Rooms that travel incognito

If you've ever worked on a split level home or other structure you've probably noticed that Revit won't let you freely change the grayed out level instance parameter of placed rooms the way you can with most other placed families.

My workaround to this problem always involved cutting the room from one view and pasting it into a view with the desired associated level.  This method usually renumbers the room creating a duplicate "not placed" room in the room schedule and usually also requires the tagging of a room again.

If you'd like to keep a room number and the tag, consider grouping the room first.  You should now have access to the level in your model group instance properties to re-host rooms at will. A room disguised as a group can apparently defy gravity.

EDIT (05.23.2014): Luke Johnson points out that this method does assign a new element ID.

EDIT (03.11.2015): Rather that cutting the room from one view and pasting it into a view with the desired associated level, which creates a duplicate room, consider deleting the room from one view and placing the same room again from your options bar dropdown of available rooms.  Room Number and other parameters are still present, you lose your room tag and need to open another plan view, but you preserve your Element ID.

Bypassing Edit Group Mode

In the example below I've grouped and pinned the as-built model... proceeded with demoing a door (infilled on the right) and wanted to show the finishes as all new on this existing wall.

Phase filters wouldn't get me there, but Parts works if you're at a stage where you don't mind managing parts on a project.

In this example I choose to apply a view filter (by project parameter) to get the proposed plan graphics the way I needed to for many remodel scenarios while keeping the model simple for design changes that were fluid. But in Revit 2013 I've always had to Edit Group to apply the parameters, and I've always preferred to bypass Edit Group Mode (like I can for "phase created" and "phase demolished") for a number of reasons, while still taking advantage of groups.

Here is a new feature in Revit 2014 that helps to make this more possible.

If you've grouped your model in part or in whole you might notice many parameters are disabled and can not be edited without first entering Edit Group mode. Well... in Revit 2014 you can now Manage.. Project Parameters... and change a setting that reads "values are aligned per group type" to "values can vary by group instance." Now TAB to an element that is part of the group and the parameters should be available to you in the Properties window.

This is pretty handy if entering Edit Group mode (ex. for a large model group) every time you want to edit parameters (ex. to benefit view filters - image below) is a hassle.

Existing stud wall - New infill wall - New finishes

No Parts applied to this example

Existing and Infill wall are same wall type