IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

NEW Home for the IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

We truly enjoy writing blog posts and sharing them. But that’s not all we do. Our new blog site lives on the IMAGINiT Resource Center. 

The IMAGINiT Resource Center offers a searchable index of our older posts, on-demand webcasts, tips and tricks, case studies, whitepapers, and more.

Content from our amazing technical team will continue! We hope you’ll join us: https://resources.imaginit.com/building-solutions-blog 

[Infographic] Top IMAGINiT Clarity Tasks

[Infographic] How Does IMAGINiT Clarity Work?

Coordinate Confusion with Levels in Revit!

Coordinates are vital for many aspects of any Revit project. In fact, coordinates are a part of every Revit project, whether you intentionally interact with them or not. In most smaller projects, and even sometimes in bigger projects you may not even worry about coordinates… at least not that you intentionally think about. But there is one area of every project you do interact with coordinates, and that is with Levels. In a Level’s Type Parameters, you have the ability to set the “Elevation Base” to either Project Base point, or Survey point.

So, what does this mean? This will control the datum Revit uses to display the elevation of a Level.

The default location of the Project Base Point is in the same place as Revit’s Origin (or 0,0,0). If you move it, let’s say down in the Z axis, the elevation dimension on the Level will change (assuming of course, the Level’s Elevation Base is set to Project Base Point.)

note: previous to Revit version 2020.2 the functionality was the same, you just had to unclip the Project Base Point before you moved it.

This comes in handy when you need to set the construction datum to something other than 0’-0”. For example, if you want this to read 100’-0”, you simply move the Project Base Point down 100’ and voila!

If you edit the Level’s Type Parameters and change the “Elevation Base” parameter to Survey Point, the Level’s dimension will instead read based on the location of the Survey Point … Maybe!

This is where there is confusion, and you DON’T EVEN REALIZE IT! The truth is the dimension shown on the level is not actually using the Survey Point as its reference. The Level is actually using the current Shared Coordinate! If you move the Survey point (just as you did the Project Base Point), but leave it clipped, you are also moving the Shared Coordinate location, and in this scenario everything seems to be copasetic and working as intended.

BUT if you unclip the Survey Point, then move it, the location of the Shared Coordinate does not change and neither does the dimension of the Level! So, in fact, the Level’s dimension is not reading from the Survey Point as advertised! It’s actually reading from the the Shared Coordinate location.

This probably doesn’t make a difference in most Revit projects, and you may have never even dealt with this. But you might get frustrated or confused and think something is “broken” if you ever need to set the Levels to read from the “Survey point”, then unclip the survey point and move it to another location.

By the way, the same hold true for the Spot Elevation and Spot Coordinate dimensions!

Notice: Family Corruption in Revit 2020.2

Please be aware that the Revit Team at Autodesk identified a defect in the 2020.2 update/build that is corrupting families in some projects.

On February 4, the team published the notification on Autodesk's Knowledge Network (AKN) along with four suggested workarounds.  Here is the link to the article:  Family Corruption in Revit 2020.2

The team anticipates delivering a hotfix to resolve this issue very soon.  In the meantime, please take note of the workarounds in the above article should you encounter an issue in one of your projects.

Trade In and Save 20% on Autodesk Software

For a limited time, you can trade-in your qualifying* perpetual licenses and save on any eligible Autodesk software including the Industry Collections, AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Revit, Inventor, 3ds Max, and many more. Trade-in before October 25th.

*Qualifying licenses are perpetual licenses with release year 2014 through 2019 that are not on an active maintenance plan.

 

Trade-in and save 20%

 

Ready to upgrade? Let us help! Contact us here. 

Revit vs Advance Steel - Who, What, Where & Why

With the addition of the Advance Steel connections in Revit, the line between the two software’s have become even more blurred. I often encounter users who ask: Which one do I use? Do I need both? What are the differences? The quick answer is level of detail you need, but I want to get a bit deeper into the specifics that separate these steel design packages.

Before we jump into the differences, I first want to talk about some of the similarities.

1. Steel layout:

A Revit structure model is a common deliverable requirement for clients. It matters less where we do our steel design because of the Advance Steel Extension in Revit.

Meaning if Advance Steel ends up being the steel software better suited for your work, but you are still required to deliver a Revit Structure model, the Advance Steel Extension allows us to export our Advance Steel objects and import them as Revit family objects and vice versa. So, start in Revit and take your model into Advance Steel or do your work in Advance Steel and push that into Revit. For purely steel layout functionality these tools are fairly evenly matched, especially since we can push and pull the data from one side to another. Cutting the requirement to model everything twice.

2. Parametric Steel Connection:

In Revit 2017 the Steel connection tool was released where a few of the most common Advance Steel connections could be placed directly into the Revit model with the same parametric control and interface that we had in Advance Steel. In 2018 this got even better, where over 130 of the Advance Steel connections can be placed through connection tool. These connections can also be pushed and pulled from Advance Steel through the Advance Steel Extension.

3. Structural Analysis:

Both Advance Steel and Revit will export and import to most structural analysis software. The tightest integration is obviously going to be with Autodesk’s Robot Structural Analysis software.

See what I mean about that blurred line? Those are the three major similarities that typically get identified first. So that we can better understand what divides these two software’s lets get into what makes them different.

1. Documentation:

Advance Steel is a steel fabrication documentation power house. Where as in Revit we are limited to the typical plan, section, and elevation views. Advance Steel has those plus it allows users to pick a drawing style that does things like grab all of the plates, members, or assemblies and pre-determines through drawing setup how they are going to be displayed and annotated. One view per sheet or multiple, it all depends on the drawing style you select.

The above picture is an example of an out of the box drawing styles for plates. There is a large library of existing drawing styles that can modified to meet a user’s standards. The documentation is also flagged and updated when changes to the model are made.

2. Miscellaneous Steel

While Revit can represent some miscellaneous steel objects like railing and stairs, the level of detail is not to fabrication level requirements. This is another area where Advance Steel shines. It allows users to create miscellaneous steel items like stairs, railings, ladders, custom folded plates, and create that fabrication level of detail. Users can specify where and how items are being welded or bolted, are the members coped, are the treads different and then through the documentation tools mentioned above automate the documentation of these items.

So, if you need to create steel models, place connections for representation and clash, document the layout of your members and simply just show some of your miscellaneous items then Revit is likely going to be the solution for you. But if you need that next level of detail and automated fabrication documentation then Advance Steel is likely going to be the solution for you. If a consultant has already done the layout in Revit or the deliverable is a Revit Structure model than the combination of both pushing and pulling the data to sync it up on both sides may be your solution.

Revit Tip – Revisions on Sheet

Today we have another post from Carl Storms one our top Application Experts here at IMAGINiT:

No matter how much you use Revit or even how long you have been using it there is always something new to learn. The other day while doing a Lunch & Learn session one of the attendees told me something I never knew and it blew my mind.

I was talking about put revision on sheets in Revit at the time of my mind being blown. I got the question of how do you get a revision to show up in the revision schedule without having to draw a cloud. Now I have been working with Revit since 2008, and I always thought this process was a bit of a pain because you really couldn’t do it without a workaround…the old cloud on the side of the sheet trick.

So I begin to explain that there isn’t really a good way to do that and that you need to just draw a small cloud off the side of the sheet (so it doesn't print) and then the revision will appear on the sheet. Just as I’m finishing my demo to go along with my explanation, someone very quietly says “excuse me, but there is a way to do that actually”. They then processed to explain how it is done. Basically, while you are in the view of the sheet you wish to have the revision appear on, with nothing selected, you scroll down the properties of the view (in the properties palette). There under Identity Data is something called “Revisions on Sheet” with an Edit… button.

When you select this button you have access to all the revision in the project, and you simply but a check beside the one(s) you wish to appear on the sheet.

I thanked the attendee for sharing and let them know they had just blown my mind.

After the Lunch & Learn, I went back to see when this feature came into being, and I couldn’t find out. All I did find out was that it was a feature as far back as Revit 2014.

So I guess the moral of the story is never be afraid to share what you know. That, and it’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks.

Until next time

Carl “Old Dog” Storms

Bring in Only the Worksets You Want

By Jordan Mussett, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

Happy New Year! In the spirit of starting a new year, here is an important tip for starting your Revit projects.

There is now an option for Revit projects to choose the worksets coming in from your other linked files you would like to work with. This is the perk of opening up a Revit file that you receive from a consultant and check it out before you link it to yours and use it. You can explore the worksets and see if there is any way you can use them. Personally, I always always maintain the worksets of files I receive when I open it because I want to see how other companies are utilizing their worksets and I want to see if there is anything I can leverage. Some projects may benefit from the reassignment of MEP shared categories being added to a specific workset during model clean up. But you don’t necessarily need to make a bunch of changes in a consultant file to leverage workset data in it.

This project's architectural file has a significant amount of entourage in it. Entourage that the MEP disciplines are not interested in at all. There are quite a few trees at the very least.

I will start a new project from my company’s mechanical template, skipping worksharing for the sake of being brief, and go straight to Link Revit. Navigate to the file and drop down the open options to specify which worksets you want.

The information from the linked Revit project comes through, minus the workset that was closed.

This operation should always make your model more lean and mean. Project load times may be significantly improved and object visibility of shared categories can be more easily controlled.

Secret Units Dialog Box in Revit

By Heather Alley, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

Secret Units Dialog Box in Revit
In a recent Project in Revit we wanted to do (what we thought would be) a simple task. When we do our Elevation Datum Lines, we wanted to show a “+” in front of the elevation for Positive Elevation Numbers, like shown:

Allow me to save you hours of frustration by revealing an (almost) impossible to find dialog box inside of Revit!!!!!
The secret is to edit the Datum Line
…that contains the Level Head Family
…that contains a Label
…that contains the Elevation Units

Got all that? Then let’s begin!

Step 1. The Datum: Your datum line uses an Annotation Family for the Level Head. You can determine what family you are using by selecting the Datum Line, looking at your Properties Palette & Clicking Edit Type.

In this dialog box, it will tell you the name of the Family you are using for your Datum Level Heads.

Step 2. The Level Head: We need to find this Level Head Family in our Project Browser. Right click on any word in your Project Browser to do a Search… for the name of your Level Head Family.

Once you have found it, right click on the Family, and Select “Edit”. This will open up the Family Editor and allows you to edit the Annotation Family.

Step 3. The Label: in the Annotation Family, select the Elevation text, (which is a Label) and choose Edit Label from your ribbon.

Step 4. The Units: In this dialog box, place your cursor on RIGHT SIDE, where it say Label Parameters, and at the bottom of the dialog box is THE SECRET!!!!!!! Click on this little hand/hashtag icon.

This is where we can adjust the Units for the Elevation, and we can check the dialog box for “Show + for Positive Values”.

Load the Level Head back into the project & you’re finished!