revit in plain english

Learning Dynamo can seem overwhelming. As hard as it may be, there is comfort in knowing that there is a limit to what you need to learn. To that end, here is a list of the top 25 Dynamo Nodes you need to get started with Dynamo (in my opinion). Since the beginning the Dynamo team at Autodesk has been collecting data on how we use Dynamo Nodes. I wonder how this (slightly unscientific) list compares to their data?

0. Select Model Element

1. Element.Parameters

2. Watch

3. All Elements of Category

4. Categories (always used with the previous)

5. Code Block (This one is a multitasker, you can use it for strings, numbers, math, passing through information)

6. == (and most of the other Math Nodes)

7. String.Contains

8. String.Replace

9. String from Object

10. Element.ElementType

11. FilterbyBoolMask

12. List.SortbyKey

13. List.GroupbyKey

14. Element.GetParameterValueByName

15. Element.SetParameterByName

16. List.Flatten

17. List.Transpose

18. Data.ExportExcel

19. Data.ImportExcel

20. List.Count

21. Sequence

22. Point.ByCoordinates

23. List.GetItemAtIndex

24. Element.Name

Revit 2019.2 is out and there are some improvements...

In this sub-release you can see Autodesk's focus on BIM360, and rightfully so. BIM360 has finally matured into a stable, useful product/platform/thingy. I say 'thingy' because it truly is a new thing that is yet to be fully defined. For now, the simple fact that the Revit files are in the cloud and people who don't use Revit can view and markup on any device is great! For the future, I see more opportunities to leverage the Forge platform to automate design, extract reports, view and monitor the construction project among many, many more opportunities.

The minimum distance error is GONE, sort of. It's gone when moving and copying. You will still get the warning and be prevented from drawing something smaller than 1/32"(2mm). I believe I first submitted this request to the development team in the year 2000. I'm hoping that they wait until after 2020 to completely fix this error. That way, we can throw a big party at AU for the 20th year anniversary of 'The Request'.

Zoom into Schedules. Funny thing, that didn't seem to bother me 19 years ago. Still, they fixed it and I'm glad.

Here's a full list of enhancements.

Autodesk has released Revit 2018.1. Many have been talking about the updated Dynamo Player with user input and with good reason, it's a great feature. The feature improvement that I would like to highlight are the changes made to Graphic Options. Fist of all, they got rid of the 'Your Graphics Hardware is Incompatible and Have Fun Trying to Get it Compatible LOL' dialog.

Also, they made simpler check boxes for the remaining settings. We no loner need to open the Revit.ini to change certain settings. The other thing I noticed is that you're not forced to restart Revit after making changes.

Thanks Revit team!

Standalone and Workshared Revit Files are backed up and restored in completely different ways. Here is an explanation and some best practices...

You should probably refer to this blog post for additional info..

Revit Files are Clogging Up My Server Storage!

Standalone Revit Project Files

Revit makes *.001.rvt Revit files in the same Folder as the Revit File.

The amount of these backups are controlled by SaveAs-Options-Maximum. Every time you save, a backup will be created. The highest number will be the latest. In my opinion 3 is plenty. Default is 20, too many!

You can be reminded to save every so often by setting Application Menu-Options-Save Reminders. Set to 30 mins.

You can restore a backup file (*.001.rvt) by renaming (remove the .00) it and opening it. So as an example a file called PROJECTA.001.rvt would be renamed PROJECTA.rvt.

Workshared Revit Project Files

Does not have *.001.rvt like Standalone.

You can be reminded to save every so often by setting Application Menu-Options-Sync to Central Reminders. Set to 30 mins.

There is a Local backup folder in same location as Local Revit file. It contains files that you shouldn't touch. You can set the amount of steps a Local Revit File can be rolled back in SaveAs-Options-Maximum. The default is set to 20. Best practice, set to 5.

There is also a Central backup folder in same location as the Central Revit file. It contains files that you shouldn't touch. You can set the amount of steps a Central Revit File can be rolled back in SaveAs-Options-Maximum when creating the Central. The default is set to 20. Best practice, set to 5. High numbers will use a lot of server space. (You will need a good backup procedure on your server because limiting this number will limit your recovery options from within Revit). When archiving Revit projects it is possible to save space by deleting the Central backup folder. As soon as the Central Revit File is opened or a Local Revit File is created a new backup folder will be created automatically.

Things to keep in mind about Restore Backup:
Backups are restored from Collaborate-Restore Backup for either Locals or Centrals.
Restore Backups cannot be undone.
Cannot reconnect to Central if you are separated even if you 'Restore Backup'.
For these reasons I rarely recommend using Restore Backup.

If you get a corrupt Central Revit file, use one of the Locals to re-create a Central. This almost always is the best option. If all the Locals and Central are corrupt, send the Central Revit File and Journal Files to Autodesk and wait (about a week) to get an older restored version returned to you. If you can't wait that long, go to your general server backups and get yesterday's Central file. I haven't seen too many corruptions in my 10 years of Revit consulting.

If a user ignores the Sync to Central reminders long enough they will disconnect from the Central. They will lose their work as there is no way to reconnect. So Sync to Central every 30 mins.

Here is a good post from Autodesk about the causes and solutions to Data Corruption.

Dynamo Users Group Toronto: Revit Pub Night-Winter Session: Register Here: https://www.solidcad.ca/event/revit-pub-night-winter-session/ Revit Pub Night – Winter Session February 16 @ 6:00 pm -...

Some people find that Revit files are using up too much storage on their server or other storage. Although a few companies have 'limitless' cloud storage this is not the norm. Plus, is anything really 'limitless' on this planet?

You might also want to refer to this post for additional info...

Backing Up and Recovering Revit Files

Revit files are large...fact. But surprisingly they are relatively smaller comparable to an AutoCAD project folder. The reason for this is that Revit contains more information efficiently in one file as opposed to a folder of many files i.e. AutoCAD, Sketchup, Excel etc. Still, your storage space may be used up WAY faster now than before Revit. Below are some possible culprits and recommendations. All of these recommendations are assuming that you have a server and local backup protocol.

1. Saving Local Revit files to server. Each person's 'Local' file will eat space from the storage on the server. It's better to have each user save the files locally on their machine. This frees up server space and acts as a backup. Saving Local Revit files to the server is made worse by many of the issues below.

2. Standalone Revit files are making too many backups. Turn the backup number down. Search for files with *.0*.rvt or a variation of that *.*.rvt. You may find many of these are redundant backups and can be removed.

3. Local Revit files are being 'timestamped' on open. This is when a Local Revit file is not overwritten on open, it makes another copy and appends the date and time to the name. If everyone is doing this, it will gobble storage space like candy. You might want to do the Overwrite option.

4. Revit Central files need to be Compacted occasionally. Do this in the Save Options. Also, keep the Maximum backups number down.

5. Large and messy CAD Files Imported or Linked. Sometimes a very large AutoCAD file will be brought into the Revit file. This will then get propagated to all the Local Revit files. The key here is to use AutoCAD to Purge and Audit ALL imported or Linked CAD before bringing it into Revit. Avoid bring CAD into Revit if possible. Put all Imports onto a Workset.

6. Large, messy, overly detailed or complicated Revit Families. Be suspicious of any Revit Families over 5MB. This is compounded if you need to use it many times. If the Family is well made it may be worth the pain for future information gains.

7. Revit file needs to be Purged. This command is dangerous if you just Purge everything. You will need to go through the list and pick out what needs to be purged. If there is a nasty Revit Family inserted into the project you will need to completely remove or replace it before Purging.

8. People are simply saving lots of copies of stuff. Sometimes people save every single Revit file they receive and every single copy they make. On the plus side, if it's organised, you have a way to get old information that suddenly becomes very important. Or, it could just be unnecessary clutter. You should at least save a complete project folder at key project milestones.

Dynamo is hard to learn. There, I said it. But, it is useful and worth learning. To get started you can watch my presentation from Autodesk University 2016. It's geared for people who are not geniuses, like me. Reason I say that is most of the classes and videos I have watched get very complicated, very fast. This class has been designed to get you through that initial steep learning curve in about 60 mins.

Click here to watch the presentation and download the datasets.

Problem/Bug: Revit 2017 not printing views with 'Phasing Graphic Overrides' properly. In other words, the printed PDF looks different than the Revit view.

Some say, 'just print Raster'. This is just not practical for the entire set. Raster files which are printed to a proper degree of quality end up being HUGE file sizes. Plus, you can't measure off the rasterized PDF.

Here was the only workaround that I could get to work...

1. Selectively print only the files with Phasing Graphic Overrides to raster PDF
2. Print the rest of the set as vector PDF
3. Using Bluebeam, combine the raster and vector sheets together
4. Unfortunately the Adobe reader gives an error when attempting to open this file. So to get around this I printed the combined PDF from Bluebeam to another PDF. This seems to make the Adobe reader accept the file.

Autodesk, if you're listening, please improve the print function of Revit. Please include a rock solid PDF export and import function. That being said, it was who Autodesk removed the PDF functionality that Revit had from the beginning...

Revit Idea site backs me up on this...http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/2d-pdf-printing-support/idi-p/6325091

Hey, just learned about a place to post constructive ideas (rants) to improve Revit. I have posted a couple and will keep doing so. There are some really good top voted ideas on this site.

My general theme is...
Don't give us a tool that will do 'anything'. We have that, it's called AutoCAD. Give us a tool that is specifically honed to produce the deliverables that we are required to create to make money. That's why we jumped onto Revit in the first place.

At best the developers read the site and improve Revit. At worst we get to realize we are not alone. I think it's a good start.

Objects have Facing Direction Property

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My wish is that all Revit objects have a property reporting on their facing direction based upon the True North.

This would be especially useful for Walls, Windows and Doors.

Reason:

Almost every Building Department in North America requires a 'Spatial Separation' table. This shows the total exposed wall area, the total unprotected area (not fire rated) and a percentage of the two. This is required for each direction North, South, East and West.

We also need the correct exterior wall face areas...already posted the idea.

Schedule ALL Wall Face Areas

Post a Comment

My wish is to be able to schedule the exterior and interior faces of walls INCLUDING wall ends. This would be another property of the wall which could be scheduled. It would not depend on the join condition or Location Line.

Almost every Building Department in North America requires a 'Spatial Separation' table. This shows the total exposed wall area, the total unprotected area (not fire rated) and a percentage of the two. This is required for each direction North, South, East and West.

Currently this is not possible to calculate in Revit. The only way is to draw Filled Regions and use Dynamo to calculate.

Wow, just realized I've been writing this blog for 10 years. I honestly thought we would be moved on to the 'next' BIM software by now. Revit has certainly taken over the AEC industry but not nearly as fast as I thought it would 10 years ago. In fact, I thought I was way behind the curve at that time.

At that time there was a small but very helpful Revit community. I was so inspired by Steve Stafford's blog I copied it. So, thank you to Steve, Phil Read, Richard Ziegler and the countless others who unselfishly have answered my Revit and BIM questions. I should also thank Autodesk who have been prudent caretakers of Revit and Navisworks.

What's next? Dynamo certainly extends the possibilities of Revit over the next few years. I'm certain that the Minecraft generation is going to come up with something revolutionary. Some words spring to mind; Online, Multiplayer, VR, Open Database, Simple, Automated, we'll see.

The purpose of this blog stays the same; a way to remember and share Revit (Dynamo and related) workarounds, fixes and best practices, always in plain English I hope.

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In Revit 2017 you can't apply Revisions to all Sheets in one dialog box. You have to manually pick sheet by sheet and turn on the applicable Revision-very time consuming. The free Up Rev App by Xrev fixes exactly this. Get it here on the Autodesk App Exchange.

Problem: Your Revit 2017 installed old content. Revit now upgrades all Templates and Files every time you open or load. Some 2017 features like Structural Connections are not working.

Possible Solution from Autodesk Support:

A.Open Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > and if you see Revit 2017 content library listed there, please uninstall it.

B.Download Revit 2017 installer from Autodesk Virtual Agent as follows:

Download AutoCAD 2017 installer from virtual agent.
click on Download Links
click on Revit Products
then on Autodesk Revit
select the appropriate product and click the link to download.
Note: you need to save both parts of Revit 2017 installer in the same folder (e.g. C:\Autodesk). Then double-click on the first file (the file that has 001 in its name) to start the product installers extraction process.

C. Install Revit Content Library 2017 as follows

Logon as an Administrator.
Empty your TEMP folder. To open the TEMP folder, type %TEMP% in the address bar of Windows Explorer and hit Enter.
Disable your Antivirus software.
Disable UAC.
Start Revit 2017 installer and install Revit Content Library.
If the installation fails, please provide the installation install logs created in your TEMP folder during this product installation attempt

You can't directly convert AutoCAD 'Points' into a Revit surface. But you can convert the AutoCAD 'Points' into a csv with XYZ coordinates. Seems that contours come out a little smoother but if this is all you got it's better than nothing. Here's how...

Open AutoCAD file which contains 'points'

Type DATAEXTRACTION

Create New, next

Give Name, next

Select current file, next

Filter only Points, next

Filter only Geometry, next

Clear Show count and name, next

Output Data to external file, choose name and csv, next

Finish

Open csv

Delete header rows

Move all data rows up

Save (as CSV) and close

Open Revit

Toposurface

Create from Import, Points

Select CSV

Select Unit

#TAADAAA

When writing one instance parameter to another you use the 'get and set' method. This does not work for Type Parameters (wish it did). The best way to explain in this case is to show the image of my Dynamo Graph:

Why might you use this? You can't filter a Schedule by Type (wish you could) but you can filter by Comments.

Problem:

When you orbit your Revit model the outlines and hatches disappear. I find this effect very ugly and defeats the purpose of examining your model in 3D using Orbit. Revit used to have a simple checkbox in the Options-Graphics dialog to disable or enable, but not any more. Now we need to edit the Revit.ini...sigh.

Solution/Workaround:

Add text OptimizedViewNavigation=0 under the [Graphics] heading in the Revit.ini

The Revit.ini can be found here:

C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\

Add the text here:

Discalimer: Read this Revit help before editing the ini...

http://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2017/ENU/?guid=GUID-ECD1B2C6-7612-431E-ACDE-92A557862020

Learning Dynamo is hard. Is it worth it? Yes, it offers great potential in a number of areas. Here are a few things that Dynamo can help you with:

Importing and Exporting Excel data very easily. Beside being able to use this data in Excel, this provides a bridge to other software like Inventor, Solidworks and more. For example you could export points from a curtain wall in Revit to Inventor or vice versa.
Automating the placement of Families. Good example is auditorium and stadium seating.
You can connect parameters from one Family to another. For example connect the floor thickness to the wall top offset.

Because it's hard to learn I would like to provide a few simple (practical?) Dynamo examples. Here's my first...a Dynamo Graph which shows you a way to draw a wall in Revit using Dynamo.

This is not new. I want to blog about this because it needs to be made clear. Floor sketches will lock to Walls regardless of using the Align and Lock tools or Pick Walls Tools. What this means is that Floor edges will move with Walls if the Floor sketch referenced an Osnap on a Wall or was Aligned to a Wall (without Lock). Autodesk, please fix this. We need to be sure that the edge of a Revit Floor will not move (unless we move the Floor sketch line). Floor Slab edge drawings are critical to a construction project and must be 100% reliable.

Good news, Autodesk has provided us with Doors Families with frames. Seems like a small detail but isn't that what counts? I had one client use the 'Single-Flush' door families extensively in a design with very tight constraints. When the design was developed further he realised that he needed to swap the frameless 'Single Flush' door family with a door with a frame. Like I mentioned, tolerances were tight and you cannot compromise on egress requirements. This caused much frustration, wasted time and a mark on my reputation for not advising him on this issue. A small detail which caused problems for all involved.

You may be thinking 'why don't you just make a Door with frame or download one from ARCAT or Autodesk Seek'? The person who is using Revit at the time will use what Family is immediately available for the immediate need. So from that time on I recommend to NEVER use the 'Single-Flush' Door Family and provide a door with frame Family. But that dreaded 'Single-Flush' door still rears it's ugly head after a reinstall or a new new versions etc.

So, thank you Revit Development team for paying attention to this seemingly small detail. Now there are both commercial and residential folders with doors with frames installed with Revit.

There is also a separate hardware folder which contains a variety of hardware Families which can be loaded into a Door Family.

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

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