A user in my company asked me how to control the extent of gridlines in multiple views. The ADESK help files are terrible at explaining a fairly simple process, so here is my revisited explanation.
A grid is a vertical plane that defines the location of structural elements. A grid in REVIT is an element composed of two entities: 1) A datum 'plane' 2) A linework that make it visible in projection. Gridlines are not visible in 3D, only in projection views, such as elevations or sections. The datum plane and its associated linework may or may not have the same extent. How can you tell?
Let's look at these four grid properties:
- A hollow grip indicates the end of the datum plane.
- A small solid blue grip indicates the end of the grid projection linework.
- A 3D symbol indicates that the datum extent is in sync with the linework.
- A 2D symbol indicates that the datum and the projection linework are independent, or have different ends.
Here is the fun part. Clicking over the 3D symbol 'divorce' the datum end from the projection linework, converting the hollow grip into a solid grip. In other words, views can have different projection ends, but the datum end remains unique in the project.
To re-synchronize the datum plane with the projection linework, rejoin the grips, and the grid will return to a '3D' state. If the grid end is outside the crop view region, the grids will not be converted.
The grid right-click menu has additional grid controls:
Drag End: Moves an end grip end along the grid line. This command only works when you hoover over the solid blue grip and enable the right click mouse menu.
Reset to Crop: Trims or extends the projection linework to the annotation crop boundary. Use this to fix the extent of gridlines modified while the crop region was switched off.
Reset to 3D Extents: Synchronizes the projection line end with the datum end. This is the equivalent of manually dragging the solid grip over the hollow grip
Maximize 3D Extents: Extends the datum ends to the boundary defined by the farthest geometry in the project. However, this will NOT work if the view crop region is visible. Switch off the crop region to use this command.
An extremely useful control is the
Propagate Extends tool in the grid contextual ribbon. This will replicate the linework of a system of grids from the current view to multiple views. For example, if you worked arduosly to set your grid linework in a certain way, ie displaying custom arm and leg breaks, you can copy the same display properties across several views. Don't re-dothis view by view. This is precious time wasted!
Lastly... you can associate a grid line with a scope box per family instance properties. This does two things: 1) It will lock the datum extent (hollow grip) to the scope box boundary and 2) it will place the linework end (solid blue grip) at a fixed 1" distance from the scope box boundary. Use scope boxes to apply a consistent grid display in multiple views with different plan orientations, ie enlarged detail plans. Where does the 1" come from? hmm..."sepajudas" like we say in spanish. Post a comment to me if you know the answer!
