"An error has occurred while drawing the contents of this window" appears when working in Revit

Autodesk Support

Jan 15, 2025

Products and versions covered

Issue:

When working in Revit, the following message appears: 

Display Error

An error has occurred while drawing the contents of this window.
This window shall be closed.
 

Display Error in Revit ”An error has occurred while drawing the contents of this window“

 
 
 

Solution:

To resolve this issue, verify and perform the following steps:

Software and System Requirements

Open with Audit

  • When opening the model, select Audit.

Check for Corrupt Families

  • Follow the instructions for a family check from this article File will not synchronize in Revit

  • Look for the families causing the issue, by turning off the visibility of all categories and turning them back on, one by one.

  1. Go to Visibility/Graphics Overrides in the view where the issue occurs.

  2. Turn off all categories by deselecting them at the top of each tab.

  3. Start checking category groups one by one to identify which categories are causing the issue (Model, Annotation, Analytical Model, Imported Categories, Revit Links).

  4. When the category group is identified, start turning individual categories back on, until the error message appears.

  5. Look for individual families causing the issue within identified category. Note: It might be helpful to create a schedule of elements in that category, to be able to quickly select and isolate all instances of a family.

  6. Remove the specific families from the project.

Check for multiplied materials

Graphics Card and Driver

  • A damaged graphics driver installation can cause issues.

  • Updating the driver gives the latest driver features and replaces the existing installation.

  • If already on the latest driver, uninstall and reinstall the same driver version.

Hardware Acceleration

  • If the graphics system is not able to handle the load/complexity of the model, turning off hardware acceleration can reduce the load on the GPU (putting this load onto the CPU).

  1. Disable Hardware Acceleration (File > Options) in the Hardware & User Interface tabs in Revit.

  2. Exit Revit.

  3. Restart Revit for the settings to take effect.

Notes:

  • If disabling Hardware Acceleration does not clear the error, the Microsoft DirectX® End-User Runtime may be corrupt.

  • If reinstalling the Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtime does not clear the issue (or is not applicable), the installation of Revit may be damaged. Perform a clean uninstall and reinstall, including clearing the %temp% folder.

Allow Navigation During Redraw

Disable Custom Add-ons

Alternatives:

  • If the issue happens in one view only, delete the view and recreate it.

    • Recreate the view from scratch as copying it will also copy the corruption.

  • If the issue happens after recreating the view, try turning off the display of elements to see if they are causing the issue:

    1. If the error occurs when opening the view, select the name of the view in question (in the Project Browser). This should show the properties for the view without opening it.

    2. In the properties dialog box, click Edit for the parameter “Visibility/Graphics Overrides”.

    3. Turn off the visibility for all elements (this is to confirm that the error is caused by one or more of the elements visible in the view). Note: A fast way to turn off the elements would be to:

      1. Deselect Show model categories in this view at the top of the Model Categories tab.

      2. Deselect Show annotation categories in this view at the top of the Annotation Categories tab.

      3. Deselect Show analytical model categories in this view at the top of the Analytical Model Categories tab.

      4. Deselect Show imported categories in this view at the top of the Imported Categories tab.

      5. Deselect the box next to each linked model in the Revit Links tab.

    4. If the issue is cleared when turning off the visibility of elements, start turning them back on individually. It will identify which type of element is causing the error (Model, Annotation, Analytical Model, Imported categories, or Revit Links).

    5. Once you’ve identified the element type, start turning the items under that tab off/on in groups to find the category of elements causing the error.

    6. After finding the specific elements, remove/hide them from the view to reduce complexity.

  • If Revit does not start as a result of this message, disable hardware acceleration using the following steps:

  1. Exit Revit.

  2. Locate the Revit.ini file: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\<Autodesk Revit Product>

  3. Using Notepad, open the Revit.ini file.

  4. Locate the following line: "UseGraphicsHardware="

    1. If this line is not in the file, this would indicate that the setting has never been changed in Revit (to create the line).

    2. To ensure that this feature is disabled, find (or create) the [Graphics] section in the INI and add the line "UseGraphicsHardware=0" (without quotation marks).

  5. Change the value to 0.

  6. Save the Revit.ini file and close it.

  7. Restart Revit.

Check the Revit content folder if it may contain any custom language folders

Revit content- language  

More Troubleshooting

For more articles on this error, see the following link: "An error has occurred while drawing the contents of this window"

Products:

Revit Product Family;

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