Revit 2020.2 Internal Origin Redux

Happy Thanksgiving to those who observe!

One little thing I'm thankful for, I got a file yesterday from Autodesk (TurnOffInternalOrigin.Dyn) that is meant to be run in Dynamo Player (it's a custom node in testing ATM). You can download the file, place it wherever your Dynamo Player is looking for files already or in Dynamo Player just browse to wherever you placed the file. Click the play button (see image) and it will turn off the Internal Origin in all views. This approach means very little Dynamo knowledge is necessary, just enough to get Dynamo Player open and find the file.

Since I already put in some time with my own graph which included the Survey Point and Project Base Point I decided I'd like to be able to turn on/off all three or just the internal origin or some combination. I modified my graph (Control Coordinate Graphics.dyn) to provide input options (see image).

When you use Dynamo player you can edit the input options through On/Off switches (see image).

Click the little Properties button (looks like a old Macintosh computer to me). Clicking the toggle will make the statement either true or false for each "hide" question. All three true = all off for example. Remember my graph is dependent on a node from the Archilib package, make sure you've installed that before trying to use it.

Revit Safe Mode - Wish Fulfilled

The other day I wrote about David's idea for a Revit Safe mode and Robert Manna responded in a serious way. He and the gang at Stantec created and have just shared an application to do just what we were suggesting. This is a screen shot of it running (from Robert's post).

It runs outside of Revit, prepares for opening Revit without the add-ins you choose to disable. It allows us to be fairly surgical in our troubleshooting even if it's akin to exploratory surgery ... "Hmmm, maybe we need to remove the appendix? No, that wasn't it...maybe the spleen?"

If you're curious head over to Robert's post on their blog for more information and to download the application.

Revit 2017 - Space Naming Utility Update - It is Available Now

The other day I poked Autodesk about this feature. As it turns out it is deployed slightly more automatically. The catch is that the latest iteration of Autodesk Desktop Application (I'm going to call it AdA) must be used to see these updates.

My first problem was that AdA wasn't working. It just displayed a blank white screen. I also noticed that there was no Autodesk (A icon) in the system tray for an active service. Eventually I used the wisdom of The IT Crowd; turned it off and on again. That restarted the service and AdA started working, displaying information.

The second problem was there were no updates to choose from. I logged out of A360 and closed its system tray instance. I also logged out of A360 via Revit, since I had it open. I closed the instance of AdA in the system tray too. I had a browser open looking at my Manage portal. I thought that maybe my access settings were wrong. I logged out and closed the browser too. Then I logged back into A360 and launched AdA...voila, updates appeared. It made no difference earlier that I used the right-click Check for New Updates option for AdA in the system tray repeatedly.

Once I got it working again this appeared in AdA.

This a tiny bit better.

People will still have to pay attention to be alerted to download and install it. If they don't have enough control over their computer they'll still have to get EyeTee involved. I'll have to see if I notice more people have it installed in the coming months.

Once it has been downloaded and installed you don't have to rely on AdA to pass it along to others in the office though. You can just capture the downloaded installation file from the location defined when you downloaded and installed it the first time (C:\Autodesk by default).

It is also a bit tedious that every one of the updates is a separate installation; must be run and completed before starting another. If you attempt to run them while another is running you'll run into messages about something already being in process.

By the way, when you run Revit after installing all the available updates you may be greeted by "Security - Unsigned Add-in" warnings. Nice...

I've got my Space Naming Utility! Do you? I hope so!

...and thanks to Paul Aubin for the heads up!

Revit Extension and the Big Pause

I've noticed that when I start sketching walls in a new project that at the third segment Revit decides it needs to PAUSE before continuing. It seems it has something to do with having Revit Extensions installed. It thinks needs to add some parameters and interrupts my sketching to do that. Bill (Mr. BIM Thoughts) helped point me toward this bugger the other day when were discussing a few workstations that were pausing to install/update the extension...much worse pause.

If you experience this too...might be the same situation for you.

Revit 2015 Web Update 1

With Revit 2015 comes the new Autodesk Application manager. It is intended to help let us know when software updates are available.

When I installed Revit 2015 the other day I downloaded Update Release 1, which is an option during preparatory steps, and let the installation apply the update as soon as Revit 2015 was installed. When that was finished Revit showed the update was installed as expected. This morning the Autodesk Application Manager told me there was an update available and it seemed to think that Update Release 1 should be installed despite my belief otherwise.

I should add that this is the first morning I've been able to use this hard drive in a few days. A hard drive crash derailed some of my progress toward getting things installed last week. That means this is the first day that the Autodesk Application Manager could attempt to tell me about the update. In other words, I'm not saying that it was late telling me about the update. The installation process for Revit offers/shows updates that are already available, so I did already know it existed though.

Since the manager seemed to think I should, I let it attempt to install the update just to see what would happen. After a few minutes it reported that the update was already installed and continuing to install it wasn't necessary. When I acknowledged the message by closing the dialog my New Updates item reported "installed" (as shown in the image above). Quirky but it now appears to be in sync.

As such it seems to me that the Application Manager isn't aware of installation status (not inward looking) just that updates exist (outward looking to Autodesk). If it is really going to live up to the manager name it probably needs to be a bit smarter in this regard.

Fuzor

While attending Autodesk University last week Elaine with NBBJ mentioned a new product she is familiar with called Fuzor. She said I should check it out on the exhibit floor. Wednesday night I stopped by to have a look.

It's a stand-alone software intended to allow real time rendering and simulation of a Revit model. It also "plugs in" to Revit with its own tools on the ribbon. For example you can use View Sync to update Fuzor as you change your view in Revit. You can initiate changes by selecting elements in Fuzor and using the Edit Selection button on the ribbon in Revit.

Open your project, launch Fuzor, wait for it to load the model and you're off. Elaine opened up a project a team in her office has been working on so it was not a small model, nor just one model. Navigation was simple enough. If you've used the walk feature in Revit or the same concept in Navisworks you know enough to get around.

There is no export from Revit. Just open your project in Revit and then run Fuzor (separate application window). The only time you'll spend waiting is the initial load, about the same as waiting for Revit to load the project initially, perhaps a bit faster. Between the real time visualization and no export it's a pretty compelling option. The closest thing I can think of is the Lux module from M-Six's Veo.

The product is only about six months old at this point and about to become available for evaluation. It's being developed by a team based in San Diego, CA. If you are interested they are asking us to send a request via EMAIL. There is a PDF Manual if you'd like to read it. The price if I recall correctly is about $3,500.00 USD. They will be able to support network licensing as well.

Key Feature Summary

• Geometry Updates in Fuzor as soon as Revit data changes
• Select elements in Fuzor first and then edit in Revit
• Load specific levels (they call them layers) from linked files
• Materials changes in Revit update Fuzor immediately
• Camera Synchronization between Revit and Fuzor
• Correct Time of Day Simulation
• Weather Conditions: sunny, storm clouds, rain and rain with wind direction
• Walk and Fly through controls
• Uses Revit lighting data for interior lighting

I've embedded their intro video, follow THIS LINK for five others.

BIM Coordinator for Civil 3D and Revit

Autodesk Labs posted an application that was developed by Autodesk Consulting. You can read more information HERE.

It functions as a plug-in that is installed in both applications, Civil 3D and Revit. It allows a Civil 3D user to define the shared coordinate system to be passed on to a Revit project. Running the tool in Civil 3D is based on selecting two points on a reference building footprint file (don't forget paying attention to elevation) and saving the information to a separate file.

Note that it uses a file formatted as ACCSXML (Autodesk Consulting Coordinate System eXtensible Markup Language).

The file is then used in combination with a plug-in tool inside Revit that asks you to pick the same points in Revit and then select the source file. As the project progresses, you can pass model data back and forth easily as long as you export by specifying the correct project units and Shared Coordinates each time.

You can watch a video at You Tube that explains how it works (9:53)

The process described assumes that the person deciding where the building goes is using Civil 3D which in my experience is not necessarily accurate. They'll ultimately be responsible or define it precisely eventually but the building location is often affected by a lot of things and roughed in by designers using an underlay of a survey and civil data.

It is also very important that the person using Civil 3D passes along the two key points on the building. If they get this wrong or we misunderstand them we’ll end up with a discrepancy when we potentially pick slightly different points. Of course this assumes that the civil engineer is not sitting right next to “us”, the architect or structural engineer. Connecting the information between all parties still boils down to someone deciding what building location is "spot on".

Check it out, might help your next project?

Point Cloud Feature Extraction

When I first saw this show up in the Labs blog post it was called "Scan to Bim". I wondered about the name conflict with the application already using that name, created by the folks at IMAGINiT. I thought at first maybe that Autodesk bought it. However barely a day later and it's called Point Cloud Feature Extraction.

[Added 1/26/2012: There are reports that some users experiencing difficulty getting this plug-in to work. Check out the follow up post at It is Alive in the Lab to see what's happening. One tester believes it is related to deployment vs. individual installations.]

[Added 1/27/2012: If you can't get it running, the latest development: "A user in the discussion forum installed a newer Visual Studio runtime and resolved the issue in his case." TRY NEWER RUNTIME ]

WHAT TOOLS DOES POINT CLOUD FEATURE EXTRACTION PLUG-IN FOR REVIT PROVIDE?

Point Cloud Feature Extraction for Autodesk Revit 2012 provides the following tools to facilitate the point cloud editing after it is inserted into Revit:

Crop/Uncrop: Temporarily hide the points outside a rectangle or polygon Hide Point Cloud: Temporarily hide the whole point cloud object to facilitate the inspection of the feature extraction result Adjust Axis: Transform the point cloud data so that floor can be aligned with XY plane and major walls are parallel to Z axis

Moreover, this plug-in includes some main features specifically for Revit so that the extracted features / geometry can be smoothly integrated into the BIM workflow:

Datum Extraction: Extract both level and orthogonal grid Site Extraction: Extract both terrain surface for ground surface creation and building footprint on terrain surface for building pad generation Wall Extraction: Extract both straight wall layout and arc wall Floor Extraction: Extract floor from selected points on the floor plan level

AVAILABILITY

The Point Cloud Feature Extraction for Autodesk Revit technology preview is licensed for a limited term and for a particular territory as referenced in the End User License Agreement. The technology preview will operate until August 1, 2012.

Want to watch some videos? (links to You Tube)

Crop and Uncrop Axis Adjustment Datum Extraction Site/Building Footprint Extraction Wall Extraction Floor Extraction Arc Wall Extraction

They'd like your feedback

See how well the Point Cloud Feature Extraction for Autodesk Revit technology preview works for you, and be sure to tell us how we can improve this technology by following the feedback links in the upper-right corner of this page. You can also post comments on the Between the Lines or It's Alive in the Lab blog.

Design Review - There's an App for That!

At the last Revit user group meeting I attended a few guys were chatting about how logical it is for Design Review to be an app for iPad or iPhone. Guess they were right?!? There's an app for that now! Yeah I'm slow mentioning it since it actually became available a few days ago?

Check it out at iTunes

Shared Parameter Utility - Revit SP Writer

Alan Jackson has made his new Shared Parameter application available. From his blog openRevit:

...snip
This utility is intended to manage shared parameter files for Autodesk Revit platforms. It was written and tested using Excel 2007.

Features:

• Import Shared Parameter .txt files
• Export Shared Parameter .txt files
• Create New Shared parameters
• Selective Export from Parameter Library
• Organize Parameters

...snip

You can DOWNLOAD NOW from his site.

He followed up the first post with this one too.

Autodesk Labs - eTransmit for Revit

Anyone who has to share their Revit project files with another entity knows that it can be a little tricky if you want them to have all the ancillary data that might be associated with the project file itself, like imported dwg files. Autodesk Labs released (yesterday) a new candidate for your consideration called eTransmit for Revit.

From the Lab's description:
...snip

With eTransmit for Revit, you can:
• Copy and detach a Revit model and associated files to a single folder for internet transmission. This removes the typical error messages when you copy central files using the operating system.
• Locate dependent files automatically and include them in the transmittal folder, reducing the possibility of error. All dependent files are automatically converted to use relative paths to ensure that the dependent files can be located by the model.
• Choose to include related dependent files such as linked Revit models, CAD files, DWF markups, decal images, and external keynote files. You can transmit any Revit (.rvt) model that has been upgraded to Revit Release 2012.
• Transmit models that are using file-based worksharing or server-based worksharing. eTransmit for Revit will also work with non-workshared Revit models.

...snip

They've got a Known Issues PDF you can check out too.

Room Renumbering - Autodesk Labs Plug-in of the Month - Updated 2012

For those of you that have downloaded this plug-in and starting to use 2012 in production, there is now a version for 2012 too.

Poking at them, it should have been rolled into 2012 but I'm grateful that it exists and freely so. Check out the Autodesk Labs blog post.

Autodesk Labs - Solar Radiation for Revit

This showed up on the Autodesk Labs site this morning and Scott Shepard blogged about it on their blog page. It is formally called "Solar Radiation Technology Preview for Revit Architecture and Revit MEP". A couple snippets from their site:

Use the Solar Radiation Technology Preview to analyze the effects of solar radiation on various surfaces of your conceptual building model...

The technology preview uses the geometry of conceptual massing elements from Revit and calculates the amount of solar radiation hitting the surfaces of the massing shapes, based on location and weather data... ...It is possible to display the distribution and availability of solar radiation over an entire building or even a city block...

The output of the technology preview can be saved as images in the Revit project that contains the massing elements... ...You can also export the images from Revit for use in presentations or for editing in external software applications...

If you want to watch or download a video (from the blog post):

To help get you started, there's a video that accompanies this release:

YouTube
non-YouTube