Revit 2026 is Released

 Revit 2026 has been release to the public now! Here's a quick observation today, a department of subtle candidate. The Manage Links button on the Insert ribbon has moved to the front of the line! It used to be at the end of the Link panel. It makes sense I suppose but now it's farther away from the action.

Revit 2018 - Insert Ribbon Search Field is Removed

When Autodesk Seek gave up on their mission and handed it over to BIM Object Revit 2017 started to redirect us to that site instead whenever we did a search. Prior to that it would take us to Autodesk Seek.

Notice anything missing from the 2018 Insert Ribbon image above? Well the post title gave it away but the search field has been stripped off. Remember this following image from way back when?

I realize it didn't make sense to leave references to Autodesk Seek in play. Now it's even less helpful to find external content. I guess it's more incentive to install BIM Object's Revit app? Probably what they intended.

No you're not imagining things, it's gone gone gone...

-- EDITED 5/2/2017 --

I installed the BIM Object Revit app.

Holy smokes that's a heck of a ribbon for the primary button I really want, Browse on the far left. Note if you launch any of the tools you can't do any work back in Revit until you finish interacting with their app. If you find that frustrating you could just open a separate browser.

It would be nice if there were some user settings to reduce the number of buttons to just those you're likely to use. I added the browse button to the QAT to get around accessing the ribbon tab each time.

Revit 2017.1 - Type Selector on Modify Ribbon

Working with some new Revit users last week I noticed something strange happened to my interface and not theirs. I suddenly had a Type Selector on my Modify Ribbon tab, on its own ribbon panel.

I thought, "I don't remember that!" Then I thought, "It must be a new subtlety with Revit 2017.1 that I haven't noticed yet!" Looking at it again, once I remembered to be curious, I found that when I right-click on the Type Selector, in its long standing home on the Properties Palette, two options appear, the ribbon one being new. Those other users had Revit 2017 installed.

Now I don't see the What's New in Revit 2017.1 documentation page taking credit for this subtle change. I don't recall running into it while writing my What's New post for 2017 when that came out either, nor is it listed in that documentation section either when I scanned it again just in case.

I wrote strange happened earlier because I don't recall right-clicking and selecting that option unless I had a short term memory lapse. I suppose I might have been talking and clicking without looking, yeah I've done that while discussing a Revit feature plenty of times. What was I writing about? Oh...

Still I don't remember doing it. I also don't remember it being there all along since installing Revit 2017.1 in the first place and I'm pretty sure I've used it a lot since doing that. ...again with doubting my memory? I suppose it could just be the default location for the original install of the update and I just failed to notice it. I don't that's speaking well of my observation skills though. Well, never mind.

Don't worry about me, just take advantage of it if you like that as an available option too! Since Autodesk isn't claiming responsibility for it, who wants to?

Ribbon Panel Titles are Missing

The ribbon User Interface will let us turn off the ribbon's panel titles. I've never bothered to do this and today I was asked why a user's ribbon was missing them. I blanked...uh, um, graphics driver issue? While I was trying to make my brain work, he decided to right-click and saw this...

Add another troubleshooting saying to add to our collection, "When in doubt right click"!

The Ribbon and Training

This one comes up during every training session. I tell the group to click on such and such button and someone says, "Hey Steve, where is that button? I don't see it?" A quick glance at their pc and I see that they've got a deeper resolution than I do or the reverse.

The clever ribbon bugger stretches and contracts to show more or less of the ribbon (and tool buttons) according to the resolution of your computer. That means I might have a great resolution, and the projector supports it fine, but unfortunately someone else in the class is using a laptop with a lesser resolution. That means "my button" is bigger/smaller than "theirs".

It sure makes class fun! Since projector's often sets the "bar lower" I suppose I could force everyone to use my resolution? In a perfect world we'd all be using the same resolution? Yep yahshooeryoobetcha!

Dept. of Off Topic - Holy Number of Views Batman!

One of my earlier posts (The Tale of the Dancing Ribbon Tabs) has a video that goes along with it. I just noticed how many views that video has generated at Screencast - 49,393 - Wow! I guess when you create a little video that has a subject broader than the niche that Revit is some serious numbers can show up! I can only assume that the ribbon being in other products like Office apps accounts for this spike. As you were!

Ribbon Tab Dance

I'm growing weary of the Ribbon Tab feature that allows you to cycle through the ribbon display options if you double click on a tab. I say weary because I've been using a Intous 4 for a few months now and I find that I occasionally double tap when I think the software is lagging or didn't accept my first tap. The result is a new ribbon format. During training it is annoying. During remote access of another pc it is even more frequent because of the inherent lag between my screen and theirs. I'd love it if there were a "switch" that let me disable that feature.

I recorded a little video of it if you haven't had the pleasure?

Dept. of Subtle - Tale of the Dancing Ribbon Tabs

I see this issue quite a bit these days with students as we work though various tasks. It is easier to demonstrate with a VIDEO so I made one.

Here's a quick description. You start the Wall Tool, you decide to switch to another Ribbon for some reason, then decide to return to the Wall tool. You see the Wall tool right there on the Home tab and click to start the Wall tool again. You don't notice that the Wall Tool is already selected and you also don't notice that the Place Wall Ribbon tab is active. Nothing happens, or at least it sure looks like nothing happens. Happened to you? Just need to remember to scan the Ribbon for active tabs.

(The audio sounds a little "buzzier" than it sounded when I first listened to it. Maybe my ears were shot after a full day. I'll replace it when I have a different environment to record in.)