REVIT FAMILIES: Basic Wall Work Plane

This issue came to my attention when I was trying to add trim to a door family and it wasn’t flexingto different sizes of walls in the project. When I looked at another door family with trim thatworked, I discovered this “Basic Wall” work plane and figured it was supposed to be a helpfulelement. There are some differences in versions 2008, 2009, and 2010, but it does come up inall three.

Basic Wall Defined:

1. The “Basic Wall” plane has some unique properties.2. The “Basic Wall” plane is actually two planes, one on each face of the wall in the doortemplate. (I don’t even want to think about why there are not two names: “Basic WallExterior” and “Basic Wall Interior”!!!)3. The “Basic Wall” plane can be used only for elements created in exterior or interiorelevation views.4. The “Basic Wall” plane does not appear in the “Select Work Plane” list unless someelement is already attached to it. So, if you start with the “Door.rft” template and deletethe trim, VOILA, the “Basic Wall” plane disappears from the work plane list!5. With no “Basic Wall” in the list, some of us compensated by adding reference planes toeach face of the wall and naming them “Exterior Wall Face” and “Interior Wall Face.”

NOT NECESSARY

You can make the “Basic Wall” Work Plane reappear by using the“Pick a plane” option in the “Set Work Plane” dialog box.Basic Wall Step-By-Step:

Let’s say you want to create door trim as an extrusion referenced to the EXTERIORWALL FACE and you find that, in the Exterior Elevation view, the “Basic Wall” plane doesnot appear in the “Select Work Plane” list. Try the following:

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Select the EXTERIOR ELEVATION view

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Start an extrusion

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Select “Set Work Plane”

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Select “Pick a plane”

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Pick the wall

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Create your extrusion

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The “Basic Wall” work plane will now appear in the work plane list, and REVITknows that, when you are in the EXTERIOR elevation view, it means you wantthe EXTERIOR wall face even though the name of the plane is “Basic Wall”!!

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Do the same for the INTERIOR wall face.