Tag: components

Rattling the Act-gsac-use nest over linked libraries

Luke Johnson

It wouldn’t be a BIM blog post without inventing some obscure, never-to-be-used again abbreviation would it?  In this case, actGSACuse stands for ‘active Graphisoft ArchiCAD users‘.

I tweeted this image last Friday (from ArchiCAD 10, file:///C:/Program Files/Graphisoft/ArchiCAD 10/Help/Files/01_Configuration.2.24.html):

The tweet:

This sparked an animated discussion on Twitter that essentially boils down to this:
is it better to have all project components (ArchiCAD libraries, Revit families) living in the project, or is it better to have them residing in a central server location where they are regularly updated and reloaded?

Personally, I believe there are pros and cons to each method.  I think an important consideration is Control — if the library is Linked (ArchiCAD), do you have control over the program to say “hey, don’t overwrite this component, I like it the way it is.”  Similarly, if the components are all residing in a single project file (Revit), it would be nice to have the ability to one-click reload all updated families from a central Family RFA storage location.  I recall requesting this feature under some NDA project, but as yet, Revit can not do this without an add-in getting involved.

Along the lines of this discussion, I have created a new topic at BIMdebates:
BIMdebates: A central, live and linked component Library is better than static components in residing in a Project file

Why was I looking at an ArchiCAD 10 help file, you may rightly ask?  I was trying to upgrade an ArchiCAD 7.0 file and then export to IFC2x3.  However, I couldn’t open it directly in ArchiCAD 16, so I had to open it in ArchiCAD 10 first.  I then wanted to embed the libraries, but I think embedded libraries first came to ArchiCAD in version 14?  So I basically had to open in ArchiCAD 10, save, then open in ArchiCAD 16, then embed libraries.  Then play around with IFC2x3 settings to make things come to Revit ok.  I haven’t even looked at trying to open / upgrade / convert Plotmaker PMK files yet…

These PMK files are circa-2002.  Upon trying to open them in ArchiCAD 16, I get:
“You can only open files created by PlotMaker 3.0 or later.”

Tried same process in ArchiCAD 10 – same message.

Component-based Stairs training resources

Luke Johnson

There is plenty of information available about Component Stairs in Revit 2013.  I thought I would collect some of the better resources and post them here.

This first link is a little bit outside-the-square, but it relates to teaching a class of people who don’t know how Revit 2013 stairs work.  Check it out:
Teaching the new Stair Assemblies in Autodesk Revit Architecture 2013 – ASCENT Blog

How do all the 2013 Stair families relate to each other?
Graphic Flowchart – new Stair Families in Revit 2013

How do the stair paths work?
Stair Path Annotations in Revit 2013

Now, some videos:


 via
Autodesk Revit Architecture 2013 — Component-based Stairs – YouTube

MasterGraphicsInc:

Case Inc:

Microdesk:

Index to AutodeskBuilding videos:
REVIT Structure Learning Curve: Revit 2013 Stair Video Tutorials

2013 Stairs and Railings – WikiHelp VIDEO INDEX

If you still can’t make a stair that you like, make one in-place 😉
In-place and Component families of Stair and Railing Category

Are you using Adaptive Components yet?

Luke Johnson

Julien Benoit has put together a nicely paced introduction to Adaptive Components.

Some quotable quotes:
“The future of Revit family creation – adaptive components.” (at time 1:13:52)


“all our knowledge of families will die :)”
By attendee gaby424

Check it out at:
Adaptive Components By Julien

also on Wikihelp at http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Revit/enu/Community/Examples/Basic_Adaptive_Component_Families 

Revit API Challenge: convert In-place Families to Component Families automatically

Luke Johnson

Here is what we want – you select an in-place family and click ‘Convert to Component Family‘ on the Ribbon.  Through API Wizardry, the following happens without any further user interaction:

  1. The family is edited in place
  2. All objects in the family (including reference planes etc) are selected
  3. A ‘group’ command is triggered
  4. The group is saved (as a file) to a temporary location (it will be an RFA)
  5. This family is loaded back into the project
  6. The family is placed in the correct location (XYZ) in the project
  7. The original in-place family is deleted from the project.

This can all be done manually of course, using the workflow described here.

I’m sure that many users would find this tool helpful, and for some of you advanced Revit API programmers, this utility should be a piece of cake!

Also: if you release this utility for free, just think of the Revit API street cred that would give you.

Finally, if you want to take it to the next level – make a Batch Convert option, that allows the user to ‘pick’ which In-place families (from the current project) that they would like converted, after which the Batch tool goes ahead and does steps 1 to 7 above on each and every in-place family you selected.

Finding the Normal in an Adaptive Component – Rethinking BIM

Luke Johnson

Rethinking BIM is a kinda awesome new BIM site – you should definitely check it out.

There are lots of videos and downloads available.  Some of this stuff looks like it has been collected or derived from the blogosphere or web in general.

One recent post provides an example file that can help you to find the surface normal in an Adaptive Component

Image from Rethinking BIM

Download the File From Here:
Link

via
Finding the Normal in an Adaptive Component � Rethinking BIM

Tips for Good Revit model maintenance and better performance

Luke Johnson

Nice ‘checklist’ style post over at RevitKing.  Most things just come back to sensible modelling:
Revit.King’s BIM coordinator/ Revit Blog: Optimal performance for Revit!!!

One of the tips:
Create a family component instead of in-place families when possible, especially for repetitive components. Each in-place family has separate type attributes that Revit has to reference.

To implement this on an existing model, you could convert some of the in-place families to Component families using this method.

Create a Component Family with Category set to Walls (or other system family category)

Luke Johnson

Have you ever wanted to make a Component Family with the Category set to Walls?  Or Roofs?  Or some other system Category?  There are no templates for this, and it doesn’t show up in the Family Category dialog box, so you may think that you limited to using In-Place families when you want the category to be Walls, Roofs or similar.

Think again.

An interesting offshoot of the method that I described at this link is that when you save the In-Place family as an RFA, it adopts the Category that it had AS an In-Place Family!!

In simple terms:

  1. Make an in-place Wall family with some geometry in it.
  2. Save it as an RFA
  3. Load the RFA into your project
  4. It is a Component family with the Category set to Walls!

And guess what – it shows up in a Wall Schedule 🙂  I’m a little scared of what the repercussions of this hack may be, so please use at your own risk.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Save an In-Place Family as an RFA for use in another project

Luke Johnson

Do you have some awesome in-place families that you would like to convert to normal Component families, so that you can load them into other projects?

Here’s how:

  1. Open the Project containing the In-Place family
  2. Edit the In-Place family
  3. Select all of the elements in the family
  4. Group all of these elements using the Create Group tool.  Give the Group a name.
  5. Select the Group
  6. Do not Finish Editing the In-Place family yet!
  7. Go to the ‘R’ button (Application Menu) – Save As – Library – Group
  8. You will notice that the filetype is RFA!
  9. Save the Group somewhere.
  10. You Component Family IS the file that you just saved.

 I’m sure there are limitation to this method, but I think it is very cool.

Here is a quick video:

 
Credit for this tip – KarelCAD support document

Free families from RevitComponents.com

Luke Johnson

I was playing around with the RSS search engine today, and I came across the RevitComponents site.

SERVICE | RevitComponents.com

It has an interesting mode of operation:

Our aim is to showcase professionally built models and allow BIM users to utilize them for their projects. Content is free to download by clicking on the image in each post and/or download link. The use of our Revit© content is open ended with but one restriction; selling the content in any manner is strictly prohibited. We advocate for the free exchange of file sharing with friends, colleagues, and classmates.

Relinquish Your Revit© Families
Millions of quality Families hibernate from lack of use on hard drives around the world, utilized exclusively by content creators and colleagues. We believe this information should be publicly shared to prevent the redundancy of work involved with individuals creating identical models for their sole use. Sharing your efforts and information will save time, money, and energy, and will result in a comprehensive and high quality resource library for all to use.