What to Do with All the Orphaned Revit MEP Elements

There is nothing more frustrating than opening your Revit MEP project to find your hosted elements have become disassociated or orphaned from the architectural Revit linked model. There are several reasons why your Revit hosted elements can become orphaned, the main one being an update with the linked architectural model’s ceilings. Instead of selecting each element one by one and rehosting them, you can remedy this issue from the start of your project or mid project development. 

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  1. In your MEP model, go to an elevation or section view. I prefer a section view because I can see the architectural elements. Add a level datum at the height of the architectural model’s ceiling. Give the level a name that you will know is yours and what it is referring to. 

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2. Open a view that displays the orphaned elements and select all of them. It may be necessary to open a ceiling view to perform the next tasks. From the contextual tab>Work Plane panel, expand Edit Work Plane and select Edit Work Plane

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3. In the Work Plane dialog box, from the Name drop-down list, select the level you created in the elevation or section view and click OK

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4. Your elements are no longer orphaned. When the architect makes changes to the ceiling, you can adjust this MEP level accordingly. 

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Our Revit MEP fundamentals book covers how to copy/monitor levels so that when levels are moved or modified, you are notified either when opening the model or when updating the linked model in the Manage Links dialog box. 

I hope you found this blog useful in your day-to-day work life.  

About the Author

Cherisse Biddulph

Learning Content Developer<br><br>Cherisse is an Autodesk Certified Professional for Revit as well as an Autodesk Certified Instructor. She brings over 19 years of industry, teaching, and technical support experience to her role as a Learning Content Developer with ASCENT. With a passion for design and architecture, she received her Associates of Applied Science in Architectural Drafting and Design with a four-year core curriculum in Interior Design and has worked in the industry assisting firms with their CAD management and software implementation needs as they modernize to a Building Information Modeling (BIM) design environment. Cherisse continues to expand her knowledge in the ever evolving AEC industry and the software used to support it.

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