CAD notes Blog Most Popular 2009-2012

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Between the Lines

Edwin Prakoso’s blog CAD notes http://cad-notes.com/ published a list of the the his blogs most popular posts from 2009 to 2012.

Check it out, perhaps something on his most popular list is something you have been searching for.
http://cad-notes.com/2012/05/cad-notes-most-popular-articles-2009-2012/

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Revit 2013 – Double Click a View Reference

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Revit OpEd

I wrote about the enhancements to the existing View Reference feature in March when the software first was released.

I didn’t mention this other little goody, for people working inside Revit. If you double click on the view reference family Revit will open the view! If you export to DWF and export all the sheets to the same file you’ll find they behave just like other annotation for views, CTRL + Click will open the other sheet/view.

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Selecting Multiple Saved Selection Sets

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Revit OpEd

Sibilance! I used to work for Syracuse Scenery & Stage Lighting, Co. in Syracuse, NY. It was fun when I had to introduce myself formally starting with, “Hi, I’m Steve Stafford with…”. The title of this post reminded me of that, sorry! I was going to lead into it with Dept. of Subtle but that was too many “sssss”… it is really subtle though. Okay I’ll get to it then.

Revit 2013 added Saved Selection Sets, a feature that was part of an extension for Revit Structure originally.

The concept is simple, select elements and click a button to save (top button in the image above) them as a set that can be called on later, to do something with or to them again. If that seems likely then it will come in handy. The Save button wakes up when there is something selected. The Load button wakes up after something has been saved as a selection set.

The subtle part of this is that when there are several selection sets to choose from, what if we want to do something to more than one at a time? The dialog doesn’t let us select multiple saved sets. Guess we’re sunk.

It doesn’t look like it will work but using the CTRL key does work, just not inside the dialog. The trick to this is selecting one and clicking OK to leave the dialog. Then press CTRL and click the Load button again (middle button in the first image), select another saved set, click OK.

Now we’ve got two saved selection sets selected again. It’s easy when you know how!

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Revit 2013 – stair arrows

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Revit

Some people are still very  precious about graphically output from Revit, certainly project managers! I can understand why, because in many cases a print, a dwg, a dwfx, a pdf is the project deliverable, it is what people have become accustomed to from CAD. The graphics convey the message, it explains how components are connected or how the design is assembled.

At the recent London Revit User Group I gave a quick overview on the new stair & railing tools in Revit 2013. One eagle eye member of the audience noted that the stair arrow was different. Indeed it is, in Revit 2013 we have a system family for a stair arrow. So you can now customise this to meet your office graphic deliverable standards. I am not going to go through all the settings, but if you draw a stair in Revit 2013, tab select the default stair arrow & you will find you can now modify to your hearts desire.

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Apply View Template to all Views

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Revit OpEd

I don’t recall when this first showed up but I noticed it first in Revit 2012. Here’s what it looks like with a right-click in Revit 2013.

My first reaction was cool! Then I wondered, “When or why would I use it?”. Pondered it for a bit and decided that it might be cool if I have a sheet full of details that needed some cleanup. Create a view template and then apply it right quick. Then again I could just select multiple views in the project browser and apply them. With Revit 2013 my view templates will adjust all those details as soon as I change the template, or at least they can if I set it up that way. I suppose this feature might be handy if I forgot to do it and they were all on sheets at this point.

A subtle refinement to process that probably just goes unnoticed? I wonder how many of my readers use it, know about it, care?

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Bones of Turkana Documentary

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Between the Lines

For my US readers; please tune in for Bones of Turkana on PBS Wednesday May 16th, 2012. This is a new documentary about the Leakey’s human origins research in Kenya’s Turkana Basin http://t.co/si59ckRu.

The Turkana Basin of Kenya is where many of the hominin fossils (our human ancestors) were found along with a great deal of other fossils and tools. Autodesk has been working with Louise Leakey, Turkana Basin Institute, and the National Museums of Kenya to document many in the collection in 3D using Autodesk 123D Catch for display online at http://www.africanfossils.org. 

Introduction Video narrated by Louise Leakey:
Welcome to AfricanFossils.org

More on how this video was created using 123D Catch and 3ds Max:
3D Fossil Exploration in a Virtual Laboratory

If in the US be sure to watch the Bones of Turkana Documentary! http://t.co/si59ckRu

-Shaan

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Saved From Being Eaten By Wild Animals

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Between the Lines

Jambo!
(That’s “Hello” in Swahili)

I have posted to this blog regularly for over 8 years and even found remote connections to post to the blog even while in the deepest of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. Over the next couple of weeks I will be in a extremely remote region without any real connections other than voice satellite phone. To save me from having to stand in the middle of an open area to try to post a message at a very slow speed oer a satellite phone and looking like a fat juicy meal to a large carnivore, a few bloggers have graciously provided guest posts.The guest posts will go live over the time I am traveling.

A huge thank you to:

Brian Benton http://CAD-a-Blog.com
Robin Capper http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd/
RK McSwain http://cadpanacea.com/
Paul Munford http://cadsetterout.com/

I am traveling with a friend and decided that I don’t really need to be fast enough to outrun a hyena, lion, or leopard, just be able outrun my friend.

There will be a great deal of stories and photos once I return.

Hakuna Matata!

(Hungry Lioness photo credit Flickr user digitalwallpapers)

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Revit 2013 – View Types

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Revit OpEd

It is now possible to create new view types for all views except for area plans and sheet. This means you can create your own versions of floor plans according to discipline or perhaps design phase. We’ve been able to do this with sections, elevations and detail views for some time. As Revit’s features have been merged into the new Building Design Suite “Revit” it became apparent that putting all the tools in one box created some curious view, view template and discipline control issues that had to be sorted out, thus being able to create view types for more views was born.

Further, views can be tied to view templates and have changes to a view template take effect immediately in a view or many views. We can apply a view template like before, just to make a change or we can assign a view template to the view so that it will alter the view without the past extra step of applying the view template. This is the typical assumed behavior that most people where surprised to learn did not happen in the past.

One curious thing that is documented at the WikiHelp site regarding these new view types, changing a view from one type to another does not actually apply the view template change that is assigned (if any) to the view. It is an instance parameter so it’s an extra step you’ve got to take to make sure the view has the correct template assigned.

If you use the Apply View template option on a view assigned to view template already you’ll get this message.

It’s confirming that you really want to apply a different template’s settings to the view. It also says that the only properties that will be altered are those that aren’t in conflict with the other template. Hopefully the swapping of view types won’t occur much after creating them initially and getting this sorted out. If you do find yourself needing to swap them around, just remember to check the view template assignment.

Tip: They’ve added View Template to the available fields in View Lists (schedule) so it can be managed there too.

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Dept. of Echo – Don’t use the Basic Ceiling

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Revit OpEd

Originally posted here August 2009 and still true with Revit 2013

When an architect uses the Basic Ceiling-Generic type they are creating a situation for the Revit MEP user they may not be aware of. Face based content does not orient themselves to the correct side or face of this ceiling. For air terminals and others this means they are usually upside-down. I created a short video to demonstrate what I’m writing about.

You can listen and watch below:

Here’s an image to convey the issue without watching the video. The left side is a Basic Ceiling and the air terminals are upside down. The right side is the Compound Ceiling and the air terminals are okay.

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Hide Those Connectors

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Revit OpEd

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