Another Buildz Echo!
May 17, 2012
I think I’ll just rename my blog: “Buildz Annex”. All I can say about this latest post, is WAY COOL. Check it out.
Buildz and the new Repeat
May 7, 2012
Revit 2103 introduces a new Divide and Repeat feature in the conceptual modeling environment and Zach over at Buildz has done a very cool post showing off some of its potential. You can check it out here.
Echo
Apr 19, 2012
There are a couple good posts out there today:
Over on What Revit Wants:
http://whatrevitwants.blogspot.com/2012/04/materials-in-revit-2013-saga-continues.html
I was glad to see they mentioned the new libraries feature. I think this might be one of the best new features in 2013. This effectively eliminates the need to create “paint chips” and copy and paste between projects. You simply load a material library now! Outstanding.
http://whatrevitwants.blogspot.com/2012/04/percentage-of-item-count-to-total-count.html
This one references an old AUGI post, but a good one.
Over at Revit OpEd
http://revitoped.blogspot.com/2012/04/how-many-worksets-do-i-need.html
Always a good conversation. I think that every project team should think very carefully before creating dedicated Worksets. If you can achieve what you need with borrowing, it is typically easier for the team. My rule of thumb: “have as many Worksets as the project NEEDS, and as FEW as possible”. Naturally this is a little vague, but that is the point. Each project needs to consider all of the issues and come up with a solution that is right for them to avoid the “Tuesday meeting” as Steve mentions.
Finally:
http://revitoped.blogspot.com/2012/04/content-or-content.html
Interesting points made here. I will have to think about that one a little…
Installing the Building Design Suite
Apr 14, 2012
I have been waiting to install the latest Autodesk 2013 software because I wanted to install the Suite. The stand alone 2013 products have been out for a few weeks but the Suites (at least the Building Design Suite that I was interested in) only just posted on Thursday this week. I have a few comments on the experience that I would like to share. My main reason for preferring to install the Suite over the individual products is that it is simpler in several ways:
- It is a single download (huge) but a single one just the same
- There is just one installer. You choose the products you want to install. Nice.
- You only have to authorize ONCE. Very nice.
But alas, there is always a downside. So here were some issues that I ran into:
- The download is IMMENSE. 25 GIGs (7 DVDs if you burned it, it was a 7-part archive). Unzipped is over twice this size 66 GIGs!!! Better have a spare hard drive handy to back it up. (I downloaded the Ultimate Suite, so I assume the other “flavors” would be smaller, but probably not much).
- The download is 32 and 64 bit together. It could be just one or the other and therefore half the size. The 2012 suite, I was able to download just the 64 bit. Maybe this is coming later?
- During the download, I had some of the parts fail. I had to resort to downloading them one or two at a time and babysit. Took several hours. This was kind of annoying, though not unexpected.
- I downloaded it to the second hard drive on my primary system (my D drive). Surprisingly, when I copied it to an external HD for backup, it took nearly 4 hours! I know that USB can be slow, but please. 4 hours seems excessive. Thank you Windows…
Once finally downloaded, I could begin the install. The waiting is not over. When you first double-click that EXE to “install” what you are really doing is unzipping. This takes ANOTHER couple hours. (The first time failed, because as i noted above, I had to re-download a few of the archives, never very fun). But when I had everything downloaded, and fired it up, well, the progress bar started and then I hit the first snag:
A bunch of Red error messages started to appear. Issues about QTO and some of its files… At first I watched and wonder how this would affect me, but then decided to cancel and investigate. As you may know, when you unzip the archive, it suggests your C drive in a folder called Autodesk. I usually just change this to D:\Autodesk and leave the rest of the path alone. This time, I was using a folder called _Autodesk Software. This is because I had a few other folders starting with “A” and I recentely renamed my Autodesk folder to ensure that it was first on the list. No issues with BDS 2012 when I did this. But I suspected that due to the length of the path in the red error message above that I was hitting some sort of file name limit. So, I moved the older back to D:\Autodesk and tried again. This time it worked! no errors.
Proud of my cleverness, I let the install continue. Well, the progress bar chugged along for quite a long time and just when it was at the end… it reset itself to the beginning! WTF? Well, remember that message area of the unzip dialog that showed the red error messages for QTO above? Well upon further inspection I noted that it had just completed part 1 of the archive. It was now on to archive 2. <sigh> there are six more parts…
One thing I forgot to mention is that the evening before, when I was downloading, I changed the power settings on my system so that it would not go to sleep and cancel the download. Nothing more frustrating than that. So I left my settings set this way during the unzip too. Trouble is, I had leave for a client meeting and it was only half done. Now, I should have known better than to start this before an appointment. My original plan was to unzip the archive, then cancel and when I came back later, it would be ready to go. I had over an hour before the meeting, so THEORETICALLY it should have been fine… Famous last words…
Well, I had already invested this much time, I did not want to start over. So I just grabbed my machine and took it with me in the car and let it continue unzipping during my hour commute. I still had the power settings set to not go to sleep. Surly it would be done by the time I arrived? Again my plan would be to simply cancel, and then later run the install from the unzipped folder.
Well, you know what happened next. My screen froze, I had to hard shut down when I got to the client and now I was possibly going to have to unzip all over again. Well in this I got lucky. I had apparently finished unzipping BEFORE it crashed. Luck smiled on me this one time.
On to the Install!
So I went into the D:\Autodesk folder, located the Setup.exe file and fired it up. The installer appeared, I configured all of my choices, (selected almost everything, left off a few items) and clicked install. Away it went. There was something like 59 items.
59 of 59 left to install
52 of 59 left to install
40 of 59 left to install
28 of 59 left to install
Icons were appearing on my desktop, it was cranking away and somewhere around 22 items left, an error dialog appears saying something about the installer’s not being able to find some file needed for QTO again. OK, well let me take a look. I manually browse to the location that it says in Windows Explorer and what do I find? Well there’s the offending file. Soooo…
Now get this, there are only two buttons in the dialog that has now stalled the installation. They are “Retry” and “Cancel.” (kind of reminds me of a Revit warning… ouch).
Are you kidding me? You know what Retry did. So feeling defeated, I click Cancel, figuring I don’t REALLY need QTO right now. But wait, it gets better. Do you know what Cancel does? Wait for it…
It REVERSES the ENTIRE installation. That’s right, all of the 37 successfully installed programs up to this point uninstall themselves as I hopelessly watch. Bye Revit, bye AutoCAD, Bye Navis… Unbelievable.
OK, so after some choice words. I try again. This time I will only select Revit, Max Design, AutoCAD Arch, MEP and a few other items. No QTO this time. Off it goes again. After getting much further, somewhere in the teens this time, maybe 15 of XX left, it displays the SAME type of error. This time on some sample project. A SAMPLE PROJECT!!! Really???
So, not about to let it uninstall again and feeling thoroughly frustrated, I click cancel and then kill my machine. I figured, well, if I hard shut down (extreme I know) it won’t be able to uninstall all the programs. Maybe not the most thought out plan, but hey, I was frustrated.
After re-starting my machine, I tested each program. Revit worked, AutoCAD Arch worked, Max Design, Inventor, they all worked.
AutoCAD MEP… totally hosed. (Couldn’t get that lucky could I?)
The REAL issue
OK, well, what about the other programs that did not install? I still did not have QTO, Design Review, Infrastructure Modeler and a few other misc items. So, I tried to install just one at a time. Design Review, no problem. The others not so much. Then it dawned on me. Those errors I got all looked similar.
The issue is the length of the file and folder names. When I downloaded Building Design Suite 2012, the folder of the unzipped file was named: Autodesk_BDS_Ultimate_2012_English_Win_64bit. This time, the folder was named: Autodesk_Building_Design_Suite_Ultimate_2013_English_Win_32-64bit.
Much longer because they wrote out “Building Design Suite” and because it includes the extra 32 bit descriptor in there. I renamed this folder to change the Building_Design_Suite part to just BDS and voila! All products install without fail!
After all of that grief. It is the length of the stinking folder names that caused the trouble. This is really something that should have been tested Autodesk. A few years ago I had a similarly bad experience trying to get my Adobe CS to install. I contacted their tech support and they were no help. Nothing sours the initial experience of a new (and expensive) piece of software like not being able to quickly and easily install it. I am not blaming anyone for the time it takes to download, it is what it is. But folder name lengths are something that can EASILY be tested for and adjusted.
Good grief. Anyhow, I hope that this L O N G post helps someone out there.
So here is a summary of what you want to do:
- Download the archives.
- Run the installer and accept the default location (you can change drives if you like)
- When the actual installer appears, cancel it.
- Browse to the location of the installed folder and rename it to something shorter.
- Double-click the Setup.exe file in the now shortened folder.
- Sit back and wait for it to finish.
Revit Room Curiosity
Apr 3, 2012
I just noticed this interesting little anomaly. When you select elements in Revit, the Properties palette reports information on the elements that you have selected. On the Type Selector, you will see the Family and Type of the elements selected unless they do not share the same Family or Type. In such a case, it will say something like “Multiple Types Selected” or “Multiple Families Selected” or even “Multiple Categories Selected” depending on specifically what you have selected. So that brings me to my latest curiosity. Rooms in Revit have always behaved a little differently than other elements. They do not have Families and Types per se. All of the properties are instance parameters. You cannot duplicate a Room Type or create Room Family. When you select a single Room, the Type Selector is simply blank. However, I just noticed that if you have several Rooms selected, instead of being blank, the Type Selector now reports “Multiple Families Selected”. Interesting. Now as I said, you and I cannot manipulate Room Families or Room Types (although I would find it most useful to have Room Types, but that is a discussion for another day). But perhaps behind the scenes each Room is actually a Family? Are these things really In-Place Families? Hmmm. Makes you wonder. Anyone know the inner workings here? Something in the API shed any light? 
Please feel free to post.
New in Revit 2013?
Mar 30, 2012
I think this is new. I just discovered it, tried it in 2012 and it seems to be new, but I did not see it mentioned anywhere else.
It seems that if you double-click on a Family that it will open in the Family Editor. This is true in the project editor and the Family Editor. Kinda cool? But I can also see this being unintended at times…
Anyone care to comment? What did you find?
My Favorite New Revit 2013 Feature
Mar 27, 2012
OK, officially, I have not been released to talk about the new Autodesk products… But, since the other bloggers got the green light today… I can’t help it, I am going to share my favorite new feature. Click here.
Revit 2013
Mar 27, 2012
David Light has done it again. Terrific and thorough post on what’s new in Revit 2013.
http://autodesk-revit.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/what-new-in-autodesk-revit-2013.html
New Revit video training coming soon
Mar 2, 2012
I am on my flight back to Chicago (literally on the plane – WiFi on planes… wow) from a week of recording in California. My part of the newest Revit course at lynda.com is now complete! I am very excited about this new course. i can’t give all the details yet, but the course is focused on the conceptual massing environment. As soon as I have a green light, I’ll post some screen captures and links to preview videos.
Check back soon and I’ll have more info.
Revit View Range
Jan 28, 2012
I just commented on a post over at the Revit Kid. It reminded me about a video I had posted some time ago on the View Range feature in Revit. I went looking for the link and discovered it had gone missing. So, I decided to repost it here. The video was recorded a few releases ago, but is still relevant to today’s version of Revit. Please enjoy.
Revit Parameters
Jan 19, 2012
I had a client email me about Parameters. They were having a tough time getting their head around the different types, so I thought I would make a quick post about it.
In Revit there are four kinds of Parameters:
System Parameters
Shared Parameters
Project Parameters
Family Parameters
System Parameters which include the two you highlighted are built-in to Revit and cannot be changed, but they are always available. This means they show in tags, schedules, projects, families, etc. Project Parameters are custom parameters you add to a project. When adding a project parameter, it is available to all objects of the specified category throughout the project and CAN appear in schedules but NOT tags. You create them with the command on the Manage tab of the ribbon. Family parameters are only available to the Family in which they are added. They do NOT show in tags or schedules nor to other Families of the same category. However, you can make a custom parameter (Project or Family) available to tags and schedules by making them a Shared Parameter. Shared Parameters are defined in an external text file (a Shared Parameter file) and you can access them also on the Manage tab. It is VERY important that you have a single shared parameter file for the entire firm to “share” thus the name. You do NOT want more than one Shared Parameter file. All this file is used for is to define the parameter. Once defined, it knows how to behave. So ALL shared parameters will be created from this single source file. The end users will not need to have access to, nor do they need to even know about the Shared Parameter file. Kind of like a recipe for your favorite cookies. You need the recipe to get the cookies right, but you don’t need the recipe to enjoy eating them.
If you think there is any chance that a custom parameter will want to be scheduled or tagged, you should make it a shared parameter. So on your titleblock, you need to make those custom parameters at LEAST a project parameter. This will tell Revit what to do with them. But consider making them Shared for additional flexibility down the road.
| Kind of Parameter | Who Creates it | Where does it live | Appear in Tags | Appear in Schedules | Description |
| System Parameters | Built in | Project and Family | Yes | Yes | Built-in to Revit, You cannot change it |
| Shared Parameters | User Defined | Project and Family | Yes | Yes | Custom Parameter created for the highest portability and flexibility |
| Project Parameters | User Defined | Project | No | Yes | Custom Parameter accessible to all objects in a Project |
| Family Parameters | User Defined | Family | No | No | Custom Parameter accessible only to the Family |
Hope that helps to clarify things a bit.
All Capital Letters – ALT Part 2
Jan 11, 2012
Quick follow-up to yesterday’s post. I found a few decent fonts for this task. In the screenshot here you can see “Arial Caps” and “Tahoma-Capped”. I found both of these at this site. They appear to be royalty free. At least there was no indication otherwise on the site. Also I forgot to mention yesterday that this same approach is effective at capping the headers and the data. Enjoy.
All Capital Letters – ALT
Jan 10, 2012
Steve over at Revit OpEd just posted about making the subtotal at the bottom of a Revit Schedule appear in All CAPS. Traditionally, architectural drawings use all caps for all lettering. As Steve points out, this goes back to traditional hand drafting conventions and trying to ensure consistency between various draftspersons. Consistency in lettering is no longer a problem in the computer age, but some habits linger. When email and posting to online web forums first became popular back in the early 90’s many forums had FAQs explaining rules of “online etiquette”. One of these rules was always: “Don’t use ALL CAPS, IT IS LIKE SHOUTING”. I think in this day and age, most online users know this rule now and you don’t see too much all CAP use anymore… that is unless you are looking at architectural drawings and then the All CAPS thing is quite prevalent indeed. Personally, I prefer mixed case. EVEN on architectural drawings. I rarely use the CAP Lock key on my keyboard. However, it is still a pretty common desire among Architects, Designers and Engineers to use all CAPs in documentation.
That brings us back to the subject of Steve’s post. Steve points out that Revit does not offer us a way to make the automatically created labels on Revit schedules such as “Grand Total” in all CAPs. This is a limitation or “feature” of the software depending on your point of view. Steve proposes a work around. Well, this got me thinking if there was another way to achieve this. I decided to do a quick test with fonts. It turns out that to “trick” Revit into doing this automatically without having to use manual text is to use a font that uses only CAPs. I had a few on my system so I did some quick tests.
As you can see, the fonts I had available were not great examples for this application. The Telegrafico font has really small numbers. The Tonio font does not have a dash character and the PTF Nordic font is a bit too bold and rounded. Therefore, consider them “proof of concept.” If you get an acceptable font, (or create one if you know how to do that), then all you have to do is set the Schedule to use this custom “all CAP” font in the Appearance tab.
Thanks for starting the conversation Steve.
M-six BIM toolset preview
Jan 10, 2012
I am a little late on this one, but I got a message in my LinkedIn box the other day. Other bloggers (What Revit Wants and Revit OpEd) have already shared this, so let’s call this an echo. It was from a company called M-six. They have a video preview of their new soon to be released toolset. Looks VERY interesting and delivers on the stuff many of us in the BIM space have been saying BIM had potential to do. I think it is worth keeping an eye on these tools and how they develop.
Year end reading
Dec 27, 2011
For many of us, this week is a little slow. Maybe you are not fortunate to have it off from work, but just the same, many folks are away or otherwise winding down the year. Sounds like a good time to catch up on reading if you ask me. Now it might be more enjoyable to read the latest novel or perhaps if you are like me, you got a copy of the Steve Jobs book for Christmas. But the boss may not look too kindly on this kind of reading on the job…
But, if you were “caught” reading a copy the latest Revit or AutoCAD training materials, not only would the boss be unlikely to be upset, you might even get an “attaboy” out of the exchange. 
So to help us celebrate the New Year, we have extended the exclusive 40% off deal previously offered only to attendees of Autodesk University. Now through December 31st, you can get 40% off the cover price of The Aubin Academy Master Series: Revit MEP and The Aubin Academy Master Series: AutoCAD MEP titles. To get the discount, you have to order from the Create Space eStore link. Just input the discount code: SGESYKP2 during checkout.
Please enjoy the book and the special limited time discount. Thank you and Happy New Year!
Minor Correction in our AutoCAD MEP 2012 book
Dec 11, 2011
On page 81, Figure 2.13, we reversed the descriptions of letters c and d. Thanks to Steve for pointing this out.
#AU2011 Resources Posted
Dec 11, 2011
Did you make to #AU2011 this year? If you are like me, there are too many classes to attend in the short three days we are there at the confernce. Or maybe you couldn’t make it this year. Well, the folks running the conference outdid themselves again with a terrific event. They are also hard at work preparring all the recorded classes for posting to AU online. You can visit right now and find some of the resources such as class papers and PowerPoint presentations (where available). More to come soon.
I have posted all of my class materials right here on my website. You can find the papers for each of my four Revit Architecture classes in both PDF and ePUB format. You can also find all of my dataset files used in demostrations and labs. For my Family Editor Step-by-step Introduction class, I have also posted video recordings of the entire class. I recorded these before AU and they include both the material I covered live in Vegas as well as many bonus lessons I did not have time to present in the short 90 minute lab. You can find all of these items posted here. Enjoy!
Un-BIM-lievable!
Nov 20, 2011
Planning to attend Autodesk University? If so, make sure you check out the class: “Un-BIM-lievable! You Did What with AutoCAD® Architecture?” Class ID: DL5808. This class is presented by my longtime client friend Patricia Wines of Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI). She will be joined by two of her WDI colleagues Michael Ross and Jess Kuncar.
In Patty’s own words:
“I hope I can count on you all to attend our 8:15 am class on Thursday morning.”
“We are going to be showing some AMAZING models we have created in AutoCAD, and some great imagery from projects in construction. I realize time is limited at AU, and I know we are scheduled at the most inopportune time after a big party, but I promise a great presentation. So if you have customers/partners/users interested in how to execute BIM in ANY platform, I urge you to attend our session. We are really excited about what we’re going to present. We hope you’ll join us.”
I will echo that sentiment. WDI does some amazing stuff that just “wows” me every time I’m there. Here is the official class description:
This class will demonstrate that sufficiently utilized design software can create beautiful, graceful, complex, and intriguing BIM models. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) are ubiquitous phrases used in the marketplace today and studied in universities, and they might well be the most overused and misunderstood. The word might more accurately be spelled b*I*m, because the building and the model are second to the information and its consumer. Knowing how much information is required and providing a supply of it equal to the demand makes for the most efficient and useful models. In this class, a number of successful designs will be discussed, focusing on the work created for Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim, and in particular, the extremely successful Voyage of The Little Mermaid attraction.
If you are able to attend this session, I am sure you will find it one of the most satisfying sessions of the conference. Come join me in the back to give Patty a big cheering section!
Fixed!
Nov 18, 2011
The book pages are working again! If you are looking for datasets or other information on the either of the following titles:
The Aubin Academy Master Series: Revit MEP 2012
The Aubin Academy Master Series: Revit Architecture 2012
The pages are back up and running. Thank you for your patience.
Revit MEP book Dataset issues
Nov 16, 2011
It has just been brought to my attention that the downloads portion of the the Aubin Academy Master Series: Revit MEP 2012 page is broken! This means that the link to downloading the dataset files is missing as well. I have my web designer working on fixing the problem but in the meantime, I wanted to post an alternate link to the dataset files. You can find them located here. The Readme file is here. My appologies for any confusion. We should have the normal page back up and running shortly.
Recent Posts
- Another Buildz Echo!
- Buildz and the new Repeat
- Echo
- Installing the Building Design Suite
- Revit Room Curiosity
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