Hide by Filter

Hide by Filter provides a fast, keyboard-driven workflow for temporarily hiding elements in Revit views. Instead of manually selecting and hiding individual elements, select representative elements and hide all matching elements based on shared properties like type, family, category, workset, or phase.

Getting Started

Find Hide by Filter on the Amorphous ribbon tab in the UI Selection panel.

The button is enabled when elements are selected in the active view.

Features

• Multiple hiding criteria - Hide by instance, type, family, category, workset, or phase
• Keyboard shortcuts - Quick selection with single-key hotkeys (I, T, F, C, W, P, U, A)
• Phase support - Hide elements by Phase Created or Phase Demolished
• Element expansion - Optional expansion of groups and nested families for criteria extraction
• Non-linear undo - Unhide Last maintains its own stack, separate from Revit’s undo history
• Unhide All - Quickly restore all hidden elements, categories, and worksets in the view
• Modeless dialog - Window stays open for rapid successive operations
• Position memory - Dialog position persists within Revit session

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How to Use

Basic Workflow

1. Select elements in the Revit view that represent what you want to hide
2. Click “Hide by Filter” on the ribbon to open the dialog
3. Choose a filter criterion by clicking a chip or pressing its hotkey
4. Click “HIDE” or press Enter/Space to execute
5. Repeat as needed - the dialog stays open for multiple operations

Hide by Instance

Hides only the selected elements. Use this when you want to hide specific elements without affecting others of the same type.

Hotkey: I

Hide by Type

Finds all elements of the same type(s) as your selection and hides them. Useful for hiding all instances of a specific wall type, door type, or fixture type.

Hotkey: T

Hide by Family

Hides all elements from the same family(ies). This is broader than Type - for example, hiding all chairs from a furniture family regardless of which size variant.

Hotkey: F

Hide by Category

Hides the entire category in the view. This affects all elements in that category, not just those matching your selection.

Hotkey: C

Note

Category hiding uses Revit’s View category visibility settings. This is the same as manually unchecking a category in Visibility/Graphics.

Hide by Workset

Hides workset visibility in the active view. This option is only available for workshared models.

Hotkey: W

Hide by Phase

Hides elements based on their phase parameters. Click the Phase chip to select between:

Option	Description
Phase Created	Hide elements created in the same phase(s) as your selection
Phase Demolished	Hide elements demolished in the same phase(s) as your selection

Hotkey: P (opens the phase mode dropdown)

Unhide Last

Reverses the most recent hide operation. This uses a separate undo stack from Revit’s built-in undo, enabling non-linear restoration of hidden elements.

Hotkey: U

Non-linear Undo

Unlike Revit’s undo stack, Unhide Last lets you restore hidden elements without undoing other work. For example:

1. Hide walls and floors by category
2. Modify framing, adjust elements, make other changes
3. Use Unhide Last to restore walls and floors

Your framing modifications remain intact—no need to undo everything in reverse order.

Unhide All

Restores all hidden elements, categories, and worksets in the current view. This includes:

• Temporarily hidden elements
• Hidden categories
• Hidden worksets (in workshared models)

Hotkey: A

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User Interface

Main Dialog

The dialog is divided into two sections:

Section	Description
HIDE BY	Filter criteria chips - select one to determine how elements are matched
UNHIDE	Restore operations - undo last hide or unhide all

Chip selection:

• Click a chip to select it (highlighted in purple)
• Only one chip can be active at a time
• The button text changes to “HIDE” or “UNHIDE” based on your selection

Keyboard shortcuts:

• I, T, F, C, W, P - Select hide criteria
• U, A - Select unhide operations
• Enter or Space - Execute the selected action
• ESC - Close the dialog

Window behavior:

• Drag anywhere on the dialog to reposition
• Position is remembered during your Revit session
• The dialog stays open for multiple operations

Element Expansion Settings

Click the gear icon in the title bar to access element expansion settings. These control how the add-in extracts criteria from complex elements.

Groups:

Option	Description
Parent element	Use the group element itself for criteria extraction (default)
Expand members	Extract criteria from individual group members

Caution

Expanding groups with many elements may cause performance issues. Keep “Parent element” selected for better performance with large groups.

Nested Families:

Option	Description
Parent element	Use the parent family instance for criteria
Expand nested	Include nested family sub-components (default)

Nested family expansion is limited to 3 levels deep for performance.

Note

Expansion settings reset when Revit is restarted. They do not persist between sessions.

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Use Cases

Coordinating Disciplines

Select a duct element and hide by Category to focus on structural or architectural elements while coordinating.

Reviewing Phases

Select elements from a construction phase and hide by Phase Created to focus on other phases.

Isolating Families

Select one chair instance and hide by Family to hide all chairs in the view, regardless of type.

Workset Management

In workshared models, select elements and hide by Workset to quickly hide content by team or discipline assignment.

Design Iteration

Select a design option element and hide by Type to compare competing options.

Non-Destructive Editing

Hide distracting categories while making detailed edits. Later, use Unhide Last to restore visibility without losing your edits—unlike Revit’s undo, which would require reverting all your changes.

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Tips & Best Practices

• Keyboard shortcuts - Learn the hotkeys for rapid operations: I-T-F-C-W-P for hiding, U-A for unhiding
• Multiple operations - The dialog stays open, so perform several hide operations in sequence
• Selection cleared - After a successful hide, the selection is automatically cleared
• View templates - Hide operations are temporary; use View Templates for persistent visibility control
• Window position - Drag the dialog to a convenient location; it remembers the position during your session
• Assign a shortcut - For even faster access, assign a keyboard shortcut to the Hide by Filter command in Revit Options

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Limitations

Limitation	Details
Requires selection	The Hide by Filter button is only enabled when elements are selected
View-specific	Hiding operations apply only to the active view
Model elements only	Annotation elements are automatically filtered out
Read-only documents	Cannot hide elements in read-only or linked documents
Single-level undo	Unhide Last tracks only the most recent hide operation per view
View-specific undo	Unhide Last state is maintained per view—switching views accesses that view’s undo state
Workset availability	Workset hiding only available in workshared models

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Troubleshooting

Hide by Filter button is grayed out

The button requires elements to be selected. Select one or more model elements in the view first.

Workset chip is disabled

The Workset option is only available for workshared models. If your model is not workshared, this option is disabled and grayed out.

Unhide Last is disabled

Unhide Last tracks the most recent hide operation per view. It becomes unavailable when:

• You switch to a different view - each view has its own undo state
• You perform another hide operation - only the latest hide is tracked
• You click Unhide All - clears the undo state for that view

Note: Closing and reopening the dialog does NOT clear the undo state. You can hide elements, close the dialog, do other work in Revit, reopen the dialog, and still use Unhide Last.

No elements were hidden

This can happen when:

• All selected elements are annotation elements (only model elements can be hidden)
• Elements cannot be hidden in the current view (e.g., view-specific restrictions)
• No elements match the selected criteria after expansion

Phase option not finding elements

Ensure your model has phases defined and elements have phase parameters assigned. Some element categories don’t support phasing.

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Related Tools

• Isolate by Filter - Similar interface for isolating elements instead of hiding
• Color Tools - Apply color overrides using similar filter criteria
• Smart Selection - Select similar elements based on various criteria