Revit OpEd: Room Renumbering - Autodesk Labs Plug-in of the Mo...

Revit OpEd: Room Renumbering - Autodesk Labs Plug-in of the Mo...: "For those of you that have downloaded this plug-in and starting to use 2012 in production, there is now a version for 2012 too. Poking a..."

Converting an .exe into a .msp - Repost

Noce post from Revitit.com

You are doing an install and you want to convert the .exe SP into a .mps.

See the video here

Should the Unemployed be buying new Apple Computers - The Onion

In The Know: Should The Nation's Unemployed Be Buying New Apple Computers?

BIMForum Summer 2011 New Dates: Call For Presentations

When Does Design End and Construction Begin?
New Dates: July 19-21, 2011   |   Chicago, IL

A consensus is emerging about the benefits of tapping the expertise of consultants, contractors, and facility managers during the early phases of a BIM-enabled project. The intent is to achieve design decisions that are both early and well informed to avoid costly later revisions. But does this necessarily imply that all design effort should be concentrated exclusively at the start of a project? Are late design decisions necessarily detrimental to budget, schedule, and quality? Are changing client requirements and construction volatility such that early decisions are not only impractical but also to be avoided?

If you have direct experience related to the impact of early or late design decisions, we are very much interested in hearing from you. To provide additional clarity, submitted presentations should consider addressing some of the following design related topics:

• Is the idea of good early decisions pragmatically an oxymoron and not possible?
• Is a good decision once made always a good decision?
• Is it reasonable to expect a fixed functional program from a client?
• Can all factors that affect design and cost be known early in a project?
• Do late design decisions always adversely affect a project budget and schedule?
• How does BIM technology affect the cost and schedule implications of late decisions?
• Can design realistically progress in an efficient and linear way without iteratively searching for an optimum solution?
• Are legacy project phases applicable in integrated design and construction?
• What are valid contractual relationships related to consultant, contractor, subcontractor, and facility manager design input?
• How can consultants, contractors, subcontractors, and fabricators be engaged in evaluating multiple designs when they have monetary incentives to consider the fewest schemes possible?
• Are clients willing to pay for additional early design effort by “non-designers”?
• Are consultants and contractors assuming more the role of the designer in early phases while simultaneously ceding much of their legacy documentation and management roles to subcontractors and fabricators?
• Where does traditional design leave off and spatial coordination begin?
• When does spatial coordination morph into design?
• How can contractors and designers find common ground for design and coordination?

Submissions are due by Friday, May 6, 2011. To submit a proposal, click here.

Autodesk User Research - Call for Participation

We are looking for Architects, Drafters, Designers and CAD Managers who use Revit Architecture or other products to design stairs or railings, to participate in a usability study of some Autodesk software concepts. The sessions are approximately 90 minutes long. If you are interested in participating, please take a few minutes to fill in this short questionnaire. Participants who are a good match for our study will be contacted within a few days.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/stairs_railings

Your involvement helps make our products better.

Thanks,

The Autodesk User Experience Team

Howayda Affan
UX Recruiter
User Research
AEC Industry Group           


 

BIM Apps - Repost

Ran across this post on the blog BIM Apps that as the name suggests details BIM Apps and related topics.

Ashrae Viewer - Plugin of the Month on Labs

Hi folks, I was just notified of a new Revit MEP add-in that works with both Revit 2011 and the upcoming Revit 2012. You can find details on Scott's blog and you can download it from the bottom of this page. Take a stab at it and tell us what you think.
Also what are your thoughts on other Plugin of the Month that we should look into for Revit, Navisworks or any other BIM products?

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Subtle - Illegal Characters

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Subtle - Illegal Characters: "I'm not referring to characters in a play, novel or movie but the characters we use in filenames. Revit will complain if you attempt to use ..."

Real-Time web based rendering for Revit

Have not used the product, but I received a call from a colleague mentioning the RevUp Rendering application.

Revit OpEd: Tip - List of All Levels via Grid Generator Extens...

Revit OpEd: Tip - List of All Levels via Grid Generator Extens...: "This tip is courtesy of Daniel Stine, author of several Revit books (listed in previous post). If you are familiar with the Grid Generator e..."

MEP-BIM-Guru: Pipe Volume Schedule

MEP-BIM-Guru: Pipe Volume Schedule: "I will go over how I set up a pipe volume schedule in Revit MEP. Pipe Types: For this example I have the pipe types set up with one pipe ..."

Revit 2012 Network Deployment Issues

With the release of the Revit 2012 platform, the first issue I found was with network deployments. The issues I found were that there is no method to define the Default Project Template. After installing the Deploy, the New Project Template it points to is 'Default.rte'. There is also not a method for altering the various library locations.

A few emails to the factory and I was provided with the following information. This is procedure is definitely a work-around and hopefully the actual network deployment is corrected soon.

Customizing Revit.ini

Rick Foster 4.22.2011

The Document

Revit.ini is created at install time using data from an xml document. By modifying that document you can distribute customizations with your deployment.

Identical copies of this document are potentially located in four places in your admin image:

\x86\RAC2013\inifile.xml

\x86\RAC2013\Program Files\Autodesk\Root\Program\Setup\Cache\inifile.xml

\x64\RAC2013\inifile.xml

\x64\RAC2013\Program Files\Autodesk\Root\Program\Setup\Cache\inifile.xml

You probably only have two of the copies in your admin image, either x86 or x64. That is fine.

Copy one of these locally and open it up. You'll notice that inifile.xml updates more than just revit.ini. Ignore the other ini files - those are mine.

It should be apparent what's going on. The elements are structured File->Section->Data. Knowing this you are ready to do some easy tasks. You can:

·       Change a value by updating an existing Data element

·       Add a key to a section by creating a Data element

·       Add a section to an ini file by creating a Section element

Example - Pointing to a custom Family Templates path

1.     Locate this Data element:

File Name="Revit.ini"

  Section Name="Directories"

    Data Key="FamilyTemplatePath"

2.     Set the text of that element to your custom Family Templates location.

(An important note about editing XML)

Ok, I sense a few of you have already started searching for DefaultTemplate and encountered some oddities, like Product attributes and Condition elements, and that the values are set to bracketed properties. Not to mention that there’s a bunch of DefaultTemplate elements. Well, it’s about to get interesting.

Product	Ties a setting to a specific product
Condition	Evaluated as a Window Installer condition – beyond the scope of this document
[PROPERTY]	Windows Installer property. These properties are the internal state of the install

The Short Story:

You can delete all of those DefaultTemplate elements except for one. Remove the Product attribute and Condition element and set the value to wherever your template resides.

The Long Story:

Inifile.xml serves all Revit products, which the Product attributes reflect. Additionally, each product serves multiple disciplines. In order to point the DefaultTemplate to the correct file we created multiple DefaultTemplate elements tied to specific products, each with a condition that further binds it to the discipline selected at install time.

Whether you find that confusing or empowering will be determined by how well I communicate the next topic.

Using Properties in Revit.ini

Properties are the variables passed around in the install. Inifile.xml uses them to respond to user selections. Content Packs use them as well, and even have the ability to set them. Additionally, there is syntax for reading environment variables. Here is how you can leverage both.

Environment Variables

You can use environment variables in inifile.xml by using the syntax [%ENVVAR]. Danny, please test: The practical upshot: You can create a script to call setup.exe. If you set environment variable before doing so then those variables can be used in inifile.xml.

This is quite powerful, and may be all that you need for your customizations. But wait, there’s more…

Custom Content Packs

Revit distributes content using the Content Pack framework. Check out the sample below. Content Packs have an ApplicationDefaults section for setting properties. You can create your own Content Pack and add it to a deployment (or install). The install will process it and set the properties for you. The sample will set YOURCUSTOMPROPERTY to Your Custom Value. You can now use that in inifile.xml by referring to [YOURCUSTOMPROPERTY].

Add this custom Content Pack to your deployment by clicking the Add Content button in the Revit panel on the Select Products page. Then ensure that your Content Pack is selected in the Default Content combobox.

Is that useful? It may be if you have one admin image supporting multiple deployments. Each deployment can integrate a different custom Content Pack to set unique properties for inifile.xml to use. Or you could even use the stock inifile.xml and just create a Content Pack to manipulate the properties that you are interested in.

The End

That’s it. The power to greatly complicate a deployment is now yours. Enjoy!

Supplemental information

Editing XML documents

XML documents are highly structured. If you goof this one up then none of the ini files it defines will be created. Fortunately inifile.xml has a DTD, which is a formatting definition that instructs validation tools on how to check the consistency of a document. To operate on inifile.xml with confidence do one of two things.

·       Use an XML editor. Google up a free one. It will highlight your mistakes. (witticism placeholder)

·       If you don’t use an xml editor, but prefer Notepad or some such, validate your efforts here.

Custom Content Pack sample

Cut and paste the following into a blank xml file. Be sure to change Identification->ContentPackId and Identification->Name. The document.xsd referred to in the second line is a schema that will help you edit and validate this xml document. You can find it on the disk in Content/Revit/en.

xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>

<DocumentRoot xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="document.xsd">

  <Identification>

    <ContentPackId>TemplateCPContentPackId>

    <Name>Content Pack template for custom settingsName>

  Identification>

  <ApplicationDefaults>

    <Property Name="RVT_PATH_LIBRARIES" Value="\\Server\Share\Custom Libraries"/>

    <Property Name="RVT_DEFAULTTEMPLATE_ARCHITECTURAL" Value="[C_TEMPLATES]\Custom Templates\default.rte" />

    <Property Name="RVT_DEFAULTTEMPLATE_CONSTRUCTION" Value="[C_TEMPLATES]\Custom Templates\Construction-Default.rte" />

    <Property Name="RVT_FAMILYTEMPLATEPATH" Value="[C_FAMTEM]" />

    <Property Name="YOURCUSTOMPROPERTY" Value="Your Custom Value" />

  ApplicationDefaults>

DocumentRoot>

Revit OpEd: Tip - Control Visibility of Image via Size Paramet...

Revit OpEd: Tip - Control Visibility of Image via Size Paramet...: "You can't control the visibility of an image file like you can other elements in a Revit family, such as mapping a parameter to the 'Visible..."

a [BIM] New World - Repost

Teresa Martin of a [BIM] New World blog has a good post on Search and Selection sets for Navisworks.

 Thursday, April 14, 2011

Search and Selection Sets Part II

Alas! It has been a month or two since Part I. Here is part II, of the long awaited sequel!

As I mentioned in Search and Selection Sets Part I (Post Dated 1-31-2011), Search Sets are the gold in Navisworks. This is where you get to drive. This is where you have all the control. Search Sets, as mentioned are based upon common data properties such as size, name, type, file, units, etc. This is why they are so powerful! If you know the common property to search for, you work here is done! And most importantly, you can re-use searches in different projects if they search for similar properties.

As an example, imagine a file imported from Revit (via *NWC Export). Revit, being the wonderful property based BIM format that it is, contains loads of property data (both instance and type). Now, envision some of the common properties in every Revit file, such as walls, ducts, beams or windows. You can set up a search in Navisworks to find all the walls or windows in the file (see image below).



In the data set shown above, I created a Search Set based upon the Revit Type Property: Wall. When I change this data set in Revit by adding a few additional interior walls, you can see that the Search Set automatically updates. Notice how there are now 9 walls, as opposed to 7 in the previous search.

Thinking outside the box, once you have these searches saved, they can be exported and imported into any other project. To export the Search Sets from a project, simply go to the application menu and choose Export>Search Sets The file will export your searches as an *XML file. You can then import the searches into another project using the import option from the application menu.


From a project perspective, Search Sets can be taken a step farther if you consider file and folder conventions as well. For instance, I can load data from a folder on my desktop named "Demo Files".

As I add additional data sets to this folder and append the *NWF file, the Search Set updates. For those of you seeing the big picture here, your job of updating the project from week to week just became a whole lot simpler if you took the time at the beginning of the project to create a tidy file and folder structure. If your current filing system looks anything like the storage system in my basement, you might need to do a little spring cleaning here to smite your errant file/folder conventions to alleviate the issue.

The image below shows how I set up my search to find a particular folder on my desktop. Of course for your office, you will want to path this to a server location and not your desktop for company wide use.


As a final thought, for those using Revit, you could put some custom shared parameters in the file to easily track in Navisworks, such as a FM parameter for items that need to be tracked for Facilities Management, etc.

Next month, I will be discussing the Appearance Profiler. Stay tuned!

Apr 14 - Autodesk Offers Europe BIM Survey Report

Apr 14 - Autodesk Offers Europe BIM Survey Report

Happy Birthday Steve

If you use Revit, there are are probably a few names that come to mind like Steve Stafford of RevitOpEd. Well, today is his Birthday! Happy Birthday.

Help Steve celebrate by attending the Revit Technology Conference and making him buy you a drink.

Revit OpEd: Keynote Application Update

Revit OpEd: Keynote Application Update: "Steve Faust is getting the word out that he has updated the application he created to improve our interaction with Revit Keynoting feature. ..."

Navisworks Add-on Applications

Publisher Add-on - Automated publishing of NavisWorks project files

DatalinkTools - Interface between NavisWorks models and the design data and documentation

Reporter Add-on - Report generating functionality for Navisworks models

Surveyor can be used with or without DataTools to view Property Value attrributes associated with objects in Search and Selection sets and then to report on any of these Property values in Excel. So anyone using Excel can view project data for MTO and analysis.

DocuLink+ enables any external document to be viewed simply by linking it to a Property value attribute associated with one or several objects. This broadens the value of NavisWorks® by making available a much wider range of data which is of interest to many more people than just design engineers or project managers.

Navistools DataManager - unique interface between Navisworks models and the design data


Navistools Reporter – generate material take-off / components reports directly from Navisworks model

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Echo - Installing 2012 Products

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Echo - Installing 2012 Products: "David Harrington mentions this morning that it is easy to overlook the option to customize your installation. See that little 'down-arrow'..."

Revit 2012 Product Keys - Autodesk Support

2012: Where to find your Autodesk Revit 2012 Product key

You want to know the product key for your Autodesk® Revit® 2012-based product. 

Autodesk's 2012-based software requires both a serial number and product key to successfully activate.
Product keys are used to differentiate software sold on its own from those sold as part of a suite. Ensure that you select the correct product key in order to successfully activate your software.
The product key is provided along with your serial number in the following places:

• If you received physical media, the product key is on the reverse of the package along with the serial number.
• Emails from Electronic Fulfillment notifying you of your new serial number also include the product key.
• Contract administrators can log on to Subscription Center to check for their serial number and product key.
• The Autodesk Business Center (ABC) can provide this information. Their toll-free number is 800-538-6401.

Revit 2012 - based product keys:

• 240D1 - Revit Architecture 2012
• 255D1 - Revit Structure 2012
• 297D1 - Revit MEP 2012
• 241D1 - AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite 2012
• 256D1 - AutoCAD Revit Structure Suite 2012
• 257D1 - AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite 2012
• 765D1 - Autodesk Building Design Suite Premium 2012
• 766D1 - Autodesk Building Design Suite Ultimate 2012 Autodesk Support

Revit OpEd: KarelCAD Revit Release Comparison via PDF

Revit OpEd: KarelCAD Revit Release Comparison via PDF: "The gang at KarelCAD have shared some pdf documents that provide an overview of what features set each release apart, for Revit 2010, 2011 &..."

Cloud rendering for Revit

Since the original posts, Limitless Computing has released the add-on for Revit 2012. 

Add-in Enables One-Click Rendering to the Cloud While Simultaneously Modeling in Revit

Boulder, CO – Feb. 24, 2011 – Limitless Computing, Inc., a leader in providing rendering cloud services, today announced the release of CloudRender for Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011.

The CloudRender add-in enables faster Revit rendering by off-loading the computer intensive process to LCI’s high performance systems. Instead of tying up local computers, users continue to work in Revit Architecture while the cloud renders their selected views.

“CloudRender is a timesaving tool,” said Dr. Errin Weller, Principal of LCI. “Now Revit users can utilize the power of the cloud as easily as using their local machine and continue working without being interrupted by the rendering process.”

As a member of the Autodesk Developer Network, LCI helps AEC firms increase efficiency and productivity by harnessing innovative and powerful cloud rendering services. LCI is releasing the CloudRender add-in to bring the power of their Limitless Rendering solution to the convenience of the AEC workstation. CloudRender can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/dH2uzJ

About Limitless Computing Inc.:

Limitless Computing, Inc., a high-performance computing company based in Boulder, CO, has been offering cloud computing services to numerous industries since 2006. Originally offering private clouds hosted in their data center, in 2009 LCI expanded by launching the online Limitless Rendering service for Autodesk Revit Architecture. LCI continues to use cloud computing to improve rendering time and efficiency with the release of the CloudRender add-in for Revit Architecture. For more information about LCI, please visit http://LimitlessComputing.com

###

Autodesk and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries.

Contact:
Limitless Computing, Inc.
877.663.3797
solutions@limitlesscomputing.com
LimitlessComputing.com

Showcase - Autodesk Real-Time Rendering for Revit

Received this email from Autodesk

We would like to thank you for your interest in Project Newport, and we are thrilled to announce that Project Newport efforts have been factored into Autodesk® Showcase® 2012 real-time 3D presentation and rendering software, which is now available!


Try it now and see how quickly and easily you can turn your Autodesk® Revit® Architecture and AutoCAD® designs into compelling imagery, movies, and immersive presentations for interactive design reviews, stunning marketing materials, and convincing sales pitches.

Watch our demo video.

Try it now for free!

"Showcase is a true game-changer when we present architecture designs to our clients. It brings 3D rendering to a higher level of interactivity, and provides the ability to explore materials and environments on-the-fly. I don’t have to come back to the office and press ’render’ every time I want to show my client another material alternative. With Showcase, the time savings are incredible."

- Gedeon Trias, Associate Director of Design, Larson & Darby Group

For more information about Showcase, visit http://www.autodesk.com/showcase.

Showcase 2012 can be purchased as a stand-alone product or as part of one of our suites, such as Autodesk® Design Suite or Autodesk® Building Design Suite.

Learn more at www.autodesk.com/suites.

Revit Clinic ReBlog

The RevitClinic has a great post on changing Revit 2012 to use either offline or online help.

Wax On / Wax Off: Changing Revit 2012 to use offline or online help

You may have noticed the new wiki help for Revit 2012.  http:\\wikihelp.autodesk.com\revit 


Just in case you don't have a internet connection, or simply want to use a local copy of help instead, a few changes to the Revit.ini can help.
Check out our previous post on the Revit.ini for more information about the 2012 ini file.
In the Revit 2012 ini there are two lines about help in the [Documentation] section:
[Documentation]
UseHelpServer=1
HelpBrowser=0
If UseHelpServer is set to 1 Revit will first look to the online wikihelp, if it cannot find a internet connection, it will pull up the local help instead.  If you set UseHelpServer to 0 the local help will always be used.

If HelpBrowser is set to 0 Revit will use your systems default internet browser (whatever that may be).  If you set it to 1, Revit will use Internet Explorer.
The wikihelp includes this information on the Online help page.

Revit OpEd: Help? Helped!

Revit OpEd: Help? Helped!: "I got an email this morning alerting me to the fact that my post yesterday was a 'perfect storm' of sorts. My post came on the heels of othe..."

Revit Server Survey - Closes April 20, 2011

Autodesk has opened a survey about the Revit Surver. The survey is intended for BIM Managers, Project Managers, IT staff, and other individuals that would primarily setup the Revit Server network in a firm.  It is NOT intended for end-users of Revit Server.   Please take 10-15 minutes to fill out the questionnaire and give us your thoughts.   In addition, please feel free to forward the link to other firms or staff that have implemented or are considering implementing Revit Server. 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RevitServerSurvey

Introducing Revit Architecture 2012

 Work is almost complete all the Introducing Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 book. You can pre-order on Amzaon.com now.

Revit OpEd: Help?

Revit OpEd: Help?: "Observations about the new Wiki Help for Revit and other Autodesk products: Internet Explorer 8 - some things just don't work. The controls..."

Revit OpEd: Autodesk University 2011 - Call for Proposals is O...

Revit OpEd: Autodesk University 2011 - Call for Proposals is O...: "Dept. of Echo - Autodesk University - stole their post entirely... ...snip The 19th annual Autodesk University is coming up at the end of N..."