Revit Railings - Long Standing Issues

I'm sure I'm not the only one he gets frustrated by the Railing tools in Revit.  I thought I'd put together this post to point out the type of day to day frustrations they cause and what I'd like to see implemented to solve the problem.

Extensions and Terminations

Here it can be seen a 180° railing termination and a standard 300mm extension.

 

As you can see, dimensionally its accurate.

 

But look at the Length I had to give to achieve this?

As you can see that dimension doesn't seem to correlate to anything?

• I've checked the Termination family and its origin is set as the Centre Left/Right Reference Plane which is located exactly where the 300mm dimension is, and the Extension Length is set to 0, as I don't want it to be subtracted from the Extension Length.  IE: It should be 300mm and then the return.
• If I switch the Extension style to Floor and ditch the termination, I see it correctly ends exactly at 300mm with an extension length of 300mm.  Although it stops exactly 163.424mm short of the floor...  NOTE: That just happens to be exactly how far extra I had to offset the Extension Length by.  But where is this value coming from?
• Similarly if I switch the Extension style to Post, its still 163.424mm short of the end of the Railing sketch.  Anyone have any ideas where this number is coming from?

Another issue with Terminations is the fact that they do not display in linework in Plan.  It seems they are there when you hover over them, but they never show the edges.  If this is because of some standard elsewhere in the world, that's fine, but don't hard code it this way, make terminations a sub-category that we can control visibility of separately.  Unfortunately, there is absolutely no smart workaround to fix this.  Even masking regions and linework in the termination family don't show through...

 

Baluster Placement

 

Oh how I wish for Instance parameters!

1. For Posts we can set "Space" adjustments for Start, Corner & End Posts.  But lets say I want my posts to be spaced Equally.  In this example, 2000mm spacing.  I set my Main Pattern "Dist. from previous" value to 2000mm.  Rarely do I want to have a post exactly where by Railing starts/finishes when hosted on a Ramp or Stair.  There is always a change in level meaning I need to offset to allow the base plate to fit.  In this case I've sent a start spacing of 100mm.  But as you can see my first and second balusters are now 1900mm, and this space is not factored in by the rule...
2. 
   Similarly, if we have a space, either mid rails and bottom rails should automatically stop at the first and last baluster, or rails should also have "Space" parameters to allow us to make them stop short in these circumstances:
3. Railings need instance parameters, so we can override Baluster placement.  Sure we can make excessively long baluster placement rules that individually set out each baluster, but what a waste of time and we end up with potentially hundreds of Railing types in our project becoming a management nightmare!  Why doesn't it work more like Curtain Wall Grids and Supports, where we can define a rule, but at the instance level unpin them and position them exactly where we want them, and even add extra ones if required.
4. Why not have placement controls for Stair Posts such as "Centre on the first and last Tread of each run" with maximum spacings for intermediate Posts, that also default to centred on the Tread.  WE DON'T PLACE POSTS ON THE NOSING!
5. 
   Corner Balusters, sometimes use base plates or brackets/supports.  Because we have no control over their orientation we end up having to make 4 different versions for the different corner styles.  We also have no connection to the angle of the corner.

Baluster Properties

1. Give us access to the instance parameters!  We have instance parameters available for Top Cut Angle, Slope Angle, Bottom Cut Angle & Height.  However we can't drive other instance parameters from these as they don't get updated!  For example, in a particular modular baluster, it has brackets to hold the rails.  The bracket type varies depending on whether the Rail is flat or sloped.  Now if instance parameters worked I could use an IF statement to ensure the appropriate bracket is visible.
2. Visibility parameters seem to have weird glitches.  EG: If you turn off parts of the balusters, some times they still display in section and elevation, but not in 3D.
3. Corner Balusters should have their own special type with extra parameters to be able to use the angle of the corner in formulas.
4. 
   Instance based Width parameters for Panels!  This way we can create proper Glass Patch fitting style Railings without workarounds...

Railing Properties

1. Landing Height Adjustment options are needed on Top Rails and Hand Rails.  If you have a bottom Rail, you don't want its height to be adjusted as well!
2. Why is it we can't have a Hand Rail on its own! Its the only rail type that allows us to have supports and adjust their positions per instance...
3. Offsetting Rails from the edge of Stairs upsets transitions in slope. 

AUTODESK WE ARE TIRED OF WORKAROUNDS!  These issues have existed for many many years now...  Please help us!

Revit 2016 What's New? - A Commentary

So if you're trawling the web you will see Autodesk have officially updated their Revit product page to refer to 2016.

So what's new?  2016 is a tricky one, as Autodesk released a Point release of Revit 2015 in R2, which included a lot of new features back in September last year.  So to truly look at the full set of 12 months of feature development we should probably incorporate those.

All in all 2016, in my opinion, represents a lot of handy minor improvements, but no real game changers have been made directly in Revit.  Instead the game changers have been left for the partner tools such as:

• Dynamo - Visual Programming tool that plugs into many different pieces of software allowing them to work together bi-directionally.
• A360 Collaboration for Revit - Revit in the cloud for dispersed teams to work on the same project.
• Project Solon - Explore a building's energy performance
• Site Designer - Subscription based Site Tools (still limited by the capabilities of Revit's existing site modelling tools, and a horrible tool to use)

Core Functionality - New Features

1. Navigation during redraw
   A new feature that allows for continuous navigation in views while the view is redrawing. You can pan, zoom, and orbit in views before the view is fully redrawn, saving time and providing workflow efficiencies.  The feature can be enabled by going to the Revit application menu>Options>Graphics and enabling the check box named "Allow navigation during redraw".
   This is very useful on a large model, when you quickly want to get to specific portion of the model, you don’t have to constantly wait for Revit to redraw the view with every modification you make.  Provided of course that enough of the model has been redrawn that you can find your way around…  When changing this setting you do need to close/reopen any models you already had open in order for it to take effect.
   
2. Reveal constraints mode
   Extremely useful, Reveal Constraints is a temporary display mode that highlights all constraints in a view, enabling you to quickly identify and remove any erroneous constraints.  The mode only shows explicit, user-created constraints.  The mode will display constraints within a sketch contained in the view.  It can be used in both 2D and 3D views & the Family Editor.  There is no need to select an object to see the constraint. 
   In the future, I’d like to see this also include Revit’s manually implied constraints so they can be broken when needed.  For instance, when you draw a sketch in a family, and the lines move with nearby Reference Planes, requiring you to put a whole bunch of dimensional constraints on the lines to stop them moving…
   
3. Linked IFC Referencing Enhancements
   Linked IFC elements support dimensioning, snapping, alignment and hosting of face-based families.  This is a great improvement.  The more that we can use IFC natively in Revit the better!
   
4. Ability to Show the Status of Revit Links in Closed Worksets
   Handy addition that makes it that much simpler to figure out why a link isn’t visible.  If a Revit link is in a workset that is closed, its status in the Mange Links dialog will change to “In a Closed Workset”.
5. New Pin - Unpin Icon for Items Driven by Their Host System
   This is a subtle enhancement, which makes delineation between elements that are pinned directly and those that are pinned as result of their host system like:
   - Components in Curtain System (Curtain Grid, Mullion, Curtain Panel)
   - Components in Railing (Top Rail, Handrail, Support)
   - Components in Truss (Brace, Analytical Brace)
   - Components in Beam System (Beam, Analitycal Beam)
6. Shaft Opening Enhancements
   The Shaft Opening default Base Constraint will now default its extents based on the level/view you initiated the command in.
   If you’re now in a floor/ceiling plan view, click Shaft Opening command, the default Base Constraint will be current level.
   If you’re now in a section/elevation view, click Shaft Opening command, select a plan view in Go To View dialog, click Open View, the default Base Constraint will be the selected level.
7. Remember Current "Thin Lines" Setting
   Pretty straight forward, this option is now Application level and is remembered between sessions.
   The thin lines setting is stored in the Revit.ini file under the [Graphics] group as "ThinLinesEnabled=1". When the user launches Revit, the thin lines setting will use the setting stored in Revit.ini.
   The Revit.ini file is located in \%APPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 201x\.
8. Remember Current Snap Settings 
   In Manage>Additional Settings>Snaps, changes to the default snaps is now remembered between sessions in the ini file.
9. Search in Combo Box (Type Selector)
   In the majority of Combo Boxes, you can now click and type text to have the list autofiltered to quickly find what you are looking for.  This is a great feature for long lists like the Type Selector.
10. Remove Repeater 
    If you’ve ever used the repeater functionality, to later find you want to individually customise the pattern to make it more random, this feature has been sorely missed.  This enables the removal of the underlying repeater element, leaving the adaptive components in place. Further modifications to the surface or lines where used to define the repeater will now not effect the components by adding or removing components.
11. Background Color Enhancements
    This feature allows you to set the background color to any desired color, not just white and black.  For those with eye problems, this will be a very welcome addition!
12. Link Positioning Enhancements 
    Origin-to-Origin is now the default positioning setting for RVT and CAD links.  The last used positioning setting is stored for the active session – as has always been the case.  Personally I find most consultant models I receive the origin is not setup the same as in my template, so I tend to use “Manually Centre to Centre” and then once placed temporarily move to the appropriate position or I use shared coordinates.  As such I see little benefit to this minor tweak.  But if you do work closely with consultants and your template positioning is centred on Revit’s internal 0,0,0 this could make life easier!
13. Select Host for Tags
    When you have lots of tags in a view, and things move around, it can become difficult to work out what tag belongs to what element.  Which means users can inadvertently edit the wrong tag…  This feature makes life easier.  When a tag is selected, there is a new contextual button on the ribbon: Select Host.
    Use Select Host to change selection from the tag to the host element of the tag.
    The command is also available from the right-click menu and can have an assigned keyboard shortcut.
14. Usability Improvements Dimension Text Usability Improvements - Automatically activates the text box to type in new text when you click the “Replace With Text” option button.
    
    Preset Instance Parameters for Stair Tread Number – Personally I’d like them to add “Type Parameters” for Stair Tread Numbers, but this is marginally better.  You can now prepopulate the stair tread number instance parameter values and reuse the settings for similar stair tread number annotation.
    
    Property Palette Scroll Bar Improvements – This is a great fix. It can be so annoying when you are needing to edit a bunch of instance parameters individually, and you have to scroll down the Properties Palette to get to the parameter you need.  Each time you switch element it scrolls back up to the top.  NO MORE.
    
    Schedule Usability Improvements  - Use TAB/ARROW keys to move schedule cell focus from up to down or from left to right like Excel.
15. Load Family into Project and Close When loading a family into a project from the family editor, clicking “Load into Project and Close” button will close the family document and load the family into the project. You will be prompted to save changes to your family before loading.
    I have mixed feelings about this feature.  It’s great for power users to quickly tweak a family, and in a single operation load it into the project and keep working.  But for novice users, it makes it all too easy for those that don’t properly understand how parameters work, to edit a family (breaking it) and make some changes and reload it, causing problems through a whole project.  I can see many larger companies, investing the API to disable this command.
16. Improvements to Model Upgrade User Interface
    New messaging is displayed for model upgrade indicating the source and target file format for upgrade. The dialog shown includes:
    - The version of the model being upgraded
    - The version to which the model is being upgraded (the version of the active session)
    - A link to relevant help topics
    - A cancel upgrade option which will abort the upgrade and load of the model
    Great feature, and I wish it had always been in Revit.  It’s so annoying when you simply want to open an old project in its native version so you can view it quickly.  I’d still like to see this in the Properties of the actual file, to avoid the need to open it at all, to view its version…
17. Search in Ribbon Combo Box
    Similarly to the Type Selector, Combo boxes in the Ribbon also have search functionality.  Reference Other View, is a list that can become very long, and being able to quickly filter this is a very welcomed addition.
18. Selection Boxes 
    If you’ve used either of these free tools - COINS Section Box, or Xrev ViewBox, you’ve already seen how this feature works.  Select elements and generate a 3D view with a section box cropped around those elements.  This is now integrated into Revit.  However, these free tools still offer additional functionality such as isolating the elements, pre-naming the views, selecting by ID, crop based on view extents, specifying padding etc.  As such, if you still want the extra behaviour its still worth having these addins installed.
19. Remember View States Across Sessions
    As a way to improve performance, by not wasting valuable resources regenerating entire views, Revit now remembers the pan and zoom states of model views across Revit sessions.  For example, imagine you are working in section view “Section A-A”  and you are zoomed into a portion of the model. In r2015, if you save and close the model, the next time you open the model to view “Section A-A,” the view will open to the extents of the view, not to the specific portion of the view that you were previously working in.  In 2016, when you open the view “Section A-A” in a new Revit session, it will remember the portion of the view that you were previously zoomed into instead of zooming to the extents of the view.
    I really like this new behaviour!
20. Revisions Enhancements 
    a. Enable multi-selection in the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog.  Great for the occasions where you need to edit a few revisions at once, such as marking them as Issued.  If you wish apply a revision in bulk though, you’ll have to revert to using free tools such as Xrev UpRev.
    
    b. Numeric numbering - Sequence starting number can be customized.  For those companies who wish to start with 0 as the first revision.
    
    c. Alphabetic numbering - Sequence is now called Alphanumeric.  Alphanumeric now allows multiple characters (comma separated) in the sequence to accommodate custom numbering when required for some (or all) revisions in the sequence.
    
    d. Prefix and Suffix options are available for both Numeric and Alphanumeric numbering options - value will be added to each revision in the sequence.
    
    Autodesk had the opportunity to finally solve the Revision problems many of the world face using Revit, but unfortunately this solution falls short of solving the problem.  The new Prefix/Suffix options are global settings and they apply to all revisions.  So if you start with P1, P2, P3, and then move to C1, C2, C3 – when you change the Prefix the already issued P series will also change, and if the P series was already on the sheet you’d get C4, C5, C6!   If you create your own manual sequence P1, P2, P3, C1, C2, C3, you’ll still have issues as different sheets have different numbers of revisions on them so the count would be incorrect.  
    Simply put, we need to be able to create Sequence Types, which can have their own Prefix/Suffix.  Users will then generally set these up by Phase.  It would be great to also have the ability to Hide an entire sequence type (avoiding the need to ever delete Revisions from Sheets when the project changes stages).
21. Texture Settings
    For render appearances of materials option in DWF Export Dialog.
22. PDF Hyperlinks & Bookmarks
    Revit will automatically generate bookmarks and hyperlinks that can be used to navigate your views/sheets within your PDF viewer. 

Architectural - New Features

1. Site Performance Enhancements 
   Improved edit and modification times for complex toposurfaces, subregions and building pads. Regeneration improvements when deleting building pads or modifying building pad geometry. Improved regeneration for cut/fill values when modifying building pad geometry.
   
   Please Autodesk, just give up on the current Site tools, they are vastly inadequate.  I attribute the current tools as using Microsoft Paint to create a digital master piece.  Sure if you spend the time you can do it, but there are far more powerful tools that will make the job much easier. Please develop something new that gives us the ability to:
   - Create Batters to particular grades
   - Create Retaining Walls
   - Create Roads with Kerbs that follow the terrain
   - Create Fences that follow the terrain
   - Host elements to the terrain, the modify the surrounding terrain, such as drains
   - Allow correct representation of sub-terrain elements, so the hatch doesn’t go through the element and instead wraps around it.
   
   It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen a major new modelling feature in Revit.  Site Designer is a novel attempt, but as its limited by the limitations of the Site tools we still get, poor representations of steep faces (triangulations, requiring thousands of points to avoid), incorrect display of topo in section.  No nice way to display Max. Building Heights above Natural Ground Line, compare Natural and Proposed Ground Line, without showing Poche for both...
2. Place Rooms Automatically Place multiple new rooms in all room-bounding elements on the same level with one click.
   Architecture tab>Rooms>Place Rooms Automatically
   All empty room-bounding elements will be filled with rooms.
   Rooms will share Identity Data from the Properties panel such as name and finishes.
   
   Will be useful, but will probably require manual cleanup afterwards to remove any unwanted rooms...
3. Reset Camera Target in Perspective View 
   With this command, you can reset current camera target to the centre of crop region, to get a better view from an unusual view angle.  Great when you are getting lots of distortion in your perspective and would prefer to simply fix it, rather than recreate the view.
4. Toggle Perspective-Isometric View Create and activate a camera view or a normal Isometric 3D view, check ‘Show Crop Region’ on View Control Bar, and Toggle View command is enabled in the View Cube.
   With this command, you can have your 3D view switched between a camera view and a normal isometric 3D view by one click.
5. Enabled Align, Move, Pin, & Unpin in Perspective View 
   Finally we can make some model modifications in Perspective Views.  Currently 4 commands have been enabled; Align, Move, Pin, Unpin.  Let’s hope there is more on the way.
6. Multi-Select Wall Joins 
   Edit multiple wall joins at once!  Awesome.  Enough said.
7. Autodesk Raytracer Rendering
   Autodesk are starting to transition for the 3rd party Nvidia Mental Ray rendering engine to the proprietary ‘Autodesk Raytracer’ for static view rendering. For Architects and Designers who render images in Revit, the Autodesk Raytracer rendering engine provides equivalent functionality to Mental Ray.
   I think this will represent some great improvements in the future.  We haven’t seen many new features in Mental Ray for a long time, so perhaps with this now being Autodesk technology, and the fact its shared between multiple applications, we’ll see some great improvements.

Structural - New Features

1. Analytical Model - Enhancements To Loads and LCS 
   More improvements to LCS including, LCS displayed for curved beams and arced walls, LCS displayed for elements when defining loads, Proper loads now display for linear elements, Area loads for arc walls, Projected loads for surface elements, Not-hosted loads snapping to model lines, Rearrangement to Loads parameters in MPP
2. Change Reference on Multi-Selection
   You can now adjust the setback on Multi-Selection, allowing you to quickly change the reference on many elements at once.  I’d still like to see this feature be able to set at the family level.  We can do it for the stick model, but not for the 3D model!
3. Snaps on Model Lines 
   This feature extends snapping capabilities on Model Lines & Detail Lines for following the structural elements; Beams and Braces, Vertical and Slanted Columns, Trusses.
4. Flip Structural Framing Ends 
   Handy little feature that enables you to quickly flip a beam without having to drag it over itself.
5. Tag Enhancements for Additional Parameters - Elevation at Top for Isolated Foundation
   - Elevation at Top for Wall Foundation
   - Elevation at Top for Slab Foundation
6. Define Rebar in Plan and Elevation Views of Concrete Elements 
   Previously, you defined rebar in concrete elements in a section view, with the exception of floors which could be reinforced in a plan view.  This feature builds extends the floor functionality to other concrete elements and views. You can now define rebar in beams and columns without creating a section view.
7. Reinforcement Rounding Methods 
   When you enable the reinforcement rounding option, the program rounds lengths to the nearest increment by default (for example,  3.72 becomes 4, while 3.42 becomes 3). It is now possible to also specify rounding  the reinforcement lengths up or down.
8. Rebar Constraint Manager Enhancement Previously, when you opened the Rebar Constraint manager, the position of the element was fixed and you were unable to Zoom or Pan in the drawing area. You would have to close the dialog, set the desired position for the view and then re-open the Rebar Constraint manager.
   Now, after accessing the Rebar Constraints manager, you can zoom to the scale that is the most useful so that everything is visible and clear.
9. Rebar Performance Improvement 
   Revit is now smarter about when and how reinforcement is displayed, so that views will open and update faster. This is achieved in two ways: by limiting the regeneration of reinforcement to only what is visible on screen and by displaying reinforcement as simplified lines if its very small on screen, no matter what detail level is assigned to the view.

MEP - New Features

1. Liters Per Minute Units for Piping Flow 
   Liters per minute, with unit symbols L/min and LPM, is now available for Piping Flow in Project Units
2. Most Recently Used Panels  
   Prior to this feature, when a circuit was created, it would not be connected to a panel. Extra steps were always required to associate the circuit to a panel.
   Now, when you create a circuit, Revit will connect to the most recently used panel (in the current Revit session).  Revit will remember the most recently used panels for each system classification and distribution system.  The functionality is automatic. There is nothing you need to do to enable it.
3. Power Circuit Creation Sequence
   Prior to this feature, when creating power circuits on a branch circuit panel, Revit created the circuits in numerical order (1,2,3,4,5...).
   This feature provides the user options for the sequence in which power circuits are created, enabling creation of circuits grouped by phase.
   Open the Electrical Settings window (ES keyboard shortcut, or via the Manage tab > Settings panel, MEP Settings drop list > Electrical Settings).
   On the left, select General
   On the right, in the Settings column, find the row for Circuit Sequence:
   Numerical (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12): The standard way Revit has circuited elements. Revit numbers from smallest ,to largest
   Group by Phase (1,3,5 / 2,4,6 / 7,9,11/8,10,12)
   Odd then Even (1,3,5,7,9 ,11/ 2,4,6,8,10,12)
4. Move Circuit to Specific Slot in Panel Schedule
   Prior this feature, the user had to use a combination of Move Up, Move Down, and Move Across to adjust circuits in panel schedule, which could be disruptive to other circuits.
   With this feature, the user will be able to use the Move To command to move a circuit directly to a target slot, without disrupting other circuits.
5. Graphical Representations for Duct Fitting Tables
   Prior to this release, when you specified 'Coefficient from ASHRAE Table' as the loss method for duct fittings, the Settings dialog displayed a list of the ASHRAE tables based on certain criteria for duct fittings.
   Now, the ASHARE Table Settings dialog displays the graphical representations associated with the duct fitting tables, so you can identify which table is applicable for the current condition.
   Click "View All" to view other tables that are not applicable to the selected component.
6. Fabrication Content 
   You can use detailed manufacturer and standards based content from the Autodesk Fabrication products within Revit MEP
7. Fabrication Hanger Placement
   Hangers may be placed on fabrication segments to facilitate detailed model coordination.
   Hanger Placement:
   - Click Systems tab, Fabrication panel, Select Part.
   - From the Service Tab drop-list, select Hangers.
   - Select a Hanger and click OK.
   - Position the cursor along the edge or centerline of a segment and click to place the hanger.
   
   The hanger should update to accommodate the size of the duct, and be oriented so the bearer is perpendicular to the duct. The hanger is placed directly underneath the selected element.
   Note:  The tools on the Options panel of the Modify | Place Fabrication Part tab are disabled during hanger placement as they primarily apply to fitting, not hanger, placement
8. Fabrication Part Placement
   To place parts in free space or end to end:
   - Click Systems Tab > Fabrication panel, Select Part. (If you have not yet selected a configuration for your project, you will be prompted to do so.)
   - Select a Service.
   - Select a group from the Service Tab. These are the same groupings as the tabs in CADmep.
   - Use the Properties Palette to set the Level and Offset.
   - Select a part and click OK.
   - Click in the drawing area (plan, elevation, 3D view) to place the part.
   
   During placement, various commands are available on the Modify | Fabrication Part tab in the ribbon.
   - Rotate 90 Degrees: Rotates the component about the connector's axis.
   - Change Connector: Toggles which connector the cursor is attached to.
   - Smart Snapping: Increases snap tolerance to open connectors in the model.
   - Show Help Tooltip: Provides additional in-context help.

So were your feature requests answered?  I'm still waiting for the big ticket items to be addressed:

• Site Tools
• Text Tools
• Stair/Ramp/Railing Tools
• Structural Connection Tools
• Revamped Groups

Revit Material API Workarounds

If you've worked with the Revit API you'll know that often there are holes...  That is, things you can "almost" do, but there will be one item you can't access through the API that makes it impossible or require some obscure workaround.  This can be frustrating, as it can easily make a task you expected to take a day, take a week or even longer as you trial & error every possible approach and research a solution!

The Revit Material API is no exception.  Through the API you can create a new Material and set all its identity data, create new Thermal & Physical Assets and set all their properties, create an Appearance Asset and Apply Assets to the Material.

However, you cannot set/modify the properties of an Appearance Asset.  So how do you create high quality and "render ready" materials through the API.  Well effectively you can't...  However, what you can do is create families containing the pre-setup materials and through the API, load those families into the project and then delete them. 

As you may know, loading a family also loads all the materials and those materials will remain after you delete the family.  It also won't overwrite existing materials/assets if they already exist in the project.  So you can be sure it won't ruin any modifications a user has made.

Unfortunately if you are dealing with a Paint Manufacturer's colour palette they could have thousands of materials, and you are going to have to create all of these Appearance Assets manually using a duplicate and change the colour approach (and perhaps change the reflectivity depending on the finish).  Maybe a job for outsourcing...

Perhaps this will change in the future, but given the hundreds of different options available on Appearance Assets, I don't expect it will happen soon.

3D View/Perspective viewpoint changing unexpectedly on file reopen

Have you ever opened a Revit file only to find that all those 3D Views you setup yesterday are no longer orientated correctly?  This can be very frustrating!

Typically when I create a 3D View, I'll then use the Steering Wheel, Look mode, to adjust the viewpoint to exactly where I need it.  If you'd like those tweaks to be retained you must SAVE VIEW.

There are 2 places you can Save View:

• In the View Cube menu drop down

• In the Steering Wheel menu drop down

Unfortunately this is easy to forget to do, it would be great if Revit prompted you with something like "3D View:3D View 2 has unsaved changes, would you like to save view?" 

Revit 2015 - BORING...?

So for those that have seen the Revit 2015 new feature list, its pretty boring.  I'm not against a release that aims to fix up a lot of minor limitations and/or bugs, but pick some decent ones!  And at least address 1 or 2 major ticket items.  I consider major ticket items like:

• Finishing Railings/Ramps/Stair tools
• Upgrading the Text tools to match those of just about every other CAD/BIM Software
• Integrated Graphical Door/Window & Curtain Wall Schedules
• Fixing Groups
• Making Assemblies do what they need to, IE: Be easily reusable, have the concepts of a fabricated element, sub-assemblies etc.
• Library Management - detect what families have been updated and allow us to quickly reload.
• Improve Worksharing to allow more users to work simultaneously and more robust!
• And there are many more I can list out

I think Structural got the best improvements this year...

Lets take a look at them:

1. Link IFC's: Okay this is a good BIM feature, but for me it needs to be a high fidelity link.  IE: No geometric conversions of the content to Revit elements, give me the raw geometry as defined in the IFC associated to the correct family category.  I don't want to have to worry about possible conversion based issues which plague IFC conversion between platforms.  If that's what it is then awesome.
2. Trim/Extend Multiple Elements: This is a much needed feature, being able to window select the elements to be trimmed to the reference will be a large time saver for me.
3. Family Parameter Order Adjustment: This bugged me a lot when I first started creating families, but I've gotten used to the Reverse Alphabetic ordering.  I don't think this is going to save many people a lot of time...
4. Tooltips for Family Parameters: As someone who creates a lot of families, some of which can get quite conmplicated, being able to include some instruction on what parameters do will be very useful.  No longer will I have to create an extra instruction parameter.  Pretty happy about this one.
5. Reinforcement for parts: IMHO this should have been in the parts tool from day 1, so glad this has been completed.  But what about reinforcement in families!  That would save me the most amount of work, as I could set once, rather than have to place everywhere after the fact...
6. Presentation in Rebar Sets: This would be useful if we could document and display reinforcement to our standards.  Many of my clients are now building their own Rebar families, with built in symbology just because this is so inflexible.  EG: Area Reinforcement doesn't have the control we need, but has symbols.  Rebar does have the flexibility required (for the most part), but you can't easily get it to display how you want to see it in documentation...
7. Reinforcement Numbering & Multi Rebar Annotation: More ways to tag is useful, but if doesn't look right in the first place it still only part of the solution.
8. Structural Section Properties: Useful and avoids manually input data, which is always good.
9. Calculation methods for pressure drop: Not being a systems engineer, I'm not yet across the benefit of this.  So I'll reserve judgement on this until I have some feedback from engineers.
10. Great Structural Beam Join Control: This is a much needed feature.  I just hope that they've allowed us to set either family level defaults for setback and snapping, or at least project level defaults.  This would enable us to get the majority of joins correct using the defaults and then individually edit only a few.  However, based on other similar tools, I doubt this got implemented.
11. Assembly Code Settings: On a couple of occassions it would have been useful to be able to easily customise the Uniformat classifications, so some may find this useful.
12. Pinned Element Enhancements: Deleting a pinned element no longer just provides a warning and deletes the element.  This is how it should have always worked!
13. Show Hidden Lines in 3D: Good to see Autodesk are realising we use 3D Views in documentation.
14. Revision improvements: Finally they have done away with the horrible click fest that is clouding!  It also means the clouds have some consistency in spacing, so look a lot neater.  Deleting a revision isn't something I've had to do a lot in the past.  But why didn't they add a new parameter for Revision Classification/Stage and allow us to have prefix/suffix!  This would finally give us the ability to use the revision numbering we need...
15. Enhanced Schedules/material takeoffs: It's great that we have a few extra boxes to filter with, but what about an OR condition!  Also, we can customise the Grand total text, but what about footer sub-total text?  And then being able to use the totals, in other places in Revit...
16. Images in Schedules: I have a lot of clients that have needed this feature.  The issue then becomes though, how are these images managed.  We don't want to bloat our file sizes, simply because someone didn't optimise the size of the image before associating it to the family type.  I realy hope these images can be linked as opposed to embedded.
17. Keynote Settings: Woopdidoo...
18. View References: Repathing a section/elevation using Reference other view to an alternate view without having to delete and recreate, is welcome.  But its not going to save me hours in my day.
19. Duplicate View Default Names: Certainly an improvement over the old behaviour, but I would prefer they dropped the word Copy...  I've never wanted a view to have the word copy in it ever...
20. Tapped duct and pipe tags: Very useful to be able to get correct values along the length of a duct.
21. Anti-aliasing by view: A much better approach to manage performance...
22. Sketchy Lines: They're here, they work, people will use it.
23. Ray Trace improvements: Another bug fix to get rid of noise displaying in the result image
24. Shared Parameters in View Titles: I've certainly needed this in the past.  Just wish we could have graphical scales that were automatic as well...
25. Manage Links Dialog: Can't say that I'll use the ability to add link in this dialog...
26. Tag improvements: Finally some consistency in leaders between tags and text...
27. Double click to Deactivate view: Useful
28. Structural Element Graphical Display tweaks: Okay...
29. Performance Improvements: Many tasks seem to have been streamlined and now take less processing time.  This is great, we need to get to a point where we can successfully have up to 20 people working in single file without spending 50% of your day saving/synching!

All in all, there are certainly features in here that I welcome.  I guess along with all this I was expected a couple of other major items.  Who knows, perhaps Autodesk and realising that its better to withhold these new features sometimes until they are finished, before implementing them into the software and frustrating all the users who nag them every year about finishing them off...

Xrev Transmit - Version 2 - Quick rundown!

New Features:

• Matrix Transmittals
• Report Designer
• Bulk Selection (Shift & Control Click)
• Bulk Editing
• New Naming Rules
• Better Validation of Settings
• Autodetect paper size option for PDF

See how much time you can save issuing drawings from Autodesk Revit in PDF, DWG, DGN, RVT, DXF, DWF, DWFx, and as many physical printers as you like, all at the same time!  Then have it produce a transmittal for you automatically, or publish the files directly to Aconex to instantly share them with your team!!

New Instructional videos coming soon...

Are you getting the most from Revit in your office?

Optimizing your Revit implementation can be the difference in a success or failure for your business.

• Do you find yourself having to change things every time, for each project, to have your drawings look reasonable? (object styles, by element overrides, line weights, etc.)
• Do you have to always search through old projects to copy/paste work you've done before?
• Do you find each project looks a little different in terms of graphical consistency?
• Is your family symbology inconsistent across your library? (EG: All your windows have the same coarse/medium/fine display and the same symbology for sliding panes etc)
• Are you recreating legends and schedules from scratch for each new project?
• Do your projects quickly become slow, performance wize?

If you answered YES to most of these then there is a good chance your implementation is not optimized.  Having to change all these things with each new project can greatly effect your design and documentation efficiency, and be the difference to making a profit or a loss!

Over the past 12 years I've completed Revit implementations that are customized for each individual office or projects needs.  I've completed templates for Architectural, MEP, Structural, Interior Design, Landscape, Multi-Discipline & Hospitals.  They all have commonalities, but they must all be tailored and optimized each time.

Your template should have:

• View Templates for every standard view that you typically create, resolved to the point that you don't have to change it graphically ever...  Just apply your tags, symbols, dimensions and text notes.
• Extensive use of Filters.  By category or even sub-category is not a sufficient way to achieve the graphics requirements of most offices.  Filters can be used to pick up commonalities of elements to control them graphically.  Try to never use by element overrides!
• All your standard views setup.  This includes the typical number of levels for the bulk of your projects.  Remember you can always delete things you don't need.
• Levels & Grids pre-placed.  I typically have 3 levels in my templates
• All your standard sheets setup, with views laid out on them.
• All your standard schedules laid out.  Have schedules for documentation already laid out on your sheets, but also have schedules created purely for editing data in bulk (working schedules)!
• All your standard notes & legends setup and placed on the appropriate sheets
• Views for BIM, EG: Navisworks or IFC export views
• Guide Grids for your various paper sizes
• Options to switch between paper sizes and have all your symbology update accordingly.  (EG: At A3 you may reduce the size of your section/elevation markers)
• The most common families you use (2D & 3D).  Don't load too much or all you'll forever be updating it.  Only include families that are in 90% of your projects.
• Version Tracking.  This will help you identify what varies between your current template and your project.  Remember your template should be always evolving!
• Standard materials correctly setup
• All your Fill Patterns
• All your Line Styles
• All your commonly used tags loaded
• Colour Fill's setup - Too often do I see people using colour fills to only colour fill some rooms for example.  As a result they are forever changing the colour fill scheme to exclude certain things.  DON'T do this.  Use a filter instead!  Then you won't have to change it every again.
• All your systems setup (Pipe, Duct., etc)
• All your commonly used system family types (Walls, Pipes/Ducts/Conduits with correct routing, Floors, Roofs, Curtain Walls, Sweeps/Reveals, Ceilings, Stairs, Railings, Ramps etc.).  Don't include all of them, store all of them in a special project so you can copy/paste them in.  Only include types that you use in 80% of your projects in your template.
• Text Styles, Dimension Styles, Spot Elevation Styles, Spot Coordinate Styles with names that are descriptive of their use, rather than their appearance...
• All your Phases/Phase Filters/Graphic Overrides setup and mastered
• Mark Number start values setup correctly, chain options in sketches set appropriately, the default open view set appropriately
• Your users adequately trained in the use of the template so they take advantage of all of its features!!

Your library should have:

• Some sort of vetting of content, so it can be identified what is "company standard"
• A naming convention and structure that makes content easy to find, both in the library and once loaded into your project.
• Consistency of representation and functionality for elements of similar type.  (EG: all your pipe fittings have the same parameters and functionality, or all your sliding windows etc.)
• As much meta data/parameter information populated as possible to reduce the need to fill this out every time in every project
• Type Catalogs wherever there is more than 2 types, to limit the loading of unneeded types

If you'd like some help optimizing your Revit Systems please don't hesitate to contact me at support@xrev.com.au 

Using Temperature Parameters in Formulas

Yesterday I was working on some MEP families and thought I'd do some tricks to generate some formulas to match a manufacturers capacity tables for Total Cooling Capacity & Sensible Cooling Capacity.

Being metric, the Dry Bulb & Wet Bulb Inside temperature parameters I had setup were in degrees Celsius.  The Capacity parameters are in kW's so in order to use the temperature parameters in the formula I would need to remove the units.

Easy, I thought.  I'll just divide by 1°C and that will give me a unitless value.

Unfortunately Revit decided to throw a curve ball at me.  Internally all its calculations are done in Kelvin.  For example, if I use my DB in a formula and its value is set to 20, Revit actually uses 293.15.  So then I thought I'd divide by 1 K... No luck!

After trying for 3 hours I eventually gave up and went to bed.

With a fresh head I did some playing around in Excel to try and figure out how Revit was getting the results it was and eventually I came to this:

Unitless Temperature Parameter

So essentially what Revit is doing here is:

(293.15-272.15) / (546.3/546.3) or 20/1 = 20

Now hopefully someone else doesn't have to go insane trying to figure this out!

A guide to employing a BIM Manager or Revit Manager

If you are looking to really accelerate in the changing world of Building Information Modelling (BIM), you are going to need a dedicated BIM Manager (aka VDC Manager, Revit Manager, BIM Strategist etc).  There is certainly no shortage of people sporting this still relatively new job title.

So if someone has been a BIM Manager in the past, does that mean they are qualified?  

Unfortunately, not necessarily.  In many firms the title of BIM Manager is often given to the existing BIM technician who knows the most about BIM at the time.  That's certainly not a bad thing.  But depending on their environment and their strive to learn new things and expore it may not necessarily qualify them to be 'your' BIM Manager.  Many users with this title still only perform their same technician roles.

As such I strongly recommend evaluating their experience and skills practically.  How do you do that?  

There are online test systems available for BIM such as Knowledge Smart.  With these systems you can customize the test to suit the types of BIM tasks you'll require and then see how they fair.  There are also the general aptitude tests that evaluate how well a user picks up new information, performs under pressure etc.  However, if you are relatively new to BIM as well, you may not know what you need.

It is very easy for someone to throw around buzz acronyms like BEP (BIM Execution Plans), IFC (Industry Foundation Classes), COBie (Construction Operations Building Information Exchange) and appear to know their stuff!  But talking the talk and walking the walk are very different.

A BIM Manager needs to know a lot of different technologies, not just theoretically but practically.  Specifically the methodology and best practices of information exchange, file formats, optimization, collaboration and the required information.  Also depending on your company your BIM Manager may have different roles (lists may not be exhaustive of roles):

Contractor BIM Manager:

• Developing BEP
• Performing Clash Detection & Coordination Meetings
• Performing 4D Sequences/videos to win Bids as well as for construction and working with the programmers (typically in Primavera)
• May involve modelling temporary works, scaffolding, formwork, traffic, cranes - or you may simply just coordinate someone else to do it for you
• Ensuring Design Consultant, and sub-contractor models are supplied at regular intervals and dictating the formats to be supplied in.
• Extracting quantities/take offs from the models

Design Consultant BIM Manager:

• Briefing the client as to the BIM options & establishing to what the BIM deliverables are
• Developing BEP
• Ensuring adherence to BEP and maintaining BEP as amendments are required
• Performing Clash Detection & Coordination Meetings
• Developing & Managing Content Creation to the required standard
• Setting up Project Models
• Producing IFC or Navisworks/VEO files for coordination

On larger projects you may have different hierarchies of BIM Managers.  EG: Someone who oversees everything to maintain consistency and perform the collaboration tasks.  Then people that are more hands on concentrating on the authoring of the models to the appropriate standards.

Manufacturer/Supplier BIM Manager:

• Development or delegation of BIM Content for customers
• Managing feedback from customers and revising content as required
• Ensuring the embedded information is correct and the content accurate represents the products

So to know if someone is right for these roles, I like to ask more specific questions to try and establish whether they have real knowledge or are just going on some things they've read online:

• How would you go about setting up a BEP?
• What would it include?
• If you've been involved with BEP's in the past, what issues have you faced?

If you are a design consultancy, whether it be architectural, structural or MEP, I'd want my BIM Manager to also know the practicalities of the design software.  Which in many cases these days is Autodesk Revit.  One of the best skills to have in Autodesk Revit is great content creation/family creation skills.  I find that if a user knows how to make a good quality family and has worked on a decent variety of projects at different stages, they are going to make a good Revit Manager at least!  As such, testing their content creation skills is a must!  In my book if they know that they are half way there...

I hope some find this a useful reference for either finding the right person for their company.

If you need any help evaluating candidates feel free to drop me a line.

Why consider me for your next Revit/BIM project?

I had someone tell me the other day that I was not being considered for a role as they thought I wan't qualified enough as a BIM expert... 

As such I thought I'd write a quick post outlining a brief summary of my BIM experience to avoid this occurring again.

1. I'm a Graduate Architect - I haven't registered as I've personally had no need for the additional qualification in the roles I've been completing
2. I've been using Revit since 2001 (12 years) - one of the first in Australia
3. I've developed Revit for Asset Management and Facilities Management for major Petroleum Retail Giants
4. I've completed hundreds of full Revit projects!
5. I've completed 7 projects where I've gone from Revit direct to fabrication (laser cutting from the model) as well as producing shop drawings directly saving money in bringing in extra trades and avoiding any remodelling steps.
6. I assisted in developing the BIM-MEPaus Standards for MEP Engineers & Contractors throughout Australia, creating a lot of the generic content.
7. I consult frequently to multiple Architectural, Structural & MEP firms to develop their Revit and BIM Standards and generally assist them win more work by allowing them to offer more than their competitors by utilising BIM.
8. I assisted in developing the Australia & New Zealand Revit Standards (ANZRS)
9. I wrote BIM Implementation Plans, BIM Execution Plan Templates and facilitated meetings to deploy BIM at a Tier 1 Contractor's, back in 2007 when others were just starting to hear about BIM.
10. I completed clash detection modelling and clash reports, 4D Sequencing in Navisworks for numerous projects for many Tier 1 Contractors.    This included connecting into MS Project & Primavera schedules.
11. I assisted a Tier 1 Contractor on mining projects and their technician was so impressed they asked me in to train their team and push BIM in their offices
12. I've worked on major health care projects.  I was originally contracted for 3 weeks to perform a task that had previously been completed by a major reseller and Autodesk, the team was so happy with my results they contracted my services for a further 12 months!
13. I've worked on projects with 1:1 modelling requirements through to projects worth $7B in the UAE which many thought were impossible to build/document.
14. I worked with the Landscape Architect on another very large health care project to develop Revit Standards and assist with modelling for Revit Landscaping.
15. I've modelled fuel systems for Diesel Generator Systems for a very large health care project.
16. I've now provided services for Interior Design, Architecture, Landscape, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Seismic, Fuel, Hydraulic, Fire, Traffic, Civil modelling & coordination
17. As part of my role at Cadway (6 years) I was responsible for exploring new technologies, filtering through the marketing fluff, testing and identifying what was worth implementing and what wasn't.  Then finally implementing the technologies.
18. I performed a IT System Administrator role, so I'm across many IT systems such as Citrix, Anti-virus, Exchange Servers, Backup systems, Private Clouds etc.
19. I have experience and resources to customise Revit and develop tools to expedite and improve quality/efficiency of Projects in Revit.
20. I've spoken at many international Revit/BIM Conferences & Events with excellent feedback
21. My Revit Family Creation skills are second to none - I've spent 4 years creating highly efficient and smart content for Manufacturers
22. I've worked on just about every typology of project you can think of.  Including: Multi-Res, Masterplanning, Health Care, Mining, Defence, Retail, Mixed Use, Institutional, Education, Transport, Art, Interior, Landscape, High Rise, Commercial.

Of course my CV goes into this in a lot more detail.  But hopefully this gives you the confidence that I know what I'm doing...

Tag all with shared nested families

The other week I came across an issue on a project where we were required to tag all FF&E in the plans/elevations.

As these elements were of numerous family categories, the multi-category tag seemed like the correct choice.  We also wanted to be somewhat selective about what elements were actually tagged.  Due to the large number of repetition and relative unpredictability of groups we used some complex families for each room fit-out which actually included every family nested into it, with some parametrics to adjust for varying room sizes.

Unfortunately, if you just select the host family and choose tag all it does not tag the nested sub-families.  No one wanted to go through the process of Control selecting all the invidiual families as that would have taken forever.  So I suggested creating a schedule.

By creating a multi-category schedule sorted by Family & Type and filtered for elements that I don't want to tag,

• I could then select the elements in the schedule, 
• then switch back to the view I want to tag in and 
• choose tag all (using current selection).  This way I was able to quickly select all the nested families in a matter of seconds.  Revit is smart enough to automatically filter by what is actually visible in the current view.

PS.  I had a "DOH!" moment on the tag all functionality when doing some of this, I didn't realise you could tag all using multi-category tags, I thought tag all was only for by category...!  I think Autodesk should modify this dialog so it doesn't just show tags you have loaded, but instead shows all potential categories, including multi-category and then against the ones without tags show greyed out with the option to load a tag.  This way others won't make the same mistake, or am I the only one that did this?  It's amazing how you can be using a product for 12 years and still find something new occasionally...

Autodesk also need to add the ability to "Keynote All" in this dialog.

Revit 2013 - View Reference Tags

I've have actually been meaning to post this for about 6 months now, but I'm so busy these days I rarely get around to these types of things.  I've got a weeks break and can't help myself, so here is a quick tutorial on the new View Reference Tags.

In 2013 Autodesk added the ability to allow a View Reference Tag to reference almost any view (not legends) from almost any view.  Previously View Reference Tags were exclusive to Dependent Views and Matchlines.

Some tricks I thought of immediately were placing a "smart" view reference tag in a string of text that references some standard details or alike.  Or how about showing where 3D views are taken in plan and being able to graphically print them and hyperlink to them?

In TEXT

to a 3D View

The below video shows a quick snapshot of these in action.  But to create them simply:

1. Create a new Generic Annotation
2. Go to Family Category & Parameters and change the category to View Reference Tag
3. Place labels for the detail number and sheet number and draw your desired symbology (note, I always make my tags parameter so I only ever have one tag type per family category, this is typically done through visibility parameters controlled by integer values to switch between them)
4. Save the family and load it into your project
5. Switch to the view you want to place it in
6. Swith to the View tab and in Sheet Composition choose View Reference
7. Edit Type, and select the view reference tag you wish to use from the drop down
8. OK
9. Now you can start placing in the view your require it!  NOTE: you can place them in 3D views also but you need to ensure you lock the view orientation.

I hope someone finds this useful!

Revit Formula Rounding

Today I came across a circumstance where I needed to round a value in a family to be to the nearest 5mm increment (+ tolerance).

The Round functions in Revit only round to the nearest whole number.  So a little maths is required to achieve this.

EG:

I have a parameter called "Param1" that I want to drive "Param2" from.

Param2 = (roundup((Param1 + 5 mm) / 5 mm)) * 5 mm

Essentially what we are doing is first adding the tolerance we want, then dividing by 5 (the rounding increment we want), rounding this off to the nearest whole number and the multiplying by 5 again to give us the desired rounded dimension.

Pretty simple, but hopefully someone will find it useful.

Wintergarden Facades - Shop Drawings in Revit

Another recent project finished by the Cadway team (Jonathan Croft and Myself) is the all new Wintergarden facade on the Queen Street Mall, Brisbane, Australia.  The Facade was applied to the revamped Wintergarden on its 3 street frontages.

This was a very complicated project, especially given the timing.  The design was completed by Studio 505 in Melbourne, and the engineering was completed by Tensys.  Urban Art Projects, whom we've teamed up with before (Beacon, Bird Cage, Swallow) was awarded the responsibility of building this amazing design.

Our first hurdle was that each facade panel would be pre-fabricated offsite and lifted into position.  As such, each of the cleats and the dead load beam that was to support the facade panels would be already in place when the facade arrived and we wouldn't necessarily have "as built" survey information for their actual positions.  So we needed to factor in tolerance into everything to allow for these variations!  This included things like slotted holes for connections and adjustable lateral restraints.  The other limitation was the size of the panels, they needed to fit into shipping containers as they were being fabricated overseas...

Our issues in Revit included, everything needed to be scheduled, bolts, nuts, washers, plates, beams, the lot!  We needed to produce shop drawings, with exploded axonometric views, be able to schedule fabricated elements as well as the "assemblies" of fabricated elements.  Unfortunately the Assembly features of Revit were unsuitable for such a task in version 2012 as we couldn't get quantities of the assemblies or have multiple instances of the same assemblies, or have nested assemblies (2 of these 3 limitations have now been lifted in 2013).  The other major flaw was the lack of functionality nesting actual beams.  When nesting a beam family you lose the ability to cut it with a reference plane, or even control its length...

The solution, an elaborate system of shared nested families - some as much as 7 levels deep.  There wasn't as much repetition as we hoped either, as each of the 3 facades had different heights and the scattering of the butterflies on the facade made the regular panels rarely regular!  Our nested families had numerous options built in, so a single family could alternate between many different connection types, which helped keep file size down by having less families loaded with more types set-up.  The other trick was stopping people from using the "mirror" command, unfortunately the fabricators don't have a mirror command... :-D  We again leaned on the Revit API, to automatically isolate fabricated and assembled elements (all tagged of course) and document them in isolation of the rest of the model.  As built surveys were used on some of the facades and dead load beams when they were available and we would modify the panels to suit the variations.

The 3 layers of laser cut panels were handled by Studio 505 directly, whilst we dealt with the 3 structural aspects of the system and the butterfiles.  Termed on the project as the "Mega Panel", "Grillage" and "Access Walkway".  For those interested the Revit model was a conservative 173MB in file size, kept down by the user of "Shared" nested families.  We were able to make the butterflies parametric so they could technically "flap their wings"!

The installation method was interesting as we didn't have access to the whole facade to fit the panels in places.  As such the pieces were lifted through specially designed and positioned lifting points (built into the Revit model for coordination of course), and then a custom designed trolley system would allow the panels to slide along the facade into position.

The fabricators were able to position a projector on the ceiling, projecting the completed panels on the ground, so they could then ensure that the pieces being connected together were correctly located.  The fabrication went very smoothly and efficiently.

As you can see on Studio 505's website the facade has a very elaborate interactive lighting system.  Able to project the silhouettes of those walking past, wave back at you, simulate rain or animals and even display the time.  The project was a success with very little to no coordination issues on site.

Xrev New Website Launched

Please let us know what you think of the new Xrev website.  Expect some exciting stuff to appear in the coming weeks including Revit 2013 support and the all new Xrev Transmit.

If you haven't used Xrev Transmit for issuing you Revit sheets to DWG, PDF, DWF, Hard Copy, DXF or DGN yet then you don't know what you are missing.

Download the Free Trial today!

http://www.xrev.com.au

New Laptop & Nasty Revit Bug

With starting my new company I decided to splash out and get myself a decent laptop.  I decided on a new Dell XPS15 with 256GB SSD.

Its a great computer, extremely fast and great battery life.  My main issue occurs in Revit:

Every time I'm in Revit and I have a child window open in Revit, for example the family types dialog, every 20-30 seconds the window loses focus and the Revit main window has focus! I can be typing away in one of the fields and all of a sudden I've committed another command in the background parent window (like opening the visibility/graphics dialog).  Almost like the dialogs in Revit are modeless!

As you can probably imagine this can be extremely frustrating and counter productive when you have to constantly have to reselect the child window to have focus so you can keep working.  Especially when you are writing long formulas that you have to scroll across the window to get to the end of the formula.  Then by the time you've scrolled across the window loses focus and you have to do it again!!!

This issue from my experience only occurs in Revit.  I obviously checked all the obvious things like touching the trackpad, or bumping a key - but my hands can be in the air well away from the laptop and it still does it. As such I filed it with Autodesk Support.

Of course they first asked the obvious questions, are you running the latest build, do you have Autodesk Certified drivers (and the autodesk certified drivers are years old!), etc.  I ensured I had tested all their suggestions and none of which resolved the issue.  It has now been escalated to development and apparently I'm not alone in the this issue, which is slightly re-assuring as that may mean there is a fix planned...

Anyway, I thought I would share just in case others are experiencing this issue and looking online for a solution.

Revit Bird project completed

I thought those that were interested might like to see the completed project of the bird I did all the laser cut files for.

http://uapmarker.com.au/blog/james-eleanor-avery-with-uap-studio-lucky-dip-the-darling-hotel-sydney/

Chris Price & Xrev - Consulting

Hello All,

I thought I'd let my readers know that I am now consulting my services in the Revit Architecture, Structure, Navisworks, BIM space. (commencing 13th February 2012)

If you require Revit Implementation, in-house Revit Training, Revit Training Classes, Revit Management, On Project Revit Support, Revit Start-up Assistance, upskilling intermediate & advanced Revit users, Revit Collaboration, IPD and everything Building Information Modelling.

Please don't hesitate to email me at Support at Xrev dot com dot au. I can supply you with my costing and schedule availability!

I have experience with:

• Multi-discipline collaboration
• Revit Asset Management
• Revit Facilities Management
• Revit Digital Fabrication (laser cutting, CNC, etc)
• 4D Sequencing
• Extracting Quantities & Weights from the model
• Various Energy Analysis
• Cost Estimation from the model
• Clash Detection
• BIM Specifications
• Integrated Project Delivery
• Training large groups/presenting

Laser Cut files & Fabrication from Revit

Now that it is no longer under NDA, I'd show off a quick project that I recently completed for a client where we were asked to produce laser cut files for all the steelwork.

Thankfully I had a copy of Revit 2012 pre-release to play around with which just happened to add a new feature that allows me to create face based void families or nest voids in families and have them cut other families in the project beyond just system families such as walls/floors/roofs etc.  (love it when Autodesk release a feature that I can use straight away)

Using Structural framing, and structural columns I was able to quickly generate all the members to their accurate sizes.  The difficulty was that each of the 3 layers of 40x16mm RHS channels that make up the infill actually need to penetrate the external channels.  Of course the laser cut machine can only cut penetrations perpendicular, so this complicated things.  As such I generated a face based void family with instance parameters to control its lengths and radius corners.  I placed all 1340 instances of these and flexed their lengths to suit the required opening for each of the intersecting members based upon their angle of incidence and ensured no members intersected each other.

I then had our developer create a macro command using VSTA to isolate each member, create a 3D view of only that member and then export out a .SAT file and .DXF file for the laser cutting service.

I was also asked to advise the weight of this structure. Easily done through some schedules to pull out the volume of steel and a calculated parameter based upon the mass of steel being 7850kg/m³ this was all able to be automated.

Lessons learnt: I found a few bugs in this tool where the face based voids families would cut certain structural columns, which have now been addressed in the released version.  I managed to source the issue and devise a workaround. I had planned to make this much more complicated to facilitate change, but I opted for the manpower approach as I thought it was resolved.  Unfortunately for me, there were a couple of design iterations which we somewhat painful to redo.  Had I have known these were coming I would have made the mesh members and penetrations parametric.

NEXT PROJECT for the same client:

A 4.5 metre Bird made from aluminium sheet with a polystyrene core to be suspended in the foyer.

Requirements:

• An IGS file for the CNC router to cut the polystyrene blocking to shape.
• Fully nested cut files for all the aluminium sheet
• Structural Steel Cut files for the support frame
• An overall weight of the bird

Challenge accepted!

We were supplied with a model created in 3DS Max. My first thought was great, I'll use the unfolding tools of Autodesk Inventor to make light work of this.  This way I could build in K factors etc.  But of course Inventor doesn't handle geometry created by other applications well at all.  I didn't feel in the mood to remodel the complicated form from scratch in Inventor so instead I looked to Revit. Unfortunately there was some issues in the nurbs translation and the import into Revit - which I didn't discover straight away.  As you may know a nurbs face can only have 3 or 4 sides.  When importing into Revit the surface was being triangulated.  Some of the planar faces on this bird had as much as 12 sides.  Working with the designer in 3DS Max we managed to sort out a workflow that gave me the best possible base to work from.  We even explored tidying up the bird directly in Revit, so we create a tool using the API that was able to automatically convert the import into native Revit Reference Lines, Points and forms.  We didn't end up using it, but I'm sure it will come in handy in the future.  We may even make it publicly available if we get the time to make it robust to everyone elses different scenarios.

I imported this form into the Revit Conceptual Massing environment and created a family for it.  I then loaded it into a new project and used the curtain panel by face tool (using a special Aluminium system panel type that I made), selected all the faces and generated the curtain system.

Great, I now had a panelised system for all the pieces.  I then manually merged some of the complicated pieces so we didn't end up with tiny little slithers to be assembled.  Next step, systematically number all the panels (434) with unique marks, we didn't automate this so it was somewhat tedious.

Again we looked to the API to create a macro that automatically created an isolated 3D view for each curtain panel orientated to look perpendicular to the surface.  Easy enough, but how do we no which side of the surface we are looking at.  The edges of each panel needed to be bevelled at 45° so this was important.  Unfortunately there seemed to be no real logic between what side revit determined the interior or exterior of the panel even though they were all part of the same system, they weren't necessarily orientated the same way.  We were able to get around this through Raytracing in the API, which aided us in determining the interior and exterior face.  We re-ran the macro and now we had an exterior view of every panel isolated in the model.

Next step, exporting the views:
As you may or may not know, if you export from a 3D view you get a 3D file.  In this instance we needed 2D Cut files.  How do you get a 3D view to export as 2D?  You place it on a sheet.  We configured the macro to then place all 434 views on a single sheet, then exported (DXF) the sheet and left the "Xref views on sheet" option checked so we would get separate files for each of the files.  Of course we had no control over the naming of these Xref's so we then had to use a small utility to systematically rename all the files so they corresponded to their Mark.

Finally to create the nested cut files, we used another commercially available utility where you can simply enter the sheet sizes, specify the individual cut files and it automatically nests the pieces and optimises them as well as tagging them.

The last task was to generate the 3D cut files for all the structural steelwork.