Managing images is easier with Revit 2019.2

Imagine that you use Revit 2017/2018/2019, or whatever version prior to Revit 2019.2, and you need to place an image that is already loaded within your Revit model. What would you do? You open the ‘Manage Images’ dialog hoping to re-place your image (Insert > Manage Images):

Surprise! Manage images does not allow you to actually use your data stored within the model database:

There are a couple of workarounds for managing Revit images, like using pyRevit add-in to export all images from the model, then re-import them back:

And now that we have Revit 2019.2 around, we can use an OOTB button that simply places an instance of selected image to the current view:

So if you struggle to fine this tiny time-saving button, then update your Revit install.

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Revit 2019.2 forces install Dynamo update

Following up with Revit 2019.2 update install issues, there is another critical point that wasn’t documented. When you install Revit 2019.2, it silently updates your current Dynamo install to the 1.3.4 version.

As a general rule of thumb, Dynamo supports three versions of Revit: the current release (2019) and two versions back (2018 and 2017).

Revit version	First stable Dynamo for Revit version	Last supported Dynamo for Revit version
2013	0.6.1	0.6.3
2014	0.6.1	0.8.2
2015	0.7.1	1.2.1
2016	0.7.2	1.3.2
2017	0.9.0	Latest Daily Build
2018	1.3.0	Latest Daily Build
2019	1.3.3	Latest Daily Build
2019.2	1.3.4	Latest Daily Build

See the Dynamo primer for more info.

While the Revit 2019.2 & Dynamo 1.3.4 updates may not break your existing Dynamo workflows, it would be better for Autodesk to notify users of these hidden installations.

How to fix Revit 2019.2 update install issues

Revit 2019.2 update has been around for a couple of days now. It brings some great features that enhance connectivity and productivity (see the list of enhancements @ Autodesk blogs). But in some cases the update fails to install correctly, and here is why:

• The problem with Revit 2019.2 occurs on systems that had the Revit 2019.1 update installed first and the Revit 2019.0.2 security fix applied later.
• The Revit 2019.0.2 security fix failed to block the unsupported update path, leaving Revit 2019 in a bad state.

The only known solution for this problem is to completely uninstall and reinstall Revit 2019, and then apply the 2019.2 update (see this thread @ Autodesk forums for reference).

If you experienced other installation issues, please see the Troubleshooting article @ Autodesk knowledge network.

Aesthetics in data visualization – HOK MissionControl

MissionControl is a web application presented by Konrad K Sobon at Autodesk University 2017 that allows you to access Revit data from a web browser. It brings important data from Revit models right at your fingertips in a clean and responsive format:

MissionControl has some nice features like:

• Dashboards for data visualization
• Revit add-in with model health report and tasks list
• Live link between Revit models and web dashboars
• Task manager

And the greatest feature is that HOK MissionControl has recently been open sourced:  https://github.com/HOKGroup/MissionControl

Here is the full Konrad’s presentation from AU2017: https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Web-Based-Project-Management-2017#presentation

ArchiCAD Connection add-in updated for Revit 2019

Graphisoft has recently updated its ArchiCAD Connection Revit add-in that streamlines the dataflow between ArchiCAD and Revit through the IFC format.

ArchiCAD Connection has several main features:

• “Improved IFC Import” has extra options compared to the native Revit IFC importer.
• “Link IFC” merges IFC models into the current Revit project as a non-editable reference.
• “Export to ArchiCAD” enhances Revit elements conversion to IFC for use in ArchiCAD.

ArchiCAD connection may be also useful for non-ArchiCAD users, because it correctly exports IFC with shared coordinates.

The add-in is available for download from Graphisoft Interoperability section after logging in.

Farewell to the Revit 2019 Extensions

Bad news for everyone who has been waiting for the next Revit 2019 Extensions release. Autodesk recently published the following statement concerning the fate of Revit Extensions:

As of April 20, 2018, Autodesk will not deliver Revit® Extensions for Autodesk® Revit® 2019. Instead, customers using the timber and reinforcement modeling extensions can easily migrate to alternative solutions delivered by technology partners.

Revit 2018 is the last version that supports Extensions.

For more info check out an article at Autodesk blogs.

Revit roadmap update – September 2018

Autodesk has just published an update for the public Revit roadmap. The updated document contains both new features that have already been implemented in the latest 2019.1 release, and plans for the future development.

We’ve add some major projects to our roadmap for this update.  We’ve decided that is time to start working on improvements to wall elements since walls are such a critical piece of the project. We are starting slowly with some more straight-forward improvements that have been on Revit Ideas, but behind the scenes will be working to make the data of walls more robust and better serve the future.  Our goal is to reduce the need for complex modeling tools (like in-place or massing) and provide better data for quantities and materials as you design for better understanding of the impact of design choices.

Read the full article at Autodesk blogs.

Rhino inside Revit is live on GitHub

It’s been a month since I wrote about the work-in-progress McNeel’s technology called “Rhino Inside”:  Will Rhino 7 run inside Revit? And now it is live on GitHub!

The Rhino Inside technology allows Rhino and Grasshopper to be embedded within other products, including Revit and AutoCAD. This repository contains all the sample developer code for loading Rhino inside other 64-bit Windows applications.

Note that you’ll need to download Rhino WIP version to be able to play with Inside technology.

Revit RFO Benchmark v3.2 now supports Revit 2019

Revit RFO Benchmark is the free Microsoft PowerShell-based benchmark that analyzes Revit performance. The benchmark has recently been updated to version 3.2, which supports Revit 2019 and comes with the following list of enhancements:

1. The Squiggly Lines graphics test has been removed from the Full_Standard set.
2. A new Graphics_Comparison set compares standard graphics views, squiggled views and now 3D levels views.
3. If your DPI Scaling is above 150% you will get a warning, but the benchmark will proceed. If it crashes, especially in the middle of Model Creation, try setting your DPI Scaling lower. It seems there is a problem with high DPI scaling and journal playback. More detail on that in a separate post.
4. DPI Scale is now included in the report, so we can try to grok what settings and what hardware actually works.

Revit RFO Benchmark is available for free download from RevitForum.org (note that you’ll need to log in to your Revit Forum account first).

And if you are struggling to launch the benchmark on localized version of Revit, try these suggestions: Revit RFO Benchmark fails with journal error on localized Revit installs

What’s better than clash detection? Live clash detection!

We’ve been doing iterative clash detection in out projects for years. This is an old-fashioned and time-consuming process, which consists of repetitive manual or semi-automatic tasks:

1. Convert each discipline model into the Navisworks / Solibri file formats.
2. Update project federated model.
3. Run multiple clash tests.
4. Publish results.
5. Introduce results to the design team.
6. Next hour/day/week/month repeat steps 1..5

Wouldn’t it be great if we could spend our time in a more effective manner? There are actually a couple of software platforms that offer live (real-time) clash detection inside Revit environment.

BuildingSP ClashMEP

Read more about ClashMEP here

MagiCAD for Revit 2019

Read more about MagiCAD for Revit 2019 here

Both of these Revit add-ins use the same concept: they provide you with clash detection in real time, while you build your model. There is no need to iteratively run clash tests, and you can visually see the conflicts in views and schedules. You can see the full process in these videos above.

The future of clash detection is coming!

Conductor Revit & Rhino add-in becomes free and open source, bringing Trello boards inside your models

Conductor is a Revit and Rhino add-in that integrates Trello task management with your models. This add-in has originally been released as paid application (I’ve already mentioned it in my post last year) by Nathan Miller from provingground, and now it’s available for free.

Conductor uses Trello API to move your tasks between Revit (Rhino) and Trello. The integration is clean and seamless:

 

Below you can find the the add-in requirements:

• Revit 2017/2018*
• Rhinoceros 5.0 64-Bit for Windows*
• Windows OS (Developed and tested with Windows 10)
• ClickOnce installer is best used with Internet Explorer
• ClickOnce user installer assumes a standard Windows user setup
• Internet connection
• Trello account (you’ll also need to authorize the app with your own Trello token)
• * Versions for Revit 2019, Rhinoceros 6, and Navisworks 2019 are forthcoming.

You can also read the full description here (including the download links), and release notes here. Source code has been posted to bitbucket.

Renaming Revit materials with Dynamo

Imagine that you have to rename a lot of materials inside your Revit model. You could spend ridiculous amount of time, renaming all of the stuff manually. The other option would be to write a relatively simple Dynamo script that will handle this task for you.

And here it is – simple yet powerful Dynamo graph:

This script takes all Revit materials that contain “Concrete”, then adds a custom prefix “Prefix_” to material names. Of course, you could change the logic as you wish.

Please note that you should use the custom node called “Element.SetName” from the Clockwork package (available @ dynamopackages.com) to rename elements! Out-of-the-box (OOTB) node “Element.SetParameterByName” will fail with ‘read-only’ error.

Download the Dynamo graph here: Dynamo_Rename_materials

Revit RFO benchmark fails with journal error on localized Revit installs

Revit Forum’s RFO benchmark is a super handy (and possibly the only one) tool to measure Revit performance on different machines. The most recent version is 3.1 and it can be downloaded after logging in to the RevitForum (RFO benchmark v3.1). This tool is based on the Windows PowerShell script which uses Revit journal files to run the tests.

The only problem is that these journal files included in RFO package are built for English Revit. This means that if you try to launch RFO benchmark in localized Revit, you’ll end up with the journal error like this:

Luckily we don’t need to modify Revit installation to get benchmark working, as far as Revit comes packed with different languages. All we need to do is temporarily switch Revit language in the ‘Revit.ini’ file, which is located in the current user AppData folder. Depending on whether you use roaming profiles or not, AppData paths may be different.

Local user profile folder:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2017\Revit.ini

Roaming user profile folder (in case you use Microsoft’s roaming profiles):

\\SERVERNAME\Profiles\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2017\Revit.ini

Find and open the Revit.ini file and scroll down to the language section that looks like this:

[Language]
Select=DEU

[Applications]
Mechanical=
Electrical=
Architectural=
Structural=

[InstallationSettings]
Language=DEU

Make sure to backup your Revit.ini file before making any changes. 

Change the highlighted language code inside the ‘Language’ section to ENU and save the file. Do not change the second language code inside the ‘InstallationSettings’!

Make sure to save the ‘Revit.ini’ file, then launch the RFO benchmark. Now it will successfully cycle through the testing process.

When you are finished with tests, either restore or modify your ‘Revit.ini’ file to bring back localization. And in case you’ve forgotten your language code, here is an article @ Autodesk knowledge network  with available Revit languages.

Revit 2017.2.3 update is now available

This update contains an update to the FBX SDK and provides a number of security improvements related to processing FBX, DAE, 3DS, and DXF format files. It also brings a number of bug fixes, which could be found at the release notes page.

For Revit 2017.2.3 update instructions visit readme page. Update is available to subscribers and current maintenance plan customers via the Autodesk Desktop App & Autodesk Account.