Revit, EcoTect and Green Building Studio – Just Like Peanut Butter and Salami

Watched Autodesk’s webinar today titled “Sustainable Analysis and Revit Architecture.”  LEED and BIM.  I challenge anyone to find two “hotter” acronyms in the industry right now.  So clearly Autodesk is going to be on top of this and come at us with some amazing software that will blow our socks off, right?  Right?

Sigh.

First, a couple caveats.  I had been keeping an eye on this software for a while now, in fact, I watched a very similar presentation last year.  My expectations weren’t high, but I am always hoping for a miracle.  Secondly, the presenters did a very good job.  They clearly knew their stuff and presented it well. 

But the software.  Oh, man, the software.  It absolutely felt like they were trying to sell us a portable cassette player for me to listen to my songs from iTunes.  Sure, I could convert my songs to analog and find some cable and recorder to put them all on cassette.  But… really?  And the worst part is, the guys selling me the cassette player are the ones who convinced me how awesome iTunes was in the first place.

Here’s Revit.  It’s a bucket for me to put in all this amazing and valuable information about my building.  I love it.  I am not only drinking but I am mixing and serving the Kool-Aid as well.  I also love other software that can look into my bucket and do something with that information.  It doesn’t have to add to the bucket, but if it’s looking at the bucket and I make a change, I know it will see that change.  Or at the very least I can export A LOT of my bucket’s data to another file.  I spent all this time putting info in, I want to be able to get it out.

Neither Ecotect nor Green Building Studio can look into my bucket.  I don’t think Autodesk created these apps originally, but they’ve had them for a while.  And this software cannot read a Revit file.  Just won’t happen.  You have to export your model to GBXML for one and DXF for another (wait, is that right?  DXF?  really?) 

So, with the DXF all you get is geometry.  All of the information (the “I” in “BIM”) is gone.  Poof.  If my model contained that data, I have to re-enter it.  That is so amazingly counterproductive it makes my brain want to bleed.  The GBXML takes my rooms.  Nothing about the fenestration, no material data, just the rooms.  Again, loss of “I”.

Autodesk has been pushing Revit as the cornerstone to the Rainbows and Unicorns world of BIM for some time now.  And it is absolutely a platform that could support it.  It frustrates me that that the two services that the guys who make Revit have for us to analyze and make important decisions about our design are so stone-age when compared to Revit.  I will not ask my production people to input building information and data more than once on such a grand scale.  That is a waste of time and hence money.

I certainly am not privy to the inner decisions at Autodesk, but from what I’ve seen of Ecotect and Green Building Studio, nor am I a software developr, my suggestion would be to scrap them both and start from the ground up with a new service/software that is built on the Revit database model and can talk directly with and pull data from an RVT file.  This shoehorning of the Revit files into anitquated and ineffective software is just going to frustrate people and send them to find another solution in the end.

Now, pass me some of that Grape Kool-Aid.

What Makes a Successful Reviteer

I have been doing many levels of training and all kinds of support for Revit Architecture in our firm for the last year plus as we’ve been working, project team by project team, on getting revit to be our primary design and documentation software.

A consistent question from the principals in each office is “which person will be good at Revit?”  A very valid question, but obviously a very difficult one to answer.  You can’t point and say “yes” and “no”.  I mean, you can, but you might be wrong.  And you might get in trouble.

What I have discovered is traits that are usually a good indicator of being successful and, more importantly, traits that usually indicate NOT being successful.

Here’s the big one.  AutoCAD (or as we refer to it here in the BIM Basement, “AutoCrap”) or other CADD experience.  There are two camps here.  The first camp thinks that if someone is good in on CADD software, they will be good in them all.  The other camp recognizes that there are differences with traditional CADD and BIM and have convinced themselves that someone who knows CADD will just have their brain full CADD stuff and won’t be able to empty their brain to learn Revit.  From what I’ve seen, it just doesn’t matter.

Obviously, Revit is a piece of software.  There are people who are just naturally inclined to using software.  Setting that aside, knowledge or the lack of in a CADD package are almost a zero indicator on Revit success.  Someone who is good in software may have a quicker time picking it up, but in the long run successful Revit users come from both a strong CADD background and from very limited CADD background.

The best indicator I have found of someone who has success in Revit is knowledge of how a building goes together.  Time and time again, we have seen incorrect views because the model was put together wrong.  And it was put together wrong because the person working on the model did not understand how part A plugged into part B.  They might have known in the past that they were supposed to draft a thick line and then a dashed line next to it, but they never understood what they were drafting.  The people who understood what was being drafted, or what they were drafting know how to build the model properly, which is key to a successful Revit project.

Luckily, that can be learned, if you have the right person.  The number one indicator that I have found concerning someone NOT being succesful in Revit probably won’t come as a shock.  It is a good indicator for most new tasks.  Attitude.  Attitude is huge.  The desire to learn something new, the willingness to admit that their old methods do not apply anymore, the acceptance that things change.  Using Revit and working on a BIM project is a major shift.  A lot of people hate change.  These two items are totally incompatible.

So, unfortunately, there is no litmus test on who will be great at Revit and who won’t.  It pretty much comes down to common sense.

Not to sound melodramatic, but BIM and Revit represent one of the largest changes in the industry since… well, I’m not really sure.  You know who in your firm is ready and able (and willing) to come along for the ride.

Revit Utilities or Why Can’t It Do That Already

Avatech (big reseller) has recently repackaged their Revit Utilites for 2010 so they can sell them.  They used to be free <sniff> but, alas, such is the way of consumerism!  Quick note – if Avatech is your reseller, they still are free… sneaky!

We used the utilities back in 2009 and they were very very good for the price (it was free).  All of my comments are based on the 2009 versions, assuming that they haven’t updated significantly since then.

The Door Mark Update and Room Renumber tools were exquisite, and features that many users scratch their head and wonder why they weren’t in Revit to begin with.  They do exaclty what they say they are going to do.  It’s not magical, it can’t read your mind, but it does as well as it can.

The Space Update tool held promise, but we never had the opportunity to use it on a complete project.

I prefer Autodesk’s Google Earth utility.  The Avatech one seems bulky for some reason.

The RevitCity Content browser does precisely what it advertises to do.

Change Case, Grid Select and Room Phase Copy are new to the 2010 utilities.  I want to say that the Change Case has been “borrowed” from Avatech’s BIMReview software.  If it works clean and efficiently, then it would be a welcome inclusion.  The plot thickens?  A search for BIMReview on Avatech’s website brings up links to two pages, both of which are inaccessible.  Has BIMReview been put out to pasture?

The web site lists their Revit Utilities package for $395.  Worth it?  Can’t report that.  With the current state of the economy, you need to evaluate your own internal needs.  I will tell you that it would be definitetly worth a couple seats if they can incorporate some network licensing.  Last time we talked to them, this was being bounced around, but they had no idea if it was feasible.

They do have a subset of utilites that are (drum roll) free!  Avatech Utilities for Revit Lite has the following utilities: Room Renumber, Grid Select, Space Update and GridSelect.  For the Room Renumber alone this is worth it.  You have to give them your email address to download.  But who doesn’t ask for your email address these days?

Overall, a good batch of utilities.  Some kind of network licensing (and a slightly smaller price tag) would seal the deal.

I am both excited and nervous at the third party add-ons that we are starting to see.  A clean and untouchable Revit was a nice dream for a while, but until it is able to have every single feature that everyone would ever want, these extras will be a welcome addition.

Subscription Clarifications

Good article and summary about the Autodesk subscription program. 

We had to renew two months ago and went through the same questions.  We ended up being optimistic (safely, I think) that the building sector slump will turn around prior to dropping and re-adding subscription seats made sense.  I want to say it’s like a six or seven year time frame for calling it even.

Revit 2010 Impressions

So, we’ve been working with 2010 (update 1) for a bit now.  I have some preliminary impressions.

It seems to like to crash a little more.  At least, we are getting some reports of crashing on two very specific projects.  Both of these projects were updated from 2009, so that might be our issue.  But honestly it’s too late to go back.  Another potential issue with those projects is the linked Civil files.  WAY out in space.  We are approaching that as our working theory and seeing what we can do about cleaning up the DWG before linking.  I hate adding steps for my PMs, but five minutes of work up front to save three crashes in a day seems well worth it.

The Ribbon is not that scary.  I’ll just say that now.  Really, suck it up, try it out, and you might actually find that you like it.

Now it’s time for me to whine about change.  I haven’t spent more than 15 minutes in it, but man I cannot get my big head around the new massing tools (and on a possibly related note, if anyone can find “Curtain System by Lines” in 2010, let me know – I miss her).  I need to sit down for an hour and just do it.  I know they wanted to make it easier, and more ‘Sketchup-y’ (ugh… the S word…) but so far, not that much easier.  So far, none of our PMs have actually used the massing tool for any design work, but it’s there, so I really should know how to do it so I don’t get that blank vacant stare when someone asks me how it works.

I mean, no more than my usual blank vacant stare…

What’s in a Name?

Objects in Revit have parameters.  Everyone knows this.  Some have many many parameters.  I absolutely think it’s impractical and time wasting to fill in every single one.  However, there are many that get overlooked that actually can help us out.

Case in point – the name of reference planes.

Usually, you slap down a reference plane and ignore it.  Well, you don’t ignore it, but it is rare that I see someone checking out the properties of a plane.  It is what it is.  Immensely useful for creating content, in-place families, slicing, dicing and in general making our lives a little easier.

If you check out the parameters for a plane, you have Scope Box and Name.  Not gonna worry about Scope Box now, but absolutely name your plane.  Named planes can be far easier when selecting the working plane, and it’s a good habit to get into to organize things.

The only trick is to plan out your naming early.  If I were making a desk component I might want to name some of my planes the following:

• Desk front
• Desk back
• Desk right
• Desk left
• Legs back
• Legs front
• etc…

As opposed to “Front of desk” and “Back of desk” which might be my first idea.  While a little grammatically awkward, it helps to group the planes in a more category based system when you hit that pulldown to select one.

So a quick two second task can help organize your planes and make it easier to select them in a pinch.

Plan Region Oddities

We had a hiccup with our Plan Regions today that I thought I would throw out here so others can enjoy our twenty minutes of panic and confusion.

For a little background so we’re all on the same page… let’s say our cut plane is about 4′-6″ on a typical floor plan.  Actually, let’s say it’s precisely 4′-6″.  That gets us through most doors and windows and walls.  Things that we like to slice through (through which we like to slice).

But, alas, this one little roof shed has a louver that’s up around 8′-0″.  It would be absolutley silly to make another plan simply to show this louver.  What is one to do?

Luckily, Revit has a solution for us.  Looking under VIEW you will see the PLAN REGION tool.  This is a pretty nifty thing.  A plan region allows you to define an area on the plan that follows different view range settings.  Which will allow us to move the cut plane around the lovers to 8′-2″.

Clicking PLAN REGION will take you into the ubiquitous sketch mode where you will sketch out the perimeter of your new plan region.  While still in sketch mode, you can click the Plan Region Properties button and in there you’ll see the View Range button.  Click that, and you get the same view range settings that you would see on any view.  Tweak them to what you need, click OK, finish your sketch and voila! that small sketched area now has a different view range.  End background.

The oddity came in when a user had opened a view with a Plan Region and all of the walls in that region were missing!  First reaction, of course, was that someone had deleted the walls.  Who shall we kill?!  After some quick investigation, turns out the walls were there.  So what was up with them not showing through the Plan Region?

To test, all we did was create a new Plan Region with the same view range.  Yup.  It all showed up.  Walls, tags, everything.  But that original Plan Region was mad.

To fix it?  Selected the region and clicked its EDIT button.  Got back into sketch mode.  Made no changes, and simply finished the sketch again.

Poof.  Everything showed back up.  It just needed a kick in the pants, apparently.

We love our Plan Regions.  I just hope they start behaving better.  Panic attacks are not a good thing when you’re one week to go on a project.

It’s All in the Details

For many new Revit users and folks putting documents together in general, the idea of letting go of certain detail work in larger scale is tough to get.  So tough, in fact, that they sometimes just don’t.  Not ideal, and not very BIM-y, but totally understandable

So you have a wall section, and you have a detail callout of where it joins the roof.  You go into the detail and use some detail lines and detail components and flesh it out and it looks really nice.  Then you look at the wall section again and it looks… empty… and someone above you is angry and wants them to look the same.

This sort of falls in the last 10%.  It’s not exactly Revit not being able to do what we want it to do, it is working just as you would expect it to work – detail work is view specific.  So you would need to duplicate all that detail work in the wall section.  Then if you update one, you need to update the other.  That’s a lot of work and big potential for errors.

There is almost a way around it, though.

Wherever you drew your detail work – select the lines, the detail components, the text, the symbols, everything except model work and dimensions and datum annotation.  Group it.  Give it an appropriate name.  It will become a Detail Group (you see where I’m going with this?)

Once you have your newly created group, select it and copy it.  Then change to the other view.  Simply pasting it will get Revit to want to force it to the same location, or you can do a Paste Aligned – Same Place to drop it where it was.

So, now you have a group, in both places.  Voila!  Need to update the information, just open the group and go for it.  The detail line work will stay up to date in both spots.

Not ideal, but not a bad work around.  It will NOT take Edit Cut Profiles nor will it take dimensions, so avoid those.  Other than that, try it out and hopefully it can save you some time and discrepancies.

Issues With Ceilings and DGNs

This is really bad.  As in the real definition of “bad”.  Try this out…

Create a room with a ceiling (or not even the room) in Revit.

Export the RCP view to a Microstation file.

Open the file in Microstation.

Notice the difference?  And I’m not talking about the black background or other colors.

Yeah.  The GRID IS WRONG.  I’m certainly not the first online to post about this, but it is so annoying and frankly so amazingly dangerous that I wanted to put something up.  I haven’t tested with other model patterns, but I bet they would be screwed up as well.

I have categorize this as a “Gripe” but I feel like I need to make an entirely new category for it.  This is beyond insane.  As designers trying to work with consultants, the basic foundation is that the lines we see will be in the same place when we export that file.  I can deal with fonts, I can manage colors, I can tolerate layers.  But wrong lines?  That opens me up to liability issues. 

That’s actionable.

That’s so bad.

And it needs to be fixed now.

When I’m 64

Just a quick post.  Last week we had our monthly local Revit user group meeting and the discussion came up about 64-bit PCs.

I won’t go into the crazy geeky technical aspects of 32 vs 64, but the question was whether or not it was worth the investment using Revit on a 64-bit machine.

Unquestionably, yes.

If you are using Revit to do residential work, or something under, say 5,000 sf (I just pulled that number out of my… um… void) then you probably won’t see any gain from the different architecture.  With the size of projects we are working on (medium to big) my users who were lucky enough to be in the 64-bit pilot project group would cause me bodily harm if I took their machines away from them.

Less waiting and fewer hiccups with workshared models is the key.  The group with the 64-bit PCs reported zero out of memory type issues when trying to save to central or other memory intensive processes.  The poor 32-bit users… well, we had to gently nudge Revit to save sometimes.

I don’t have hard numbers about am0unt of time saved, but frankly I think that’s not important.  The users felt better about it and a happier model maker is a more productive model maker.

We don’t do much rendering, but doing our renderings on the 64-bit PCs is insanely faster than the others.  Not a huge selling point for us, but it might be for you.

Any new workstations we buy are 64-bit.  Now we just have to get out of this recession so I can buy some more workstations…