When creating some families within Revit, Revit will add its own family parameters that you cannot remove from the family. In door families for example Revit will add a Thickness, Height and Width. I have my own shared parameters for those items and I do not want to confuse users of the family with those parameters.
Since I can't get rid of them, I settled on getting them to ghost out by adding either a calculation or conditional formula to those fields. If I add a conditional formula for example that that evaluates if Door Thickness * 2 > Door Thickness I will know that result is always true. So the formula I use is IF (Door Thickness*2>Door Thickness,Door Thickness, Door Thickness) This will result in the Revit standard parameter of Thickness always having the value of' Door Thickness' and be ghosted out in the family so that the user is not confused by it.
Until Revit provides a way to hide or otherwise control what parameters are exposed to the user, this is the best method I could come up with to address the problem.
Hope this helps you out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wow. I haven't updated this is so long I forgot my password. Sorry about the long lag time, but both work and my personal life have been extremely busy.
On the MNRUG front, our next meeting is April 27th on a Thursday night at the Eden Prairie Campus of Hennepin Technical. Maps, details and the like will come out in an email next week.
On the Revit front, my brother Jeff and I had a web conference and demonstration of getting data from Revit to Timberline's estimating package via schedule exports and Excel macros. It is possible, but not a real elegant solution and Jeff and I were not all that impressed. Jeff by the way sells and trains in Timberline products for Software Consultants on of the two Timberline re-sellers here in the Twin Cities. The Timberline link on www.reviteer.com will take you to his website.
A better option for getting Revit data to Timberline has come to our attention though. The company called is called Innovaya http://www.innovaya.com/ and the owner is a authorized Autodesk and Sage developer. (Sage is the company that owns Timberline). There is a great article on AEC Bytes that should be read if you are interested in this kind of use of Revit:
http://www.aecbytes.com/buildingthefuture/2006/VisualEstimating.html
As Jeff and I have discussed through the years, most people on both the architectural and building sides of the business fail to realize that estimating is more than just raw quantities multiplied out and added up. If it were that simple many people would be out of a job. Quanities are a good start to an estimate, but most estimates developed within Timberline are assembly based not simple raw quantity's of something. Many items may make up an assembly and they may come from different sources. Architects may consider a walltype of 3-5/8" metal studs with 1 layer of 5/8" GWB an assembly but the contractor uses that walls area plus twice its LF for top and bottom track, a waste factor for the GWB, a factor for how much joint compound, seam tape, outside corners and screws to use as their wall assembly.
It looks like Innovaya has solved this problem by developing a Revit API that takes the Revit model out to another file format for "visual estimating" I think they are on the right track and Jeff has ordered their demo CD and will be talking to them at the Sage Conference in Nashville in early May he is attending. Hopefully this solution is as good as it looks because it is what is needed to give an added boost to Revit's use in the industry. When the contractors of the world have a choice of working with a Revit enabled firm who is willing to work with them on estimating or someone using 2D CAD I can guarantee they will choose the Revit firm. We already see it happening at Jafvert Mueller.
That's all for now. I will be back posting with more regularity now that I have some free time again.
Tom
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, today is the day after our January MNRUG meeting. I'm still really tired as I was up late last night updating the www.reviteer.com site with links I promised at the MNRUG meeting. They aren't all perfect yet in opening in a new window, but I will get them there eventually.
As many of you are aware, I stated in the email that went out today that I will be stepping down as the MNRUG Coordinator once I have developed a stronger tie between MNRUG and AUGI and can find someone to take the reins. I suspect that it will be early summer before all of that is in place.
If anyone is interested in holding a SIG (Special Interest Group) meeting that focuses on Revit exporting to databases, let me know.
I'm also probably looking at a job change within the next few months as well. My current employer is making too many concessions to those who want nothing to do with Revit. As a result our Revit implementaton is actually taking steps backwards by exporting a fully developed Revit model back to CAD. Insanity if you ask me as the rest of the world is trying to go the other direction.
I also intend to get some Revit Tips and Tricks posted here starting with some of the material used at MNRUG the last two years. It takes time though so be patient.
Tom
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hi, welcome to my Blog.
My name is Tom Dorner and I have been a Revit user since 5.0. Not as long as the true Revit converts, but pretty early in the game none the less. I work for a small architectural firm where I have been producing CD's, renderings and studies with Revit. Our Revit implementation too a huge step backward when my wingman Aaron went to work for a re-seller or as I like to say "went to the dark side". (just kidding Aaron, you made a wise move!).
I also coordinate the Minnesota Revit Users Group (MNRUG) which has been up and running now for two years.
I have never run a blog before, so this is all new to me. I figured since I owned the domain www.reviteer.com and my hosting company GoDaddy.com offers free quick blogs I would give it a try.
I guess my purpose in running this blog is to share some of my Revit knowledge I've gained along the way and to maybe make a few friends. I differ in a lot of respects from most Revit users in that I have more of a corporate real estate and construction background rather than pure architecture. I also have a database background having used relational databases since the late 80's. Remember Rbase? Still the best database I have ever used. I currently do most of my database work in MS Access or SQL Server and report via Crystal Reports.
I always tend to look at Revit from a database perspective since thats what it is. My answers to posts on AUGI and Revitcity and posts on my blog will always look at the answer from a database perspective. Since Revit is a Building Information Model (BIM) you always have to keep in mind the integrity of the database and how the data is used by other down stream participants in the construction process. This idea of database integrity is lost on most Revit users in my opinion since they are focused on producing paper CD's rather than a database of a building. This approach leads them to find solutions that "look" OK rather than be OK within the database.
That's all for now as Mythbusters is coming on (can you say GEEK).
Tom
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
