Elements appear black or gray instead of showing material or color in 3D views in Revit

Autodesk Support

Mar 6, 2025

Products and versions covered

Issue:

Instead of real materials or shaded appearances, elements show with black or gray surfaces in 3D views set to realistic or shaded.

Elements show as all black instead of using materials or shaded appearance in Revit

Causes:

In the Phase Filter, Graphic overrides are defined to the element display in the current phase of the 3D view. According to the override settings it may be set to "black" or "gray":

Revit Graphic overrides

To quickly test if phase filter is the issue, set the phase filter to 'none' and see if the view appears correctly.

Solution:

To fix the appearance of items, create and apply such a phase filter onto the 3D view so that the elements in the current phase are defined "By Category" display.

Revit phase filter