Revit Tip - Invisible Line Style

Invisible Line Style.

First you see it, then you don’t.

Revit uses various Line Styles to denote variation within a model. As you might expect, we have the usual suspects, Solid, Hidden, Centreline etc. In addition, we also have ‘Invisible lines’. As the name suggests this is a Line Style that cannot be seen, the line still exists but is invisible, this is incredibly useful. This post provides some examples where you may want to use it.

Linework

The ‘Linework’ tool overrides the line style for a selected line in the active view.

The ‘Linework’ tool can be found in the Modify Tab – View Panel - Linework.

Select the ‘Linework’ tool, pick the line you want to disappear, select the ‘Invisible Lines’ line style from the dropdown in the ribbon.

There may be several coincident edges so keep picking until all the lines are changed to ‘Invisible’.

If you change your mind and want the original line back again, simply hover over the location of the desired line, it will highlight, when it does, select it and then pick ‘ByCategory’ to restore the original line. (Remember, you did not delete the line only change its line style.)

Masking Region

The Masking Region tool can be used to obscure elements within the model that reside be hide the Masking Region.. Using a visible line style for the boundary of the masking region will cause an undesirable effect, this would be a good time to use the Invisible Lines style.

The Masking Region tool can be found in the Annotate Tab, Detail Panel, Masking Region.

The images below shows Revit’s default method of displaying one pipe above another and the result of using a Masking Region with Invisible lines used for the boundary.

Here a Masking Region with Invisible lines is used to define the boundary and then additional lines used to add detail.

You will find ‘Invisible Lines’ used by several detailing tools with Revit, including Filled Regions, & Symbolic lines.

My previous blog post was about adding impact with sketchy lines in Autodesk Revit. To read this just click the link or if you want to learn some other useful Revit tips, just head over to the Graitec BIM blog category.