Controlling Visibility in Revit: Managing Upper and Base Cabinets efficiently

Managing Visibility Settings for Upper and Base Cabinets in Revit

Delve into the intricate dynamics of controlling the visibility of individual elements in a model. Discover how to effectively switch between different models, making use of the options available to fine-tune the visibility settings based on specific details.

Key Insights

  • You can control the visibility of individual elements in a model in different ways, one of which includes adjusting the settings based on the detail level; coarse, medium, or fine.
  • It is possible to turn off the visibility in various perspectives like the plan or RCP, front or back, left or right, or whether it's cut, depending on the category. This helps in avoiding conflicts between elements and symbolic lines in a plan.
  • One can assign a visibility parameter to control whether an element (like an upper cabinet) is turned on or off, based on the type parameter settings. This helps in maintaining a clean and optimal model display.

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You may be asking, you know, now that we've created a upper and a base cabinet, what do we do if we have situations where we don't want to have the upper cabinet, but we only want to have the base cabinet, but we want to use the same family? Well, we have options for controlling the visibility of these individual elements, and we can do that a couple of different ways. And in this model, it doesn't so much apply, but we do have the option to adjust the visibility settings based upon the detail level, whether it's coarse, medium, or fine. If you were modeling to where, say, this was the coarse level, and then at medium and fine, you had put more detail, like the cabinet doors or maybe some trim pieces, you could have the option to only show it at coarse or just show it at medium with all of the detail.

You also have the option to turn it off where it's in plan or RCP, front or back, left or right, or whether it's cut, depending on the category. In our case, we would have a conflict between this element and the symbolic line that we just drew in plan. And so we're going to want to turn off plan or RCP or when cut in plan or RCP so that we can see that hidden line on top of the base cabinet in our plan views.

We don't have any options that we're going to exercise for the detail levels right now, so we're just going to hit OK. And then the other option that we have is we can actually assign a parameter using this visible option here, meaning that whether that upper cabinet is turned on or off based on the type parameter settings. So I can go in and use this little button here.

And I can associate the on off visibility parameter with another parameter that I assign. And we don't have any of these yes, no parameters right now, so we'll need to create one. And that'll be with this symbol right here.

If we click on that, we get the same dialog box that we've been seeing quite a bit. And I can go in here and I can just say, you know, upper cabinet, because this is going to represent the visibility of the upper cabinet. I can leave it as a type parameter because that's how we would use it.

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And then we just want to group the parameters instead of grouping it under other. We would want to go with visibility because then you know immediately if it's within visibility and it just says upper cabinet, you know, OK, that's the visibility parameter for the upper cabinet. So go ahead and hit OK.

And hit OK again, and now I actually want to do the exact same thing we just did with the visibility parameter to my symbolic line. And the reason we want to do that is because if the upper cabinet is not turned on, we want to make sure that the symbolic line is not showing as well. So where it says visible, I can now associate that element with the upper cabinet parameter.

And when we create types that don't show it, these will no longer show within the model.

photo of Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson

Revit Instructor

Bachelor of Architecture, Registered Architect

Mike is recognized by Autodesk as one of North America’s leading Revit Certified Instructors. He has significant experience integrating Revit, 3ds Max, and Rhino and uses Revit Architecture on medium and large-scale bio and nano-tech projects. Mike has been an integral member of the VDCI team for over 15 years, offering his hard-charging, “get it done right” approach and close attention to detail. In his spare time, Mike enjoys spending time outdoors with his wife, children, and dog.

  • Autodesk Certified Instructor (ACI GOLD – 1 of 20 Awarded Globally)
  • Autodesk Certified AutoCAD Professional
  • Autodesk Certified Revit Professional
  • Revit
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