Harry has put together a nice Revit addin UI for searching, choosing and setting Uniformat and Omniclass codes.  You can read his post and view the video at:
A better way to set Assembly Codes & Uniformat | Boost Your BIM – making Revit even better

Direct download for addin:
here it is – http://gdurl.com/WsDe/download

Daniel has created a useful post describing how IFC Link works in Revit 2015.  Here are some key points from his post, as well as some of my own:

  • You must set a default project template before using the Link IFC function.  This is the same as Revit 2013 / 2014 etc – you could not import IFC without a default template
  • In Revit 2015 it is faster to Link an IFC rather than opening one
  • When you Link IFC, Revit 2015 actually creates a .rvt file from the IFC and then uses that data as the link.  The process is quite seamless from the user side, but it is something to keep in mind.  As Daniel describes, you can actually modify the ‘temporary’ RVT file slightly and it will not harm the link
  •  I’m unsure yet how this feature can integrate with Revit Server.  My initial feeling is that a manual step would be required each time, and you would probably open up the automatically created .rvt file and save it over the Revit Server version – but this idea is not tested as yet
Image from danielgijsbers.blogspot

Read the whole post:
http://danielgijsbers.blogspot.nl/2014/03/revit-2015-and-ifc-linking.html

My top 4 new features / changes in Revit 2015:

  1. Sketchy Lines!
  2. IFC Link
  3. Revision cloud arc length (ie. “Revision Improvements”)
  4. “Username has been updated to match Autodesk 360”
http://lumion3d.com/

Official page for Revit 2015 new features:
New Architectural Design Features | Revit Family | Autodesk

If you want to talk about Revit 2015, your expectations and the new features in general, check out this thread:
Today is the day!

Steve’s post:
Revit OpEd: New Feature List for Revit 2015

Sean’s posts:
What’s new in Revit 2015 | Paradigm Shift
and system requirements, including running Revit 2015 on a Mac

Chris’s post (some valuable commentary here):
Revit Rants: Revit 2015

John Flanagan’s post about Sketchy Lines:
Revit Architecture 2015 – New Features – Blog – CADline Community

Oliver describes the new exp and ln functions before they are even listed in Help:
at this link

 Steve also discusses them here.

Lejla’s top 5

Structural enhancements like Justification Points, more info at:
Revit 2015 – Structural Framing Enhancements | Autodesk Revit Structure

Structural reinforcement for Parts:
Ideate Solutions: Autodesk Revit Structure 2015: Reinforcement for Parts

To learn more about Sketchy Lines, check out:
RevitCat: New Sketchy Lines in Revit 2015
(Tim recommends setting both sliders at 3 and starting from there)

 
David Light also posted about Sketchy Lines at:
Revit : Revit 2015 – sketchy lines

More on the schedule changes:
RevitCat: New in Revit 2015 – Schedules & Parameters

Dan Stine’s post (It includes some detail information on the Hidden Lines changes in Revit 2015):
http://www.aecbytes.com/tipsandtricks/2014/issue70-revit.html

Revit Structure 2015 showing Rebar improvements, by Lawrence:
Revit Structure 2015 – New Reinforcement Tools | Autodesk Revit Structure

To find out about performance enhancements in Revit 2015:
Revit : Faster….Faster…..Revit 2015

Perfect Project (Russian blog) has a very detailed post, mentions the Image Type parameter for families.

Russian forum post, with details and lots of screenshots. eg number of filters increased to 8 in schedules, labels in 3D views react to changes more predictably.


In Russian, forums.autodesk.com/t5/Revit-Русский/Новые-возможности-Revit-2015/m-p/4925120
Translated version

Suite changes and updates:
Autodesk Unveils 2015 Suites for Building and Civil Infrastructure Industries
including a few downloads like

Download Building Design Suite 2015 backgrounder
Download Building Design Suite 2015 backgrounder
Download Building Design Suite 2015 backgrounder
Download Building Design Suite 2015 backgrounder

http://inthefold.autodesk.com/files/building-design-suite-2015-backgrounder.pdf

Redstack page:
New Autodesk 2015 Design Suites

Another nice summary:
Top Reasons to Choose Autodesk Revit Architecture 2015 | CADD Microsystems 

Lot’s of new features pages for different Autodesk 2015 products at:
Cadline Insider Blog – Cadline Community

AutoCAD 2015:
AutoCAD 2015 in two minutes | CAD Panacea

Inventor 2015:
Autodesk Inventor 2015 Released – Whats New? T-Splines? | Design & Motion

Here is what the new Revision Cloud tools look like:
via
Today is the day! – Page 4
Ben also re/posted a few videos demonstrating Revit 2015 features.  I have started a video playlist of these, and also added a summary of Revit LT 2015.  I will add to this playlist as further videos become available.  It is embedded here:


Some good informational videos from the Revit 2015 help site
New In Revit 2015
New Feature Videos 2015
via The PPI Group Blog: New Feature Videos – Revit 2015

Also:
 
What’s New in Revit 2015 and Related Autodesk Products from Alfred Huang on Vimeo.

A DWF file is somewhat of an an end-point when it comes to 3D data and BIM workflows.  By design, it is difficult to repurpose a DWF into a format where you can then alter the model, or use it in a design environment for context.  It is even harder to export it to a form that includes both geometry and data, such as IFC.

It is an enticing prospect, however, because virtually all Autodesk software exports to DWF.  For example, Navisworks can export the elements visible in any view to a nice, lightweight DWF that inherits all the associated BIM data from the original element.  Therefore, if we are able to convert DWF to an editable format, we would also be creating a way to Import Navisworks data into Revit.

Thus begins my pursuit of how to get Navisworks exported to IFC, or DWF converted to IFC.  I explored 5 options:

  1. Direct IFC Export from Navisworks using iConstruct [geometry + data]
  2. Navisworks to DWF to various 3D formats using Okino NuGraf [geometry]
  3. Navisworks to DWF to Adobe 8 or 9 Pro Extended [geometry]
  4. Navisworks to FBX to SAT (using 3dsMax) to Revit [free option if you have Suite, material data to 3ds Max, geometry to Revit]
  5. Use Simlab DWF Importer for Sketchup [some data to SKP, then geometry to IFC OR
    v7 SKP to Revit for Category data]

It’s a long post, so here is the summary. At the moment, Option 1 – iConstruct Smart IFC Exporter for Navisworks is probably the best way to get data from Navisworks or DWF into IFC and then into a BIM target application. If you just want geometry for context, I would probably go with Option 4 if you have a Autodesk Suite, because you probably already have everything installed that you need. Finally, Option 5 isn’t actually too bad, but you probably need to buy 2 products (Sketchup and the importer).

Now, onward to the experiments…
Option 1:
Downloads for iConstruct Navisworks add-in are at:
iConstruct Downloads page
(you will need to request and wait for a trial license)

iConstruct install options:

After install, iConstruct will be available on your ribbon:

So, we have the Smart IFC Exporter, but where is the DWG Exporter?  More on that later.

Let’s try IFC.  Go to a view that you want to export.  Here’s what happens when you click on the export button:

If you try to export without selecting anything, you will get this message:

Ok, so here is a step by step:

  1. Go to the view you want to export
  2. Hold down Shift+Spacebar and do a crossing window to select everything visible
  3. Start the Smart IFC Exporter
  4. Wait for the export to finish.  This could take a while.  My federated model of a single sector/level triggered a “geometry filter” stage during export of over 180000 items.  Overall, it took 28 hours to export using the “smallest sub-component” option.  The resulting IFC file was over 2000mb in size – and it was essentially unusable (it appeared to be corrupted).  After this, I tried a much simpler model, with only about 30 items.  It was much quicker to export.

This was the “simple” model in Revit:

This was the IFC export from Navisworks:

And the IFC file imported back into Revit 2013.  Category information seems to be lost, but otherwise we have a geometry + data roundtrip:

Here are a couple of other views from a different Navisworks to IFC conversion:

 

Note – to get the DWG exporter to show up, you need to save at least one template, like this:

Here is my sample file using the Smart DWG Exporter from Navisworks to DWG:

(If you are interested – the large, complicated, federated IFC model failed to import to Revit 2014.  It also did not display in Tekla BIMsight  However, it evidently contained data, as shown:

)
Option 2:
You can download a demo of NuGraf / PolyTrans at:
http://www.okino.com/download/demos/x64_okino_nugraf_and_polytrans_full_demo_2013.053-g8.exe

Install choice:

It prefers DWF?

DWF import options:

Progress:

View generation:

Export options:

Let’s try DWG, because we know we could import or link this to Revit for modelling context.  In this case, a 34mb DWF became a 260mb DWG.  However, the quality and definition of the exported geometry is impressive, once opened in AutoCAD:

More info:
Okino PolyTrans and NuGraf Software Demo Downloads – Page 2

Option 3:
Read more about why Acrobat 8 and 9 are more powerful for 3D than later versions, and find download links here.

Autodesk filters are an install option:

Import file formats:

Import options for DWF:

The model tree comprehends some of the BIM structure:

Select the model and right click to edit in Adobe 3D Reviewer.  From here, there are various export options:

Export options:

Option 4:
If we go from Navisworks to FBX to SAT (using 3dsMax) to Revit, the material information actually gets as far as 3dsMax:

But once we export from there to SAT and import to Revit, we just get geometry.

Option 5:
Install Sketchup.

Download SimLab DWF Importer from:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/SketchUp/Installers/Win/dwf_importer_64.exe
(you will need to request and wait for a license)

Export DWF file from Navisworks.  In the example I tested (same model / view as I used in Option 1), the DWF was 40mb.  Then use, the Plugin to import the DWF.  This never completed, just thrashed the system for ages:

So, as with Option 1, I tried a simpler model.

This was the DWF imported to Sketchup.  As you can see, the model has some awareness about the Category of the element:

Then, I used the IFC export option from Sketchup 2014.  The geometry and “object resolution” imported OK to Revit 2014, but it looks like the actual BIM data was lost in translation:

I had almost given up, but then I tried saving from Sketchup 2014 to Sketchup version 7, then importing that to Revit.  Guess what?  We get some Category information in the actual name of the Import Symbol!

For an interesting discussion around DWF, NWC and IFC, check out:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Revit-Export-DWFX-v-NWC-3004022.S.91588526

The rule is that Walls shorter than 6 feet (approximately 1.83 meters) are not shown as Cut (ie. thicker lines), even if they intersect the cut plane of the Plan View – they are shown in Projection UNLESS they are attached. If they are attached to something (like a Reference Plane), they can be shorter than 1.83 and they will correctly show as Cut in Plan.

As soon as you set the wall properties to Unconnected and Detach its top, it will show in Projection mode again, if it is shorter than 1.83m.

Along with all the usual statistics and reports, it features a two-page Case Study on the New Royal Adelaide Hospital – a project we are involved with coordinating here at VirtualBuilt.  If you want to read on about SPOTNIC, 4D, 5D and FM involvement in the process, read on…

The full title is

The Business Value of BIM in Australia and New Zealand:
How Building Information Modeling Is Transforming the Design and Construction Industry

Embedded version:

Downloaded from:
http://cadgroup.com.au/Data/Attachments/the-business-value-of-bim-in-australia-new-zealand.pdf

Source site:
http://construction.com/

Other heads-up:
https://twitter.com/ChrisJNeedham/status/448688055075885056

Here is something new and exciting… a RFA family that has a nested RVT, and the nested RVT has a linked nested DWG.

If you close the RFA, edit the doubly nested DWG, and re-open the RFA = the DWG geometry will be updated.

If you edit the nested RVT and save it, you can right click in the Project Browser on the RVT link and click Reload From… – if you select the same file, it will update as expected.

You even have access to Visibility / Graphics for the Revit link inside the family:

If you lock geometry in the family to the DWG or to the RVT and reload, the constraint will drive the geometry in the family environment.

A couple of caveats: the linked RVT won’t be visible when you load and place the family in a project, and you need to physically open the family in order to force a reload on the nested links…

While I’m sure this is unsupported, I think it could potentially be useful for office content management, or perhaps it could be used to drive repeated geometry within a family (array?) or across multiple families.

This workaround is achieved through the inplace family to component family method I have posted about before. I had to edit the inplace family, then select the RVT link in the Project Browser to allow copy / paste.

Download the files I created and try it for yourself at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1dGdRkpk2bea1NhR2RWWFZrUlU/edit?usp=sharing

(the main file is Loadable RFA with Linked RVT and Linked DWG nested inside.rfa)

Idea comes from Paolo at:
Punto Revit: RVT Links into RFA Families