What does it mean that doors and windows are hosted elements in Revit?

Doors and windows being classified as hosted elements in Revit signifies that they are specifically designed to be attached to and defined by the geometry of a wall. This hosting relationship ensures that when you place a door or window, it is anchored to the wall element, allowing it to inherit properties such as location, orientation, and dimensions based on the host wall.

This connection also means that if the wall is edited or modified (for example, if its length or thickness changes), the hosted doors and windows will adjust automatically to maintain their relationship with the wall. This feature simplifies the modeling process and ensures that architectural integrity is maintained throughout the design, leading to a more accurate representation of how elements interact in the real world.

In contrast, the other choices misrepresent the functionality of doors and windows within Revit. For instance, while hosting implies some dependency on walls, the notion of them existing independently or being placed anywhere on the site does not apply to their design context within Revit. Additionally, while walls may serve to include doors and windows automatically in certain scenarios, each door and window can be placed and adjusted for precise alignment and design requirements independent of automated creation. Thus, recognizing hosted elements is key to effectively using Revit for architectural design.