Concrete Volume between Slab and Beams

A message via Linked In arrived the other evening asking about the volume of concrete when slabs and beams are involved. The hopeful question hinged on the slab reducing its volume by however much the beam overlapped the slab. The answer is a qualified "yes" because it is aware when Join Geometry is used but in the opposite direction, beam reduces volume not the slab.

Here's a floor slab that is 20'-0" x 20'-0" x 6" thick and a 12" Wide x 24" Deep x 20'-0" long concrete beam reporting a volume of 200 CF and 40 CF respectively, before using Join Geometry (slab properties shown).

Here's the properties of the beam before Join Geometry as well, reporting a volume of 40 CF.

Here's the properties of the beam after Join Geometry, now reporting a volume of 30 CF.

I didn't bother capturing an image of the floor slab, its volume didn't change, still 200 CF. I hope you'll take my word for it. The point of the exercise is to determine how much concrete is really needed, at least in my mind. The floor slab volume is intact (for this particular condition at least) but any beams that are joined with the slab will reduce their volume appropriately.

That means a two schedules, one for slabs and one for beams, should provide a reasonably close total if you look at both schedules together. It might be cool if the slab could inherit the beam volume and report a total that included the beams or the reverse subtract the beams from the slab.

In the field the beam and floor, minus any topping slab, are often poured together so the reinforcing ties it all together. Curiously, the way Revit deals with beam sizes and types is generally in conflict with how engineers think of the beam size as it relates to the slab. It's never simple or easy is it?

Suppress Spaces Revisited

In Revit 2012 (wrote about this earlier) we had the ability to shrink imperial dimension values a bit.

The upper dimension shows what 2012 did when Suppress Spaces was checked. The bottom shows unchecked. In 2013 we lose that. In my earlier post I missed/forgot that Ryan responded explaining what changed. Rats, I don't like the change, I want my old suppress spaces back by golly! This is what we get now (using my best Craig Ferguson accent, "It makes littul sense tah meee").

Manage View Templates Button Disabled

If your Manage View Templates button is disabled it means that you've got no view templates to manage. That troublemaker "someone" deleted them all. Time to find that someone? You can start rebuilding from scratch if you just right click on a view name in the Project Browser and choose Create View Template from View.

If you have some great View Templates elsewhere you can usually use Transfer Project Standards to get them. Keep in mind that View Templates can touch a lot of settings, for example linked RVT files. If the project you are bringing outside View Templates into doesn't have equivalent features in play then the templates may not be able to do everything they did in the other project. It might not be a problem for this project but it's probably worth double checking.

These are not the Warnings You are Looking For

Funny message offered in the Review Warnings dialog.

I had previously selected all the room tags in the model (select all instances in entire project) and then chose the option to Move to Room to fix Revit's complaint regarding some of them. The message displayed changed to the above. Nice that it is confirming there are now no more warnings but I find it amusing that it says "Warning...there aren't any warnings, Warning". Proceed with caution.

Central States Revit Workshop 2013 - Call for Speakers

Last year (September 2012) was the first homespun Central States Revit Workshop. Building on the fun they had last year they've opened up their call for speakers to submit class proposals for the next one, which is August 15th & 16th, 2013 (Thursday and Friday).

Sessions will be 70 minutes in length and can be formatted as a technical presentation, hands-on lab session, or round table/panel discussion. The CSRW Board will review and select presentations based on the number of available presentation slots per category, number of applicants and their respective topic in conjunction with specific focus points predetermined by the Board.

For more details visit the Central States Revit Workshop 2013 SITE.

Access to Feature Redundancy

When we examine the Revit interface we find that we can change the scale of a view at the bottom of the view on what is called the View Control Shortcut Bar. If you happen to keep your Properties Palette open you've probably noticed you can just change the scale value there too? It's the same situation for Detail Level and Model Graphics Style. In the image below the items highlighted in yellow (even some running off the image) are all represented on the View Control Shortcut Bar too.

This can seem a bit odd or redundant to fresh eyes. If you've been staring at Revit for a number of years you probably remember when it was necessary to open a dialog to see those settings. The View Control Shortcut Bar let us change things without opening a bloody dialog box again. Today it seems a bit unnecessary to have some of the view control shortcuts, unless you close the properties palette.

As I've written before, in Revit there are numerous doors you can open to gain access to features, front, back and side doors...even some secret doors. Maybe they are bit redundant but if your cursor is closer to the bottom of the screen you can take the "side door" to scale or detail level instead of hopping on your scooter and driving up to the top of the Properties Palette. With the serious resolutions available on some monitors these days it could be a long ride.

Show History and a Rogue User Name

I wrote a post recently mentioning that we can use Show History on any file. I saw a post at AUGI that asked how users that claim they've never opened a file might show up in the Show History data. When you use Publish Coordinates to a project file you are altering that file when you save the changes and that change is recorded in the Show History data for it too.

Voids Voids Voids

If you read through Autodesk documentation for Revit and the best practices document that they published some years ago you'll find casually mentioned recommendations to "avoid voids" because they will negatively impact performance. That turns into a conversation overhead later, "Never ever use voids in families!!" Hmmm...

Recommendations are wonderful, wonderful when they actually mean something meaningful. A warning like don't use more than six voids in a family. That's specific, I better not use more than six voids or something bad will happen to me, and my project. Then again I might just get wild and create families with seven voids just to make other people mad and drive project performance into the gutter?

I've read and heard similar warnings and recommendations for using formulas, "Avoid using too many formulas in your families". Is eight too many or seven hundred? I'm guessing seven hundred is worse but what about twenty five or forty five. Have we crossed into unsanctioned and untenable content now?

I'd love to see more practical recommendations that quantify things better. I seriously doubt a family with several voids is really going to harm a project, even if there are five hundred copies of the family in the project. I suppose we need to turn the Revit "masses" loose and test all kinds of situations to come up with more specific recommendations?

In the meantime I'm going to keep being careful to avoid voids all while wondering how many voids to avoid...

Worksharing Display Users

When you are using the relatively new Worksharing Display feature you can see which users are assigned to which colors in this dialog.

The history of users interacting with a file can turn into quite a list, it doesn't refresh to reflect the current users, at least not all the time anyway. It seems to retain all the users that have owned or borrowed elements in the file. The little button lurking beneath the list will let you delete inactive users.

You can just start deleting users, don't worry, Revit will tell you if someone is currently borrowing or owning something in the file.

View Template Usage

The other day I wrote about my transition between Revit versions and differences between what we can do with View Templates. Harry "Mr. Boost Your BIM" Mattison offered some code to relieve the tension. It's pretty cool how few lines of code and provide useful answers. Check out his post. Be sure to read his post tomorrow too, he's going to enhance it a bit and share that too!

Create New Local Disabled

Usually the culprit is the network path (previous post). If it is intermittent, as in it worked a few minutes ago but now it isn't, it can be something else. It is probably file access, meaning Synchronization with Central by others or someone opening their own local file at the same time.

I find the create new local option is disabled occasionally when there are a lot of other users active. If I select the file and the option is disabled I click on another central to see if it is network related. My thinking is if it does it for several central files then somethings wrong with "me". If I wait a few seconds or minutes I find that clicking on the file again will allow Revit another "look" at the file and the option "wakes up".

It may just be busy people and activity between locals and the central.

Scheduling View Template Usage

When I travel back and forth between Revit versions, say between 12 and 13, I find myself missing things. For example I wanted to see (in 2012) how many views were assigned to view templates and which ones were really being used. In 2013 we can add that parameter to a View List, 2012 not so much. In 2013 we can select a view template and see how many views are assigned to it, in 2012...you get the idea. I wish life and project conditions didn't make it hard to "just upgrade". Just do it, as soon as you can!

Rotate with Component

This little setting is meant to force a tag to rotate with the tagged element, meaning to maintain the alignment.

The easiest example is beam or wall tags following their parent.

These categories respond to Rotate with Component:
Walls, Curtain Walls, Doors, Windows, Railings, Ramps, Stairs (Runs, Landings and Supports), Structural (Framing, Braces and Trusses), Property Boundary, Property Line Segments, Planting, and Parking.

These categories are immune to Rotate with Component:
Foundations, Floors, Ceilings, Roofs, Furniture, Furniture Systems, Casework, Generic Models, Structural Columns, Detail Components, Massing, Mass Floors, Curtain Panels, and Specialty Equipment.

Breaking loose from "Revity rules" the space, room and area tags are allowed to rotate more easily by choosing Vertical, Horizontal or Model, for each tag we use. The Model option allows us to use the Rotate tool to rotate them freely, which would be quite nice for any tag.

Architectural Columns, Shaft Openings remain immune to tagging by category at all.

That seems like a long list but that doesn't even factor in MEP components. Perhaps I'll tackle that another night.

Change Door From and Door To

These settings for doors are determined initially by which side of a wall the door swings into. A door swinging into a room inherits that room as its "to" value. Later if someone flips the door to swing out of the room the parameter does not change. This is intentional and I've written about this before.

Harry started Boost Your BIM a few months ago and he's really dedicated himself to it, bravo! Back then he asked me for some ideas and naturally my mind went blank I could only muster a couple ideas. The beauty of blogging is that the more readers you have the more ideas you'll get. He's been keeping busy with many interesting examples.

The other day I was chatting with a Revit user who was expressing frustration with the From/To issue and I thought that a simple "click this click that" experience might at least improve the situation for him. I wrote to Harry and a day or so later we've got this to consider. Cool!

Leaders

I know people care a lot about where leaders start on blocks of text. Some want them to start at the first line, others at the bottom line and still others at the center of the text. Personally this has always felt like fussiness, focusing on trees and missing the forest. For eleven years I spent some of my time reading drawings to either bid on a project or to try to build something with them. I never got upset about such things. I WAS frustrated when the leader didn't point at the correct thing or fell short of "something" to point at. Where the leader started never confused me as long as it was clear which note it belonged to.

For my time and money, as long as they are consistent I'm satisfied. Unfortunately Revit isn't in this regard. Text has settings for leader positioning that keynote tags don't. That can lead to inconsistency and that's not good. Any annotation features that are available for text should be extended to other elements that display information that sure looks like text when looking at a printed sheet of paper. My 2.5 cents.

Show History

This might not be obvious. You can use the Show History feature to review what users have been doing even if you have no project open or a different project open. If you don't have a project open the collaborate ribbon will offer you just the Show History and Restore Backup buttons.

You can browse to any project file to review the information available for it. Keep in mind selecting a project that doesn't use worksharing will only show you who saved a file and when. No comments will be there since we can only enter a comment in the Synchronize with Central dialog. Restore Backup will only work for projects that are using worksharing because you need to select the project backup folder, which stand-alone project files don't have.

Linked Files and Delete Rooms

When you are opening a project with linked files (or reloading one) if you see a dialog giving you the option to Delete Rooms, please don't click the Delete Rooms button. Please!

Nobody will be happy with you if you do, not even you. It would be wonderful if Revit stopped offering the ultimate in self-destructive options in warning dialogs. Too often Revit's solution to a problem is a delete button. As the knight's in Monty Python's Holy Grail movie said, "Run away, run away!"

Managing Revisions

Every time I want to edit the Revisions for a project I activate the Manage ribbon tab. It's never there, no matter how many times I try. The Revisions Button is on the View tab and the Sheet Composition panel. It obviously made sense to the development and user interaction team but not me. I think the correct place to access the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog is the Manage tab. Despite the inclusion of "Sheet Issues" in the dialog name, mentally I "manage" revisions with that dialog. I'd find it quicker if it were on the Manage ribbon instead. I'd be happy if it was either part of the Settings panel or the Manage Project panel.

Potayto...potahto?

Radio Buttons

Software developers have a lot of tools to manage how we interact with their handiwork. Radio Buttons are one such tool or concept.

They are NOT named because of their shape or appearance.

The name is derived from the way radio station selection worked on car radios, more consistent with older car radios perhaps than current technology (image found at Web Developer AtlanticBT).

For what it is worth, if you do an image search for "radio button" you won't see anything car or radio related, just a lot of examples of software using this radio button concept. If you search for "car radio button" you'll probably find the image I found above.

When you press a button for your favorite station whatever station was selected gives way to your new selection, only one station can play at a time. The same is true for these so called Radio Buttons in Revit. Whenever you encounter a button like these only one can be selected at a time.

How's that for a little pursuit of trivia?

Move with Disjoin

Using the Move tool and checking Disjoin is equivalent to "cut to clipboard" (in effect delete) and then "paste from clipboard". This is necessary to break a wall or line away from other walls or lines that may be connected. Without Disjoin the other walls or lines will attempt to stretch to stay connected.

It is not really just moving the existing elements but recreating them in a new location. This means the elements will get new Mark parameters, assuming Revit numbers them automatically, like doors for example.

If you really need to separate walls or lines (ducts or pipes too) you can move without using the Disjoin option and then manually pull the other elements away from the wall using their own grips instead. A bit more work but maybe less than renumbering elements?

Something to keep in mind.

Lock Down Shared Coordinate Relationships

The more complicated a project is the more trouble someone casually (accidentally) moving a building file can create. The simplest solution is to pin a linked model to interfere with accidental movement. Moving a pinned link takes a deliberate action.

We can put another speed bump in the road by using Worksets as a security guard to make it harder to move a linked file. Assign each link to its own workset and then create a new username like "Link Admin" and while working as this user make each link's workset editable (take ownership of each link's workset). When you synchronize (SwC) don't relinquish those worksets. Next time someone accidentally drags a linked file they'll be warned that "Link Admin says no".

One more step you can take which also involves worksets is to make the Project Info workset editable too, for each building file. The Project Info workset is located in the Project Standards group.

Taking this approach prevents shared coordinates from being altered inadvertently or otherwise. Same strategy, same user, same refusal to relinquish the worksets this user borrowed. This needs to be done in all the linked models as well as a master site model if used to establish the shared coordinates.

Keep Readable

Text elements have a property called Keep Readable. This prevents the text from being displayed upside down and reorients rotated text elements so they are "readable" from left to right and bottom to top. As soon as text transitions past 90 degrees and then between 180 to 270 you'll find the text flips to ensure that it is easier to read. All of this is true for text in a project view.

In a family the text elements share this parameter but it doesn't matter if you check it or not because the family governs whether text remains easy to read. This setting (Keep text readable) governs all text, even nested label families, in the family setting.

If you are working in the Family Editor you only need to worry about this one setting to force all text and nested label families to behave, so to speak.

Hosted or Not Hosted

The description "hosted" or "not-hosted" that we use for component families can be a bit confusing. Technically ALL families ARE hosted. They are either hosted by a level, a wall, a ceiling, a floor or a face (surface of some element). When we say not-hosted or non-hosted we generally mean that a family is not specifically associated with a certain host element like a wall, ceiling, floor or face. A chair, desk and various other families across many categories are "not-hosted" though truly they ARE hosted by a Level. They can sit on the floor or are free to be above or below it by altering their Offset parameter.

I often think that it is a disservice to spend time calling them just one or the other. It seems more explicit to use a family name that describes what host is required. A family called, "MyCoolFamily-hosted.rfa" might be better called "MyCoolFamily-Face.rfa" or "MyCoolFamily-Wall.rfa" or "MyCoolFamily-Level.rfa". We could reduce it to a single letter designation. For example the families could be named "MyCoolFamily-W.rfa" or "MyCoolFamily-L.rfa". What if the file extension allowed for this subtlety so the names are not affected by it? Extensions for families could be .RFF, .RFW, .RFC, RFF... Uh oh floor and face both are "F"...so we could use S for surface instead of face?

These different placement methods also mean we have to be careful to consider what sort of hosting nature a family has before we start placing it. We have to resort to reading the family name and/or glancing at the ribbon for any placement options to figure out what the family expects us to do. It would be great if a family could be assigned to a primary placement option. For example, light fixtures usually want to attach to a face, not the vertical face option we are offered by default. Ideally we could specify the hosting priority for each family and use the ribbon only to choose an alternative when those rarer situations happen. Maybe the ideal spot for this parameter is in the Family Category and Parameters dialog, like OmniClass and other settings..

Just writing out loud...

Revit Systems and Daycare

You probably wouldn't put those two in the same sentence? Imagine a daycare center with a hundred children running around and no supervision. Now imagine the same thing but put ten adult teachers in the room. It is probably not nearly as chaotic as the first situation.

Now change the center to Revit and the children to MEP component families. Without assigned systems it is much like that unsupervised daycare center. Each system functions like a teacher or parent assigned to several specific children to keep things organized. Ultimately this allows Revit to function more efficiently.

Isn't it interesting how effective the use of family and people concepts extend to Revit ideas and features.

Tag on Placement Quirk

My friend Tom wrote to me the other day asking if he was crazy or if I could confirm that Revit 2013 has a quirk when placing a light fixture in a ceiling plan. Well he isn't crazy, at least not about that. It isn't just for light fixtures either, seems to be for any component. When placing a component in a floor plan view you get this ribbon configuration, or close to it.

When in a ceiling plan you get this version...sans "Tag on Placement".

Seems unfair to me. There was a recent Hotfix posted for Revit 2013 but it does not appear to address this issue. I demand equal opportunity for Tag on Placement!

Image-O-Matic

Earlier I wrote that Harry started a blog (Boost Your BIM) focused on using the Revit API to enhance your projects and process. He created his first formal application, Image-O-Matic, which is now available on the Autodesk Exchange. When I first saw it I thought about using it to document testing family parameters and types.

He decided to run a contest to encourage Revit users to get acquainted with the app. He offered up a tantalizing video of Marcello Sgambelluri's work to get your creative urge going. Visit his site for all the contest details. Here's an embedded copy of the video he posted.

Omniclass and Uniformat Selection

It would be nice if we could search for keywords when attempting to assign the parameters for both Omniclass and Uniformat. Sometimes the best category to use in Revit isn't necessarily the correct category in these classification systems. This means a fair bit of time wasted hunting for an appropriate value. I search the source files to find keywords first which isn't the most straightforward.

Copy Monitor and In Use Element Types

When you edit the Options for Copy/Monitor doesn't give any indication which of the families that show up in the lists are really used. This means you can assign elements unnecessarily.

In some cases it seems somewhat apparent which are used or not. In the first image the Level type actually used has a slightly different options than in the second image, which is the level type not used.

It would be cool if Revit identified the elements and types that are actually in use in the linked file, at least without having to read between the lines.

Rooms and Synchronization

Have you seen this error message before (images from 2012)?

It is followed by its grumpy brother.

The more complicated the project, the more likely that it uses some sort of linked file strategy. If so then it is pretty likely that Revit will fail to complete a Synchronize with Central (SwC) the first time you try, thus the message.

If you are like me you enter a comment each time (using SwC) for tracking and troubleshooting purposes. It is a pain to get a message telling you your SwC didn't work. It's worse that what you typed is lost. I finally got slightly smarter. I try to remember to copy the comment text to the clipboard before clicking OK. This way I can just paste it back in if/or when the error pops up.

I thought I hit on a sure thing by using Reload Latest before using SwC. It seemed to work for a bit but then it returned anyway. Still haven't pinned down the exact cause in this situation. It would be great if Revit could figure out that it can't resolve a SwC beforehand, probably a catch-22 situation though.

Please Just Say No to 2D Only

If you make a Revit family and it is meant to represent something real, tangible, please don't make it 2D only. In 3D your family doesn't exist and that is usually a bad thing. Everything we put in a building is three dimensional, even wall paper has thickness. If you aren't prepared to model it faithfully in three dimensions, at least use a generic box form that is at least dimensionally consistent with the thing you are representing. If you are documenting clearance zones make it 3d too. You can't use Interference Check meaningfully if it is just lines on the floor.

Resist the temptation to just make it 2D.

Illegal Parameter Names

It is fairly well understood that we can, but should not, use characters in parameter names that compete with Revit's own calculations. These include the addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*) and division (/) symbols to name a few.

We also need to be careful to not use the specific function names either such IF. IF is the same as iF or If as far as Revit is concerned, though normally it is case sensitive.

When creating parameters use names that are not going to confuse Revit's own mathematical and conditional functions.

Tag All is Faster

No kidding you say. When rooms are involved the room tag feature is painful because it has to query all rooms in the view and turn on the special highlighting mode first. You can beat this if you select rooms first and use Tag All instead. You'll get much faster results, more responsive. That assumes you can effectively select them first.

Paste Aligned Won't Play Along

I recently encountered a situation where two Paste Aligned options did not work while the option for "Aligned to Same Place" did. In this situation I was moving elements from one building file to another because of a scope of work switcheroo.

Typical we can select elements in a linked file and then paste them into the host project. Ordinarily I can paste walls, for example, using "to Aligned to Selected Levels" or "Aligned to Current View". In this case the walls didn't seem to remember their level arrangement even though both models observe the same elevations and naming. Revit insisted on putting them on the level above or the level below.

I ran into the same disrespect using "Aligned to Current View". The only way I got what I wanted was using "Aligned to Same Place". I was in a hurry so I didn't back up and try to figure out what might be contributing to the issue. I've never had a problem using the other options with elements that were already part of the same host file, you know just pasting elements to other levels to copy them upward or downward. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that these elements were coming from the linked file?

Something to consider the next time you are copying and pasting elements from one file to another.

Personal Revit Milestone

I got an email asking about AutoCAD support the other day which set me thinking. I realized that I have been using Revit for as long as I used AutoCAD day to day. My journey with AutoCAD started in 1994 with R12 on DOS. I stopped seriously using it (ACAD/ADT) in 2003 and switched over to Revit. So that's nine years with AutoCAD and nine with Revit. Technically I was using Revit since 2000, but for this I am not counting the first two years since it wasn't my full time work. Some overlap existed naturally, but I've reached the "tipping point".

Applying Visibilty Graphics Overrides

This might be obvious but you can apply changes to views much faster if you don't have any views open that show model elements. Now that it is possible to alter the properties of a view without actually opening it, because the Properties Palette will display a selected view's propeties when you select it in the Project Browser, this means we can edit its visibilty graphics settings even if it isn't open.

It is particulary evident when a project has many linked files. You can alter a view for the first floor but if another floor's view is open Revit seems to spend time thinking about that one too, even mention the linked files.

If you are in the habit of using a synchronize with central view or bulletin board drafting or legend view then open that view and close all others before you dive into overriding view graphics or applying view templates.

Viewer Mode and Worksharing

Read a Thread at AUGI the other day that ultimately boiled down to this gotcha, don't use the recently created Viewer Mode if you expect to save your work. The Revit user couldn't access the central file from his local file. The responses naturally focused on all the typical network issues that might prevent access, among other things.

Ultimately the original poster realized the user was running Viewer Mode. It is almost like asking if the computer is plugged in when someone's computer isn't "working". In this case the first question ought to be, "Are you using the correct version of Revit?"

Beware the viewer mode!

Views on Sheets

When you have to add views to sheets just the task itself can take a long time. You will find that trying to put a view on a sheet will take less time if there is nothing visible in the view. Try it. Close all the worksets and place a view on a sheet. Now do the same thing with all the worksets Open. Even a modest size project should see a difference. It isn't that surprising. Why don't more people think of it then?

If you are using guide grids to position views consistently you'll need to be able to see at least some grids or reference planes but not much else. Next time you find yourself waiting for views to generate as you place them on sheets remember to close worksets or at least reduce how much Revit needs to show while it is doing it.

Audit

I wish Audit had more to say. I wish I had a clue what it was actually trying to do, what it cares about, why I should care about it.

The WikiHelp says this about Audit:

Scans, detects, and fixes corrupt elements in the project. This option can greatly increase the time required to open files. Use this option only for periodic maintenance of large workshared files or when you are preparing to upgrade.

It doesn't tell us what it did, if there was anything to do or fix or that our file was too excellent to do anything at all. That's all I want for Christmas. Okay, that's not true but I'd still like it for Christmas.

Emergency Designation for Families

Electrical panels and light fixtures are just a couple items that often show some shading to make their use for emergency conditions graphically stand apart from the rest. While some shading techniques people use are quite specific (such as shading half or quarters) if an overall shading or color would work you can consider using a Filter instead of editing any families. Here's a screen capture of applying a filter to make an electrical panel look like an "emergency" panel instead of a regular one. Just a thought that popped into my head the other day.

Upgrading and Reloading Families

I overhead a conversation the other day at Autodesk University. One person suggested to the other that we should always upgrade families to the latest release and then reload them all into our project after it has been upgraded. They theorized that Revit was having to "upgrade" them each time we open a project, like the message we see when a linked file is still based on an earlier version. Assuming that is true they went on to say that upgrading the families and reloading them would avoid this repeated upgrading of content when you open a project.

My gut feeling is that is not true after the project is initially upgraded. I believe that the process of upgrading a project is taking into account the content that is part of the project as well. If I'm correct then the content inside the project is effectively upgraded as well. Saving a family out of the project results in a new family based on that version of Revit too, not the previous one.

Only a developer or product designer/manager could say for certain though.

Create a Type Catalog

There is a relatively new feature available to create a type catalog automatically. Anyone who has tried to deal with this task using Revit MEP can relate to the awkwardness of trying to define the units for each parameter properly. The syntax and names used don't necessarily leap to mind.

If you visit the Application Menu > Export you'll find the Family Types option.

This does not create a perfect type catalog. By perfect I mean it may provide more parameters than you really intend to use in the catalog. That's because it will export them all. We often only provide the critical or most relevant values in a type catalog and leave others as default settings that all types will share. It works great if you want them all though.

Just to quibble though, I think that the name of the command ought to be Export > Type Catalog instead of Family Types. It would be more consistent with what the resulting file is called and used for, a Type Catalog.

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

Boost Your BIM

Harry Mattison has joined the API blogging world for Revit with "Boost Your BIM". He's started out with a practical project dealing with the tragic Duplicate Mark Value error we receive on projects that use worksets. Each post is a step in and through the process. He's only just begun with a few of the steps (posts) so far. I believe the intention is to take it slow and easy enough that even I can do it! Here's hoping Harry can keep at it!

Pick New Host for Connectors

I find myself wishing that I could pick a new host for a connector every now and then. It's a bit of a drag when I redesign something (or make a mistake) and have to recreate connectors all over again just because there isn't an equivalent process to define a new host like for other hosted elements. For the programming team it's probably not a particularly hard thing to accomplish, so it's just another subtle thing to add to the list of desirable Revit refinements.

OmniClass as Criteria

I heard mention of Omniclass during Autodesk University a few times last week. Each component (loadable) family in Revit has a pair of parameters built for OmniClass. What is that you say?

Lifted directly from their web site:

The OmniClass Construction Classification System (known as OmniClass™ or OCCS) is a classification system for the construction industry. OmniClass is useful for many applications, from organizing library materials, product literature, and project information, to providing a classification structure for electronic databases. It incorporates other extant systems currently in use as the basis of many of its Tables – MasterFormat™ for work results, UniFormat for elements, and EPIC (Electronic Product Information Cooperation) for structuring products.

Revit supplies the OmniClass Number and the related OmniClass Title for each family category.

It hasn't quite reached full citizenship in Revit because system families do not yet offer an option for assigning them OmniClass values, neither do rooms or spaces. You can certainly add your own shared parameters to do it but there won't be any linkage to the same table of values as provided in the image above, that's only for component families.

Revit has also always offered the UniFormat Assembly Code and Description, not for rooms or spaces either though. These two systems both provide a way to classify the essence of an element in the model, like the Dewey Decimal system helps to organize books in a library to some degree. If we are careful to assign appropriate values to the content we create we'll find we can harness them to enhance our experience with using schedules and filters. That's completely apart from the downstream possibilities of using it to help define specifications with tools like e-SPECS or BSD LinkMan.

Try hard to remember to assign a value for OmniClass and the Assembly Code so you and others can take advantage of them later.

Set Calculations to Stun

Attending sessions at a conference is always a good way to come up with ideas for new blog posts. This post was inspired by David Butt's session at Autodesk University 2012 about Pipe and Duct Systems. I was working as one of his lab assistants and he mentioned this so I made a note to myself to mention it again, here.

By the way sorry about the title, I was thinking of the Star Trek "Set phasers to Stun" command that Captain Kirk often uttered. Literary license, I was just rhyming Stun with None.

In Revit MEP you can create systems for pipe and duct, meaning just the act of sketching one of them assigned to a particular system will impose certain design properties and graphical qualities to that element automatically. In the past the only way a duct or pipe could behave this way was to connect it to a component or to another duct or pipe that was already. That made it harder to just sketch pipe or duct (schematic design) and use it to represent different uses, like supply or return air, or hot versus cold water.

One of the properties of these systems is called Calculations and you can choose between None, Flow Only or All.

Since Revit only does fluid based calculations (piping) it doesn't make much sense to "waste" any CPU cycles on trying to do calculations on pipe systems for gases like oxygen or nitrogen. Same is true if you really aren't going to rely on Revit for pipe sizing or related calculations either. Any system that isn't going to need this ought to be assigned to None.

The Revit Family Guide

The family guide document that has been available for download is now part of Autodesk's WikiHelp site. The PDF is still available and has not been updated (that page at WikiHelp is the same) but the content and spirit of that document is now part of the WikiHelp site itself. Kudos to the ongoing effort of the team. Each time I return I find explanations that better serve us.

System Inspector Language

Yes, I'm picking on the poor inspector again, sorry! Have you ever noticed the tooltip?

The Latin text is a common placeholder for web site developers, writers and programmers alike. They need to show something until another person provides the correct wording. In this case it never got changed I suppose, or maybe somebody decided it really didn't need more accurate information to convey the idea.

This fits in my Dept.of Subtle quite nicely.

Revit Does Power Point

Years ago I wrote about using Revit to help me coach my son's soccer team. Since I seem to have an unhealthy focus on using Revit for things that might not make any sense it should be no surprise that I'd find a way to avoid using Power Point. When Revit 2013 came out it expanded on what we could do with the View Reference tool (wrote about that before too).

Well since then, at the last few conferences I've been a presenter for, I've been using the view reference as a way to move forward or back through a "slide deck", a Revity slide projector. I did use Power Point to create the slides since that's what the templates were using already. I used a screen capture of each slide as an image inserted into drafting views.

Here's what my intro slide looks like for my session later today at Autodesk University 2012, it's called "Sharing Work with Worksharing Using Autodesk Revit".

See the little arrows on either side of the image? Those are my back and forward buttons, they are just referencing the previous and next drafting views (slides). Instead of showing the sheet reference information that it would normally show I just added the back and forward facing arrow graphics.

It's just the sort of Power Point that this Revit guy likes!

Rounding Length Values

When you create formulas in the Family Editor or perhaps in a schedule you can use the relatively new Round, Roundup and Rounddown options. They are designed to be used for unitless values. How often do we use unitless values? Click if you want to read the info at Autodesk's WikiHelp.

The other night I wanted to divide a panel height but round off the result. Take a door panel that has 6 lites that are defined by equal height from the top of the panel for example. One approach would be to just make the spacing equal. In this case the last lite is where the "slop" is supposed to go by making the upper lites equal in size. This means that the last lite is a little different size but then the bottom rail can be changed regardless of the lite sizes, without altering them.

The formula ended up looking like this:

In plain English, I add the top and bottom rail height together, subtract that from the panel height, divide by the number of lites. The rounding is applied to that result and divided by the desired rounding unit (1") and finally to satisfy Revit's quirkiness multiply the result by 1" to redefine what the units are. A bit round about (pun intended) but got where I wanted to go in the end.

Quick tip: When you add a parameter, click Apply before trying to fill in a formula. Revit needs to "save" the parameter before you can start using a formula in it. You'll typically get a message: "Can't find solution for formulas for type", wrote about this back in 2009.

Click in Empty Space to Reset

Using the Align tool, if you pick the wrong reference element just click away from everything. Revit resets the selection sequence, Align tool stays active.

Same is true for Trim/Extend to Corner, Trim/Extend to Element, Trim/Extend Multiple, Cut and Uncut Geometry, Join and Unjoin Geometry, Dimensioning and some others that don't come to mind.

The split tool is a bit quirky. I find that if I use a tool like copy or trim and then click on Split to use it instead, but then miss an element when I click Revit returns to the previous command. Try it, select Copy and then click on Split, click in empty space and you should see it return to Copy.

Creating New Types

We have a few options when we need a new version of a door, wall or window etc. System families (wall, floor or ceiling for example) are created in a project while component families (door, window or furniture for example) are separate files, created in Revit's family editor mode.

If you need a new wall type you can choose door number one or two to make it. Door number one is using the Project Browser. You need to expand the Families category in the browser, then expand Walls and finally expand either Basic Walls, Curtain Walls or Stacked Walls.

When you select the wall you'd like to edit, or in this case duplicate, a right click will provide a list of options, one of which is Duplicate.

You can also double click on the name in the browser to open the Type Properties dialog. Once that is open you can click the Duplicate button.

I usually double click because I can duplicate and then immediately edit the type. The right click approach will still involve opening the dialog to edit its properties as well as renaming it. I figure the double click approach is a slight shortcut.

Once the new type is created it is available to use but not actually in use. Keep in mind that when using Worksharing it is only available in the local file we are using, we need to SwC to make it available to others.

Door number two is to select a wall you see in the drawing area and then click Edit Type on the Properties Palette. Once the Type Properties dialog is open you can duplicate and edit its properties. The significant different between these two doors is that this one alters the wall we selected, unless we reassign the wall back to the previous type first.

Worth restating, creating a new type by selecting a wall placed in the model will result in changing that wall to the new type unless you remember to reassign the selected wall to the original type before closing the dialog.

Another mistake we can make is to just edit the properties of the selected wall instead of remembering to create a new type first. This usually results in cries of anguish after all the walls change in the model. Fortunately if you catch it quick using undo will usually fix it.

With component families (aka loadable families) we can use the same approach in the project, either door number one or two. However this does not alter the original family in our project, office or stock libraries. If the new type really ought to be part of the library version then that family needs to be opened and have the type created there. Then you can reload the family to add the new type to the project.

Here's a two minute (ish) video if it helps.

BIM Blog Plug - Practical BIM

Just a quick post to plug another blogger's effort. Antony McPhee has been using Practical BIM to document his thinking on the subject of BIM; design and construction project planning. Apart from researching the various documents available today he's been trying to express what he thinks the process could or should look like based on his experience. Some of his recent posts include:

Collaboration or Coercion: The Design Collaboration Plan
Utilising Your Office BIM Manual: Participants BIM Plans
BIM for Owners - The BIM Project Brief
Single project BIM Execution Plan: A Good Idea?

Back in September he did a series of posts to review the "BIM in Practice" document from the Australian Institute of Architects.

If you and your firm are wrestling with BIM you ought to read through his posts and add them to your considerations. Worth a read even you aren't...

Clean the Nested Content Too

Just a little reminder to myself as much as anyone, remember to purge and cleanup nested content as much as the parent. This includes materials and object styles. If you clean up the parent family but don't pay attention to the nested parts you'll find some of those things polluting the parent.

Three Minutes with Guide Grids

This feature is often overlooked or dismissed but it does deliver a consistent way to mark locations to help us keep plans aligned from one sheet to the next. Check out the video demonstration at You Tube.

Remember the Status Bar and Think Edges

Two little practical tips or reminders for Friday morning.

Tip One - Revit doesn't see things until you place your cursor near the edge of an element. There are some exceptions but for most elements you've got to move the cursor near an edge. Not sure if Revit sees it? Is it highlighted? No, then Revit doesn't see it. No point clicking to select something if Revit doesn't acknowledge it. The highlighting is visual confirmation that Revit thinks "this" is what you want to select.

If it isn't the correct one, remember the TAB key cycles through alternate elements that Revit could see in the same spot. I imagine sonar radiating from the tip of the cursor. If an element is close enough to bounce a signal back to the cursor you can "sink the battleship". No "Disco Tabbing", that happens when you hold the tab key down instead of just pressing once or twice as needed. I say disco because elements flash at you when you hold the button down. Thanks to Cyril Verley for that, I heard it from him first.

Okay that was three tips already; Edges, Highlighting and the TAB key.

Tip Two - When you are busy remembering edges don't forget to remember the Status Bar. It tells you what Revit sees or wants from you. When you place your cursor near an element you get the highlighting, you should see a tool tip AND the Status Bar offers you some info too. It's like a read-only command line, sssh.

Two Minutes with Constraint Quirkiness

Okay it's a little more than two minutes but less than three. I've been running into a few things lately that I don't recall being an issue in the past. Then again maybe my memory isn't what I thought it was? Take a look at this image. Seems pretty straightforward.

I've got a pair of Reference Planes that I want to keep positioned on either side of a rail (as in stiles and rails for a door). In the past I could do what you see and then use the dimensions on the right to shift the collection of reference planes up or down a bit. Now I find that I can't unless I select all three together. In the past I just grab the one in the middle and use the referencing dimension to shift it up/down. Doing that now gives me some weird results. It's probably better and easier to explain it with a video so here's one at You Tube.

Are You Red - Worksharing Monitor

Overheard the other day, "Hey Englebert, you are all red dude!" (name changed to protect the guilty or course). What he's referring to is the color a user's name becomes in Worksharing Monitor when they are working in the central file instead of a local as expected.

Don't be red! You might get this baby telling you off?

See Floyd? He's playing along nicely.

If you do get caught in the central file, no worries. Just use Save As to create a local copy the manual way (old timer way). Put it where your local files usually go and save it like your other local files. You'll be able to Synchronize with Central (SwC). If you don't do this Revit will end up telling you to do it when you try to SwC. The only time Revit doesn't care if you are working in the Central File is when you are alone, or the other people working in Local Files have not used SwC themselves. As soon as they do the next time you try to use SwC you'll get the message.

Revit's developers added this to avoid creating data reconciliation conflicts when someone does end up working in the central file. Just don't get caught "red handed".

Insert 2D from File

I read another post this morning that prompted me to mention "another door", another way to get where we want to go. In this case James mentions using the Display Model setting for a view to only show the annotation (2D stuff) that's been added. The intention being to then copy/paste that useful stuff to another project. It's a harvesting exercise and one the developers created a specific tool for, "Insert 2D Elements from File".

This tool allows you to browse to another project, select from the views of that project and choose those that have 2D information that you'd like to use in this project. If you've ever thought, "I know there is a great detailing in a wall section in XYZ Project, I wish I could just grab it", you can!

It's brother (or sister) Insert Views from File allows us to harvest drafting views, schedules and sheets that contain either.

System Inspector Inspect

Using Revit MeP, this feature makes me think of Monty Python's Dept. of Redundancy Department every time I use it. When you have elements connected together well Revit's System Inspector icon will be available.

Reading between the lines, that means if you don't see it when you think you should, something is wrong. The part that gets me is as soon as you activate it you get a little ribbon panel like the one we get for Groups. To inspect a system what's the next thing we have to do?

Yeah, tell Revit we want to Inspect. Department of Inspection Inspector?

Family Editor Thought and Tips

There are many great ideas for improving the family editor experience "out there" already. Here's another thought prompted by some Shared Parameter loading.

When you first enter the Parameter Properties dialog, after clicking the Add button, the radio button for Family Parameter is selected and the Select button is disabled.

Seems to me the button could be enabled. This would allow me to click on the button to select a shared parameter without having to first change the radio button selection to Shared Parameter instead. It's just one click different but if you load a series of shared parameters repeatedly now and then one less click is one less x number of parameters involved.

Seems reasonable to me...now for a couple tips.

Here's a little data entry tip in the Formula field, click past the value to select everything faster. If you click "on" part of the formula entry the cursor lands there. If you click past it looks more like this.

If you click on the formula then it ends up like this.

Once you click in the field the "tip" is "off", you have to click elsewhere (outside the field) before it will work that way again. If you are already in the field the Home and End buttons work nicely to move to the beginning or end of the formula. I find CTRL + A (select All) doesn't work there so I tap Home and then Shift + End to select the whole line. Then again I don't usually do that at all, I use my tip and click past the text. You can also select all the text (in the value or formula column) if you are careful to left click on the field and then drag your cursor out of the field before you let go of your mouse button.

Okay, one more really subtle one, as if that wasn't subtle. Ever notice how the information in the family types dialog can "jump" when you click in a field, like in the formula column? That happens when the column is wider than what the dialog can display. Easy to fix, just squeeze that column so it's entirely visible and Revit won't jump (scroll over to the right usually is what I mean by "jumping").

Filter Pesky Levels

Need another way to manage the Levels of linked files? Sure we can assign them to specific worksets and have matching worksets in our model. Sure we can edit the V/G settings of the link in views (and view templates). Here's another, use a Filter and the criteria "Structural" that is available for levels.

When you examine the properties of levels you should find the parameter Structural. If the engineer uses that for their levels and you don't, then this concept works.

Now build a Filter that hunts for levels with the Structural parameter.

This is before the filter is applied.

This is after the filter is applied.

They can do the reverse by reversing the logic of the filter, Structural = no.

Happy Filtering!