Windows on a building, blurred

Window not showing correctly in Plan in Revit – Solution

Hey guys,

This issue came up a couple of times in two separate offices this week and every time it did I had to scratch my head and re-figure it out, even though I think I kinda knew it from before. I hope this post is helpful to people with the same predicament but I also hope that I will finally engrave the solution deep into my brain by writing it into a blog post. Here we go.

Problem.

Window displays wrong when cut in Plan view, adjusting View Range has no effect.

This can often occur with a full-height double-pane windows with an openable upper part, for example. The window might look like this when this happens.

Solution.

The actual solution can be found in this Autodesk Troubleshooting page, but there are a few tricky moments when following the recipe given in the text. Here is what the suggested solution looks like according to Autodesk:

  1. Edit the family.
  2. Go to the Ref Level.
  3. In the View Properties edit the View Range.
  4. Set the desired value for the Cut Plane.
  5. Load the updated family into the project.
  6. Verify that the appearance of the family is updated.

The first part of the solution is to conceptually grasp the fact that you cannot do anything inside of the Project – everything is done inside the actual Family! This can be really confusing because, well just because View Ranges are really confusing to begin with. And so you might be thinking “Gosh, what did I screw up this time, I’m cutting in the correct level yet I am getting this weird window. I can see that all the parts of the window are there when I tab/select it but it simply doesn’t want to show! “£*”!%&&!” And you would be correct! You’ve done everything right within the Project, but you have to head to the Window Family in order to make this work.

We are now editing the family and getting to point #2 – Go to the Ref Level. The tricky bit here is figuring out what the hell is the Ref Level and how to go there – the Ref Level is the Family equivalent of the Project floor level and you select it like so:

and then you will be able to change the View Range:

Adjust the cutting plane so it goes through all the bits that need to be displayed.

And there you have it. Load the Family back into the Project and it should work fine. It is a bit controversial but I guess, like all things in Revit, someone must have had a reason to create this functionality.

Now go cut your Window like it was meant to be cut! Oh, and that works for Doors too. Cheers, folks! (I’m literarily having a Cider right now)

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