Feeding To Revit? RSS Feeds for Fingertip Information

At a recent (last night if you are reading this on the day of the posting) LARUG Meeting Cody Nowak presented a little tutorial on how to hook up Revit with your favorite RSS feeds. I trust you will use this for purely business purposes ;-)

If you'd like to keep in touch with said LARUG just check out and friend us up or follow us using these Twitter and Facebook pages and don't forget the LinkedIn page... Friends Rule!!! Communication Rules too...

BTW: If you can't download the PDF from Scribd use This Link.

C Nowak's Revit RSS How To

Download at will...

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Are Revit Elevation Views Leaving You Flat? Another How-To-Solve-It with Filters

I want something like this:

HTF can we easily get Elevations (Sections, etc.???) to have distinctions in their graphic representations as they fall further into the distance from our picture plane? You know, get items to appear as if they are fading away or appearing lighter, the greater the distance away they are... without using cruel workarounds like the less than optimal ‘Linework’ tool (read ‘Linework tool’ as the “waste(r) of time and I will probably be forced to rework these over and over as the project progresses” tool) or the shunned Drafting Lines themselves (Please say you don’t use lines). SO how do we??? Hmmmm…

OK, you are about to get the answer to those questions and get one main Best Practice and another one or two solutions that are a less recommended due to their major documentation limitations. Therefore soon you’ll be able to say goodbye to the “flat, dead, fugly, OOTB elevation problem”. YAAY!!!

Although I have heard a lot of comments and complaints through the years about how dead, flat & frankly fugly looking Elevations and Sections can look in Revit, I think it reflects more on us, rather than solely on Revit (but both have been at fault, if you ask me).

I do not want something like this:

Oh, the reason I say it’s an ‘us’ thing is that there are solutions… If you haven’t found solutions or heard of any (yet) let this be a new beginning; but if you do know of some and one has been to use filters and you have not shared it with the Revit community at-large then I say shame on you!!! Where’s the love??? If you have shared it I could not find it on the weboblogotwitosphere so perhaps marketing needs work?

That diatribe now over, we can continue :) It’s time to buck up partner, there is a really powerful cure (Hint: #2 is the cure I am speaking about).

The two methods we will discuss herein include:
1) The Old School Glass Obstructer Method (See Image 1 below)
Not as recommended as the next method is for a CD set elevations, but useful for presentations and ancillary 3D views/3D elevations, etc.

And finally that Best Practice:
2) The Filter Method (See Image 2 below) Yes. There it is finally, your recommended Best Practice!!!

(Image 1)

The "Glass Obstructer” Method: Not bad, but perhaps not best either

(Image 2)

Filter Method: Best practice (at time of this post at least. :))

These two workflows (if you so choose to use) can also be visually pleasing when used in consort with one another… even though the glass-obstructers need a bit of management via Worksets; just test the output before committing to print the whole set or committing to pronouncing the Glass Method to be your firm’s best practice!!! Look out for the Annotation limitations listed further on, in the step-by-steps for creating The Old School Glass Obstructer Method also; that’s a huge problem with this possible solution.

(Image 3)
Hybrid Filter-3D Elevation/Glass Obstructer Method –Again, great if you don’t want to annotate the views!!! (Why? See Image 4)

(Image 4)

Text is the only Annotation available in flat oriented 3D views :-(

If you employ The Old School Glass Obstructer Method (step-by-step below) and think that you want to annotate the 3D “Elevation” views you have a harsh reality coming… You can only use Text. Period.

No Dimensions, no Tags, no Keynotes, no etc…

Why? Because Dimensions, Spot Elevations & Spot Coordinates are only available in 3D views set to a non-flat direction, such as isometric, that’s why. If we look at this logically the flat 3D views only appear flat, thus these tools would probably hit unknown parts of the project, not what we want.

The Old School Glass Obstructer Method Step-by-Step:
1) Create 1” thick walls with a new material that I like to call Glass Obstructer; In the examples herein the material is setup thus (See Image 5)

(Image 5)
Glass Obstructer Material Settings

2) Place these walls where they need to be (obviously)

a. Ensure that these obstructers are substantially wider & taller that the rest of the project (See Image 6)

(Image 6)

Glass Obstructers in Place (Yeah I know!!! Weird, huh?)

b. Place the obstructers in their own Workset (WS) that is created Off by Default (See Image 7)

(Image 7)

Glass Obstructers Workset settings

3) Create a set of 3D Views; one for each desired “Elevation” (similar to Image 3 above)
a. Set these 3D Elevation Views to be aligned with a corresponding, real Elevation View or use the view-cube and set to flat orientations.
b. Turn on the WS in all appropriate 3D “Elevation’” views to get that faded look.
4) – Shadows anyone???

Now That The Not-So-Recommended Way Has Been Explained Let’s Get To The Real Good Stuff!!!

The Filter Method: A (sort of) Step-by-Step:
1) Create a filter planning matrix (See Image 8)

a. This is a Word document, where filters will be planned, so they are made efficiently, predictably and clean Excel works well too.

(Image 8)
Filter Planning Matrix

2) Create Elevations (of course)
3) View Ribbon > Graphics Panel > Filters Tool (See Image 9)

(Image 9) The Filter Tool

4) Create Filters (See Image 10)

(Image 10) Filter creation

a. Use the info from your Filter Planning Matrix
BTW: This matrix can be scaled to be useful for any filter plus variants can be used to plan & manage every possible setting in Revit; especially useful since one should NEVER save their old template files into a newer version…Unless you want to lose functionality!!! Really!!!
b. Assign the filters to the appropriate objects; in this case I used only Walls
c. Setup the filter rules

OK get ready: In this scenario I am using an ADSK OOTB template so I simply used the Instance Parameter “Comment” for the assignment portion of this solution… On a real project I suggest that you setup custom/instance/Project Parameters corresponding to each elevation view, for the Objects to be overridden (walls in this case): perhaps they look similar to Image 11 & 12's List of Potential Instance Parameters for Walls to be overridden using the Filter Method:

1. Elevation Override East
2. Elevation Override North
3. Elevation Override South
4. Elevation Override West

(Image 11)
Parameter Setup Example

(Image 12)
Wall Properties/Parameter value Example

With these setups assign each wall’s instance parameters with the number that corresponds to the (to be) overridden line weight setting (1 for 1, etc.)

Are you with me so far? It is simpler than it appears after a while… Plus very powerful and should open your imagination up to use filters rather than the horrendous Override in View!!!

5) Open one of your elevation views
a. Type VV (Visibility Graphics… Yeah VG works too but I don’t like moving my finger that half inch :))
b. Select into the Filters Tab and Add all of the necessary filters (See Image 13) –That’s right: neither shift, nor Ctrl work here; to select these all just click them individually… *#@! Software Developers can’t seem to make their dialogues work consistently yet… Yikes!!!(Image 13)

Adding the filters to a view’s Visibility Graphics

c. Next, while still in the elevation’s Visibility Graphics Chose the corresponding override Weight for each filter (Projection Lines definitely, Cut Lines ??? Hmmm is that where we’d mess with our sections??? You bet!!!). (See Image 14)

(Image 14)
Choosing the overrides per filter

d. Click OK and you’re almost there…

I have to take a pause here and admire the strength of filters. Don’t worry, we’re almost Finished!!! (Let's take a look at the (now filter-overridden) View again)

AHHHHH... That’s a whole lot better!!!

Finally: Oh wow, there's more? Well, yes... we want to push these filters/overrides more methodically than by manually repeating the V/G, filter addition & overriding, don’t we? YES; you had better have said yes!!!

6) Go over to the Project Browser
a. Right-Click the view you just overrode the line weights for
b. Select “Create View Template From View”
c. Name the View Template with a useful name (follow conventions)
d. Un-check all check boxes except “V/G Overrides Filters” (See Image 16)

(Image 16)
Sweet 16: View Template

7) Apply this View Template to all necessary elevations and if you have set all the walls with the appropriate integer value for those parameters you created you will have similar results as these!!!

Good luck and let us know what great uses you use filters for that may be out of the ordinary.

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The New (New) Revit Graphics Card List is Here!!!

Without further ado: Get the current (as of the date of this post) Revit Approved Graphics Card list Here when choosing a new workstation (and I don't mean a small business or home rated computer!!!)... remember if you get anything that's not on the list or that's not followed by a green Check/+
then you're on your own.

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Do you play BIM? Will You be in Vegas this December?

Nice hair... too bad I cut it...


Let's see how many people we can jam into this session at the upcoming 2010 Autodesk University (AU)

Coordinating Hot Revit® Models: How to Become a "10"

This 1-Hour session is for all All Levels of Revit User and attendee participation mandatory (ok, highly recommended)!!! Yes, this means those who show up will add to the discussion... Are you ready???

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Stop Double-Clicking Files to Open Them!!!

Got that? Stop Double-Clicking BIM or CADD Files to Open Them!!!

Unless of course you like to create files that are increasingly corrupt and ultimately don't work.


First let me put this in a bit of perspective: I don't mean little bitty files or the likes of MS Word files, etc. I am strictly speaking to Revit & other ADSK files (such as AutoCAD and all the variants therein) probably the other software vendor files too but they'd have to address that.

INTERIOR. LUXURY BALLROOM, PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING & TECHNICAL EVENT - SPRING.
I was speaking to an ADSK developer about the fact that I'd heard it is not a good practice to open files by double-clicking them and they agreed and gave me some now long forgotten, technical and valid reasons.

CUT TO:
INTERIOR. ARCHITECTURAL OFFICE - LATE MORNING - SUMMER
I was working (for 6 years) next to a MACperson and since he was so used to double-clicking files to open them he naturally double-clicked away; even though we were in a Windows environment AND even though we had implemented a best-practice of 'never double-clicking files to open them'... you know how it is: best practices are only as good as the people employing them (or not employing them)... I guess he initially didn't believe in the import or validity of the suggested practice.
SCENE.

Well as time went by I realized that this person was generating a lot more corrupt (Architectural Desktop) files than anyone else... Hmmm was the info that ADSK developer told me correct? Yes, obviously!!!

I also tested with network sniffers and wait til I tell you about the poor packets of lost information...

Long story short; once the double-clicking was stopped so did nearly all of the corruptions...hey; it was still CADD based so don't expect perfection... Think of it this way: the files we are using in the BIM realm are quite large and the applications we use are also large and complex with so many calculations happening it's hard to imagine; but back to the point: if the app isn't fully opened the file will still be trying to force itself into the app but can't complete the process ...

...And if you're on a network what do you think happens to the packets of information? Well, they bounce around the network trying to find a home, but after a short time (milliseconds to seconds usually) they turn back into free floating electrons and go back to whence they came... Space

Say bye-bye to your data!!! Now, if you continue double-clicking then I suggest that you stop asking why the files go corrupt and start to take ownership of your actions and realize that you caused the corruptions by choice and action... This is not a judgement, just a fact... not good or bad; just so.

Remember: Ignorance of the law is no excuse either, right?

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The New Black? Green BIM!!!

There's enough said in the new for 2010 BIM Smart Market Report by the folks at McGraw Hill Construction, etc... So I'll keep this post on-point and only add: Get on (Green BIM...) now, if you're not already: you can no longer say we didn't tell you :-)

Click the image below for the report.

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Need a Reference to Bo Derek in your Revit / BIM Process?

OK; it's that time again for the AutoGeekFest-a-thon... actually it's Autodesk University and I can hardly wait... Vegas Baby... Oh I mean a load of learning, sharing & teaching!!!

Early registration opened today (Monday September 07, 2010) and becomes open to all in the days to come. Lots of great sessions including my Unconference Session (I still like calling them UnPlugged Sessions) but I digress.

Click the image below to get to or near it...

There are a lot of new sessions at AU this year, as well as a few goodies from years past, so be sure to look through "The List"... I will be cloning myself to be in several sessions at once... really I will be coordinating with friends and colleagues to cover more than what any one of us can do individually... hope to see you there (BTW: don't look for my long hair, as in the photo; that's long gone and I am far too busy to grow it out again...perhaps :-))

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