Recover typed form data (or, OH NO What Have I Done!)

Luke Johnson

Have you ever spent ages typing into a web form, only to press submit and be served a message like “Error=remote_computer_lost_your_hard_work” or even just a blank page? 

If this has just happened to you, and before you do ANYTHING else, try this:

  1. Download HxD Hex Editor (here is a link to a portable version)
  2. Open the HxD program.
  3. Click Extras – Open RAM…
  4. Choose the browser your are currently using (such as firefox.exe).  The program now ‘reads’ the RAM stores associated with this program.
  5. Click Search – Find.
  6. Type part of a phrase of what you just typed – and click OK.
  7. This will find the place in the RAM where your form data is stored.
  8. Now just select the text you want to recover, use Ctrl+C for copy, and then paste into Word or Notepad for additional formatting.

Step 3 image

Step 4 image

 

Step 6 image

 
These types of errors do happen, and there is are some very poorly coded websites out there.

Hopefully this has helped you recover some work!

Google Desktop Search – additional tweaks

Luke Johnson

 I hope you enjoyed my previous post about how to index networked content.

If you wish to tweak some more settings or even move your Google index, you should install TweakGDS.  This is a small plugin utility that allows you to:

  • change the index location
  • adjust the number of results returned in a search
  • add or remove indexed drives etc

You may also want to check out Halftone Search.  This gives you a GUI shell for Google Desktop Searching and sorting of results.  However, this is trial / pay software.

Location for Revit 2011 KeyboardShortcuts.xml file

Luke Johnson
You want to know where the KeyboardShortcuts.xml file is stored for Revit® 2011 products after customizing keyboard shortcuts…
The KeyboardShortcuts.xml file is stored in the following folder locations.  Substitute the current Windows login name for %username% :

Windows XP
Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011
C:Documents and Settings%username%Local SettingsApplication DataAutodeskRevitAutodesk Revit Architecture 2011

Autodesk Revit Structure 2011
C:Documents and Settings%username%Local SettingsApplication DataAutodeskRevitAutodesk Revit Structure 2011

Autodesk Revit MEP 2011
C:Documents and Settings%username%Local SettingsApplication DataAutodeskRevitAutodesk Revit MEP 2011

Windows Vista & Windows 7
Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011
C:Users%username%AppdatalocalAutodeskRevitAutodesk Revit Architecture 2011

Autodesk Revit Structure 2011
C:Users%username%AppdatalocalAutodeskRevitAutodesk Revit Structure 2011

Autodesk Revit MEP 2011
C:Users%username%AppdatalocalAutodeskRevitAutodesk Revit MEP 2011

From Autodesk Revit Architecture Services & Support

NOTE – this file only appears AFTER modifying the keyboard shortcuts! 

Automatically Download Content for Free

Luke Johnson

There are many sources of content out there, the main ones being Seek and RevitCity.

Sometimes, a content provider will attempt to obfuscate the links to the original files, so that you can’t just come along and use DownthemAll and Firefox to download all the RFAs and RVTs in one hit.

However, there is a way around this – its called iMacro, and it is also an addon for Firefox.

Basically, you can set it to record actions you take using your browser, and then replay these actions as a script.  Its very powerful and gives you a lot of control.

A few little tweaks that you might want to add to the start of the script:

SET !ERRORIGNORE YES
SET !LOADCHECK NO
SET !TIMEOUT 100

DWG Import and Link Methods

Luke Johnson

A big tip for new players:

Never import a DWG file.  

And never, ever explode an Imported DWG file.

Nothing good will come of it.  Trust me.  Instead, do this (in order of preference):

  1. Use Revit natively, without adding messy DWG or CAD import data.
  2. Link DWG files, rather than import.
  3. Import DWG files into a Detail Component family, and then load that family in.
  4. Eat a very sour lemon.
  5. Import DWG file.
  6. Import DWG file and explode it.
  7. Cry

If you have any thoughts, or any other methods that you use (like Importing a DWG file into a RVT link and then using ‘Linked Views’, feel free to comment).

Save All Families in a Project to RFAs and Folders AUTOMATICALLY

Luke Johnson

This is awesome.  Let’s say you have a project with heaps of families in it, and you want to save them to individual files.  There is an API add on that does exactly this.  How do you get it and use it?

First of all, download this file (Chapter 24) from the Sybex resource page for the book Mastering Revit Architecture 2011.

Now:

  1. This is a ZIP file, so unzip the file.
  2. Browse in the contents to:
    c24ExampleApplicationExampleApplicationbinDebug
  3. Copy everything from this folder to:
    C:Revit Projects
  4. Copy the two .addin files from the c24 folder to the correct location as shown below:
        * For a specific user:
              o For Windows XP – C:Documents and SettingsApplication DataAutodeskRevitAddins2011
              o For Vista/Windows 7 – C:UsersAppDataRoamingAutodeskRevitAddins2011
        * For all users:
              o For Windows XP – C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataAutodeskRevitAddins2011
              o For Vista/Windows 7 – C:ProgramDataAutodeskRevitAddins2011
    Refer to this post at The Building Coder for more information.
  5. Restart Revit 2011

Now, on the Add-Ins ribbon, there will be a new section for the Revit Family Export Utility:

When you run this with a Project open, it will prompt you for a directory, and then it will save all the families from the current Project to .rfa family files, and it will put them into appropriate directories (by Category) for you!

This is a very cool tool – thanks to Don Rudder for his great chapter in the book, and for this excellent API demonstration.

Consider some ways you could use this:

  • Load a bunch of families into a project and get this tool to sort them into appropriate folders for you.
  • You have an RVT but you do not have the RFA files for families loaded into the RVT – use this tool to get them all out quickly.
  • Transfer all RFAs from one RVT to another by saving them out and then loading them all in at once.

Re-ordering and re-grouping parameters for userfriendliness

Luke Johnson

So you have added a bunch of Shared Parameters to your Project, but you never bother to set the ‘Group Parameter under:’ property correctly…you are naughty, aren’t you?

It can make using Revit a lot easier if you Group Parameters properly – its what revit wants you to do.

How do you do it?  Quite simply:

  1. Manage – Project Parameters
  2. Select Parameter – Modify
  3. Change ‘Group Parameter under:’ property to something more appropriate.
  4. OK, OK etc
Here is a quick video on how to do it:
Annoyingly, you can’t change the grouping of parameters that are ‘built in’ to Revit.  It annoys me that ‘Drawn By’ is not grouped with Checked By, Approved By and Designed By on the Sheet Parameters:
If you know how to fix this, please comment!

Grouping sheets by Revision in Project Browser

Luke Johnson

I had a bit of a problem using Revit OOTB (out of the box) parameters to group sheets by Revision, so I did it super-quickly using a custom parameter.

Here are the steps:

  1. Add a new custom parameter to sheets, such as ‘Sheet Revision Group’ or similar.
  2. Open a schedule that shows the Revision you would like to group, and add this parameter to the schedule.
  3. Modify the custom parameter on all the sheets to match the Revision (you can do this quickly by toggling the ‘Itemize each instance’ tick box).
  4. Now you can easily use this parameter to group your sheets by the Revision.

Please note that this technique forms a ‘break’ between Revit native revision data and the custom parameter, so only use this technique if you understand this issue.

I have provided a quick video of the technique:

Fast searching for local Revit content using Free indexing tools

Luke Johnson

If you are searching for Revit files on your local hard drive, try using the search tool Everything – its super fast.  If you want to index local network shares, and you are:

using a 32-bit OS – you can use Windows Search and the Add-in for Files on Microsoft Networks.

using a 64-bit OS – you can use Google Desktop (Search), and then add the local shares as additional paths.

If you are using Google Desktop, you can also improve the indexing of CAD files by installing the ‘General CADD Pro’ indexer:
After installing Desktop Search, download, unzip the zip file and run SetupGeneralCADDIndexer.msi to install the General CADD Desktop Search Plug-In.
click this link  

From http://www.generalcadd.com/plugin-1.htm

These tools can help you if you want quick access to the families in your library, but your folder organisation leaves something to be desired…