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…

Obtain Vector Information from PDFs using Free Tools

Luke Johnson

Sometimes you will have access to a PDF file, but not to the original DWG.  Is there any way you can get the base vector data, such as lines and arcs, out of the PDF and back into a DWG?  Yes, there is – and it’s free.

You will need 3 things:
Ghostscript or here
GSView
pstoedit (or Windows exe link here)

Download and install each of the above tools.  Make your life easy and stick with the 32-bit version of everything.

Once you have installed them all, open a PDF file using GSView.  GSView is usually located in  
C:Program Filesghostgumgsviewgsview32.exe

With your PDF open, take the following steps:

  1. Click on ‘Media’ and set the correct paper size.
  2. Go to ‘Edit’ and click on ‘Convert to vector format…’
  3. At the resulting PS to Edit dialog box, choose dxf_s, and add the following Driver options:
    -mm -splineaspolyline -splineprecision 10
    (I have found these settings to work quite well)
  4. Click OK.
  5. Select the page in the next dialog (usually only 1), press OK, and then pick a place to save the DXF file.
  6. Click Save.
  7. Open in AutoCAD and scale to correct size.
  8. Save as DWG.

If you have any problems, feel free to comment and I will try and help you out.  If you intend to import the DWG into Revit, keep in mind that Revit is not very impressed with very short lines.

Enjoy your PDF hacking!

Remove Stored username and password on Windows Vista

Luke Johnson

I have been experiencing some Event 1030 errors, and the ‘Details’ tab in the Event Viewer shows the following:

ErrorDescription Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.           following asf

To correct this, I have tried removing the stored usernames and passwords (on Windows Vista), using this technique:

  • Type Control keymgr.dll and hit ENTER
  • The Window Stored Usernames and Passwords opens, this is we’re you can edit, backup or remove them easily.

This information was found at:
http://www.techmixer.com/remove-stored-username-and-password-on-windows-vista/

Smoother multitasking while Rendering in Revit

Luke Johnson

Revit 2011 (Mental Ray) utilises all available CPU cores that the OS can ‘see.’  When multitasking, your PC may slow to a crawl after a render begins.  You can limit the amount of CPU time that the Render process sees by either:

  1. Adjusting the ‘Affinity’ to limit the amount of cores the render process can access (using Task Manager).
  2. Adjusting the ‘Priority’ to Low to allow other processes to have more overall CPU time.

Simply open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and then right-click on the render process (fbxooprender2.exe).  You can now adjust the Affinity and Priority.

Video below:

Dimond Architects Blog: Sustainable Cities Event 2010 – Singapore

Luke Johnson

“Dimond Architects has been able to recently put forward a proposal for a prototype version of the design for Taiwan (to later be incorporated into Eco-City projects in mainland China).”

Read the rest of the post – link below:
Dimond Architects Blog: Sustainable Cities Event 2010 – Singapore: “For hundreds of thousands of years man fought to make a place for himself in nature. For the first time in the history of our species, the s…”