Updating the Family Thumbnail

So I ran into an unusual problem the other day where my Revit Family did not match the thumbnail image.... In this case the window family had multiple mullions which the thumbnail did not show, in fact the preview showed the original family of which I copied to create the new family with multiple mullions!

After mulling this over and searching the web for a solution I submitted a case to Autodesk and as usual the Autodesk support team (in this case it was Lance Coffey who has also helped me out in the past) promptly replied with the answer.

So here's what you need to do if your family "thumbnail" icon dose not match your family (direct from Autodesk support!):

1. Open the family file.

2. Save the file to a new name, and click Options on the Save As dialog window.
(Actually I just overwrote the original file and it worked fine)

3. Select the Source view that you want to use for the thumbnail preview, and check the "Regenerate if view/sheet is not up-to-date" box.
(This is the important part!)

4. Save the file, and check if the thumbnail is updated.

Easy!

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Revit for Interior Design

So I've been looking into using Revit more for Interior Design.

I have attended a number of session both at AU and RTC on using Revit for Interior design, I have also had the opportunity to teach Revit to a group of Interior Design Students a couple years ago and got some great feedback on how they will use Revit for Interior Design.

So I plan on incorporating Interior Design into our Revit work flow more than it currently is.

Some resources that Ive collected from Autodesk University over the years are:

Inside Revit by Amber White and Jacqueline Pollock
Their session looked at design phases, custom parameters, details etc...
Great handout that goes into detail.

BIMteriors by John R. Ade
This session looked at Commercial Interior Design and looks at space planning, area analysis, presentations and construction documentation.
Another great handout that goes into detail.

Make a Strong Finish and Revit Inside both by Paul Aubin
Paul is a great presenter and writer, actually his handouts are novellas!
He puts a great deal of effort in both his presentations and handouts and are well worth hunting down on the AU web site...

And lastly I had the opportunity to meet Daniel Stine while attending RTC NA 2012.
Daniel has also written a book called Interior Design Using Autodesk Revit Architecture 2013 (which I have pre-ordered).
Check it out!
http://www.amazon.com/Interior-Design-Using-Autodesk-Architecture/dp/1585037494

A selection of reading of which I'll be able to pull ideas and methods to implement into our Revit Interior Design Work flow... ;-)

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Round Tripping Design Review mark-ups in Revit

A typical workflow for a set of construction drawings include printing out a set of drawings, having the Lead architect or Project Manager review the project by marking up the sheets with a red pen and then give back to make the noted changes.

This can include lots of printed sheets and lots of space to lay out the printed drawings….

If we use Design Review for our review drawings we can exchange comments, notes and questions all digitally. Whoever is reviewing the DWFx sheets can also see the properties of elements as well as use a set of tools in Design Review to pull information as well as place comments.

When you mark up the DWF file, you are marking on top of the plotted views from Revit, as if you used a red marker on a printout. After you have marked up the DWF, you can link it back into Revit.

Bringing the DWFx back into Revit we can mark the changes as either Question, Done or For Review as well as write comments and then be saved back to the DWFx.

The reviewer can also have the entire model to review and explore in Design Review giving them a far better understanding of the entire project.

Here’s how we can “Round trip” a DWFx file to and from Revit:

Firstly we need to export Revitsheet and views to a DWFx file.

Note: The difference between DWF and DWFx, we can export sheets and views to DWF as well as DWFx but only DWFx will allow us to export the 3D model.

 

·         From the application button (the big R in the top left) select Export > DWF/DWFx

·         Select from the drop down what you want to export. Note that if you select “All views and sheets in the Model”  you will be able to select the 3D view as well as the sheets.

After making your selection you can save it for future use.
 Save to a folder and you’re ready to open in Design Review to mark up…

Open the DWFx in Design Review and using the tools available make any comments, notes queries that you need.

 

After you have marked up your DWFx bring it back into Revit by using the DWF Markup took in Revit.

A dialog box will pop up allowing you to map the DWFx sheets to your Revit sheets, but only if you need too and if you have renamed your sheets after exporting the DWFx.

You can manage your DWFx links through the Manage Links dialog box.

Any comments and mark-up on the DWF will then be superimposed on top of your Revit sheets.

By selecting the comment the properties of the DWF appear which you can now manipulate.

Such as:

Change the status of the comment.

Options include: None, For Review, Question and Done.

Make notes on the comment; maybe write a question here or a comment for the reviewer.

Review the History of the comments and the number of times it’s been “Round Tripped”.

When you’re done reviewing and making the appropriate comments to the DWF file while in Revit save the Revit project, this will automatically save back your changes that you have made to the DWF.

You can resend the DWFx back to the Reviewer for verification. Any changes to the status of the comments or adding your own comments will be updated in the DWF file.

Global Athletic Event

The Revit Jedi is proud to support the spirit of the upcoming global athletic event which is going to be held at a venue located in England in the very near future.

Go Clara Hughes!

"A six-time Olympic medalist in cycling and speed skating; she’s the only athlete in history to win multiple medals in both Summer and Winter Games.  She’s back on the bike with her eyes firmly set on London 2012.  But there’s far more to Clara than athletic achievements.

She is the National Spokesperson for Bell Canada’s Mental Health initiative and the ‘Let’s Talk’ campaign.  By sharing past struggles with depression, Clara has helped break down the stigma associated with mental illness."

Revit Problem Solving Tip

Here is another quick Revit Problem Solving Tip.

When your working with a Central file it is recommended to create a new Local File regularly (some say every day).

By doing this you basically "refresh" your local file, by not creating a local file you can run into issues after time.

If you do start to run into issues with your Local file, sync to central then close the file and create a new local. I find this to solve the majority or quirky file issues that arise.

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Revit Jedi Squirrels in action!!

On a lighter note...

I was working on a presentation and wanted to lighten it up by playing a funny video.....

found this on Utube and LMAO!


Jedi Squirrels, love it!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zPSSLJaXd4

I'll adopt them as Revit Jedi Squirrels!

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Advise on Solving your Revit Issues and Problems

While at RTC North America I attended a session called "Inside Support" by Autodesk's Harlan Brumm.

Some advice that I took away from that session was on problem solving which can be applied to any problem not only your Revit issues.

• "Splitting Problems" is basically where you split the problem in half and try to solve the issue. By breaking it down into smaller issues that you can deal with or by delegating parts of the issue to others allow you to be able to deal with it easier.

• Think outside the box when it comes to looking where the problem is, for example is it related to a driver update issue, conflicting add-in's, visibility graphics etc..

• Try to replicate the problem either in a blank file or on another computer, this will help you filter out possible problems.

• Roll back the project by looking at the back-up files to see where and when the problem originated. 

You can apply this to solving problems with Revit Families, Projects that are crashing or causing errors, families that are broken, network and Central file problems that you may be experiencing.

Sometimes we neglect to ask the obvious question like, is it hidden in view, or, are you in the right view... but more often than not it'll be the simple things so dont be afraid to as the "Stoopid" Questions.
Great advise, thanks Harlan...

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Wordle - Revit and getting side tracked on Twitter

You know some times I feel like I live under a Rock!!... Or maybe it's that I'm too busy and some things get past me.


I've had to drop Twitter because of this, while at the RTC Conference there was a lot of twittering going on both during the sessions and afterwards.... sometimes I prefer to focus on one output or the medium and be able to absorb the information a little better rather than try and keep up with everything... That's just my preference and my method, there are other methods that work equally well or if not better which include Twitter....


Anyway.... I digress. I was intending to write a brief blog about Wordle...
Wordle has been around for quite some time but I haven't had time or the inclination to look into it further.. until now.


I saw a Wordle during one of the sessions at RTC and this has resparked my interest....


It's sooo easy! I went to http://www.wordle.net/ typed in my Blog address and it came up with some beautiful Wordles!


Here are some of the Wordles that were created from words taken from my blog... such as Revit, Families, Architecture, etc...

This is awesome.... I just need to figure out where else I can use this!!!


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AutoCAD, Revit and WAY too much Coffee!

So put the word out at work that I'm looking for guest bloggers, thought I'd give some of the people here a avenue to express their thoughts etc... low and behold! I get a response that there is someone else blogging....

Cafe Jabbaccino is written by one of our Revit AT's in Victoria BC (Lovely Spot).

Here's a link to one of her earlier posts reflecting on the transition from AutoCAD to Revit... here is a snipet of her Blog, click the link to read more and also to see the "Creative" cartoon references...

I LMAO. 

At work, I sit at my desk and draw all day. No, I'm serious - that's my job! I work in architecture/interior design. It's a sweet job and I love it.

There is new and exciting software that is taking over computer drafting. AutoCAD is the old dinosaur and Revit is the new sweetness. I've been using Revit for more than three years now. If it's possible that a person can develop a crush on a computer program, I've got one.

When you draw in Revit everything is in 3D. If you draw a "wall" - well, it's a WALL!! It will draw a wall that is made out of 2 1/2" steel studs and it has drywall on both sides and is 2 metres high...etc. When you draw a (so-called) "wall" in AutoCAD it's literally a 2D line that means nothing, a stick.....well, okay it's like this:.... click to read more...

http://www.cafejabbaccino.blogspot.ca/2010/05/autocad-sucks.html


Right on Jabba! Anytime you want to guest blog for the Jedi let me know!!
 :-)

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Revit Technology Conference - Wow

RTC... WOW!

Wow what a conference, got back from the North America RTC a couple days ago and I'm back in the office trying to digest and sort out all the information that I gathered while attending.

What a very well run conference, congratulations to everyone on the RTC committee... great job.

I'll be posting some of the highlights and information that I gathered from RTC in my upcoming blogs... What an opportunity to connect and network with people who are really passionate about Revit and sharing their knowledge.


Some people of note:

Bruce McCallum's presentation on "Deploying Revit Server 2013". We will be deploying Revit Server pretty soon and this was some valuable information... I'll be blogging on our experience with deploying Revit Server so keep posted....

Harlum Brum's session on "Inside Support" explains how Autodesk support works and gave us insight on how to be effective with our own Revit support.....also a really nice guy.

I (finally) got to meet one of my blogging hero's David Light, but I missed meeting Jeffrey Pinheiro.!.. maybe next year Jeff aka The Revit Kid.

I first attended Brian Anderson's session at AU a couple years ago and found his session on BIM Management to be invaluable, I caught up with him at RTC. He's such a great presenter and loves sharing his knowledge of BIM Management.

Steve Shell is an Architect from Arizona whom I've seen at AU a number of times, he's quite a character and is one of those guys who I find a little intimidating to meet.... he's just has such a large personality.! anyway I made a point to meet him to tell him how much I enjoyed his session... He is such a humble guy!!

Marcello Sgambelluri showed us his Revit Cow and Elephant, amazing stuff! I was amazed at how the Revit tools can be used in such unique ways.... I'll expand more in future postings...

These are just a few of the high level presenters that I had the opportunity to meet at RTC... there were so many more but I don't have enough pages to thank them all! 

One thing that I found in common with all these presenters is that they are all so passionate about Revit and the industry and love to share their knowledge with anyone and everyone from the largest company to the those just learning Revit..

Well done guys, I hope I have the opportunity to attend your sessions again at future RTC's and AU's!

If you ever have a opportunity to see one of these guys present at either AU or RTC go..it's well worth it...you can learn so much from these guys.

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Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day!

On July 1st 1867 the enactment of the British North America Act,  (today called the Constitution Act, 1867), which united three colonies into a single country called Canada within the British Empire. Originally called Dominion Day the name was changed in 1982, the year the Canada Act was passed.

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