Review Warnings. Do Not Ignore Them!!!

Just a quick reminder: REVIEW WARNINGS!!!

I am a sort of purist; being both an Architect (Officially when I complete the licensing tests later this year or next) and an Artist: So what does this mean, I am not so sure, only that being that 'purist' of sorts, when in Revit I work under the premise that No warning or error is a good one, so I get them resolved and keep them that way.

This is so important!!! I have even made RW the keyboard shortcut for it. My workflow with regards to these warnings is: if I don't see any on-screen warnings I still check at least 2-3 times in the morning and another 2-3 times in the afternoon. (I am sometimes so focused that the on-screen dialogs slip past, without me noticing (or caring, for the time being). On the other hand if I do see warning dialogs and still choose to TEMPORARILY ignore them I will RW ASAP and resolve every issue!!!

In my travels implementing Revit with multiple project teams, especially where many users are somewhat new to Revit I have found that there is a tendency to get quite surprised at the amount of Errors they have allowed (Yes, Allowed!!!) in their projects.

Best practice alert: Resolve warnings as soon as they come up!!! And when they do come up click the button pointed out subtly below.


These errors and warnings can lead to bloated file sizes and possible file corruption, as well as the dreaded lost project time spent fixing them, usually after hours. The good thing is that this should be a self-teaching-lesson for users: once they have to fix 200 or 800 or 3, 000 (See This AUGI Thread) they should have learned this lesson (or they may need "that" talk in the conference room, or office, with the door closed).

Now, if you have done this in the past you may have found it to be a pain in the ass since the dialogue box closes after each warning is resolved; If that is the case then Here's a link you'll probably love!!! It's another great resource for a more user-friendly way of dealing with these warnings. (Update for 2009: There is now an export function natively in the Revit warning dialog box, so use it!!!)

BTW: If you RW and your computer Beeps or just flat out ignores you that's a good thing: it actually means you have no unresolved warnings. YAAY.

Scared yet??? Get over it and work smart (er), This isn't Autocad!!! where sloppy drafting is mostly just an annoyance (BTW Autocad users: do you know "overkill"???)

Viva la revolution...Uhhh...I mean, Happy 4th of July & Be safe!!!

-J

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Midnight Ridazz, Schedules and BIM?

Art, Architecture, BIM, schedules, families, blocks, parameters, details or anything else we do at work or in life for that matter; can be quite empty, if we don't have some fun!!! So, if you live in Los Angeles (or anywhere near) I suggest that you block out a few hours (depending on what kind and how much "fun" you want to have) on the second Friday of each month. The Midnight Ridazz' bike rides usually start about 9:30-10 pm and go past Midnight (obviously). Everyone is welcome!!!

How much fun is it? well when 300 to 1,000 or so bicyclists get together for a group ride throughout the city, taking over the streets and riding to great music, it is more fun than can be explained with mere words...even the uphill portions are fun; 'cause you know what follows "up", right? ...No, not puke... it's "down"...

Yes, that's me on the left and a good friend & another Ridazz veteran on the right: we're just about to enter the 3rd Street tunnel below the 110 FWY. BTW: the people on the left sidewalk got up and screamed along with us...or maybe at us, I'm not so sure...

So, when I yell Midnight Ridazz, you scream: Ride on...and make it loud!!!

Save a tree, ride a bike!

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The New Revit Build is Here, The New Revit Build is Here!!!

First off: Here Is the newest Revit Architecture 2008 Build (as of the original date of this posting, of course).

I was asked by a rather good Revit user if I could help them and figure out why some (yes, only some) of their project's Plan Callouts would disappear when the view it lived in was cropped. "Hmmm", I said -"OK" (well I really didn't say that but you get my point...Back to business): I spent a little while going through the usual questions...are any relevant Worksets off, any filters, you know all the "who, what and where's" that seemed relevant; I checked VV...No, not VG that "G" is too far for me to move my finger to!!!. Finally, after nothing brought it back, ouside of not cropping the view (in this case that was unacceptable) I just recreated a new Callout and that one showed up as expected. (Typical).

Now at this point I could have suggested there was some error, whether it be the dreaded and all-too-often cited Operator error, the many-times-true: Windows Memory Leak (did you like the "plus signs" disappearing from the Project Browser? That WAS a Windows Memory Leak), or even the sometimes erroneous, sometimes not: Computer Error; etc. but I just couldn't get that original Callout to work correctly so I knew it was a bug. Well, at the time I thought it was a bug but I didn't find that out until doing a little (and I mean little) external (outside of Revit) research.

I won't say (yes I will) that I Google'd the following: "Revit Callout views disappear in cropped views" and promptly got a hit (actually the third result on the first page of results!) of: someone else with that very same error, only in Structure. Well my instinct was validated; it was (Yes, I just said WAS and not IS) a bug in Revit. Now, If you forgot why this posting is important, or why I am writing this at all: here is the point... WE ALL NEED TO KEEP UP WITH THE MOST CURRENT BUILDS AS SOON AS WE CAN GET THEM!!! Now you can't say you weren't told.

Keeping up with the newest builds, along with contacting as many resources as possible whenever you have an issue (with Revit) is a good method and maybe even the only one we have, to get our issues (with Revit) addressed and resolved. Hmmm, Issues...

Now I just wish that I could change that fucking elevation marker and duplicate more than one view at a time...Oh Shit J, don't get me started!!!

Take Care,
-J

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