Show Angled Wings Square to Sheet in Revit

Buildings often have portions that are created at an angle to the main portion of the building.  When this occurs, we want the construction documents to show the angled portion at right angles to the sheet to make effective usage of the sheet space.  Scope boxes provide us with a very easy way to address this issue.

Scope boxes within Revit are also an excellent method of having multiple views of the same area show the exact same portion of the building in each view.  This is helpful for consistency in showing a wing the same in a Furniture Plan, Dimension Plan, Occupancy Plan, Code Plan, Framing Plan, Roof Plan, Power Plan, Communications Plan, Lighting Plan, HVAC Plan, Piping Plan, Sanitary Plan, etc.

The following steps will help you set up scope boxes.

Step A: Create Scope Box in Project File

1. Open a plan view of the entire building.  (For this illustration, we will assume a building with 2 wings, with the right wing going up at a 45 degree angle from the left wing.)
2. Go to the View tab and select the Scope Box command on the Create panel.
3. Draw a rectangular Scope Box around the horizontal portion of the west wing area.
4. Draw a rectangular Scope Box anywhere near the east angled wing.
   1. Highlight the second Scope Box and rotate it 45 degrees.
   2. After rotating the Scope Box, use the grips on each edge to stretch the sides to incorporate the entire east wing as shown below:
5. Highlight the west Scope Box, go to the Properties palette, and the change the Name property to say “West Wing”.
6. Highlight the east Scope Box, go to the Properties palette, and the change the Name property to say “East Wing”.
7. Note that the Properties palette contains an option for Views Visible that allows you to determine the views in which the selected Scope Box will be visible. Scope boxes can also be turned on/off in the Visibility Graphics Overrides for specific views.

Step B: Utilize the Scope Boxes

1. In the Project Browser, right-click on a floor plan and select the Duplicate option.
2. Right-click on the newly created Copy of xxx view and select the Rename option. Rename the view to East Wing Plan View.
3. In the Project Browser, right-click on the floor plan again and select the Duplicate option again.
4. Right-click on the newly created Copy of xxx view and select the Rename option. Rename the view to West Wing Plan View.
5. With the West Wing Plan View opened, go to the Properties palette. Scroll down to the Extents category and go to the Scope Box parameter. Change the parameter value from None to West Wing.
6. The view will now be cropped to the extents of the West Wing Scope Box.
7. In the Project Browser, double-click on the Mech East Wing Plan View floor plan view.
8. With the East Wing  Plan View opened, go to the Properties palette. Scroll down to the Extents category and go to the Scope Box parameter. Change the parameter value from None to East Wing.
9. The view will now be cropped to the extents of the East Wing Scope Box, but will also be rotated parallel to the sheet instead of at the 45 degree rotation at which it was created.
10. This view can now be placed on a sheet.

Additional Information for MEP users:

Replicate Scope Boxes from Architectural Linked File

If the Architectural model contains scope boxes that are desired in the MEP model, they can be copied into the MEP file(s).

1. Make sure that the architectural file containing the scope boxes is linked into the MEP file that is open.
2. In a plan view, hover over the west Scope Box and press the TAB key until the Scope Box is highlighted, then select the Scope Box.
3. Copy the highlighted Scope Box to the clipboard with either CTRL+C or the Copy to Clipboard command on the Clipboard panel of the Modify|RVT Links tab.
4. Paste the Scope Box into the host MEP file by pressing CTRL+V or the Paste from Clipboard command on the Clipboard panel.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for the East Wing Scope Box.
6. Note that the Scope Box names come into the host file along with the Scope Boxes.

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