Dynamo for Revit: Baby Steps for the Non-Genius (AU2016)

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.

Revit not Printing Phasing Graphic Overrides Properly

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

Autodesk Revit Ideas (complaints) Site...

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

 

jpolding

  ‎09-30-2016 01:42 PM |

• 1 Comment (0 New)

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

 

jpolding

  ‎09-30-2016 01:39 PM |

• 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. 

10 Years of Revit in Plain English

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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Useful, Free Revit Plugin: Apply Revisions to All Sheets

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.

Revit 2017 Content Not Installed Correctly

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

Convert AutoCAD Points into XYZ Points for Revit Toposurface

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

Dynamo Simple, Practical Examples: Write Family Type to Type Comments

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.

Disable Optimized View Navigation in Revit 2017

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

Dynamo Simple, Practical Examples: Export Coordinate info to Excel

Dynamo Simple, Practical Examples: Draw a Revit Floor

Dynamo Simple, Practical Examples: Draw a Revit Wall

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.

Floors Auto-Attach to Walls Bug

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.

Revit Doors with FRAMES in Revit 2016

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.

Revit Scratchpad: Fake Revision Clouds in Revit

Revit Scratchpad: Fake Revision Clouds in Revit: Nice little workaround to get Detail Clouds. Make a Revision cloud, cut and paste the Sketch Lines, Paste as Detail Line or Filled Region. Thanks Joe and Nat!

Favourite Standard Revit Keyboard Shortcuts

Favourite Standard Revit Keyboard Shortcuts

f2: Rename View

WT: Tile Windows
ZA: Zoom All Windows to Extents
ZE:  Zoom Extents
ZZ: Zoom Region

CS: Create Similar

WA: Wall
DR: Door
DL: Detail Line

SL: Split
TR: Trim Corner
AL: Align

SE: Snap Endpoint
SM: Snap Midpoint

VV: Visibility Graphics Overrides

Model Beams Underneath a Complex Roof

This is an excerpt from a 2011 article written by Marcello Sgambelluri. Even though Marcello has figured out a way to do this with Dynamo, this technique is still quite simple and valid. You can find the entire article here: https://www.augi.com/library/methods-for-modeling-complex-geometry

1. Make a Wall which intersects the Roof.
2. Join the Wall to the Roof
2. Use the 'Pick Lines' tool in the Beam command. Turn on 3D snapping. Select the intersecting line of the wall and roof.

Revit (2016?) Wish List

First of all, making software is very hard and complicated and I am very grateful of the hard working and caring people at Autodesk. This is mostly a re-post from 2011, yes that long ago. Since then I have trained over 1000 people in Revit and consulted on over 1 million sf of Revit projects, many now constructed. Along the way I have observed certain questions/issues/requests/frustrations that come up repeatedly. I am re-posting this to emphasize where Autodesk has improved Revit and what they still need to do in my opinion. I am aware that there are apps and bits and pieces of software which do some of what I'm asking for but this needs to be thoughtfully integrated into Revit. I have not seen the Beta so maybe some of this is already done, which would be great. Please add to this list in the Comments.

Open the Revit Database Already!

Most of my wishes revolve around opening up the Revit database, some specific examples:

-Schedules which can query anything from any category. i.e. list everything in a particular room.

-Tags which are able to read data from other objects and categories i.e. Doors reading Room numbers.

-Universal Search. Search by multiple conditions and save searches. Or just start typing a find anything. (you can search the Project Browser now)

Automated Project Browser and View Tools

-Project Browser makes and manages Phase and Design Option views automatically.
-Automated 3D Section Box views which are linked to the extents of plans, sections and elevs.

-View Folders (not parameter). Drag and drop views between folders.

-Automated naming of views i.e. Room 101 South Elevation

Connections

-Please provide linking of Excel, Word and PDF files into Revit.

Schedules

-Schedules to include Family thumbnails.-They checked this one off the list. Maybe the next improvement is to combine Legend views with Schedules, add tagging to Legend Components while you're at it :-)

Other Stuff 

-Edit Family button for Annotation i.e. Levels and View Titles.

-Walls which have a 'centreline' built in for various uses ie.fire rating plans

-Automated lineweight control based upon distance

- Site tool enhancements.(Did they give us this one? Sorry but the Eaglepoint stuff is just too complicated)
-Two Click Revision Bubbles (Yay, we have this)
-Spell check that checks all of the spelling
-Phase filters that show multiple phases backward. Allow for more Graphic Control over previous and future Phases.
-Universal Annotation Settings Interface

Set Default Viewport

When you drag a view onto a Revit sheet the default Viewport is 'Title W Line'. Although there is no 'Set Default Viewport' button you are able to set one default Viewport. You can do this by renaming and editing the properties of the current default Viewport (Title W Line).

Revit OpEd: Revit 2015 R2 - Perspective View Changes

Another long-time wish list item...



Revit OpEd: Revit 2015 R2 - Perspective View Changes: It is not uncommon for a new Revit user, that is already familiar with Sketch Up for example, to be a bit surprised that we can't do rou...