3D to 2D

3D to 2D

Replaces the 3D geometry inside a family with clean 2D lines, taken from the family's own plan and elevation views. The family stays a family and every placed copy keeps its position, rotation and mirroring; only how it is drawn changes. You decide what happens to the 3D afterwards: keep it, hide it in the directions you converted, or delete it.

When to use it

• Manufacturer content that is far heavier than the drawing needs: a chair, a fitting or a piece of equipment that only ever appears in plan and elevation.
• Families whose 3D draws messily in plan at the scales you print, where a clean set of lines reads better.

How to use

1. Select the families. In a project, select one or more placed families (or family types in the Project Browser), open 3D to 2D from BimCode's plugin list, and click Refresh, or click Pick and select them in the model. In the Family Editor, open the plugin there and the open family is the one converted.
2. Choose the source views. Floor Plan and any of the four elevations. Each becomes its own set of lines.
3. Choose the line type. Detail Lines for a normal 2D representation; Model Lines if the lines should also exist in 3D.
4. Start with Keep 3D Geometry. The lines are drawn and the 3D is left alone. Check the preview in the window, then the family in your plans and elevations.
5. Then Hide or Delete. Run it again with Hide or Delete. Re-running replaces the earlier lines; it never adds a second copy.

Good to know

• Every instance changes together. The family itself is edited and loaded back into the project, the same as Edit Family then Load into Project.
• What you see is what you get. The lines come from what Revit draws in the family's own view, with hidden lines removed, including holes and inner edges. Overlaps are merged and curves made of many short pieces are rebuilt as true arcs.
• No view for a direction? The geometry is projected directly instead. That works, but edges hidden behind the object are drawn too; the result says so, and the preview shows it.
• The lines are easy to control. They sit on subcategories named 3Dto2D Plan, 3Dto2D Front and so on, under the family's category, so Visibility/Graphics can switch them off or change their weight and colour.
• Going back. Revit's Undo reverses a run straight afterwards. Later, Undo conversion on a result removes the generated lines and shows the 3D the plugin hid, and only that. Deleted 3D cannot come back that way; reload the original family file.
• What can't be converted. Walls, floors and other system elements, in-place families, and families that are already 2D. They are listed under Not convertible with the reason.

The window's How to use tab has the full walk-through, and docs/USER-GUIDE.md covers every option.