Using the Scale Parameter with-in a Family

I’m sure many of you have always wanted to get a Scale Parameter working in some Families. A good example would be a detail component family of a 2D tree (plan or elevation). You may want to insert several instances of the same tree but at slightly different sizes. You would think it should be easy to do.
If you have ever inserted a .dwg (Import Symbol) file, you will notice you have a scale parameter in its type properties. By adding a number parameter in the family file inputting the scale factor in the .dwg (Import symbol) you should be able to make the dwg import symbol whatever size you want. Flexing the parameter and dwg with-in the detail component family works perfectly. However when you load the family into a project it won’t work!
From a post on AUGI back in the start of 2007 this was a know bug with no workaround (i.e. Revit 9.1). We are now in Revit 2010 and we have 2011 coming out in 3 months. What’s the chance it will be fixed in the 2011 release?

ACIS (.SAT) files not cutting correctly in Section

It’s been 2 months since by last post. Work has been very busy, I also just started as REVIC chairperson (Revit users group of Victoria Australia) and I’ve been enjoying our nice long Christmas break.
We started to try importing ACIS (SAT) files into Revit from Rino. The reason for going via ACIS was as some of the geometry was curved. You may know, when you try to import a curved dwg file geometry into Revit, it comes in with triangulated faces and thus is very messy when viewed. ACIS can be exported from Rino to avoid this.
The ACIS files did in general export without a problem out of Rino. During the import process the files were imported into an external generic model family (we also tried an in-place family). However when we took a section in one direction It did not cut correctly (I looked like an elevation). Cutting the section in the other direction worked fine. We tried all the various different SAT exports in Rino and tried some different geometry and the same issue happened. Importing using the same method with a dwg file worked fine.
We have made Autodesk aware of the problem which they acknowledge and they are chasing it up with their Revit development team. I have not come across a direct workaround for this problem. My advice, avoid ACIS file imports where you want them to cut in section until Autodesk resolve the issue.

Pantone Color Picker

I’m sure many of you are aware of this annoying bug in Revit 2009 and 2010 when using the Pantone Color Picker. The Pantone Color Picker worked so well in Revit 2008. You could search the Pantone color by number and Revit would find the color quickly and give you a preview.
Now (Revit 2009 / 2010) when you are in the Pantone Color Picker when you enter a Pantone color number, nothing happens. To find the desired color, you have to manually scroll through till you find it. To add to the issue, after selecting a color and clicking OK, it trows you out of the Revit window and into whatever application you have running in the background. Let’s hope Autodesk can fix it for 2011?

Area boundary lines, Groups & Area Schemes.

I’m sure many of you have had a multi-story modular building (e.g. apartment complex) where it made sense in the same area scheme to group your area boundary lines and copy them to other similar floors. We have found it works very well as long as the group is limited only to the boundary lines.

We currently have been creating a master plan for a large multi-purpose venue. It involves planning areas and using them in different event modes. I didn’t think it would be an issue to have several different area scheme types for the same plan, set up the area boundary lines in one of them, group it, and copy it to the other area scheme types plans (the plans are still changing so it was to improve efficiency).

What we discovered; you can copy the grouped area boundary lines across different type area scheme plan , but; when you try to edit the group with adding or taking away boundary lines it will break the group in the other type area scheme plans.

This bug happens in Revit 2010 and 2009. We reported the problem to Autodesk and they have confirmed the issue.

i.e. – Don’t use grouped area boundary lines across different area scheme type

Select by ID in Family files

It seems there is a deficiently in revit family files when selecting some items by ID number. If you try selecting a Line or detail component in a family file you will get the following message:

The select by ID of masking regions, model geometry and sketch lines seems to work fine. Working the other way around, i.e. “IDs of Selection” works correctly and is the only way finding the above items that you can’t find using “Select by ID”

The above bug happens in Revit 2010 SP1 as well as Revit 2009.

Split Segment Sections with Dependent Views.

I’m currently doing a project where we need to do some very long site sections. It requires we use Split Segment Sections along with Dependent Views.

After creating the split segment sections I started to make the dependent views. I found in plan I could no longer change the location of the split segment or even the section view dept.

Through support I was advised in order to change these items you must select the crop region in the parent section view. Only then can you change the location of the split segments or view dept in plan.

To add to this a bug was found that Autodesk have said they will review a fix in future releases.
When you do the above the dependent view does not automatically update to the new section location (the parent view does). In order to update the dependent view you need to alter the view or annotation crop region in some way. Dragging it back and forth will update the view.

This issue happens with Revit 2009 sp3 & Revit 2010 sp1

Callout – Reference other view:– Crop View

One of our Sydney Users made me aware of this little Revit funny. It is in regard to using the Callout view tool in “Reference other view” mode. If the view you are trying to reference to, does not have its “Crop View” enabled on, it will not appear in the view list.

It does not affect Section or Elevation tag cross referencing, however if you are creating a Callout in the elevation or section the above applies.

This applies to Revit 2009 and 2010. I’m not sure if this is intentional, but it is a bit stressful for users trying to figure out why they cannot reference a particular view.

Openings and coordination review

I was really surprised to hear getting two errors for openings in a coordination review is Revit correct behaviour.

Let’s say you have a floor or wall copy / monitored from a linked file. An opening has been added to the element in the linked file. When you open your (host) project Revit asks you to do a coordination review.
This is the first coordination message you get.

You select “Copy new elements” and then click Apply. You will now get this error message:

The only option you have is to select “OK”
You are then presented with the following coordination message:

The most sensible option is “Ignore new element”. You then press “Apply ” and “OK” and now finally all the coordination messages about that opening are gone.

I really don’t understand why we get this double coordination messages. If anyone does, please post below.

Autocad text not wrapping when linked into Revit.

I’m not a fan of linking Autocad into Revit, but sometimes you just have to. We recently were having problems with AutoCAD Mtext not importing correctly. In the AutoCAD dwg file the Mtext was set to wrap, but when linked into Revit it wasn’t wrapped.

The fix we got was strange but it works. In the AutoCAD drawing by putting a space (space bar) at the very end of the text, when linked into Revit the text will wrap. It’s totally buzzer but it works.

Area boundary lines & the Align tool.

I’ve had a suspected bug confirmed by Autodesk today. Care needs to be taken when using the Align tool on Area boundary lines and also Room separation lines.

After using the Align tool

I would avoid using the align tool on Boundary lines until the problem is fixed.

Basic Walls as Curtain Wall Panels

I have mentioned previously you can use Basic Walls as a Curtain Panel. This adds another depth to modular wall construction. What I didn’t know was that when you use a basic wall in a curtain wall on curved walls, it follows the curve and doesn’t facet as other curtain panels do. This could be very handy.
To add to this. a basic walls have the same capabilities as system panels (in curtain wall not curtain systems), i.e. they can follow any shape.
In the element properties of the basic wall panel you can also chose if it schedules as a panel or wall.
Finally there is a small bug in non-rectangular panels in regard to their location line placement. Typically you can select a basic wall panel and select if it is Exterior or Interior placed.
On non-rectangular basic wall panels sometimes it won’t allow you to place the basic wall panel Interior or Exterior. You will get the following message:

Right click window on Curtain Walls

Sometimes it’s amazing what you find when you select an element and then use the right click function. Curtain walls or curtain systems is one such situation where you will really wish you knew this six months ago.

Select a curtain wall and right click on your mouse.

You will notice there are some very handy selection tools for the Curtain panels and Mullions.
Now select a curtain panel and use the right click function.

I’m also sure you saw the “Select Grid” function. For the life of me, I cannot see how this selection works. No matter what Revit release I use, or what kind of Curtain System or wall I select, it is grayed out. All I can guess is it was intended to be a function, and programmer X from Autodesk forgot to put the coding in.

Anyway what works from above will be very helpful.

Curtain System Panels. Part 1:

Curtain Wall System Panels are an out of the box template panel for Revits Curtain walls or Curtain Systems. They should not be confused with Curtain Panel .rfa files, as thought they are ideally intended to act like regular curtain panels sometimes they do better and sometimes not so good.

Currently Revit does not allow you to insert a Curtain Panel .rfa file into a non-rectangular shape; so in that situation, you have to use a Curtain System Panel. This is one area they are better. On the are not so good side, and I can only put this down to a bug is the following:
From the out of the box Revit Template, create a shopfront curtain wall. Select one of the glass panels and change it to a door panel. Now flip the door from right to left (edited 13-11-08 after post for clarification), using one of the flip options.

Now change the door back to the System glazed panel.

Notice how the panel is on the wrong side (i.e. not the same side as the other system glazed panels). As it’s a system panel it does not have the flip option. Unless someone can tell me otherwise the only way to fix this is to change it back to the door, then flip it to the doors home position, and then change the door to the system glazed panel.

This problem appears to be in Revit 2008 and 2009 to curtent RAC 2009 - 20080915_2100 (WU2).

Some other information on System Panels in my next post.