X-Ray -- Visibility Diagnostics

Find out exactly why an element is invisible or displaying incorrectly, and fix the problem without opening a single Revit dialog. X-Ray diagnoses hidden or misconfigured elements by running all applicable visibility checks simultaneously -- instead of manually stepping through Visibility/Graphics, filters, view range, phases, and a dozen other possible causes, results appear in a single interactive panel. For each detected condition, a one-click fix is available that resolves the problem without you needing to open any Revit dialogs directly.

flowchart TD
    Pick["Pick Element"] --> Run["Run 13 Checkers"]
 
    Run --> C1["Category V/G"]
    Run --> C2["Subcategory"]
    Run --> C3["Filter Override"]
    Run --> C4["View Range"]
    Run --> C5["Crop Region"]
    Run --> C6["Workset"]
    Run --> C7["Design Option"]
    Run --> C8["Phase"]
    Run --> C9["Hidden in View"]
    Run --> C10["Detail Level"]
    Run --> C11["Linked Model"]
    Run --> C12["Graphic Override"]
    Run --> C13["Geometric Scope"]
 
    C1 --> Fix["One-Click Fix"]
    C2 --> Fix
    C3 --> Fix
    C4 --> Fix
    C5 --> Fix
    C6 --> Fix
    C7 --> Fix
    C8 --> Fix
    C9 --> Fix
    C10 --> Fix
    C11 --> Fix
    C12 --> Fix
    C13 --> Fix
 
    style Pick fill:#3b82f6,color:#fff,stroke:#2563eb
    style Fix fill:#10b981,color:#fff,stroke:#059669
    style Run fill:#8b5cf6,color:#fff,stroke:#7c3aed

Key Features

• Runs 13 condition checkers covering every major visibility system in Revit
• Displays results in a WebView2 interactive panel, sorted by diagnostic priority
• Offers one-click fixes for each detected condition via a structured fix registry
• X-Ray Vision mode temporarily reveals hidden elements without permanently changing the model
• Batch mode scans multiple elements across multiple views in a single pass
• Comparison mode diffs checker results between two views for the same element
• Element and view picker wizard guides you when no element is pre-selected

Getting Started

1. Navigate to a view where an element appears to be missing or displaying unexpectedly.
2. Select the element in question. If you are unsure which element to investigate, you can select nothing and use the built-in element picker that launches automatically.
3. Click X-Ray in the Selection Panel.
4. The X-Ray panel opens alongside your Revit view. Each condition checker runs against the element-view pair and results appear in priority order -- the most likely cause of the problem is listed first.
5. Read the condition summary for each flagged checker. The panel explains what the condition means and why it affects visibility.
6. Click the Fix button next to any condition to apply the automated correction. X-Ray commits only the minimum change required to resolve that specific condition.
7. After applying fixes, click Re-run to refresh the checker results and confirm the problem is resolved.

Visibility Checkers

X-Ray runs the following 13 checkers in priority order. Each checker examines a specific Revit visibility system and reports whether it is contributing to the element's hidden or incorrect state.

Checkers that do not apply to the current element or view type are skipped automatically. For example, the Workset Visibility checker is skipped in non-workshared models, and the Design Options checker is skipped when no design options exist.

Fix System

Each condition checker that reports a problem provides a corresponding fix action registered in X-Ray's fix registry. When you click Fix, X-Ray dispatches the repair to the handler for that specific condition ID. The handler applies the narrowest possible correction -- for instance, the View Range fix adjusts only the relevant view range boundary rather than resetting the entire range. Fixes run inside a named Revit transaction so they appear in the undo history and can be reversed with Ctrl+Z.

Not every condition is automatically fixable. Conditions such as Geometric (degenerate geometry) and Linked Model (governed by external file settings) are reported for awareness but do not provide a one-click fix. X-Ray clearly marks these conditions as informational so you know manual intervention is required.

Sentinel (Always-On)

X-Ray Sentinel closes the gap between the moment you notice something is missing and the moment you open X-Ray to investigate. It is an ambient, always-on extension of the same diagnostic engine -- you never open it or drive it.

When you place an element and Revit immediately warns that none of the created elements are visible in the active view, Sentinel intercepts that warning, runs the X-Ray diagnosis on the just-placed element, and surfaces the single most likely cause in a small notification (a "toast") in the bottom-right corner. The native Revit warning still appears as usual -- Sentinel adds the explanation Revit never gives you, plus a path to the full diagnosis.

The toast shows:

• The element and the plain-language reason it is hidden, with a confidence label (Definite, Probable, or Possible).
• An Apply Fix button -- shown only when the cause is a Definite diagnosis that has a one-click fix. Less-certain causes route you to the full window instead of risking a confident wrong fix.
• A Show all reasons link that opens the full X-Ray window in Diagnose mode, already loaded with the element and view.
• A Don't show again for this reason control that snoozes that specific cause for the rest of your Revit session -- useful when you intentionally place elements that are hidden in the current view.

When several elements are hidden at once (for example an array that lands outside the crop region), the toast names the first one and offers "Show all reasons" to triage the whole set in X-Ray's batch view.

Sentinel never changes your model on its own. Detection is automatic, but every fix requires an explicit click -- even low-risk ones -- and runs inside a named "X-Ray Sentinel" transaction so it is clearly labelled in the undo history. The toast auto-dismisses after a configurable timeout (default 25 seconds, paused while your cursor is over it) and never steals focus from the view you are working in.

Sentinel is on by default. It can be turned off (or back on) from the sentinel settings, which also control the toast auto-dismiss timeout. Disabling and re-enabling take effect immediately within a session.

X-Ray Vision Mode

X-Ray Vision temporarily reveals all hidden elements in the active view so you can see exactly what is present but invisible. It works by temporarily unhiding elements inside a Revit transaction and then immediately rolling back that transaction, leaving the model unchanged. During the brief reveal window, X-Ray captures the element state and renders a ghost overlay in the results panel. The model is never permanently modified.

Use X-Ray Vision when you know an element should be in the view but cannot locate it even with the standard checkers. The overlay lets you confirm the element's position, check for overlapping geometry, and visually verify that it is present before investigating its specific hiding cause.

Batch Mode

Batch mode accepts a multi-element selection or a saved memory set and runs the full checker suite against every element-view pair in the set. Results are aggregated into a summary table grouped by condition type, making it straightforward to identify patterns -- for example, discovering that 47 elements are all hidden because of the same view filter. From the summary table, you can apply a bulk fix to all elements affected by a given condition in one action.

To launch batch mode, select multiple elements before opening X-Ray, or load a memory set via MRead first and then open X-Ray. The tool detects the multi-element context and switches to the batch interface automatically.

Comparison Mode

Comparison mode runs the full checker suite against the same element in two different views and presents the results side by side. This is useful when an element displays correctly in one view but not another and you need to identify which specific view setting differs between them. Open X-Ray, select the element, choose Comparison Mode from the panel toolbar, and then pick the two views to compare. Conditions that differ between the views are highlighted so you can immediately see what changed.

Tips

• Run X-Ray in the view where the problem is occurring, not in a different view. Checkers such as View Range and Crop Region are always evaluated against the view that is active when X-Ray launches.
• If X-Ray reports no conditions but the element is still invisible, check whether the element is in a group or assembly that has its own visibility override applied at the container level.
• Use Batch Mode after running Health Visualizer checks to investigate elements that were flagged as potentially hidden -- the memory integration means you can pass flagged elements directly into X-Ray without re-selecting them.
• Comparison Mode is particularly effective for pinpointing unexpected differences between a working sheet view and a non-working coordination view that nominally share the same template.

Last updated: 2026-06-20