Month: April 2014

Workaround to fix "Explorer.EXE cannot run because there is no registered version of Autodesk Inventor…" caused by Navisworks 2015 installation

Luke Johnson

I experienced this error after installing Navisworks Manage 2015:

Basically, a right-click shell extension for ZIP files was looking for Inventor and not finding it. I logged it with Autodesk and was notified that it was a genuine, repeatable issue.

To fix it on my system, I did this:

  1. Download and install ShellExView
  2. Run it
  3. Click Options, Filter by Extension Type
  4. Only select Context Menu and click OK
  5. Look for the 5 results with Description “DtBridge”, all starting with Autodesk Inventor…
  6. Select them and right-click, Disable Selected Items
  7. Click Options, Restart Explorer

The right-click menu for ZIP files no longer shows the error.

Copy a Directory Tree to a single Folder (copy flat) with this script

Luke Johnson

Have you ever wanted to copy a directory tree of family files to a single directory? Once you do this, you can load them all into a Revit instance in a single “Load Family” operation – just go to the directory and then Ctrl+A to select all, then click Open.

The following script will copy a directory tree to a single directory – essentially discarding the directory structure. It also filters by file type and only includes RFA files. Copy the code to Notepad, save as CMD or BAT.

dir “sourcedirectory” /A:D /B /S > tempListOfDirs.txt
For /F “tokens=*” %%A IN (tempListOfDirs.txt) Do (
If Exist %%A* (
XCOPY “%%A*.rfa” “targetdirectory” /Y /R
)
)
del tempListOfDirs.txt

Once you have a single directory of RFA files and have loaded them all into Revit, you could then use the categorizer to sort them all into directories by Category… its really an automated and free way to upgrade and sort your family library.

Note: I had previously posted a similar script using Robocopy at

What Revit Wants: Copy a Directory Tree “Flat” – all files into one folder, no subfolders

This code modified from:

Commerce Server Guy: Tree-To-Flat Copy Using XCopy

Autodesk Application Manager is already helpful – Revit 2015 Update Release 1

Luke Johnson

Depending which Revit 2015 installer you used, you may need to install this. More info at:
http://download.autodesk.com/SWDLDDLM/Updates/2015/REVIT/Revit_2015_Update_1_Readme.htm

Revit 2015 Update Release 1 Enhancements documentation:
http://revit.downloads.autodesk.com/download/2015RVT_RTM/UR1/Enhancements_List_RVT_2015_UR1.pdf

Autodesk® Revit® Platform 2015 Enhancements

  • Improves data integrity when editing nested families.
  • Improves stability when editing nested families. 
  • Improves stability when editing when expanding schedule columns.
  • Improves upgrade of projects which contain rebar elements.
  • Removes format constraints for assembly codes.
  • Improves data collection when Customer Involvement Program is enabled

Just remember – the application manager will by default store downloaded packages in:
C:UsersUSERNAMEDocumentsAutodesk Application Manager

Listen to a conversation about Virtual Construction and the Effect on Team Dynamics and Communication

Luke Johnson

I was approached by Reza Hosseini, who is currently completing his Phd, to have an interview about virtual construction. 

It is embedded here:

Some of the topics covered:

  • virtual teams
  • technological challenges of trying to work ‘live’ on a cloud model
  • effects of virtuality in teams
  • cultural background and project experience and the effect on teams
  • the size of teams (number of disciplines / stakeholders)
  • accountability for action items (for example, clashes)
  • Revit interoperability (including with Tekla), and using IFC
  • new roles for contractors to do model conversions (as Virtual Built is doing)
  • change management, and the instigators of change
  • is the Client or Head Contractor requesting BIM?
  • using Aconex
  • conflict creation
  • IP issues and contract rights for BIM team members
  • team identity and affiliation
  • level of importance of social interaction
  • skills shortage of BIM users
  • researching BIM, determining unique topics of discussion
  • building trust relationships
  • level of importance of face-to-face contact
  • frequency of communication
  • scaleability of BIM to small projects

I hope the background noise and sounds of cutlery aren’t too distracting 🙂

Add New Materials to Revit using an Excel file: including Cut and Fill Patterns, Transparency and RGB Values

Luke Johnson

Jeremy Tammik has done all the heavy lifting on this one, but here is how you can get up and running with it quickly:

  1. Download this
    (or you can also go here https://github.com/jeremytammik/AddMaterials, Download ZIP, Extract and Open in Compiler, Build Solution etc)
  2. Put the addin and dll here “C:ProgramDataAutodeskRevitAddins2014”
  3. Put the XLSX here “C:RevitAPIMaterialList.xlsx”
  4. Open Revit 2014
  5. Open the sample Revit file from the zip you downloaded in Step 1
  6. Go to External Tools – AddMaterials

You should see something like this:

A couple of things to keep in mind:

  • the addin will copy an existing material from the CSI column as the ‘base’ material, and then modify the other values accordingly.  Therefore, there must be a source material in place.
  • Similarly, the Revit project file will need Surface and Cut patterns with the appropriate matching names already in the file prior to running the addin.  The addin won’t import new Cut / Fill patterns into the project for you.

Recent post by Jeremy about this addin:
The Building Coder: Adding New Materials from List Enhancements

Other posts:
http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2014/03/adding-new-materials-from-list-updated.html
http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2014/03/adding-new-materials-from-list-updated-again.html 
http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/wpf-fill-pattern-viewer-control.html
http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2014/04/getting-serious-adding-new-materials-from-list.html

Matchmover Camera Tracking for Proposed Building Massing and Visualisation

Luke Johnson

Have you ever wondered how people match real world camera movement (such as from an aerial fly over) with a 3D virtual model?  Enter Autodesk MatchMover, included in various Autodesk Suites.  It essentially allows you to put a proposed building model into real life camera footage.

Matchmoving is the computation of the global 3D geometry of a scene including camera path, internal parameters, and moving object. By exporting the real 3D camera path and parameters to animation software, the position and motion of virtual cameras can be accurately established. With the motion of the virtual cameras, new, matched image sequences can be created whose virtual objects are seamlessly composited into live action footage. 

Here is a very basic example.  The Handycam was captured with 123D, then placed into real life footage at the end of this video:


More at
Autodesk MatchMover 2014: About Autodesk MatchMover

Educational Plot Stamp Removal in 2015 products

Luke Johnson

AutoCAD 2015  –  This version has the ability to remove the stamp
altogether if a Save is performed. Once a file is saved in 2015, it can
be sent to users on earlier versions, and the stamp will no longer be a
part of the file.

AutoCAD 2014 SP1 – With AutoCAD 2014 Service Pack 1 installed, DWG files will no longer show the educational plot stamp while plotting, nor will they give a warning message when opening them. However, the stamp is still attached to the file even though it is not showing. The danger is that someone with 2014 SP1 could open a file and work on it without realizing it has the educational stamp on it. If they then send that to someone without SP1, or on an earlier version, that user will see the warning and the stamp. At this time, using 2014 with SP1 will still propagate the stamp to other drawings, as in the past.

Read more:

Educational Plot Stamp Removal Issues | Autodesk Knowledge Network

Some of you may already have read about the ability for DWG Trueview 2015 to remove Educational plot stamps.

Bulk Editing or Batch Renaming Saved Viewpoints in Navisworks

Luke Johnson

Firstly, export the Viewpoints you want to rename to XML.

Open the XML in Notepad++.  Now we are going to use Search – Replace to append something to the view name in the XML file.  Once we get the Find syntax correct (I used view name=”View), you can just use a backslash 1 in the Replace box to signify the Find result, and then add whatever you like after that.  See the image:

 (make sure you pick the Regular Expression radio button)

Click Replace All, then save the XML (make sure you just click save, and don’t click Save As).  Now, import it back into your Saved Viewpoints in Navisworks.

 This is what it looks like in Navisworks after re-importing the XML:

Keep in mind that the import / export process will result in your Hide/Required and Override Material boxes becoming unticked for each imported view.

This is another good reason that you should be using Appearance Profiler by now… Have you noticed Presenter has now been completely replaced by Autodesk Rendering in Navisworks 2015?

More on Notepad++ renaming:
regex – How do you do a Find and Insert in Notepad instead of a replace, while using regular expression? – Stack Overflow