Revit: Design Options in Linked Revit Files Not Respected as Room Boundaries

I was trying to assist on a project in the office today (using Revit^® 2018.3), when I ran into this issue, documented by Dave Baldacchino nearly six years ago. I set up a simplified set of files for experimental purposes; the images below demonstrate the problem remains an issue at least through 2018.3.

I created a "link" model, that has one Design Option Set (Exterior Walls) which in turn has two Design Options, Option 1 (primary) and Option 2. Each Design Option has one Wall object, running in the Project North-South direction (up and down on the screen). These are identical, with the exception that the Wall in Option 2 is offset 10 feet in the direction of Project West (left on the screen).

The link model is linked into a "host" model (origin to origin; both files were started with the same template file). In a floor plan view, four additional Walls were drawn, and two Rooms with Room Tags added. In the image below, the link model is showing Option 1 (primary). The link model is selected, and its type properties displayed to show that the link model is set to be room bounding. Interior Fill is turned on for the Rooms, to illustrate their extents.

No surprises there. But change the Visibility Graphics Overrides for the linked model to display Option 2, and the Wall moves 10'-0" to the left, as expected, but the Rooms stubbornly maintain their extents at the face of the Option 1 (primary) Wall location.

The workaround, to make the linked file not be room bounding, and to draw Room Separation lines in the host file, is not going to make anyone on that project team very happy.

Revit: Cannot Tag Room in a Linked Revit Model

I ran into a case of this today, and as I checked a number of other things that were not the cause of the problem before I found this Autodesk^® Knowledge Network article, I thought I would document it here so I can find it faster in the future.

The problem was that the linked model did not have any Rooms in the equivalent phase that was set in the host file Views in which the Room Tags were to be placed. Since Rooms are phase-specific, they need to be recreated for each phase.

In this particular case, there were variations in the names that were given to the phases. To verify how the phases for a particular linked file are mapped (and make any necessary adjustments):

1. In the host file, select the linked model.
2. On the Properties palette, select the Edit Type button.
   
3. In the Type Properties dialog, under the Other category, select the Edit button to the right of the Phase Mapping parameter.
   
4. In the Phases dialog, you can assign the appropriate phase from the linked file to each phase in the host file. Revit will usually match up phases with the same name. (I am not sure what happens if the same names are used, but the phases are in a different order. That is such bad practice that I do not even want to test it.) Selecting in the Phase from linked file column next to a given host Phase will activate a drop-down list, which can be used to select from the phases defined in the linked file.
   

The phases shown in the image above are just the default Existing and New Construction phases, and are the same in both sample files. On a real project, particularly one with multiple phases, there are "opportunities" for different disciplines to use different names and it may not be readily apparent how the phases map without checking.

Revit: Hosting Face-Based Light Fixtures to Ceilings in Linked Files

We ran into an issue at the office today, and I wanted to document the solution for my own future reference. Our firm has architects and engineers in-house, and each discipline typically works in separate models that are then linked into each other. This particular project was being done in the 2012 versions of Revit MEP, Revit Structure and Revit Architecture. The electrical engineers found that they were not able to place face-based light fixture families in their model, and host them to the ceilings that were modeled in the linked architectural model. Reflected ceiling plan views were being used and the ceilings were visible, but the fixtures would only host to the Walls.

It turned out that the Ceiling model category was turned off in the affected views in the Electrical model. This did not prevent the linked architectural model from displaying the ceilings, and they were also TAB-selectable in the Electrical model. But it did prevent Revit MEP from "seeing" them as a potential host. Once the ceiling category in the electrical model was turned back on in those views, Revit was able to find the ceilings and host fixtures to them. It was necessary to check the Show categories from all disciplines toggle in order to do this.