Author Archives: Brian Mackey (The Revit Geek)

Reveals or Sweeps and Design Options

This week I had a client as me how to add Wall Reveals to a design option. I explained with most hosted objects the host has to be part of the design option as well. In this example there were possibly hundreds of exterior walls. Making adding the reveals and the walls to two different design options and keeping track of both just wasn’t logical. This client was going to go down the path of using model lines instead of reveals since they could be added to design options. Since they also wanted to see the reveals in sections etc this wasn’t a viable option either. Since the reveals weren’t embedded into the wall type rather placed using the Wall: Reveal command there was something we could do.

One parameter of Wall Sweeps and Reveal is “Offset From Wall”. This value allows the reveals to be moved into or out of the wall. If a value is entered that is larger than the reveal it will move the reveal outside of the wall. In essence removing the reveal with out deleting it. Thankfully this value can be associated to a Global Parameter.

We took all the existing reveals and associated them to a global parameter and named it Option A Offset. All of the new reveals where then associated to a global parameter labeled Option B Offset. Once those were set two additional global parameters were created as Yes/No. Formulas were then applied to all but one of these parameters

Once that was set up the team only had to check or un-check (tick and un-tick for all my AU friends) Option A. When it is checked the reveals associated with it moved into the wall and the reveals associated with Option B moved out of the wall, and vise versa. This isn’t exactly the same as a design option as the team needs to remember to activate the appropriate global parameter before printing the sheets for each option.

Revit 2020 New Parameter Types

In Revit 2020 Autodesk added a new tool for Path of Travel. One undocumented added bonus to this is it added two additional parameter types: Time & Speed. I noticed these when setting up a new template for a client and I was adding in a new Project parameter.

As expected these are also there when creating family parameters.

Of course if this new parameter type shows up for both families and projects then we must be able to set units for them. When going to Project Units there will be options to adjust the settings, which would obviously affect the Path of Travel tool but any custom parameters added using this value.

Off the top of my head I haven’t figured out exactly how to use the values. Originally I had though of contractors being able to add time values to elements but since the units are maximized at Hours not sure how it will work. I then thought of the clock families I have created. I also realized that if the Time value is set to Hours then a user can enter the seconds as 600 s and it will convert to Hours, however the value for minutes is “min” which I can see getting confused with minimum values, or is that a hack for values where you don’t want to type in min after every input (I think that is a terrible idea but that is what came to mind first)

At any rate these are here to experiment with and see what values we can use them for.

Resetting coordinates Revit

In years past it has been easy to reset coordinates on a Revit file, simply link in a different Revit model and acquire coordinates from that model. Yet this changed in Revit 2017 and Steve Stafford has written an excellent article on the topic where you have to select “Do not share site of selected instance”.  What happens when you have several Revit files linked to your project?  I really don’t want to change that setting on 5, 10 , 25 instances of linked models.  There is another way.  If you link in a .dwg file and acquire coordinates from it, then you can go back and acquire the newly updated coordinates of the original Revit file. 

Linked File Instance Properties for Site
Image 1

What happens when you have several Revit files linked to your project?  I really don’t want to change that setting on 5, 10 , 25 instances of linked models.  There is another way.  If you link in a .dwg file and acquire coordinates from it, then you can go back and acquire the  coordinates of the original Revit file. 

In my opinion the first thing I do is create a new “Site” or shared coordinate setting.  This way  I can go back to the original setting if something goes wrong.  To accomplish this go to the Manage tab>>Project Location panel>>Location command.  In the Location Weather and Site dialog switch to the Site panel.

Image 2

In the Name Dialog type in a new Site Name.  Once a new name is created, select it and choose “Make Current” as seen in Image 2.

Image 3

Once this is done then link in a .dwg file.  For me this file has one single line drawn from 0,0,0 at an angle and is extremely long, such that it will reach past the extents of the modeled building.  When linking this file I always select Origin to Origin as my placement setting.

Image 4

Once the .dwg file has been successfully loaded, coordinates may be acquired from this file to “Reset” the internal coordinates.  To accomplish this go to the Manage tab>>Project Location panel>>Coordinates drop Down Acquire Coordinates.  Once this command has been selected you must select the .dwg file in the view.

Image 5

Once the coordinates have been acquired from the .dwg you may now acquire coordinates from the linked Revit file.  If your Revit file is a cloud version (BIM360 Team or Docs) then you will have to do one of the following: either remove the linked .dwg file under manage links, or save the project (not synchronize) and when the Location Position Changed dialog box appears be sure to select Disable shared position

Image 6

If everything seems to be successful I would suggest going back and removing the old Site as seen in Image 2 above.

If you are on a project that has several Revit files linked into it, and all of those files have updated the coordinates to match then each file will have to be selected and in the Choose Site dialog (see Image 1), the “Move instance to:” value should be changed to match the newly named site.  If everything has been done correctly then all of the models should adjust accordingly.

Revit 2018 eTransmit to upgrade project files

I have written briefly about advantages to the Autodesk eTransmit for Revit, the 2018 version made a small but significant improvement.  While talking to the Revit Colaboration Team and upgrading a project Kyle had pointed me to this post about upgrading a Project Hub.  The document had a hidden gem in it about the eTransmit tool.  In the 2018 version they added the button “Browse folders …”, previously we could only browse for a single .rvt file.  This button allows a user to upgrade an entire folder.  The files will still have to be opened after the etransmit, such that they can become central models once again.  But the time saved not having to wait for each file to finish only to open another is eliminated.

Revit 2018 Reference Planes

It has been a while since I blogged, yes I have gotten grief about it at the past few conferences I have attended.   I have a list and I am going to try to tackle that list in the next few months.

I recently found a new feature of Revit 2018 (currently using 2018.2 so not sure which point release included this feature) that I didn’t find any documentation on and it has to deal with Reference planes from families.  For those who have heard me speak or have seen any of my content my type “A” personality definitely comes through.  What I mean is I create reference planes for any edge or line and constrain to those lines,  I also go the extra step to give each plane a Name as well as verifying the “Is Reference” value.  The name is mostly something I have done so I, as well as others, can understand the thought process behind the family.  Revit 2018 has made all this effort worth while (at least I have a justification for my type “A”ness now).  Now the project environment will display the “Is Reference” value as well as the names of the reference planes (assuming they are not defined as “Not a Reference”) when the dimension, align, etc commands are hovering over the reference plane.

The other nice part if it is a shared nested family then the tabbing to get to the planes in the nested family will also display the values