Kinship and Autodesk University

My friends Jose Fandos and Gary Sprague have been working tirelessly to develop a product they call Kinship. It offers an intelligent way to organize, search for and place Revit content and even more compelling to me is the project insight it can provide us. After a couple years of private testing they are opening things up for real.

They were kind enough to invite me along with them to Autodesk University (AU) this year. If you are attending AU please stop by to say hello and find out more about Kinship. If you're not here at AU then let me encourage you to visit their site to learn more.

Revit 2016 - Project Address

In past releases the Project Address parameter that is baked into Revit has always required using the Project Information dialog to enter a proper address format. The usual techniques to force a hard return (like CTRL + Enter or CTRL + M) fail to deliver (for me they've never worked).

In 2016 (using R2 now) when I click on the Project Address parameter within a title block family a special dialog appears to add/edit the information, much more bettererer.

Lock Down Shared Coordinate Relationships

The more complicated a project is the more trouble someone casually (accidentally) moving a building file can create. The simplest solution is to pin a linked model to interfere with accidental movement. Moving a pinned link takes a deliberate action.

We can put another speed bump in the road by using Worksets as a security guard to make it harder to move a linked file. Assign each link to its own workset and then create a new username like "Link Admin" and while working as this user make each link's workset editable (take ownership of each link's workset). When you synchronize (SwC) don't relinquish those worksets. Next time someone accidentally drags a linked file they'll be warned that "Link Admin says no".

One more step you can take which also involves worksets is to make the Project Info workset editable too, for each building file. The Project Info workset is located in the Project Standards group.

Taking this approach prevents shared coordinates from being altered inadvertently or otherwise. Same strategy, same user, same refusal to relinquish the worksets this user borrowed. This needs to be done in all the linked models as well as a master site model if used to establish the shared coordinates.

Location, Location and Location

The age old real estate advice this is not...

When you use separate site and building files to manage your project, it is possible to become confused between defining the Project Location (such as Wapakoneta, Ohio versus Amstelveen, Holland) and the Location related to Shared Coordinates. One is not the other. It is possible to also assume that setting the Project Location and then using Acquire Coordinates will pass along the location to the other project file (linked .rvt file). That is also not true, won't happen.

Project Location is unrelated to shared coordinates, at least as far as Revit is concerned. Location as defined in the Project Information dialog is used for solar/energy analysis (gbXML too), shadows and the like. Shared coordinates are used to align different files and information contained in potentially different file formats.

When "you" assign the location for a "site" file you are helping Revit understand that file's real world location but not the link. If you show shadows or render a view in the host file you'll get shadows based on that location, assuming the orientation of everything is correct (true north).

When you open the building file (linked) it understands the site coordinates for alignment purposes (accomplished through using acquire/publish coordinates) but it doesn't inherit the location setting because they are not truly connected together in Revit. The coordinates used do not necessarily define a "real world location" because of various methods (surveying requirements) that could be used to locate the building on site.

Short answer, assign the project location in both files or at least the building file if you want to show shadows and/or render there. Both if you want that option in both. The shared coordinate part is done once, from one or the other file.