How to Use Scope Boxes in Revit

Eight steps in Revit, or one sentence in Mira.

Do it with Mira
Quick answer

In a plan view, click View tab › Create panel › Scope Box, click two opposite corners and name it. Set a view's Scope Box to it and the crop follows the box. Grids and levels assigned to it show only where views cut it.

Or, just ask Mira, a free add-in, to apply one to every floor plan.

The manual way

How to do it in Revit

  1. Step 1: Draw the box in a plan

    Open a plan view, the only kind of view you can create one in, and click View tab › Create panel › Scope Box. Click one corner, then the opposite corner (Autodesk Help: Create a Scope Box).

  2. Step 2: Name it and set its height

    With the box selected, set Name and Height in the Properties palette. Name it for the area it covers, such as "Area A". Height decides which levels the box reaches.

  3. Step 3: Size and rotate it

    Drag its handles to resize it, in plan or in a 3D view. Drag the rotate control, or use Modify | Scope Boxes tab › Modify panel › Rotate, to line it up with an angled wing.

  4. Step 4: Assign grids and levels to it

    Select the grids, levels or reference planes, set Scope Box in the Properties palette and click Apply. Each one then shows only in views whose cutting plane passes through the box (Autodesk Help: Apply a Scope Box to Datums).

  5. Step 5: Apply it to views

    Click an empty spot in a view so the Properties palette shows the view, then set its Scope Box property. The crop region turns on and matches the box. To set several plans at once, select them in the Project Browser first.

  6. Step 6: Check every view in one table

    Make a view list (View tab › Create panel › Schedules › View List), a schedule of views, with Scope Box as a field. It shows, and lets you change, the box on every view at once.

  7. Step 7: Choose where the box itself shows

    Select the box, click Edit next to Views Visible, and set the Override column for the views where it should or shouldn't appear. Exterior elevations don't show it unless you override them.

  8. Step 8: Hide it while you work

    Scope boxes don't print. To clear them out of a view while you work, select one and use Hide in View › Elements, or Hide in View › Category for all of them.

What to watch for

A view's box crops; a grid's box hides. Setting a view's Scope Box crops the view, but it doesn't decide which grids show there. Each grid and level needs its own Scope Box. To turn a plan that takes its crop from a scope box, rotate the box. See how to rotate a view.

Height decides the levels. Lower the top of the box below Level 5 and its grids disappear from the Level 5 plans and above. Levels you add above the box later won't show its grids either. See how to add levels.

Greyed out? Check dependents and templates. Since Revit 2023, dependent sections and elevations can't take their own scope box. A plan's Scope Box can also be locked by its view template, so change it there. More in how to create and apply view templates.

Multi-segment grids can't use one. They have no Scope Box property, so they show in every view they reach.

Scope boxes multiply. Add a wing or copy views from another project, and the model fills up with "Scope Box 1" to "Scope Box 14", some unused and some nearly identical. Every new plan needs the right one picked by hand, and a plan set to the wrong box crops off part of a floor. Naming boxes for the areas they cover, in the template your firm standards start from, keeps the next team from guessing.

Or, just ask Mira to do it.

Mira is an AI thinking partner for Revit that automates the work you repeat and builds tools your team needs.

  • Type this in Mira

    Apply the scope box Area A to every floor plan.

    Mira lists the plans first and asks how to treat any whose view template controls Scope Box. It sets the rest in one step, reads each plan back and names any it skipped.

EfficiencyApply a scope box to every floor plan in Revit
Riverside_Medical_Center_ARCH.rvt — Level 1
FileArchitectureStructureAnnotateAnalyzeViewManagePirros
Level 1 ×A-501 Details3D View
Floor planScope Box
Level 1Area A
Level 2Area A
Level 3Area A
RoofArea A
Level 1 - FurnitureArea A, template changed
Level 2 - FurnitureArea A, template changed
Level 1 - Part 1skipped, read-only
22 plans cropped to Area A
Mira by PirrosLevel 1
Pirros
ChatSkillsHistory
Apply the scope box Area A to every floor plan.
Reasoning
Thought for 4s
Query(Floor plans, Area A)
24 plans, 6 by template
Ask(Template plans?)
Release, then set
SetScopeBox(Area A x 22)
22 set, 2 skipped
Scope box applied22 of 24
Set directly
16
Set after template change
6
Skipped, read-only
2
Templates changed
2
Message Mira
Mira can make mistakes. Verify before you commit.
FAQ

Frequently asked questions.

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Get in touch.

Open a plan view, click View tab › Create panel › Scope Box and click two opposite corners. Then set its Name and Height in the Properties palette. You can resize and rotate it afterwards, including in a 3D view.

With nothing selected in the view, set the view's Scope Box property in the Properties palette. The view's crop region then matches the box and can't be edited on its own.

Select the grids, set their Scope Box property to a scope box and click Apply. Each grid then shows only in views whose cutting plane passes through that box.

Dependent sections and elevations can't have their own scope box since Revit 2023. On a plan, check whether the view's template controls the property.

No. Scope boxes don't print in construction documents. To hide them while you work, use Hide in View › Elements or Category.

Select the box and edit Height in the Properties palette, which has been possible since Revit 2024. You can also drag its handles in a 3D view.

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