Revit 2013 One Box Deployment Problem

We are working on getting our installation for Revit 2013 ready and have stumbled across an issue that the deployment can have.

Leveraging the power of the “One Box”, we planned on putting the deployment files on the server, and simply tweak the deployment for multiple disciplines.  Save a ton of server space!  High five!

Well, everything looked good, and we had five shortcuts with five different ini files saved in the “CustomSettings” folder.  Things were going smoothly.

Then we went to install.  For some odd reason, only the first deployment we created had the entire set of customizations, the others only got the license file; file location settings were missing, tweaks to options weren’t there.  Basically, the installations were ignoring the custom ini file.

We contacted Autodesk, and they confirmed that this is an issue.

I never know if I’m supposed to feel better or worse when they tell me that.

No fix, of course.  And I’m not holding my breath on there being a fix.

The workaround involves tweaking our install script so it copies the tweaked ini filed from the AdminImage\CustomSettings folder to the application data folder for the user’s PCs.  Keep in mind that this location is not the same in XP and Windows 7 (Vista is dead to me).

For Windows 7, you need to copy here:
C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RVT 2013\UserDataCache\

For XP, copy the ini here
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\RVT 2013\UserDataCache\

In both cases, you need to copy your custom ini file and rename it to Revit.ini, replacing the one that the installer created.

What’s odd is the deployments that weren’t created from One Box work fine.  I have given up expecting any Autodesk deployment to go as advertised.  Every year we fight a new set of problems. My expectation is that the smaller firms just walk from desk to desk to install.  And the really big firms have an IT group and fancy-pants servers whose single job is to install software.  We are very much a middle size firm: WAY too many seats to install one at a time, and not nearly enough in the IT budget to dedicate to software deployment.  So, we make do with what we have.  It would be nice if Autodesk could put a little more effort in their deployment creation tools.

I Want a 3D Printer!

I took my kids to see a movie this weekend, and my oldest wanted to watch the credits at the end to see who performed a song from the film.  While dutifully watching the credit scroll, I saw credits for “Rapid Prototyping”.  I had heard of other movies using 3D printing, but this was the first round of credits I had seen for them.  Granted, this was the first round of credits I had watched in a while…

This simply leads me to calmly stating, holy crap!  I want a 3D printer NOW!

The MakerBot guys intrigue me.  I love their outlook and their attitude.  And I love the price.  It is, however, more money than I have in my discretionary funds at the time.

I truly believe that 3D printing is going to be a huge game changer, not just for entertainment, or the AE field, but everything.  I try to explain this to my friends.  I tell them that I want a 3D printer, and they ask “Why?  What would you make?” and I reply “Shut up, that’s what I would make!”  Currently it is limited to doodads and small items, but getting in on the ground floor and starting to understand the limitations as the technology is kicking off is intriguing to me.

This leads us to Revit.  My other approach was to try to buy one for work.  I have yet to find any good examples of Revit to STL to printed from MakerBot.  Most of the samples are simple compared to the complex geometry that Revit would spit out.  I’d like to be the pioneer, but nasty ROI and some other work acronyms pop up and halt my progress.

This doesn’t even scratch the surface of in the field custom printing.  Large scale automated fabricators with higher quality materials is going to allow designers to really let their brains stretch, but there are plenty of other articles about this topic.  Right now, I’m trying to focus on the “smaller than a breadbox” end of 3D printing.

Are you using a MakerBot successfully for small scale architectural work?  I’d love to hear from you.

Oh, and the song was performed by Flight of the Conchords.  You can stop holding your breath now.

Ch ch ch ch changes

Revit 2013 is out, and I am sure you’ve seen many many posts on the wondrous new features.

And I haven’t gotten a chance to even download the software yet.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE new shiny stuff.  And there are some new shiny things that I am really excited about.  OK, there’s ONE new shiny thing I am excited about.

Stairs.  And railings.  Two things.

The stair system has been ignored for years and years.  The poor quality of the tool forced us to design everything as only a single story!  (Not really)  Everything that I have seen and read about the overhauled stairs has gotten me excited.  Excited that it looks like it might be “fixed” finally, but also excited that the older features aren’t getting ignored forever.  I understand the need to prioritize and add new stuff, but sometimes the old crappy stuff needs love as well.  This was one of those times.

When it comes to materials, that’s something different.  This is, what, the third release in a row that the materials have gotten an overhaul?  Spoiled much, materials?!  Why did you get to be the favorite?  What about some of our other long forgotten friends like Copy/Monitor ceilings and better text editing and more flexible schedules and a lightweight viewer with WASD controls?  Why are these wishlist items cast off and left to wither on some software version of the Island of Misfit Toys?  Don’t they deserve some love, too?

I don’t think I’m going to invest the time into learning this new materials system until it sticks around for at least one more release.  Spoiled rotten materials.

Wow. A Whole Year. And Patterns

A year since I’ve written anything.  Nuts.  I’m not one for resolutions… so I’ll just leave it at that.

I was struggling trying to make some fill patterns manually today.  Have you ever tried to do those by hand?  Yeah, I think Rainman worked up the syntax for those files.  So, making them by hand is obnoxious.

Quick Google search found a piece of software that I could buy for around $180 to make the pat files.  Come on!  There has to be something free!

Then I came across this post.  The post is old, and it forces you to use ACAD, but it gets the job done very nicely.  I had to remember how to draw a line, but once I did I made some pattern files to pull into good old Revit.  And it was MUCH faster than doing it by hand.

Ideally, I would think that the geniuses at Autodesk Labs would make some online HTML5 application that lets you draw and save a pat file right in your browser, but that’s me dreaming again.

Hey!  I’ve dipped my to into C# and done some coding for Revit!  I’ll try to share that fun soon!

Workset and Copy/Monitor Glitch

Yes, yes, I know everyone is excited about the release of Revit 2012, but I have a little 2011 issue that I thought I would share with everyone.  And in all honesty, I don’t even know if this is a problem in 2012, but I figured we’d still be using 2011 for some time so here goes.

We have started getting our folks to create a Copy Monitor workset in workshared files.  On this workset, we are asking them to put anything in the model that they have Copy/Monitored.  This allows the original model to not load in that workset when the second model is linked back in.  This helps avoid having elements on top of themselves which, according to TimeCop, would cause some sort of space time continuum mess.

The issue is when an element is Copy/Monitored, it DOESN’T GO IN ON THE CURRENT ACTIVE WORKSET.  It goes on the first workset that was created, usually the cleverly named “Workset 1”.  Everything else seems to play nice with worksets.  Copy/Monitor elements don’t like to play nice.  Our (dumb) workaround?  In blank files that we are activating worksharing, we make the first workset “Copy Monitor”.

We have verified with Autodesk that this is an issue, and that the developers are “working on it”.  Like I said, I need to see if it still happens in 2012, and considering past experience, I have a feelign that we will never see a fix for it in 2011.  So heads up on that.

This… Is My BIM Stick!

Every so often it’s important to pull out the big guns.  I have always said that any kind of graphics or documenting standards are written in mud.  Almost stone, but changeable when necessary.

There are some things that we do, and I bet there are some things that you do, that should NOT be done differently.  Default materials should not be changed, default annotation should not be messed with, most anything in the Object Styles in a project shouldn’t be touched.  This is just bad for other users on a project and can get annoying and waste time.  There are some things that just shouldn’t be messed with for other reasons; dimensions come to mind here.

There are ways to override or fudge your dimensions in Revit, and I’ll outline the two most common here.  NOT so you do it, simply so you know what to look for.  There should be NO REASON to override dimensions, and I will arm wrestle anyone who disagrees.  I may lose the arm wrestle match, but I am right.  If you place a dimension string and it says 5′ 2 1/32″, and it’s supposed to be 5′ 2″, DON’T change the dimension… FIX THE MODEL.  Always always always fix the model.  Always.  Got it?  Great.

The first way to fudge your dimension is to override the accuracy on it.  By default, it’s going to take your project settings, but you can get into a dimension type and change that accuracy.  I’ve seen several times when someone has a 1/32″ (that’s our default project accuracy) show up in a dimension string, they don’t bother fixing it, they override they change the ROUNDING under UNITS FORMAT to something lower.

CHEATERS!!!  What happens?  The rounding gets confusing, sometimes rounding up when it should go down.  And then an overall dimension string won’t add up.  And you will look like you don’t know how to simple arithmetic.  And I don’t need to tell you what happens when a contractor finds dimension strings to not add up…

The second, far more devious, way of fudging a dimension string is to override the text.  For the last few versions of Revit, you could double-click on the dimension and add some text as a prefix or suffix, or even replace the dimension value with a piece of text.  Revit is mostly smart and will not allow you to replace the value with another number.  See?  Revit doesn’t want you to cheat!  But there is a way…

Let’s say your dimension value is 8′-6 1/16″.  You want it to be 8′-6″.  Double-click on the text and you will see the value in there.

Here’s where the CHEATERS come in.  If you toggle “Replace With Text”, and type in 8′-6″. (see that little period after the text?), Revit will allow it.  You will have a tiny dot on your dimension string, but it’s changed.  Congratulations, you have figured out a way to keep your sloppy modelling skills intact and not bother to make anything accurate.  Good job!

Not much infuriates me (that’s not true at all – I’m a pretty bitter person… and Crocs… MAN how I hate those shoes…) but there is no excuse for this sloppiness.  This is absurd.  Model it right, and if it’s not modeled right, fix it.

So, how do you police this kind of thing?  First of all, whenever you see it, point it out to everyone on the project team.  Don’t outright mock them for cheating, but come close.  And bring up that you know another firm that is still dealing with litigation from a job where they cheated on the dimensions.  Even if you don’t.

What I like to do (with apologies to Bruce Campbell) is pull out my BIM Stick.  I keep it for special occasions.

Seriously, this is my BIM Stick

We have a weekly Revit meeting where we discuss issues and problems.  I have only pulled out my BIM Stick once, and it was to discuss this issue.  Will it change the cheaters?  I hope so.  I also hope it stresses to the interns and younger designers how important this is.  I know, I’m so sweet passing on my knowledge to future generations of bitter BIM Monkeys.

So, get yourself a BIM Stick and wave it around only for the big topics.  Hopefully it will change the minds of some folks, but it will definitely make you feel better.

Something-IM: Newforma Cracking Into Revit

I’ve received no fewer than six emails about the announced features for the next release of Newforma Project Center. We use that package at my firm, to varying degrees of success. Some of it we use religiously and some we couldn’t bother with. It’s like that with any software, though. You figure out what part of the tool works for you, and you tip toe around the rest (I’m looking at you, Keynotes).
We’ve always been watching for Newforma to get their hooks into Revit, and we had some ideas about what would make our dream list. This list wasn’t based in any kind of fact or logic, but it was our list. And we liked it.
Lo and behold, finally the clouds have parted, the skies opened up and angels have sung from on high that Newforma Project Center 8 will have Revit integration (to a limited degree, sings that one angel that no one likes)!
I don’t want to comment on it until I actually get to sink my paws into it, but I will say from watching their videos that I am cautiously optimistic. Is it my dream list? No . Does the idea of creating an action item right from Revit seem awesome? Yes. Because I am big nerd? Of course.
So take a peek at the videos and see what you think. I will follow up when we actually get it installed.

http://www.newforma.com/Project-Center/Newforma-Revit-add-in.

Oh, and let’s slow down with all the IMs. Newforma is pushing “PIM” – Project Information Management. So now we have BIM and PIM. I’ll soon have to go to a TIM “Totally Important Meeting” to discuss our CIM “Crappy Initials Manifesto” and we will be eating DIM “Donuts In Marshmallow”
Sorry. Kind of lost steam on that last one.

Underlay Action – Slice, Slice, Baby

So, I’ve found myself with some lovely time spent working through the joys of Underlays.  We just had some confusing goings ons, and I thought I would try to get to the bottom of it.

Underlays can be very useful for figuring out what is going on above and below.  And on top of that, any Linework tweak you do to an element in an Underlay, will stay on when you turn the Underlay off!  That’s the kind of thing that gets a geek excited!

From a previous event, I decided I should spend more time in the Help docs, to see if that could lead me the right way.  This was the most important thing the Help File had about how they work:

Displays another slice of the model under the current plan view. That slice of the model can be from above or below the current level. The underlay appears dimmed and is visible even in hidden line. The underlay is useful to understand the relation of components on different floors. Normally, you would turn off the underlay before exporting or printing the view. You set an underlay by specifying a level. The slice of the model between that level and the next level up displays. Three of the underlay options (Current Level, Level Above, and Level Below) are relative to the current level. All other choices are absolute. See Halftone/Underlay.

So not much.  Had to crack open Revit and play for a while.

I would like to preface, this is all based on minutes and minutes of vast experimentaiton.  If someone can point me out as wrong, PLEASE DO.  I would love to know this stuff.

First off – Underlays don’t show linked models.  I tried copy/monitor levels, tried messing with Visibility Graphics, no way could I get a linked model elements to show in an Underlay.  It just didn’t exist as far as the Gods of the Underlay were concerned (Hades, Pluto, Osiris).

Next up is a clarification of the Help File.  Both setting the Underlay and the Underlay’s own view range are dependent on levels… but they MUST be levels that have a floor plan or RCP associated with it.  I’ll clarify.

When you go to select what Level you want for the Underlay, only levels with plan views will show in the list.  In the below snapshot, you see the dropdown for Underlay only showing “Level “1 and “Level 2” (and “None”), when clearly the elevation indicates Level 4, Level 5 and Roof.  Level 4, Level 5 and Roof have no plan or RCP associate with them.  If I were to create a plan, then that level would show up in the list.

The Help File also indicates that the “slice” of what the Underlay shows is from the level you select to the level above that level.  The Help File does NOT indicate that the “level above” must have a plan associated with it.

So, in the example above, if “Level 1” is selected as the Underlay, the “slice” will go from Level 1 to Level 2.

If “Level 2” is selected, then the “slice” will go from Level 2 to… infinity… or wherever Revit decides to stop the model.  I didn’t test this.  I simply put a wall 100′ above Level 2 and it did indeed show up when the Underlay was set to “Level 2”.

As soon as a plan or RCP are created for a level above Level 2, then the “slice” will shrink.  If that plan or RCP is deleted, then the “slice” will grow again.

So, I would propse the Help File be tweaked.  First of all, get rid of that line about “Three of the underlay options (Current Level, Level Above, and Level Below) are relative to the current level.”  I don’t even think that’s an option.  Beyond that:

The slice of the model between that level and the next level up, with an associated plan view, displays.

And maybe add a picture of me giving someone a high five while actually drinking Slice.  That would be cool.  Does that drink even exist anymore?  Now I’m thirsty…

Don’t Forget! LOW WALLS! Watch your…feet…

This is a “hiccup” that I forget.  So I’m writing it down here in the hopes that it will force me to remember (hint: it won’t!)

You remember way back when, we talked about how floors don’t exactly follow the View Range rules?  Walls are kind of the same.  Except a lot more confusing.

This is hard to understand, so I’ll point you here and here (I especially like how that last one calls it a “feature”) for some different ways of explaining it.

Here are the criteria for this insanity:

1. You have a wall
2. The top is UNCONSTRAINED and not attached to anything
3. Your View Range cuts through the wall
4. The top of your wall is less than 6′ from the Bottom of the View Range

If your walls meet all these criteria, your wall will NOT show with the CUT style.  It will show PROJECTION.  Yes, even though you are cutting through it.

If you set the top of your wall to constrain to a level, any level, and then offset it, it will then show as CUT.  Or if you drop the bottom of your view range down so the top of the wall is at least 6′ from the bottom of the view range, it will show as CUT.

Seriously, there has to be a secret manual somewhere.  Indiana Jones and I will try to track it down soon.

The Next Steps – 2011 Is Here!

I am starting to feel (somewhat) comfortable about where our firm has gotten with Revit.  There are still some individuals and techniques that are WAY off in left field, but for the most part, 2010 has been a really good year in bringing everyone up to a certain speed.

We’ve started to look at expanding the “I” in BIM.  Last year we dabbled with using our models for lighting analysis with mixed results.  I expect that to continue.  We are also starting to play with integrating specs, investigating some FM integration, and just paying attention to any acronym that we haven’t heard of.  (Be careful, there are some acronyms out there that you NEVER want to know about).

I hope over the next year I can dial up the usual tips, but also keep everyone posted on our progress with our next steps.  They will be baby steps, but they are steps nevertheless.

And the geek part of me is pretty darn excited.  Happy new year, all.