Autodesk Revit Model Review - Duplicate Element Check

In my last Model Checking post, I covered using the CADD Microsystems Revit Model Checker to search for duplicate elements. Autodesk has their own Model Checker which can be downloaded from the app store. It seemed to disappear for awhile (maybe I wasn't looking hard enough), but it's back for 2016 and I hope Autodesk puts the previous versions back up.

I really like the Autodesk tool. It's simple, yet provides a great deal of flexibility for checking models. Within a couple hours, you can create an entire checkset for a project. The Model Review also has a API that allows you to create custom checks.

The only disappointment that I have with the product is related to workset checking. There is not a way to check for specific worksets easily, due to the way Revit stores workset values. I'll cover this in a future post.

I'm going to walk thru the process of creating a rule in Autodesk's Revit Model Checker for checking for duplicate elements. The Autodesk Revit Model Checker can be download from the Autodesk App Exchange.

1. In Revit, from the Add-Ins tab, select the Manage button in the Model Checker pane (Figure 1). This will open the Autodesk Revit Model Review dialog, where you can create and edit check files.
   
2. From the Check pulldown menu select Add > Cleanup > Duplicate Elements.
   This is a pre-configured rule, so we do not need to make any additional changes. We could however we could go to the Details tab and make some adjustments to the elements Rotation into account and overlapping phases.
   
    
3. Save the check and then run the results.

This is a really simple example, but very powerful tool.

Customizing the CADD Microsystems Revit Model Checker - Duplicate Elements

Customizing the Revit Model Checker from CADD Microsystems can be a fairly easy process, once you find the software you need and understand the basic structure of the tool.

To start customizing, the first thing that you need to do is download the Model Checker Configurator for Revit. Use this link to access the site. Once installed, an application separate from Revit is installed and it can be found in the Autodesk folder for your Windows applications.

Figure 1 - Model Checker Application Icon

Launching the Model Checker loads the dialog found in Figure 2. The dialog is broken up into three main sections:

• Section A allows you to Open, Create and Save configurations, as well as preview and export new configuration files for use with the Model Checker.
• Section B is where we create the rule checks.
• Section C tells you where the current configuration file is being saved.

Figure 2 - Autodesk Model Checker Configurator

Section B is where you will be spending the majority of your time and efforts. In our first example, we are going to define a simple check that looks for Duplicate elements in the model. While this is a simple check, it is important because it can result in inaccurate schedule information.

To create this rule, the first step is to open the Model Checker Configurator for Revit and to beginning defining the checks. The second step is to start defining the structure of the configuration file.

1. Click on the New button to start defining a new Model Checker Configuration.
2. Under General Settings and under Structure, click Add Heading.
3. Edit the Heading Title and Description. Name the Heading to reflect the theme of the checks you will be defining.

Figure 3 - Adding a Heading

The next step is define sections for our checks. For example, we may want to define specific rules that check parameter data and other rules to perform checks on geometry, etc. Using sections, we can organize our checks into groups.

1. Click the Add Section button under Structure.
2. Edit the Section Name and Description.

Figure 4 - Adding a Section

The next step is where we start to define the individual rule. In this example, we are going to look for duplicate elements.

Figure 5 - Defining the Element Check Configuration

1. Click the Add Check button under Structure.
2. Change the Title Name to Duplicate Elements.
3. Run Default. If this option is checked, the check will be set to run the first time the configuration is opened.
4. Enter the Description for the Check.
5. Failure Condition: There are two options which I explain below. We are going to using the Report Matching Condition option.
1. Report Matching Condition: When individual model element failures will be reported for all elements matching the filters defined. If no elements match the filters, success will be reported.
2. Report Failure when No Elements are Found: A failure will be reported if no elements are found that match the filters. Success is reported is elements are found that match the filters.
6.  Element Filter: This is the section that defines what we are checking. For our duplicate element checking, we need to define three filters.

Figure 6 - Duplicate View Filters

With these steps complete, you can now save the configuration. The file will be saved as a .XML file. You can now switch over to Revit. To run our new check, you first need to configure the Model Checker to run our configuration check. In Revit:

Figure 7 - Model Checker Pane

1. Navigate to the Addin's tab and click the Configure button in the Model Checker pane (Figure 7).

2. In the Model Checker | Open Configuration (Figure 8), click on the Open an Existing Configuration File radio button in the lower left-hand corner of the dialog. Then click on the more button to the right to open a dialog to select the example .XML configuration file that we created. When the configuration file is loaded, click the OK button to close the Model Check | Open Configuration dialog. This will open the Model Checker Configuration dialog (Figure 9).

Figure 8 - Model Checker | Open Configuration dialog

3. The Model Checker Configuration dialog (Figure 9) will list all of the rule configurations that are available in the .XML file that we loaded in the previous step. In this dialog, you have the option to turn on and off the rule checks that you do not want to run, by unchecking the checkbox next to the rule. When you are done making any changes, click the Finish button on the toolbar. This will save the file and make the configuration file available to run.

Figure 9 - Model Checker Configuration

4. Navigate to the Addin's tab and click the Run Check button in the Model Checker pane (Figure 10). This will run the configuration file that we have loaded in the previous steps. Clicking the Run Check button will open the Model Checker Processing Options dialog.

Figure 10 - Model Checker Pane

5. The Model Checker Processing Options dialog (Figure 11) provides would will options to select the models (links) loaded into your current project that you want to process and/or to add additional files to process. Clicking the checkbox to the left of the file name enables that model (link) to be processed. Clicking the Run Report button on the toolbar processes (Figure 12) the models (links) selected.

Figure 11 - Model Checker Processing Options dialog

Figure 12 - Model Checking Progress Checking

Once the models have been processed, a report (Figure 13) is generated detailing any of the issues that have been found. The nice thing about the report is that it will provide you with a link that will take you to the model elements in question.

Figure 13 - Model Checker Report