Sadly I won’t be making it to RTC North America this year, but if you are interested in keeping up with all the action from my colleagues, be sure to follow them on twitter.
Also, all details on classes etc, can be found here..
You may have already seen this before, but if you haven’t, pop on your headphones & enjoy……
I have already demonstrated the power of using a tool such as Exceler8 to export data to Excel. This short video steps you through the process of exporting to Excel, then linking that data to another Excel workbook. The thing I like about this, is that you keep the data moving all the time. Whilst it can get complicated on large datasets its a useful process to get accustomed to. Also, if you update your data in Revit, just export to Excel, over writing the first Excel sheet the second sheet will reflect that change.
I’m not convinced this is good practise but it might be useful. A request came to me the other day, “I would like to show the keynote parameter & the window mark parameter in the same tag?” On further investigation you soon discover you can either have a dedicated keynote tag which will pull out the keynote reference, but you can’t pick up the window mark type. Or you have a window tag, which can pull out the mark type, but not the keynote reference. This client wanted to show both parameters in one tag. So a quick hack around with some shared parameters & we resolved the request very simply. This is how…..
I started by creating a “text” shared parameter called fake_keynote.
Next I ensure this parameter is used in the project. I assign the parameter to the window category, I also ensure the parameter is setup as an instance parameter.
I opened up the window tag, added a new label & assign the fake keynote shared parameter to the label in the tag & loaded the family back into the project.
This is what my new window tag now looks like.
You will observe that the tag is still not filling in any keynote data. Now the cool thing here is you can cross reference parameters, but you need to edit the window family to achieve this. I select the window & choose to edit the family.Then I add the fake_keynote shared instance parameter to the family.
Save the family & then load the family back into the project updating any existing versions in the project. Now when the window is loaded into the project, the keynote data is cross referenced into the fake_keynote parameter & the tag in turn displays the actual keynote data in the window tag.
Sketchfab is a lot of fun. Its a hosting service for sharing & embedding 3d models on the web. Using webGL through a suitable browser, you can post 3d models online & share them with others. Sketchfab describe themselves as wanting to be the Youtube for 3D content. Its worth a look & good fun. It supports up to 27 native formats & I hear a rumour a Revit exporter might be on the way.
Check it out http://sketchfab.com/
This was little bit of experimentation: Vasari shuttle, exported to DWF & then uploaded to sketchfab
One neat techniques when using Exceler8, is the ability to export out all the content included in a Revit project or template to an Excel spread sheet. How many times have you questioned the naming of or wanted to know all the loaded families within a project or template? Well its easy with Exceler8, just start open a project or a template file. Choose the Export Category icon…..
This will open up the Exceler8 dialogue.
Next Check all the categories from the Category list, ensure one Category Per tab in Excel, radio button is selected, finally ensure Only Types (Include ALL Types) radio button is selected. Then choose Export.
Exceler8 will do its thing & produce a nicely formatted Excel spreadsheet for you. Open up the resulting Excel & you will see tabs for all the families loaded listed for each category.
Simple…..
