IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

Two Ways to Save Time Exchanging Revit Models with Clarity.

One of the features we're most excited about in the new release of IMAGINiT Clarity is the way that it can help automate the model exchange process.

While the first version of Clarity was built around Revit Server, ever since then we've supported both Revit Server and traditional Revit workshare projects. Whichever case - you probably spend a lot of time exchanging models with partners, and then cleaning them up and replacing the copies you already had.

I recently spent time with a firm that estimated that the three main BIM coordinators were spending 50 hours a month just on the mechanics of doing the model exchange process on their active projects (once every 4-5 days, or more often as milestones approached). This includes:

• transferring the models
• opening them
• fixing links
• purging and auditing
• stripping out views you don't need (which can reduce the file size by half!)

All of these things can now be automated using Clarity tasks. And the same thing can happen with "outgoing" models where you're publishing models out - you can deliver clean models, with little-to-no effort - making your partner's BIM coordinators' lives easier as well (for what that's worth :) ).

The Clarity tasks can be kicked off on-demand, or scheduled (every Friday night at 2:00am), and they execute in the background on a server or workstation.

Periodic exchange of models between partners is a fundamental reality in the Revit universe today, and we're excited that Clarity can make the process go smoothly, and remove it from your daily to-do list.

 

 

New features for Family creation in 2015

In today's post Heather Alley takes a closer look at the 2015 enhancements for Revit content, such as parameter sorting and tool tips!

Of all the new features in Revit 2015, we thought we would focus on a few that are specifically related to family creation. If you want the full list of new features for Platform, Architectural, Structural, & Mechanical check out this link: Revit 2015 new features

First, there is the new ability to sort your parameters. This is probably one of the most requested features of all! We can now automatically sort our parameters alphabetically from A-Z ascending or Z-A descending. In the Family Editor, in the Family Types dialog box you will notice new options:

In addition, we can custom sort with new Move Up or Move Down tools.

Secondly, we now have the ability in Family creation to create a small tooltip for clarification or instructions on how to use a given parameter. When you Add Parameter, you will notice the new addition on the bottom of the dialog box.

After clicking on Edit Tooltip, we can create instructions up to 250 characters to explain what each Parameter is all about.

When you load the Family (*.RFA) into the Project (*.RVT), you will get the following results as you roll your mouse over and hover on the parameter name (be sure to hover on the left Parameter column, not the right Value column to see the tooltips)

The Third major improvement for Revit Family creation is the new IMAGE parameters which have been added as both Instance and Type Parameters.

Here is the Instance Parameter dialog box:

To enter Images as an Instance Parameter, you simply click in the cell, and then use the "…" button to browse for your image. You can also add Instance Images in a schedule view by clicking in the cell and using the "…" button.

Images can also be added as a Type Parameter. However, In the Type Parameters Dialog box, the Type Image cell is greyed out. What is interesting about adding images to the Type Image Parameter is that you cannot add the images in Schedule, and you cannot add them under the Type Parameters dialog box. In order to add Type Images, you must hit Edit Family on your ribbon, and add the images in the Family Editor.

Inside of the Family Editor, in the Family Types Dialog box, you can click in the cell next to Type Image and you will see the "…" option to browse for your image file.

We hope that these new additions help in streamlining your family creation. Tell us your thoughts of the new features in the comments below.

Have You Used Clarity To Run Your Job Prints Yet?

Still printng PDF's the manual way and tired of waiting for your sheet sets to finish up so you can get back to work on the project? Yeah, me too.  So let me show you a better way in this short video:

 

Having tasks automated allows you to focus on more pressing items within the project by generating exports, publishing and checking data standards automatically freeing your time to do more.  Printing PDF's are good but there is so much more that can be automated. Here is a list of the Tasks available in the IMAGINiT Clarity 2015 Release with a small description next to each that can be automated:

Export Tasks:

• PDF - Generate PDF files, can be a single PDF (all in one) or individual per view/sheet set
• DGN - Generate Microstation DGN files
• DWF - Generate DWF files from views/sheet set
• DWG - Generate DWG exports, can be individual files or .zip of all files exported
• FBX - Generate FBX
• GBxml - Generate GBxml
• IFC - Generate IFC
• IFC Alternate - For use with the Open Source IFC Alternate Package (additional controls and options for generating IFC files)
• Navisworks - Generate NWC files (for use in Revit 2014 and higher)
• Revit View Images Export - Clarity Feature to extract View images (ex. 3D views)
• Room Images Export - Clarity Feature to extract Room images (typically used in the Data Sheets)
• Family Images Export - Clarity Feature to extract Family images (3D, typically used in the Data Sheets)

Publishing Tasks:

• Publish/Transmit Models - For worksharing projects, includes options to clean the model and pathing before uploading/publishing (includes FTP and additional options).
• Update From Incoming Models - For worksharing projects, includes options to clean the model and pathing before updating into your project.
• Publish to Autodesk BIM 360 Glue - Option to automate publishing to Autodesk BIM 360 Glue (includes viewing options in the project, if enabled, of your Glue project).

Data and Standards Tasks:

• ModelReview Standards Checking - Check against your office and project standards to ensure
• Model Performance Advisor Report - 17 Checks that looks at your model and family geometry for items that may affect performance.
• Revit Data Extract - Clarity Feature that provides a database export of Revit data
• Backup Project - Make automated, regular backups of your projects.

Other:

• DataSheet Batch PDF - Including this one because it is shown in the graphic below. If you have ever manually created a Room Data Sheet, this one is HUGE! Not only does Clarity automate and give up to date Data Sheets for Rooms and 17 other categories (furniture, equipment, etc...) you can also create your deliverables with a single task making this one a real time saver. Imagine 10,000 rooms all up to date with accurate Room Data Sheets and all you have to do is press a button to get it.

 

And if you are handy at programming, Clarity has a documented API so you can add your own additional tasks for even more automation. 

 

Clarity works with Autodesk Revit (Onebox, Architecture, Structure & MEP) and the Clarity 2015 version supports Revit 2013, 2014 & 2015. Find out more here and start saving time on your projects.

Got a question on the tasks, comment below.

Filled Region Mayhem

In a recent WTH moment our own Heather Alley realized it is the little things in Revit that will trip you up. As you will see here she ran into an issue with Revit where you cannot select a filled region and after choosing to Edit Boundary the sketch lines do not show up?

Quite the mystery!

You can see the hatch fill pattern, but you cannot pick on the hatch or get to EDIT BOUNDARY.

Answer: The answer lies in VV (or VG) Visibility & Graphics. Open your Visibility/Graphics dialog box, and left click on the little plus symbol next to Lines to expand out its subcategories.

One of your line subcategories is checked off. In the image, mine happens to be "THIN LINES".

Check the box next to the line that is off, and Voila! The hatch fill pattern boundary will reappear.

If the Line type is turned off, it turns it off as a boundary line in the hatch pattern as well. Hope this helps!

Within 3 Minutes You Will Wonder Why Your Time Has Been Wasted in Revit

Looking at a quick way to use IMAGINiT Clarity to make your team and their time more efficiently used with Autodesk Revit?  How about starting with Task Automation and Data Sheets. Watch this short video to find out more:

 

Cut & Paste Text in AutoCAD & Revit

 

I hear from many of our students & clients, that they are unable to cleanly cut & paste text from Microsoft Word into AutoCAD & Revit, or from AutoCAD & Revit back into Word. If you have ever tried to highlight text in Word, and then just PASTE it into AutoCAD or Revit, you have probably received some surprising results. 

In AutoCAD, you will get non-editable raster text with a white background. In Revit, PASTE will do nothing, and it seems like the command does not work. The trick to getting vector text to PASTE correctly is to ACTIVATE A TEXT BOX before copying or pasting the text.

 

 

To Copy Text cleanly from Microsoft Word into AutoCAD or Revit: 

Step One: Highlight the text in Word & COPY to Clipboard (CNTRL+C)

Step Two: In either AutoCAD or Revit begin the TEXT command

Step Three: Click out in the drawing area to begin the text box

Step Four: Paste the text into the text box (CNTRL+V)

 

To Copy Text cleanly from AutoCAD or Revit into Microsoft Word:

Step One: In AutoCAD or Revit, double click on the text box you want to copy from to activate it

Step Two: Highlight the text inside of the activated text box, and COPY to Clipboard (CNTRL+C)

Step Three: Paste into Microsoft Word (CNTRL+V)

 

Big Data and Computing

I stumbled across this article / white paper / marketing piece today and it is an interesting read. It talks about the idea of "Big Data", how big of a problem it is, and some concepts that HP is looking at to try and help solve the problem of dealing with so much information.

If you tie this back into building design and construction, you can see a direct correlation - projects are producing more and more data (BIM), cloud computing is being used for project analysis due to the power that the cloud can bring to data-intensive calculations, and the use of document/data/project management systems is on the rise due to the volume of information we need to coordinate and manage.

There's no immediate, but the article provides some things to think about. Will we eventually see a workstation generated that is specifically manufactured for virtual design and construction - down to the features built into the processors, motherboard, and memory? How well will my kids be able to play Minecraft on that same computer? All worthwhile questions to ponder.

https://ssl.www8.hp.com/hpmatter/issue-no-1-june-2014/handle-big-data-deluge-hp-plots-giant-leap-forward

Have Fun!

joe