Hot Fix–Autodesk Revit 2013

You may want to install this hotfix which was issued this week for Revit 2013, as it addresses the following issues for Families as well as Revit server.

Part Family:

• Prevents data loss during upgrade of families containing specific material parameters.
• Improves stability and memory usage within graphics display.
• Improves vector print output of transparent elements and masking regions.
• Prevents accidental data loss during cancellation of the in-place family editor.

Revit Server:

• Revit would occasionally report that an operation could not be completed when attempting a work-sharing operation after a period of inactivity, if Riverbed devices were used in conjunction with Revit Server. A subsequent retry of the operation would then succeed. When this hotfix is applied to Revit, this behaviour is eliminated. No changes to Revit Server are required.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=21147820&linkID=9273944

FormIt…Copy & Pasting

If you have been dabbling with FormIt you will soon realise copying information between different projects doesn’t actually seem possible.  Needless to say you actually can, this short tips shows how. Hope its helpful.

FormIt…workplanes

The lack of obvious work plane functionality in Autodesk FormIt can be annoying, but you can get around this by using other geometry as a dummy work planes to sketch off. Check this quick tip…

Daylight Visualiser

At the moment I am contemplating putting a small extension on the back of my house. As you can imagine I modelled this in Revit, it would have been wrong to develop it in anything less. :-) But whilst I was looking for a Velux Revit window family I came across this….

http://www.velux.co.uk/professionals/architects/tools/daylight_visualiser

BTW the families on the Velux website are very poor; instead go to the BIMstore you will find some very good Velux families which actually work rather than a dodgy DWG import. Why do manufacturers still continue to do that?

Anyway, to better understand lighting I tried the Velux Daylight Visualiser. Daylight Visualiser works for Mac & PC. I created a separate export 3d view in Revit, limited just the geometry I needed & exported as a DWG 2007.

I was then able to import this into Daylight Visualiser, setup the location, apply some simple materials, setup the time of day & render away. It works well, its reasonable quick & quality is good. So after a few hours of rendering I managed to knock a animated lighting analysis which was good enough to understand the lighting impact on the extension.

Happy Holidays…..

Another year is almost over! I’d like to wish all those that follow my blog Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays & a Happy New Year to you all! I look forward to sharing my ideas, thoughts, concepts, tricks & tips in 2013. :-)

What happened to Project & Shared

Paul Woddy & I picked up this when we were at AU2012, whilst helping out in a labs class, it seemed to elude us & maybe a few others as well. It relates to the naming protocol of Elevation Base parameter in Revit 2013. As far as we could both remember, up until Revit 2013 your  Elevation Base constraint parameter was either Project or Shared. The image below is from Revit 2012.

The Revit 2012 help describes Elevation Base as follows.

If the elevation base value is set to Project, the elevation reported on a level is with respect to the project origin. If the base value is set to Shared, then the elevation reported is with respect to the shared origin. To change the shared origin, you can relocate the project.

Now lets see what appeared in Revit 2013! For some reason the Elevation Base Point parameter names have changed. I can see why this has happened, maybe for consistency with the away you approach shared coordinates & levels, Neither  the less naming is confusing! Why point? When architects talk about a height, typically we talk about a level, not necessarily a point.

The Revit 2013 helps describes Elevation Base as follows:-

If the elevation base value is set to Project Base Point, the elevation reported on a level is with respect to the project origin.

If the base value is set to Survey Point, then the elevation reported is with respect to the fixed survey point.

At the end of the day, its not a big deal, but these minor changes need to be watched for.