New Revit Tools Website Launched

 

As one of my tasks here at my new job, I have had the pleasure of hopping onto the development of a group of great Revit utilities. Granted, I hopped on at the 11th hour, but it’s still some really cool stuff, and I am so stoked to be part of it.

The Model Checker, Model Checker Configurator, COBie Extension, and Classification Manager are all potentially critical tools for your Revit workflow, and I have some exciting news: they’re all free!

It used to be a little tricky to track them all down, so we’ve launched a new website to house all the downloads, the help files, samples, how to’s, etc. Hop on over to http://www.biminteroperabilitytools.com to check everything out.

We have some webinars coming up over the next few weeks to go over some info on the tools, and we are working hard on 2.0 of the COBie Extension and Classification Manager, with some much requested additions. I’ll drop some tips and pointers on the blog as we get closer to launch.

So, go grab the utilities and let us know what you think!

 

Quick Tip – Family Names

When you are naming a family whether in your model or elsewhere, you need to avoid any “wacky” characters, especially \ / ” ‘ ; etc. Your best bet is to just use letters, numbers, spaces, underscores “_” and dashes “-“.

Since your family can be saved as a completely separate file, the naming needs to follow Windows name rules. If it finds a wacky character when you go to edit it, you might end up with a totally different file opening up.

Revit Recovery Files

So you’re happily working along, when all of a sudden BAM! Revit crashes. Hopefully, you’ll be given the opportunity to create a recovery file. So, what do you do with that file?

In a small number of cases, Revit isn’t able to save a real recovery file. So, take a look at the size of the file in Windows Explorer. If it is absurdly small, like 12k, then you are out of luck. If the size is similar to the original file, then you’re probably good.

The next step is to start Revit by double-clicking on the icon (not the file). Then, using the Open command, browse to your recovery file and highlight it (not double-click). Click on the Audit option at the bottom of the dialog, click OK on the notice that appears, and click on the Open button.

Once your file has opened, take a few minutes to check to see that everything appears normal. Once you are satisfied (or as much as you can be), click on the Syncronize button to sync your model. Be sure to relinquish everything. Exit Revit.

At this point, regardless of whether or not the recovery file worked for you, delete the original local file, the recovery file, and the associated backup folders for the local file and recovery file. Get a new local file and continue working like normal.

And don’t forget – Save locally often, just in case.

Quick Tip – Workset Rule of Thumb

Be sure to have a Workset for each Revit file that you link in. It is also important to be smart about Worksets that you use for your DWG links. Have at least one Workset for all the DWG links, and possibly break it up to multiple logical groups.

Don’t go crazy, though. You want to keep your number of Worksets as low and manageable as possible.

Scope Boxes Kind of Rock

Scope Boxes are one of those Revit features that gets overlooked a lot. They are pretty potent and can solve some issues in your model. Do a Google search and you will find some really good information on them. In no particular order, here are some quick tips that I use to introduce folks to them.

They are a great way to organize datum elements in phases. Grids and levels are phase agnostic; they exist through the entire timeline of your project. But how to organize them? We often use a Scope Box for existing and new phases (or whatever phases we have) that way we can keep them organized together and control their visibility in views easier.

You can control their visibility in views. Each Scope Box has its own setting that you can force them on or off in individual views. Just don’t forget you used this setting once you start doing it.

They can help divide up large plans. Very close to the Dependent View, you can create the limits of  a scope box and then assign views to that scope box. The crop region for those views will lock into the scope box size, so whenever you update the scope box, the crop region updates as well.

They are 3D! Don’t forget that they are 3d elements. A lot of times folks forget to control how high they go. If you use them properly in the Z plane, you can save yourself a lot of time down the road.

Quick Tip – That Backup Folder

If you are manually grabbing and copying your local file, you are going to notice that Revit automatically creates a BACKUP folder of that model in the same location as your local model. It will be the same name as your local file with “_BACKUP” at the end of it.

When you are getting a new local file copy, it is imperative that you delete both your current local file AND this backup folder. Revit can get confused if it finds old backup stuff with new model stuff.

On the plus side, if you need to restore a backup of your local file, the _BACKUP folder is the folder you look for to get that process rolling.

Quick Tip – In Place Families

At some point in your Revit model’s life, you (or someone) will have to create some content for it. For non-system families, you can either create a component from an external template or an in-place family.

You don’t want to use in-place families too often. While it is inevitable that you will have to use in-place families in a project, be selective in their use. If you create an in-place family and later decide that it should be a component family, there is absolutely no way to convert it (edit: see comments below for a great work-around for this). If you must use an in place family, do not duplicate it; you will be adding gobs of memory usage to your model without realizing it. If you are making something that is not going to be a single unique object, make it as a component family.

The big caveat (there is always at least one, usually there are 17) is that System Families must be in-place families. There is no way to make those loadable families.

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

I’ve had enough.

Sometimes you’re successful and you train users to avoid doing really stupid things with their models. Mistakes happen, absolutely, but for the most part everyone does what they are supposed to do. Hooray!

And then there’s Purge Unused.

What is it about this command that makes people ignore common sense and wipe out a project’s complete set of standards with one click?

We have explained time and time again how powerful a tool this is, and how DANGEROUS it is. Every few weeks, I get the call: “I think someone purged my model.”

It’s not hard to get most of the stuff back, the trick is remembering what you had and what you need. It’s like a scavenger hunt but you only got half of the list of items.

I’m in the process of updating my Add-ons for 2016. Most are going smoothly. I have decided to take this opportunity of programming time to crack open the sample program that lets me change what happens when a Revit command is clicked. My plan is to make a big disclaimer window pop up when a user clicks Purge Unused, followed by an “Are you sure?” prompt, followed by another “Are you sure?” prompt, and possibly then another one. Hopefully that will be enough to deter its usage, or at least its usage of simply clicking all the OKs and not being discriminating over what is getting purged.

After that, I think we will be saying good-bye to Insert DWG.

Quick Tip – WARNING WARNING WARNING

Revit has two types of issues that it tries to make you aware of and deal with, the ERROR and the WARNING.

You cannot ignore an Error.  It just won’t let you finish the task you are working on.  You have to deal with it right then and there.

Warnings will actually tell you in the box that they “can be ignored”.  Even though it says that, try not to ignore it.  Try to remedy the problem right then and there.  Why?  Certain types of Warnings can REALLY slow down a model.

And if you “accidentally” skipped one, you can go back and find all your warnings by clicking the Review Warnings button on the Manage Tab.

Quick Tip – DWG Link Foreground vs Background

The default setting for linking in a DWG file is one of those things that consistently confuses my users for a couple seconds, and I’m with them. It’s a little obtuse.

First of all, you are linking and not importing, RIGHT?!

Secondly, this is also assuming you are linking your DWG to a single view, and not the entire project. This is not as crucial as NEVER IMPORTING, but we do recommend to our users that it is far easier to link a DWG into two or three views rather than linking it into the entire Revit model and then turning it off in the dozes of views where you don’t want to see it.

Many times when you link in your DWG, you just can’t see it. Quite often, it is hiding behind something in your model; a floor, a ceiling, etc. The default setting for that newly linked DWG is to put it behind everything. This can make it a little game of hide-and-go-seek.

Select that DWG, and you will see the “Draw Layer” parameter. Change it from “Background” to “Foreground” and it will lay on top of all your model content. You might want to click the BRING TO FRONT and BRING TO BACK buttons in the palette, but that just doesn’t work.

Or as Grover liked to say “Near……….far”