Apples iPad

When I first saw the iPhone I wanted to get one but didn't until a year after it was available. Just couldn't justify the premium to get in early. Once that settled down I was in! Before that I was pretty slow to get interested in the iPod and I really didn't get the interface despite it being so "obvious"...to some anyway.

With this new product I find myself interested again, like the iPhone but again not really prepared to plunk down $500 for it. I don't use the phone part of the iPhone much really so I could practically get away with just the iPad. I'm among those who want one...just a question of when. Hopefully the numerous references to the product's name relating to feminine hygiene products won't last too long.

Now getting to use Revit on it would be very interesting to this blogger too! Had to include that part otherwise this post would be completely off topic!

Dept. of Errors - Action Caused Deletion of Non-Editable Workset

When you get this error message you can take the following action. Create a text file using Notepad. Enter the following text exactly:

[DebugModes]
AllowDeletionOfNonEmptyWorkset=1

Save the text file as debug.ini

Place this file in the installation folder for your Revit version, typically:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk Revit "version" 2010\Program

When you run your software you'll get a message box confirm the debug mode "Allow deletion of Non Empty Worksets".

After making a backup of your project for safekeeping open the project and try to delete the item in question again. You should find that Revit will allow you to delete it. Hopefully this will help.

Revit Style Guide 2.1 Available

As I mentioned in October, The Revit Style Guide is intended to help those who create content develop consistent coordinated families. The previous version 2.0 and version 2.1 is now posted. Hope it is helpful!

AUGI CAD Camp - Revived and 2010 Schedule

The new AUGI CAD Camp events are back and sporting a new logo.

Here's a screen capture of the current schedule, hopefully coming to a city near you. If you've attended a CAD Camp in the past AUGI hopes you'll be able to come again. If you have not attended then AUGI hopes you'll be able to this year.

Just in case you were wondering what happened to CAD Camps. When AUGI's relationship with its executive director and services organization changed at the end of 2008 the AUGI CAD Camp events were sidelined. Initially because the team that ran it was no longer intact. The economic situation during the past year (2009) didn't make it any easier to get them up and running again. In the end the organization chose to focus on getting things back up and running in 2010.

Dept. of Subtle - Tale of the Dancing Ribbon Tabs

I see this issue quite a bit these days with students as we work though various tasks. It is easier to demonstrate with a VIDEO so I made one.

Here's a quick description. You start the Wall Tool, you decide to switch to another Ribbon for some reason, then decide to return to the Wall tool. You see the Wall tool right there on the Home tab and click to start the Wall tool again. You don't notice that the Wall Tool is already selected and you also don't notice that the Place Wall Ribbon tab is active. Nothing happens, or at least it sure looks like nothing happens. Happened to you? Just need to remember to scan the Ribbon for active tabs.

(The audio sounds a little "buzzier" than it sounded when I first listened to it. Maybe my ears were shot after a full day. I'll replace it when I have a different environment to record in.)

Off Topic - Mr. OpEd in Dublin

I get to travel to Dublin to do some work over the next couple weeks. Using Google Analytics I see that I get between 30-40 visits to the blog a month from Ireland with 20ish of them coming from Dublin. This past 30 days, as shown below, dropped by 10ish visits which I assume is because of the holidays and my lazy posting habits during that time.

It seems to me that it means I've got at least one reader in Dublin. It would be great to meet my one or two readers while there! I'm also open to any advice for my stay there. I'm really looking forward to a real pint of Murphy's, or two...and naturally Guinness. Seems I'm too early to catch a Rovers match though. Looking forward to it!

Dept. of Subtle - Copy Option Checked or Unchecked

A post at AUGI by Aaron Rumple reminded me of a very subtle feature using the CTRL key. I stumbled into this using the Offset tool in Revit 2009.

Here's the scenario, imagine you are using the Offset tool to create a copy of a wall offset by four feet. The Copy option that appears on the Options bar is checked by default. That's great, but what if you wanted to use the Offset tool to move the wall not create a copy. You have to un-check Copy to get the Move instead. If you press the CTRL key prior to selecting the wall to offset the check mark is cleared in the Copy Option.

The AUGI post discusses this technique in conjunction with the Mirror Tool. Like with Offset the default setting for Mirror has Copy checked, assuming you want to create a mirror/copy, not a mirror/move.

As you probably already know, you can create a copy of an element by selecting it, pressing and holding CTRL and then dragging the selected element to a new location. When you press CTRL with Offset, Mirror, Copy and Move the Copy option becomes un-checked or checked in the case of Move.

I've never found any mention of this in the help file in the past. I just scanned through the 2010 documentation for any mention of it (using CTRL as a criteria) to see if they've added it but didn't find anything now either. A far as I can tell it's undocumented. Thanks to Aaron for the reminder!

A video might help?

Revit History in a Timeline

Every now and then I read some mention of Revit History. Today was a tweet via Twitter which mentions the wiki at Triple D Design.

Beau Turner started a wiki (Fall of 2005) focused on Revit (ADT too) and I helped out by setting up the basic outline of topics that you'll see there. I also contributed much of the content under the heading "The History of Revit".

I haven't visited the wiki in a long time because, sadly, it became more work to remove the spam that it received than actually adding meaningful content. It was a daily ritual of visiting the site, remove spam...only to realize that I spent all the time I could afford just doing that. This is why it is necessary to login.

Unfortunately that didn't slow down the spamming. As a result the timeline is a bit stale now while the AUGI version I will mention in a moment is up to date, except for documenting when builds were released (a wish list item). Their is some potential for making the wiki quite useful but it has languished.

Backing up a bit, in September 2003 David Conant (with Revit Technology Corp. and now Autodesk) posted a timeline for Revit. David's original post was made when the AUGI Revit forums were still part of Zoogdesign's Revit forums. I've taken over editing the post since then and do so when each new release cycle comes around.

I have links to both the AUGI hosted timeline and the Wiki in the sidebar on the right side of this blog under Revit Links.

There is also a Revit User's Manual at WikiBooks. A variety of people have been contributing to it since as early as 2006.

Previous mentions of Beau's Wiki here at Revit OpEd:
To Wiki or not to Wiki?
Wiki See Wiki Do

The First Number or Value - Template Setup

When you place a component, like a door, Revit provides a unique Mark parameter value. Same thing happens when you place a grid. Have you started a new project, placed a door and found a nice number like 234? How about a grid value of 2 or 15 instead of just 1 or A? Not all elements get a unique number automatically, such as furniture or casework for example. Those two just get a blank value.

Fortunately this issue is pretty quick to resolve. Just open your template, place a new component or grid and renumber the Mark/Name parameter so that it has the number just before the one you want your user to get with the template when they get started. This works fine for numbers but I'm not sure what to do about letters. If you want the grid to start with A...what comes before A? I've tried to get it to start with A again...but no joy.

I made a short video that shows what I'm writing about.

Revit Inside - API

To answer a recent request, I've added a new category to Revit Inside to list firms that offer programming services using the Revit API. Happy programming!

Autodesk University Content - Prior to 2006

When you visit the Autodesk University site you can review the classes that are archived back as far as 2006. The classes from 2005 and as far back as 2000 are archived at AUGI (Autodesk User Group International). I received a comment on an older post of mine letting me know that the links I provided back then were no longer working. I fixed them this morning and also thought I might as well post about it too.

Autodesk University Content - 2006 to Present
Autodesk University Content - 2000 to 2005

If you are curious about what you find at AUGI these two images might help. You start by visiting AUGI and clicking on the Education menu item, then click on the AU Class Handouts link on the left side bar.

Now you need to select the year, the industry and finally click Go!

You'll receive a long list of classes to peruse. It would be nice if it could be searched by Author or product but this is what we have for now.

Happy New Year!!

Revit Family Editor Videos

Warning!! Sales pitchy...

In the category of "Things I've meant to get around to but haven't", Paul Aubin HAS taken the time to record and produce videos from the summer series of online classes he did on the Revit Family Editor.

It is comprised of five DVD's (sold as individuals) and yes they cost money, but not a lot of money. Any seasoned family editor will tell you that doing the work, using the tools is the key to success. Not doing the work over and over and over, wrong and wrong...and finally correct, has value too. If Paul's videos can help you get there then I can put my hurt ego aside long enough to mention them to you here.

So if you've got some serious family editing ahead of you...you might want to take a minute or two to check them out, they could save you some time in the long run? If you use this super secret code (don't tell anyone else) you'll be able to get 10% off the regular price (and I get a small share of the "riches" - full disclosure). Check out his site for details.

The DVD's are sold as individual purchases and Paul says he is working on a solution to provide a bundle order but as I wrote this it wasn't finished.

Hey Paul I'm looking forward to retiring early, thanks for putting them together!

[P.S. The code is displayed when you hover over the Secret Code hyperlink, in a tool tip. The secret code will be valid for purchases made from 12/28/09 to 1/28/10, one month]

Happy Holidays 2009

Another year has passed already! It is that time again!! Wishing you a happy holiday season and a nice start to the new year!



I enjoyed Alan's politically correct season greeting! You might too?

Christmas Gift from Jason Grant - Sheet Creator

As I mentioned in an earlier post Jason has posted an application he wrote for Revit 2010. It allows the user to create sheets sequentially avoiding the opening and closing of dialogs that the existing process in Revit requires. His post has a video the demonstrates the tool in action as well. He also provides a step-by-step process to get it installed.

A still faster way to make sheets if the actually naming isn't very important yet is this TIP.

Revit MEP and the Phase Feature

You have existing HVAC equipment. You've documented the existing system and connected everything. Once you demolish it in a later phase however it becomes disconnected in the earlier existing phase.

This comes up every now and then during discussions and a recent thread at AUGI brought it up there too. Jason Martin, with Autodesk, wrote a nice response worth echoing:

Jason wrote:

The basic problem is that things like ducts and pipes are only allowed to be connected to one other thing "per connector". If I have a duct that is connected to an elbow the connection between those two are "properties" of those two elements (i.e. the duct knows it is connected to the elbow and the elbow knows it is connected to the duct).

The secondary problem is that the "temporal" concept in Revit (phasing) is primarily a "display only" concept (there are some special cases where other things are done, but primarily it is limited to display). I'm not arguing that adding temporal intelligence to these elements isn't a good thing, as there are a number of other cases that it would solve (i.e. like the ability to move something that exists in "this" phase to a different location in a "future" phase phase), but it isn't there today.

From a practical standpoint this means the mantra of assign stuff to systems can't be met completely with existing demolished stuff. Something I'm sure the designers at Autodesk are wrestling with internally.

With regard to the AUGI thread and getting the appearance of the documents they wanted, Jason went on to suggest that they use Filters based on a different parameter than System Type since that parameter is lost when the elements are demolished.

Revit Xmas Eve

Jason Grant is teasing us with a post promising a free tool to create sheets more easily and quickerer. It won't be available until Christmas eve so you'll have to be patient till then! They say patience is a virtue!

Think Like Me

I spend most of my time teaching Revit actively in a class setting or one-on-one/one-on-few mentoring. I also end up doing it passively like with this blog or editing AUGI | AEC EDGE for example. One important thing (as instructor/teacher/writer/editor) I must do is connect with students/readers, in a manner that they relate to. Fortunately I manage to do this pretty well. I can't really expect 100% but it is a nice goal.

It is important to remember this bit of wisdom, Seth Godin wrote in his post today, "The problem, of course, is that people don't always think like you." His focus is on marketing your product but it applies pretty well to most anything you are trying to push uphill. I'll go so far as saying that anything Seth bothers to write is worth reading (if you think like I think).

You may not teach Revit but if you are using Revit you are probably trying to help it along, help co-workers etc...it's a good thing to keep in mind as you go about your day and try to help others along.

Thinking Ahead - How Far Should That Be?

In September 2009 I wrote a post about the future already being here and now. I then read a post by Steve Johnson (from Perth, Australia) called, "Trusting Autodesk? Contemplating a New Product" on his blog Blog Nauseum.

I'll let you read his post there but the essence of his post was how can we be certain that the software we use today will be able to support our needs far into the future. His post was focused on the new Plant 3D product. It was this part that caught my attention (my emphasis in bold):

...snip
In a word, it comes down to trust. Each drawing used or issued by this utility is a legal document with a potentially very long life ahead of it. I showed the Autodesk person a drawing issued in 1901. The assets documented by that drawing are still in use today; indeed, many thousands of people daily depend heavily on them. Before we invest our money, time and training in Plant 3D, we need to know that the electronic drawings produced with it are going to be fully functional in the long term.
...snip

My reaction was, what software can boast that it will support a legacy file format that is as ancient as the document he pulled out of a drawer? I dare say none can. The first software I used to produce drawings was MAC Draw on a Macintosh Enhanced with an internal 800 kb hard drive AND an external 800 kb hard drive. Good luck opening that file today. The television studio equipment that my drawings documented was installed in 1988 and the drawings were probably never needed again, they were installation/shop drawings.

I've met firms that (a few) are actually upgrading every project they have done in CAD/BIM to the latest version of software they use each time they start using the newer version. Just think what committing to this means on a practical level as a task for each project. The thing is, unless you do this, you must continue to rely on the printed documents (or perhaps pdf versions) forever because you may not be able to open the project files in five, ten, twenty, thirty years from now if you don't upgrade them (current and old) routinely.

What if the software ceases to exist as Steve suggests in his post? What shall we upgrade to then? We can keep the software but we'd also have to keep a working computer available indefinitely that could run the software too! A trip to the DigiBarn perhaps?

Something to mull over...

Autodesk University 2009 - Missed It

Apparently I missed AU2009? I thought I was there but maybe it was just a dream compiled from previous trips? My wife and kids would like to know where I was for the week though... I received this in an email the other day and it made me chuckle. I imagine that many other attendees got the same message?

I know Autodesk is a big company and putting on AU isn't a simple task but I'd like to think that they'd at least know that I attended AU. I feel soooo like just a number right now. I DO understand that they are just trying to make sure that I understand I can access all that learning even though AU is over.

No worries...I got to talk to both Lynn and Shaan so I KNOW I was there!!

Autodesk University 2009 Day Four

A bit overdue but here it is...

I started out with another early morning meeting after getting far too little sleep the night before. A certain group of Australians (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) kept beverages appearing in front of me. It would be rude of me not to accept their offering(s) so I found it necessary to indulge their kindness. Thanks Shane, you aren't as mean as I've made you out to be before! It was good to see Bruce again too and I hope he had a blast motoring in Nevada after AU.

I made sure to prepare for the labs that I was assigned to as an assistant, three of them as I mentioned in my previous post. The first was a family editor focused lab presented by Joel Londenberg and Jarrod Baumann. Lots of good information for Revit MEP users as they went through the process of creating a nice air terminal family.

As many lab presenters experience there just wasn't enough time to really cover all the material (been there done that myself). I think my old boss Jim Balding once gave me the sage advice that you can cover about one-third the material you think you can. Mock-up your ideal class and then cut two-thirds...that's how much you'll actually cover. Their example of a built-in warning to indicate when the airflow is out of a specific range is a nice touch and would be a good topic for a future video post.

The second lab was Duct Duct Route Route by Michael Schinn with BIM Solutions. This lab ran out of time too but could have made it if the power point about "what we are going to do" was cut out in favor of a simpler summary. It might seem like I'm being critical, I'm not...labs are very hard to do. A typical training lab class at a firm or reseller is six to twelve, maybe a few more. When at AU it is 80-100 sharing 40-50 computers, a completely different animal. The thing that makes it really hard for students is that we tend to expect them to watch the presenter and do something at the same time.

This is why less is more in a lab. To Paul Aubin's credit his family editor lab last year was the first I've been a part of that not only covered everything but did so at a comfortable pace and seemed to keep everyone on track. Not an easy feat.

My last lab was for Jeffrey McGrew's repeat performance of his rendering class, "From Model to Marvelous". He's got a natural comfortable speaking style and his session has a nice balance of tasks and explanation. This class had fewer students than the first so it was a lot easier to assist and we had only one crash during the session (that I observed). It also ran out of time but deliberately so by choosing to leave the interior portion of the session for exploring on their own time after AU. The key to mastering this stuff is to keep using it later anyway.

After the last lab wrapped I had just enough time to hang out in the AU wrap up party for a little bit before heading off to a very nice CDV dinner at Aureole, thanks CDV!! The next morning I met with a few folks for breakfast before hopping into Jim's truck for the return trip to Southern California. The trip home was smooth sailing with none of the miserable traffic we saw heading west on our way to Vegas. Driving home from Vegas on Friday is a BIG difference from Sunday, everyone is heading TO Vegas on Friday.

As usual for me AU was gone in a flash, a blur of seeing old friends, meetings, trying to attend classes (only made half of one this year), participating in classes and late nights (too late nights). Only 11 months till AU2010...