Print Preview: Print/Close = Close/Quit

This is old but it trips up new users frequently. The language on the print preview window uses the following, Print and Close are the specific victims of this post.

When you click Print, instead of sending the plot job to the printer it returns you to the print dialog. When you click Close, instead of closing the preview window and returning you to the print dialog Revit bails out of printing/plotting all together. As if you said, "Aw...nevermind, I didn't want to print!"

My present versions of Excel and Word (2002, too lazy to upgrade 8-) ) work similarly so I suppose this means that Revit is Window's compliant. Except that Word just prints when you click print where Excel returns to the print dialog. This doesn't change the fact that I frequently meet people who get tripped up by it.

It would be nice if the language of the buttons could be changed to be more obvious. Such as "Close Preview" and "Cancel Printing" assuming the actual results are not changed. If we could redefine the behavior as well I'd like to see Print mean Print and "Close" say "Close Preview" and close the preview window, returning to the Print dialog instead of bailing out.

Potaytoe...pahtahtoe perhaps...my 2.25 cents.

[Edit 04/23/09 - After using Office 2007 for awhile now I've noticed that the language is cleaned up for this. Print...prints and Close says Close Print Preview now instead. When you use Preview instead Print takes you to the Print dialog to let you make some choices. It offers Close Print Preview too. Much better and Revit ought to emulate it too.]

Sections and their Dependent Views

Sounds like a daytime talk show subject? When you create a section view and then create dependent views using the new feature found in Revit 2008 you end up with some additional annotation that you may not really want to see. Like this perhaps...

This also any view that would show the section annotation.

So we can try to use the "Hide at Scales Coarser" parameter to change this condition.
If you select the views in the project browser all at the same time and then attempt to change the parameter you'll probably find that the parent view's annotation disappears too.

If you select one at time and change the parameter you'll find you can change some of them but not all of the them or you might find that changing one of them also affects the parent. I've seen both situations.

Interestingly enough, if you select the unwanted annotation in a view however you'll find you are able to change the parameter without losing the parent annotation along with them. I don't know why it should matter and it may be a bug that you can change them via the annotation element instead of through view properties but nonetheless it is possible at this time.

Naturally you can choose to hide them using the Right Click option Hide in View > Elements but you'll have to do this in any view you don't want to see them in.

Revit Zone Tutorials

Ian has taken significant time and effort to share his knowledge of Revit on his new site Revit Zone (blogged earlier). His recent additions to his site make it a must stop for any Revit user thirsty for knowledge.

If you find his site useful be sure to let him know so he'll be motivated to keep up the good work!

Thanks Ian!

AUGI Site Down for Upgrades

This text was posted at BLAUGI regarding an interuption in service at AUGI.

First, apologies for the lack of advance notice on this subject.

Please be aware that the AUGI Forums [ http://www.forums.augi.com/ ] will be taken offline all day this coming Saturday (2007-07-07) from 08:00 AM EDT (12:00 PM GMT), while essential backend database work is carried out.

All going well, the AUGI Forums should be back online, sometime Sunday (2007-07-08) morning - 08:00 AM EDT (12:00 PM GMT) - 11:59 AM EDT (03:59 PM GMT). If that proves not to be the case, please keep checking back later in the day, as they will be brought back online as soon as possible.

Once again, apologies for the lack of advance notice.

Revit MEP - "Space Bar" and "Apply"

The "Space Bar" is used a little differently in this version of Revit than its mates. As you already know, hopefully, it is used to flip certain elements and to rotate components. It is also used to toggle between Zoom/Scroll/Pan when viewing using the keyboard (SHIFT/CTRL) combined with the Middle Button or Right Click.

In Rmep it is also used to snap piping/duct to other related elements. It is used to match the size of the selected element and to orient to the correct workplane. It also assumes the same elevation of the element you intend to connect to. Here is an example of using the Spacebar to align a pipe with one side of a Double Wye Pipe Fitting.



Vertical duct/pipe (Risers) are very easy to place if you can remember to click the Apply button on the options bar.


When you sketch a horizontal run of duct or pipe and then need to create a riser pipe/duct you need only change the elevation and click Apply. Revit will create the transition/riser condition according to your M/P settings. Just be sure to allow enough elevation change to permit the insertion of transition fittings otherwise you'll get error messages.

If a warning appears informing you that the line is too short, you pressed Spacebar before you began drawing duct. Note that the Spacebar does not automatically specify the duct type. You must verify or select the duct type from the Type Selector on the Options Bar. Sometimes you need to sketch some extraneous duct to get a piece you really want and then delete the extra bits. Same for piping.

One tip for road...using Wireframe and/or Detail Level: coarse will improve regeneration times when sketching Duct and piping. Now, getting used to the presentation of these elements using those settings is another matter. Good Luck!!

Tiling Views - Window menu > Tile

Recently I was asked if there was any logic to how view windows are tiled I replied, "umm, don't think so?" At least the last time I got perturbed about it, there didn't seem to be a way to define where windows end up.

We'll I'm partially wrong... The active window will be placed on the left when there are two windows. More than two will place the active window in the upper left corner. There doesn't appear to be any simple logic to the placement of the remaining windows however. By now you're thinking, "thanks for nothing, Steve!" You are welcome!

Oh, remember that keyboard shortcuts don't work in schedule views. If you want to tile views with a schedule active...up to the menu you must go.

Additional Data provided courtesy of David Mills with Autodesk, he writes (and includes images), thanks!!!

Ah yes, the elusive Window Tile command. How do I get the views to tile in order A, B, C, D, E (or any other order for that matter)?


The ‘magic’ that’s going on behind the scene doesn’t have a real technical name but I describe it as the last active queue. This queue tracks only the opened views and, most importantly, which view is currently active. As the user changes to a different view, that view comes to the top of the queue and pushes the previously active view down the queue. If a new view is created/opened, it becomes the active view and gets a seat at the top of the queue. Conversely, if a view is closed, it’s removed from the queue.

The last active queue is what provides the ordering mechanism for the Window Tile command. Revit then takes that order and sequences the views (starting with the currently active view) down the first column, then the second, etc.


For Example, in the image above, the last active queue looked like this {D, B, A, C, E} at the time I hit WT. In the same example, if I wanted to give an intentional order to the views…let’s say A, B, C, D, E…I would activate each view in the reverse order that I want them to tile – in this case I would select E first, then D, then C, then B, and finally A. At that time, I would be certain that the last active queue would look like this {A, B, C, D, E} where A is the currently active view and E was active the longest time ago. Then hit WT and presto!

New Revit Opportunity for Faculty and Students

A recent post by BIM and BEAM bloggers Nicolas Mangon and Wai Chu is worth visiting if you are a student or faculty member. CHECK it OUT! Your chance to use Revit Structure 2008 for FREE* is at hand!

* FREE products subject to the terms and conditions of the end user license agreement that accompanies download of the software.

Under Their Nose - Stairs

This stair is in the front lobby of a building that Revit staff see quite often.

I immediately thought that it would be quite a task to make this stair with Revit's stair and railing tools. Ironic that such a stair is "under their nose" and certainly should serve as inspiration for any future improvements that are made.

On the same subject, while working in Houston in a Philip Johnson/John Burgee building originally called the Transco Tower and now called William's Tower I encountered a stair in an emergency exit stair shaft that has what I think is a very nice railing detail.

This is the stair/railing from one angle

This is another angle
I imagine you could make separate railings that use custom start and end balusters to replicate the transition from run to run but it would take a bit of work. The connection of each stringer to a flat plate just isn't possible with the current tools. I like the fact that you can walk down the stairs and leave your hand on the railing without ever coming into contact with a support, very clean.

If you are curious here is a picture I took of the tower itself. I took it from next to a parking garage nearby.

This is a view from the 62nd floor meeting room we used for training, looking East toward downtown Houston.
The top row of glazing in the immediate view to the right is the parapet of the floor/roof below us. On the roof hidden from view are the anchors and outriggers for the window cleaning rigging equipment. Sorry, no picture...didn't think of it till now, too late!

If you have a stair or observe one that Revit ought to let you build at or all, or at least more easily, consider taking a snapshot of it and/or providing the design drawings you prepared to Revit support so they can properly define the scope of any future improvements to the stair/ramp/railing tools.

InterSpec, Inc. - eSPECS Update

I received notice that eSPECS has enhanced its interaction with the Revit platform. Here is a snippet of what their announcement said:

New e-SPECS functionality includes:

Direct API BIM Model Export
Replacing the ODBC Export is a faster and more efficient export of all model data pertinent to the products and materials for specifications.

View the Specs from within the BIM model
Select a family and view all the associated specification sections directly associated with that family. Select the interior wall family for instance and view the associated gypsum board, metal stud and painting sections.

Markup the Specs from within the BIM model
Revit users can not only view the sections, but add comments, questions and markup the specifications directly in the Revit session. The specifier using e-SPECS will immediately see those mark-ups and can make the required changes to the specification section(s).

New Spec Integration Report
Also within Revit, users can view a report detailing all families and the associated specification sections as well as those not yet assigned an assembly. The usage of this report within the BIM model facilitates the integration, automation and coordination of the construction documents.

Sounds like some very nice enhancements indeed!

RevitZone

Ian, an architect in the UK started a new Revit site this month. It is called Revit Zone. Be sure to follow his posts on his blog and see how the site develops.

Cheers!

JELD-WEN Revit Families Available

You may have received an email like I did the other day from JELD-WEN Windows and Doors? If so then..."as you were", if not they announced the availability of content in a variety of formats, including Revit. If you use their products in your projects now you can use their families in the project too! This is an excerpt from the email they sent:

Using JELD-WEN's Web site, architects are able to configure windows and patio doors to fit openings, then download corresponding graphics in Revit, DXF, DWG and PDF formats. The templates cover JELD-WEN's complete Custom Wood Window line, with Siteline EX and Tradition Plus wood window product lines scheduled for later this year. The 3D window templates are available as a link from the Custom Wood window product pages on www.JELD-WEN.com, or at www.parametrx.com/912/templates/index.asp.

If you check them out be sure to let them know how you like them.
Let's hope others follow their example...well except for their competitiors 8-)

Cheers!

New Build for Revit MEP 2008 (2007_0615_1700)

Autodesk has posted a new build for Revit MEP 2008 to presumably bring into alignment with the recent new builds for the the other versions of Revit. The following text is posted on the download page at Autodesk's Revit MEP site.

This build, (2007_0615_1700), addresses issues related to:

• Face-hosted elements deleted when loading linked model.
• Crash occurs when resizing a column after disabling Embedded Schedule functionality.
• Connector cannot be placed on a Blend.
• Panel Schedule cannot be generated using a Panel set to Switchboard Part Type.
• Switch System deleted if included Device added to existing Circuit.
• Gaps in surfaces occur in gbXML export in certain complex geometries.
• Crash occurs when defining certain Energy Analysis parameters on non-bounded Room.
• Conditional Schedule Formatting not working when condition applied to a different Field than condition terms.
• For a selected Line, Hide Category in View affects all Categories of Lines.
• Some Detail, Plan or Section Callouts are erroneously hidden in cropped views.
• Masking Regions in Tag Families do not obscure elements in project and in exports.
• Filled Regions containing Solid Fills, which are overridden to be Transparent, print inconsistently between Vector and Raster modes.
• Instability with Overlay Planes turned off in Graphics Settings.
• Some Crop Regions are not visible in Views in upgraded files and templates.
• Display problems in a View when zooming with OpenGL® hardware acceleration turned on.
• Copying nested links from the Project Browser places only the Link and not its nested components.
• Elements do not refresh in views when deselected.
• Product Registration for multiple products in Subscription returns “Invalid Serial Number.”
• Unable to open .rvt file containing imported/linked .dwg with incorrect boundary hatch.

Download it Here

Revit Architecture 2008 - New Build (20070607_1700)

To synchronize the recent update of Revit Structure, Revit Architecture now has a newer build. This list is the text posted at the Autodesk site:

This build, (20070607_1700), addresses issues related to:

• For a selected Line, Hide Category in View affects all Categories of Lines.
• Some Detail, Plan, or Section Callouts are erroneously hidden in cropped views.
• Masking Regions in Tag Families do not obscure elements in project and in exports.
• Filled Regions containing Solid Fills, which are overridden to be Transparent, print inconsistently between Vector and Raster modes.
• Instability with Overlay Planes turned off in Graphics Settings.
• Some Crop Regions are not visible in Views in upgraded files and templates.
• Display problems in a View when zooming with OpenGL® hardware acceleration turned on.
• Copying nested links from the Project Browser places only the Link and not its nested components.
• Elements do not refresh in views when deselected.
• Product Registration for multiple products in Subscription returns “Invalid Serial Number.”

Download it Here!

Revit Structure - New Build (20070607_1700)

Announced today, the following is from the text at Autodesk's Revit Structure 2008 site.

This build (20070607_1700), addresses issues related to:

• Track Changes toolbar is missing with third-party application.
• Very small dimension rounding error inaccuracy for the levels in the default structural project templates.
• Duplication of some structural steel framing and column .rfa content in UK Library.
• Unable to open .rvt file containing imported/linked .dwg with incorrect boundary hatch.
• Incorrect estimated reinforcement volume of rebar.
• Crash when importing .dwg or .dxf with the presence of an older version of DWG TrueView on the computer.
• Beam’s analytical model auto-adjusted to slab doesn’t update when slab is deleted.
  Column’s analytical model auto-adjusted to slab doesn’t update when moved out of tolerance.
• Unsuccessful manual analytical adjustment of a beam to the end of a wall.
  Beam whose vertical z-Direction Justification was set to "Other" had the analytical model in the wrong position.
• For a selected Line, Hide Category in View affects all Categories of Lines.
• Some Detail, Plan, or Section Callouts are erroneously hidden in cropped views.
• Masking Regions in Tag Families do not obscure elements in project and in exports.
• Filled Regions containing Solid Fills, which are overridden to be Transparent, print inconsistently between Vector and Raster modes.
• Instability with Overlay Planes turned off in Graphics Settings.
• Some Crop Regions are not visible in Views in upgraded files and templates.
• Display problems in a View when zooming with OpenGL® hardware acceleration turned on.
• Copying nested links from the Project Browser places only the Link and not its nested components.
• Elements do not refresh in views when deselected.
• Product Registration for multiple products in Subscription returns “Invalid Serial Number.”

You can DOWNLOAD it here!

Gargoyles or Not

Wandering around Toronto this week I walked around the site of the City Hall complex which features a very interesting building by Finnish architect Viljo Revell and engineered by Hannskarl Bandel. I lifted that info off Wikipedia's ENTRY for it. Here's a photo.

A "spaceship" sits in between two arc'd towers that have windows facing only the inside of the arc. The outside of the arcs have cast concrete faces that have a subtle curve outward and a nice cast-in "grain" to them. From the North side they reminded me of really BIG grain silos unfortunately. They got a completely different reaction from me when I got South of them.

The "spaceship" reminds me a little bit of the Evoluon in Eindhoven, Holland. The Evoluon is a science museum turned conference center building and was designed by the architect Louis Christiaan Kalff. I wandered around the Evoluon while it was still a museum when my family lived in Holland waaaay baaack when I was nine. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get closer to the building, the ramps leading up closer were blocked off.

Finally at the Southeast corner of the city hall site I admired the old city hall building with a clock tower, complete with gargoyles, and right behind it framing them was a sleek all glass tower. I thought, "What a contrast!", so I snapped a photo of it too. Here is a link to some other
PHOTOS of both. Here's my shot...

goedenacht

Retry = OK

Every now and then an error message pops up in Revit and most of the time they tell you what is wrong and how to resolve it. Sometimes they are a bit too mysterious like this one. We had a good chuckle when we saw this one tonight.



Apparently OK = Retry and Cancel = Ignore

This message occurs when you acquire coordinates from a dwg file and that file is open for editing by someone at the same time as you save your project file. Revit wants to store a user UCS in the dwg file but can't access it.

Review Warnings - Auditing that list

In a conversation with Lee Miller, Firmwide BIM Implementer for HOK, we were discussing the inability to export the warnings that Revit will store as they occur. I suggested we take a look at SnagIT's ability to capture information in dialogs by scrolling through the entire contents of the dialog's window. We were pleased to find that it works. You get a capture of the text and you can then edit it in word or drop it in excel and then review the list and track down the errors without staying in the Review Warnings dialog and keep re-opening it too. Thought I'd pass it along. SnagIT has really earned its keep with me.

Note to Revit development team:

• Need to provide an export of Reviewable Warnings to text format.
• I think the dialog should stay open when you resolve a warning instead of closing the dialog and forcing us to re-open it or at least an option to make the dialog persistent.
• There should be Expand All and Collapse All buttons

Window's Keyboard shortcuts will provide the expand/contract behavior if you can remember them along with all the other shortcuts you may try to remember.

NUM LOCK+ASTERISK on numeric keypad (*)
Display all subfolders under the selected folder.

NUM LOCK+PLUS SIGN on numeric keypad (+)
Display the contents of the selected folder.

NUM LOCK+MINUS SIGN on numeric keypad (-)
Collapse the selected folder.

Cheers!

Revit Family Needed!

This week I'm in Toronto, Canada, not Toronto, Ohio in case you thought that perhaps? I walked by this bronze sculpture by Tom Otterness on Yonge Street or block or so from the arena that the Toronto Maple Leafs (hockey team) call home. (Lakeshore and Yonge)

Naturally my first thought was that we need a Revit family for this!! The sculpture is titled "Immigrant Family". I found this article about it. Thought I'd share. Funny but I never think to take pictures and it dawned on me that I have a camera in my phone now...clever monkey!

Book Update

Back in December I wrote that I was writing a book and now I'm writing to say that I'm no longer writing that book. To those who thought, "Ha! He doesn't have time to do that!" You were correct! I'm grateful that it has been a banner year for me in my day job but because of that I was drifffffting further and further behind.

I apologize sincerely to anyone who was actually looking forward to the book. I think Bruce Gow and I had a good book in the works but regrettably I just couldn't hold up my end of the bargain. Unless the end of the decade was a reasonable time frame?

All is not lost however. As you may or may not know, Eddie Krygiel, Tatjana Dzambazova and Greg Demchak teamed up to write a book that is already available. Eddie works for a forward thinking Revit firm called BNIM. Tatjana and Greg are part of the Autodesk team dedicated to Revit. You can take a look at it on Amazon or at Wiley and it is available NOW.

When Wiley and I decided that I wasn't going to get'r done in a reasonable amount of time the "three muskateers" thankfully agreed to do it instead. They were flush from the recent euphoria of finishing the first and the timing was right. I'm only sorry that it didn't get worked out this way earlier so you could get your hands on the book sooner!

Take a look at the advance info on the book at Amazon or Wiley.

Looking back at this I think that this team was really meant to write these books all along for continuity of material, message and voice. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. Cheers and I wish the team a speedy writing phase and good luck and thanks for bailing me out!!

Serial number lost after reinstallation

Some are reporting license issues with the latest release of Revit. The following text is from the Autodesk knowledge base files.

Issue


When you reinstalled Revit®, the serial number was changed to 000-00000000.


Solution


This problem affects authorization, built-in subscription features, and Autodesk error reporting.

To fix the problem

Locate the Revit.exe file. Depending on your installation, this file can usually be found in one of the following directories:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk Revit Building 9\Program
C:\Program Files\Autodesk Revit Structure 3\Program.
In Notepad, open the licpath.lic file.
In the licpath.lic file, locate the serial number (#SN 000-00000000) and replace it with the correct serial number.
Save the licpath.lic file.

New Build Available for Revit Architecture 2008

A little slow to write this, sorry. A new build (20070524_1700) was posted on Friday. Here's is what the Autodesk site says about this build.

This build, (20070524_1700), addresses issues related to:

• For a selected Line, Hide Category in View affects all Categories of Lines.
• Some Detail, Plan, or Section Callouts are erroneously hidden in cropped views.
• Masking Regions in Tag Families do not obscure elements in project and in exports.
• Filled Regions containing Solid Fills, which are overridden to be Transparent, print inconsistently between Vector and Raster modes.
• Instability with Overlay Planes turned off in Graphics Settings.
• Some Crop Regions are not visible in Views in upgraded files and templates.
• Display problems in a View when zooming with OpenGL® hardware acceleration turned on.
• Copying nested links from the Project Browser places only the Link and not its nested components.
• Elements do not refresh in views when deselected.
• Product Registration for multiple products in Subscription returns “Invalid Serial Number.”

DOWNLOAD FROM HERE (choose language)

No new builds for Revit Structure or MEP at this time but keep an eye out for them, shouldn't be far behind I imagine.

Decoding the build info: Year,Month,Day,Hour(24 hour clock)

DWG Import/Export Crashes Revit

Focused on Revit Structure but I imagine just as relevant for the other versions, just a copy of what was posted at the BIM & BEAM blog: Here's the text of their post, be sure to check out the rest of the blog.

We had several users reporting crashes when they import or export dwg files with Revit Structure 2008 for the following build numbers:

DVD Build is: 20070324_1700
Web Build is: 20070404_1700

We did some investigation and we found out that the reason was related to the presence of an old version of DWG TrueView on the computer.

In order to so fix this issue, you need to uninstall DWG TrueView and upgrade it to the latest free version available at http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/mform?siteID=123112&id=9078813 . After the upgrade of DWG TrueView, RST2008 should be able to import/export DWG files properly.

Nicolas

When I says Mass I Means Mass

Said with "Popeye the Sailorman's" voice...

When a savy ADT user starts using Revit they can get into trouble quick when they start getting comfortable by applying the ADT concept of "Mass" to Revit's concept of "Mass". The equivalent terminology for Mass/ADT is Generic Model/Revit. When you use the Mass category for a piece of furniture you are creating trouble for yourself. Revit expects you to use the family category "furniture" for that.

What kind of trouble? You can't schedule them as furniture, you can't change them to furniture, you can't turn off massing because you "need" it visible because you made "furniture" using Massing...get the idea?

When you create a curvy swoopy wall, don't "lean" toward mass, lean toward an In-Place Wall family. Now experienced users are thinking, "But Steve, I can use Massing to create the shape I need and then apply a wall to that!"

YES, THAT is what Revit's use of the term "Mass" is intended for. Mass or Massing in Revit is meant to describe what the terms are used for in the context of architecture, building form, not arbitrary discreet pieces or parts. Revit has lots of pre-defined categories for those and for those that don't fit into one of them we have Generic Model and Specialty Equipment. As a means to describe the "broad brush" building form a Mass Element can host Walls, Floors, Roofs and Curtain Systems. Here's a quick example I did in the past that just shows massing and floor slabs, well...a helicopter and a couple cars too...



The above represents a building that is 945K+ SF, mocked up in about 15 minutes, nothing serious, just playing around.

Here is another little example I played around with on a plane ride the other night.


I was thinking of a medium size design firm in a semi urban setting where the executives would park beneath the building. The patterns are just material/surface patterns assigned to the massing. Good old shadows make it "nice"

One more for the road...this is three curtain wall systems applied to massing that describes curving surfaces in plan, elevation and section so that it has a slight "beer" belly. The massing is off in the view leaving behind just the curtain systems. I was sloppy because I didn't take care to align the curtain grids/mullions but then we did this on a short break between "real teechin"...a good old "Can Revit do X" question.


Elements created using the Mass category cannot be changed to other categories. This is because of the hard-wired behavior Revit assigns to elements using this category. If you make in-place "walls" and choose the Mass category instead of the "Wall" category you are headed for pain and re-work..."you know who you are"...sorry, I warned you didn't I?

If you haven't explored Revit's Massing tools, take a look at the help documentation to get a sense of its purpose and capabilities.



Then try it out!!

Network Licensing and Revit xxx 2008

A little reminder. If you are upgrading to the latest release you must also upgrade the FlexLM software that manages your licensing. The required version is supplied on the DVD that you receive from Autodesk. The current version required is 11.4.0.0 and Revit will not work with earlier versions. If you don't upgrade it first, frustration will ensue! Good Luck!

Here's a link to the license manager if you can't find it

Dept. of Subtle - User Interface

Three subtle improvements were made in the Revit 2008 line that I'd like to point out on the off chance you haven't noticed them.

First is the repositioning and naming of the Right Click menu item Properties. It is not called Element Properties and positioned at the bottom of the Right Click menu, right next to View Properties. Every class I've ever taught had a least one user click View Properties instead of Properties even if I warned them first. I joke that "View" isn't a verb, as in, "yeah, I want to view the properties!". Now that it is repositioned I'm sure it will confound "old timers" for awhile but I think it is for the better or at least clearer what they are for. Here's a screen capture.

Next up is the Design Bar More Tools >> feature that permits you to access the tools that have been buried beneath other tabs when your PC/Notebook display resolution "runs" out of space to show them all. This button presents a small flyout that contains the hidden tools so you can still get to them without resorting to using the modelling menu "all the way" at the top of the interface. I always imagined a scroll bar to resolve this but this works too. Here's a screen capture.

Last is the additional feedback offered on the Status Bar as various operations take place. Reloading a link, saving to central, opening a file and other lengthy processes will display a progress bar and information to the left of the bar so it is clearer what is happening. You'll have to pay close attention to catch it though. I tried a few different things to catch a screen image of the feature and I couldn't time it just right so you'll have to just watch for it next time!

I think this release is a pretty solid one and it grows on you fast, a day or so and you don't want to use that "old" 9.1 again.

The Freshman

Lately I've been using the stages of development that schools use, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior to discuss the various levels of knowledge required of users to be successful making content for Revit.

For example a Freshman can work productively all day long if the things they need exist in the project template or are available in the content libraries. As soon as something doesn't exist they need to graduate into another level or ask someone who is at a higher level for help. Which level that is will depend on how hard it is to make what they need.

A firm can be quite successful with a majority of Freshman if they have one Senior. They can even be successful without a Senior for quite some time if they sought help to establish a solid library and well defined template(s), assuming the stock content isn't enough or completely acceptable.

Here are some reasonable expectations for each level of development.

Freshman
This person will routinely place, find, load and when needed, modify existing content to create additional types using existing parameters. They can add information to a family so schedules report the information they need. They will come calling when they need something they can’t find or if a parameter they need doesn't exist in a family.

Sophomore
This level requires the ability to create annotation and symbol content to support a firm’s documentation standards. This is either done based on existing content or from scratch. Additionally they should be able to make basic content that is made from scratch and may not require parametric flexibility. This can be done as 2d/3d objects at the simplest level of graphic representation or at least enough to create a placeholder until a more sophisticated element is prepared. They should also be able to modify existing content to include basic features that do not exist, such as additional information needed for scheduling. This also assumes that the geometry is already present but just needs slight modification.

Junior
This person is capable of planning for the behavior of flexible content and creating new content using templates. These families are parametric in at least a couple dimensions to provide modest flexibility and control, for example common windows, doors, furniture and casework. They also understand how to provide additional parameters to make scheduling and tagging content more effective. They understand how to take advantage of visibility controls to manage documentation and graphic quality.

Senior
This person completely understands how to model difficult geometry and effectively assemble complex content. They are able to discern the best strategy to deliver graphical quality as well as information for scheduling. They know how to get the information from staff that they will need to provide content with the least amount of rework. They can also mentor or guide the other staff as they become more accomplished and try to advance to higher levels.

Disclaimer Section
This isn't a "one size fits all" observation but in general I find it to "fit" in most of the places I've been. People and their personalities certainly factor in. The Senior isn't always the most patient person or the most capable at communicating to others. In some cases they may resist sharing their knowledge for a variety of reasons.

What is the secret to becoming a Senior? Work...make families, do the tutorials, read/ask questions at AUGI/Revit City/Autodesk NG's/blogs and get training either by hiring a consultant, attending a reseller's class and/or attend Autodesk University. One or more of these can fit your budget.

Last, this can apply to Revit overall too, a freshman can be quite productive when they know how to do the basic things they need to do. Revit is pretty simple when you tackle one feature at a time. It can be a bit daunting when you try to wrap your arms around it all at one time.

Here's to becoming a Senior!

Dependant Views and Hide in View - Elements

The new feature (Revit 2008 products) Duplicate View > Dependant Views is intended to provide an exact copy of the parent view but allow you to crop the view differently making it easier to document in an overall view but show partial plans on sheets. This makes it simpler to manage annotation and avoid the copy/paste process of putting annotation in various duplicate views.


Take care when you use the new feature (Revit 2008 products) Hide in View however.

If you use this feature either in a parent view or a dependant view the hidden element is only hidden in the view you do it in. The other view(s) are not affected. In my opinion, this is not consistant with the implied behavior of parent/dependant views. I believe that when we hide an element in a parent view, the dependant views should also have that element hidden. The view specific behavior should be limited to non-dependant views. As it is now, remember we must un-hide/hide this element in each view.

New Blog - Revit Structure

Autodesk staff Nicolas Mangon and Wai Chu have started an official Autodesk Blog for Revit Structure called BIM & BEAM. Thanks!

Let me take this opportunity to apply a little pressure for one dedicated to Revit Architecture and MEP. Over a year ago I suggested to Phil Read that he do one called "Do This Right Quick" based on his hilarious and entertaining segment (at AU 2005) of one of his Revit classes. He demurred at the time...maybe with more pressure? He does a little bit of traveling but no more than Lynn and she manages to get a blog out 8-)!

Check it out!

A Proposal - Design Bar Tabs

A fairly common request is for a way to reduce the cluttered list of component types we get presented when we use the Component tool. I suggest that on a new component design bar tab that we have a category specific component tool for each category of the following component families:

• Casework
• Entourage
• Furniture
• Furniture System
• Generic Component
• Planting
• Site
• Specialty Equipment
• Sustainable Design

If a tool exists for a category under another tab I didn’t add it to this list, such as column, site and parking. I don’t know how deserving Sustainable Design is of its own tool or folder since each component in that folder could easily belong to an existing category. Seems that this folder is catering to a specific design issue than a feature.

While I’m at it I’d like to see our own Electrical, Mechanical and Plumbing tabs to place those categories of components as well, even if it is only for placing those components along with a few drafting tools like dimensions and tags. I’m hoping we get some architectural process tools for each discipline so our overlap and redundancy will be reduced as we moved forward on the BIM path.

If we get a separate component tab one assumes that each tool will filter the list of the types offered in the type selector to only those of that tool’s category. Of all the things that we want Revit to do this seems like it might be a pretty minor task to accomplish.

It might look like this?

Workset Terminology - Quick Reference

Concept - Workset(s) - A feature that allows Revit to manage simultaneous multi-user access to a project's elements.

Workset Types:
User-Created Workset: A grouping of model elements that we create and manage.
Family Workset: Revit created and managed workset for each family definition in the project. Not for each individual door but for each kind of door loaded in the project.
Project Standard Workset: Revit created and managed workset for each project standard feature such as dimensions, linestyles, fill patterns etc.
View Workset: Revit created and managed workset for each view that is part of a project.

Workset Interaction is primarily limited to User Created Worksets. Family, Project Standard and View worksets are managed entirely by Revit. Users need only decide which User Created Workset to establish in the project and assign model elements to. Family, Project Standard and View worksets are only engaged when the user alters a property of an element that belongs to one of them. In this case Revit lends that Workset definition to the user and the User returns it when they use Synchronize with Central combined with relinquishing the relevant workset(s).

File Features/Actions:
Central File: A Revit file that has had worksets enabled.
Local File: A copy of a Central File that a user works in.
Synchronize with Central (SWC): The action of saving work (pushing) completed in a local file to the central file and loading (pulling) work completed by others via SWC. Your changes are now available for others to see.
Save Local: Saving work within your local file. Changes are not visible to others until you Save to Central.
Reload Latest: A command that will load (pull) and display any changes that others have submitted using Synchronize with Central.

Ownership/Borrowing:
Owner: To possess an entire Workset(s) that elements are assigned to and thereby preventing anyone else from making changes to it or any elements assigned to that workset.
Borrower: To possess individual element(s) that is/are part of a Workset, not the Workset itself.
Editing Request: User can request to borrow elements from others. User can Grant/Deny request. Granting a request can only be done if no changes have been made to the element. SWC is required if changes are to be kept.
Make Elements Editable: Borrow just the selected element(s), like "borrowing a book".
Make Workset Editable: Borrow the entire Workset that an element belongs to as well as the element(s), like borrowing a book shelf.
Relinquish: To return the element(s) you have borrowed so that others may borrow them.
Editable: The element or workset belongs to you. You are free to make changes to them.
Non Editable: The element or workset does not belong to you. You can’t change it/them unless you borrow it/them.

Viewing/Interaction:
Active Workset: The workset that is displayed in the workset toolbar. New objects will become part of this workset automatically. Note this toolbar does not display the workset name of a selected object nor does it change the workset of a selected object if you choose another while objects are selected.
Open: The workset is loaded into memory and Revit will display it in all views according to visibility/graphic settings of each view.
Closed: The workset is not loaded and Revit will not display it or process it in memory and any views regardless of visibility/graphic settings of each view.
Gray Inactive Worksets: View setting that will make inactive worksets gray, lighter color, than the Active workset elements.

Maintenance/Special Features:
Compact Central File: This will condense the Revit database and result in a smaller file size. Similar to the concept of defragmenting your computer’s hard drive.
Detach From Central: This allows you to open a central file as a separate and file while severing its relationship to the original. It can never be syncronized with the original central file. Examples where this is useful are: Project Manager review or exploration, Plotting, Exporting, Troubleshooting and archiving. In each case this allows unfettered access to the project and does no harm to the active project. It also allows the project team to continue working while “snapshot” tasks like plotting, exporting or archiving are done.

[Amended April 1, 2010:] Replace prior to Revit 2010 language: Save to Central is now Synchronize with Central

Department of Quirky - Stair Sketch Failure in Workset Projects

When working in a Central or Local file you will find that you cannot finish a stair sketch if you sketch Risers first then Boundaries. This assumes you used the Riser and Boundary tools instead of the Run tool.

Strange but it makes no difference in a stand alone project but seems to matter a great deal in a central/local file. The workaround at this time is to sketch your stair Boundary completely first then add the Risers.

Here is the familiar error message dialog that you'll get if you sketch poorly.


Sketched poorly perhaps in some cases except that I have and several students have encountered this message while learning stair features and using worksets at the same time. At first we attributed the errors to basic sketch mistakes. Then we started to think maybe upgraded templates might fail to produce the stair. In the face of repeated tries as well as in brand new stock templates it became obvious that it was deeper than simple sketch mistakes or upgrade issues.

Revit support isolated the behavior to the order described above because they are accustomed to Boundaries first, Risers second and this process didn't generate the error. I'm not sure when this behavior crept into being but I know that it is present in Revit Building 8.1, 9.0 and 9.1, just tested it in those versions, so it has been with us for awhile. The image depicts a "U" stair but this issue will appear in any stair shape other than a single straight run, those will finish without error messages.

At the sign post ahead is "The Quirky Zone"...you've been warned! 8-) If you've encountered this at some point and thought you were crazy, you may be, just not about this!

New Names All Round

So the recent Buzz is that Revit has some new names for the next release.

Revit Building = Revit Architecture 2008
Revit Structure = Revit Structure 2008
Revit Systems = Revit MEP 2008

A few resellers broke the news as soon as their embargo was lifted. I'm sure we all are looking forward to learning more about the new releases!!

Fence Linestyle?

Revit doesn't allow us to create a line style that includes text as a symbol. Common uses for this are pipelines, fences, overhead electrical lines and many more. Revit’s repeating detail makes this somewhat doable if you create a detail component that has the symbol you need, not text though, you must draw the letter with lines. The line based detail component is another possibility. The thinking goes that we should use tags to identify things like pipe. Instead of drawing a line with HW embedded as a pattern we just apply a tag for the pipe system's abbreviation of HW. That doesn't really help for a fence though...

...and about a fence and mimicking a fence line style...an idea popped in my head, “What about a railing and baluster to do this?” We probably want a 3D fence anyway but what if we want the --X-----X-- in plan? At first I thought, “naah, can’t do it because you can’t create a baluster that gives you subcategories to manage visibility of parts”.

So I dismissed it until now. Then I thought, if you nest a detail component for the ---X--- and nested a generic model family for the baluster or fence portions you can assign each to visibility parameters that will give you control over each via visibility graphics under Generic Models and Detail Components. Ultimately we need the ---X--- with no rail visible in plan and the rails/baluster/panel in 3D with no ---X---.

It all comes down to what you really want but this is what I mocked up, messing around. Maybe the concept will spur some other ideas?


Hopefully they’ll just give us more options with line styles and it’ll be easy!

Download the sample File

Future Phases

Revit has four states relative to phases, New, Existing, Temporary and Demolished. There is no future state. What can you do if you want to indicate where the future phase work will be located?

Overlay views on sheets!

It is a simple matter to create a view whose phase is assigned to the Future phase and tell Revit through Phase Filters that you don’t want to see Existing, Temporary or Demolished elements. The building you draw in this future phase will look new. If you don’t want it to you can use visibility graphics overrides to make it look different or even much simpler.

As long as the scale of the views you need to overlay on the sheet are the same you’ll find that Revit will snap them into alignment. Here is a simplistic representation of all the phases on a sheet in two views overlaid.


This example is one that has a different overrides applied.


This is the Future phased view setup to put on a sheet.


If you look closely I've used the Linework tool to make a small wall that will be demolished between the New and Future work look like it is to be demolished.

Give er a try?

Autodesk University 2006 - Class Survey Results

I’ve held off writing anything about my AU 2006 experiences because I’ve been busy but also because I’ve been waiting for the class survey data to be compiled and distributed. I’m writing regarding the classes I presented.

As I wrote earlier, I presented two classes on the family editor, a lecture format and a lab format. AU management made arrangements to repeat the lab when the first filled up so quickly. This brought me to a total of three presentations. Overall my scores were very good. For those of you who attended my sessions and were pleased I am grateful and glad that they worked for you!

It would be easy to stop this article right here with the “thank you very much” but that is only one side of the story. I’m going dwell on the negative side of the story and I hope you fail to hear any excuses because I don’t want to utter a single one.

The survey results include the comments that are supplied on the bottom of each survey form. These comments vary from both ends of the spectrum, from completely negative to completely happy. I can honestly relate to each comment because as honest as each comment is they couldn’t compare to how brutally I picked apart my performance, you can ask my wife.

Naturally I’d like to focus on the positive remarks and feel good. Nevertheless, sometimes the truth hurts and every negative comment held truth that needs to be considered. As proof that I can trust “my gut” the lab I presented first felt wrong to me and sure enough the survey results were not as high as the second lab, which I retooled overnight before presenting the next morning. My apologies to the first lab! The second lab felt better but I was still dissatisfied. You can only fix so much overnight.

On the other hand the lecture felt good to me during and after but with such a large audience I knew there was no way I could really satisfy everyone. Sure enough there were some disappointed remarks.

In some cases the truth was probably simply a matter of wrong class, wrong student, mismatched agenda’s. In other cases it is a matter of approach or delivery, right idea, wrong message. For those who were not satisfied I am sorry, deeply so. I understand how much it means to take time away from family and work to attend AU and to be part of any dissatisfaction is hard to bear and certainly not intended.

The subject of content and the family editor is a deep subject and the last two years I’ve provided classes on the subject have been living proof that you can’t please everyone. At least not with one class or one level of experience in mind. Even if you think you’ve got it correct someone will come along and provide insight that you failed to consider.

I will encourage the next AU to provide a broader scope of training focused on the family editor. Ideally a beginning to end structure as the power track was intended to provide for the project side of Revit, a power track for the family editor if you will. Whether I’m a part of it or not is immaterial, that it happens, and that you are successful with Revit is important to me!

Thank you for attending and caring enough to share your thoughts so we can all strive make AU even better every year!! (and make me better too!)

White Pawn takes Black Knight

Recent newsgroup question, "How do I get white text over a black background?" Like this:


Here's how:


Use a filled region to create the black background then edit your text/labels.
[True for 2009 and previous]
Color: White
Background: Opaque.

Amended for for 2010
Color: RGB 251,251,251 (nearly white, RGB 254,254,254 is displayed "black")
Background: Transparent

That's it!

Caution if you export sheet views to dwg you'll need to adjust your pen table to plot the text correctly. If you assign the text on the titleblock to its own layer you can tell AutoCAD to plot them using the object color so the text will plot over the background hatch. There are probably other options as well.

Fillet This! - The Options Bar

In the "if t'were a snake itta bit ya" category the Options Bar appears often. The question asked, "Can I copy something multiple times?"...the answer, "the Options Bar".
Another, "Can I copy something when I rotate it?"...the answer...you get the idea.
The subject of this post is, "Where is the fillet command?" The answer..."the Options Bar, sort of". Trouble is that most everyone seems to think that the fillet command is an editing task. All those years in other software told em so!

Along comes Revit and they seem to view it as a creation tool. A fillet is creating a third element, a line or wall arc where nothing was before except two lines or walls meeting at a corner or maybe not even meeting. With this in mind the process to fillet between two walls or lines is a creation event and the command is hiding within the commands for both, wall or lines.

When you are sketching a wall/line you have to take a closer look at the options bar because there is a little innocent check box next to Fillet and a place to enter a radius value. Check it, enter a value and when you sketch you'll get an arc between the segments you draw. Like this box:


Now what if you have a box already and you really meant to have radius corners? Start the wall/line command again and this time take another look at the Options Bar. Click the little pull down arrow next to the sketch tools and look at the list offered. Choose the Fillet Arc option.


Now you can select the two walls/lines you want to fillet between and graphically decide where the arc should land or specify a radius on the Options Bar first.
When in doubt, take a good look at the Options Bar!

When is Revit...Not?

I stumbled across this interesting REVIT website this morning. Here is the text from their about page:

Within North-West Europe six partners have come together to improve regenerating their brownfield sites by sharing experience and developing new concepts and innovative approaches.

Revitalisation of brownfields
In every country and in almost every city of North-West Europe (NWE), there are brownfield areas that need to be revitalised in order to preserve or improve the quality of urban living conditions. The revitalisation of brownfields may enhance coherent urban development, but can also create new employment and stimulate the local economy. Ultimately revitalising brownfields for a variety of future utilisation preserves new building land and makes cities aware of that value.

Six partner areas
The approaches to regenerate brownfield sites in North-West Europe are manifold and differ due to the specific national legislation and administrative instruments or the local economic situation in the different partners' areas.
Nevertheless, the six partner areas involved in the REVIT project confront problems in the context of brownfield regeneration that are in essence very similar and need to be tackled more effectively by improved co-operation within the NWE region.

New approaches
Until August 2007 the transnational working teams will develop new approaches for different aspects of brownfield regeneration. To ensure the practical realisability of the new approaches the teams will be testing the new tools in each partner area before publishing final guidelines and recommendations.

Good thing I didn't try to attend the conference they held back in 2004, titled "Revit Conference". Would have been surprised they weren't talking at all about the software!

Fixed "Map" Grid Overlay

Got a call from a friend today describing a situation he was sorting through. He needs a gridwork to overlay on his project that defines the project much like a map defines each grid cell by the letter on the vertical and horizontal borders. Just like the National Cadd Standard Uniform Drawing System (NCS/UDS) suggests for our sheets. In this case the project is so large that they want this grid to help find parts of the project. So this grid needs to appear in all views possible automatically.

The obvious issue with just using Revit grids in the project itself is that they compete with "real" grids for structural steel etc. The answer? We came up with nesting a separate Revit project with the grid layout. Guess we'll see how well it works as it goes forward. The grid below is a mockup and each square is 150 ft. x 150 ft.


The catch? Since you probably want grid cell labels you need to set up a view for each scale so you can add some text in between each grid. So for each scale view that you need to see the grid in the host project, you create a view and annotation for it. Then in the host file you override the visibility graphics for each view to assign the correct scale view.

Revit User's Residential Example Project - Diary

Robert A. van het Hof, Assoc. AIA created this SITE as an example for a computer user group that was discussing 3D modelling software. Let him know what you think. He says on the site that it is a temporary web site so I don't know how long it will exist, check it out! Here's one of the images he posted:

Egress Re-gress

I've enhanced the earlier example by adding annotation symbols "Dot" and "Arrow" to the Egress family: Path of Travel. There are three types within, Start Middle and End. She looks like this now...you could do the same...

Viva la "BIM Revolution"!

A new blog surfaced in October 2006 called BIM Revolution. Created by Mark Hulme a Job Captain at Flewelling & Moody, an architecture firm in Pasadena, CA. His mission:

This blog has been created to detail the planning of and promote the Pasadena & Foothill Chapter of the AIA's 2007 Technology Symposium: BIM (r)Evolution: The Path In.

The site is also intended to become a repository of BIM information and resources as they become available, filtered by and for architects. Welcome, and thanks for joining us.

Keep an eye on it to see what develops!

Four BIM

A new site called 4BIM will debut in the Spring of 2007 but there is page there now. Miles Walker is the editor of 4BIM and he is the CAD Manager and BIM and buildingSMART specialist for HOK International in London (and clever guy, my words).

Egress Path

[added Nov 22, 2011] I've written quite a few times about this now, more than ten times. A quick search of this blog for the criteris "Egress" will yield links to all the posts. If you just want to download examples you CAN HERE.

Often my articles are inspired by something I read on the newsgroups or forums. Other times they come from client questions. In this case it came from both and when line based families were introduced I applied them to this question, “How can I describe and then document exiting paths?” I discussed this approach at Autodesk University 2006 and the files will be available at AU Online.

This first image is the plan representation of the line-based family I made:


This image is the schedule results after sketching the segments you see above:


This image is what the family looks like in a 3D view:


I used a sub-category of generic model to allow me to turn on/off the 3D guy that’s sliding along the egress path.

This is an image of the family itself:


It is a line-based solid sweep using a silly looking “human” like form as the 3D object. A symbolic line in plan sweeps along with it. Finally a Multi-Category Tag family reports the “length” parameter (yes, a shared parameter) of each segment in the plan view. A multi-category schedule filters for just elements that have an egress related comment.


The trick to getting the Path of Egress shared parameter to report the length of the line-based family is to connect it to the default Length parameter present in line-based families already. Just entering the parameter name “Length” in the formula column for the parameter “Path of Egress” connects them.


I suppose I should have made a girl version too? Modular man? Give it try, see if the concept works for your needs?

Refer to the email instructions on the sidebar if you want to get a copy of the project file, which will give you the family, tag and the schedule as well as what you see above naturally.

Easy RGB - Paint Color RGB Values

A fellow Revit user, C. Ryan, posted a link to Easy RGB at the Autodesk Newsgroups and I thought it was something I ought to do too. Looks useful for those of you doing rendering/color matching, among other things?

Which Objects Cut?

So how do you know which objects Revit will cut? Well you could look in the help files and read the chart.

Help File Location:



Chart:

Or you could just open Settings menu > Object Styles and gaze upon the list of categories. Any element category with a gray box underneath the CUT column...well...doesn't.



Fwiw this image of the object styles was captured using the Scrolling Region function of SnagIT. This makes it easier to capture the information that isn't possible to report in Revit any other way.