Have a Railing File

Every Revit user has probably experienced this at some point. you need to make a custom railing, but have no idea how the tools actually work.  You can draw it no problem in 2D, in ACAD, with your hand, but putting it in Revit seems like a daunting task for anything besides a simple railing.  Lets be honest, the railing tools in revit are rudimentary and don't lend themselves well to other designs that don't involve vertical pickets or horizontal bars. 

Another reason to copy/monitor

Just in case last week's post didn't convince you why you should copy/monitor grids from linked models instead of just creating your own, here is another reason.

Why Copy/Monitor Grids/Levels

A little tip for a commonly and sometimes overlooked step, and the repercussions it can have down the road.  This was something I always did when starting a new project, but as my experience working with different teams has developed, I have learned that not everyone does it.

At the beginning of your project, one of the first steps I always recommend and make my teams do (that is when I am in charge of a model) is to copy/monitor my grids and levels. (along with acquire coordinates from the linked model, but that is another post all together which I believe I have commented on in the past)

Void Sweep Productivity Tip

I can't claim any credit for this tip as it was passed on to me by a colleague, but I thought it was very good so I thought I would pass it on. 

When creating void sweeps most all of us have probably done it via some sort of rectalinear shape (the profile we wanted subtracted out of a rectangle, meaning the other sides have straight lines joined 90 degrees)  This means one line for the arc defining the void and four lines creating the “box.”  I know I have personally never seen it done any other way, and know that I never do it any other way.

ipad app: Bluestreak

The ipad app for this simply connects to the database and gives you the update stream of who has done what.  This can be useful for managers or others who are out of the office.  Used in conjunction with comments in the save to central operation, and connect with the update stream and show you.  You can see when important updates were completed, or at what point certain tasks are (assuming your end users leave comments to that effect). 

ipad app: Punchlist

This program does exactly what the title implies, it streamlines the process of doing punchlists.  Take your ipad to the site and do all the markups and notes on it instead of  fumbling around with large sheets of paper where you have to fold them, turn them twist them and have something firm to write on when you take notes, only to turn around and while back at the office try to make sense of all your chicken scratch and have to spend time to translate it into a report to distribute back to the contractor.

ipad apps for Architecture

This next series of posts won't cover Revit, but instead focus on some broader issues related to the profession of Architecture.

  Having acquired an ipad over the holidays I have been busy experimenting and seeing all that it can do.  I must say that I am very impressed.  What I have been more interested in however is its application to our profession.  I did a lot of research before getting one to know what I was getting myself into and some other people's opinions on it and worthwhile apps.  I wanted to make sure before I dropped some serious cash onto one that I could benefit from it and it had some worthwhile uses.  I must say that I have been impressed since getting it.  I take every opportunity I can to try to find a new app that can do something that will benefit Architecture.

Apply Default View Template to all Views

Everyone can probably agree, view templates are a wonderful thing to quickly get a view to look like another view.  One major downside however is their lack of ability to instantly update when you make a change to the template, you must re-apply the view template to the view.  If you have a large project, or a large number of particular view (say interior elevations), this can be a long and teadious process.

Re-align origin for rotate command

A great feature when I have used a lot in the past.  When you select an object that you want to rotate and click on the rotate button in the Modify ribbon, you get a line that rotates around the center point.  Depending on the object or the family, that origin point that shows up by default could  be anywhere.  Sometimes it is near the object sometimes it is not.  Sometimes you have to search for it to find it.

Hide at Scales Coarser Than

I love this feature for what it can do about all the annoying annotations which can appear.  Some people consider the fact that annotations are smart objects in revit as a blessing and a curse. 

The curse side being that after you place it, they appear everywhere after you place them and most the time you need to go to all your views and actually turn them off and hide them, which can be a little annoying and teadious. 

Features I love

I know 2013 software just came out, but unless you are the office CAD/BIM/IT guy, it will probably be a couple months before you get to use it.  Having recently started using 2012 (due to a change in jobs) I thought I would take the moment and point out some features that I really enjoy about the software that improves my productivity and workability.  Some are new, some aren't but are still convenient.

Share tasks with other users

Do you use exchange server in your office?  Are you part of a team attempting to get a project done?  Use tasks in Outlook to keep track of who is doing what, what is done, and what needs to be done.

Set Default View Template

Included in the properties for each view is a field called 'Default View Template'.  You may (should) be using view templates in your project to control views, but did you know this parameter can be completely independent upon what is actually set in that particular view?

Tracking Revised Sheets

Issuing a revision or CB?  Making a change that affects many sheets in your document set? 

Ever want to know exactly which sheets were revised by your most recent revision?  Here is a little trick I use to let Revit tell me what has been changed. 

Re-arranging Tabs

Did you know you could re-arrange the tabs in Revit?  I didn't either until today!  Sometimes with new releases or updates of Revit, Autodesk will re-arrange the tabs to try to make your workflow more 'efficient'.  (Althought I would suggest working with the new arrangement for a little while to see if it does if fact make you more efficient, that is after you learn the new position of your favorite commands).

Have a view in another project you want to import?

Working on a new project? Create a  drafting view for another project with the exact or almost exact conditions?  It is easy to re-use that existing detail.

Elevation tags everywhere!

Place an elevation tag in an enlarged floor plan only to discover that it also shows up in the regular floor plan?  Sick of hiding each one individually in all views?

Fireproofing on beams in sections

One major lacking feature of Revit is the inability to easily place fireproofing in sections.  Typically to increase the level of detail in a view, detail components are placed on top of model components.  The detail components then give a higher level of detail to the view, one with we are accustomed to seeing.

What do you do to place fireproofing around beams in the section views?

Applied ViewTemplate and Default View Template

A strong feature of Revit is the ability to add view templates to views, to unilaterally change the settings on a view to make it look like another.  Throughout the course of your project, you have probably set up several view templates for everything.  Plans, Elevations, Enlarged plans, sections, etc all have a template associated with them.  You can apply a view template as the default for the view, or separately from the view.

Saving to Central, it's a love/hate relationship

Save to central, that dreaded pop up that shows up at the most inconvenient times, and only when you click a button to do something else really important.  This is usually preceeded by a 'save locally' prompt which you choose to ignore (because whatever task you are trying to do is much more important than saving your work).  How important is it? Why does it pop up like that?