Autodesk Archives » What Revit Wants

Decimating a Point Cloud in Recap for use in Revizto

November 13, 2018November 15, 2018 Luke Johnson

It is extremely easy to reduce the size of a point cloud dataset using Recap. “Decimation” is the process of discarding points from the data to improve performance and reduce disk usage.

With the release of point cloud support in Revizto, you can now bring a point cloud into the Revizto platform in a number of ways:

Export from Navisworks
Export from Revit
Import points directly in RCP or RCS format

Once the reality capture model has been added to Revizto, you sync it to the cloud. From there, you can download and view the point cloud on your iPad, and of course you can start creating issues that relate to the captured condition on site. You can even overlay 2D drawings onto the reality capture data.

The decimation process is very easy :

Open your Recap file (add scans and index first if necessary)
Click Export
Give your file a name
Click the settings button
Move the slider to adjust your point decimation – you might use around 50mm decimation for a lot of site applications.
Save the file

There are other considerations, such as:

How can you set up coordinate systems to work with Revit, Navisworks and Revizto?

These will be considered in more detail in another post.

Automated BIM360 Docs On Premises Backup Using CollaborationCache and Dynamo

September 13, 2018 Luke Johnson

I have developed a working BIM360 to on-premises backup mechanism. There were a few different ways to go…

I initially considered:

Hacking Windows Explorer to touch the files in the BIM 360 node and try and trigger the BIM360 Docs download and copy to local PC or network location
Developing a Forge app that essentially pulls the desired models out of the BIM 360 cloud to desired location?

In the end, I decided to use the Revit API (Dynamo and Python), along with VirtualBuiltApp, to essentially reverse engineer a folder structure from the local CollaborationCache folder. These ideas are hinted at here.

In simple terms, the BIM 360 Docs on-premises backup workflow is:

Create a super federated BIM 360 model (with all other BIM 360 models linked into it)
A Dynamo script reloads all links in order to cache them locally
The same script interrogates, then determines the target file name and folder from VirtualBuiltApp
Dynamo then copies the files into their ‘backup’ location on the local network

Some more detail is presented below:

A) Cache Cleaner CMD Script (may not really be necessary, as the ‘reload’ should overwrite superseded cache anyway):

Kill Revit if Open… be careful of below steps, particularly if Revit has crashed recently. You might need these local copies 🙂

cd "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2018"
cd CollaborationCache
rmdir oldCache
mkdir oldCache
for /d %i in (*) do move "%~i" oldCache

B) Manual steps to setup Revit model environment to run the script:

Open Revit
Open Federated BIM 360 file (worksets closed)
Unload all links
Open all Worksets

C) Dynamo Script:
Run Dynamo (Python) script that reloads and unloads all links (this collects .rvt into cache). Key Python commands to use are: RevitLinkType.Load() and RevitLinkType.Unload(None).

Potential Problems:

Coordination Monitor alert, no longer exists
Instance of link needs Coordination Review
“Some numerical data within the imported file was out of range. This numerical data has been truncated.”
“Geometry in the file … has extents greater than 20 miles (33km).”

Local cached Models appear into

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2018\mainCacheFolder\hostModelIdFolder\LinkedModels\*.rvt

D) Dynamo Script continues to:
Rename and copy to desired target location. How do we determine this?

Using proprietary VirtualBuiltApp schema:

Use known directory data along with known JSON data for the BIM 360 files (harvested previously by our proprietary systems)
Build list of target paths
Run copy from Dynamo to copy to target network directory

Part of the script:

Note: you can actually browse some BIM 360 Docs data in a .sqlite3 file located in path shown below. You can use DB Browser for SQLite as a viewer.

How to Access BIM 360 Docs Free Forever

September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Luke Johnson

Update: It was pointed out to me by someone on the inside that the workflow I describe below essentially amounts to a back-channel unsupported and in fact inappropriate use of BIM 360 Docs. I was surprised at this, as I had essentially obtained this information from the Autodesk forums. What is wrong with the steps below? The answer is apparently this: A paying BIM 360 Docs customer is not supposed to invite a free user into their projects. This is apparently part of the terms of use for BIM 360 Docs customers. I was not aware of this, and in fact I’m unsure where to find it in the documentation.

Just to be clear, while the steps below *work* at this time, it apparently is an unsupported and inappropriate workaround and there could be risks (financial or otherwise) for BIM 360 Docs customers who invite free users into their projects. You should only invite:

BIM 360 Docs users for which you have paid for and applied an entitlement
BIM 360 Design (C4R) users who have purchased their own entitlement

I expect this workaround may eventually be disabled by Autodesk? You can view if you have exceeded your purchased package of BIM 360 Docs entitlements in the relevant Autodesk Manage pages. For example, it might show 16 of 10 licenses used in red? This is where I think there is potential for Autodesk to back charge users who abuse this current state of affairs.

My advice: check directly with Autodesk about who you can and cannot share your BIM 360 projects with…and proceed accordingly.

Situation:

You are a paying BIM 360 Docs user and would like to invite a non-paying user to collaborate inside a BIM 360 Docs workspace. Perhaps you just want them to be able to upload and download files, but not Collaborate in Revit…

Solution:

They need to create a free BIM 360 Docs account, and then get invited to your workspace.

(see above update)

Steps:

Non Paying User –

Go to Autodesk BIM 360 Docs – Get BIM 360 Docs (Free Forever)
Create a BIM 360 Account and Autodesk login if necessary (using email)

Paying User / BIM 360 host admin –

Go to your Account Admin
Add the User and Company (using email) (see above update)
Go to Project Admin
Add the User
Go to Document Management
Share a Folder to the User or their Company

Access and Upload Documents for Free User –

Login to BIM 360 BIM 360 Docs Sign In
Click on Change Account
Select the workspace from the Paying User
Access the Folder that was Shared to you – you can now Upload and Download with a Free account

Thanks to this forum page for the idea.

Autodesk License Service 5.1.5 Hotfix 1 Download

August 22, 2018 Luke Johnson

Issue:

For single-user subscriptions, Autodesk 2018 products can experience an intermittent crash. A fatal error message may be shown, such as the following examples:

AutoCAD Error Aborting
FATAL ERROR: Unhandled e06d7363h Exception at ee563c58h
FATAL ERROR: Unhandled e06d7363h Exception at 8d6b3fb8h

The system displays an error dialog window to submit an error report.

Solution:

Download and install the Autodesk License Service 5.1.5 Hotfix 1.

To download updates and hotfixes, use the Autodesk Desktop App (see Where to get Product Updates, Add-ons, and Enhancements) or access the direct links below. Before installation, ensure the internet connection is working and repaired if needed.

Performing a Windows installation:

Stop all Autodesk products that are running.
Download the following file based on the installed Autodesk software:
Autodesk License Service (x64) – 5.1.5 HotFix 1 (560 KB)
Autodesk License Service (x86) – 5.1.5 HotFix 1 (1820 KB)
Double-click the downloaded file to begin the installation.

Mac OS links also at main page.

From AKN

Solution for Revit files not Showing in Windows Explorer using Desktop Connector with BIM360

August 17, 2018August 17, 2018 Luke Johnson

Previously, this was all working with the old Desktop Connector and b360provider.exe (I think?) but the new versions of Desktop Connector seem to have broken the ability to ‘browse’ C4R Revit models on BIM 360… and guess what? There is no Solution. This functionality is in fact ‘by design’. You can copy and paste a non-C4R Revit model to BIM 360 Docs via the connector, and that RVT will be visible in Windows Explorer. But if you have C4R initialised Revit models on BIM 360 Docs, they will not be visible under the BIM 360 (Preview) node in Windows Explorer. You can only view those C4R Revit files in their folder structure by navigating through Revit 2018.3 or newer.

This is the feedback from Autodesk:

Revit cloud models (C4R models) are not supported in Desktop connector. They won’t be showing up in Desktop Connector. Published C4R models are only available in Revit and Docs.

For C4R models, published models will have all versions in BIM 360. This will be recommended workflow to manage models:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Revit-CAR/files/GUID-AE6DBCDF-3DB1-41CB-9DC5-B0C336E6C851-htm.html

You can also save copies of the model locally to put in your backup system. Also from each user’s machine, C4R cache will be another source of backups.

Also refer to How to backup Revit cloud models

I went looking for another answer, but there really isn’t one. Below is a list of steps I took to play around with the Desktop Connector installation. In the end, the only way I can foresee being able to ‘automate’ onsite BIM 360 Docs backups will be to leverage the CollaborationCache folder. You will need some Revit API know-how to forcibly populate this through some BIM 360 Reload methods (refer here). Unfortunately this will be a flat list of files without descriptive names, so there will have to be some workarounds and cleanup scripts in place (we already have a system of BIM 360 file management in VirtualBuiltApp). I intend to post some more about these workarounds in future.

Keep reading for excessive detail on my Desktop Connector journey …

___________________________________________________________________________________

I used Glary Utilities Uninstall tool:

Entry shown:

"C:\ProgramData\Package Cache\{b46602fe-a358-48c4-a0e0-905010df08e2}\DesktopConnector.exe" /modify

Uninstalled this old version. Interestingly, there were 3 different uninstall processors triggered? Like I had three different versions installed?

Also tried removing this folder and reinstalling:

I found a pile of errors in the diagnostic logs:

CDX pipleline builder output
Output=Warnings received from AddInStore.Rebuild
========================
Could not connect up a part in a pipeline to its neighbors: AddInAdapter Name: "ISecureSettingsProviderViewToContractAddInAdapter" Location: "AddInSideAdapters\Comet.AddInFramework.DataSourceProviders.ProviderAdapters.dll".

and a few of these

========================
Could not connect 2 valid add-in model parts.
========================

========================
While inspecting an assembly, caught a BadImageFormatException: The file is not a valid binary: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Desktop Connector\AddIns\ADriveConnector\AdWebServices.dll This occurred while inspecting assembly C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Desktop Connector\AddIns\ADriveConnector\AdWebServices.dll.
========================

========================
While inspecting an assembly, caught a BadImageFormatException: The file is not a valid binary: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Desktop Connector\AddIns\ADriveConnector\AdWebServicesUI.dll This occurred while inspecting assembly C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Desktop Connector\AddIns\ADriveConnector\AdWebServicesUI.dll.
========================

This note seemed useful:

Starting CDX pipline builder: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Desktop Connector\Comet.Applications.PipelineBuilder.exe C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Desktop Connector

I scanned through the Registry and deleted old references to Desktop Connector.

Found this link with the command line switches: here

Tried an install from elevated command prompt:

C:\Temp>DesktopConnector-x64.exe /install /quiet

Note: you do not actually need the Desktop Connector to collaborate on BIM 360 Revit projects in the cloud. You only need Revit 2018.3 or newer, and the relevant license for Revit Cloud Collaboration (too hard to keep track of the names but I think ‘BIM 360 Design’ is the current terminology).

You will be able to see this link in Revit 2018.3 or newer:

When ‘linking’ Revit models, CAD files, and other resources, you will see this option when working in a cloud workshared model:

These models will be temporarily stored in the CollaborationCache folder:

BIM 360 Desktop Connector Updated Download Link

July 27, 2018 Luke Johnson

From Autodesk: Here is the URL to download the Desktop Connector. Please download and install the latest version to continue to use the Desktop Connector.

PLESE NOTE: This update must be completed by July 31 in order to continue to use the Desktop Connector.

This update also includes the following improvements:

Support for right-click functionality to delete files & folders, rename folders, and create folders
Improved caching to improve the user experience and performance
Recent bug fixes. For updates, view our list of known issues.

Please download and install this new version to take advantage of these updates. NOTE: The new installer will remove any previous installations of the Desktop Connector automatically.

For additional details on the updates to the Desktop Connector and the latest BIM 360 releases, please visit the BIM 360 Release Notes.

Storing Assembly Code Resource such as Uniformat or Omniclass on BIM 360 Docs

July 9, 2018July 9, 2018 Luke Johnson

If you have moved your project onto BIM 360 Docs, it might make sense to store related project resources (Shared Parameter files and Classification resources like Uniformat) in the same cloud as well.

Here’s how you can do it (using Revit 2018.3):

Setup the BIM 360 connector still currently in beta
Ensure you can see the BIM 360 (Preview) item in Windows Explorer
Using BIM 360, create a suitable folder under the Project Files area, and upload your resource file, such as UniformatClassifications_2010.txt
Browse to that folder in Windows Explorer:
Open Revit
Navigate to Manage – Additional Settings – Assembly Code Settings
Click Browse
Copy and Paste the folder address from Windows Explorer (which actually shows the local sync location for BIM 360 data, typically C:\Users\YourUserName\BIM 360\YourBIM360License\YourBIM360Project\Project Files\
Back in Revit, after navigating to the correct BIM 360 folder, select the text file resource and click Open
Revit detects that this resource is stored on BIM 360 Docs and you can proceed…
Sync your model to save the settings

You should be able to use the same process to save other files like Keynote references and Shared Parameter files in the cloud. Keep in mind that you will still have to manage BIM 360 access control, as you probably don’t want multiple people actually be able to edit these files.

Don’t forget you can also get the free Autodesk Classification Manager for Revit here.

Moving the Revit CollaborationCache Folder to a Secondary Hard Drive

June 26, 2018 Luke Johnson

If you are still running a relatively small SSD (like 512gb), you might see that your C drive fills up pretty quickly while working on a large BIM 360 Design Revit cloud worksharing project. See below image, where the CollaborationCache folder is using almost 50gb of space on my machine:

While I realise that the SSD is the best place to have that data in terms of performance, if you don’t have the space available you may consider moving your CollaborationCache folder to a secondary, larger hard drive. I used a symbolic link to do this, with the script below:

if exist "%localappdata%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2018\CollaborationCache" rename "%localappdata%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2018\CollaborationCache" CollaborationCache.old
mklink /d "%localappdata%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2018\CollaborationCache" E:\C4R
if not exist E:\C4R MD E:\C4R
robocopy /mir "%localappdata%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2018\CollaborationCache.old" E:\C4R\

This creates a folder called C4R on your E drive, copies the CollaborationCache over, and sets up the symbolic link. To use it:

Sync all Revit instances and shut down Revit completely
Make a CMD from the code above and run it as Administrator (elevated privileges required for mklink )
In Explorer, confirm you have the symlink and delete the .old folder :
Start Revit 2018

Please use the script with care 🙂

You can also refer to my previous post where I did the same with the Tekla BIMsight cache folder.