Autodesk Desktop Application - Again

Boy this app doesn't get much love. I've read a couple of posts elsewhere that are far less charitable than I've been. As I mentioned in the podcast I did with Bill (Grumpy Steve) I think it had a better name before when it was called Autodesk Application Manager. At least then the name suggested what it was meant to accomplish. Now its name is ambiguous at best and meaningless at worst.

A couple comments in response to my last whiny post pointed out that if I'd read the readme file for each update I would have realized that it would be necessary to uninstall the existing versions first.

My reaction? Okay my bad ... but then I thought that's not much of a application manager is it? Tell me there is an update but you need me to go elsewhere to read a document and uninstall the software so I can come back and run the update. I'm imagining that the user experience of applying an update to an app ought to be just a little bit like doing that for an app from the iTunes store?

Then again with its new name...it's not a manager anymore.

This morning a little progress though because I see AdA has started up AND there is another update indicated by the icon in my system tray.

I've already been told this application has an Update quite a few times now. Each time I've attempted to apply it, no success. It just shows up as available again the next time around.

This time I thought I'd listen to the advice offered in the comments I mentioned earlier. I clicked on the Readme link (blue text in the update listing). Instead of taking me to the readme document or the page that has it I find myself looking at the primary BIM 360 product page.

That's not what I expected (implied by the term Readme), nor is it helpful. Okay, I can deal with this. I'm reasonably resourceful (I think). I'll just go chasing after the update via the Knowlege Base. I run a search against each of the four BIM 360 applications listed ... nothing found. Okay?! Since it is for Revit 2015 maybe it's an update that is hiding under Revit 2015? Run a new search against that criteria instead ... yeah, you guessed it ... nothing found.

Yes, I submitted feedback through the built-in comment dialog that AdA has. That it has one built-in should be a clue I suppose.

I think, if AdA is going to tell me there is an update and make it worthwhile, it should do everything necessary to help me actually apply the update. For example, I was told (via comments) that it was necessary to un-install the existing versions of the other apps I was trying to apply an update for. I've since done that and applied the updates, great! The update item in AdA should have been formatted like this for example.

Better still the update should be smart enough to un-install the precedent software first, if it is required. It's not like there isn't a precedent of software updates doing that.

Since my most recent attempt to use the readme link ended with no joy, most likely just the victim of being assigned the wrong URL, it seems reasonable to provide the most important warning related to succeeding with an update, that it will be necessary to take separate action to remove the existing version first. Seems easy enough?

For now I'll just ignore the update since I won't be needing Revit 2015 this week. I'll see if it factors into my situation later, if it ever does.

Family Critique - Overhead Storage Bin

In a past post I was critical of how it was made and described what could be done to fix it. With that in mind, let's examine another family and see how very minor changes will improve the user experience.

First a little background noise, I've been participating in a program that Autodesk started called Revit Mentors. It is focused on people that are using the trial version of Revit, trying it on for size before buying. They been running the same thing for AutoCAD for much longer and recently decided to do the same for Revit. The mentoring takes place in the form of a chat window and this family was the subject of one such session.

The family in my sights today belongs to the Furniture System category and is called Overhead Storage Module.rfa (see image).

You can see two instances are highlighted in red in the above image. What's wrong with the family?

1. When we try to place the family Revit does not recognize its sides so it is difficult to place it accurately on the first try.
2. It also isn't visible during placement unless we have already assigned the Underlay parameter to the same level the view is associated with.
3. It remains invisible after placement and that means we have to resort to tricks to make it visible in the view too.

The reference planes are the cause of our first issue. They are assigned to an IsReference value of Weak. This means Revit doesn't pay attention to them during placement. They need to be Strong or one of the preset named IsReference settings. This is what they look like now.

In the image below we can see (no highlighting visible) that Revit doesn't acknowledge the edge of the family so it can't snap into the correct position easily. When I'm confronted with this issue I usually place such families wrong and then use Align to fix them. Then I copy them around instead of placing them. If I was really smart I'd edit the family and fix the problem.

This is what the family looks like after I've fixed the IsReference parameters. I've also named the Reference Planes using the same words.

Now placing the family is easy because Revit sees the Strong Reference Planes. The nice IsReference names like Front, Back, Left and Right are Strong too.

The second issue is that the geometry of the family is entirely above the cut-plane of the family and most project views. To fix this we can use the Old Invisible Line Trick. I've placed a Symbolic Line using the invisible lines linestyle. It spans from the Reference Level up to the top of the cabinet. I've locked the end points to the top and bottom references so it tracks with the cabinet if its parameters are changed later. It looks like this now. I've also named and assigned the IsReference parameters using Top and Bottom.

The third issue is resolved by editing the Masking Region that has been used in the family. I changed the front linestyle to Hidden Lines so that it will use that linestyle in the project too.

Now the cabinets are visible immediately and without worrying about using the view's Underlay parameter at all.

If I want to make it obvious that there is a difference between hidden items below and above then I'd use (and create if necessary) a different linestyle for each such situation. The Project templates that Autodesk provides have a linestyle called Overhead. I'd just need to add this to my family and assign it to the masking region boundary segment instead.

The presence of these subtle issues demonstrate to me that nobody really tries to use these families in a meaningful way when they are created. In this case the family is quite old. It has probably just been upgraded every year for at least a decade. There are a lot of existing families. It would be nice if someone was routinely taking a closer look at all this content. With our wishlist getting longer and louder every year I'm not going to hold my breath.

It is subtle stuff like this that helps make each user's experience just a little bit better!

Controlling User Choices in Families

In November 2005 I wrote post called Make Up My Mind to describe how I could control a series of Yes/No parameters with a single input. I've often wanted to manage this by providing a more meaningful list of choices. A couple years ago I chatted with Jose Fandos of Andekan about this. He's made a lot of content over the years and he pointed out that I could get what I wanted, it just wasn't possible quite as directly as I'd hoped.

Here's a screen capture of the Family Types dialog that I mocked up for a related thread at RevitForum.org.

This technique uses a nested Detail Item family that has three types: Default, Vertical and Alternate. These refer to three preset choices for the orientation of a family.

• I nested the family into my main (host) family and associated it with a Family Type parameter called Choose Orientation (at the top of the dialog).
• I created three parameters which are also using the data type Family Type (next 3 down).
• Each of these is preset to one of the three orientation types in the nested family.
• I created three Yes/No parameters that will be used to control the visibility or orientation of forms in the host family (group of Toggle parameters).
• Each Yes/No parameter is mapped via a formula that, (in a counter-intuitive "IF" statement format) stated in plain English, equates to "If Choose Orientation = Set Condition A,B or C then my parameter value is True".
• I can use each one of the Toggle parameters to control other elements all based on the user selection for Choose Orientation.

The middle man Set Condition "x" parameters are necessary because a Yes/No formula can't evaluate the Choose Orientation parameter value directly in the formula column. When the user encounters this family they just use the Choose Orientation parameter to decide which orientation is appropriate. Everything else adjusts based on this choice.

Download the Example Family

Associate Family Parameter

I've written about Revit's sneaky buttons in the past (see the three links below). I find the button for the Associate Family Parameter feature particular frustrating.

First of all it's tiny and second it has no tooltip, both of which mean it is not particularly obvious. I find myself wishing for a different way to interact with this concept. I can't say that I have a better solution in mind. I just know that this one feels awkward.

Keep in mind that I'm coming from the point of view of someone who has spent about eighty hours clicking on those tiny buttons about a thousand times recently. There are many tasks in Revit that seem quite fine when you think of them as occasional activities. When you start to think of them as your 9-5 job, doing them over and over and over and over all day almost anything can start to wear on you.

Perhaps a clear cut button on the ribbon that says Associate Family Parameter and opens a dialog that lists the parameters that qualify. Even better perhaps a mapping methodology that allows us to define a series of native parameters and then map them to the nested family or the connector's parameters?

Here's links to three past Sneaky Button posts: POST 1, POST 2, POST 3

Placing Based Content Tips

This happens very often, probably more often in RME than others though. Select a face-based component to put in the model, start clicking away and then realize that it isn't hosted like you hoped it would be. Face-based families cannot be preset to prefer a certain face. Revit will decide that a Vertical Face is what you want by default. You have to remember to change it to one of the other two choices, Face or Workplane. It would be GREAT if we could preset a preference, not yet however.

Regular content, like a desk or a chair, doesn't offer a choice unless they have been changed to be Work-plane based. If that's happened then you get a choice between a Face and Workplane, like below.

You need to be careful with those choices if you have linked Revit models. The Face that Revit finds may be something in the link instead of the Level of your host project. If you select a family and find the associated work plane shows a linked project file you've got some "fixin" to do. Not hard to fix, just click the Edit Workplane button and choose the intended workplane, such as the Level it is on.

Face-based families offer you three choices and Vertical is the default one you'll get.

Placing content you have to be vigilant and notice which kind you are dealing with. If you don't change it you might get something like this, where your air terminal is hosted on the Vertical Face, or in as in the image below on the "vertical face" of the ceiling grid, uh oh!