view.
Applying graphic overrides with Dynamo
To solve this need, Parametric Monkey has developed a Dynamo graph, which is available as part of our Dynamo Package Development service. The graph applies graphic overrides to obscuring walls and dependent doors and window families in the selected axonometric views. Note that the graph does not modify any other elements, such as wall-based or face-based families.
Before running the graph, ensure that all the axonometric views have been created. To automate this process, refer to the Axonometric from room tutorial. The view names must contain the parameter value of the room number (or other pairing parameter). This requirement is due to Revit rooms not being visible in 3D views, and therefore, the graph needs a method of pairing the view with a room.
To run the graph:
- Select the views to be modified in the Project Browser.
- Define the pairing room parameter, such as “Occupancy” or “Number” (#1). This value will be used to pair the view and the room.
- Specify the view name text to remove so that the associated room can be identified (#2).
- Define the cut fill colour (#3). The value should be RGB values (0-255) separated by a comma. If an error is returned, it will default to white (255,255,255).
- Define the cut fill pattern (#4).
- Define the cut line pattern (#5).
- Define the projection fill colour (#6). The value should be RGB values (0-255) separated by a comma. If an error is returned, it will default to white (255,255,255).
- Define the projection fill pattern (#7).
- Define the projection line pattern (#8).
- Specify the transparency (#9).
- Specify if halftone should be applied (#10).
- Press Run.
Since the graphic override process has been separated from the actual view creation, the graph can be run multiple times without the need to delete previously created views.
Computational logic
The graph collects the currently selected elements and filters out anything that isn’t a 3D view. Rooms are then paired with each view using the defined naming convention (inputs #1 and #2). The geometry of the rooms is then obtained, and if there are multiple rooms per view, they are unioned together so that the full extent of the associated rooms is known. The view’s direction is then extracted to identify which room faces obscure the view. Once known, the associated walls and any dependent doors and windows are retrieved. Finally, the graphics on these elements are overridden.
Conclusion
Automated routines such as this can significantly speed up the process of creating beautiful and consistent documentation. To learn more about our Dynamo Package Development service, drop us a line and discover how we can automate your Revit workflows.
