Changing the Height of Radial Grid Lines in Revit

A while ago I figured out a simple Revit trick to solve a seemingly difficult problem:

How do you quickly adjust the height of multiple radial gridlines?

If you create a set of radial grid lines in a new project, they will automatically adjust their height to the number of levels in the model (plus a bit above and below);  If the model is already populated with elements, the grids will extend just above and below the furthest extent of the elements.  This is all fine until you need to extend the grids higher - say you add some new levels, in which case the grids will probably not show on the new level plan views.

Orthogonal Grids
With orthogonal grids it is easy - you just go into a section or elevation view, select a gridline and drag its 3D extents up or down;  all parallel aligned grids will go with it - then they will appear in the new level plans.  Obviously you need to do the same operation in a perpendicular view to get the rest of the grids.

Radial Grids
To perform this operation on radial grids would require one perpendicular section view for each grid - as grids will only show in a section or elevation if it is perpendicular to the grid.  That would be a painful process to say the least.

Not The Solution
Don't waste your time with the "Propagate Extents" button that appears on the ribbon when you select a grid.  It is misleading - it won't change the 3D extents of a gridline at all - it only changes the 2D extents of the grid on specified views to match the current view.

The Solution

• Create a scope box roughly around the shape of where the grids need to be in plan - it may help to rotate the scope box;
• Give the scope box a meaningful name (even if only "temp grid height") ;
• Adjust the height of the scope box (in section or elevation) to that required for the gridlines;
• Draw a temporary curved gridline around the plan extent of the grids;

 

• Select all the radial gridlines;
• In the properties, set their scope box Extents to your temporary scope box;
• It will crop their 3d extents in plan to the box (plus a bit), but it will also extend their height as desired;  Now you will not be able to adjust the individual grid 3d extents as they are locked to the scope box;
• Delete the scope box, or else set the grid extents back to none, so they are no longer controlled by the scope box;

•  Now select each gridline and drag its 3d extents out to snap to the temporary curved gridline.

This method is vastly quicker than creating numerous section views.  I hope it saves somebody a lot of time, like it did for me!

Revit Repeaters and Flexing Star Adaptive Components

Here are a couple of Youtube clips I created for the presentation I did at last year's RTC on Revit Repeaters and Divided Paths on Adaptive Components:

• Flexing Star Adaptive Component and Divided Paths

This was a two point adaptive component that had a reporting parameter (distance between the points) that was used in a formula to drive the size of the two circles.  The circles had "Divided Paths" on them, the nodes of the paths were linked with reference lines.  As the relative sizes of the circles changed, the interconnecting shapes changed too.

• Flexing Star Repeater on a Divided Surface

The two point adaptive component was placed on adjacent nodes on a Divide Surface;  then it was repeated.  Initially the adaptive component was the same in each instance; but when the surface was distorted, the distance between points varied, and so the adaptive component changed from hexagons to stars.