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Double-click to go directly to linked cell in Excel

June 9, 2015May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Something you might find very useful in BIM world, where Excel currently thrives and will continue to do so for the foreseeable(?) future. You need to adjust this option:

And then if a cell references G33, and you double-click on it, it will take you straight to G33.

Better Sketchup to Revit Conversion via FormIt

June 9, 2015May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Check out this excellent forum post by Tobias Hathorn, in which he describes the best workflow for Sketchup to Revit conversion via FormIt 360. Interestingly, the major steps are:

Install Revit addin
Use addin to convert SKP to format for Formit
Import to FormIt Web
Export Locally
Use the same Revit addin to convert the FormIt 360 Sketch to RVT

Some more detail here, reproduced from the post:

The one ‘gotcha’ (which should be kind of obvious)… if the model is poorly constructed geometrically in SketchUp, then that same geometry will come down the pipe into FormIt and eventually into Revit…

Another comment about size – you’ll get better results componentizing your SketchUp import – doing a blanket conversion of your entire existing SketchUp model will take longer and be a MUCH bigger memory footprint.

Here are the steps for SketchUp conversion…

Go to the SketchUp Warehouse – browse to a great looking catalog – LINK
Download the files you want locally onto the hard drive
Get the free FormIt Converter Plugin for Revit 2015 – LINK
Install the Plugin and restart Revit 2015
Go to the Add-Ins tab, FormIt 360 Conversion panel and choose Convert SketchUp Files from the drop down menu
Navigate to the folder with the SKP files in them
Then navigate to where I want the FormIt 360 files to be (can also go to A360

Here are the steps for FormIt categorization…

Start FormIt Web – LINK
Import (or Link through the Content Library) the converted SKP’s – place the content in your FormIt scene…
Double click to edit the furniture group – you can push and pull the geometry as if you were in SketchUp!
While in Edit Group mode – set the name and category (Furniture) in the properties panel. Finish editing the group.
Save the FormIt file and download it locally (to your downloads folder) by clicking ‘Export Locally as FormIt 360 Sketch’

Here are the steps for FormIt to Revit conversion…

Open Revit 2015 – Click New file – choose the template you’d like to use for the design model

Go to the Add-ins tab and choose “Convert FormIt 360 Sketch to RVT‘

Navigate to the downloads folder and choose the FormIt sketch you exported locally

Click through any warnings and now you have Revit versions of SketchUp files!

The FormIt elements have the same categorization you set in FormIt

and you can double click to edit the families as you would normal Revit geometry

Thanks Tobias!

Original post:
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/formit-360-general-discussion/sketchup-conversion/m-p/5670578#M235

Free Form Element does not show Visibility Settings in Contextual Ribbon – Workaround

June 9, 2015May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Have you ever exploded a SAT or DWG in the Family Environment, and then gone looking for the Visibility Settings ribbon button for one of the resulting freeform elements? Its not there:

But, as you can see from the image above, you can still access these settings by using the Properties Palette – Visibility/Graphics button.

Collect Elements in Rooms Across Linked Files, and Write Room Data Directly to Elements or List to Excel

June 4, 2015May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Its a long-winded title, but its only one Dynamo node… Just added to the Bakery package, called Collect Elements in Rooms and Show Detailed List. Basically, it takes a list of Rooms and a list of Elements and then tells you which Rooms those Elements are in. It also works across linked files, so you can have a fixture model, link in the Architectural containing Rooms, and use those to do the comparison.

Once we have the Room that an element lives in (mostly thanks to Konrad’s work on Family.InRoom, which I have altered a little bit here), we can do lots of things. I used a Cycle and LaceShortest to get a 1:1 list of Room:Element. This makes it easier to do things with the resulting combined lists. Like, one of the outputs of the node is a detailed 6 index list, which can be directly exported to Excel. The list in Excel can then be filtered by Room. You can choose two parameters from Rooms, two from the Elements, and it also gives you the Element Ids of both:

I could have added headers to the list in Dynamo, but I didn’t do it for this first version (yet):

We can also take a parameter from a Room (like Room Name or Room Number) and then write it directly into a parameter in the Elements, like this:

This shows the Mark parameter populated with Room Name:

Or, we can take two parameters from linked Architectural rooms, and drive two Shared Parameters in every element in the current model. I ran the following node to set parameters for about 2500 elements in just a couple of minutes:

Or, we can use another Bakery node to do a wildcard search and collect elements from one Category across multiple links, and then check against these:

While this is a basic implementation at this stage (and no doubt there may be some hiccups), it demonstrates a powerful concept: to be able to take a mixture of linked Rooms and/or linked Elements and determine their relationship, then export that data or use it to instantly drive other parameters in Revit.

Goooo Dynamo!

How to Check for Inplace Families, the Dynamo Way

June 3, 2015May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

I’ve added this checking node to the Bakery package. Much of the credit goes to Andreas Dieckmann for the Family.IsInPlace node in the Clockwork package:

You may also be interested in copying a non-schedulable property to another parameter for a list of elements. This Bakery node works for things like Workset too:

Scheduled and Unattended Exporting from Revit to Multiple Output Formats.

June 2, 2015May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

I reviewed RTV Xporter PRO late last year, but there have been a few updates and new features since then so I thought I’d briefly list them here. For less than $50US per user, you get a lot of automation capability. A 2016 compatible version is now available. Also, a new build for Revit 2015 has been released.

Here are some of the new features in Xporter PRO 2015 build (599):

improved revision management
improved stability for unattended scheduled tasks with Revit
improved PDF connectors
new Citrix Sharefile connector
new Edit/Update Revit Sheet Parameter data mode
new Right-Click shortcut menu options on the main interface
new Create 3D views split by floor level and export to individual NWC files

Get it here

A few of the other key features of this addin:

tasks can be automatically run as a single Batch process or on a repeating Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Hourly Scheduled process.
Automatic creation of PDFs, DWG, DWF, DWFx, DXF, DGN, NWC and IFC files from Autodesk® Revit® drawing sheets and views.
Built-in parametric file naming engine automatically saves exported files to match any company’s or project team’s file naming conventions.
Batch print large format and reduced hardcopies to two separate printers simultaneously.

If you want to know more, you can check out my November 2014 review:
What Revit Wants: Automatic Batch Printing and Exporting from Revit that could save you Dollars and Time (RTV Xporter Pro review)

Where can I get Revit 2016 Subscriber Only Apps and Addins, like the Space Naming Utility?

May 28, 2015May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Try this link:
https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/RVT/en/list/search?facet=__custom%3A%3A_subscriberOnlyApps%3A%3B__version%3A%3A2016

Although it doesn’t list 2016 version on the actual download page, after downloading and installing the Space Naming Utility, I discovered that it was actually added to Revit 2016:

As per screenshot above, the 2016 version of Autodesk Site Designer Extension for Revit is also available.

Pure speculation here, but I expect that some of these other Subscriber addins will be delivered in the same way:

Batch Print for Autodesk Revit
Autodesk Revit Model Review
eTransmit for Autodesk Revit 2016
Autodesk Revit DB Link
Space Naming Utility
Worksharing Monitor for Autodesk Revit
Autodesk Vault Add-in For Revit
Autodesk BIM 360 Add-in for Autodesk Revit
Autodesk Revit Extension for Autodesk Fabrication
Advance Steel Revit Extension

Looking for Revit Extensions for Revit 2016? Check your Application Manager…

May 27, 2015May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Looks like these are delivered directly now:

Autodesk A360 Collaboration v5 for Revit 2015.

May 27, 2015May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

This coincides with UR8, and interestingly includes an update to Dynamo 0.8.0. I would recommend using Autodesk Application Manager to obtain this entire package.

Collaboration for Revit v5 download:
http://revit.downloads.autodesk.com/download/2015RVT_UR8/RCAO2015.msi

Personal Accelerator:
http://revit.downloads.autodesk.com/download/2015RVT_UR8/PACR.msi

This is the packaged Dynamo installer:
http://revit.downloads.autodesk.com/download/2015RVT_UR8/DynamoInstall.msi