Revit LT 2014 Default Template Materials

by Justin Doughty

Recently whilst comparing differences between Revit 2014 and Revit LT 2014, I happened to notice one very obvious difference (or possible issue) between the 2 default templates supplied with the products.

I first noticed this when placing any glass material families into the Revit LT template. Below is an example of a window and glazed curtain wall using the shaded graphics display option. As you can see they are completely solid and shaded black in colour:

The cause of this is the way the Revit LT default template has it’s materials setup. Below is an example of how the above glass material is set in the Revit LT template. In the graphics tab, you can see the colour and transparency set:

Compare this to the Revit default template, you can see the material already has a colour and transparency set:

Making theses changes to the materials in Revit LT, returns the expected results:

However this issue seems to occur for all hosted family materials, so wooden materials applied to door components, windows sills, paint etc.

A quick run through of the shading properties of the materials at the start of a Revit LT 2014 project will correct this issue, and return expected results.