Please excuse the tongue twister, I could not get it out of my head when I was writing this entry. Although the title sounds like a corny scene displayed for Halloween, what this is actually about is an issue I receive complaints on during almost every Revit project. Double structural grid bubbles showing up on multiple drawings within a model, which is where I got the goofy name.
The issue usually isn't that you are seeing two grids in your model, but that you are seeing one set of grids in your model plus another set of grids in each of the models that you have linked into yours. Those grids lines are then visible in each view within your model (sections/elevations/ Plans/3D) and have to be manually hidden either by tabbing to select and hide individually or by breaking the by host view in Visibility Graphics. Both of which are time-consuming.
The image to the left is a prime example. The large structural grid heads are from an architectural model I received, while the smaller ones are in copy/monitored in my model for us to put together our documents.
Now when you make a model work sharing, Revit by default creates two worksets: Shared Levels and Grids and Workset 1. Shared Levels and Grids were created specifically for this issue. When it is created, Revit places any existing level and grid elements on this workset, but not for any that are created afterward. This is very important that they are all placed on that workset and all other models are as well.
In the manage links dialog box, when you select the model link the Manage worksets button in the lower-left corner will change from grayed out to clickable.
When you click that button, the standard workset dialog box will be showing, but instead of showing the worksets for the active model, it will display the worksets for that link you selected. Now set the opened column to No for the Shared Levels and Grids workset. For my office, we also have matchline and scopeboxes worksets that we do the same. Once you repeat the same thing for each of your linked in models. Now once that is completed, all the duplicate grids should be gone. When we have dealt with structural engineers, they have created an existing and new worksets for the structural grids for graphic purposes and we unload both of them provided there is not any 3D elements on it.
Any remaining duplicate grids that are showing are because they are placed on the wrong workset within their respective model. This is where communication and maybe an automated task are very beneficial.
I originally started using a dynamo script similar to the one above that would make sure levels, grids, and reference planes are showing on the correct worksets(this one requires the archi-lab dynamo package). Eventually, I folded this into our company standard plug-in and added created a standardized keyboard shortcut 'SLG'.
Even the best tools are only as good as the people that would be using them. If the users aren't willing to communicate that there is an issue across models, then this will only work so well.