Harvesting Hatch Patterns from Revit to PAT files

Luke Johnson

You have a Revit file with some custom hatch patterns (filled regions / fill patterns) in it.  You want to turn them into PAT files for re-use in AutoCAD or some other drafting program.  Here’s how:

  1. Make a Drafting View in Revit with a couple of Filled Regions in it.  
  2. Set the filled Regions to the Revit Hatch Patterns that you want to export to PAT files.
  3. Export the Drafting View to a 2000 version DWG file
  4. Open the DWG file in AutoCAD
  5. In AutoCAD, APPLOAD then browse to getpat.lsp file.  To get this file, right-click and Save Target as from this link.
  6. After loading the lisp file, File – Save As the DWG, to something in the same directory (this step just makes AutoCAD and the LISP aware of where the PAT files should be saved)
  7. Then, type GETPAT
  8. Select the hatch you want to export.  It *should* be saved as a PAT file to the same directory that the DWG file is in.

EDIT – you could also try this method:
What Revit Wants: Native Revit can make PAT files too – you just have find them …

In response to this tweet:

Related forum post:
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?71833-Creating-a-pat

More free lisps:
http://www.turvill.com/t2/free_stuff/index.htm

30 free videos from Revit author and educator Paul Aubin (playlist)

Luke Johnson

Links via https://twitter.com/paulfaubin

I just grabbed them and added them to a playlist for easy access… about 3.5 hours worth!

Here are the basic video titles in the playlist (as at 17 September 2012):

Revit Architecture: How to make global changes

Understanding the building information modeling process

Revit Architecture: The Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar

Revit Architecture: How to use the modification tools

Revit Architecture: How to work with DWG files

Revit Architecture: How to add curtain walls

Revit Architecture: How to create key styles

Revit Architecture: How to use the Blend tool

Revit Architecture: Working with the Project settings

Understanding Revit Architecture’s Family Editor

How families work in Revit Architecture

How to work with Revit’s Family Editor

How to work with Revit’s reference planes

How to use Revit Architecture’s camera settings

How to use the Sun Path feature

How to use non-photorealistic renderings

What you should know about Revit Architecture

Rivet Architecture design asset management + general overview

Rivet Architecture tutorial: Building an in-place mass

Revit Architecture tutorial: Working with curtain panels

Revit Architecture: Exploring advanced stitching strategies

Revit Architecture tutorial: Understanding adaptive points

Revit Architecture tutorial: Working with DWG files

Revit Architecture: Creating custom walls

Revit Architecture: How to work with floors

Using Listening Dimensions with Angles

Luke Johnson

Listening dimensions is the technical term for the little blue dimensions that appear as you start drawing a line in Revit.  The bold entry is the one that Revit is ‘listening’ to the keyboard for.  When it comes to angular dimensions, if you start drawing a line then hit TAB it basically ignores the Angular snap increments and shows you the exact angle at your cursor position (go Manage – Snaps to see the increments).  Also, if you put an increment in the Angular dimension snap increments that is not divisible into 360, Revit will basically ignore it.

Holding Shift will constrain you to either vertical or horizontal directions.

In AutoCAD, you can access either the angle or the length of a line when creating a new line.  Sadly, Revit does not allow you to access the angle while creating a new line or wall – you can only enter a Length (as this is the bold listening dimension at creation time).

Basically, then, we need to consider some workflows for allowing angular entry.  Most of these are time consuming (see below).

Workflows:
Option 1 –

  1. Have a Drafting View open, with a line in it
  2. Select the line
  3. Adjust the angle
  4. Copy / paste into your current working view

Option 2 –

  1. Select a Plan View crop region
  2. Rotate it to the specific angle that you want to work with
  3. Start drawing a line
  4. Use SHIFT to contrain the movement (Revit respects the view crop boundary as defining the vertical and horizontal directions)

Option 3 –

  1. Draw line
  2. Select line
  3. Use angle dimension box

Option 4 –

  1. Draw line
  2. Select line
  3. Trigger rotate command

Do you have a better solution for angular entry at element creation time?  It wouldn’t be hard to come up with a better way than those described above.

Here is some more information I found while exploring this issue …

Unit entry:
=45d1 results in 450mm?  Why?
Also refer to Entering different units while using Revit natively

Great thread:
the value typed goes into the “listening” temporary dimension (which is the one that is bold).
http://forums.augi.com/archive/index.php/t-40708.html  (note – this thread is AWESOME for shortcuts and tricks)

Wikihelp:
If there is no linear dimension, you can enter an angular dimension, if applicable.
http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/enu/2013/Help/00001-Revit_He0/1468-Document1468/1744-Annotati1744/1745-Dimensio1745/1786-Listenin1786#GUID-84FFE118-6EF7-4747-8DF7-AE675818645E

Failed forum posts asking for listening angular dimensions:
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Revit-Architecture/Listening-Dimensions-Line-angle/td-p/2487339
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?134150-Listening-Angular-Dimension
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?46169-listening-dimensions-for-angles

Line drawing tip – Radius between straight lines:
select Radius and specify a value.
A radius creates fillets at the specified radius between line segments, allowing you to create a rounded chain of lines. A line must be joined to the end of another line for a fillet to display. If a line is connected to more than one line, a fillet cannot be created.
The following image shows line segments sketched without Radius selected and line segments sketched with Radius selected.

via
Sketching a Line – WikiHelp

Using aliases to simultaneously access the same Revit Central File

Luke Johnson

Steve’s post recently reminded me of something I have done in the past – using multiple pseudo usernames to access the same Central File in different instances of Revit.

Let’s say that you wanted to render a certain scene in Revit, and then save the resultant image to the Project (a Central File).  As this render could take 10 minutes, you want to keep working on something useful in the same Central File.  What to do?

You just need to open a new instance of Revit and change the Username, then open a Local Copy of the Central as per usual.  You now have 2 instances of the same Central model open, and you can work in and Synchronize from both of them … obviously you are going to need some decent hardware if you are working on a large central file with links.  Set the first instance to render, and work in the second instance while that is happening (keep in mind that local renders in Revit can use multiple cores, so you may want to think about manually adjusting core affinity).

The username can be changed in the Revit Options dialog:

From Steve’s post:
You can however change your username anytime you want when you work in a central file. It isn’t a great idea to actually work this way, switching usernames as you go. It is however a way to clear out users that have not relinquished worksets properly though. When nobody else is working on the project you can open a central file and pretend to be the ill mannered users that haven’t relinquished elements properly. It’s another reason you might consider working in a central file, even though it is generally frowned upon.

Read more at:
Revit OpEd: Changing a Username

Useful hardware utilities

Luke Johnson

Here are a couple of system utilities that may help you to squeeze maximum performance out of your hardware (to speed up Revit, of course).  Actually, my FX580 was struggling a bit with Showcase, so I wanted to overclock it a bit to make the augmented reality plugin work a bit more smoothly…

GPU-Z is a handy information tool for your video card.  If you are overclocking, it will tell you the current clock speed, as well as the default.  It will also tell you the driver and Forceware version that you are running, as well as additional advanced performance information.

Download TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.6.4 | techPowerUp

(also, if you are overclocking a GPU, check out hwbot – it will give you an idea of the average overclock you can achieve using air cooling only for a given GPU model)

Core Temp will give you advanced processor information, including temperature and load for each core on your CPU.

Dev Eject will help you remove USB devices safely, even if Windows is struggling to do so.

Casework vs Generic Models

Luke Johnson

Standard Casework families can not join geometry in the project environment, but Generic Models can.  There are various opinions on how to handle this.  From RFO:

Aaron Maller (using Generic Model, non adaptive):
Ours are generic models, non-line based, and we join geometry. It reports quantities correctly but conservatively, since a mitered corner reports both full lengths. But i prefer it that way. AC’s are nice, but since they havent made one that is multiple point with point number dictated on the fly, im not making 7 different families so i can have a 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on.

Alex Page (Generic Model, but using subcategory):
Ours are Generic models (on a subcategory called Casework) so we can successfully use the join tool, and line based for ease of use… 

Steve Stafford (Casework, adaptive):
ah youze guys are chickens I made this one in less than five minutes from scratch. Not much more work than the old in-place deal. Make a few versions and you’re “done”.

Read more:
2012: Clever Countertops

Old 2006 post on AUGI, listing the then ‘joinable’ categories:
It seems to be that only elements of some categories can be joined. Using the default Revit Building template, these are the categories that can be joined:
Ceilings
Columns
Floors
Generic Models
Mass
Roofs
Structural Columns
Structural Foundations
Structural Framing
Walls 

via 
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?42732-Casework-Families-Geometries-Don-t-Join

The question remains – what do YOU do to solve this problem?

And can you find a ‘current’ and complete list showing the categories that can Join Geometry in the Project Environment?

Find the elements constrained by a particular Lock

Luke Johnson

I learned something from Wikihelp today:

  1. In the drawing area, right-click a dimension lock.
  2. Select Show Related from the context menu. The appropriate element highlights and a dialog identifies the element.
  3. Click the arrow buttons to switch between the elements constrained by the lock.

From:
Distinguishing a Dimension Lock’s Related Element – WikiHelp
via
https://twitter.com/RevitWikiHelp

Matching a 3D view Section Box to a Scope Box

Luke Johnson

I had one of those slap-your-head moments when this finally came to me … use Coins Auto Section Box!

Step by step:

  1. Close Revit
  2. Install Coins Auto Section Box
  3. Open Revit
  4. Open a project
  5. Draw a Scope Box
  6. Go to a 3D view where you want to match the Scope Box
  7. Select the Scope Box
  8. Go to Add-Ins > Auto Section Box
  9. Set Element extents, plus buffer: to 0
  10. Hit OK!

The 3D view now has a Section Box that matches the selected Scope Box.

I previously tried to implement some sample code from The Building Code, but couldn’t make it work (see below the lines).  I’m sure this is due to my less-than-optimal API skills…

How to compile code SLN for Revit (using Building Coder as example:)

  1. Download the ZIP
  2. Unzip it
  3. Double click SetSectionBox.sln and open it in Visual C# Express (or use SharpDevelop, see below)
  4. Click on the Reference Paths side-tab
  5. Using the … add your Program FilesAutodeskRevit 2013Program directory
    it is looking for RevitAPI.dll and RevitAPIUI.dll
  6. Right-click on the SetSectionBox node and press build
  7. Find the setsectionboxsrcSetSectionBoxSetSectionBoxbinRelease folder, and copy the SetSectionBox.dll
  8. Paste it into %AppData%AutodeskRevitAddins2013
  9. If it isn’t already there, paste SetSectionBox.addin into the same folder.

Revit 2013 ships with the open source IDE SharpDevelop.

If you want to use SharpDevelop:
“yourdrive:Program FilesAutodeskRevit 2013ProgramSDAbinSharpDevelop.exe”

Just drag and drop the solution file into the SharpDevelop window.

Running the command, I get a couple of different errors.  One is:
Revit encountered a Autodesk.Revit.Exceptions.ArgumentException: Box is
empty
Parameter name: box
at Autodesk. Revit.DB.View3D.set_SectionBox(BoundingBoxXYZ section Box)
at SetSectionBox.Command.Execute(ExternaiCommandData
commandData, String& message, ElementSet elements)
at apiManagedExecuteCommand(AString* assemblyName, AString*
className, AString* vendorDescription, MFCApp* pMFCApp, DBView*
pDBView, AString* message,
Set< Elementldstd::less tnallc< Elementld> > • ids,
Map tnallc > * data, AString*
exceptionName, AString* exceptionMessage)

Here is SetSectionBox.zip containing the complete source code, Visual Studio solution, and add-in manifest of this command. 
via
The Building Coder: Set View Section Box to Match Scope Box