Structural Families - Categories & Parameters - "Show family pre-cut in plan views"

Following my recent post on Structural Family settings here is my next post on the topic

Another commonly misunderstood setting is "Show family pre-cut in plan views"'

This setting applies to both Framing & Column families.

Framing Families
The setting is fairly obvious for framing families, it is basically a setting that allows you to control how a raking beam will display when it continues above the cut plane

Frame Example

Plane view in fine detail level

Side Note:
No matter the setting, if a beam continues below the cut plane, it will be shown to its full extent. This is an area that newer users struggle to remember with Revit. The same goes for floors/ramps, stairs etc. Revit will only cut an element continuing above the cut plane and simply show whatever is below to the bottom of the element

Stairs are the best example to explain this. In the image above the situation is clear, no matter how we configure the view range at the top level we see the stair all the way to the bottom.

The same goes for structural framing, if the beam passes through the cut-plane we will see the beam until the bottom. This setting just allows us to control weather the beam is also shown all the way to the top


Column Families

But when we get to the "Show family pre-cut in plan views" setting for column families things become a little less clear


This is how Autodesk describes the setting for columns:

Extract from the 2011 Help file :
Unchecked:
When loaded into a project, if you want the column to display in plan view based on the cut plane of the project’s plan view

Checked: 
Consistently, regardless of the cut plane of the project’s plan view

This is correct for plan views, but what if you want to take a callout of a column or cut a detail section from a section. With the option checked, the column will only display up to the cut plane level in the family file.

Example of problem with "Show family pre-cut in plan views"

So we could push up the cut plane in the family, but if you are talking about a straight forward column you would be best to just turn off the setting.

The setting is only really useful for complex column shapes where you want the column to always display as per the plan view in the family

But be aware that all OOTB (out of the box content) are set with this setting, and that all standard templates are preset with this setting as well

Defiantly one to look out for, and if you are running custom content in your office, consider unchecking the option if you haven't already. It will save some people some time if they come across this problem on a project