The Architect's Desktop

ACA Structural Member Styles - Part 2

2012-01-27T00:41:00.001-05:00

First Article in the Series (Structural Member Catalog)

Structural Member Wizard
Sometimes you need a Structural Member Style for a standard shape which is not in the Structural Member Catalog. Or perhaps it is early in the design process, and you have an approximate size for a steel shape, but not an exact size. Rather than pick an exact section, you would like to create a generic member as a placeholder until the structural design is finalized. For these cases, the Structural Member Wizard can speed the creation of the necessary Structural Member Shape Definitions and Structural Member Styles. Access the the Structural Member Wizard on the Manage ribbon tab, by selecting the title of the Style & Display panel to expand the panel and choose the Structural Member Wizard tool on the flyout.

The Structural Member Style Wizard dialog has three "pages". On the first page, you select the Member Shape, from a list of standard shapes in three categories: Concrete, Steel and Wood.

The left pane of the dialog shows a schematic sketch of the standard shape selected, and indicates the dimensions over which you will have control. The illustrations that follow are based on the Steel, Wide Flange (I) shape, but all work in a similar manner.

With the desired member shape selected, select the Next button to advance to the second page, where you will enter the dimensions that will be applied to the Member Shape to be generated.

Most of the values will be shown on the sketch in the left pane; any that are not, such as E - Weld Radius, should be evident from the description. In this case, the Weld Radius is the radius of the fillets between the web and flange. When the values are set as desired, select the Next button to move on to the third page.

On the third page, you specify a name for the Structural Member Shape Definition and Structural Member Style to be created. The page also gives you a summary of the shape type and associated parameters, with the values you entered. Review these to verify that they are correct. You can use the Back button to return to either of the previous screens and make any changes, if needed. When you are satisfied that all values are correct, select the Finish button on the third page to generate the definition and style.

You can check what was created by opening the Style Manager (on the Manage ribbon tab, on the Style & Display panel, select the Style Manager tool). Under the current drawing in the left pane, expand the Architectural Objects node, and then expand both the Structural Member Shape Definition and Structural Member Styles nodes. You will find that a shape definition and a style using that shape definition have been created using the name you specified and the Member Shape selected and the geometric information entered in the dialog.

ACA Structural Member Styles - Part 1

2012-01-19T23:41:00.000-05:00

AutoCAD^® Architecture provides a number of ways to create Structural Member Styles. This series of articles will take a look at the various options.

Structural Member Catalog
If you are trying to create a Structural Member Style for a standard steel section, or for a typical concrete or timber member, you will want to make the Structural Member Catalog your first stop. The parameters for standard structural members, both Imperial and Metric, are already stored in the Structural Member Catalog, waiting for you to make use of them. Access the the Structural Member Catalog on the Manage ribbon tab, by selecting the title of the Style & Display panel to expand the panel and choose the Structural Member Catalog tool on the flyout.

The Structural Member Catalog is composed of three main sections.

The upper right pane will display an image related to the part of the catalog you are currently viewing.
The left pane is the navigation pane. By expanding the appropriate nodes in the tree structure, you can drill down to the part of the catalog that contains the member of interest.
The lower right pane displays the data associated with the node selected in the left pane. While in the upper level nodes, you can also double-click on an item in the lower right pane to open that node and see its contents.

For example, suppose you needed to model a W24x76 steel beam. In the left pane, expand the Imperial, Steel, AISC and I-Shaped nodes, and then select the W2n, Wide-Flange Shapes item. You will see a list of the AISC wide-flange steel shapes from W21x44 to W27x258 in the lower right pane. Scroll down in that pane until you see the W24x76 member.

Now comes the really hard part. Right click on the the W24x76 member, and choose the only item on the context menu, Generate Member Style.

In the Structural Member Style dialog, give the Style a name. The name defaults to the designation for the member, in this case W24x76.

Once you are satisfied with the name, click OK. You can create as many additional Structural Member Styles as you need. When you are finished, close the Structural Member Catalog by clicking on the "X" in the upper right corner.

You can check what was created by opening the Style Manager (on the Manage ribbon tab, on the Style & Display panel, select the Style Manager tool). Under the current drawing in the left pane, expand the Architectural Objects node, and then expand both the Structural Member Shape Definition and Structural Member Styles nodes. You will find that a shape definition and a style using that shape definition have been created using the name you specified and the geometric information stored in the catalog.

ACA: Model Views and Annotation Scale

2012-01-12T18:32:00.001-05:00

I made an interesting discovery yesterday, that may explain why I have occasionally had issues with viewports where the viewport scale and the annotation scale for the viewport are different. I suppose most people are a little more laid back than I am, and tend to draw on the Model "tab" without a lot of regard for how things will end up on the final sheet, and then compose the sheet on a Layout "tab" by eyeballing the corner points of the viewport, pan model space to get the target area roughly centered, use the scale control to set the viewport scale and then pan and/or adjust the viewport extents to suit. I like to think about how what I am drawing will eventually appear on a sheet, and work out how much of a sheet will be required for the drawing at hand. This often results in a non-plotting polyline in model space defining the extents of a particular drawing or detail, and I generally create a Model View of those extents, so that I can later create a viewport of the corresponding dimensions and restore that Model View and be done.

Yesterday's discovery was that I finally noticed that Model Views retain the annotation scale that is current at the time the Model View is created (when using the VIEW command). I did this while using ACA 2010; it may also occur in 2008 and/or 2009.

In the image above, you can see a Model View that I created of the area bounded by the yellow rectangle. This area is intended to be shown at 1/2" = 1'-0" (1:24) on a sheet. I "forgot" to change the annotation scale from the initial default of 1/8" = 1'-0", however, and so the Annotation Scale property of the Model View is 1/8" = 1'-0".

After drawing an appropriately sized viewport on a Layout tab and using the VIEW command to restore the Model View I created in that viewport, the viewport scale is correctly reported as 1/2" = 1'-0" on both the Viewport Scale control on the Drawing Window Status bar and on the Design tab of the Properties palette.

The Properties palette also reveals that the annotation scale associated with that viewport is the 1/8" = 1'-0" that was saved with the Model View. In most cases, having different viewport and annotation scales is not desirable. Note also that if you restore the Model View on the Model tab, the annotation scale will also be changed to that saved with the Model View. If the area is meant to be plotted at a particular scale, having that scale saved with the Model View would help automate getting the right scale associated with annotative content added as well as getting the the right scale when restoring the Model View in a viewport. So I am making a mental note to try to remember to set the annotation scale prior to creating a Model View. But can a Model View created with an incorrect annotation scale be fixed?

Unfortunately, the View Manager dialog does not provide a way to change the Annotation Scale property once the a Model View is created. You can rename the Model View, update the layer snapshot saved with the view (if any) and edit the boundaries of the Model View, but, as you may be able to tell from the gray background in the first image, the Annotation Scale property is not editable. I had hoped that while editing boundaries, that I would be able to change the annotation scale using the control on the Drawing Window Status bar, but that control is disabled when editing boundaries. In order to change the scale, you have to recreate/redefine the Model View, with the correct annotation scale set current prior to the redefinition. This is a fairly straightforward process, but it does require you to reselect the Model View boundaries.

With the Model tab current, set the desired annotation scale.
Start the VIEW command. In the View Manager, select the Model View to be recreated in the left pane, and then select the Name in the middle pane and copy the name to the clipboard. (You can skip this step if you are willing to type in the exact view name in the next step.)
Click the New button. In the New View / Shot Properties dialog, paste (or type) the view name in the top edit box. Make any other changes to the settings in the dialog as desired.
Click the Define view window button (or select the Define window radio button) and define the area of the Model View.
Click OK in the New View / Shot Properties dialog. Choose Replace in the View - Already Exists dialog.
In the View Manager dialog, note that the Annotation Scale property for the redefined Model View now matches the current, desired annotation scale.
Click OK to dismiss the View Manager and register your changes.
Return to the Layout tab and restore the redefined Model View in the viewport. Notice that now that the correct annotation scale is associated with the Model View, the viewport gets the correct annotation scale when the Model View is restored.

ACA - Multiple Cut Planes in One Sheet

2011-12-27T11:30:00.000-05:00

You may have a situation where you would like to show the same plan area more than one time on the same sheet, with the same Display Configuration, but with two different cut planes. For example, you might have a door with sidelights and transom, and you might want to show a plan view cut at the usual cut plane height, through the door, along with a plan view cut through the transom.

This can be done, but you need to remember that the cut plane height is set in the Display Configuration. Recent releases of ACA have had a control on the Drawing Window Status bar that lets you change the value of the cut plane without having to edit the current Display Configuration through the Display Manager.

Someone unfamiliar with the way the cut plane is set in the Display Configuration might think that you could set up two viewports of the same plan area

and make model space active in one and simply change the cut plane for that viewport. Because both viewports use the same Display Configuration (High Detail in the example shown), using the Cut Plane Control to change the cut plane height in one viewport

changes the cut plane in both viewports.

Changing the cut plane back to 3'-6" will, of course, change it back in both viewports. In order to have different global cut planes for the two plans, you will need to have two separate Display Configurations. This is easily done in the Display Manager:

With model space in one of the plan viewports active, on the Manage ribbon tab, on the Style & Display panel, choose the Display Manager tool.
In the left pane, select the Configurations node under the current drawing.
In the right pane, right click on the current Display Configuration, which will appear in bold type, and choose Copy from the context menu.
In the right pane, right click in the white area below the list of Configurations and choose Paste from the context menu.
In the left pane, expand the Configurations node and select the copied Display Configuration - in the expample, High Detail (2).
In the right pane, on the General tab, rename the Display Configuration with a more meaningful name, if desired.
On the Cut Plane tab, set the desired Cut Height for the cut plane of the new Display Configuration.
Click OK in the Display Manager to accept the changes and return to the drawing.
Set the new Display Configuration current in the plan viewport where you want the new cut plane applied.

Because the two viewports now use different Display Configurations, the global cut planes can be different.

Multi-Sheet Plans and Revisions in Revit

2011-12-12T18:05:00.001-05:00

Many projects have floor plans that end up being too large to fit on one Sheet. Revit makes splitting a single Level onto two or more Sheets fairly easy by setting up a Dependent View for each sector of the overall floor plan. Revit even includes a Matchline tool to make it easy to designate the extents that each Dependent View documents. Each Dependent View is then placed on its own Sheet.

When choosing where to break up your plan, and how far beyond the matchline each Dependent View should depict (model and annotation), keep in mind that Revit will automagically add a revision to the Sheet if a View on that Sheet contains the full extents of a revision cloud in that View. If you only place revision clouds on the Sheet itself, you have no worries. But for plan revisions, I prefer to place the revision clouds in the View, so there is no need to worry that the View will move on the Sheet without the revision cloud also moving.

If you show large areas of the model beyond the matchline or if the annotation crop extends well beyond the matchline, you are increasing the odds that a small cloud drawn on the View of one Sheet, but near the shared matchline, will also fall completely within the adjacent View's annotation area. If you are issuing both Sheets, that is not a big deal. But if you are only issuing the Sheet that actually has the revision, you would not want the revision to show up on the adjacent Sheet. Keeping things as tight to the matchline as possible will minimize the chance that this will occur.

Sometimes the way the project is laid out makes it difficult to establish a clean matchline to which you can closely crop the Dependent Views. Other times, a revision is relatively small and right next to the matchline. Here are a couple of ways to avoid having the revision show up on the adjacent Sheet.

If you have additional revisions in the same View, you can combine the cloud of the revision near the matchline with one that is farther away, and beyond the annotation area of the adjacent Sheet's View.A revision cloud does not have to consist of a single, closed loop of revision arcs. It can be open, and can also have multiple, unconnected runs of arcs. If any part of the graphics of a revision cloud is beyond the annotation area of a View, it will not show in that View, and will not result in a revision line on the Sheet on which that View is placed.
If you do not have additional revisions, you can edit the revision cloud to include a very small arc that does not fall in the annotation area of the adjacent View, in a discreet location in the View with the revision. If the graphics this generates disturbs you just as much as having a revision line on a Sheet that was not issued, and you turn off the display of revision clouds from previous revisions when making the next revision, you can wait until after you have printed the drawings to be issued, and then go back and add the small segment just before marking the revision as issued and turning off the display of the revision clouds for that revision.

Rounding and Column Totals

2011-11-25T21:52:00.000-05:00

If you have a Schedule Table column that displays real-number values that are rounded by the applied Property Data Format and you also display a total for the column, you may find that the total displayed does not equal the sum of the individual numbers displayed. This can happen because ACA uses the real-number values before the format is applied when calculating the total, and then applies the Property Data Format to the result. So if there is not a balance between round up amounts and round down amounts, the total can differ from the sum of the displayed, rounded numbers.

If this bothers you (it bothers me), you can make use of the same techniques discussed in this blog article, where the task was to get rows with apparently similar values to collapse into one row in a Schedule Table with a Quantity column. The rows were not collapsing because even though the displayed, rounded numbers were the same, ACA was using the actual values, before applying the Property Data Format, to determine whether or not the values were the same.

In response to an inquiry in the Autodesk ACA Discussion Group, I posted a sample file (AutoCAD 2010 format) demonstrating several ways a Formula property can be used to make the source value the same as the rounded value, so that the total for the column will be the sum of the displayed values (and, if you have a Quantity column, that rows with identical displayed values will collapse). The image below shows the test Schedule Table I set up to show how the various properties in the SpaceObjectAreas Property Set display. The file was created using the Aec Model (Metric Stb).dwt template and the AutoCAD Architecture (US Metric) profile.

The columns in that Schedule Table display two properties from the out-of-the-box SpaceObjects Property Set Definition: Name and Number. The remaining columns display properties from a custom Property Set Definition called SpaceObjectAreas. Here is a description of these properties, and the effect that the way they are set up and formatted has on the values displayed and the column total.

BaseAreaUnformatted: This property, displayed in the column titled "UNFORMATTED", uses the Automatic Base Area property of Spaces to display the area of the space. A custom Property Data Format called Standard-8 has been applied to this property and to the column in the Schedule Table. This is a copy of the out-of-the-box Standard Property Data Format, with the real-number precision changed to eight decimal places and trailing zero supression turned off. There is also no prefix or suffix applied to the value, so when referenced by formula properties, the value will be treated as a numeric value. The areas of the test spaces do not generate any rounding issues when totalled, as they do not require more than the eight digits displayed.
BaseArea: This property, displayed in the column titled "AREA FORMAT", also uses the Automatic Base Area property of Spaces. It has the out-of-the-box Area Property Data Format applied to it, which in its metric version displays real numbers using an Area unit type, units of square meters, decimal unit format with two-decimal-place precision and a suffix of " M2". Other than Space 101, the area of each space is rounded up when displaying the value to two decimal places. The total is rounded based on the total of the raw values (see the Unformatted column total), and results in a column total that is 0.04 M2 less than the total of the displayed numbers.
BaseAreaPassThrough: This property, displayed in the column titled "PASS THROUGH", is a Formula property. It takes the BaseArea property and uses the feature added in ACA 2007 that allows you to assign a different Property Data Format for the purposes of the Formula property. In the example file, a custom Property Data Format called Standard-2 is assigned, which is a copy of the out-of-the-box Standard Property Data Format, with the real-number precision changed to two decimal places and trailing zero suppression turned off. The Formula takes the value of BaseArea (rounded to two decimal places by the Standard-2 Property Data Format), makes it a string, converts that to a double-precision real number and passes it through as the final value. Since we want to have a total value for the column, using the default Area Property Data Format would not work, since this includes a suffix of " M2", which would cause the value to be interpreted as a string and therefore not provide a numeric value that can be totaled. Because the Property Data Format has trailing zero suppression turned off, the CDbl conversion is not required, but because I know this value should always be a number, I put it in, should the Property Set ever get copied to a file that already has a Property Data Format called Standard-2 that has trailing zero supression turned on. In that case, if the BaseArea value was a whole number, the result would be interpreted as an integer in ACA and the real-number formatting would not be applied.

Because the Formula property is generating the "raw" values with the area values rounded to two decimal places, the column total reflects the total of the actual values displayed, rather than the rounded sum of the source areas of the actual Spaces.
BaseAreaRounded_01: This Formula propery is displayed in the column titled "FORMULA ROUNDING 0.01". It accomplishes the exact same effect as the pass-through Formula, but uses the VBScript Round function to do so. CDbl( Round( [BaseArea], 2 ) ) It also assigns a different Property Data Format to the BaseArea property (Standard-8, in this case). In the example file, I could have simply referenced the BaseAreaUnformatted property without reassigning the Property Data Format in the Formula property, but I used the BaseArea property with the reassigned Property Data Format to demonstrate that you do not need to set up a separate, unformatted version of an automatic property if you are using the 2007 or later version. I included the unformatted property here so that I could display the area values to eight decimal places in the Schedule Table, so you could see the effects that the various formatting/rounding options had on the raw numbers. As with the previous formula, the column total matches the sum of the displayed values, because the raw value of the Formula property is the same as the displayed value. If you can achieve the precision and rounding you want with a Property Data Format, then you can use either the pass-through or the Round function method. As you will see in the final example, the Round function (combined with other mathematical operations) can do things that the Property Data Format cannot do, in which case the Round function would be the only choice.
BaseAreaRounded_05: As seen in the column titled "FORMULA ROUNDING 0.05", this Formula property rounds the area value to the nearest 0.05, and since the raw values are the actual rounded values, the column total is correct for the displayed values. CDbl( Round( ( [BaseArea] / 0.05 ), 0 ) * 0.05 ) The formula achieves the desired rounding by starting with the BaseArea property value, with the Standard-8 Property Data Format applied. It divides that value by 0.05, rounds the result to the nearest whole number and finally multiplies that result by 0.05 to achieve the desired result. I am not certain how often something like that might be used in a metric file (you could use the same technique to round to the nearest half-square meter, just change the "0.05" to "0.5"), but there are occasions, when using imperial units, that rounding room areas to the nearest 25 or 50 square feet is used as a means of not implying too much precision in early test fits.

In all of the Formula properties, the Area Property Data Format is applied to the property (and the column in the Schedule Table) to get the " M2" suffix applied to the value calcuated by the formula. Also remember that when specifying a property reference in a Formula property, you have to select the referenced property from the Insert Property Definitions box in the lower left corner of the Formula Property Definition dialog; you can not simply type in the name of the property, enclosed in square brackets. If you are interested in reading more about rounding in Formula properties or some of the other techniques discussed above, you may want to check out some of these earlier blog articles:
07/09/2005 - Unformatted Properties and Numeric Precision
08/31/2005 - Rounding Up Property Data Values
08/31/2005 - Rounding Revisited
09/03/2005 - Rounding Redux
09/15/2005 - Rounding to Death
05/01/2006 - Using Property Data Formats to Force Real Number Interpretation
04/15/2007 - ACA 2008/ADT 2007: Setting a Different Property Data Format in a Formula Property
06/16/2007 - Rounded Values and the Quantity Column

Revit Key Plans - More Detail

2011-10-19T23:08:00.000-04:00

It has come to my attention that my Revit Key Plans article can be hard to follow, particularly if you are not familiar with some of the concepts or procedures used. It was not intended to be a step-by-step tutorial, so I am providing this post to fill in some of the gaps and make it easier to follow along. This tutorial was prepared using Revit Architecture 2011; interface elements in other versions or releases may vary.

Start a new Generic Annotation Family. From the Application Menu - Big "R" in the upper left corner - choose New > Family. In the New Family - Select Template File dialog, navigate to the folder where you or your firm have placed the Annotation Family Templates, and choose Generic Annotation.rft.
Determine how your Key Plan needs to function. I do not want to have to place the Key Plan family separately on each Sheet; I want it to be part of the title block family so that it need only be placed once, and will always be in the exact same position on each Sheet. I also do not want to set up a title block family type for each Key Plan option. I do not want to show a Key Plan on every sheet in the set, so I will need a Key Plan type that shows nothing at all. There will be plans that show the overall building, as well as larger scale plans showing only one of the two wings. I want a solid fill to show in the Key Plan indicating the area that is being shown on that drawing. I also want to be able to show the Key Plan outline graphics with no fill.
Create the graphics for your Key Plan. You are going to have to figure this one out on your own. There does not appear to be a way to make use of any sort of graphics in a project file and transfer them to a family file. You can scale graphics inside the family, so you could draw the building outline in the family to scale and then scale it down to fit the area available in your title block for your Key Plan. As shown below, I created scaled-down outlines of the two wings of my building and then added text to identify the wings, filled regions with solid black fill for each wing, and the north arrow graphics. Keep in mind that the intersection of the two reference planes will be the initial insertion point for your Key Plan family and position your graphics accordingly.
In order to be able to control the display of the various graphic components, I created three type-based Yes/No parameters in the Family Types dialog. The first is for the outline, text and north arrow graphics that will be on whenever a Key Plan is to be displayed, but off when no Key Plan is to be shown. I called this parameter Outline.
1. On the Modify ribbon tab, on the Properties panel, select the Family Types tool.
2. In the Family Types dialog, click on the Add button in the Parameters area at the lower right side.
3. In the Parameter Properties dialog, in the Parameter Data area, enter the name for the parameter, change the Type of Parameter to Yes/No, select a parameter category under which to group the parameter - I used Graphics and select the Type toggle. Click OK to add the parameter and dismiss the Parameter Properties dialog.
4. In the Family Types dialog, I cleared the check mark in the value column, so that the current condition will be to not display the graphics.
  
  Repeat the previous sub-steps to add the remaining two parameters, SectorA and SectorB, for the filled regions associated with each building section. Other than the Name, the parameter attributes are the same as those for the Outline parameter. Uncheck the toggle in the value column for these as well.
With the Family Types dialog still open, create a family type for each display condition you want for your Key Plan, and turn on the appropriate visibility parameters for each type. In the example, I created five: No Key Plan (all parameters unchecked), Outline Only (only Outline parameter checked), Sector A (only Outline and SectorA checked), Sector B (only Outline and SectorB checked) and Sectors A-B (all three checked).
1. In the Family Types dialog, select the New button in the Family Types area at the upper right.
2. In the Name dialog, enter the name for the Family Type in the Name edit box and click OK to register the entry and dismiss the dialog.
3. In the Family Types dialog, set the appropriate value (checked or unchecked) for the visibility parameters for this type. (For the No Key Plan type, leaving all unchecked is correct.)
4. Repeat the preceding sub-steps to add the remaining Family Types needed for your Key Plan, setting the appropriate values for each type.
Select all of the graphic elements in your Key Plan that are to be associated with one of the parameters (in my example, I started with the Outline parameter, to which everything but the filled regions will be assigned). On the Properties palette, look for the Visible parameter, under the Graphics parameter group. If you do not see it, you likely selected an object, such as a Reference Plane or a Group, which does not have this parameter. Deselect these items. Select the button at the right side of the Visible parameter line. (In versions prior to 2011, do this from the Instance Properties dialog for the selected items.)
In the Associate Family Parameter dialog, choose the appropriate Yes/No parameter (Outline, for the graphics selected on the first pass) and then click OK.
Notice on the Properties palette, the Visible parameter and its value are now grayed out and the button at the right side displays an equals sign ("="). This indicates that the Visible parameter has been linked to another parameter, and cannot be edited directly. You can click on the button to verify (or edit) the chosen parameter.
Repeat the previous three steps to assign the SectorA and SectorB Yes/No parameters to the visibility of the associated graphics (in my example, the filled regions). Note: If you have any Detail Groups within your Key Plan Graphics, as I did to collect the various parts of the north arrow graphics, you will need to edit the group to be able to assign the appropriate visibility parameters to the nested graphics within the Detail Group.
At this point, your Key Plan family is complete. Save the family.
Open the Title Block family into which you will place the Key Plan. Load your Key Plan family into the title block family. (One way, with the Key Plan family open and current, on any of the standard ribbon tabs, on the Family Editor panel, choose the Load into Project tool. If you have multiple potential target files, choose only your Title Block family in the dialog presented.)
Your Title Block family should be set current and you should be prompted to insert an instance of the Key Plan family. If you are not seeing any "ghost" graphics of your Key Plan family near your cursor, check the Properties palette to see what the default family type is. Mine was set to No Key Plan, which has no visible graphics, so I got no ghost graphics to aid in initial placement. I changed it to Sectors A-B so that I could see all of the graphics.
Adjust the location of your Key Plan family in your title block, if necessary.
Select the placed instance of the Key Plan.
On the Options Bar, click on the down arrow at the right of the Label drop-down and choose <Add parameter...> from the list.
In the Parameter Properties dialog, in the Parameter Data area, give the new parameter a name; I used Key Plan. Choose a Group for the parameter; I used Graphics once again. Make this parameter an Instance type. This is crucial, as doing so will allow each instance of your title block to have a different family type displayed, which is what you want.
On the Home ribbon tab, on the Properties panel, click the Family Types tool.
You should see the Key Plan (or whatever your called yours) Label listed as a parameter under the Graphics group (or whatever group you chose). Set the value for the Label to your desired default Key Plan family type. This is the value that newly created (or newly updated) title block instances will use. I chose to set mine to No Key Plan. (If your Title Block family has several family types, you will want to do this for each Family Type. This only sets the default value; each instance can be changed to show a different Key Plan type because we made the Label an instance parameter. This avoids the need to create a separate Title Block family type for each Key Plan type.)
Save your Title Block family file.
Load or reload your Title Block family into a project. On a Sheet that has an instance of this Title Block family, select the instance.
On the Properties palette, notice that, under the Graphics parameter group (or whatever parameter group you assigned to the Label applied to the Key Plan instance in your Title Block family), there is now a parameter called Key Plan, the value of which is a drop-down list of the family types you created in your Key Plan family. Choose the type you want to see for that particular Sheet.

ACA Openings with "Style"

2011-10-11T19:25:00.000-04:00

The Opening object in ACA does not have styles. So, unlike Doors, Windows and many other ACA object types, you can not control the display of Openings with overrides at the style level, nor can you attach style-based Property Sets. Given the relatively limited display components associated with Openings,

not having styles may not be a problem for you. But if you have ever wanted to show different types of Openings in different ways, and wished that you could control these displays at the style level, rather than having to make the changes on each individual Opening, then you may be interested to know that it is possible use a Door to emulate an Opening, and thereby gain the benefits of having an Opening-like object that has styles. Another advantage of doing this is that you can assign a Profile to a Door Style acting as an "opening", allowing you to have non-rectangular "openings".

Before diving into the specifics, it is worth noting some of the limitations. If you make use of the Fill Types in the plan display of Openings, and you use a hatch pattern other than Solid Fill for the fill, you will likely be disappointed, as the use of a unit block to mimic the Fill Types will almost always result in a distortion of the hatch pattern since the Width and Depth dimensions will likely result in unequal scaling of the block. Another minor limitation is that, unlike when selecting the Triangle A or Triangle B Fill Types, the display of Cross Line B will not automatically be suppressed when turning on the display of the custom block for Triangle A or Triangle B. The four Fill Types are also not mutually exclusive - you could accidentally have more than one turned on at a time. If none of the above are deal breakers for you, then read on to see what is needed to set up a Door Style to enable "openings" with style.

Custom Blocks
In order to duplicate the components available in an Opening object, you will need to create eight "unit" blocks, one for each component. A description of unit blocks can be found in this blog post. The graphics of each unit block fit within a one-unit by one-unit area; the eight unit blocks can be seen in the image below. The insertion point is in the lower left corner of each block. The linework or hatch in each block is drawn on Layer 0, with Color, Linetype, Plot style (if you use named plot styles) and Lineweight set to ByBlock, so that the Display System will be able to contol all of these properties.

The four blocks on the left side provide the graphics for the equivalent of the Length Lines, Width Lines, Cross Line A and Cross Line B components of an Opening. The four blocks on the right side provide the equivalent of the four Fill (Hatch) Types: Cross A, Cross B, Triangle A and Triangle B, provided that you set the Hatch component to use a Solid hatch.

Door Style as Opening
With the custom blocks defined, you can now create the Door Style that will be used as a style-based "opening". The following steps will show how to do that, matching the out-of-the-box Display settings for Openings; if your office has customized those settings, you will likely want to use those instead. On the Manage ribbon tab, on the Style & Display panel, click the Style Manager tool to open the Style Manager. Expand the Architectural Objects node (under the drawing in which the unit blocks are defined) and select the Door Styles node. In the right pane, right click on the Standard Door Style and choose Copy from the context menu, and then right click over a blank area on the right pane and choose Paste to create a copy. In the left pane, select the new copy (mine was called Standard (2)) and choose the General tab. Rename the style in accordance with your firm's naming convention. (I used Door as Opening for my example style, and provided a description for the style.)

On the Dimensions tab, in the Frame area in the upper right, set the width to 0" and make certain that the Auto-Adjust to Width of Wall toggle is checked. Simply turning off the Frame component is not enough - you need to set the Width of the Frame component to 0 here so that the Width set on the Door (as Opening) will also be the width of the actual opening created in the Wall.

On the Design Rules tab, change the Door Type to Pass Through. If you are looking to create a non-rectangular opening, you would assign the profile on this tab.

You can set up standard sizes on the Standard Sizes tab, if you like. On the Display Properties tab, click on the toggle in the Style Override column for the Plan Display Representation to set and edit a style-level override.

The Display Properties dialog will open. On the Layer/Color/Linetype tab, turn off the display of all components by clicking on all yellow lightbulbs in the Visible column to turn them off.

This will suppress the display of the standard Door components in a plan view. The custom blocks will now be added to provide the equivalent of the components for Openings. On the Other tab of the Display Properties dialog, click on the Add button.

In the Custom Block dialog, do the following:

Click the Select Block button and choose a block definition to add as a custom display block in the Select a Block dialog. In the example, the Dr as Opng - Length Lines block is selected. This is the Length Lines block illustrated above. Click OK to register your change - the block name will be displayed to the right of the Select Block button.
Choose the conditions under which the custom block will display (Always, When Intersectiong Cut Plane, When Above Cut Plane, When Below Cut Plane). In a brief experiment, I found that Opening object components, when "on", appear to display regardless of whether the Opening is cut by the cut plane, above the cut plane or below the cut plane, so I left all of my custom blocks set to Always display. You may choose to do differently, if it meets your needs.
In the Scale to Fit area, enable the scaling toggles for Width and Depth. This will cause our unit block to be scaled to match the user specified Width for the Door object and the width of the partition (because we enabled the Auto-Adjust to Width of Wall toggle on the Dimensions tab of the style). Since the block only contains 2D (plan) graphics, we do not need to scale it for Height. Choosing both Width and Depth scaling will disable the Lock XY Ratio toggle, which we would not want to use here.
Clear all of the Mirror In toggles (none should be selected when first adding a block; verify that none are selected).
Set the Insertion Point to X: Left, Y: Front and Z: Bottom, if it is not already set that way. This coordinates with the insertion point of the unit block being in the lower left corner of the block's extents.
No Insertion Offset is required; verify all values are set to 0.
The only choice of Component for a Door is Frame Component. Verify it is set to Outside, which should be the default value.

Click OK in the Custom Block dialog to register your changes. TIP: The preview display on the right side of the Custom Block dialog does not always display the block properly when first added. If you want to use the preview to be certain that your settings are correct, click OK, and then, back on the Other tab of the Display Properties dialog, select the block you added in the list and click the Edit button. It should now be correctly displayed for the settings you have chosen.

Repeat the process above to add the blocks for the Width Lines, Cross Line A, Cross Line B, Cross A, Cross B, Triangle A and Triangle B custom display blocks. I used the same settings for each block.

Return to the Layer/Color/Linetype tab. In addition to the out-of-the-box components previously shown here, you will find that each of your custom blocks is now listed as a display component.

This is where you will control the visibility and display parameters of the custom blocks. You will not have a Fill type tab, as an Opening object does; instead, you will need to control the display of each fill option individually, here. You also will not have a Hatching tab, so, as noted at the beginning of this post, you will not be able to select a hatching type - solid fill is "hard coded" into the custom display block of each fill type. In order to match the out-of-the-box display for Openings, you will need to turn off all of the custom display blocks except for the Length Lines block, and set the display parameters as shown in the image below.

You are, of course, free to use your own settings. Click OK in the Display Properties dialog to register the changes made to the Door as Opening Door Style. In the Style Manager, click OK to save the changes to the drawing file (and then save the drawing file), or click Apply if you want to continue editing styles in the Style Manager. To test your new style, you can either make duplicates the style and then modify the style-level override display settings in each to turn on different sets of components, to verify that each works as expected, or you can place multiple instances of your Door as Opening "with style" and then apply object-level overrides to test each component's display. Ultimately, you will want to create multiple styles, since the whole point of creating this Door Style was to be able to control the display of "openings" at the style level. To complete the emulation of an Opening object, you will need to create a Tool palette tool for each Door as Opening Door Style and that uses the OPENING Layer Key as an override, so that the Door object created get placed on the same layer as an Opening object (by default).

If you use the Schedule Feature to create a Door Schedule for your "real" Doors and do not want these "opening Doors" showing up in the Schedule Table, you can apply a Layer Filter to your Door Schedule or you can set up and apply a Classification Definition to exclude the opening Door Styles from your Schedule Table. Refer to this blog article for more information on filtering the objects in a Schedule Table.

You can find a sample file that contains the style used to generate the screen captures shown here, along with some copied styles with different custom blocks turned on, in this thread in the AutoCAD Architecture Content Discussion Group.

ACA 2012 Service Pack 1 Released

2011-10-08T18:44:00.000-04:00

Apparently Autodesk has decided to go back to calling them Service Packs, rather than Updates. Service Pack 1 for AutoCAD Architecture 2012 is now available - download it from here.

Be certain to read the README for installation instructions. According to the README, Service Pack 1 restores the former ARRAY command functionality, in a new command called ARRAYCLASSIC. There is also a new System Variable, SNAPGRIDLEGACY: set this to 1 to have the cursor always snap to the grid (legacy snap behavior); set it to 0 to have it snap to the grid only when AutoCAD has prompted for point input.

The following ACA defects have been addressed:

Drawing Manager

Selecting a sheet with a long name may cause unexpected behavior in AutoCAD Architecture.
Opening a project with a large number of files in a 64-bit machine may cause AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

IFC

Space containment does not work on a 64-bit operating system.

Multi-View Block

Exporting multi-view blocks to AutoCAD may result in an incorrect size.

Profile

Some AEC ARX files are loaded when running AutoCAD Architecture with an AutoCAD profile.

Renovation

Renovation function fails when you add a door or window object during renovation mode.
Sometimes the renovation toggle remains enabled even after exiting the renovation mode.

Section

Building geometry may change after you activate and then disable the live section.
Roof or roof cap solid hatch might be displayed in section incompletely.

Space/Zone

Some merged space area are calculated incorrectly.
When the unit area is inconsistent with its unit length, the calculated space area might be inaccurate.

Structural Member

Adjusting column grid can cause beams to lose connection with the columns.

Tag

Adding tags for doors on multiple reference copies may cause unexpected behavior in AutoCAD Architecture.

Wall

REPOSITIONALONG command does not work for doors and windows.
Running the JOIN command on two connected walls may cause unexpected behavior in AutoCAD Architecture.
When you offset a wall using another wall with the same direction as the reference, the offset wall may be created in the opposite direction.
The Below Cut Plan display component of doors or window may not display.

The following AutoCAD defects have been addressed:

3D Navigation Tools

3DConnexion settings are not being remembered after changes are made.
3Dconnexion device will not cancel the current command.

3D Surface Modeling

With dynamic input off dragging the height handle of an extruded line will not always stretch by the value and direction of the drag.
AutoCAD may become unstable when rebuilding a helix to a spline where the selection was not dropped.

Annotation Scaling

AutoCAD may become unstable while attempting to load a DCL file with errors from a long file name.
Tooltip does not appear when Additional tool tip string is set in “AcEdInputPointMonitor::monitorInput”.
API fix: This fix will respect the custom color, line pattern and line weight when selecting the entities including external reference.

Autoloader

Autoloader fails when SeriesMax parameter set to linked.
Autoloader loads partial CUI but may not display it when the bundle is removed and reinstalled.
When platform="AutoCAD*", bundles will be load on ACAD and Vertical.
Using Autoloader to add custom CUI files that contain WPF Custom Controls will not work as it needs a registry entry.

Blocks

AutoCAD may become unstable while snapping to blocks containing OLE objects.
Editing attribute text in EATTEDIT dialog sometimes results in a fatal error.
When a drawing is saved from within the Block Editor, the entire content of the drawing is sometimes lost and replaced with the content of the block being edited.
Sometimes there is a delay while trying to modify blocks containing a Block Table Parameter.
AutoCAD becomes unstable when entering the block editor, attempting to edit a dynamic block which has geometry on a locked layer.
Sometimes the BEDIT toolbar does not get hidden after exiting block editor.

Digitizer

You may receive an error at the command line after enabling a WinTab driver and the tablet will not function.

Display Drivers

Integrated chipsets are unable to return available video memory correctly.

DWF

Arcs and circles viewed on edge appear as a single line. This changes 2D DWF/DWFx drivers to plot them as a single line, rather than a polyline.

DWG

AutoCAD may become unstable when using the "UNDO" command on drawings that are 2 gigabyte or larger.

Dimensions

Ordinate dimensions in paper space are not correctly reflecting the distance from paper space UCS.

ETRANSMIT

AutoCAD may become unstable while closing a drawing after etransmitting it using the COM API.

Exchange

Autodesk Exchange may display a non-subscription link after updating to a subscription serial number.
User login IDs that contained special characters like “@” could not log in to online services.

Express Tools

AutoCAD may become unstable when using the NCOPY command.
Overkill may delete polylines incorrectly when working with reversed polylines.
Overkill may not work well when there is an arc segment in between 2 line segments.

Hatch

AutoCAD may become unstable when using the “separate hatch” option.

Image

Multi frame QuickBird Tiff image files may not display expected colors.
When trying to insert an Adobe Photoshop PSD file it was not visible in the file filter list.
AutoCAD may become unstable when inserting an AdobePhotoshop PSD file.

Layer

Changing layer colors of layers beginning with non-alphanumeric characters may result in other layers changing colors.
The layer state Ribbon control does not honor the apply properties viewport overrides.

MLeader

AutoCAD may become unstable when drawings with multileaders are saved to older versions.

Modify

AutoCAD may become unstable when editing polylines.
NCOPY may fail to copy objects contained in blocks that were inserted into paper space.

Mtext

Mtext Paragraph spacing value cannot be edited once a value is set.
True Type (TTF) font text or mtext is blurry, bold, and distorted when the viewport is non-orthogonal because XY values are not exactly zero.

OLE (Object Linking & Embedding)

AutoCAD may become unstable when copying from an Excel file back to AutoCAD.

Open/Save

Cannot open drawing files from file Explorer if the drawing contains a "'%'" in the file name.

Other

AutoCAD may stop responding when saving and or opening drawings with Symantec Norton 360 Version 5 installed on your system.
You will be unable to open drawings created using a non-Autodesk product when using the Open() API.
AutoCAD may become unstable when selecting the grid in some drawings.
AutoCAD may become unstable after editing MTEXT in a viewport and when exiting the program.

Parametric Drawing

Area is wrong when coincident constraints are applied to entities.

PDF Export

AutoCAD may become unstable when using PDF Export on files that contain MS Mincho font.

PDF Underlay

AutoCAD may become unstable when unloading a PDF underlay.
AutoCAD may become unstable when an undefined PDF underlay is unloaded.
AutoCAD may become unstable when plotting drawings that include “MS Mincho” to PDF.

Performance

Drawings containing many layers may become slower with each pan and zoom operation when the ribbon is active. Performance improvement in 64bit COM APIs.

Plot

You may experience data loss when sending multiple plots to Xerox printers.
AutoCAD may become unstable when selecting plot preview.

Purge

AutoCAD may become unstable when using the purge command.

Ribbon

The linetype preview may be missing from the linetype dropdown in Ribbon Properties panel when opening drawings from the Application Menu.
Ribbon Combo Box text eight may be empty when using "TEXTEDIT" on multiple dimensions.

Snaps

With Snap enabled, the cursor does not move to snap intervals.
Turning SNAPGRIDLEGACY ON will restore the old Snap behavior of the cursor when no command is active.
Restores legacy SNAP behavior during certain LISP-based selection commands.

Sheet Set Manager

Sheet List Table Context menu in Sheet Set Manager (SSM) is missing some menu items.

Tables

Cell style is grayed out when picking inside any cell.
The data link menu is grayed out after inserting a data link in a table.

UI Enhancements

AutoCAD may become unstable attempting to edit a polyline vertices Pedit tangent.
AutoCAD may become unstable in group selection where the group contains a box.
When objects are on locked layers you are able to nudge them.
AutoCAD may become unstable when interacting with the ViewCube while grip editing.
When right click menus are disabled, selection or crossing right click actions are incorrect.

Visual Basic for Application

AcFocusCtrl cannot be inserted in a VBA form.

Visual Lisp

Attribute dialog will be displayed when inserting a block with attributes based on the setvar ATTDIA value.

Visual Styles

AutoCAD may become unstable when using osnap in a 2d hide view.

External Reference

AutoCAD may become unstable when interacting between the open dialog and the XREF manager.

Zoom/Pan

AutoCAD may become unstable when zooming over the XY indicator in Layout.

Unit Blocks

2011-09-02T15:27:00.000-04:00

A unit block is an AutoCAD block definition in which all of the graphics are drawn within the confines of a one-unit by one-unit area (or, for 3D blocks, a one-unit by one-unit by one-unit volume). The block can then be inserted with X- and Y-scale factors (or X-, Y- and Z- scale factors in the case of a 3D block) equal to the actual size of that instance. For example, HVAC supply diffusers are often represented by a rectangle with opposite corners connected by diagonal lines

You could set up a number of blocks for all of the different sizes you would need (or, in more recent versions, master the creation of dynamic blocks). Or, you can create a single, unit block and then set the X- and Y- scale values to get the size needed for a particular instance.

The unit block concept remains useful, even with the advent of dynamic blocks, as ACA objects that use blocks (such as for the view blocks of Multi-View Blocks or for custom display blocks added to many object types) often can take advantage of the unit block concept, and dynamic blocks will not remain dynamic when nested within an ACA object.

Early AU Registration for AU Members

2011-08-30T21:22:00.001-04:00

"Early" registration for AU 2011 is now open for AU members. Regular registration starts September 7. Register at the AU website.

Autodesk University 2011 Course Catalog

2011-08-17T18:44:00.000-04:00

The class catalog is out for Autodesk University 2011.

Anyone still wondering where Autodesk's priorities lie may want to consider that setting Autodesk Revit Architecture as the Software and leaving all other filters set to All (or, for Keywords, blank) returns 137 hits.

Doing the same for AutoCAD Architecture returns 22 hits. Of those 22 hits, a number are actually Revit Architecture classes incorrectly classified or are about making the transition from ACA to RA. Two are AMEP classes. Quite a few others are about some other topic but mysteriously list AutoCAD Architecture as the software.

So ACA actually only has one hands-on lab and four lectures (one of which mentions ACA in the title but lists Navisworks as the primary software). Yet somehow they managed to set up the schedule such that there are two time conflicts, so at most you could take three ACA-related classes. Hardly worth the cab fare from the airport.

No doubt there are misclassifications in the 137 hits for Revit Architecture, and there are unconference and virtual classes in there too, but I bet you can fill just about every class slot with something related to Revit Architecture.

ACA: Adding a Style-Based Property Set

2011-07-23T22:05:00.002-04:00

A style-based Property Sets is handy in that you only need to attach it to the Style or Definition once, and then it travels with the Style without any additional effort on your part. Most automatic properties are good candidates for a style-based Property Set, as are manual properties whose values remain constant for all instances of the Style or Definition. Location properties should generally be in object-based Property Sets, since the location grip will not be generated unless the object has at least one Location property in an object-based Property Set.

Creating a style-based Property Set is quite easy. When creating the Property Set Definition in the Style Manager, indicate that it should apply to Styles and Definitions by using the radio button at the top of the Applies To tab.
Then pick the object type(s) to whose style(s)/definition(s) the Property Set Defintion is to apply. Go to the Definition tab and add the properties you want in the set, if you have not already done so.

Now that you have a style-based Property Set Definition, you need to attach it to one or more styles/definitions (of the type you chose on the Applies To tab). In the Style Manager, create/edit such a style or definition. On the General Tabclick on the Property Sets... button. This will open the Edit Property Set Data dialog. If your style or definition does not already have a style-based Property Set attached, the dialog will be blank. Click on the Add Property Sets button (right button at the lower left corner). Note that the button will not be active if there are no style-based Property Sets in the current drawing that apply to the object style/definition being edited and that have not already been added. In the Add Property Sets dialog, review the list of eligible Property Sets and make certain that a check mark is in front of all those you wish to add (and not in front of any you do not want to add), and then click OK to add the Property Sets.This will return you to the Edit Property Set Data dialog, and you can review the attached properties and, if there are manual properties, you can set the desired values. Also note that now that this style has a Property Set added, the Remove Property Sets button is now active (right button at lower left, next to Add Property Sets button). Click OK to accept the changes you made, and now your style-based Property Set is attached and the Properties therein are available to Schedule Tables and Schedule Tags.
For office-standard style-based Property Sets, you will want to add the set to your style/definition source file, so when users add the style/definition to a drawing, the Property Set is already attached.

Revit Tip - Unwanted Linework Revisited

2011-06-06T18:14:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a comment posted by Andrew to my Revit Tip - Masking Regions post, I am a step further along on my Revit journey. He correctly pointed out that the Linework tool would be a better choice for getting rid of the unwanted line.

On the Modify ribbon tab, on the View panel, click on the Linework tool, shown below in Revit Architecture 2011.(As always, click on any reduced-size image to see the image full size. Use the Back button on your browser to return here.)

On the Modify|Linework ribbon tab, on the Line Style Panel, set the Line Style to <Invisible lines> in the Line Style drop down list.Now you can select the unwanted linework in the View in which you do not want to see it, and make it invisible with a single click. That is far more efficient than using a Masking Region to hide a single line.

If you change your mind later, you can restore the linework you made invisible by using the same Linework tool and setting the Line Style to <By Category> (or any other visible Line Style, if you do not want to use its default appearance).

Update 2 for ACA 2011 Now Available

2011-06-01T19:22:00.000-04:00

You can download Update 2 for AutoCAD^® Architecture 2011 here.

According to the Readme, this Update is NOT cumulative; you will need to install Update 1 first, if you have not already done so. Be certain to read through the entire Readme before installing the update. According to the Readme, the following ACA items have been addressed in Update 2:

Annotation Scaling

If two drawing units are different, the annotative blocks of the previous drawing version might be inserted with incorrect scale.

Detail Components

Some detail components might not be added in the UK profile after installing Update 1.

Doors/Windows

When you insert doors or windows evenly between the grid line or between walls, the elevation of the inserted doors or windows may result to a zero value.

Drawing Management

Clearing the XML file in the current project may cause AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

Renaming or renumbering the sheet in the Project Navigator may cause AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

General UI

Accessing some tools from the Tool palettes may cause AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

Multi-View Blocks

Exporting Multi-View Blocks to AutoCAD may result in incorrect sizes.

In 3D shaded visual styles, a Multi-View Block created from circle with specified thickness might be drawn double.

OpenLight

When the OpenLight plug-in is installed, the changes in the display configurations may not be maintained.

Structural Members

When the start offset of a structural member is larger than its logical length, may cause AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

Walls

Changing the view cube from parallel to perspective from the shortcut menu after selecting a wall may cause AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

Clicking the Add Vertex button for some walls while editing in-place may cause AutoCAD Architecture to crash.

Converting a 3D solid object created by extruding profile along a certain path to wall may cause irregular geometry.

If the walls are with separate wall components which have bottom elevation offset, these walls may not display correctly in plan view.

See my previous article, for the Updates addressed by Update 1.

Revit Tip - Masking Regions

2011-05-06T19:59:00.001-04:00

This may be old news to more experienced Revit users, but this was not covered in the "basics" training and was not discovered by anyone on my project team during the design and documentation phases. When generating elevations and sections from the Revit model, there will often be "artifacts" in the view that you would not want to see in the final elevation or section. Or there will be items that do not appear as you would like, but the effort to edit the model to get them to show properly in elevation or section is simply not worth it or the overhead of modeling the necessary detail slows the model excessively.
Masking Regions to the rescue! The problem we had with the Masking Regions was that the items to be masked almost always intersected or abutted linework that we wanted to keep. The boundary lines for Masking Regions default to invisible lines, which makes sense, but, unfortunately, if you place the boundary at the linework you want to keep, the mask extends to the midpoint of that linework. This is particularly noticeable on linework with a heavy lineweight, but is true for all linework.
The initial solution was to grip edit the Masking Region and pull it back slightly, to avoid losing desired graphics. This was tedious, and, when done poorly, either left a (smaller) divot in the linework to remain, or left a small part of the line to be masked protruding. While my efforts during construction documents were mostly focused in other areas, I have had to make revisions during construction, and found this process to be very unsatisfactory, until I realized that the boundary lines do not have to be invisible, nor do they all have to be the same.By matching the Line Style of the boundary lines to that of the linework for segments that align with linework to remain, the Masking Region fully hides the unwanted linework without removing a piece of the linework that is to remain.

Revit - Rectangle Tool in Families

2011-04-28T18:39:00.004-04:00

Here is a tip that I picked up watching one of The Revit Kid's videos a while back, and it has proved to be sufficiently useful that I thought I would make note of it here. When drawing linework that you intend to constrain to Reference Planes in a Revit Family, if you are drawing a rectangle, use the Rectangle tool.
Not only does it allow you to draw four lines with two clicks, but it also allows you to draw those lines in place and then activate the constraints. No need to use the Align tool after drawing the linework.(As always, you can click on a reduced-to-fit image to see it full size. Use the Back button in your browser to return to the blog article.)

Controlling Did You Know Balloon Notifications

2011-04-25T18:05:00.006-04:00

If you never made much use of the Communication Center, you may not miss its absense on the InfoCenter toolbar in the upper right corner. (I am assuming that the shipping version and the release candidate beta have the same interface elements and that this was not added back in at the last minute.)
Once you have to manually close a Did You Know message more than one time, you may recall that you were able to have the Did You Know messages close after a period of time that you specified, using the InfoCenter Settings dialog that you accessed from the Communication Center.Now how are you going to make those settings?

Fortunately, you still can do so, but you need to know how to access the InfoCenter Settings dialog. Open the Options dialog (one way - from the Application Menu - the big red "A" in the upper left corner - choose the Options button at the lower right corner) and on the System tab, in the InfoCenter area in the lower right corner, click the Balloon Notifications button. This will open the InfoCenter Settings dialog and let you change Did You Know messages from Display until closed to Use balloon notification display time. You can set the number of seconds that balloon notifications display and also choose how transparent the balloons are.If you do not want to see the Did You Know messages at all, you can also just clear the checkmark in the toggle in front of Did You Know messages (or all balloon notifications).

Autodesk Discussion Groups and IE9

2011-04-22T23:02:00.001-04:00

If you have "upgraded" Internet Explorer to Version 9 and have suddenly found that your posts in the Autodesk Discussion Groups are showing up with a blank message body, try turning on Compatibility View.

Supposedly, there is a button for this at the end of the Address Bar, but I did not have one.
I had to turn on the Menu Bar (which I would have done, anyway) and then chose Tools > Compatibility View while the Discussion Group site was up on the active tab, and then I was able to post a reply and have the text show up.

Location Property Misread

2011-04-09T14:02:00.001-04:00

If you are experiencing Location properties not reading the correct property when working through external references, you may want to see if the problem is similar to one I recently experienced.

A project in my office was being done in ACA 2010, and was not using the Drawing Management (Project Browser/Project Navigator) feature. Space objects were placed in the main "model" file, and had the company standard Property Set attached which includes two Text-type Manual properties for the room name (for two separate lines, set up before attributes in the view block of a Multi-View Block tag could wrap text), a formula property to concatenate those two Manual properties, for use in Schedule Tables and a Manual room number property. The Property Set was an older version, which also has three "residual" properties from the out-of-the-box property set, a Project property for Level, an Integer-type Manual property for the room number "Increment" and a formula property to concatenate the Level and Increment properties. A separate Property Set was also attached to the Spaces to hold a project-specific Text-type Manual property to hold the "room code".

In order to allow additional staff to work simultaneously, the equipment for the project was placed in several different "equipment" files, which were then externally referenced into the main model file. The main model file was also externally referenced into the equipment files, so that the equipment could be located. The equipment had a Property Set that included three Location properties: one for the concatenated formula property for the room name, one for the room number and one for the room code.

There were a number of issues with the state of the files at the time I was consulted. Once I got the needed Property Sets attached, I found that the room code Location property read the information correctly, but the room name and room number properties were displaying *No Project* for a value. I double checked to make certain that the correct properties were being referenced, and that these did not make use of the Project property. All appeared to be set up correctly.

I finally discovered what the problem was (even if I do not understand why it was a problem) - the equipment drawings had our current version of the Property Set for room names and numbers, which no longer have the "residual" Project-based properties. For some reason, the fact that this was different from the version of the Property Set in the main model file caused ACA to become "confused" (no, that is not a technical term) and resulted in ACA grabbing the wrong property values from the main model. I discovered this when I added two more Location properties, referencing the two Manual properties that make up the room name. The Location property referencing the first line property also displayed *No Project*, but the Location property referencing the second line property was displaying the value of the first line property! At that point, I discovered that the Property Set in the equipment drawings was different from the one in the main model file. I did not want to take a chance on losing all of the values for the room names and numbers in the main model file, so I copied the version in that file to the equipment file, and, just like that, the Location properties started referencing the right properties.

So, if you are seeing a Location property in one file referencing the wrong property from a Space in an externally referenced file, one thing to check is whether the Property Set that has the Space property being referenced is identical in both files.

As part of my diagnostics, I opened the ACA 2010 files in both ACA 2011 and Release Candidate Beta 2012, and the problem occurred in those versions, also.

AutoCAD 2012 New Feature - AutoComplete

2011-04-03T16:21:00.000-04:00

Another new AutoCAD^® 2012 feature that I found useful is AutoComplete, which assists you when typing a command or system variable at the Command: prompt. This will be especially useful to ACA users, who, if you are like me, find typing some of the rather long ACA command names tedious at best and difficult to remember at worst. I know many have set up command aliases for many commonly used command in their ACAD.pgp file, but I find myself typing in most ACA commands sufficiently infrequently that it never seemed worth taking the bother to set up and remember command aliases but often enough to now find AutoComplete useful.

AutoComplete offers several options, which can be configured to your liking by either typing AUTOCOMPLETE at the Command: promptor by right-clicking in the Command: line window and choosing the AutoComplete flyout on the context menu.In the headers below, the command line option is given first, followed by the context menu flyout menu choice.

Append/Auto-Append
With the Append option enabled, command and system variable names will be automatically completed, right on the Command: line, as you type. If there are multiple commands that fit what you have typed so far, the first one alphabetically will be completed. The command line option is a Yes/No question; choosing the item on the context menu will toggle the check mark on (= "Yes") or off (= "No").
List/Suggestion List
This option determines whether a popup list of commands that start with the characters typed so far will appear. You can then choose the command you want from the list, or continue to type additional characters to reduce the number of commands on the list (or until the command you want is appended, if you have that option turned on). The command line option is a Yes/No question; choosing the item on the context menu will toggle the check mark on (= "Yes") or off (= "No").
Icon/Display Icons
Use this option to determine whether the icon associated with a command is displayed in front of it on the popup list. The command line option is a Yes/No question; choosing the item on the context menu will toggle the check mark on (= "Yes") or off (= "No").

System variables/Display System Variables
Enable this option to include System Variables in the Append and List options; disable it to exclude them. The command line option is a Yes/No question; choosing the item on the context menu will toggle the check mark on (= "Yes") or off (= "No").

Delay/Delay Time
The delay time, entered in seconds, determines how long AutoCAD waits before allowing the Append and List features to be applied, when enabled.

ON
Choosing the ON option will allow the AutoComplete features that have been enabled to be active. Note that if both Append and List are set to "No" (unchecked in the context menu), then using the ON option has no actual effect. But if you previously used the OFF option (see below) to disable the AutoComplete feature when the Append, List or both were set to "Yes", then the "ON" command option will enable AutoComplete with the features that were previously set to "Yes".

OFF
The OFF option disables the AutoComplete function without changing the status of any of the command options. You can later use the ON option to enable the AutoComplete function with the same settings you had prior to using the OFF option.

The ON and OFF options are not available in the right-click context menu. You can turn both the Append and List options off in the context menu to effectively disable the AutoComplete feature, but if you later want both options on, you would have to turn both back on individually.To disable the feature while preserving your settings, use the OFF option of the AutoComplete command at the Command: line.

If you hover over one of the commands in the popup list and ToolTips are enabled and the command has a ToolTip, the ToolTip will display.
If you load custom LISP routines that define commands, these will also be available in the AutoComplete feature. In the image below, the SELALL command is a custom command I have defined, and after typing "SEL" at the Command: line, the popup list shows the SELALL command and the balance of the SELALL command has been appended, since it is first alphabetically on the list. The SELBLK command is also a LISP-defined custom command.

AutoCAD 2012 New Feature - In-Canvas View Controls

2011-03-30T21:26:00.002-04:00

The In-Canvas View Control is a new feature added to AutoCAD^® 2012, so it is also available in ACA 2012. When combined with the tools on the Navigation Bar and the ViewCube, you really do not need to tear off the View panel from the Home ribbon tab anymore.

Appearing at the top left corner of the drawing area on the Model "tab" (TILEMODE 1) and consuming a minimum of screen real estate, there are three text strings enclosed in square brackets; a left click on one of the strings gives access to popup menus related to that particular view control. The first string - either a "-" (one viewport displayed) or a "+" (multiple viewports displayed - allows you to control the visibility of the ViewCube, SteeringWheels and Navigation Bar as well as access to Viewport configurations, including any custom configurations you may have created.You can also temporarily maximize the currently active viewport and then restore the previous viewport configuration using this first menu.

The second string allows you to quickly select a Model View to restore, either preset or custom, as well as access to the View Manager. The name of the current View direction or Model Space View (if current) is displayed in the second string, for easy reference while you work.
The third string displays the name of the current Visual Style, and the menu allows you to set a different Visual Style current (predefined or custom) or to open the Visual Styles Manager.
The VPCONTROL System Variable controls the display of the In-Canvas View Controls. Set it to Off (0) to hide the controls. Set it to On (1) to display the controls. It is stored in the registry, so the setting will hold for all drawings.

With TILEMODE set to 0, you will not see the View Controls unless you maximize a viewport on a Layout "tab".

ACA 2012 Enhanced Feature - Column Grids

2011-03-26T21:08:00.000-04:00

Two improvements to the Column Grid feature have been added in the 2012 release.

Automatic Labeling of Custom Column Grids
With the linework you wish to convert to a custom Column Grid drawn, on the Home ribbon tab, on the Build panel, select the arrow icon at the right side of the Enhanced Custom Grid split button and choose the Custom Grid Convert tool.(As always, click on an image to see a full-size version. Use the Back button in your Browser to return here.) Following the Command: line prompts, select the linework to be converted. The next prompt asks you to specify the label extension distance. Accept the default value, enter a new value or type "N" (No labels command option) if you do not want to add labels automatically at this time. Type "Y" to erase the selected linework or "N" to keep it, and press ENTER to end the command.The custom grid will be created, and labels will be added at the ends of the grid lines, if you did not choose the No labels command option. Notice, however, that the labels all have "-" as a default value.Note: If you did choose the No labels option when creating the Column Grid, you can add labels to it by selecting it and, on the Column Grid contextual ribbon tab, on the Label panel, choosing the Add Labels tool.

With the new, default-labeled custom Column Grid selected, on the Column Grid contextual ribbon tab, on the Label panel, choose the Edit Labels tool.You can now pick a single grid line or a series of grid lines that are to be sequentially numbered, starting with the one to receive the lowest value. When you are done selecting, press ENTER and then enter the value for the first (lowest) grid line and press ENTER to change those values.

The prompt will repeat, so you can pick a second grid line or series of grid lines, starting with the lowest value, and label those as well. When you are done labeling grid lines, press ENTER to end the AecCustomColumnGridLabelEdit command.
The value you enter for the label can be alphabetic or numeric; either will be incremented when you select a series of grid lines. You can also enter something like "1.1" and choose a series of grid lines and get "1.1", "1.2", 1.3", etc. You can use the Edit Labels tool at any time in the future to edit the values of a single grid line or a series of grid lines.

Labels are automatically added to both ends of each grid line. You can ERASE any labels you do not want to keep.

Enhanced Custom Grids
You can now use an existing regular Column Grid or Enhanced Custom Grid as the starting point for a new Enhanced Custom Grid. On the Home ribbon tab, on the Build panel, choose the Enhanced Custom Grid tool.In the Column Grid dialog, click on the Set From button,and then choose the desired Column Grid. The parameters of the selected grid will populate the Column Grid dialog as a starting point for your new Enhanced Custom Grid. A non-enhanced custom Column Grid (created from linework) can not be selected as the "Set From" object.

ACA 2012 New Feature - Corner Windows

2011-03-22T21:43:00.000-04:00

One of the new features added to AutoCAD^® Architecture 2012 is one for creating corner windows. An easy way to do so has been on the wishlist for some time, and now it is here. Corner Windows make use of "regular" ACA Window Styles, which now feature some added properties on the Dimensions tab in the Frame area.As you can see in the image above, you have the option of specifying butt glazing at the corner. If this toggle is unchecked, you will get a frame at the corner, and you can specify the exposed inside width of the frame (dimension "K"). Window Styles from previous releases will default to having the Butt Glazing at Corner toggle checked (K - Width of 0). The out-of-the-box "regular" Window Styles also have the Butt Glazing at Corner toggle checked. While there is no reason to create a separate Window Style with "Corner Butt Glazing" in the name, the out-of-the-box content includes a "Corner Butt Glazing - Picture" Window Style that is used by the Tool palette tool of the same name.
Corner Windows are placed using a new command, WINDOWCORNERADD. You can create your own Corner Window Tool palette tool by copying one of the out-of-the-box tools and modifying the properties to use your desired style. In addition to the out-of-the-box style-specific tools on the Corner Windows palette in the Design Tool Catalog (under Doors and Windows), you can find a generic Corner Window tool in the Stock Tool Catalog, under Architectural Object Tools. You can also invoke the WINDOWCORNERADD command on the Home ribbon tab, on the Build panel, by clicking the down arrow icon at the right side of the Window split button and choosing the Corner Window tool.
Corner Windows must be placed by selecting a Wall; they can not be inserted as free-standing objects, like "regular" Windows. The Wall selected must also be intersected by another Wall, and both must clean up to form an "L" corner; the angle need not be 90 degrees. "T" or "X" intersections will not work. Curved Walls are also not currently supported. If you try to place a Corner Window and nothing happens when you select a Wall, check the Command: line for helpful messages such as "No valid wall intersection found for selected wall." to help you figure out why the Corner Window is not being placed.
After selecting the first Wall, a preview of the Corner Window will appear on screen. If there are valid corners at each end, you can move your cursor closer to the desired end to have the preview appear at the correct end. When adding a Corner Window, you will find that instead of being able to edit the usual Width property (Dimension A, which is still there, but not editable), you now have two new properties, Width 1 (Dimension E) and Width 2 (Dimension F), which allow you to control the width of each leg of the Corner Window. Width 1 applies to the leg within the selected Wall, Width 2 applies to the other Wall. The Width property will display the sum of the Width 1 and Width2 values.In the image above, the horizontal Wall was selected, and the dynamic dimension for Width 1 is initially active. You can set the widths using the dynamic dimensions or by editing the properties on the Design tab of the Properties palette. Use the Opening measure property to choose whether the specified Width 1 and Width 2 values are measured to the Outside of opening, Center of opening or Inside of opening.
Standard Sizes remain the same as before - when placing a Corner Window, the width dimension specified is used for both legs.

Corner Windows can be tagged and scheduled just like "regular" Windows". The Width automatic property source will show both widths, separated by " x ".
Corner Windows can be grip edited similar to "regular" Windows, with some Corner-Window-specific changes. The arrow-shaped Flip grip located at the jamb will swap the Width 1 and Width 2 legs. This does not just swap the width values, but actually moves the Width 1 leg to the other Wall, as if it had been selected first. The square Location grip offers a different first option. Instead of "Move along" Wall, which makes no sense for a Corner Window, it offers "Specify wall corner", which allows you to move the Corner Window to any other valid "L" corner Wall intersection, even one involving two different Walls.
Cautions

Corner Windows should not be used in projects where any other team members are not on the 2012 release. While ACA 2012 uses the AutoCAD^® 2010 file format and ACA 2010 and 2011 will be able to open the file, neither of those releases will support the proper display of Corner Windows and you will get a "regular" Window, with the width equal to the sum of the center of opening values of Width 1 and Width 2, anchored to the Width 1 Wall at the time it was saved in 2012 and hanging over the end of the Wall, as seen in the image below.Schedules created in 2012 with Corner Windows will also show undesired results when opened in 2010 or 2011. (The Width column will show like a formula property with an error, displaying the entire formula used to calculate the Width value.) In limited testing, it appears that opening/editing/saving in 2011 and reopening in 2012 causes no harm, but you will want to test that in your own environment and with the sorts of edting you expect to do before relying on it being safe.

The openings created by Corner Windows are not taken into consideration when using the Offset or Center options when placing other opening objects (Doors, Windows, Openings, Door/Window Assemblies) in a Wall that has a Corner Window. This is not the behavior I expected, so you will want to keep that in mind.

Any type of Window Style can be used as a Corner Window, but it may not be appropriate for all types. For example, you can set up a butt-glazed Glider Peak Corner Window, but that does not mean you should (nor does it mean it could be built).

Adding Show Desktop Tool to Quick Launch Toolbar (Windows XP Professional x64 Edition)

2011-02-19T14:39:00.001-05:00

I just got a new 64-bit computer at work, and the first thing I "missed" was the "Show Desktop" tool in the Quick Launch toolbar. My computer desktop tends to accumulate quite a few Windows as the day goes on, and I make frequent use of that tool. While there are alternative methods for invoking the command ("Microsoft key"+D or right clicking on the Taskbar and choosing "Show the Desktop" from the context menu, I kept finding myself trying to click on the familiar tool that was no longer there.

At home, I added it back in by copying the file from my 32-bit laptop. I found this knowlege-base article on the Microsoft site, which explains how to create a file to run the "Show the Desktop" command from a Quick Launch toolbar tool.

There is a "Fix it for me" button, but I chose to do it manually, which is really quite easy. Start a Notepad file and paste the given text into it.

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Save the file to your Desktop (or some other location, if you prefer), using the name Show desktop.scf and then drag that file onto the Quick Launch toolbar. The old, familiar icon is back and ready for action.

Note: The above works when running Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, assuming that you have the Quick Launch toolbar displayed on the Taskbar. It should work on Vista as well. Apparently, Windows 7 has a button on the far right side of the Taskbar that performs this function, but you can not move its position; in order to use the above, you would have to add the Quick Launch toolbar to the Taskbar, as it is not available by default.