I saw some information on this Project a while back – it looked very cool indeed.  Essentially it allows you to record and replay a tutorial or workflow in extreme detail.  For Autodesk products, it may likely replace tools like Camstudio, Hypercam, Screencast and SnagIt.

(embedded JWPlayer)

There are already a stack of tutorials uploaded at https://chronicle.autodesk.com/

From the Labs site:
Project Chronicle is a free technology preview from Autodesk Research that makes it extremely convenient and easy for users to capture, share, and learn from software workflows. Project Chronicle consists of a recording utility to capture recordings, and a website that displays the recordings as Chronicles, interactive video tutorials.
The Chronicle Recording Utility allows users to capture workflows from within Autodesk products. The utility records a continuous video screen capture and optionally voice narration. What makes Chronicle unique is that is also records the timing and details of workflow information, such as the tools, settings, and dialog boxes that are used during the workflow.
Captured data is then uploaded to the Chronicle Website where other users can view a video of the workflow. Additionally, the captured workflow events are displayed on an interactive timeline, enhancing the viewing and learning experience.
In essence, Project Chronicle will allow software experts to showcase their expertise and will allow other users to view and learn from their real-world expert examples.
Please visit the Project Chronicle Website: https://chronicle.autodesk.com.

via
Autodesk Labs Project Chronicle

Some other info:

Paper
Chronicle: Capture, Exploration, and Playback of Document Workflow Histories

Tovi Grossman, Justin Matejka & George Fitzmaurice. (2010).
Chronicle: Capture, Exploration, and Playback of Document Workflow Histories
UIST 2010 Conference Proceedings:
ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology.
pp. 143 – 152.

from the currently opened file!

So if you want to copy annotation and detail elements from one Plan View to another (without having to fiddle around with filtering of selections etc), just go to:

Then, browse to the currently opened file, select it, and then select the source view.  Click to place.  Done.

Also very cool:

  • ● this command has intelligence with regard to Detail lines vs Model lines!  Even though the Filter command cannot tell you if a line is Detail or Model, this Insert 2D Elements command will only bring detail lines
  • ● running this command places the items onto the Clipboard as well.  In certain situations, you can use the Paste Aligned command (such as between aligned Plan Views) AFTER you have finished placing the first instance of the 2D elements …

To be quite honest, I haven’t really used the new 2013 features for Railings, perhaps because my recent work has been more on a master planning level rather than construction documentation.  In any case, there are plenty of resources out there to get you started. 

Here is a quick crash course – in the Type Properties for Railings in Revit 2013, you will see new options for ‘Top Rail’, ‘Handrail 1’ and ‘Handrail 2’.  You can set the Type and Height of these.

To make new Types, go to the Project Browser under Families -> Railings and you will see nodes for Handrail Type and Top Rail Type.  Duplicate and edit the type definitions you see here to make new 2013 ‘continuous’ railing types.

Once you have applied a Top Rail Type to a Railing Type definition, you can now Tab to select the Top Rail!  It is basically separating the Top Rail out as a component so that you can perform advanced edits to it.  From here, you can access the real awesomeness of Revit 2013 Railings – a sketch mode to extend and adjust the Railing …

Click Edit Rail and you are in business.  It will look something like this:

So, if you haven’t used this feature in the past 7 months, hopefully this post will help you get started with it.

I also found the audio interview linked below quite insightful.  It describes the reason railings are undergoing upgrade, including the requirement of railing extensions for accessibility.  For me, this has probably caused the most pain with regard to railings in pre-2013 versions.

Also, this interview gives the following ‘insight’ into Revit 2014 and future versions:
Railing features would be upgraded over several Revit releases

    Railings: Hear Jean Foster, Senior Interaction Designer, speak about railing enhancements.  Jean describes how the top rail and hand rail elements have been changed to better accommodate continuous conditions.  She explains how additional controls allow you to add extensions and different types of extensions to a railing, and how making components within the railing system makes the system more flexible as a whole. Speaker_Icon.png         Interview  6m 09s

    Listen to more interviews at:
    New Features Interviews – WikiHelp

    Somewhat of a milestone for What Revit Wants – 1,000,000 pageviews were reached over the weekend.

    If you want to show your continued support for this website, please Like What Revit Wants and Dimond Architects on Facebook.

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    Something you might have noticed about What Revit Wants is that there is no ad banner and no Donate button.  However, I really do enjoy hearing and responding to your comments – so if you have something to say, please feel free to use the comments box below every post.

    Here’s a thought to start your Monday with:
    A license of Revit is just like a ticket on a plane.  You have to use it to get anywhere.  The final destination? 
    BIM excellence.

    Have you noticed this little gem?

    If you use the Edit command from the Project Browser for a Detail or Model Group, like this:

    … then you can use the Load as Group into Open Projects to update the group.  Upon clicking the button, you will be presented with a dialog like this:

    Once you click OK, you will be prompted to Update the group:

    Pretty handy feature isn’t it?

    Basically this enables rich client access to Windows Server 2012 … you can install it via Windows Update or:
    Download Update for Windows 7 (KB2592687) from Official Microsoft Download Center

    Quote:
    To install this update, you must be running Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

    How to enable RDP 8.0 on a remote computer that is running Windows 7 SP1

    To enable RDP 8.0 on a remote computer that is running Windows 7 SP1, follow these steps:

    Note The following instructions are applicable only for remote computers that are running Windows 7 SP1.

    1. Install the appropriate version of the update package by running the Windows6.1-KB2592687 update file.
    2. Restart the computer.
    3. Open the Local Group Policy Editor.
    4. Enable the Remote Desktop Protocol policy. The setting for this policy is under the following node:
      Computer ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesWindows ComponentsRemote Desktop ServicesRemote Desktop Session HostRemote Session Environment
    5. If the UDP functionality is necessary, enable the RDP Transport policy, and then set the value to Use both TCP and UDP. The setting for
      the RDP Transport policy is under the following node:
      Computer ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesWindows ComponentsRemote Desktop ServicesRemote Desktop Session HostConnections

      Note Configuring the RDP Transport policy also enables firewall rules to allow the 3389 UDP port.

    6. Restart the computer.

    via
    Description of the Remote Desktop Protocol 8.0 update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

    You receive a DWG file from a surveyor, and you need to get it into Revit.  You go through all the usual cleanup steps.  You have purged, scaled, done a write-block, audited.  You link the DWG into Revit, create the topo – and it looks like rubbish.

    If your survey data has some severe gradient, perhaps relating to a steep retaining wall on the site, you may find that Revit does not model it ‘smoothly’.  Here is an example

    The problem is likely related to Revit’s triangulation method for topo surfaces.  You get weird flat surfaces where things should look much smoother and more organic.

    Here is a quick workflow that I have used to add some realism to a survey DWG without sacrificing accuracy (note – this method uses AutoCAD Civil3D, you can download a trial):

    1. Open the survey DWG in Civil3D
    2. Create a new Surface (Right click Surface in the Toolspace – Create Surface…)
    3. Add the objects to surface (can be easier to isolate the necessary layers first).  To do this, expand the Surface node, then the Definition node, then select the Drawing Objects entry.  Right-click and choose Add…  You may want to add Contours separately using the Contours node.
    4. Edit Surface Style
    5. Contours – Contour Interval.  Change contour interval to something very small – I find 10mm works well
    6. Turn on the Contour layers for the Surface in: Surface Style, Display.  Also, set a new Layer to be the ‘layer’ for the Surface Contours (major and minor)
    7. Extract the newly created contour objects (select the TIN Surface and click ‘Extract Objects’).  To make my site look better in Revit, I actually had to export the Triangles as well.
    8. Select the extracted Contours / Triangles and save them out to a new DWG file (you can use write-block or the inbuilt Export command in C3D). You will need to take some geometry from the source file (like boundaries) so that you can locate these new contours in your Revit model.  Or keep them in the same file with the new layers you made in step 6.
    9. Import this new ‘high resolution’ contour plan into Revit
    10. Use these contours to make your topography (select only the appropriate layers when using Import Instance while creating Revit toposurface).
    Lots of contours here – thanks Civil3D

    The result?  Something with a much more ‘organic’ appearance:

    Better Revit surface (Realistic View, Edges off, Subregion applied)

    Obviously, this method has a couple of caveats:

    • it will take a bit of processing power, both on the Civil3D side and on the Revit side
    • once you have your high resolution data in Revit, it will mean you are dealing with lots (thousands) of points in the topo – you have to decide if the nicer looking surface is ‘worth it’ to you 

    Also, using my Quadro FX580, if there were too many points, my computer would basically just hard-crash to a BSOD – save often!  I ended up switching to software emulation (turning off Hardware Acceleration in Revit).

        You may want to do a very aggressive cleanup of your Revit file, getting rid of all Views while retaining all 3D elements as proper Revit elements.  You can use the ‘Save to New File’ function to do this. (Note: when I say aggressive, I mean it – use at your own risk, and be sure to verify the contents of the output file).  Thanks to the revitogbim blog for this tip.

        This is the trick: when you right-click a 3D view, the Save to New File option is grayed out, but when you put it on a sheet – its back!

        Here’s how to do it:

        1. Create a Sheet and place a 3D view on it.  The 3D view has to ‘contain’ all of the elements you want to keep in the new file.
        2. In the Project Browser, right-click on the created sheet and select “Save to New File …” (it will take a while as it collects the elements, then it will prompt you to save the RVT file somewhere)
        3. Open the exported file and Transfer Project Standards for Line Weights / Patterns / Styles and also Object Styles (and anything else you want)

        Views in the resultant file:

           (the following lists are not exhaustive)
          Things that are removed:

          • Design Options
          • Floor Plans – well actually, the only view that remains is the ‘export’ view and the Default 3D view
          • Everything else that was unused or not visible

          Things that are retained:

          • Floor levels
          • The 3D Revit elements that you could ‘see’
          • RVT links if they were visible in the 3D view
          • the Sheet that was exported

          To make things look right, you will probably need to Transfer Project Standards for things like:

          • Line Weights / Patterns / Styles
          • Object Styles

           For my test case, I also turned off all Annotation Categories in the original 3D view, and I scaled it so it would fit the sheet.

          This workflow and the basic steps were from:
          Translated version
          of
          http://revitogbim.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/model-export.html