Tag: access

Solution for Revit DB Link and Microsoft Access compatibility for 64 bit vs 32 bit systems

Luke Johnson

The incompatibility between 32 bit Microsoft Office database systems and 64 bit Revit program architecture have been causing headaches for a while, but this technical solution may provide the answer you have been looking for: how to get 64 bit database drivers running alongside 32 bit Office installation.

Support page:
How to install 64-bit Microsoft Database Drivers alongside 32-bit Microsoft Office | AutoCAD Civil 3D | Autodesk Knowledge Network

The Problem:
“You cannot install the 64-bit version of Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 because you currently have 32-bit products installed…”

User-added image

Quote and heads-up from LinkedIn:
… a way to get Revit 64 bit systems to export an Access 2010 DB link on a 32 bit version. Here is the link with step by step instructions: http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-civil-3d/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-install-64-bit-Microsoft-Database-Drivers-alongside-32-bit-Microsoft-Office.html 
 

How to install 64-bit Microsoft Database Drivers alongside 32-bit Microsoft Office knowledge.autodesk.com

via
Finally a solution for DB Link and Access compatibility for 64 bit vs 32 bit systems | LinkedIn

Database and Excel Linking tools for Revit 2012

Luke Johnson

Check out the following link:
WhiteFeet public downloads

Among other things, you will find documentation that covers the following tools:
Revit Element Tools
Revit Family Tools
Revit Parameter Tools
Revit Database Link
Revit Sheet Manager

The License Agreement can be found at:
http://www.whitefeet.com/License.htm

Here are some summaries of the individual tools (taken from the documentation):
Sheet Manager
Links to an Excel file or (less commonly) an Access database.  Based on this
data, it creates or updates sheets in Revit as a bulk editing process.  The tool
can also be used to export data, renumber sheets, and place views on sheets. 


Revit-Database Link
A relatively complex and highly developed program that can be the basis of a wide range of workflows.  It can connect to either an Access or a SQL Server database and synchronize data in both directions. 


Element Tools
This collection of smaller tools has been grouped together for convenience, but they serve different kinds of purposes.  These include:
Placing unplaced areas and rooms.
Creating views, adding tags, and exporting images.
Managing links.

Family Tools
These tools support working with families and working with Excel:
Exporting detailed information about families to Excel.
Importing parameter values from Excel to control families in support of a computational design
process.

Revit IS a database

Luke Johnson

Some cool ideas from the June 2011 issue of AUGIWorld, article entitled ‘Revit, in a Database’ by Paul Crickard:

Once a Revit model has been exported to a database, the things
that can now be done with it are limited only by your imagination.
Build web-based or stand-alone front ends to access and modify
your model—without knowledge of the Revit API. Bring existing
data into a database and join it with the Revit model.

In this article he discusses some of the potential connections between MS Access and MS Excel, and the benefits of such interoperability.

I have posted numerous times about how to view the Revit database using various methods.  To start with, perhaps you would be interested in this post:
What Revit Wants: HOW-TO View the Revit Database (2011 Secret #14)

And, yeah, I twisted the title of this post a little bit 🙂

Large files and emails…they don't mix

Luke Johnson

Revit makes it very easy to produce a LOT of drawings. This can result in a large deliverable. In one recent case, our Tender Issue of drawings consisted of 132 A1 sheets. Using CutePDF (with a couple of handy tweaks), we printed these to a PDF file of around 48 MB.

Depending on your email size policy, a file of this size would take anywhere from 5 to 16 emails to transmit.

To avoid this eventuality, I have explored various options for uploading large files and making them available to our colleagues. FTP seemed to be the answer, but one of our Clients is behind a proxy or firewall system that doesn’t allow FTP access – even with an anonymous account! So it was back to the drawing board…

Therefore, I decided to setup a HTTP server for file access. I downloaded Apache 2.2 (for Windows, without SSL). I took the following steps:

  1. Allowed a port through our firewall and directed it to the PC running Apache. We have a static IP, so I could now access Apache by typing in xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:portnumber.
  2. Ensured that the opened port setting matched the Apache port in the httpd.conf file
  3. Disabled the ‘Indexes’ feature for a subfolder of the Apache ‘root’ folder (in my case this was C:Program FilesApache Software FoundationApache2.2htdocsFILES).
  4. Created a password for this folder using htpasswd.exe
  5. Enabled password access to the same folder using the following text in httpd.conf

    directory>
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName “Restricted Files”
    # (Following line optional)
    # AuthBasicProvider file
    AuthUserFile “C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/password/.htpasswd”
    Require valid-user
    directory>”

Now I can login to the PC running Apache, copy any file I want to serve via HTTP to the password protected folder, and then send a link to any of our colleagues that I want to gain access to this file.I also setup Filezilla FTP Server on another PC in our network, and forwarded port 21 through our router to this PC. I setup a user for a folder on this PC, and disabled all rights apart from ‘read’.I can now send an email that contains two hyperlinks to any large file we wish to transmit, one for FTP and one for HTTP. Both of these links are password protected.And all of this is done using free, open source software!

Exposing the Revit Database (RDB Link method)

Luke Johnson

The RDBLink method establishes a bi-directional database which can be edited and updated. Be careful when using this. I would recommend trying it on a test project before actually putting it into use.

The basic steps to set this up and use it are:

  1. Download the RDB Link Tool and install it.
  2. Setup a DSN source in Windows.
  3. Export your Revit file to the appropriate database.
  4. View and edit the database.
  5. Update the project with the edited database.

For example, lets export a Revit project to an Access database:

  1. Setup the DSN. Go into Control Panel – Administrative Tools – Data Sources
  2. Click the System DSN tab.
  3. Click Add…
  4. Select ‘Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) and Finish
  5. Put a name in the Data Source Name (revit1 for instance). Put a description.
  6. Under the Database: section, click ‘Create:’
  7. Put the mdb in an appropriate location (C:REVIT-DBrevit1.mdb for instance)
  8. Click OK.
  9. Click OK until you are out of the ODBC Data Source Adminstrator.
  10. Back in Revit, on the Add-Ins tab:
  11. Click External Tools – RDB Link
  12. Click ‘Export into ODBC database…’
  13. Click the appropriate Data Source tab, and locate the Data Source Name you created, which is set up to connect to an existing Access or SQL Server database.
    If you selected an Access database DSN, a Login screen asks for a name and password. Leave it blank if you have not specified a user name and password for your database.
    A progress meter appears while outputting the Revit project data to your database.     (this point 13 from Labs)
  14. Open the database in Microsoft Access and have a play. Modify a wall height or something and save your changes.
  15. Back in the project, use the RDB Link tool to import the data from the same database you exported to.
  16. Have a look at the change in your model!

Note – if you are running Windows Vista x64, ensure that you run the right version of the Data Sources tool. See this site for the difference. I had success using SQL on Vista x64, but I couldn’t get the RDB Link tool to find my Access source.I used SQL Manager Lite for SQL Server to modify the SQL source on our server. It seemed to be quite good.Feel free to comment on this post and let me know how you go with the RDB Link tool.Below from the Labs site on how to setup the DSN:

  • To create an ODBC connection (DSN, Data Source Name):
    1. Launch the Windows Data Sources (ODBC) screen from the Start menu>Programs>Administrative Tools section.
    2. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator, select either User DSN or System DSN to create a new data source name for your database to use with RDB Link.
    3. Click the Add button to display the Create New Data Source screen, and select one of the following:
  • Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) if you want to work with a Microsoft® Access database
  • Specify the Data Source Name of your choosing.
  • Click the Select button to select an existing Access database or the Create button to create a new one.
  • SQL Server or SQL Native Client if you want to work with Microsoft® SQL Serverâ„¢ 2008 (either a full installation or the Express version)
  • Fill out the information appropriate to your version of SQL Server.