What Revit Wants
It looks like Firefox 4 is going to have some very nice features, but they might be old news if you are an Apple fanboy.
To download Firefox 4 Beta (codenamed ‘Minefield’ hehe), go to this link.
Then, click on the OS version you are running (I clicked on tryserver-win32), and then download and run the appropriate ‘installer’ package.
I finished this post in the new version, so it seems to do the basics ok!
Wouldn’t it be nice if we got an update version of the Revit Families Guide?
Well, sadly, we don’t have it yet.
You can still access the 2010 version here and the 2009 version here.
I don’t know about you, but I would love an updated Families Guide for 2011.
Some of the information in this guide is invaluable. I have actually requested that Autodesk put together a comprehensive guide relating to Revit Categories (SR# 1-9298685321 – The help file does not describe the unique properties of each Category).
Here is an example of the information in the 2010 guide (this is copyright to Autodesk obviously):
In order to have its content indexed, it seems that the website ‘Experts Exchange’ allows its paid content pages to be cached by Google.
Unfortunately (for them), this means you can access the content simply by clicking on the ‘cached’ button from a Google search.
When you get to the cached page, scroll down to the bottom of the page. All of the responses and solutions should be visible to you.
I’m very surprised that Experts Exchange and Google have not established a more ‘secure’ solution to this problem.
If there is a particular Experts Exchange page, and you would like to view the Google cache of that page, copy and paste the URL into a Google Search. This should expose the ‘cache’ link for that page.
I guess it proves that these ‘Experts’ + cutting edge technology (Google), doesn’t necessarily = smartness.
For some of you, this will be old news. However, it is a very important yet not very well known procedure. How do you accurately rotate an existing section view accurately?
Here are the steps:
If you are interested in trying out the new, supposedly improved, beta of Microsoft Security Essentials, head over to this link and see if you can become part of the limited beta program.
There are 32 bit and 64 bit versions available. You will need to sign in with a Windows Live account.
I found out about this over at this post at Lifehacker. Check it out if you are interested in more details.
Interesting video on AutoCAD Exchange over at this link.
The main point of the video is – if you want to work with Solids in AutoCAD effectively, you should correctly set the DELOBJ system variable. What does this variable mean?
From Autodesk online help:
As Revit users, if we ever use AutoCAD for 3D modeling, we want to try and create a form that is a true ‘solid’, something that Revit can understand properly (as opposed to messy meshes).
It seems that this workflow is becoming easier. Of course, Revit itself is becoming a more powerful 3D modeling tool. Check out my post on Bending the Rules with Adaptive Points.
Steve at Revit OpEd has posted about how he feels about the Properties Palette and other interface items here.
I recommend you also check out the comments – Troy Gates makes a very interesting comment where he refers to this AUGI thread. In this thread, Troy mentions a registry setting that some of you (particularly those deploying Revit 2011 to lots of Clients) may be very interested in…a setting that allows the ‘default’ or preset Properties Palette to be set without opening Revit!
We run a Small Business Server box and it primarily provides our email via Exchange Server 2003.
Recently, our ISP indicated that our server was relaying or forwarding spam messages. I have tried a number of different things to correct this, and I would like to share a few of the steps of I have taken.
On a slightly unrelated note, some nefarious characters kept trying to login to our server via Remote Desktop. I have defended against these attacks by using a program called 2x SecureRDP. This ‘filters’ incoming RDP connections and stops repetitive RDP attacks before they occure.
I hope some of this information has been useful to you.
With regard to my recent posts about using legacy mass forms, I would like to let you know how Autodesk responded to some feedback I gave them.
Basically, I used the Feedback Form at this link to make the following suggestion to Autodesk:
The 2009 massing tool should be available in the project environment, as well as the 2010 conceptual massing tool. Although there is a workaround (pasting a 2009 mass into a 2010/2011 project), this is not desirable. Please reinstate an option for the 2009 massing tool, which includes simple sweep and extrusion forms.
A subject matter expert at Autodesk responded with the following:
Thank you for contacting us. Being able to access older massing operations in the project environment as well as the new massing tools could be a valuable addition to help users transition to the new massing tools. In 2011 the massing tools have been updated to give more flexibility in making changes to forms once they have been created. Sketches can be altered using the “dissolve” functionality. This does not totally replace the old massing functionality but does offer some flexibility over the tools in 2010.
I will be sure to pass along your feedback to the development team.
I recommend that you post any sincere feedback and recommendations using this the abovementioned feedback form. Clearly, Autodesk are monitoring and evaluating this feedback.
Here is the problem:
An elevation crop region is not visible. It cannot be turned on using any of Visibility/Graphics settings. The problem is not anything to do with the ‘Show Crop Region’ switch. There are no Filters applied. Using the ‘Reveal Hidden Elements’ lightbulb, uncropping the view and then selecting all visible elements DOES NOT select the Crop Region (when you filter the selection, the Crop Region shows up as ‘Other’).
So, what do you think? Where is this Crop Region?
I noticed that there were Design Options present in the project. However, there are NO Properties with regard to Design Options while in the Elevation view (Properties Palette), OR while selecting the ‘Elevation Head’ in a Plan View.
However…selecting the Elevation circle (or square) itself yields ONE property – ‘Visible in Option’. Yay, we have found the problem!
This problem can also be diagnosed by attempting to add the Elevation Head to another Design Option – the following error results:
This shows how Revit views Elevations in a somewhat ‘cascading fashion’ – ie. Elevation (circle) as a parent of the actual Elevation (head).
Yet another example proving that it pays to know What Revit Wants.
