Having Ribbon Problems with Revit 2012 after installing Revit 2014?

Luke Johnson

Quick fix for Revit 2012:

  1. Close Revit
  2. Go here, download and extract ZIP
  3. Go to Revit 2012 Program folder and rename AdWindows.dll to AdWindows.dll_OLD
  4. Copy AdWindows.dll from the extracted folder to the Revit 2012 Program folder
  5. Open Revit Architecture 2012 – your ribbon problems should be fixed

For Revit 2013 links, see below:
Ribbon behavior problems occur in Revit 2012 and 2013 after the installation of Microsoft .NET 4.5, which is one of the pre-requisite for Revit 2014. This is why this problem is typically encountered after Revit 2014 is installed side-by-side with a previous version of Revit. For those using Revit 2012, the Autodesk Revit 2012 – Ribbon behavior due to .Net 4.5 installation hotfix will resolve this problem. And for Revit 2013 users, the fix is included in the latest update releases, which are available from the following links: Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, andRevit.

Tony Michniewicz
Autodesk Revit QA

Related forum thread:
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Revit-Architecture/Revit-2014-Corrupts-Revit-2012-and-2013-Ribbon-Menu/td-p/3876942/page/2

Temporary View Properties has a Recently Used List

Luke Johnson

Have you ever used the 2014 feature Temporary View Properties?  If you have, you might have noticed that it automatically creates a list of the (temporary) View Templates that have been used recently.

What Revit Wants is for us to stop clogging up our models with 100s of working views, and instead just use 2 or 3 “Working View Templates” along with the Temporary View Properties feature.

This way, you don’t have to keep switching between Working and Printing views all the time…

Also, apply some keyboard shortcuts to these (the “Restore” one will be particularly useful):

BIM 360 Glue updated

Luke Johnson

What’s new in 14 January 2014 BIM 360 Glue update:

  • Sign in performance improvements
  • Stability improvements – fixed crashing issues under certain circumstances during sign in, merging models, and model interaction
  • Updated messaging when a model is parsing
  • Other usability and quality improvements

via
http://help.autodesk.com/view/BIM360/ENU/?guid=GUID-431B5D3D-A4E2-472C-9435-CEBD2DF28172

Heads-up, including advice about .NET update:
http://blogs.rand.com/architectural/2014/01/the-first-glue-update-of-2014-comes-with-homework.html

You Can Add Revit Server subfolders directly to the Places List

Luke Johnson

Although you can’t right-click on these folders, you can use the Tools – Add Current Folder to Places option.

For Revit 2014, it looks like this in the Registry, at path
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareAutodeskRevitAutodesk Revit 2014ProfilesAllAnavDialogs:


You could hypothetically populate these using a script or Registry merge (if you are careful).

Note: you do not need to restart Revit for these changes to appear.

My previous post about editing Registry Places:
https://wrw.is/2010/09/how-to-edit-my-places-names-using.html

Vertical Column Splitter for Revit

Luke Johnson

It’s very simple right now: it will split all selected structural columns at a level elevation specified by the user (beta developed by Ken Marsh)

Download:
http://tiny.cc/ColumnSplitterBeta

Read post:
http://marshapi.com/1/post/2014/01/vertical-column-splitter-beta.html

Read previous related post (including dialog on bugs related to slanted columns and masking):
http://revitoped.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/split-column-wish.html

What Use is BIM Really? Is there more than one? (PDF)

Luke Johnson

To oversimplify, this document essentially forms a categorized glossary of terms that show how the BIM process works and what kind of information is generated by it.

Excerpt:

Download it at:
http://bim.psu.edu/Uses/the_uses_of_bim.pdf
by RALPH G. KREIDER AND JOHN I. MESSNER

Heads-up:
http://revitlandscape.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/the-uses-of-bim-classifying-and.html

Addins for Design Review

Luke Johnson

Probably the browser one is the most interesting…  Oh, is it only me that finds the misspelling of accuracy quite hilarious 🙂

 JT Import Add-in
Enables JT files to be accessed from within Design Review with full fidelity and accuracty.

DGN Import Add-in
Working with DGN? Now Autodesk has a add-in for Design Review to enable importing of DGN files, making your design review process more seamless.

Autodesk® Design Review Browser Add-in
The Autodesk Design Review Browser add-in for Autodesk Design Review software lets you view DWF™ files using Mozilla® Firefox® and Google Chrome for the Windows® operating system. Now, you can view embedded DWF files in Firefox and Chrome much the same way as you do in the Microsoft® Internet Explorer® browser.

Source:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=13635915&linkID=9338138

Finding Something that is Hidden by Element using a Schedule

Luke Johnson

Using Schedules, you can usually use Highlight in Model to find an element (or group of elements) from a schedule row.

However, this does not work if the element is hidden in the only view that it is instantiated in – for example, a single Generic Annotation entry in a Note Block (Schedule).  Revit will not be able to find the element.

One workaround – interestingly, selecting a Schedule row actually selects the object/s in Revit, but at least in my configuration (Properties Palette on second monitor), it does not show the Properties in the Palette for that object while the Schedule view is active.  However, you can:

  1. Select the schedule row
  2. Switch to another view (for example, a 3D view)
  3. The Properties Palette has now updated to show the properties for the Element!
  4. You can trigger normal commands – such as IDs of Selection or Save Selection

Another workaround:

  1. Install RevitLookup
  2. Select the row in the Schedule
  3. Revitlookup – Snoop Current Selection… (this will give you Element ID and other info)