Revit Tutorial - Hey, What Happened to My Stairs?!

We ran into an interesting issue regarding detail views and plan blowups today in work.  Basically, someone had created a set of stair drawings by blowing up (calling out) the main floor plans and dragging them onto sheets.  Oddly, the stairs looked very strange in the blowup views... Why?  Because they did not have any hidden lines showing the stair continuing above...  A little investigation led me to discover the major difference between using a "Detail Callout" and a "Floor Plan Callout".  

• Click here to view the video via YouTube...
• Click here to view the video via Screencast...

So basically, it all boils down to the way a "Detail View" and a "Plan View" are treated (based on the idea of view range):

On a floor plan view the range is defined as such:

Where:

1. Top
2. Cut Plane
3. Bottom
4. Offset
5. Primary Range
6. View Depth

On a Detail View the range is as follows (similar to that of an elevation or section):

In conclusion, with a top, offset, or primary range... A "Detail View Callout" of a floor plan will not show the stairs above...

The lesson is simple:  When calling out a floor plan make sure the callout type is set to "Floor Plan"...

All images courtesy of Autodesk Revit 2011's help files...