Tag Archives: Downloads

Vertical Face Based Template

I had mentioned this tip to a bunch of speakers at the BIM Workshops and they had never heard of this so I figured it should be a post, especially since one of them came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

When creating face based families the biggest complaint I hear is the fact that if the element is going to be placed on a vertical face, in the family the front is the plan view.  I agree this can be confusing, so why not create a vertical face based template instead of using the OOTB horizontal face based template.  Impossible you might think, well up until a year ago I thought so too, until  I learned about a workaround on changing a wall, ceiling or floor based family to a face based family from our local user group (RoMBIS).  Note you will have to have Revit MEP or Revit for this tip to work, if you have Revit Architecture or Revit Structure then you will have to download my version.  The thing I noticed when using this tool is that if I converted a Wall Based element then the surface it uses as the face is vertical.  This is when I decided to use these steps to create my own Vertical face based family.  I haven’t tried but I am sure the same thing could be achieved for an upside down face if a ceiling hosted family was converted.  However I will save all my readers the headache and post the file for download for everyone to use.

FaceBasedVertical

Here is the BD Mackey Face Based Vertical Template, there is an additional reference plane “Actual Face” as well as a parameter “Offset from Surface”, as I always build in a face offset for my hosted families.

 

Revit 2013 Add-ins availble

I started typing that the add-ins for Revit were posted today and I noticed that The Revit Clinic as well as Steve Stafford had already posted this information, since it was already typed out I thought I would go ahead and post it anyway.

The Revit 2013 Add-ins from the subscription site have been posted.  Assuming you use any of these tools and you have upgraded already I would jump on over, download them and get working with more efficiency.

  • Globe Link for Autodesk Revit 2013
  • Batch Print for Autodesk Revit 2013
  • Worksharing Monitor for Autodesk Revit 2013
  • Autodesk Revit Model Review 2013
  • Autodesk Revit DB Link 2013
  • Space Naming Utility for Autodesk Revit MEP 2013 (Make this part of the program already)

Now I just have to wait for the downloads to complete.  This is taking time since I am also downloaded the Building Design Suite…

Autodesk Building Design Suit 2013

Autodesk said that the Design suites would be available today and they didn’t lie.  However for us die hard geeks we come to expect that to be first thing in the morning when we wake up.  Well it took until the afternoon but they are available for download.  I went to get mine via my subscription site I didn’t look on the Autodesk site directly.

 

I also found it interesting that there are links for 2009 since the suite started in 2011.  I clicked on the link and it allowed me to download the individual programs that are part of the Building Design Suite.  I had to find something to do while I wait 1 hour for it to download.