Revit 2010: Resetting the UI

Autodesk has written a little vb script that will reset the Ribbon, QAT, and Project Browser to their default settings/locations, in the event that a user has totally rearranged the components of the User Interface.

XL2CAD for Revit

Dotsoft has ported their AutoCad excel software to Revit. Place excel spreadsheets into Revit via linked DXF files.

http://www.dotsoft.com/revit/

Revit News & Resources

The UK Revit Users group is hosting a Revit Design Awards 2007 but you have to work in the UK to enter.

For those of you familiar with Content Highway or other Family File managers there is a new program being exhibited at this years AIA Convention in San Antonio, Texas. It's called techtonic and includes many very attractive features. TechtonicStudio also has a library of 100,000 commercial interior finishes for those of you who do a lot of photorealistic rendering and could use a new source of material maps.

Sometimes visitors to my blog ask me how they can print the blog for future reference. If you have a PDF writer like PDFCreator, CutePDF, or PDF Factory you should be able to print the webpage to PDF.

Some thoughts on Revit

Some people have to be reminded that the project file is a database and like any database the more and accurate information about the project you put into the model the more analytical modeling and scheduling you can get out of the model.

Building highly parametric families that flex can be just as tedious as software programming if you're not familiar with the "programming language" or in this case the many rules and shortcuts for family file creation. The family editor is in essence a "graphical" programming environment. Being more visual, this is probably the perfect programming enviroment for architects. As a rule of thumb the more automation you want to build into family or project files the more skilled your users have to be to modify these files later. Not everyone in the office needs to understand the rules of family file creation to use these families, but they would need some expertise to open these family files and make significant modifications. I know the same is true for many BIM applications.

Autodesk publishes basic usage of the tools in Revit, but there are many clever things an office can do by mixing and matching different tools and parameter values to get the project file to analyze the database and report and illustrate the information you need (and some information you didn't know you needed).

Excitech preview of Revit Architecture 2008

Excitech posted a look at the new Revit Architecture 2008. You'll have to register.

More Evolution News - IES

On the Sustainable Design front:

Revit BIM platform now linked directly to IES’s building analysis software

IES Virtual Enviroment software is a collection of building performance analysis tools that integrate with Revit.

Revit API Development

Matt Mason of Avatech Solutions has been actively posting new developments in the next Revit API release.

http://cadappdev.blogspot.com/search?q=Revit+2008+API

Evolution News

Take a look around and you'll find that Revit model data is being exported to other applications for many uses. And with the continued development of the Revit API more bi-directional interaction between Revit and other applications is becoming possible. Here is a short list of uses for which Revit model data is being exported. You'll find links to a few of the applications on my blog but there are getting to be too many options to keep up with.

Architectural Programming
Project Management
Construction Management
Consultant Coordination
Clash Detection
Enviromental Simulations
Performance Analysis
Cost Estimating and Material Takeoffs
Rendering, Animation, and other Presentation
Facilities Management and Building Lifecycle
Energy Analyisis and Green Building Design
Code Analysis
Specification Writing
Rapid Model Prototyping
CNC Fabrication

In short, architects are learning to Design, Illustrate, Manage, Analyze, Report, Simulate, Fabricate, Communicate, Estimate, and Educate smarter with Building Information Modeling.

The next things we might see:
ADA and Ergonomical Design Analysis
Security Analysis
Feng Shui Analysis

SpecifiCAD beta for Revit 9.1 released

CADalytic Media has released a beta version of SpecifiCAD. Utilizing the Revit API SpecifiCAD will add the URL and DESCRIPTION of any product on the McGraw Hill Construction Sweets Network website to the Identity Data of any family you choose. This data can then be exported to 3rd party Spec Writing Software.

• Download SpecifiCAD
• Install SpecifiCAD for Revit 9.1
• Open a new project in Revit 9.1
• Goto Tools... External Tools... SpecifiCAD
• Place a component in any view.
• Highlight the component and click on the Specify button in your SpecifiCAD dialog box
• If SpecifiCAD is not finding what you want you can do custom searches
• When you find what you want highlight the component again and click on the LINK button below the product you want.

Content Highway Beta Released Today

In December 2005 Marek Brandstatter announced the development of Content Highway Desktop, a content management solution for Autodesk Revit that allows you to manage Revit family (RFA) files on your computer and optionally publish them to Content Highway Web for sharing and collaboration.

Many AUGI members were anxiously anticipating the release of this software.

Content Highway was made available today. Download the beta here.

Applications

The more accurate the information in your Revit model the more you can do with it.

Here is a list of applications mentioned and demonstrated at Autodesk University this year that utilize Revit data exported in DWG, IFC, ODBC, gbXML, and DWF formats:

Navisworks – walkthroughs, advanced collision detection, timeline analysis, supports importing data from many different applications. Models from different consultants (who use software other than Revit to model) can be combined for analysis and clash detection. Data can be shared with Primavera and Microsoft Project for project scheduling.

Project Management Software (Primavera, Microsoft Project, Constructware, Buzzsaw) – Personal dashboard for reports, scheduling, cost control, storing and sharing data files, recording correspondence, bid management, submittal package tracking, rfi tracking, and other project management functions. Designed for managers, contractors, architects. Will interface with Navisworks and Innovaya. Design Review is imbedded in Buzzsaw.

Design Review – Export Revit models into the DWF format for project managers to markup.

e-Plan Check – This program takes Revit data exported in IFC format and tests the model for building code violations. This program is not yet available for building code in the U.S.

Impression – This is very new software from Autodesk that will take DWGs exported from Revit and render illustrations in a hand-drawn style. It will apply palettes to DWG layers in plan and perspective. Similar to Piranesi.

Inventor – This software will model complex shapes that are not yet available in Revit but can be imported into Revit.

E-specs – This software will interface with Revit to construct specifications.

Success Estimator – This software from U.S. Cost will do cost estimating. Interfaces with Primavera.
Innovaya & Timberline – Also does cost estimating and will interface with Primavera and Microsoft Project. Innovaya also does visualization, communication, quantity takeoff, construction simulating, and so on.

IES & Green Building Studio – These softwares will take data from Revit in gbXML format and test for energy efficiency and LEED certification.

Revit API Examples (API is for developing applications that interact with Revit model data):

One application demonstrated a search on amazon for information describing books. The data was then fed into an application that utilizes the Revit API to assign the book name, cost, reference number, publisher name, etc to model objects in Revit which in this case happened to be books on a shelf. The application was demonstrating the future potential to populate object data from online catalogs for scheduling, spec writing, and analysis.

Another application demonstrated an alternative approach to design options. Instead of using the design options tool in Revit this application uses API to instantly swap model groups. Let's say you have 10 roof designs. Build them all and group the designs individually. The 10 options are now available in thumbnail view within the application. Using radio buttons an individual can mix and match hundreds of design iterations provided the options are all modeled and grouped.

Another application will generate custom designed reports from a template and will fill the report with any Revit data exported in ODBC format.