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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 flexing
to different sizes of walls in the project. When I looked at another door family with trim that
worked, I discovered this “Basic Wall” work plane and figured it was supposed to be a helpful
element. There are some differences in versions 2008, 2009, and 2010, but it does come up in
all 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 door
template. (I don’t even want to think about why there are not two names: “Basic Wall
Exterior” and “Basic Wall Interior”!!!)

3. The “Basic Wall” plane can be used only for elements created in exterior or interior
elevation views.

4. The “Basic Wall” plane does not appear in the “Select Work Plane” list unless some
element is already attached to it. So, if you start with the “Door.rft” template and delete
the 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 to
each 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 EXTERIOR
WALL FACE and you find that, in the Exterior Elevation view, the “Basic Wall” plane does
not appear in the “Select Work Plane” list. Try the following:

• Select the EXTERIOR ELEVATION view

• Start an extrusion
• Select “Set Work Plane”
• Select “Pick a plane”
• Pick the wall
• Create your extrusion
• The “Basic Wall” work plane will now appear in the work plane list, and REVIT
knows that, when you are in the EXTERIOR elevation view, it means you want
the EXTERIOR wall face even though the name of the plane is “Basic Wall”!!
• Do the same for the INTERIOR wall face.

Copyright 2009 Ruth Ellen Williams Page 1 of 2

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OR, the following works too:

• Select the PLAN view

• Start an extrusion
• Select “Set Work Plane”
• Select “Pick a plane”
• Pick the EXTERIOR wall face
• REVIT will force you to switch to an elevation view, so pick the EXTERIOR wall
face elevation
• Create your extrusion in the elevation
• The “Basic Wall” work plane will now appear in the work plane list, and REVIT
knows that it means you want the EXTERIOR wall face!!
• Do the same for the INTEIOR wall face.

This also works for windows – try the “Window.rft” template which doesn’t come with trim
so you have to create something before you will see the “Basic Wall” plane in the list.

Basic Wall Misc:

In the family you can add different Basic Wall types at different sizes so you can check that
flexing before you place the element in a project.

Version 2009 “Door.rft.” has reference planes added to the faces of the basic wall, so the
confusion has evidently been recognized. “Window.rft,” however doesn’t have the reference lines
added.

Copyright 2009 Ruth Ellen Williams Page 2 of 2