Revit 2016 Update 5

This morning Autodesk Desktop Application (AdA) worked and let me know that an update is available for Revit 2016, Update Release 5 ... and in my case for R2.

AdA installed the update for me. I didn't find any evidence of it on the public facing Autodesk pages but it was listed among the updates I could download from my account management panel at Autodesk, after signing in. Hopefully you'll find AdA works for you too. If you've got to download it to deploy it for your firm then I'd visit the manage portal to download it there.

Hold Off Warning Rescinded

Kyle wrote in a more recent reply:

The Cloud Worksharing reliability issue associated with the Revit 2016 UR4 update has been resolved. The issue was resolved on the service itself, so no updates to the downloadable files were required.

Teams are encouraged to download and install the latest update, as it contains valuable enhancements to reliability and workflow.

Hold off on Revit 2016 Update Release 4

If you are using Revit 2016 and Collaboration for Revit (C4R) then you'll want to hold off installing the most recent update. Kyle shared the following in a post at RFO.

We have identified a compatibility issue with the latest Revit 2016 UR4 update, which is causing degraded Sync with Central (SWC) reliability for those that installed it. We have confirmed this issue internally, and are working to resolve the issue within our services.

Teams are advised to defer installing the latest Revit 2016 UR4 until we have resolved the matter on the Cloud Worksharing service. We apologize for the disruption this may be causing, and are urgently working to resolve the matter.

View Range Dialog

I hinted at this change when Revit Sunrise became available at the end of last summer. In 2016 R2, when you open the View Range dialog box and click the Show button this version will appear.

It's intended to provide more information about what the settings within View Range mean.

Fwiw, I still think this version would be better for View Range and Ceiling Plans.

Update Releases and Color Fill Background Processing

I was reading recently (in a couple forums) about a problem with background processing and views using Color Fills. Autodesk acknowledged the issue and they've just issued an update for called Revit 2016 R2 Update 1, and there is an Update Release 11 available now for Revit 2015.

In the release notes they reference color fills when closing a document that uses them. That doesn't sound like the issue I read about specifically. Those seemed related to printing views that have a color fill applied but maybe that's a minor difference from the code's perspective. Hopefully this update does resolve the issue they were having. It did seem that users could avoid it (the background processing error) if they were careful to save their project, close Revit and restart it before attempting to print those views.

Download Revit 2016 R2 Update 1
Revit 2016 R2 Update 1 - Release Notes

Download Revit 2015 Update Release 11
Revit 2015 Update Release 11 - Release Notes

If you have Autodesk Application Manager installed, and if you'd like to see if it will let you acquire the updates, you can try a right-click on the icon in the system tray and choose Check Now.

Revit 2016 - Licensing Access has Changed

Prior to Revit 2016 we could either take the Application menu > Licensing or the About Revit route to review our licensing information. Here's the first in 2015.

In 2016 they've removed the Application menu path leaving just the About Revit route.

Not a real hardship, just a big confusing if you were expecting to find it under the Application menu like in the past.

Thanks to Dave for the prompt!

Revit 2016 - Deleting Revisions

It's possible to select more than one Revision at a time now. In the past we could only select one at a time. Now if we need to clear out a model of its revisions it is easy. Select all the rows (except just one, Revit needs one Revision to function) and click Delete.

While you're checking this out in the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog have a closer look at the new numbering and Alphanumeric options for Sequence, Prefix and Suffix as well as being able to use Alpha-Numeric sequences too.

I keep expecting to find the Revision button on the Annotate ribbon but it isn't. It is on the View Ribbon > Sheet Composition tab. Is it just me? It's also on the Manage ribbon > hiding under Additional Settings fwiw.

Revit 2016 - Copy Monitor - Wall Location Line

I don't recall any mention of this appearing in the What's New documentation or presentations. I stumbled into it the other day and meant to write about it but my aging Dell finally bit the dust and that distracted me. I find this new parameter and options appears when I examine the Walls tab in the Copy/Monitor Options dialog.

Interesting isn't it? I experimented with using the option. This image depicts a linked file with compound architectural walls being used to create Stud Only walls in a structural model.

I specified that C/M should create a Stud Only wall type instead of the compound wall type being used by the architectural model. I then used the Location Line: Core Face:Exterior.

I didn't find any help documentation to support this new feature. What I did find declares that C/M just uses the Wall Centerline for alignment, which was true until now!

Also, fwiw the openings created at the doors and windows are the correct sizes but only because the families don't have any additional geometry beyond the extent of their frames. I placed openings in the walls at the curtain walls manually using the Wall Opening tool (Architecture or Structure tab > Opening panel > Wall).

Revit 2016 - Rendering Engines

Some years ago we went through a changeover from Accurender to Mental Ray as Autodesk focused on Mental Ray as their preferred rendering engine for several of their products. If you didn't know it already Mental Ray belongs to Nvidia. Autodesk has purchased companies, and their products, more recently that allows them to focus on using what is now their own rendering engine; which is being called Raytracer. Don’t confuse it with the Visual Style called Raytrace.

This means we find ourselves in another period of rendering engine transition from Mental Ray to Autodesk Raytracer instead. Revit 2016 has both Mental Ray and Autodesk Raytracer options available to us when we decide to render via our desktop (not using Cloud Rendering).

As I understand it they are motivated to go through this in order to provide what they believe will be simpler yet higher quality and faster rendering options because they will have more control over the engine being used; it’s theirs, not someone else’s. Unfortunately it takes quite some time to plug in and unplug something so intrinsic to how Revit works. I believe that, if things go according to plan, we’ll probably just find the one option (Raytracer) in the next full release of Revit.

Considering the visualization products available today like Revizto, Lumion, Fuzor and Enscape, which all offer a very impressive real time rendering environment as well as integrating well with Revit, I can’t help but wonder if the development team is really in tune with the market. Maybe they have something up their sleeves we just can’t see yet? I hope so. For a very basic comparison I took a model I made recently during a training session and used both rendering engines with just exterior lighting. I used the same location each time, southern CA (where I live).

This is using Mental Ray (3:27 seconds at Medium)

This is using Raytracer (2:53 at medium)

This time I switched to rending the same model and view using the Draft setting. This is using Mental Ray (51 seconds at Draft)

This time using Raytracer (39 seconds at draft)

For each rendering Raytracer was the faster engine. The quality difference between the draft renderings was much more noticeable with Raytracer’s result being cleaner and clearer. Raytracer’s Draft and Medium was much more consistent than for Mental Ray. If rendering is your passion then I encourage you to read Daniel Stine’s article about this new development in Revit. It was published at AECBytes.

A quirky outcome of this transition is how the two engines deal with the Adjust Exposure feature.

With Mental Ray we can render and then click Adjust Exposure and tweak the result, seeing the changes in the image immediately. With Raytracer we can't do that. We CAN use Adjust Exposure first and then render, which makes no sense to me at all. This means we have to render first, make some adjustments to the exposure (which is adjusting blindly), render again to see if it provides a better result...repeat.

It's my understanding that it is what it is...for now...

Upgrade Projects from 2015 C4R to 2016 C4R

The Revit Clinic offered a post describing the steps to move a project from 2015 to 2016 versions of Collaboration for Revit. It isn't as straight forward as we might think. It isn't as simple as opening a 2015 project via A360 with 2016 and waiting for it to be upgraded to 2016.

Take these steps:

• Open Revit 2015 (with C4R installed)
• Browse to the A360 project that you want to upgrade
• Open each Revit model and save it to your local workstation
• Create a new project to be used with A360 Collaboration for Revit 2016 in your A360 team hub
• Open Revit 2016 (need C4R installed for 2016 first of course)
• Open each Revit model that you saved to your local workstation save it after it upgrades to 2016
• Initiate Collaboration on each model and specify the 2016 project name that was created on A360 earlier
• The model is associated with the new A360 Collaboration for Revit 2016 project
• Re-link any Revit models as required
• Let everyone know that they should use the 2016 project now

There are now two separate and distinct projects (2015 format and 2016 format). Everyone must use the upgraded (2016) project and models now. Remember to rename the 2015 version of the project or deactivate it via A360.

Revit 2016 - Collaboration for Revit 2016 is Available

The 2016 version of C4R (Collaboration for Revit) is available now.

Click this to download or click the image for an overview

You'll need to visit your Subscription page to access the download to install it. Look at the Services page and it should be listed among whatever services you are entitled to. If you don't see it then you'll have to sort out your A360 account first.

This is the video they offer at the online help documentation site to explain how to initiate a project with C4R

Revit 2016 Updates Redux

This morning I gave Autodesk Application Manager (AAM) another chance by removing it and installing it again. It reports a number of things requiring my attention; A360, Navisworks, Revit 2016 Extensions and AutoCAD OSNAP support. That's a bit more encouraging, it seems to be awake at least. In the past it just stopped caring about updates and didn't seem to find any despite Luke telling me otherwise on his blog.

The Revit Clinic has since provided a post with information regarding 2015 and 2016 updates.

I noticed that Revit 2016 now has Service Pack 1 installed. After a year of Release Updates we are now returning to language of old with Service Pack. Okay...

In a comment for yesterday's post Phillip asks why isn't there one update application that installs the necessary features based on what is installed...for each Revit version? Good question! They must be able to figure out what is installed and hopefully they know what is needed, better than me trying to figure it out from the information they aren't putting on the website at least.

Luke also followed up his previous posts with another regarding Revit 2016 Extensions (he's observed they are now being deployed via AAM), Space Naming Utility (now generically "version-less" wrapped up and delivered at Autodesk Exchange Apps). I'm still not sure where to expect to find Worksharing Monitor or the Collaboration for Revit (C4R) 2016.

After installing the 2015 update I find C4R is broken, it triggers the usual message that only a programmer's mother can love.

I'm glad that AAM seems to be working now but it is soooo slooooowwww installing updates. The Navis updates just report "installing" with no indication for the degree of progress while some of the others do. Consistent inconsistency. The updates for Navis and ReCap put fresh icons on my desktop where there were none. It's not hard to delete them but its rude to put something on the desktop that wasn't there prior to the update.

Grumpy but not as grumpy as yesterday...

Revit 2016 - IFC Observations

Autodesk recommends that we visit Autodesk Exchange|Apps to download the latest IFC application before starting to work with IFC data.

While testing these features I exported some walls and doors to IFC 2x3 so I could import them as IFC geometry. When I used Link IFC there were Generic Model openings filling the door openings to provide room bounding geometry.

There is a bit more going on behind the scenes when we import IFC. In the past we had to open an IFC which created a Revit project file we could then link. Those extra steps are done for us now as a background operation. There are three files that Revit creates based on the source IFC we link.

If I get obnoxious and delete these files and then open my active project file I get a warning message that Revit couldn’t find a linked file. When I use Reload From and select the IFC file I linked in the first place Revit creates those three files all over again. In the background it’s really just referencing the IFC file named "Linking.ifc.RVT".

I then opened the .RVT file that Revit created during the Link IFC process and deleted the openings and replaced them with Room Separator lines. Rather than doing that we can just leave the Generic Model elements but we need to use a Filter to turn them off. Revit creates a shared parameter file based on the IFC data. We can create a Project Parameter using one of its parameters (ObjectTypeOverrides) so we can create a Filter focused on the Generic Model category.

Once we understand that we can use the same approach to override the appearance of the existing walls, doors and windows so they look more like existing elements.

Revit 2016 - IFC Snap Align and Dimensions

We can snap to IFC link elements to create new elements and we can also dimension to elements in the link. We can also Align Revit elements to IFC-based elements as well as Host some face-based families, such as electrical devices. Dimensions will only recognize the faces of linked IFC geometry and not any center lines, reference planes, or other non-geometry elements.

This is a plan view of linked IFC walls and doors along with a few local walls and doors. Rooms were added to the overall plan, using the room bounding setting for the linked IFC file.

If the IFC file changes and it is reloaded into the Revit model, previously established references may not be maintained. We’ll have to make sure they are intact. It is difficult to ensure that changes to IFC geometry will retain relationships between any dimensions that reference it.

Revit 2016 - IFC Links and Rooms

A linked IFC file can provide room boundaries.

Revit 2016 - Truss Chord Rotation

When we rotate a truss we can either allow the chords to rotate with the truss or stay aligned with the truss placement plane (usually vertical).

Revit 2016 - Loss Method and ASHRAE Tables

Fittings and loss errors have been annoying in Revit MEP for quite some time. If we were striving for a warning free model then we'd be confounded at every turn by fittings and their loss for loss. In Revit 2015 R2 and 2016 we've got the option to assign fitting's Loss Method parameter to Coefficient from ASHRAE Table.

The ASHRAE Table Settings dialog displays graphical information that is associated with duct fittings table. We can choose from among the fitting descriptions in the table or accept the default one that is already selected.

If you select a fitting randomly and check this out you may find the dialog set to None. It only starts to work when components are well connected. That means, if you see warnings associated with fittings, its likely those fittings are not part of a well connected network yet.

Revit 2016 - Piping Units Addition

Plumbing engineers must feel a bit like Rodney Dangerfield's "I'm tellin' you, I don't get no respect!". Here's one for them, subtle though it may be. We can specify Liters per minute (L/min) for piping project units. (woot)

Revit 2016 - Selection Box

You’re already familiar with this new tool, conceptually at least, if you’ve used the 3rd party applications COINS Section Box or Xrev View Box. Just select elements and click the button to generate a 3D view with a section box cropped around those elements.

You may not want to give up those other tools just yet because they may offer more control of the resulting view than this tool does. It carries out the action with your default 3D view so if you didn’t want to mess that one up you need to remember to save it before you use it. It is easy and fast, you decide if you agree.

Revit 2016 - Rotate Project North

Technically this isn't a new feature. It’s an improvement of the existing tool. In the past this tool did not faithfully rotate all annotation elements consistently. We’d often find some annotation was either not rotated at all or moved into different positions. They've revisited the code to ensure more consistent results. It’s not a guarantee they've resolved everything since they can only tackle issues that have been identified as problems. We are pretty ingenious at doing things with Revit that the developers didn't imagine. Hopefully we’ll find that it is more reliable when/if we need to use it.

Let me take this opportunity to remind you that Revit’s bias has always been to create a model or building with Project North in mind FIRST. FORGET about the real orientation on site, initially (please). That’s what using Rotate True North is for and Acquiring Coordinates.

Those tools existed long before Rotate Project North. In fact it was only added because people can’t seem to remember to start their project using a Project North orientation. If you’re interested in more of my writing about using Shared Coordinates you can check out my blog post summary.