The Floor is a Good Place for That

Revit is weird. It has all the capabilities to make complex projects and 3D views that look amazing, but then there are the little things. The oddities that make it frustrating and fun to work with. One of which is components that after they are loaded, snap to the floor when traditionally, these are objects that are not supposed to be on the floor, yet that is where Revit has determined they belong. 

For example, if you load the flat screen plasma tv and place it in the floor plan, where would you expect it to be? I would expect it to hang in the air a few feet off the ground because that's usually where flat screen televisions go. However, if you go to the 3D view, you will see the tv is on the floor. That completely defeats the purpose of what flat screen tvs are for. 

So, how to get it off the floor. 

For the tv, and basically any component, there is two ways. First you can click on the Element Properties, under Constraits, change "Offset" from 0'-0" to whatever you want the bottom edge of the tv to sit at. I changed it to 4'-0".

Or, you can go to an Elevation View, Select the component, use the arrow keys to move it up, or use dimensions to set it exactly where you want it.

 

You will find that after the tv is moved off the floor it disappears from the floor plan! This is where people get confused and think the Revit monsters have eaten their components. What has actually happened, is the television has moved above the cut plane, which is usually set at 4'-0". The cut plane is where Revit cuts horizontally through the house to give the floor plan. If it's above 4'-0" it won't show, and it's not supposed to show in a floor plan either. I figure, this is the reason Revit puts those objects on the floor in the first place. If they snapped them directly above the cut plane people would never realize they put in the objects. 

 

Other objects like the hood and the stove top also snap to the floor when opened. So if you're stove top disappears when you try to put it on your countertop, it's because it's underneath the counter. That's a good place for it.