Section Box with Perspective 3D Views

Luke Johnson

As we all know, Revit really wants you to be able to properly visualize your building. You may have experimented with Section Boxes in normal 3D views, but you can also use them in Perspective/Camera views.

  1. Make a new Camera View.
  2. Go to the View Properties of the Camera View, and select ‘Section Box’
  3. To modify it, select the Section Box and then switch to a Plan View. The Section Box should still be selected, and you can modify the grips (you can modify these grips in many views).

Using this technique, you should be able to make some awesome cutaway views. These views can really help you to visualize and optimize your design.

Worksharing Monitor – Free System Performance Utility

Luke Johnson

First off, if you are working with Central/Local Files and Worksharing, then I encourage you to head over to Autodesk Subscription, login and get the Worksharing Monitor.

Then, open Revit. Go to the ‘Add-Ins’ tab on the Ribbon, and under the ‘External Tools’ you will find the Worksharing Monitor.

Once you go into the Worksharing Monitor, click the ‘System Performance’ button and a handy little utility will pop up. Enjoy!

Resizing and correcting 'warped' images in Revit

Luke Johnson

Let’s say you have imported an image of an existing floor plan into a Revit view, but it doesn’t quite look right. When you scale the image, it appears to be warped in either the ‘X’ or ‘Y’ direction.

What do you see in the ‘Options’ bar? Untick the box ‘Lock Proportions’ and you can correct the warped image by resizing with the blue grips!

While you’re at it, if you want the ‘Options’ bar to appear at the bottom of your screen, right click on the ‘Options’ bar and select ‘Dock at Bottom’.

Find Elements Associated with a Particular Level

Luke Johnson

Have you ever had to pick up someone else’s project and try to figure out how it all goes together? Or maybe you were trying to delete a level, and Revit just went ahead and deleted all associated elements without telling you?

I found a great tool on the AUGI Forums that actually reports all the elements on a particular level! You can download it at http://forums.augi.com/showpost.php?p=864748&postcount=22 (you need to login to the forums obviously).

To help you install it, check out http://forums.augi.com/showpost.php?p=921396&postcount=36.

I have installed and used it with 2010 and it seems to work fine. Thanks to sfaust!

Subscription Webcast: Solutions to Common Problems Experienced by Autodesk® Revit® Architecture Users

Luke Johnson

“In this webcast, we explore the most common problems experienced by Autodesk® Revit® Architecture users. Autodesk experts will teach you techniques for overcoming the most common issues, including:

  • View Problems
  • Memory Usage
  • Journal Files
  • Upgrading Files
  • Crashing / Error Messages
  • Corrupt Files
  • Synchronize with Central
  • Rendering “

Register at:
http://www.pacificcommerce.com.au/autodesk/subscriptionwebcast2010.asp?DCMP=EMC-SUB_WEBINAR_AU or at http://www.autodesk.com.au/subscription-only-webcasts

Locking computer during printing or exporting causes Revit to become unresponsive – REPOST

Luke Johnson

I find it quite funny that one of the ‘solutions’ to this problem is…don’t lock your computer (“you can prevent this behavior by not locking the computer when printing or exporting”). Thanks a lot! Revit is now telling us what we can and can’t do people! (Or, more correctly, the Revit support staff are telling us.)

This shows that you must give Revit What Revit Wants – or it will make your computer unresponsive!

Issue
You print or export your project in Revit and lock the computer during the progress to find Revit is unresponsive when later unlocked.

  1. Solution
    This occurs when Direct3D® Hardware Acceleration is enabled and the computer is locked > Ctrl + Alt + Delete > Lock Computer. There are two options to prevent Revit from becoming unresponsive when printing or exporting:
    Disable Hardware Acceleration through Options > Graphics > Graphics Mode. Un-check Use Hardware Acceleration (Direct3D). This will prevent Revit from going unresponsive when the computer is unlocked.
  2. If disabling Hardware Acceleration is not an option, you can prevent this behavior by not locking the computer when printing or exporting.

From http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=13855078&linkID=9243099&CMP=OTC-RSSSUP01

ArchiCAD to Revit and IFC Optimizer

Luke Johnson

You may be unfortunate enough to have to translate a BIM model from ArchiCAD into Revit. I have done this in the past (with limited success) using IFC.

However, I was browsing the AUGI Forums today and came across this post, which recommended the use of Solibri IFC Optimizer. This is a free Java utility that launches from your browser (you do need to register first). You then feed your IFC file into it, and it, well, optimizes the file.

I gave it a go and it reduced an IFC I recently worked on from 21.6 mb to 13.7 mb – so it actually does work.

Check it out if you are using IFC…

"These are a few of my favourite things…"

Luke Johnson

No doubt there are a few utilities that you just can’t do without. Here are a few of my absolute favourites:

  1. CutePDF Writer – just brilliant, and its free!
  2. 7-Zip – best archive utility (in my books), and again, its free!
  3. IrfanView – very fast and very functional image viewing and editing
  4. FolderGuide – if you are still on 32 bit Windows, this is the best way to navigate folders (in my opinion)
  5. CCleaner – great way to clean up after yourself
  6. FileZilla FTP Client – open source FTP client
  7. FREE PDF Tools – these are simply awesome, and yet again, totally free!

That was just a shortlist. I may post some more in future. In the meantime, what are your favourite utilities? Feel free to comment and share them with all of us…