Revit OpEd: Room Separation Line Overlapping a Wall Error

Revit OpEd: Room Separation Line Overlapping a Wall Error: Another inspired by email: When you sketch a room separation line and it overlaps a wall you'll get yelled at. Revit will also store the...

Revit OpEd: Finishing Text

Revit OpEd: Finishing Text: I read a post at AUGI tonight that mentioned using the Modify button on the ribbon to finish typing or editing text. The intended technique...

Repost: Beyond Design: Invitation to beta test Navisworks Ivanov

From Beyond Design

Invitation to our beta program for Navisworks Ivanov

We'd like to invite our Navisworks users to our Ivanov beta program. This is great chance to get early access to our next software release, understand how the new features can benefit your workflows and provide us with input, feedback and suggestions for improvement. If you are interested in participation then please sign up using the link below with a valid work email address (i.e. not Gmail, Yahoo etc.) and complete a short survey.
All feedback and software downloads will be handled through the Autodesk Feedback Community website. The Navisworks Ivanov Beta Team will closely monitor this beta community for questions and reported problems. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and is essential in helping us to make a better product.
Thank you for your support, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Sign me up now to the Navisworks Ivanov Beta program!

Revit OpEd: Change a Level Association for a Room

Revit OpEd: Change a Level Association for a Room: I read a wish at AUGI asking to be able to change the associated level of a room via the Properties Palette. My initial reaction was, "...

MEP-BIM-Guru: Equipment Maintenance Clearance

MEP-BIM-Guru: Equipment Maintenance Clearance:   Here is a quick how-to and a few lessons learned when adding a maintenance clearance to equipment families. Sometimes these are missing f...

Revit Rendering vs Autodesk Revit Cloud Rendering - iRevit Repost

Craig Barbieri over at IRevit has a very interesting blog post about the differences between cloud rendering and rendering using local hardware.

Revit OpEd: Level Matching in Schedules

Revit OpEd: Level Matching in Schedules: If you've used the Level parameter in a door or room schedule to sort and group them you may have also been surprised when you attempt t...

Get Your Render On with The Rendering Image Contest!

From Revit Clinic

Do you love rendering?
Do you enjoy adding textures, shadows and reflections to create a stunning image?
Do you pull out all the creative stops when it comes to showcasing designs?
Then take part in the Rendering Image Contest!
Whether you’re a student, rendering artist, designer or small business professional - here’s your chance to show us your talent and do what you love doing from now until November 15^th, 2013. You could be one of the lucky three to feature exclusively in our Autodesk® 360 newsletter worldwide and receive fantastic prizes like an iPad, a $500 gift card and much more!
So what are you waiting for? Get your render on and follow these instructions:

• Create a still image rendering of anything you like: a building model, residential interior or object design.
• Visit Rendering in Autodesk® 360 and sign in to your Autodesk® 360 account.
• Upload your design from Autodesk® AutoCAD®, Autodesk® Revit® or Autodesk® Fusion 360.
• The final render must be done in Autodesk® 360 to qualify.
• Upload up to 5 images at once to enter here: http://autode.sk/render_3

Hurry! You could be the lucky owner of a cool Autodesk T-shirt if you’re among the first 50 entries.
Good luck!

Future of Construction?

​While at the BIMForum in Denver, I have seen some pretty amazing uses of prefab and modularization - though I am tired of the health care examples.

What really stuck me as interesting is the use of pre-fab for parking garages and stadium that can be dis-assemblemed. Yeah, taken apart and moved. Click here to check out the video.

Participate in the Autodesk SketchBook Pro Beta and More

From Between the Lines

We are rapidly approaching the big pre-release alpha and beta season for Autodesk. There are already a couple Autodesk products in testing now and you can sign up to participate by registering at http://beta.autodesk.com. By joining almost 70,000 Autodesk customer that participate in hundreds of pre-release feedback projects every year you will improve the quality of the products and you become a vital extended member of the product teams and help us shape the direction of the products you use, or future products and solutions you may need. 

The Autodesk SketchBook Pro team has a beta in progress and you apply and can get more details from the ONLINE APPLICATION

Repost: BIM & Beam: Using Structural Analysis for Autodesk Revit to more quickly test your design concept

From BIM & BEAM

If you are an Autodesk Subscription customer with a seat of either the Premium or Ultimate edition of Building Design Suite, Plant Design Suite, or Infrastructure Design Suite, or a seat of Revit Structure, you get the benefit of using the Structural Analysis for Revit cloud service.

Structural Analysis for Revit uses the power of Autodesk 360 to conduct the computationally-heavy task of structural analysis directly from your Revit software but without locking out your system while it processes. The service consumes two cloud credits each time you use it. In case you are still learning about Autodesk’s cloud credits, each seat of Subscription on one of the software packages outlined above gets 100 cloud credits per year and if you run out of allocated cloud credits they are available for purchase for 100USD for 100. You can find out more about cloud credits and metered usage here.

The service is powered by the industry leading Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis engine, giving you access to leading edge structural solvers, without the need to purchase and learn complex analysis software.  Structural Analysis for Revit is purpose built for engineers and architects looking to gain more insight to the structures they are designing and how they will respond to loading conditions.

This feature is a great way to test your designs early and often and iterate based on the results.

You can use these videos to learn how to get started with the service:
Preparing and submitting a model for Structural Analysis for Revit
Download and interpreting Structural Analysis for Revit results

Roombook Extension for Autodesk Revit 2014

BIM Aficionado: Revit to CAD - Nothing to Fear

BIM Aficionado: Revit to CAD - Nothing to Fear: We are well on our way to our goal of 50% DD on our new 'GA Apartment' BIM project, with a well developed model, fifty sheets set u...

Hotfix - Autodesk Revit 2013 - Spot Elevation

This hotfix improves product stability when placing Spot Elevations within Section Views.

Make sure that Update Release 3 has been applied prior to adding the hotfix. Verify that the build number of Revit 2013 is 20130531_2115.

The Readme contains the latest information regarding the installation and use of this update. It is strongly recommended that you read the entire document before you apply the update to your product. For your reference, you should save the Readme to your hard drive or print a copy.

	Revit2013_SpotElev_Hotfix.zip (zip - 14553Kb)
	Readme (htm - 81Kb)

The Revit Blog: Can't see it in the view? Here's 33 reasons *maybe* why

Repost from The Revit Blog

Can't see it in the view? Here's 33 reasons *maybe* why

Seems like finding missing items in Revit is a day to day condundrum. I have a routine of things to run through but I had never made a list before. This one was sent over to me by a colleage the other day and is Courtesy of Dave Jones' post over at www.revitforum.org 

Highly recommend printing it out or sending it to everyone in your company.

Can't see it in the view? Here's 33 36 reasons maybe why

I found this somewhere online back when I started using Revit and still find it useful. Hope someone else can use it also.

Checklist: 33 steps to being able to 'find stuff'

1. The object or category is temporarily hidden
2. The object or category is hidden in the view
3. The object is being obscured by another element
4. The object's category or subcategory is hidden in the view
5. The object is outside the view's view range
6. The view's far clip depth is not sufficient to show the object
7. The object resides on a work set that is not loaded within the project
8. The object resides on a work set that is not visible in the view
9. The object resides on a work set that is not loaded in a linked file
10. The object resides on a work set that is not visible in a linked file
11. The object resides within a group (detail model) and it has been excluded from the group
12. The object is part of a design option that is not visible in the view
13. The object is part of a linked file that is not visible in the view
14. The object has one or more of its edges overridden to display as ''
15. The object is a family and none of its geometry is set to be visible in the view type
16. The object is a family and none of its geometry is set to be visible at the view's detail level
17. The object is set to not be visible at the category's detail level
18. The element has been placed outside the view's crop region (visible extents)
19. The element is an annotation object and does not reside entirely within the annotation crop region
20. The object's phase settings or the view's phase settings prevent the object from displaying in the view
21. The view's discipline is prohibiting the visibility of the object
22. The object is affected by a filter applied to the view
23. The object is subject to an element override, set to background color
24. The object is subject to a category override, set to background color
25. The object style is set to background color
26. The object is constrained to a scope boxes that is not visible in the view
27. The extents of the object itself don't permit it to be seen
28. The object is a mass, and 'Show Mass' is turned off
29. The object's host view has been deleted (area boundaries)
30. The view's scale is prohibiting the object's visibility
31. The object is a linked instance with coordinates too great for Revit to handle
32. The user has incorrectly identified the link instance to which the element belongs
33. The object is in a link that is not in its correct position
34. Wall is subsumed by automatically-embedded curtain wall
35. Something is really far away from the middle of the project and when the view is zoomed to fit, everything disappears
36. Element is white and its edges coincide with other objects. E.g., GWB ceiling in RCP.

Link to the original Post:

http://www.revitforum.org/tutorials-tips-tricks/441-cant-see-view-heres-33-reasons.html

Posted by James Herndon at 9:08 AM

Inside the Syetem Repost: Introducing the Autodesk Building Performance Analysis (BPA) Certificate Program

Repost from Inside the System

We’re excited to announce that Autodesk has launched the Building Performance Analysis (BPA) Certificate Program. This free online course for architecture and engineering students teaches the building science fundamentals for designing high-performance buildings. Through self-paced online tutorials, quizzes and Autodesk software exercises, the BPA Certificate Program gives students the skills to help drive an industry-wide transition to performance-based sustainable design.
 What’s in the BPA Certificate program?

• Seven modules that include climate analysis, sun path studies, building massing and orientation, solar radiation analysis, wind analysis, and more.
• Clear “introduction to software” section within each of the seven modules
• Small clusters of content and quizzes that students can complete in short amounts at a time
• Case-based examples and questions
• Content focused on energy fundamentals and modeling with detailed Revit models
• Application of Revit-based tools (including Revit, Vasari and Green Building Studio)

This program takes an estimated 20 hours to complete. Following successful completion, students are issued a Certificate and a Badge that they can place on their resume, LinkedIn profile or portfolio. Students will improve and prove their fluency in the strategies and tools of sustainable building design.
Students - register here: http://autode.sk/19ZTv7a

BIMForum / McGraw Hill Prefabrication Survey

BIMForum / McGraw Hill Prefabrication Survey

RTC Australasia 2014 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Pullman Melbourne Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia

Thursday 29 - Saturday 31 May 2014
We are now seeking abstracts from individuals interested in speaking at the event. Note that this current call for abstracts is for the Australasian event only, and separate calls for abstracts will be made in relation to other events. You are free to submit abstracts for a single event, or for all, once the North American & European abstract sites have opened...

Increase your profile in the industry - speak at RTC Australasia 2014. This is your opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise.

Online abstract submissions close on
Monday 14 October 2013.

Click here for further information relating to the call for abstracts.

Beyond Design Repost: BIM 360 Field roadshow is coming your way!

From Beyond Design

You've heard my friend, Pete Billante talk about the cool features in Autodesk® BIM 360™ Field for the iPAD and how they've helped thousands of construction project managers, superintendents, and field engineers to manage quality, safety, and commissioning processes. Now, it is time for you to see the power of BIM 360 Field first-hand.

I'm excited to announce that Autodesk is kicking off a five-city roadshow (in the United States) on BIM 360 Field! The roadshow runs from September 17 to October 17. The first event is in my city (San Francisco) and is taking place in the Autodesk Gallery. By attending one of the events, you will gain a better understanding of how BIM 360  Field enables you to combine mobile technologies at the point of construction while supporting 2D and 3D workflows.
During the three hour event, you will learn how mobile devices and cloud-based services are transforming the construction industry and how you work every day. Each event will showcase a different local customer and highlight how they are using BIM 360 Field in their construction projects. Get answers to these questions:

• How do I manage my field data?
• How can I improve quality, safety and commissioning?
• How can I maximize the benefits of mobile devices in field management?
• What role does BIM play in field management?

Here is a list of dates and cities that we are hitting:

• San Francisco, September 27
• Waltham, October 3
• Ft. Lauderdale, October 10
• NYC, October 15 (To be confirmed)
• Houston, October 17

Register today for an event near you. Tip: search by product name on the registration page (Autodesk BIM 360 Field or Autodesk BIM 360 Glue) for an exact list of activities.

Don't see your city on the list? Not to worry, there are plenty of ways to learn about BIM 360 Field. For example, Microsol Resources is hosting a BIM 360 Field webinar tomorrow (September 10) and it will cover Autodesk® BIM 360™ Glue and BIM 360 Field workflows. We are always adding different types of events to the calendar so be sure to check-in and get the latest scoop from the BIM 360 team.

~Sunny

What NOT to do in Revit - Item #4 - Use the wrong object category

​When working in Revit, real world objects are broken up into several different object categories. For the most part, these make sense. But we can get into trouble when you use a Roof or a Wall object to model something other than its intended purpose.

For example, it is not uncommon for us to want to use a Wall object to create bathroom our module office furniture partitions. Bathroom and module office furniture partitions are walls so why not use a wall? The main reason is related to material and element quantities. If the Revit model is being used for estimating takeoffs, then the estimator without knowing could count the bathroom or module furniture walls as real walls in this takeoff.

The best practice is to create a Revit family for these types of real world objects. Initially it might take a little longer to create, but in the long run, it will provide easier editing and flexibility.

Revit OpEd: Paul Aubin Book Survey Seeks Input

Revit OpEd: Paul Aubin Book Survey Seeks Input: Paul Aubin recently mentioned that he's working on a new book, title TBA . The title is one of the things he's asking about in the s...

Revit: Often Forgotten Tools: Press & Drag

When is the last time you thought about the Press & Drag function? If you are like me, it was probably when I read Steve Stafford's Revit OpEd blog when he discussed Revit 2014's selection features

For Revit 2013 and previous, the Press & Drag (Figure 1) button is located at the bottom left corner of the Revit User Interface. It can be enabled and disabled by clicking the checkbox.

Figure 1 - Press & Drag (Revit 2013 and earlier)

In Revit 2014, Press & Drag has been renamed Drag Elements on Selection (Figure 2). It can be enabled and disabled by clicking on the icon (Figure 2) or by clicking on the Modify dropdown button and checking or unchecking Drag Elements on Selection (Figure 3).

Figure 2 - Drag Elements on Selection


Figure 3 - Turning on and off Drag elements on selection

By default, Press & Drag is checked (enabled). When checked it will allow you to Press and Drag any object with one click. In short, it is a shortcut to moving an object.
Press & Drag can be annoying when you accidentally move an object, when you simply just intended to select the object to perform some other action. If this happens, then you can uncheck Press & Drag. If you still want to move the selected object, you simply have to click a second time to drag (move).
My preference is to always have Press & Drag enabled, but that is a personal preference.

Revit MEP - HVAC - Process

​In my last post, I discussed the "process" I use to for creating Electrical models in Revit MEP. That in turn resulted in a lot of emails about HVAC, Piping and more Electrical questions. So I will start with defining the HVAC process I utilize. Keep in mind, every project is different and project deliverables and staffing requirements need to be accounted for when establishing a workplan for specific projects. This is a general process overview.

These are my process steps for getting started using Revit MEP for Electrical:

1. Develop a communication plan with the other design disciplines, especially the Architects. There needs to be solid and consistent communication about what is going on with the design and the model. You don't want to be spending time designing if the Architect plans on changing things. This is the most important item on the list!
2. Add Mechanical equipment and air terminals to the model.
3. Create the air systems (supply / return / exhaust).
4. Create ductwork.
5. Modify air systems as needed.

Accessing the Autodesk Database Link - Update - Level Names

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Accessing the Autodesk Database Link

*Update 09/03/2013
If you use the Revit DB Link, you might notices that in the Rooms table of Access, the value for Level is not reporting the Level Name. Rather it is reporting the the element id of the level, not the name. if you select level 1 in the model and go to Manage > Inquiry > Id of selection, you will see the ID for Level 1 is 311.

You can verify this by opening the Levels table in Access.

Thanks goes out to Chris Aquino of Autodesk Support Team for determining the issue.

*Original Post

If you have ever spent time trying to populate a schedule in Revit, you quickly realized that Revit is a horrible data entry tool. Bad news for us those, our projects require us to present a great deal of information, and sometimes that information is in the form of schedules or we may want to populate the model database with additional information for a COBie or similar deliverable that provides data that can be useful for the operation and maintenance of the facility at some point.

Autodesk has a database import export utility called Revit DBLink that allows you to import and export data between an Autodesk® Revit® 2014, Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2014, Autodesk® Revit® Structure 2014, or Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2014 project and an external database, and then more easily maintain relationships of linked data with Autodesk® Revit® DB Link. (The software is also available for Revit 2012 and 2013).

Some key feature of the Revit DBLink tool are:

·      A grid view of the data enables you to make any final edits before import.

·      Databases can be updated following internal or external changes.

·      The grid control enables you to create Revit shared parameters to add new fields to related tables in the database.

·      Changes to new fields within the database automatically update Revit shared parameters upon future imports.

Workflow

The Revit DBLink workflow is very straightforward. You will:

1.     Create an external database from data within your Revit project. In our example, we are going to use MS Access.

2.     Modify the external database. In our example, we are going to use Excel to add additional data to select parameters. We could also modify data as well.

3.     Update the Revit project with the data from our external database.

Getting Started

In this example, we are going to populate some finish information to the Room Finish Schedule shown in Figure 1. It is important to note that we are not editing the schedule when we are exporting data using the Revit DBLink tool. We are exporting the data associated with the various element types in Revit, which is used to populate schedules.

Figure 1

The Revit DBLink add-in should already be installed on your workstation. It can be found on the Add-Ins tab in the RevitDBLink panel (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Setting Up the DB Link

Clicking on the Revit DB Link button will launch the Link Revit Model with Database dialog (Figure 3). This dialog is our interface to importing and exporting data from Revit using the Revit DBLink tool.

Figure 3

Our first step is to decide what format we will be exporting the data to. As shown in Figure 3, we can export to MS Access 2000 – 2003, MS Access 2007 and ODBC. The first two options are pretty straightforward. ODBC is stands for Open Database Connectivity and allows you to connect to different types of databases, like Access, dBase, Excel, etc. I have had limited success using the ODBC drivers, so we will focus on using the MS Access 2007 option (Item 1 – Figure 3). If you are not familiar with MS Access, don’t worry; we are not going to be doing our data entry work in MS Excel. Exporting the data to MS Access is just a simpler process that trying to create an ODBC export for MS Excel.

With the MS Access 2007 tab selected and active, click on the [Select a new connection] text (Item 2 – Figure 3) to highlight it, then click on the Export button (Item 3 – Figure 4). This will allow us to create a database connection for exporting data. This will open the Select Database dialog (Figure 4). Enter the location and name of the MS Access database file you want to create and then click the OK button to start the export (Figure 5).

Figure 4

Figure 5

During the export, Revit DBLink will generate tables for data it has exported to MS Access. You don’t have control (at least to my knowledge) of the data that is being exported. So depending on the size of your project, the export can take a few seconds to several minutes. When the export is complete, you can open the MS Access database (Figure 6).

Figure 6

The Access database contains numerous tables representing the different element and data types that have been exported from Revit. You can open any of the tables in MS Access and explore the data or make modifications. Data entry in MS Access is very similar to Revit, so I prefer to export the data from MS Access to Excel, where I can cut / copy / paste more efficiently.

In this example, we are going to be editing data for our Room/Finish schedule. In the table listing, scroll down until you find the “Rooms” table and double click on it to open it. As you explorer the Room table, you can see that not all of the editable parameter data that is available to us to edit for a Room in Revit is not available in the Room table in MS Access.

Exporting Data from MS Access to MS Excel

To export the MS Access Rooms table to MS Excel, in MS Access click on the External Data tab (Item 1 – Figure 6), then click on the Excel button (Item 2, Figure 6) in the Export panel.  This will open the Export – Excel Spreadsheet dialog (Figure 7).

Figure 7 - Export - Excel Spreadsheet dialog

Set the destination file name and location for the exported Excel spreadsheet (Item 1 – Figure 7).  Under the export options, you have a couple options. Checking the “Export data with formatting and layout” (Item 2, Figure 7) will preserve as much as the MS Access formatting as possible in Excel. “Open the destination file after the export operation is complete” (Item 3, Figure 7) will open the MS Excel file when the export is complete. Click the OK button to being the export process. This will open another dialog box that will allow you to save the export steps you just completed. Click the checkbox to save the settings if desired. Click the Close button to close the dialog.

Editing Data in MS Excel

We can now open the Excel spreadsheet and begin editing our data (Figure 8). As you start editing the data, be aware that there is some data that cant and shouldn’t be edited. Notice that in Figure 8 we have data for Level, Area, Volume. Figure 9 shows the Properties Palette for a Room. As a general rule, if the Property Palette shows data in light gray, like the Level, Area, Perimeter, etc, then you should not alter that data in Excel. The “Id” field should never be altered.

Figure 8

Figure 9

For this example, I had added some finish information to the schedule (Figure 10). Now that we have completed editing the data in Excel, we can import that data back into MS Access (make sure you have saved your work in Excel).

Figure 10

Importing MS Excel Data into MS Access

The first thing we need to do in MS Access is to delete the table that you are editing in MS Excel. The reason we are deleting the table in MS Access is so we replace the data with our edits we completed in MS Access. Highlight the table in Access you want to delete, then right-click your mouse and select Delete (Figure 11). This will delete the table.

Figure 11

When you delete a table in MS Access, a couple of warning dialog will be thrown up. One of these indicates that you can’t delete the table until its relationships with other tables have been deleted (Figure 12). Database relationships define how the data in one table relates or connects to data in other tables. Allow access to delete the relationship, as we are just using the MS Access database as a means to assist with data entry.

Figure 12

From the External Data tab, click on the Excel button in the Import panel (Item 3, Figure 5). This will open the “Get External Data – Excel Spreadsheet” dialog (Figure 13). Specify the location of the Filename and then select Link to the data source by creating a linked table. This option will allow us to maintain a link between the Excel file and the Access database. Use this option is you know you will be updating the Excel spreadsheet regularly AND you will not be making changes to the Room data in Revit.

Figure 13

Before the linking starts, the “Link Spreadsheet Wizard” dialog (Figure 14) will open. This will allow you to preview the data that you will be importing from MS Excel into MS Access.

Figure 14

If you will be making changes in Revit after you have imported data MS Access, then use the Import the source data into a new table in the current database.

Importing Data from MS Access to Revit

Back in Revit, click on the Revit DB Link button (Figure 2). In the “Link Revit Model with Database” dialog (Figure 15). Select the export connection and then click on the Edit and Import button. This will allow us to preview our data prior to importing in the “Edit Database before Import” dialog (Figure 16).

Figure 15

Figure 16

The left side of the dialog allows you to select a specific table to review. The right side of the dialog will then display the data. If there are any issues with the data, a dialog box will throw up an error message. Once you have reviewed the data, click the OK button to continue. You do not need to select a table and review the data, you can just click OK to continue, but it is generally a good idea to review the errors.

When the import has completed, the Revit DB Link will display and html Revit DB Link Import Report (Figure 17) listing any issues with the files. It is very important to review the report to understand if the issues will or will not impact what you are trying to accomplish.

Figure 17

Figure 18 then shows the Room Finish Schedule with the data imported.

Figure 18

As I mentioned at the beginning of the paper, using the Revit DB Link is not always the most efficient way to populate parameter data.

Revit MEP - Electrical - Process

An interesting question came to me this morning from a using that is transitioning from AutoCAD to Revit MEP. He wanted to know where to begin and how to create an Electrical system.

When I training, I like to focus on the Process, how Revit works rather than just teaching what the buttons do (Buttonology). You can know what all the buttons do, but if you don't understand the Revit MEP BIM process and you continue to work like you would using AutoCAD, it is going to be difficult at best to be successful.

These are my process steps for getting started using Revit MEP for Electrical:

1. Develop a communication plan with the other design disciplines, especially the Architects. There needs to be solid and consistent communication about what is going on with the design and the model. You don't want to be spending time designing if the Architect plans on changing things. This is the most important item on the list!
2. Place your electrical equipment in the model.
3. Define the Distribution Systems in the properties of the electrical equipment.
4. Place your electrical devices or lighting fixtures, keeping in mind that each device such as a switch or receptacle places an electrical load on the system.
5. Select the lighting fixtures or devices and create a power circuit for it and the other dives for that room or area of the building.
6. Assign circuits to the electrical equipment.

Revit - Often Forgotten Tools - Starting View

 To speed up the opening of your Revit project, you should create a drafting or legend view. The "Starting View" button allows you to specify which view in your project will be the opening view.



Speaking of starting views, you can do a lot of things with starting views, from adding basic project information to conveying information to the project team. More on this later though...