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.

Notes to User - Family Editor

Would you like to put a note in your families that is just "read only" when used in the project only, like this perhaps?



Here's how:

Create the parameter
Use "Text" for the data type
Enter the value you want stored as text in the formula column
(Just make sure you wrap it with "quotation marks")

Like this:



If using nested families just make sure you do this in the final host family so you can still "touch" the parameter to connect it to its mate in the host.

Hope this helps!