Revit MEP pipes, accessories and fittings appearing as lines in Navisworks

We've had a couple of reports of pipe fittings, pipe accessories and in some cases pipes from Revit MEP 2013 just appearing as lines in Navisworks as shown below.

If you are seeing this behavior, there is a straightforward workaround.

1. In the 3D view in Revit change the Level Of Detail from Medium to Fine

   

2. Export an NWC file from Revit 2013, if you don't have the Navisworks exporters for Revit check this blog.

These pipe fittings should now appear correctly when opened in Navisworks.

A workaround for importing Revit files suggested by Travis Beecher in the comments is to edit settings for the visual graphics in the family itself to show up in medium and fine then when the Revit file is loaded into Navisworks you will see all your fittings. 

Comments

[Martin Schmid]

In response to Paul Jordan, instead of having ot modify your Style Definitions to toggle the 'Single Line Graphics' settings for each System so they show solid, you can instead modify the 'Standard' display representation to show solids, then use the Navisworks Option "Use ADT Standard Configuration"

For example, browse to Display Manager > > Configurations > Standard > Model.
In the rows for Pipe, Pipe Custom Fitting, Pipe Fitting, Pipe Flex, make sure there are check marks in the "2 Line" column.

Now verify in NWOPT > File Readers > DWG > Use ADT Standard Configuration is checked.

Whether you use NWCOUT or read the .DWG directly in Navis, your pipes will be solids, even if they display as single line in your normal plotting/working Display Configuration.

[Account Deleted]

2013 Exporter needs a little touch for the railings also. When exporting the railings it does funny things with the balusters!

Here you can look at my blogpost. It's in Turkish but Pictures are pictures..

http://www.revitkutuphanesi.com/2012/06/revit-2013-balusterlar-da-suite-problem.html

[Paul Jordan]

Another very common issue that I see with the Autocad MEP cousins of Revit MEP is along the exact same lines. My users will draw 3D pipes in Autocad MEP and when they save, the pipes don't show in NavisWorks. The problem comes from the Style Manager, Piping Objects, Pipe System Definitions, (insert system name here), Single Line Graphics.

You should see a couple of boxes that are checked and they're basically saying if the pipe is less than or equal to a set value, they will show as single lines.

Since NavisWorks is basically a very powerful Adobe Reader, it will display what you would normally plot.

If that box is checked, it will plot that pipe as a single line. Most us up turn off 2d lines in NavisWorks (I hope) and therefore, we won't see the piping.

An easy way to tell if they have that box checked is to take a look at the Autocad MEP drawing and see if you see a centerline in the 3d pipe itself. That's a dead giveaway that the box is selected.

[Lee Mullin]

Thanks Travis, we'll add this to the blog

[Travis Beecher]

We found that if you edit settings for the visual graphics in the family itself to show up in medium and fine then go to Navis as a native file you will see all your fittings.