You may have noticed that Revizto notifications now provide a direct link to Open that issue in Revizto. This special hyperlink will prompt to open Revizto, and it will jump to the correct issue in the Issue Tracker.
The special link is made of a few parts, notice the project number and issue ID in bold below:
Using the predictable syntax above, you can use your own Revizto regional server, project number and issue ID to create these hyperlinks yourself, either in Excel or programmatically.
You can leverage this mini-api in a number of ways:
you can paste these links into the Revizto Issue Tracker to allow you to jump between issues in Revizto
paste the links into Word or Excel or other emails as part of a larger report or conversation
inject these links into another BIM platform such as a Revit URL field, so that you can jump from a specific item in Revit to the related Revizto issue
use these special links in a project portal or project management system
This is just the beginning for a new era of connectedness between the Revizto Issue Tracker and other platforms… watch this space!
Update use this code to get a discount on your Revizto annual purchase: LUKEJH
Oh, and across devices too. You might say “hey, I’ve heard of Revizto before“. Someone tweeted today “”Even if we could get the model into a game engine, it would be difficult to navigate.” We can. It isn’t.”
Revizto has been providing smooth, great-looking visualizations of your Revit model for a while now. It has some very cool features, like Oculus Rift support (fun!) But its not just about the game-smooth graphics anymore.. I’m excited about something else…
Firstly, the big picture: what does Revizto do? Well, it shares your 3D model with others via the cloud, which is pretty normal these days. But over the past few months (and especially the last few days), it has added collaboration features that make it an extremely useful tool for BIM teams. Some of these are:
intelligent issue tracking
sheet and 3D collaboration attached to the same issue
issue reporting
enhanced Navisworks export, which includes overridden colours (meaning it can be useful for services visualizations where you use the Appearance Profiler in Navis)
If you like videos, maybe start here:
Revizto bridges some obvious gaps in current Autodesk interoperability scenarios, as it allows you to easily:
create and share viewpoints between Revit, Navisworks and AutoCAD
go straight to the 3D viewpoint of an issue in whatever model you have open (using the Issue Tracker addins)
Also, compared to various other collaboration services, it is relatively inexpensive, especially given the level of functionality it provides.
So how do we get started with Revizto? Here’s a quick few steps:
Open a Revit model, or a federated Navisworks model, and upload to Revizto using the addin
Choose a project name
After upload is complete and your model is open in Revizto, share it with others
Start collaborating! Make an issue with + sign in the top bar, then type some words, assign it to someone, start a conversation about that issue.
Once an issue is created, you can easily switch between multiple different representations:
You can also quickly create or export issues to BCF. It uses the bcfzip format, so imagery and viewpoint information is all included.
Issues can be quickly tagged to create custom lists of related issues too.
A few beginner-style tips:
The Viewer is different to the Editor. The Editor is mostly used to create and upload projects.
Go to hamburger (top left) Objects to be able to turn off and select items in the model
You can see the room names in the Map mode (little compass arrow in top of Viewer). When you scroll down to any level you can see all of the rooms, and by clicking to any part of the room you it will take you there in 3D
Grids and Rooms visible in 3D Map view
The recommended workflow is to use a combined, federated model in Navisworks or Revit and then export to Revizto, rather than trying to federate models in Revizto itself
What’s New in 3.4:
Collaboration on 2D sheets, now you will be able to mark up on top of 2D sheet and see them in 3D and all your issues made in 3D will be visible on 2D sheet
Ability to see the 2D sheet on top of the 3D
Invitation in the Viewer, now you can accept invitations to projects you have been invited to right from the Viewer
Revision control, now you will be able to see all your versions of the files you have synced to the cloud right from the Editor and open and review them and/or revert to the version you choose and make it master file for everyone.
You can see what have been updated in the project gallery in the Viewer and open the latest version
Great enhancements in export from Navisworks
ArchiCad support, now you will be able to export from ArchiCad your files and benefit Revizto collaboration
Grid visibility in Revizto, now you will be able to see the grid in the Viewer in 2D Map View.
Ability to set self-luminous material to any object in the scene to be visible in the Viewer and in the Editor after you bake the light maps
What is it again? Revizto is a tool that transforms heavy-weight 3D data into navigable lightweight scene in one click. The resulting scene can be opened with free Revizto Viewer on PC, Mac, iPad and Android tablets or in any web browser with Unity plugin. Revizto Workspace allows users to upload their projects to cloud storage and access them from any point of the globe. Revizto works with the most architectural and 3D-modelling software (Revit, SketchUp and any software that supports FBX export).
Installation screenshot (addins):
Platform includes:
To conclude: give the latest version a go, and feel free to comment with your thoughts. Update use this code to get a discount on your Revizto annual purchase: LUKEJH
If you are interested in issue tracking, BCF, and multidisciplinary coordination, then the new “BIMcollab” offering from Kubus may be worth a look: http://www.bimcollab.com/en/BIMcollab/BIMcollab
It looks essentially like a cloud manager for BCF issues. From the marketing spiel:
issues directly linked to objects in your BIM together with the correct viewpoint for quick visualisation
all the information needed at hand to lookup, create and solve issues within your BIM tool,
to save all your issues in the cloud and be able to access them from anywhere at anytime.
BIMcollab centralizes issue management in the cloud, simplifies this process and offers a structured way of storing, sharing and managing issues. But more important: you have the information right where it’s needed most: directly within your BIM model checker and BIM authoring tools.
If you are already using it, feel free to comment and let us know what you think. UPDATE some links from the press release:
BIMcollab® release
KUBUS announces the release of a new ground breaking product: BIMcollab®. This BCF based issue management system for BIM in the cloud operates across applications. It helps bridging the differences between BIM tools, and targets the multidisciplinary cooperation between companies working on construction projects.
Join BIMcollab®
We are happy to invite you to try BIMcollab for free. Upload BCF files or connect to BIM applications and invite team members to view your issues. Improving communication in BIM projects starts today. Join us >
BCF Managers for free
With the introduction of BIMcollab® we now offer our BCF Managers for free. These add-ons for Revit, simplebim and ArchiCAD have a direct link to BIMcollab® from the before mentioned BIM authoring tools. Download >
There are lots of ways to share and track tasks among teams, and this is probably one of the most rudimentary (ie. least feature packed). But I have tested it, and it does actually work. Basically, you install a script from the instructions below, and it allows you to share a given Google task list with selected people.
Ok, lets say you have a large team working on a single Revit project, and questions fly back and forth. Some firms use a Clash box, which is then listed in a Generic Model Schedule. Unfortunately, these can’t be placed in drafting views or on sheets.
This is where an annotation family comes in. When associated with a Note Block schedule, it provides a decent “inside Revit” method for creating and tracking questions and answers. It can be used on sheets, in 2D views, plan views etc. It works in Legend views but will not schedule from them. It can’t be placed directly in a 3D view. You can work around both of these by placing them on top of Legend and 3D views that are placed on Sheets.
One big advantage of these is that you can select a Schedule Row, and then click Highlight in Model to take you directly to that issue, clash, or question item.
This particular version uses a saved selection based filter to override the leader colour and thickness by template. You just select all instances and save the selection, overwriting MQ as the saved selection set.
It also has adjustable attachment width using “right attach” instance parameter. Another tip – you can add as many Instance text Parameters as you like to the Note Block Schedule, and they will be instantly visible upon selection of the annotation family, ready for you to add data.
Revit Wants you to associate as much useful data to the model as possible – and intelligent, team-capable issue tracking certainly fits into that category.
