IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

Revit Content Comparison – 2011 and 2012

Each year I like to take a look at the content provided out of the box (OOTB) in the previous and current releases, and then compare the two to see what has changed. Primarily, this helps out with helping our clients migrate from one version to another – knowing what OOTB content is new or even missing is a critical part of that process.

The content in the 2012 releases of Revit Architecture, MEP, and Structure don’t have a whole lot that is different from their 2011 counterparts. There are a few folder changes (example: in MEP, all architecturally related content was placed into an “Architecture” folder as opposed to being in the root content folder), and a couple of name changes (example: “curtain panel by pattern\triangle surface” was renamed more appropriately to “triangle (flat) surface”), but if you get beyond those differences you get a much smaller list of what is truly new content for 2012. Here is a quick chart outlining those differences as I found on my computer – I don’t think I tinkered with my 2011 setup too much, so this should be pretty indicative of what you should see from OOTB configurations. If you compare this list to the "What's New" features in the software, you'll see a pretty direct relationship:

Common to Revit Architecture | Structure | MEP 

• \annotations\assembly tag.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RAC 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \annotations\part tag.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RAC 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \curtain panel by pattern\triangle step surface.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\RAC 2011\Imperial Library

Revit Structure 

• \structural\connections\precast\rectangular corbel.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rst 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \structural\connections\precast\sloped corbel.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rst 2012\Libraries\US Imperial

Revit MEP 

• \revitkeynotes_imperial_2004.txt is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rme 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \revitkeynotes_metric.txt is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rme 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \annotations\duct\duct system abbreviation tag.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rme 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \annotations\pipe\piping system abbreviation tag.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rme 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \pipe\fittings\generic\cap - welded - generic.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rme 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \pipe\fittings\generic\cross - welded - generic.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rme 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \pipe\fittings\generic\elbow - welded - generic.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rme 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \pipe\fittings\generic\tee - welded - generic.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rme 2012\Libraries\US Imperial
• \pipe\fittings\generic\transition - welded - generic.rfa is only in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Rme 2012\Libraries\US Imperial

 Hopefully you find this useful!

joe

Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral

If you've followed this blog for a while :) and you should :) then you know that I like to link to Ted Talks from time to time... and here's another one. I have not been able to get through all of it yet (airport wi-fi is not always all that cooperative to streaming media), but it looks pretty interesting. It's a fair bet to say that pretty much everything on Ted is pretty interesting. (www.ted.com) Here's the description from their site and then the video itself:

A future more beautiful? Architect Thomas Heatherwick shows five recent projects featuring ingenious bio-inspired designs. Some are remakes of the ordinary: a bus, a bridge, a power station ... And one is an extraordinary pavilion, the Seed Cathedral, a celebration of growth and light.

 

IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit 2012

If you hadn't heard, our new version of IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit 2012 is out now. If you do your Autodesk subscription through IMAGINiT, you have access to these tools for free... others have access to a lightweight free version or can pay for the full set of tools:

http://imaginit.com/software-solutions/building-architecture/imaginit-utilities-for-revit

Matt Mason, who is in charge of our product development group, had a post recently on his CAD Application Development blog about one of the new utilities in this release, DWFPlus. (other new utilities include a language translation feature and an automatic view creation utility - cool stuff!)

Here's his blog post, including a video showing the feature:

http://cadappdev.blogspot.com/2011/05/dwfplus-for-revit-2012.html

Ribbon Panel Name Cutoff

Stolen and re-worded from a recent internal email conversation:

Have you ever had a problem with your ribbon panel names being cut off at the bottom? This is usually linked to Windows text size settings - the ribbons in 2011 software do not seem to auto-adjust to changes from 100% scaling (but they appear to be fixed in 2012). In Windows 7, one way you can get to these settings is by going to your Windows control panel, then Appearance and Personalization, and then Display.

 

Cascading Licenses in 2012 Software

Here’s a fun one for anyone who is using a network license server for their Autodesk products. There is a feature in this network licensing structure that allows you to “Cascade” a license – meaning, if you have (for example) 5 licenses of plain AutoCAD, 5 AutoCAD Architecture, 5 Revit, and 5 Revit Suite, what happens when a 6th person wants to run AutoCAD? Well, it can actually pull a license from AutoCAD Architecture to let 6 people run AutoCAD – but you’re down to 4 people being able to run AutoCAD Architecture. If you need an extra seat of AutoCAD Architecture, it can pull from the Revit Suite to get you that extra buffer.

This is the joy of cascading licenses. It might sound confusing at first, but give it some time and it will start clear up for you. :)

The question then becomes, what order does Autodesk software use when it is cascading these licenses? Generally speaking, it pulls from the “lowest” software, and works to the “highest” or most complete. As an example, Revit will be lower than a Revit Suite.

Autodesk has posted the 2012 cascading sequences for your reading enjoyment here:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=16981643&linkID=9243099

Have fun!

SwitchBack with Revit and Navisworks 2012

We've had some questions come in recently regarding the use of Naviswork's SwitchBack feature with Revit 2012. The video below should help explain how this works along with a couple of tips to make your SwitchBack experience a little more enjoyable. :)

On a side note, did you know that IMAGINiT has a YouTube page where you can browse all of the videos we've made and posted to all of our blogs? Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/imaginittech for your viewing enjoyment!

 

Sweet New Addition to Scan to BIM 2012

OK, admittedly this piece is a little bit of self-promotion, but it’s still pretty slick!

When scanning existing conditions, floors will often be something less than level, but translating scan data into an actual floor object was somewhat challenging.  In our new release of IMAGINiT Scan to BIM 2012 (for Revit products), you have the ability to make a Revit floor match existing floor conditions by simply picking points.

The screen capture below is of a Revit Floor object drawn on top of a scan cloud, clipped to only show some of the floor area. After running a deviation report from Scan to BIM, you can see where things line up and where they don’t. Green is good and other colors varying ranges of not-so-good.  The overall range is between zero to about 1 inch of separation between the floor and the cloud. (There are a couple of holes in the floor which correspond do some of the larger deviance values, so I’m removing them from consideration) I’ve also created a histogram of points to help better understand how far the floor is from being truly flat.

 
 
From here, you can run the new Adjust Slab command, select what floor (or roof!) object you want to adjust, and then start picking points to your heart’s content.

 
Each point you pick will be adjusted to match the elevation of the overlapping cloud, thus resulting in a multi-slope floor or roof that matches your real existing conditions. The degree to which the floor will match these conditions will depend on how many internal points you pick. The more points you pick, the more accurate the slab will be to its cloud.

 
Finally, when you go back to run a deviation report, comparing the adjusted floor to your cloud, you can pick and individual face for comparison or use the “Select Object” function of the deviation tool to check the entire slab at once. (Note: do run a deviation report on the entire slab, you need to have it selected prior to running the Scan to BIM command)

 

 

A whole lot more green there!