Category: Uncategorized

How to disable the Communication Center in Revit

Luke Johnson

To kill the Communication Center … in Regedit replace all the (1) with (0) see image.
(you will need to login to Revit Forum)



Then rename WSCommCntr2.exe to AAWSCommCntr2.exe
( C:Program FilesCommon FilesAutodesk SharedWSCommCntrlibAAWSCommCntr2.exe)

via this post
New AUBench (archive) – Page 22

Obviously, you may need to change the Registry location depending on what version of Revit you are using…

If you don’t want to manually edit the Registry, you can use the CAD Manager Control utility as per this post:
Revit 2011 closes right after the splash screen – Autodesk Discussion Groups

If you are having Communication Center issues, it may be due to a corrupted XML file.  Refer to this Revit support page:
Revit 2010 products hang at or before splash screen

This AutoCAD support page is along similar lines:
How to disable the Communication Center in Autocad? 

Problems with topography at adjacent Pad Edges?

Luke Johnson

You know when you have two pads meeting at a common edge, and then Revit for some reason shows this tiny sliver of created topography between them?

Try this:

  • Set the two Pads to have the same ‘Level’ and ‘Height Offset from Level’ property values
  • If you need to use slope arrows, you should still be able to get them to work upwards or downwards from this particular level

This tip worked for me – I hope it helps you.  I’m pretty sure that there are still situations where things still just won’t quite work…but for the time being, Revit Wants you to set adjacent Pad levels at the same value.

Tip via this thread
Pads Pads Pads…oh and there’s a problem – AUGI

Editing the end point of a Spline in Revit

Luke Johnson

Have you ever been frustrated by Revit when editing the end point of a spline?  You try to drag the end point – and instead the entire line gets dragged or scaled!

The problem?  You need to Tab-select the actual endpoint after selecting the Spline itself.  But you know what?  Revit seems to give you no visual cues that you have selected the End Control Point rather than the ‘end point of the entire spline’.

Here is the three ways to modify the spline using the spline end point:

1) Move entire line
Single-click on the end point and drag in one motion
RESULT – entire line gets moved (Press & Drag must be enabled)

2) Scale entire line between endpoints
Select the spline, then select and drag one of the spline endpoints.
RESULT – entire line gets scaled

3) Move the end control point only
Select the spline, mouse over one of the endpoints, hit Tab, then press and drag the point.
RESULT – only end control point is moved, rest of spline remains

Given the big difference between 2) and 3), you would assume that Revit would tell you which one it is going to do, correct?  Wrong.  The status bar shows the same thing prior to both commands – “Drag Line End”.  The tooltip shows the same thing regardless of whether you have pressed Tab or not – “Drag Line End”.

However, if you have incredibly good vision, there is one difference.  Have a look at the image below:

If the inner dot is highlighted, Press and Drag will Scale the spline, if the outer ring of the point is highlighted, Press and Drag will move the Control Point only.

I think the way this works currently is a bit counter-intuitive.  Hopefully it will get cleaned up in a future update or new release.

Something Revit Hates

Luke Johnson

While discussing an interesting baluster-with-lighting family, Steve reminds us that “Revit hates switching between shared and not shared status.”

You have to follow a strict process of deleting and / or renaming affected families that exist in the project if you wish to switch them from Shared to non-Shared, or vice-versa.

If you want to read the rest of Steve’s, post, here is a link:
Revit OpEd: Dept. of Quirky – Baluster with Light Fixture

How to include Area Boundary Line in a Model Group

Luke Johnson

When in Edit Mode for a Model group, the Area Boundary Line tool is grayed out.

However, to work around this limitation, you can:

  • Select Area Boundary lines that exist ‘in the project’ and then trigger the Group command to group them, or
  • Edit an existing Model Group and use the ‘Add’ option to bring Area Boundary lines from the Project into the Group

It is an unusual limitation, but the above workarounds are not too onerous.

List of Autodesk Revit Blogs

Luke Johnson

Ever wondered how many official Autodesk Revit blogs there are?  Check out the list below:

BIM & BEAM – Nicolas Mangon, Wai Chu, Tom Culotta
Family Jewels-Creating Quality BIM Content – William Spier, Ian McGaw, Martin J. Schmid, Jason A. Spleha
Inside the Factory – Tom Vollaro, Erik Egbertson
Inside the System – Kyle Bernhardt
The Building Coder – Jeremy Tammik
The Revit Clinic – Harlan Brumm, Kathryn Langan, Jeremy Smith, Ryan Duell
German BIM Blog

Here is a master list of Autodesk Blogs (for all software packages)