Plan Views in Revit

Sources: 1, 2

About Plan Views

In a 2D view, display a floor plan, a reflected ceiling plan, or structural plan.

Floor Plan Views

The floor plan view is the default view in a new architectural project. Most projects include at least one floor plan. Floor plan views are created automatically as you add new levels to your project.

Reflected Ceiling Plan Views

Most projects include at least one reflected ceiling plan (RCP) view. Reflected ceiling plan views are created automatically as you add new levels to your project.

Structural Plan Views

The structural plan view is the default view when you start a new project using a structural template. Most projects include at least one structural plan. New structural plan views are created automatically as you add new levels to your project.

Engineers view plans at different orientations in different countries. Revit provides for this variation with the View Direction type parameter for structural plans. 

You can create multiple structural plan view types and define the View Direction parameter differently for each, allowing multiple view directions within a project. Typically, foundation views are viewed down to show structural floors, wall foundations, and footings. Framing views can be viewed up for a view of structural framing elements unobscured by structural floors.

View direction perspective

Adjusting the Depth of a Plan View

Make this view adjustment to view parts of a model below the cut plane. 

If you only want the wall visible in the plan view as it appears in the view range of Level 3, you can clip the wall from view using the Depth Clipping parameter. 

You activate this feature using the Depth Clipping parameter for the plan view. The back clip plane is defined by the View Depth parameter, which is part of the view’s View Range properties.

Plan views include floor plan views, reflected ceiling plan views, detail plan views, and callout plan views. 

Note: For Revit Structure, plan views include structural plan views, detail plan views, and callout plan views. 

Example

The following image illustrates the back clip plane, showing the cut plane, the view depth, the plan view with the wall below Level 3 clipped, and the plan view with the wall below Level 3 visible. 

The following image shows the cut plane and the view depth for this model, and the resulting plan view representations for the Depth Clipping parameter options: Clip without line, Clip with line, and No clip.  

Plan regions respect the Depth Clipping parameter setting of their parent view, but follow their own View Range settings. 

Elements that have symbolic representation in certain views (such as structural beams) and non-cuttable families are not affected when you cut a plan view by the back clip plane. They will display and are not cut. 

This property does affect printing.