Revit: Changing the Level Elevation without moving the Level

There are often times when you want to change the elevation of a level to a value other than 0.  Though you could physically move the levels up, this is not the ideal way to handle this situation.  Revit can tend to get cranky when the model is too far from zero.  So how do we set our levels to read a different elevation without physically moving them?

If you look at the type properties shown for the level that is selected, you will see there the Elevation Base is set to Project.  You have another option to set it to Shared.  Setting the value to Shared will allow you to specify coordinates at that level to read a different value.

How To Create A Shared Level

The first thing we want to do is select one of the levels, from the properties dialog select Edit Type, then duplicate the current level type and name it Shared.   Change the value for the Elevation Base to Shared (prior to 2013), for 2013 change it to Survey Point.  Select OK.

You will notice that the value of the level is still 0.  It will remain 0 until we specify different coordinates at that location or if we were to acquire the coordinates from another file, but we will discuss that in another blog.

How to Specify Coordinates at a Point

To specify the coordinates go to the Manage Tab, Project Location panel and from the drop down under coordinates select Specify Coordinates at Point

In your view, select the level and it will bring up the dialog shown below

Type in the value of the new elevation that you want the level to read, then select OK

You will notice that your other levels have not changed, that is because they are still set to the original level type. 

Select the remaining levels and change them to the shared level type to update them.

Keep in mind that you can only have one shared coordinate system, so coordinate with other team disciplines to determine what should be done for your project.

 

Comments

[Tracy]

I do not have an option to select "Shared" from the Elevation base type. My only options are Project base point or Survey point. The elevation of my project base point is 100', but my level 1 still reads 0'. What am I doing wrong?

[Sherry Pittman]

In 2013 they changed the verbage in the parameter from Project and Shared to Project Base Point and Survery point. For 2013 to read the shared value select Survey Point rather than shared.

I have updated the blog to include the 2013 screen capture.

[Pete Hughes]

Exactly what I was looking for.

Many Thanks,
Pete Hughes

[Sven Svenson]

After adjusting your elevation this way you will still need to fix any other elevation tags so they will update accordingly. Same approach. Select the tag(s), Edit Type, change Elevation Origin to Survey Point.

You don't want your sections showing elevation 867'-0" with your plan showing top of footing tagged at 96'-0".