Weird Reference Callout Rules in Revit

Over many years of struggling with Revit's numerous quirks, I have never quite figured out what the hidden rules are for Callouts.  Here are my latest thoughts after some detailed research:

Reference Callouts

When you tick the box 'Reference Other View' you get a list of possible views to reference.  That list of views is not predictable (so I thought) - however, I've narrowed down some extra rules about which views might be available:

• A plan, section, elevation or detail view will only show in the list if it is cropped  (This caught me out at first).
• A drafting view cannot be cropped - so the above rule does not apply.
• A so-called "Rendering" view, which is actually like a drafting view with an image on it- so it cannot be cropped
• Certain view family/types are available depending on the active view being placed in - see the list below.
• If you apply the first two rules to the list of view types below, you might just be able to predict what can be referenced when.

Rules for 'Reference Other View' Callouts:

In a floor plan view, you can reference callout to:

• Any drafting view
• A detail Plan view (but not a section detail view)
• A floor plan view (including Area plan and RCP)
• A Rendering view

In a detail plan view, you can reference callout to:

• Any drafting view
• Any detail view (Plan or section)
• Any section or elevation view
• Not to any floor plan - (this is a big limitation)
• A Rendering view
  

In a section view or section detail view, you can reference callout to:

• Any drafting view
• Any detail view (Plan or section)
• Any other section or elevation view (But not to a floor plan)
• A Rendering view
  

 

In a drafting view (or a rendering view), you can reference callout to:

• Any drafting view
• Any detail view
• Any floor plan view (including Area plan and RCP)
• Any other section or elevation view
• A Rendering view

However, the choice of view type is not always that simple . . . .

In a previous post (about stair path arrows) I described the relative benefits of making your plan callouts 'Plan Views' vs 'Detail Views'.

You may also want to display your stairs differently in plan (compared to the standard 2D representation in plan views):

• True 3D RCP Stair View

Weirder and Weirder

For more details on Callout weirdness, refer to:

• Weird rules for Real Callouts

• Callout Crop-Boundary Mismatch

• Which kind of Callout to use

Travel Path Update in Revit 2020.2

Hooray - with the release of 2020.2, we finally have something useable in the Revit 2020 Path of Travel feature!

The initial release in Revit 2020 Path of Travel and Follow Up and the improvements in 2020.1 actually gave us a feature that was unusable in almost every situation.

It still has a number of limitations but at last we can make use of it to some degree.  What makes the big difference is the ability to add "Waypoints" anywhere along the path of travel.

You may remember (from my earlier descriptions) that when you place a 'Path of Treavel' by clicking the start and end points, Revit calculates the path for you - and you had little control over that, apart from choosing which elements form obstructions (or not).  Hence, in the standard Autodesk sample file, the path calculation was not able to determine that a sofa at a lower level should still be an obstruction:

Path or travel in v2020

In 2020.2, the calculation seems to have been slightly rationalised to give a more sensible path through the corridor to the north, but it still goes over the sofa in the split-level living area.

Path of Travel in 2020.2

Add Waypoints

We now have the ability to add (or remove) 'Waypoints' - this allows us to nudge the path to a more sensible course around the sofa.

If you need to make your path of travel orthogonal (as required in some jurisdictions), it can be done by adding enough waypoints - rather laborious but at least it works.

This is a very welcome addition to this feature.  However, it is still taking longer than the Daleks to learn how to manage stairs and changes of level in the building.
There is still no way to control the minimum width of a gap between obstacles (about 430mm or 17")

Scope Box View Property Greyed Out in Revit

Here is a little software trick to catch out the unwary Revit user:

There are some situations where the Scope Box property of a view is greyed out - so you cannot assign a Scope Box to the view.

The answer may be to do with the Crop Boundary - and it may not be obvious, especially if the crop boundary is hidden.

To track this down:

• Make the Crop Boundary visible
• It may or may not be apparent that the  Crop Boundary has been edited

•  Or it may not be obvious - if only a minor edit is done to the boundary

• Select the crop boundary

 

•  If it has been cropped, the Ribbon will show the 'Reset Crop' icon available

• Another way to check if it has been cropped is to look for the shape-handles on the crop boundary - extra dots indicate segments in a boundary

• Click on 'Reset Crop' - the edits to the boundary will be removed (along with the extra shape-handles)

• The Scope Box property will now be available for use.

•  The 'Reset Crop' icon will now be greyed out - indicating the crop is no longer edited.

This behaviour is quite logical once you know what is going on - but it can be confusing when you first encounter it.  Of course you do not want people to accidentally remove a Crop Boundary just by applying Scope Boxes - without realising what they have done.