Category: Uncategorized

Ctrl Shift Trick to elevate privileges and Run as Administrator

Luke Johnson

I came across a handy trick that makes it quick and easy to run programs as an Administrator in Windows 7:

The easiest way that I found out on how run a program as administrator is by hitting the WIN key on your keyboard, type the program that you want to run, for example cmd, and simultaneously press Ctrl + Shift + Enter which will prompt if I want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer. In fact, it is also possible to press Ctrl + Shift and use your mouse to left click on the program.

Unfortunately the Ctrl + Shift trick doesn’t work at all areas in Windows. It will only work on programs or shortcuts pinned to Taskbar or Start Menu, the recently opened programs in the Start Menu and the Search programs and files bar. This will not work in Run dialogue (Win+R), Explorer or the shortcut icons in Start Menu (Win > All Programs > Shortcuts).

via
Easily Run Programs as Administrator with Ctrl Shift Trick | Raymond.CC Blog

Revit Presentation Graphics That "POP" – DOWNLOADS via Jason Grant's Blog

Luke Johnson
While you wait for the recording to be published by Autodesk University, grab our presentation, handout and the dataset which includes numerous examples of entourage, analysis, annotation, site and other content as well as hours of fun deconstructing the settings to work them into your office’s best practices. Enjoy and let me know what you think…

Read more / via
Revit Presentation Graphics That�”POP” – Jason Grant’s Blog – Adaptive Practice by Jason Grant

Use a CMD script to create a Hyperlink index to all your Family RFA files

Luke Johnson

Lets say you want to create a HTML file that has a linked list of all of the RFA Family files in your company directory.  You can then click on each hyperlink to open the family in Revit.

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Open Notepad
  2. Download the file at this link
  3. Rename the file with a CMD extension.
  4. Now, right-click on the CMD file, and click ‘Edit’ to open it in Notepad. 
  5. Change the text to the right of  set target= to suit the top-level directory of your family file library.
  6. If you want to get links for all subdirectories, retain the /S switch (its already there), otherwise remove it.
  7. Now, just run the CMD.  It will create a file called LinkList.html in the target directory, and it should automatically open it in Internet Explorer.  Just click on a link and away you go!  You should be able to open the rfa files directly from these hyperlinks.


I have set this CMD script to sort results alphabetically (that is the /O:n part of the DIR command).  However, you may find the sorting a little unusual, because I think it respects the directory as well as the name.


You can now use the Find feature in Internet Explorer to quickly search for parts of filenames / family names.


You could also point this at a top-level project directory to extract links to all the RFA files in that ‘job’.

If you want to know more about the DIR command, check out this link.

EDIT – if you want a GUI option, check out:

Snap2HTML – Create fancy dir listings

Tricks from the 45 Tips

Luke Johnson

I recently viewed the class 45 Autodesk® Revit® Tips in 45 Minutes (Smith, Chad) on AU Virtual.  It was an excellent class.  Here are two things that I learnt:

You can Tab BETWEEN elements – in other words, select one wall in a chain of walls, then highlight another wall in the chain and press Tab.  Only those walls in-between the two will be selected!

Pre-select when Filtering – before making a Filter, select an element first.  Then go View – Filters – click on the ‘New Filter’ icon.  The Category of the element that you select is automatically pre-selected for the new Filter!

Thought-provoking excerpts on form derivation and design analysis

Luke Johnson

Here are a few quotes from a recent review of a symposium at the Design the Dynamic conference by Generative Design (Bold emphasis added by me.)

” Design is described as a process that stretches between the implicit and the explicit. While a sketch is an implicit design model, BIM is an explicit construction model. “

” While some CAD companies rely on strategies that depend on the capabilities that they have developed or acquired, some rely more on the energies and abilities the vibrant communities that they have nurtured around their offerings. “

” Whiles the tools like Vasari reduced the complexity, they were discovered to be less accurate than more advanced analytical tools such as ANSYS that are usually operated by experts.  However, tools like Vasari were found to be useful despite their limitations and misuse by the “Jonny English of CFD” as a presenter described himself, because they can be fixed quickly with a bit of timely expert input. “

” Scripting seemed to have entered the center stage. Unnoticed by academics, it entered academia through the back doors for student usage, thanks to tools such as Grasshopper. Perhaps because it had no known association to any ancient ideas of orders, it remained unnoticed by academics though now some may wish to authenticate it belatedly, given its current dominance…
Architects are now increasingly addicted to the richness of form authored by code. Scripting is most definitely here to stay. “

Quotes via, and Read More at:
What is missing ? � Generative Design

Image from http://generativedesign.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/whats-missing/

Anti Revit Twitter feed ?

Luke Johnson

Just as being overly positive about Revit leads to inflated expectations, if you are overly negative about it eventually people will realize you were wrong – and then your credibility will be in question.  Here are a few tweets from @RevitFacts – can you tell me if this is a good tweeter to follow, or perhaps someone with a particular bias?

FACT: #Revit has no Drag & Drop capability for external content like #ArchiCAD

Did you know RAM requirements are still 20 times model file size!

Did you know there is A LOT of customizing required (e.g Tags for Walls, Doors, Windows) compare to other #CAD softwares.

Revit is not compatable with #MAC :(.

via
Revit Facts (revitfacts) on Twitter

I guess these statements are true, in some ways – but I think RevitFacts may perhaps be trying to make us switch to ArchiCAD 🙂

Dynamo on gitHub

Luke Johnson

This previous post on using a Microsoft Kinect in Revit generated quite a bit of interest. Do you want to get more involved with Dynamo?  Quote:

… go to the Dynamo site on gitHub, download the source or the executeables and open an issue if there’s a feature you’d like to see implemented. I’m in the process of putting together a tutorial for how to create your own nodes. In the meantime, if you’re a developer and you want to take a crack at coding your own components for Dynamo drop me an email, and I’d be happy to help you get up and running.

via
This is the software you’ve been waiting for… (Ian Keogh)

From the gitHub page:
Dynamo: Visual Programming for Revit
This project was started by Ian Keough. The intent of this project is to provide a code playground for building interesting parametric functionality on top of that already offered by Revit, and to do so with a graphical interface that allows you to share your work with others less inclined to write code themselves.

Area and Color Scheme Problems??

Luke Johnson

The last color scheme of some area schemes were lost, therefore the color fill function for that area scheme was also lost in the model and the user is unable to assign it color schemes.

Solution

To restore a default color scheme for these problematic area schemes in the Revit Project follow these steps.
  1. Create a new Revit project (project1.rvt) with default template.
  2. In project1.rvt, open the Home > Room & Area > Area and Volume Computations dialog.
  3. On the Area Schemes tab, click the New button to create an area scheme and rename it to match the Area scheme name in the Revit project containing the missing color schemes.
  4. Click OK to exit the dialog.
  5. Switch to the original Revit project file and go to Manage > Transfer Project Standards.
  6. In the dialog, choose Copy from: Project1.
  7. Click the Check None button and select Color Fill Schemes.
  8. Click OK.

via
Autodesk – Autodesk Revit Architecture Services & Support – Area schemes have lost their color schemes