In Revit – Masking Regions Not Masking

In a recent Revit support case the end user was copy/pasting masking regions from one drafting view to another. The issue they were running into was the pasted masking regions were not hiding any of the drafted details on the underside of the masking region. If this happens to your details you may want to use the following trouble shooting items:
 
1. Verify that the Region is at the “Front” of the detail. Select the masking region, and in the Modify|Detail Items tab pick the Bring to Front tool.

2. Verify that Visual Style in the View Control bar is set to Hidden Line.

3. Access the Visibility Graphics dialog box and verify that Transparency is set to 0%.

4. Select the Masking Region, right-click and select Override Graphics In View>By Element. In the View Specific Element Graphics dialog box ensure that the Surface Transparency is set to 0%.

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Ron Palma
Ideate AEC Application Specialist
Ron has over 24 years of experience in the architectural industry as a drafter, designer, lead project designer, trainer, and a CAD manager implementing Autodesk Architectural Solutions for a residential design firm. His instructional background includes being an Autodesk Certified Instructor, trainer, support technician, educator at Portland and Clackamas Community Colleges, as well as a U.S. Army certified instructor where he was a senior instructor at Ft Lewis Washington. Ron is a member of the Oregon Army National Guard and platoon sergeant, training and mentoring soldiers in their careers. Ron is a published writer and continues to author professional technical training manuals and shorts for AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture, and Revit. As an Autodesk Certified Instructor, Ron provides Revit Architecture training and support for AEC firms. Follow Ron @RonPalmaAEC.

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Windows 8 and Autodesk Products

Each time a new operating system arrives, customers ask us at Ideate about compatibility. As some of you know, Microsoft is releasing Microsoft Windows 8 on October 26, 2012.

The new operating system has many changes, a new user interface, and a lot of features that will be geared toward customers using tablets. Also, new computers purchased will be able to be pre-loaded with Windows 8.

QUESTION: Will my Autodesk products be able to run on Windows 8?

ANSWER: An unqualified kinda/sorta! Officially, as of October 22, 2012, Autodesk does not support Windows 8 Operating System. What does that mean?

• It does not mean that you cannot load, or run certain Autodesk products. 
• It means that any technical support questions, whether to Autodesk or Ideate, could not be answered due to an unsupported operating system.

Ideate has done some testing on the consumer preview beta of Windows 8 and found that Revit 2013 would load (after SP2 was installed), however, Navisworks Manage 2013 would only load as far as the splash screen – so definitely user beware. Ideate’s recommendation, for now, is to hold off any production implementation of Windows 8 and Autodesk products.

Stay tuned to this blog and Twitter for further late-breaking news.

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David Haynes, NCARB, PMP, LEED AP
Ideate Director of Consulting

David is a Registered Architect, Project Management Certified Professional, who previously had his own architectural practice and was President of a commercial design-build construction company for 15 years. A graduate of University of Arizona, he has worked as an Architect, contractor, developer and as a national construction manager for a national retailer. David currently provides business process analysis, virtualization and change management solutions for AEC clients across the United States involved in the design and building industry. Follow David on Twitter: @dhaynestech

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eLearning – Upcoming Open Classes

Join the Ideate Tech Experts for eLearning – live online classes that provide your entire organization with easy access to premium education.

Upcoming classes include: 

7.12.12::Revit 201:
Revit Import into 3ds Max
7.24.12::Civil 3D 201:
Using the Intersection Design Tool

Each class is designed to give you specific, improved results in a particular topic. You can interact with the instructor right from your own office, while eliminating travel time. Because the class schedule rotates, you can easily select your topics of interest and choose the day which best meets your schedule.

Click here for class descriptions, times and registration link. Questions? Contact education@ideateinc.com

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Grayed Out/Unavailable Parameters in Revit Families

Working as the Ideate Support Tech the other day, I ran into a question where a user wanted to change a value of a parameter within a family. This was a family created by a manufacturer and the user wanted to change the default description. Problem was the description was grayed out, and the value could not be edited.

After editing the family we went to the Family Types dialog box and expanded the Identity Data Section. Note that in the Identity Data section press the down arrow in the heading. This is often collapsed making it difficult for users to locate and edit. Figure 1.

Figure 1

With Identity Data expanded, you may see grayed out parameters. Basically parameters that have formulas become non-editable parameters and are hence grayed out. Note here in Figure 2 that the Description does not have a formula, but the has the Value of the description in quotes. To make the parameter editable, remove the characters in the Formula for the parameter you would like to make editable. This will make the parameter’s value available for editing.

Figure 2

On a similar note, if you are creating families and want to gray out parameter values from being editable, in the Formula column, enter two quotes “” to gray out the parameter value. If you want to have a grayed out value such as the creator/manufacturer name place the parameter value inside of quotes. i.e.: “Created by Ron copyright 2012” The value within the quotes will be grayed out within the parameter value column. Have fun locking/unlocking your parameters!

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Ron Palma
Ideate AEC Solutions Application Specialist
Ron has 23+ years of experience in the AEC industry as a designer, lead project designer, trainer and CAD manager. His instructional background includes Autodesk Certified Instructor, trainer, support technician, educator at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College, and a U.S. Army certified instructor. Follow Ron @RonPalmaAEC.

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eLearning – Upcoming Revit Classes

Join the Ideate Tech Experts for eLearning – live online classes that provide your entire organization with easy access to premium education.

Upcoming classes include: 

6.12.12::Revit 201:
View Properties – Controlling Visibility
6.19.12::Revit 201:
Phasing A-Z
6.26.12::Revit 201:
Revit Server

Each class is designed to give you specific, improved results in a particular topic. You can interact with the instructor right from your own office, while eliminating travel time. Because the class schedule rotates, you can easily select your topics of interest and choose the day which best meets your schedule.

Click here for class descriptions, times and registration link. Questions? Contact education@ideateinc.com

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Working with Saved Selection Sets in Revit 2013

Have you worked on a project in Revit and gone through the trouble of selecting a number of elements to be modified, then realized that you needed some additional information, or needed to check on something else before you modified the elements? Did you then clear the selection, checked on the information or reference, then went back and re-selected the same elements previously so that NOW you could modify it? 

New to Revit 2013, you have the ability to save any selection of elements that you have selected, and recall those selections at any point. 

In order to Save Selection Sets you must first select the elements that will be within the selection. Standard selection methods apply, [Cntrl] + Pick, Drag the cursor for Window and Crossing selections, or use Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013.

Once the elements have been selected, in the Modify| Xxxx tab, under the Selection panel, you can select the Save tool to create a Saved Selection. Enter a name for the desired selection. Later this selection set can be recalled at any time by accessing the Manage tab, and under the Selection panel selecting the Load tool. This will display the Retrieve Filters dialog where your saved selections can be recalled, selecting the elements within the filter. 

As the Load button is placed in the Manage tab, I have found it advantageous for it to be placed in my Quick Access toolbar for quick retrieval of my saved selections. This has been something needed for quite some time and I am very excited to take advantage of selection sets that I create in my models. 

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Ron Palma
AEC Solutions Application Specialist
Ron has 23+ years of experience in the AEC industry as a designer, lead project designer, trainer and CAD manager. His instructional background includes Autodesk Certified Instructor, trainer, support technician, educator at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College, and a U.S. Army certified instructor. Follow Ron @RonPalmaAEC.

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Locating Views that are assigned to a Sheet in Revit

Have you ever activated a view on a sheet to make some quick changes or adjustments? Have you later needed to find out the name of the view on the sheet so that you can simply work on the actual view and not have to work on the view through the sheet? Here are some quick ways of finding out the name of a view placed on a sheet:

1. While the view is active, turn on the crop boundary. Hover the cursor over the boundary to read the tooltip and status bar. This will tell you what the view name is.
2. In the Project Browser under the Sheets category, expand the [+] beside the Sheet name and a list of the views assigned to the sheet will be displayed.
3. My favorite option, especially if you have a number of views on a sheet such as a detail sheet is to use the Ideate Explorer for Revit. With this method, look at the Visible in Active View option. This will display a Viewports Result, expand the Viewports until you can see a list of views.

Now here is where using Ideate Explorer is cool. The other methods list out the views, so now you have the view names narrowed down, but you have to figure out which view you actually need. With the Ideate Explorer, you can select the view name, which will highlight the view on the sheet. With this method you get a visual of which view you are trying to find with the name listed in Ideate Explorer.

You can download Ideate Explorer by visiting the Ideate Explorer website.

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Ron Palma
AEC Solutions Application Specialist
Ron has 23+ years of experience in the AEC industry as a designer, lead project designer, trainer and CAD manager. His instructional background includes Autodesk Certified Instructor, trainer, support technician, educator at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College, and a U.S. Army certified instructor. Follow Ron @RonPalmaAEC.

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Autodesk Revit Server 2013 – WAN Collaboration Made Easier

I have to say I’m pretty happy with the updates Autodesk has made to Revit Server 2013. Although certainly not in the forefront of all of the hot new features of Revit 2013, model management and collaboration are certainly just as important in the BIM workflow. How do I know? I see it everyday in Ideate, Inc.’s technical support department; customers needing to know how their project teams spread about several offices can collaborate on a single Revit model.

The biggest change in Revit Server 2013 is now central models can be saved to different servers! Remember in Revit Server 2011 and 2012 there was a single central server and then multiple local servers setup in a hub and spoke-like environment. 

In Revit Server 2013 they’ve switched to a matrix like environment allowing models to be stored on multiple servers depending on the roles assigned to that server.

 

There are three roles of which any combination can be assigned to a server.

Host The Host role supports storing of central models for server based worksharing

Accelerator The Accelerator role allows users to specify that server and access server based data through it

Admin If the Admin role is enabled, then the Revit Server Administrator web-based management utility can be invoked on this server.

Take a look at the quick video I made outlining the setup and some tips I learned when configuring our Revit Server 2013 Network.

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2013 releases for Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, Civil 3D, AutoCAD, Navisworks, 3ds Max design and more: ideateinc.com/2013

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Derek Wielkopolski
Technical Support Manager/Application Specialist
Derek holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Roger Williams University, Rhode Island. He is experienced working within the AEC industry from concept design through construction administration for both small and large scale projects. As Ideate’s Support Manager he ensures a timely and quality response to support requests and questions. Follow Derek on Twitter: @dwielk

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Working with Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013

With the new release of Revit 2013, Ideate has been right there updating its software too. The new Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013 can be used to browse through elements in the entire project, in the active view, or through the current selection, to select individual elements, elements by type, or family. Additionally, a search window can be used to find elements in your project that contain specific text in their name.

You can use Ideate Explorer for Revit to Quickly Find and Select the Elements You Need:

• Ideate Explorer for Revit will catalog or “index” all the elements within your project, including elements not found within the Project Browser and elements that are invisible.
• Information can be organized by Category, Workset, Room, Space or Level. Use the text-based search to dig into Family Name, Type Name, Part Materials, or any Text string for even more complex searching.
• Use Ideate Explorer for Revit to open views where elements are visible.
• Use Ideate Explorer for Revit to select all or some elements based on your criteria then exit and use Revit to make the changes you need such as: delete elements, swap elements for different types, edit element properties.

With the introduction of Parts in Revit 2012, these type of elements can be divided, and their materials changed. Use Ideate Explorer for Revit to search for parts that are using a named material, so that you can make property changes.

One change that has been beneficial to me is the ability of placing the Ideate Explorer tool in the Quick Access Toolbar. To do so, right-click the Ideate Explorer tool in the Add-Ins tab, and add it to the Quick Access toolbar. This tool will now remain in the toolbar regardless of whether you close Revit, or open a new Project. So now, Ideate Explorer for Revit is right at your finger tips!

Download your free trial today.

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Ron Palma
AEC Solutions Application Specialist
Ron has 23+ years of experience in the AEC industry as a designer, lead project designer, trainer and CAD manager. His instructional background includes Autodesk Certified Instructor, trainer, support technician, educator at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College, and a U.S. Army certified instructor. Follow Ron @RonPalmaAEC.

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Classroom Training – Open Classes

Know It. Ideate Training.

Position yourself to land dream projects. Tap the full potential of your software solutions. Increase your facility, fluidity and capability to maximize the value of your precision software tools.

Here are a few of the training opportunities Ideate has to offer in the coming weeks:

5.10-11::Seattle
BIM for Contractors
5.14-15::San Francisco
Revit Architecture Beyond the Basics
5.16-18::San Francisco
Revit MEP Electrical Fundamentals
5.21-23::San Francisco
Revit Architecture Fundamentals

Know your software. Sign up now!

Ideate, Inc. Announces Powerful Project Auditing with Ideate Explorer for Autodesk Revit 2013

SAN FRANCISCO, California – 05/02/2012 - Ideate, Inc., a leading Autodesk Authorized Developer and Autodesk solutions provider offering quality software, training, support and custom consulting services to the AEC industry, today announced a 2013 update to Ideate Explorer for Autodesk Revit software. This new version is built for the Autodesk Revit 2013 suite of solutions and enhances the ability to search, select, and audit Revit building information models.

Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013 includes new elements that directly correspond to Autodesk Revit 2013, including a number of stair elements, support for View References which permit scanning and zooming to any reference location. Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013 also includes enhanced support for Parts.

“Ideate Explorer will help users more efficiently navigate entities in any BIM project, but it’s been invaluable for cleaning up and standardizing conversions from AutoCAD,” notes Ideate customer Crystal Pearson, CAD Lead at Tetra Tech. “Not only has Explorer saved us a great amount of time; it has also eliminated much of the frustration we would have experienced without it. Users of all levels will instantly see the benefits of this essential tool.”

“We recognize the importance of a timely product delivery and are pleased to be able to deliver both Ideate Explorer for Revit 2013 and Ideate BIMLink within a few days of the official Autodesk Revit product launch this year,” said Ideate Inc. president Bob Palioca.

Ideate Explorer for Revit is priced at US$399 with an upgrade from version 2012 priced at US$200. Ideate Explorer for Revit is currently available via download from www.ideatesoftware.com/ideateexplorer and from authorized Ideate reseller partners. For information on network pricing, contact explorer.sales@ideateinc.com.

Ideate Explorer for Revit works with Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Revit MEP, and Autodesk Revit Structure software in conjunction with all versions of Microsoft Excel. A no-charge 30-day trial version of Ideate Explorer software is available at www.ideatesoftware.com/download. Ideate Explorer for Revit and Ideate BIMLink will be shown at the upcoming Revit Technology Conferences (RTC); one in North America on June 28-30, 2012 and another in Australia May 24-26, 2012.

About Ideate, Inc.
Ideate, Inc. is a member of the Autodesk Developer Network (ADN) with 25+ years experience in software development and specific focus on Building Information Modeling (BIM).

Ideate Explorer for Revit is a simple, powerful Autodesk Revit software add-on to explore, quantify and manage the 100,000+ building elements in a Revit model. www.ideatesoftware.com/ideateexplorer

Ideate, Inc. is a leading Autodesk solutions provider, offering quality software, training, support and custom consulting services to AEC professionals. Established in 1992 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Ideate is recognized as an Autodesk Gold Partner for Architecture, Engineering and Construction, one of Autodesk’s highest levels of authorization. Ideate, Inc. operates five Autodesk Authorized Training Centers (ATC): San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose, California; Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. Ideate facilities are Autodesk Authorized Certification Centers, providing globally recognized certification courses for professionals who sell, service and support Autodesk products and solutions. For more information visit www.ideateinc.com

Autodesk, ATC, AutoCAD and Revit, are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Carpe Vista!; or using View Templates in Revit 2013

My favorite new feature in Revit 2013 is the ability to persistently control views through the use of View Templates. In earlier versions of Revit there was a “Default View Template” field which didn’t do a whole lot. Sure, you could grab a whole bunch of views through the Project Browser and manually force them to update per your View Template rules, but who has time to remember?

Now in 2013 you can assign a View Template to a set of views and the elements within those Views will continually abide by the View Template rules! This goes a long way towards eliminating plotting errors by putting up a small roadblock for those who ponder setting overrides to a view’s display settings. When a View Template is assigned in 2013, the corresponding Visibility Graphics (VG) dialog will appear as grayed out per this image. Initially this may cause some minor heartburn but in the long run, returning the visibility control over to the BIM Manager can only be a good thing!

My colleague, Shruti Harve, made a great video on how to manage the View Template settings in Excel using Ideate BIMLink 2013. All views will not need a View Template assignment, but taking the time to assign your floor and ceiling plans will be well worth the effort when it comes time to publish your project. Set aside some time today to look closely at this new Autodesk Revit 2013 feature.

So with apologies my 8th grade Latin teacher – Carpe Vista!
Post scriptum: for all you Windows Vista™ fans (?!) that’s “seize the View” 
 

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Glynnis Patterson is a registered architect and the Director of Software Development at Ideate, Inc. In a previous life Glynnis spent many hours looking at blueprints with a scale, highlighters, and a scratch pad to develop detailed cost estimates.

What's New in Autodesk Revit 2013 – It's a Material World! - Enhanced Properties for Building Performance Analysis

Autodesk Revit 2013 now provides the ability to add and modify the thermal properties of walls, floor, roofs, and windows in order to facilitate more integrated building performance analysis, heating and cooling load calculations and gbXML support. 

These improvements: 

• Allow for a single customizable deployment and a single content library. 
• Support and encourage multi-discipline workflows. 
• Give the user the ability to assign thermal and structural properties.
• Permit the thermal and structural properties to gbXML. 

Watch the video: Autodesk Revit 2013 – Enhanced Properties for Building Performance Analysis

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2013 releases for Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, Revit MEP, Civil 3D, AutoCAD, AutoCAD MEP, Navisworks and more: ideateinc.com/2013

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Bill Johnson – MEP Solutions Application Specialist
Bill has over 20 years experience in applying AEC design solutions for large commercial companies. A graduate of Pasadena Institute of Technology, he has worked for TEECOM Design Group, GTE/GTEL, Greg LeDoux and Associates, and Scottish Power in England. Bill has also had the opportunity to act as Lead AutoCAD Designer for multimillion dollar communication sites which have included structural, electrical, HVAC, conduit, cable plans and equipment layouts. He has a Sustainable Design Certification from the University of California at Berkeley.

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What's New in Autodesk Revit 2013 Holistically Better or We’re All Together NOW! – Multi-discipline Workflow Improvements

Autodesk Revit 2013 has some great enhancements; two of my preferred improvements are the workflow improvements and the Enhanced Building Analysis tools.

Autodesk Revit allows you to customize discipline functionality based on your needs, another benefit is instead of having different content library for each Revit vertical, there will be one single content library to help organize your company library.  With all the tools accessible within a single application, it improves the multi-discipline workflow for the industry.

Watch the video: Autodesk Revit 2013 – Multi-discipline Workflow Improvements

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2013 releases for Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, Revit MEP, Civil 3D, AutoCAD, AutoCAD MEP, Navisworks and more: ideateinc.com/2013

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Bill Johnson – MEP Solutions Application Specialist
Bill has over 20 years experience in applying AEC design solutions for large commercial companies. A graduate of Pasadena Institute of Technology, he has worked for TEECOM Design Group, GTE/GTEL, Greg LeDoux and Associates, and Scottish Power in England. Bill has also had the opportunity to act as Lead AutoCAD Designer for multimillion dollar communication sites which have included structural, electrical, HVAC, conduit, cable plans and equipment layouts. He has a Sustainable Design Certification from the University of California at Berkeley.

Get it. Know it. Use it.