Revitize - Another Revit Blog

Payment options for Copy Spreadsheet utility for Revit

2012-01-26T00:08:00.000-06:00

We are very happy to announce that we have incorporated payment services to buy the fully functional Copy Spreadsheet utility for Revit versions 2010, 2011 and 2012 and the "Where is my command in Revit 2010?" in our website. The paid version does NOT have any restriction on the number of cells being copied at a time. You can pay for the licensed version here.
The utility does NOT come with any support and is sold "as is" with no warranty. Please check the evaluation version first before paying.
Cost: The pricing is based on the size of the firm, rather than the number of installed machines. The idea is that bigger firms can afford to pay a little bit more.

$2 : Firm with One or two employees
$10 : Firm with less than 10 employees
$25 : Firm with less than 50 employees
$50 : Firm with more than 50 employees

Please add $2 per order towards payment service fees and handling.

Version: Please check the correct version before you buy. The utility does NOT work in different Revit version. Since, this is a digital purchase, we cannot refund the payment, if you select the wrong version of the product.
License: After confirming the payment, we will send you the licensed copy of the utility by email in 48 hours. The licensed copy will show the name of your firm, location and the license type (number of employees).

Draftsight - An alternative to AutoCAD

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

It has been more than a year since Dassault Systemes (the makers of CATIA) have released their 2D CAD software, Draftsight. Their website says that the software is FREE for individuals as a standalone license. (Email activation necessary).
This software is ALMOST same as Autocad. (2008 version) and supports PGP, Plot configurations, etc. Very easy to use. You can download the software here.
This software is highly recommended.
Here are some screen shots:

Copy from Excel to a Revit Schedule 2012 64 bit

2012-01-11T04:17:00.002-06:00

After such a long time (sorry), I updated the script to copy data from excel spreadsheet to Revit Schedule. The updated script is available at:
http://bim.nichitecture.com/copyexcel.html
The evaluation version can be downloaded from the above link. The evaluation version has a limit of 25 cells that can be copied into Revit at a time. You can buy the utility here (at the bottom of this post!)
The software currently supports 64 bit and 32bit windows environment for:

Revit Architecture 2009
Revit Architecture 2010
Revit Architecture 2011
Revit Architecture 2012
Revit Structure 2009
Revit Structure 2010
Revit Structure 2011
Revit Structure 2012
Revit MEP 2009
Revit MEP 2010
Revit MEP 2011
Revit MEP 2012

The cost of the licensed version of the software:
Single license cost is $2;
Site license cost for a firm with less than 10 employees is $10;
Site license cost for a firm with less than 50 employees is $25;
Site license cost for a firm with more than 50 employees is $50;

I copy and paste from my previous post:
The script works with both Microsoft Excel and Open Office.org Calc.
The script copies a bunch of cells (rows x columns) and pastes them into a revit schedule (contiguous rows x columns).

The script works well if all the fields in Revit schedule are EDITABLE. (A normal schedule has lots of ‘read-only’ fields like Family name, Area, etc where this script will fail.) The cells also need to be 'instance' driven cells (as compared to 'type' driven cells)
The script does not create blank rows for data in Revit (yet). You need to create as many rows as you might need using this button in the Revit option bar before running the script.

You can buy the utility:
1. Register here.
2. Pay here.

Autodesk University 2011

2011-11-28T21:36:00.001-06:00

That time of the year again... Autodesk University in Las Vegas is about to start. If you cannot make it to the University in Las Vegas, dont worry. Autodesk is making most of the classes available online for FREE. All you need to do is to create an Autodesk account and register for the courses here. Autodesk has made the registraton process even easier this time by allowing us to use our facebook or twitter credentials...
Awesome!
If you use Twitter profusely... you can tag Autodesk University 2011 by using #AU2011 ...

ETransmit for Revit 2012

2011-07-29T00:45:00.000-05:00

At last Autodesk has come out with an etransmit tool for Revit. In fact, they have not released it to the market, but the tool is available at the Autodesk at Autodesk Labs Utilities eTransmit for Revit. This is a free download.

The best part of the tool is that it can be used to archive a Revit project. (We used to have a long list of 'to dos' to archive a revit project along with all the DWG linked files, etc. Now this can be done in one step. Nice.

This is an add-in tool and it shows up in the ribbon for easy use. These are the things the tool does:

Copies the central file

Copies all the dependent files

Changes the path for all the dependent to be dependent paths, etc.

Works ONLY for Revit 2012!!

This free download is available only until Dec 31st 2012. Autodesk might make it a subscription update after this date! (They are just crowd sourcing the bug fixing phase!)

Definitely worth a try.

AutoCAD WS - Web and Mobile Application for AutoCAD - Autodesk

2011-06-16T23:18:00.000-05:00

It has been some time since Autodesk released their web version of AutoCAD WS.

It works amazingly, whole thing is embedded within the web browser. Autodesk also has an app for android and iphone. Unfortunately the dwg website cannot accessed using Nokia web browser (It claims that it needs Adobe Flash support, which I thought Opera mobile has....)

Basically:

1. Create an autocad ws account (existing autodesk account will do)

2. Upload your dwg file.

3. Anyone, anywhere can can access your dwg and edit (as long as you give them access rights)

The dwg files can be collaborated online simultaneously. There are a lots of youtube videos that explain the features of the website.

Ofcourse, the online autocad is NOT full fledged version of the real one. But it is useful for most of the stuff you might need to do on job site or at coordination meetings. Very nice.

Copy Cells from Excel to Revit Schedule

2011-02-22T10:54:00.001-06:00

***********
This utility has been updated for Revit 2012 and for 64bit version for 2011 Revit.
***********
I had created a script to Copy Cell values from Excel to Revit Schedule view. I updated the script for 2011. The evaluation copy of the updated script for Revit 2011 and 2012 is available at:
http://bim.nichitecture.com/copyexcel.html
I hope this is helpful.
The script works with both Microsoft Excel and Open Office.org Calc.
The script copies a bunch of cells (rows x columns) and pastes them into a revit schedule (contiguous rows x columns).

The script works well if all the fields in Revit schedule are EDITABLE. (A normal schedule has lots of ‘read-only’ fields like Family name, Area, etc where this script will fail.) The cells also need to be 'instance' driven cells (as compared to 'type' driven cells)
The script does not create blank rows for data in Revit (yet). You need to create as many rows as you might need using this button in the Revit option bar before running the script.

Project Vasari

2011-02-21T05:06:00.000-06:00

Autodesk has introduced (sometime back) a, kind of rival to Sketch up. It is free and can be downloaded from here or
http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/vasari/
Really nice program. You can keep it in your thumbdrive and take it whereever you go. It does not have to be installed like traditional apps.
Even creating a sphere or a dome is a pain in sketchup. Vasari can do it very easily. Also it has levels, from which you can get all the floor areas and can be directly imported into Revit. In fact, the file format is RVt and so can be directly OPENED in Revit. Very nice.
(I hope autodesk keeps this software FREE!!!!)

Project Photofly from Autodesk

2010-11-16T20:20:00.000-06:00

Autodesk labs has refined their interesting program Project Photofly. It is a free dowload from autodesk. Basically it creates a DWG / or FBX (can be used with Revit / 3DS Max) out of photos taken of the building using your typical digital camera.
You take a series of photos of the building from all angles and the project photofly stitches these photos to make a 3D model. Autodesk has a detailed shooting guide. I suggest you read these before starting.
Something to look for:

moving objects in photos (cars, humans etc.)
too much background or foreground disturbances

We are starting on documenting a structure in a couple of weeks and will update this post!

AU 2010 - Virtual Classes

2010-11-10T08:12:00.000-06:00

The Autodesk University fever has started and this year around, Autodesk is offering virtual classes for those who cannot attend the event during Nov 30th to Dec 1.
Autodesk has issued a list of classes that can be attended for free. You can pay $139 and get a premium pass. (Even this is free for subscription customers) You will have to register for both the programs here: http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=registration_landing

Recover erased data from disks

2010-11-09T04:04:00.000-06:00

This tip is not about Revit.
Sometimes we erase (and also empty 'recycle bin') data by mistake. There are lots of commercial programs available that can bring back these erased data. "PC Inspector smart recovery" is available free from download.com and can bring back data from SD cards, thumbdrives, etc. too. Very hand tool.
Recently I visited an architectural site, and even though the CEO had allowed me to photograph the building, the stupid security guard got hold of my camera and erased all the pics. Luckily I found this program and was able to unerase all the photos!

AutoCAD 2008 Scale list and copying & pasting issue

2010-10-12T06:43:00.001-05:00

This is more of an AutoCAD 2008 scale list issue. In some of our Acad 2008 files, copying and pasting even a simple line took more than 10 minutes. The copy operation was quick. But the pasting operation went on and on. This is because of a bug in Acad2008 scale list, which the service pack 1 didnt fix. If you are on subscription and you are on AutoCAD 2009 or up, you are good!
There is a scalelist popup menu in autocad (typically) at the lower right corner.
Pressing this menu button shows the scale lists used in the drawing. Typically the number of list are less and shows like this:

However, autocad 2008 tries to bring in scalelist from any xrefs / blocks imported from other drawings and over a period of time the number of scale list can reach 1000s and makes the dwg really slow. The worst offender is the paste command (because acad is looking for ways to bring in MORE scale lists!!!!) The screws up with Revit whenever such a DWG file is inserted into Revit.
The scale list of the corrupted file looks like this:

This image filled up the whole screen.
To remove all these scalelist, you can use the "-SCALELISTEDIT" command. Typing the comand without the "-" crashes AutoCAD. Using the "-" forces the command to use the command line. You can follow the command line prompts to 'reset' the scale list. You will have to keep doing this if the DWG files gets corrupted again.

Moving a set of views from one sheet to another

2010-03-18T05:58:00.000-05:00

Revit does not allow the same DWG view to be placed in more than one sheet. For this reason, when we want to move a set of views from one sheet to another, it does not let copy or cut and paste. It gives a “multiple instances of the same view in sheets not supported!”

One way to move the views, is to open the sheets category in the project browser

and just drag and drop the views to another sheet in the project browser or in the DWG area.

Referencing Detail and Referencing Sheet

2010-02-17T10:18:00.001-06:00

Some of our government clients wants us to show the referencing sheet and detail numbers in the View title like:

Revit has this nice feature too!

Basically, these parameters show the sheet number and the detail number where this particular detail is referenced. This works perfect in most of the cases. However, sometimes the detail is referenced in more than one view (and so in different sheets). This can happen because of many reasons – dependent views or ‘show in – intersecting views’ parameter, etc.

In such cases, unfortunately, there are more than one referencing sheet that refer the detail in a drawing set. It looks like Revit shows the first sheet it comes across (per alphabetical order?) in the drawing set for this referencing sheet / detail parameter. It is read only and so, we cannot change it.

The workarounds is to manipulate the referencing sheet parameter by renaming / renumbering the sheet (not good) or to hide the unwanted callout / section / view tag category in the visibility graphics (not good again). (Just hiding the unwanted view tag using the View > Hide in view > elements option does NOT work!)

I think Autodesk should make this read only parameter a drop down menu where we could choose our preferred sheet from a list of available sheets…

If you like this option, please submit a support request with Autodesk.

Export to DWG from Revit issues

2010-02-10T06:00:00.000-06:00

Even though Autodesk owns both AutoCAD and Revit, it is quite ironic that the export to CAD command does not work properly. There are so many issues outlined even in 2006, and most of them are still resolved.

The most irritating is the one related to the dimensions. When I export a sheet like:

with dimensions and if I choose any option other than the “overrides BYENTITY” in the CAD Export Format dialog box:

It results in out of scale dims like:

Not good.

Page setups are not similar in Revit and AutoCAD. So those don't get transferred too.

AutoCAD has a ‘nice’ printer called ‘None’ which has all the page sizes. Revit should retain the paper size from the title block and use the None printer while exporting sheets. This will not give a ‘printer missing’ error message in AutoCAD (when the DWG file is being opened), but still give the user an option to select an appropriate printer from the user’s network to print to the correct size.

Turn off grids and levels from linked Revit projects

2010-01-28T06:26:00.000-06:00

We link a structural revit project into most of our revit projects. We typically develop the grid and after finalizing it, let our engineers maintain it.

We cannot show their grids in our views because, Revit does not allow the linked grid heads/extension to be tweaked. So, we typically copy/monitor the grids. However, when we tweak the grid heads, we see the linked grid head beneath:

One could go into the visibility graphics, and switch off the grids from the linked file on a view by view basis, but exploiting the workset option is more elegant.

Go to File menu > Manage links… and select the structural model and select ‘Reload From…”

and select the same linked structural file. Before pressing ‘open’, select the small arrow next to the ‘open’ button:

and select specify. Then press ‘open’. Revit shows the ‘Linking Worksets…” dialog box.

Select the ‘Shared Levels and grids’ workset and press ‘close’ and then Ok and again Ok. Now the ‘Shared Levels and grids’ workset from the linked file is closed and is NOT visible in any Revit view. Even though the linked grids are not visible, Revit still ‘monitors it!!!

If for some reason you want to see the structural grids, you can repeat the steps above to make them visible.

Structural columns dont show up in detail views

2010-01-25T12:44:00.000-06:00

This is a corollary to one of my previous posts: http://revitize.blogspot.com/2009/09/structural-framing-and-plan-display.html

Here is a structural column in the 2nd level plan view. There are two callouts – magenta is of Floor Plan type and the blue is of Detail View type.

The column goes from the 2nd level to 3rd level.

The respective callout views we get are:

and

But if the column is changed to span from 1st level to 3rd level like:

The column does NOT show up in the detail view type:

To make the column visible, you need to edit the family and uncheck the “show family pre-cut in plan views” option in the family category and parameters. More explanation on this here.

It is painful to edit structural families, because when we get the updated structural project from the engr., the family edit needs to be done again. Unless the structural engr does it in their project.

I would really like Autodesk to make this option as the default.

Edit dimension text at view breaks

2009-11-25T13:23:00.001-06:00

If a dimension spans a view break (split view), Revit does not allow the dimension or text to be edited. Here is a view break and a selected dimension:

The DIM text cannot be selected / clicked (we want it to say “VARIES”). To make it editable, we had to move the crop line first like,

and there after the dim text is editable.

Network maintenance of Autodesk service packs

2009-09-09T12:10:00.001-05:00

If you have to manage a lot of Revit versions over many computers over a network, things can get messy. It is difficult to keep track of which computer has which software and which service pack installed, etc.

Autodesk gives a nice tool called “Autodesk Product Manager” to keep a tab on this. You have to install it from any Autodesk software DVD as a part of the Utilities / Tools.

You can run this tool and do a search on just “Revit” or all Autodesk software. The tool gives a list of computers along with the version / service pack information like:

You can download the Autodesk product manager tool or get more info from here.

Structural Framing and Plan display

2009-09-01T08:32:00.000-05:00

When we link a Structural Revit file that has structural bracing into an architectural RVT project,

Revit does NOT show the true cut section in the floor plan (based on the view range settings). For eg. the bracing looks like this in plan:

However, if we cut a detail section or callout, it looks like:

which is the correct representation based on the cut plane and view range.

This is unacceptable. Revit should also show the bracing in plan view types correctly. This can lead to lots of coordination issues. To make Revit display the bracing correctly, ask your structural engineer to

Open the steel bracing family.

Go to Settings > Family Category and Parameters.

Clear the checkbox for "Show family pre-cut in plan views".

Reload the family back into the project.

After this is done, Revit show the bracing in plan like:

Even though the architect can edit the structural family to make this change, Architect’s edits in the structural file will be overridden when the structural file is updated next time by the architect. So, it is better if the structural engineer makes the edit it.

Thanks to Autodesk Subscription team for this tip.

Show History and Backups behavior

2009-08-26T10:23:00.001-05:00

Someone asked me a question if the File menu > show history command could be restricted to show only certain parts of the saved history of the RVT project. Typically a Revit project keeps the history of all the saves along with the comments (if any). Here is chart that shows the RVT behavior in various scenarios.

File type	Show History	Backups
Central File	All STC info since its beginning	No of backups based on the number entered while doing the first save as. (default 20)
Local File	All STC and local save info since its beginning	ditto
“detach from central” option while opening a file	copies history from original file	all backups lost from original
“save as”	Retains only STC history info.	all backups lost from original
“save as” with “Make this a central file after save” option	Loses all history	all backups lost from original

Print PDF to exactly 50% scale

2009-08-19T12:36:00.000-05:00

May be there are easier ways to print PDF files to exact 50% scale. Adobe Reader does not have this print to scale feature. We tried using the scaling feature built in with the printer. But this resulted in non standard size sheets, which we didn't want.

We found a very easier method. Just open the PDF using Autodesk Design Review 2010 (free software) and this software has amazing capability to print to any size / scale. Just wonderful!

Go to File menu > Open Autodesk Design Review 2010. By default it shows only dwf /dwfx files. But you can select other file types (including PDF) from the ‘Files of Type’ drop down.
The print window has far better options than Adobe Reader / Acrobat.

Switch on and off elements and invisible text

2009-07-29T05:47:00.000-05:00

In one of our projects we had some ‘owner furnished contractor installed’ (OFCI) equipments. We didn't want to show these elements in our contract drawings, but also wanted the ability to show them for client meetings, etc. The building is more than 10 floors, and there were 100s of such equipments strewn around.

The best way to achieve this would be to create a separate workset for these equipments, and when you switch off the workset (File menu > Worksets) these elements, along with their tags, get turned off.

The problem is our project was not setup this way. Even though we placed all the objects in a new workset, the tags didn't get turned off, because they were not really tags but dumb texts!! Text objects belong to the view workset and so, could not be placed in the newly created workset.

So, we were looking for a workaround. One solution was to create a new text style with almost white color (254, 254, 254) and no leader.

We assigned all the texts related to these OFCI equipment to this text style to switch them off! We have to just redefine the text style to make them visible again.

It still would have been better if we were aware of this requirement while setting up the project!

Instance grips stop working

2009-07-23T10:38:00.001-05:00

When you are working on a big project, once in a while, Revit gets tired off doing all the calculations, all the coordination and shows its anger on simple families that have instance parameter grips.

For eg., here is a very simple extrusion family with an instance grip.

Pulling the grip after working on the project for some time would not change the geometry of the family. If you go to the properties of the family and change it’s instance value, it works fine.

But still, one cannot pull the grips to modify.

However, if you use the align

command to extend (change) the geometry, the grips become alive again!

I don't know why this happens.

Vista file deletion problem

2009-07-22T05:28:00.000-05:00

I had written about a vista file deletion problem some time back. Vista would not allow a certain file to be renamed / deleted / moved. This happened to mostly DWG and RVT files that are more than 3 years old.

The happy news is that if you installed the web update 1 for the Revit 2010 versions, this problem should go away. If you still have this problem, please file a support request with Autodesk.