Spacebar and Titleblocks

Titleblocks are families. The Spacebar will rotate a selected family (90 degree increments by default). Remember that when you have a titleblock selected. Today that startled a person when they thought they were tapping the space to insert a space in a text field but it was no longer selected. The titleblock spun out of view. What the...? OH...

Windows 10 and Revit 2013 UI Glitch

I know it is a bit unfair to suggest or expect that 2013 should support Windows 10. With that in mind I offer this as something to watch out for if you must use 2013 and Win10. I needed to work on a family that must stay in that version so I installed 2013 yesterday. I thought I was successfully past it but it keeps dragging me back in.

As soon as I got started working I noticed that the Title Bar of the UI is missing the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) and the Help/Info Bar.

Then I noticed that hovering over where they should be caused tooltips to appear. They ARE there but just not visible. I was able to get the QAT below the ribbon by hovering and clicking carefully where that button should be. I don't really need the Info Bar that often so I should be okay for now, plus I know the buttons are there, just bashful.

Via a Twitter reply and @mark_labell_jr He suggests a Windows theme hack described HERE. It worked for me.

Revit 2016 - Multiline Text Parameter and Shared Parameters

As soon as we add a new parameter using this new Multiline Text parameter type to our existing Shared Parameter file it invalidates that file for use in prior versions of Revit. If we try to access our Shared Parameter file we'll be greeted with this message.

Mulling it over for a moment, it makes sense to me since the older versions of Revit are not able to interpret this new kind of parameter because it didn't exist. Rather than allow us to continue, to create a parameter that isn't supported, it takes the hard road and prevents us from using it at all. It might be possible, via another Update Release to 2015 and for the other older supported versions, to provide code to ignore any Multiline Text values it finds when it parses a Shared Parameter file.

This means we'll need to create a separate shared parameter file for managing any Multiline Text parameters we use. We can keep on using the original Shared Parameter file(s) we already have. Just don't add any new Multiline Text parameters to it. We need to manage this new parameter type on its own, as long we expect to need to use the older versions of Revit.

Oh, if you manage to do this before finding out it won't work...you can open the Shared Parameter file in Notepad and delete the line that is dedicated to the Multiline Text parameter(s) you've created. It should work again in 2015 or older versions.

A comment (to a previous post) regarding this new feature alerted me to this issue, thanks Abe!

Linked Ceiling Hosted Light Fixtures and MEP

A ceiling hosted light fixture can cut the host ceiling. When an architect uses one of these fixtures the ceiling surface the Revit MEP user has to work with actually has a "hole" in it. This means that they can't put their own light fixture in the same spot because there is no ceiling there.

Technically that's an oversimplification. We CAN put a fixture in the same location but there isn't a face for Revit to detect easily. If you try to use the Downlight - Recessed Can family it's origin is too far from a ceiling's grid pattern to let us put it within a tile. We can put it in randomly and then move it to the correct location. We'll get yelled at though, the light isn't properly hosted now.

If we do the same sort of thing with the troffer family (2x4 fixture) it will be a bit more tolerant as well as not losing its face association.

This sort of discipline collaboration isn't tons of fun.

Revit 2014 Schedules Pending Gotcha

Revit has always treated the schedule view for editing as separate from the sheet representation, at least for column width adjustments. This always made sense to me. I should change the width of columns on a sheet where I can see the impact of the change. When I am editing a schedule and I want to see a bit more or less of a column I could change it freely without an impact on a sheet that shows the schedule.

Everything changes with Revit 2014 because when you change a column width in either place, a sheet or the view itself, it changes in the other. This is, as my Spanish speaking friends say, Muy Mal!! Ay Caramba! That's probably too polite?

I think it's safe to say that we've all wished for more control over column width from one schedule to the next. Imagine four door schedules, filtered by floor on separate sheets. Ideally we'd like the columns to be uniform widths from schedule to schedule. So we resort to tricks like an annotation family that provides the "columns" we want and we drag columns over until they cover the "column lines". Then we either delete the guide or "bury" it in a titleblock family with a yes/no parameter to control its visibility.

This enhancement does not help that situation and worse because of the legacy behavior and the assumptions that users will having as they begin to use 2014 we will see lot's of, "Why are my schedules changing constantly?".

Yes we can just create "working" schedules to deal with data entry and "sheet" schedules for documentation but it is unnecessary redundancy, we've got enough of it with other views already. I'm not looking forward to this "feature" getting in the wild.

Added 4/12/2013:
There IS a new Resize button for columns and a dialog appears that you we can use to enter a specific width. This means you can ensure that specific columns have the same width but it is a manual adventure, from column to column and schedule to schedule. It does work on multiple column selection so we can apply the same width to several columns at once. I believe the API does not provide access to this yet.

Conduit from Face Gotcha!

The other day I made what I thought was a simple distribution box, the kind that is really a "junction" box that sits in a ceiling to provide some wire management access. A pull box with a nice door. No problem. To test it out I tried to run some conduit to it. I expected the surface to highlight when I put the cursor over the edge of the box. Nothing. I selected the box and saw the conduit connectors, right-click > choose Draw conduit from face...nothingness. A blank stare from Revit...me staring blankly at Revit. Huh?

Time for a break...

After some dinner I fired it all back up and some clarity returned. Ahh, I used visibility settings on the "box" and un-checked the Plan option.

I used Symbolic Lines to show the box in plan instead. That was the gotcha...if the solid form/face that is the conduit connectors host isn't visible in the plan view the Draw Conduit from Face tool says, "huh?!?". It's kind of like the Spot Elevation tool not finding a floor or ceiling when the view is using Wireframe. The tool can't "see" the connector even though Revit manages to display the connector fine. I just needed to restore that setting and rethink when I wanted things to show up...back on track.

Options Bar Data Entry

When I use the Offset tool I find that I must take care when I enter a specific ofset value if I want to use the Tab key to select "A chain of Walls or Lines". I get similar result when I use the Pick Lines option while drawing walls or lines.

The issue seems to be one of focus, Window's focus. That is what programmers refer to when a text box or similar control has the applications attention. When the offset value text box on the options bar has focus, Windows thinks the Tab key should be advancing to another control on the interface. In this case it advances to the Numerical radio button. I have to click in empty space in the drawing window to get the Tab key to do what I want. This put the focus back in the drawing window and Revit gets to define what the Tab key will do.

So watch out for this in your workflow.

Patience is a Virtue

Yeah, tell that to me when I'm waiting for Revit to open up the first time. Another usual gotcha I run into in a class setting is trying to open Revit several times when you become convinced that Revit is not loading after you double clicked the Icon on your desktop.

When you double click the icon you get a little hour glass for a few seconds and then, poof!...nothing, no hint of Revit loading and you start thinking, "Did I really double click or was it a single click" and "Did I see an hour glass or did I imagine it?" So you double click it again and suddenly Revit appears again and shortly afterward another session appears and, if you aren't a lucky sort, so does an error about licensing.

This can be lots of fun when a classroom of 12 opens up Revit before I get a chance to warn them. One poor soul tried to open Revit twelve times before I interupted his efforts. At least the other eleven sessions opened up pretty quickly after the first....

So the moral of the story really is patience IS a virtue AND that hopefully Revit will get better at telling Windows what it is up to so we don't start to doubt ourselves!

Space Bar Gotcha - Visibility Graphics

[note: in 2009 versions I don't experience this issue, though it is still technically possible - Steve 09/2008]

I run into this every now and again. Revit user complains that all the model objects are off in a view or all the annotation...or imported files. They've tried all the usual suspects like Visibility/Graphics, Worksets, Phase/Phase Filters, Filters, Design Options and so on. They just didn't notice that every category in the Visibility/Graphics dialog (under one of the tabs) was gray and not selectable.

The question is how did it happen, surely it wasn't done purposely. Enter the good old Space Bar, pun intended. AutoCAD/ADT users are so used to tapping the space bar to start a command that they are hardly aware that they are still tapping it from time to time in Revit, that and Revit uses it for flipping or rotating some objects.

The trouble is that opening the Visibility Graphics dialog and immediately hitting the space bar unchecks the top most check box next to: "Show (Model,Annotation,Imported) Categories in this view". G That's what Windows assigns to the Space Bar for keyboard behavior when Window's focus is on a check box.

Before:

After:


So don't let the Space Bar getcha!