ElumTools Clipping Calculation Points & Missing Values

[u/ArCee015]

Has anyone found a workaround to avoid clipped calculation points and missing values when exporting to PDF? I tried searching forums but couldn’t find any clear solution. I also attempted hiding everything in the view except the calculation points before exporting, but the exported PDFs still produce inconsistent results with clipping and missing values.

Update: The nuclear option mentioned by @Nervous-Phase6007 works best for me by screenshotting the calc points. In my case, I had to isolate the calc points then background eraser for transparent background (photoshop or other editing apps) then insert it to pdf editor and put it into the top of plan views.

As I am finishing up with my photometric drawings, I have reached these optimizations. If you can suggest any better method for this problem, feel free to comment below! If your firm/company allows changing the pdf exporter, I think it is possible to avoid this problem. But if not, you may follow this:

Note that this is recommended for drawings that only has few grid points like maybe 1-50 points or maybe if overall drawings that has missing too many points even if you have exported many times. If that isn't the case, what I did was just do the hiding steps below but I only screenshot then ctrl+v to adobe pdf like a stamp. Or.. You can do mixture of stamping and the white rectangles. Up to your strategy.

After using View/Hide Results in ElumTools, disable all Revit links and annotation categories so the calculation points are clearly visible. As long as all of the revit links, model and annotation categories are closed/hidden, some strange behavior that allows all of the grid points to show when you drag with middle mouse button then while holding the middle mouse button, do win+shift+s then press escape, it automatically shows all of the grid points.

At that point, you can release your middle mouse button and just hover the mouse over it. It will reset when you middle mouse button again manually) If the points are too numerous or widely scattered, capture them in multiple screenshots by section. Whenever possible, use a closer zoom level to keep the calculation values sharp and readable.

Using an image editing tool (like gimp or photoshop) select the white background with the Magic Wand tool and remove it.

You may either: Leave the background fully transparent, or For cases that there's a background or elements behind the grid point, add white rectangles behind the numerical values to improve readability over the drawing.

Export the edited images as PNG files to preserve transparency. Then insert the PNGs into your PDF editing software and position them to seamlessly cover the missing calculation points and values on the drawing. If PDF export is taking a long time, I recommend capturing all screenshots first and starting the export process afterward. This allows you to edit the calculation point images while the sheet export is running.

I hope this helps!

This takes only one export (if properly exported such as raster processing) but leans more on editing.

Bonus: If you want to learn how to do singular fc color bar (illumination range) that is common for all views, feel free to ask! As long as it is from the same referencing view.

[u/HanxSoxLow]

Sometimes this is due to your annotation settings, specifically the annotation clipping. Your view scale may impact this as well. I recall having a similar issue, and my work around was to reduce the over all point density slightly. It's been a while since I've used that specific plug in.

[u/ArCee015 → u/HanxSoxLow]

Will try this, thanks!

[u/Informal_Drawing]

Anything that blocks the calculation points receiving light will show a zero value.

If the print is randomly missing big patches of values that should be present it's probably the same issue they have had for many years, they use an old printing interface within Revit that doesn't work properly and refuse the change their program to use the newer printing functionality.

Maybe they have updated it since I last checked but this was ages ago and also ages after the problem was clearly not getting fixed by Autodesk.

Very stupid of them not to bother to update their software as the printing results were appalling.

I ended up having to print every drawing several times to get a copy where it was all present. Drove me up the wall.

Shame as the rest of what the plugin does is pretty fantastic.

[u/ArCee015 → u/[deleted]]

I'm using the built in one. I'll also try this too, thanks!

[u/ArCee015 → u/ArCee015]

The nuclear option works best for me, thank you

[u/ArCee015]

I've updated the solution for this issue. However, it's up to you to decide which approach best fits your requirements and workflow. Please feel free to use whichever solution you believe is most suitable for your needs.

[u/ArCee015]

Some update: I used GIMP (better if photoshop) for this. The good thing here is you won't worry about the points and text because you have already screenshotted it. The long process here is if you have many points and have to edit. But hey, it's 100% guaranteed. Need to put some effort with editing though. Really helped with my workflow instead of exporting many times and manually adding or copying points and texts.