Category: Revit

A Journey Into The Load Status of a Single Element in Revit

Luke Johnson

When working in Revit with linked files and worksets, it can be pretty exciting / maddening to figure out where an element actually is. I’m not talking about the 33 Reasons Something Might be Hidden (and here), the Order of Linework Overrides, Places to Hide Things, or even the View Discipline.  I’m talking about whether or not an object is actually even loaded into the Revit session for viewing purposes…

Consider this hierarchy and let me know what you think:

“I can’t find this object, is it loaded?”

  • If the current model is non-workshared:
    1. Does the object reside in a link?
    2. Is the link loaded?
    3. In Manage Worksets for the link, is the relevant Workset open?
  • If the current model is workshared:
    1. Is the object in the current model?
      • If yes, is the Workset it resides on open?
    2. Does the object reside in a link? If yes:
      • Is the Link Type Workset Open?
      • Is the Link Instance Workset Open?
      • Is the Link loaded in Manage Links?
        • In Manage Worksets for the link, is the relevant Workset open?

The above does not even consider the next level of nesting (Attached Links to a Link loaded in the current Host Revit model).

Enjoy Revit everyone 🙂

Autodesk Revit 2018.2 Update Details and Download Links

Luke Johnson

Who qualifies?

  • available to subscribers and current maintenance plan customers

Direct Download Link

Top feature:

  • scale a fill pattern without having to reload it (plus it automatically previews the scale change)

Note:

As per the release notes, it will force a Dynamo upgrade onto your system. Currently for me, I keep DynamoInstall1.2.1.exe handy: so I uninstall Dynamo 1.3.2 and install 1.2.1. This allows me to have backward compatibility to Revit 2015, which I still need (for now).

Readme

Release Notes

YouTube Playlist here

Main Autodesk post here

Forum link here

How to Choose a Revit Content Management Solution

Luke Johnson

Whenever you are looking to implement a new technology in your firm, you typically go through a few steps:

  1. Figure out what is out there in the marketplace – What products are available?
  2. Collect data about all of the technologies that may suit your use case
  3. Rigorously compare and analyse all the data
  4. Make a decision and go for it

There are some excellent content management tools out there for Revit now, so how can you choose? I went through a very comprehensive research analysis of a number of Revit CMS platforms, and I posted about the process here.

Then I caught up with Steve Germano over at Unifi to talk about the results. You can view (or just listen) to it here:

Feel free to comment here with your thoughts and we can keep the conversation going!

How To Select All Types of All Curtain Walls at Once in Revit

Luke Johnson

Curtain Walls in Revit are strictly a Family of the Walls Category. Then you have Types for each type of Curtain Wall. What if you want to select all Curtain Walls at once? You can’t multi-select types in the Project Browser to do this, but…

You can make a suitable Schedule to do it. Here’s how:

  1. Make a new Wall Schedule
  2. Only add the Family data field
  3. In Sorting / Grouping tab, Sort by: Family and untick ‘Itemize every instance’
  4. Now, in the schedule, click inside the Curtain Wall cell, and
  5. Use Highlight in Model to select them all

You could then use Save Selection, or Temporarily Isolate Elements in View, depending on what you want to do next.

Your Revit Views Don’t Have to Look Flat and Boring

Luke Johnson

Edwin Prakoso over at CAD Notes recently posted a few tips on how to make your Revit presentation views look more engaging and interesting. Here are my top 4 from his top 10:

  • Use ambient shadow. It gives more impact … and makes sure your view doesn’t look flat.
  • Use sketchy lines. Hand drawing images often look very artistic and interesting. You can achieve the similar effect by using this option.
  • Enable Smooth Anti-aliasing. It gives great impact when you use sketchy lines option.
  • Use background color. You can play with the background color to make it stand out.

One that I would add would be to add a little bit of Transparency. See some example settings below:

Image by What Revit Wants

 

Image from CAD Notes

Source post: https://www.cad-notes.com/10-revit-hacks-to-make-your-revit-view-compelling/

Do you have any tips to make your Revit views look better? Feel free to comment here.

Revit 2018.1 Update Download Link, brings Browser Organisation for Schedules

Luke Johnson

The first Revit point update each year typically brings some features that the dev team didn’t quite have cooked for the initial release, and this year we get something pretty special… the ability to apply Browser Organisation to Schedules node of the Project Browser. It has been that one long, messy part of the PB for a while, and I welcome that this long-requested feature has now been implemented! Good job Factory 🙂

Note that after this update is applied, there will be two versions of Dynamo Core installed, 1.2.2.373 and 1.3.1.1736…

Here are the links:

Direct Download Revit 2018.1

Readme

Release Notes

Getting Better and Faster at Revit – Part 2 – Project Browser

Luke Johnson

The second post in this series is focused on the Project Browser. The first post in the series described how to get your user interface and lab environment ready…

Note:

Please open Revit, and open the rac_advanced_sample_project.rvt

Please download and import the supplied KeyboardShortcuts.xml

KeyboardShortcuts

You can download the rac_advanced_sample_project here

 

Let’s learn about the Revit Project Browser…

If we use the Project Browser effectively, we will be better and faster at Revit.

 

Search:

  • Use Project Browser Search – always

 

Search Exercise:

  • Switch to Site view
  • Search for “shrub” in the Project Browser (right-click to start the search command)
  • Place some more Planting around the carpark

 

Keyboard shortcut tip: try pressing Q for Move

 

Type Properties:

Type Properties Exercise:

  • Right-click on a Type in the PB to get to Type Properties…
  • Try it for a shrub type
  • Edit the Height
  • Remember: we can double-click on the shrub to jump to type properties

 

Family Preview:

Notice the Preview for supported types!

Click Preview button next to a Shrub type to try it

Surprising how many families are supported with this preview feature…

 

Type Deletion:

Right-click on multiple Types to Delete them all at once:

Type Deletion Exercise:

  • Try selecting Roof – Steel Bar Joist – Steel Deck – EPDM Membrane
  • And
  • Stair – Carriage – Carriage – Paint – 50 mm Width
  • And deleting both types at once

 

Browser Organisation for Sheets:

You can Filter Sheets in the Project Browser by the “Print Set” – that is, by saved sheet selection.

Sheet Browser Exercise:

  • Type BO to start Browser Organisation without mouse
  • Change Sheets to By Set
  • Check how that works
  • Click OK
  • Change back to All

 

Right-click for multiple ‘new’ commands

Sheet:

Legends:

Schedules:

New Schedule Exercise:

  • Make a new Wall Schedule with this method
  • While you are it, add a calculated value for Average Wall Ht like this:
  • Then pick one of the Walls and Highlight in Model
  • Then immediately pick the Section Box tool from the QAT
  • The Set Workplane to the wall (QAT)
  • Add dimension (QAT), to verify the schedule results

 

Right-click in the Project Browser:

Right-click Families node to Save All Families:

Right-click Revit Links for New Link and Manage Links:

Right-click a Sheet to Add a view:

Right-click sheet exercise:

  • Make a new A1 sheet with right-click in the PB
  • Add View
  • Add newly created Wall Schedule – will be too big

 

Revit Links:

You can Unload for yourself or everyone from the Project Browser:

 

Family Management:

Did you know that the Project Browser Families node provides access to more than just traditional component families?

For example, you can use the Project Browser to quickly select different types of Filled Regions:

System Family Management and RevitLookup Exercise:

  • Select All Instances of Concrete filled region
  • There should be 1
  • But where is it? In a workshared project we would see the view workset.
  • Go to Add-ins
  • Revit Lookup – snoop current selection
  • Find the OwnerViewId
  • Copy the Name
  • Use Search in Project Browser
  • Found it!

 

In Part 3, we will have a closer look at Revit Keyboard Shortcuts.