More on Keynotes

This is a quick follow-up post to this one on the topic of keynotes. I have to confess that this is one of my least favorite tools in Revit. Not because of the potential of using keynotes in documentation, but because of the overall lackluster implementation in Revit, which tends to leave a lot of holes in the workflow.

We have also been plagued by too many visibility and collateral issues in the past:

• Pre-Revit 2013, keynotes didn’t work properly in dependent views (never posted here about it after reporting the issue, but it was resolved in Revit 2013);
• Borrowing of Sheet Worksets when keynoting elements in Linked Files as explained here at the Revit Clinic in pre-Revit 2014. This has been addressed in the current release as explained here, which is my primary reason for upgrading existing projects to 2014;
• Besides the visibility issue noted in my previous post, keynotes buried in design options, even if not visible in the view due to V/G settings, still schedule in the Keynote Legend (thanks to Trey Klein for this one!);

I’m sure there are other issues, such as the inability for multiple users to edit the keynote text file, API limitations that prevent developers of Keynote plugins to reload a modified keynote text file as soon as it is modified, and the list goes on.

Steve Stafford has a very good post on the topic if you’re into using this functionality. My biggest point of contention with keynotes is the over-use of User Keynotes, which increase “laziness” in updating Revit families in content libraries to actually include keynote information and discourage abiding with firm standards (assuming they exist). There are instances where keynotes need to be placed on the fly such as in addition & renovation projects containing demo plans, where you’re mostly assigning “actions” to collections of elements rather than definitions/”nouns” to singular elements. However in most cases, I encourage users to first assign a keynote value to their families, and then place Element Keynotes instead.

If you’re a heavy keynote user, you absolutely have to use a plugin. Mr. Stafford references a very good one by Steve Faust of Revolution Design, called Keynote Manager. I believe this is the first plugin ever built to address keynoting inefficiencies and is nowadays a very mature and full-featured product. I have been toying around with another one recently from KiwiCodes called Keynote Browser. It is still not as fine-tuned as the Keynote Manager, but could be a slightly cheaper alternative if you don’t need as much functionality, although at the moment Steve’s solution is much more solid and reliable.

More on Keynotes

Face Painting in the Family Editor - FIXED!

Following up on my previous post on the topic, the Factory provided a hotfix for this today. You can read all about it courtesy of Kathryn at Revit Clinic. 13 is such a lucky number, isn’t it?!

To use this functionality, create the parameter first in the Family Types dialog. When you then launch the Paint tool, the parameter will be available as a material in the dialog.

Installation of the hotfix is a snap…just copy and paste the dll.

Face Painting in the Family Editor - FIXED!

Face Painting in the Family Editor

You might recall Steven Campbell’s post Revit Families: To Split or Not to Split… (no, this isn’t his photo. I know, he’s in hibernation at the moment or so it seems). I honestly was unaware of that hidden feature until his article as in the past, I habitually just assigned material parameters directly to solids and never thought of face painting as a parametric option.
Unfortunately in Revit 2012, we lost that ability with the arrival of the new UI that gives us a visual palette of materials when painting surfaces. I really hope we’ll get it back in the upcoming service pack. The functionality is still there as families upgraded to Revit 2012 function properly. However if you “unpaint” the surface, you won’t be apple to re-apply the material parameter. So in the meantime if you need this functionality, start your family in 2011 and upgrade it once you’re done.

EDIT: This has since been fixed through this HotFix. Thanks Factory!

Face Painting in the Family Editor

Subtlety - Crop Region

Here’s one for Steve’s Department of Subtle. Prior to Revit 2012, when you assigned a scope box to a view and the crop region adjusted based on that, the view control bar still showed the crop region icon as follows:

When a view is assigned to a scope box however, you cannot disable the crop region, even though the icon leads you to believe you could (and so does the properties palette). I have no doubt this confused some users, myself included.

To make matters worse, if the crop region was “disabled” and then you removed the scope box from being assigned to the view, the crop was still in effect. To get it to function properly, you had to re-enable it and disable it once again.

In Revit 2012, the crop icon is now greyed out if a scope box is assigned to a view in both the view control bar and the properties palette. I think these subtle changes help users realize why those shape handles are missing from the crop region!

Now once you remove the scope box, these controls are enabled and with one more click, the crop region can be disabled. Thanks Factory!

Subtlety - Crop Region

UI annoyance

There’s no doubt that the 2011 UI has been a positive improvement over the 2010 Ribbon. But there’s one thing that has been really annoying me in this iteration of the Properties Palette: selecting a type when in sketch mode for system families such as floors, ceilings, stairs, etc.
In 2010, you had a button on the ribbon to change the properties of the element you were sketching:

This would open the Instance Properties dialog, from where you could change the Type as desired.
In 2011 things get confusing in my opinion. There is no Properties button anymore, so you might think that it’s just a matter of picking the correct type from the Properties Palette’s Type Selector. Wrong. You have to use the Edit Type button.

This will open the Type Properties dialog where you can then change the Type as before.
One could argue that the terminology got better in 2011 as you go to the Type Properties to change the Type. The number of clicks has remained the same. However I’m expecting to be able to change the type in the palette’s Type Selector rather than having to click Edit Type. After all I’m just selecting a type in most cases without actually doing any editing. Maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but I guess it bothered me enough to say something about it! What’s your take?

EDIT: This was fixed in Revit 2012. Thanks for listening Factory!

UI annoyance

Mirroring workflow on the Ribbon UI

EDIT: As of 2010 SP3, the following is no longer a problem. Thanks for listening!

The mirror tool used to be awesome. You click the icon and it defaults to the Pick option. You changed your mind in the middle of the command? No problem…just click the pencil button on the Options Bar to draw your mirror axis.

In 2010, this beauty gets thrown out with the bath water. You change your mind in the middle of the command? Tough, start over…pick your elements from scratch and re-mirror with the correct option. Clearly a step backwards and frankly I’m tired of it! It can be easily corrected because a similar approach already exists when using the Dimension tool.

When mirroring, the Modify contextual tabs are obviously different than the Place Dimensions tab, and will further differ based on the combination of selected objects. Once you start the Mirror command, the panels grey out, but I suppose they could give us another panel with different mirror axis options or present us with the old buttons on the Options bar. Clearly, this is another UI problem that needs addressed.

Mirroring workflow on the Ribbon UI

Visibility mystery

Picture this…you have a Site project linked into an Architectural project. You go to a 3D view and nothing from the site file shows up. The treasure hunt begins.

It could be as easy as the workset assigned to the Site link being turned off. Or the link being turned off in the view. Or all the object categories that exist in the Site project file being turned off in the host view. Or having the link visibility being set to “custom” and all categories being turned off. Or the link being overridden in the view and turned off (yikes!). Or a filter’s visibility being unchecked. Or a particular workset in the Site project was closed when initially linking it in. Or a hidden section box was clipping the site project elements out of the view. Phew, I’m out of breath!
However, there is a condition where none of the above are the cause of the problem and could leave you scratching your head for some time. It’s a condition that exposes another little Revit shortfall which makes us beg for even more visibility control.
The problem is a workset in the Site project file that is set to not be visible by default in all views. In this particular case, the users were able to see the information in a plan view set to “By Linked View”, but in 3D views the Site project was invisible. It turns out that all site elements were on one workset set to not be visible by default. We don’t have control over the visibility of worksets in linked files and I think we really need to. The fix was to create a new workset that is visible by default in all views, delete the offending workset and move all objects to the new workset, and then rename it back to what the original one was. Mystery solved!

EDIT:  As of Revit 2011, we now have control over the visibility of worksets in linked files. Thanks Factory!

Visibility mystery

More on the UI – Text Leaders

EDIT: As of Revit 2011, the following has been solved. Thanks for listening!

Minor thing perhaps, but they all add up, don’t they?

The text leader option buttons in 2010 can be a lot better. First off, it’s hard to visually tell the difference between them and you have to read the label. The old ones were better at communicating their function.

Location is also an issue. Why stack them? It’s not intuitive at all. If you have left and right options, place them in left & right positions and not top and bottom!

Finally, if you’re reading this post, make sure to visit this other post and submit your feedback immediately. You’ll be helping yourself and others as well.

PS: Oh look! Seems like better leader icon placement is in the works. However, that ‘A’ is obnoxiously big and distracting. Make it smaller please!

More on the UI – Text Leaders

Revit 2010 – UI oversight?

EDIT: As of Revit 2011 the issue below is no longer a problem thanks to the new Properties Palette. Thanks Factory!

Prior to 2010, when you selected one or multiple views in the Project Browser, you were able to click the Properties button to bring up the View Properties dialog. However in 2010, there is no Properties button on the Options bar and no context menu is activated when views are selected. The View Properties button in your QAC stays grayed out nonetheless, so was this an oversight? I tend to think it was.

However, don’t freak out. The View Properties are still accessible via the right-click context menu.

Revit 2010 – UI oversight?

Illegal Immigrants

EDIT: As of Revit 2010 SP3 (could have been earlier), the following is no longer a problem. Thanks for listening!

No, this post won’t discuss such political issues. We’ll leave that to Lou Dobbs on CNN.

A lot of users enter symbols in Revit or any other application, by typing Alt + a series of digits. For example Alt+0178 results in ². In Revit 2010, this will work for the first character you type after using this technique for the first time since installing the application. After that, your screen will be taken over by foreign characters with each subsequent try.

It seems to keep changing with each try, even though you use the same digit combinations. I hope this gets fixed soon! In the meantime the workaround is to go to the Character map and copy & paste the symbol from there.

Illegal Immigrants

Conditional formatting

So Steve stole the thunder this week and you already know how to do conditional formatting in Revit schedules. That Steve is one quick guy but after all, his readership eclipses my little corner here! Jokes apart, we were talking about how I stumbled across this hidden tool when trying to activate the Manage tab with shortcuts in Revit 2010. Now I just hope Autodesk doesn’t close the loop-hole. And guys, if you’re listening, please just add a button as we can use this tool in Architecture! EDIT: As of Revit 2010 SP3, this functionality is officially available. Thanks for listening!

The main shortfall I noticed is the fact that you cannot do conditional formats based on other parameters. That would be high on my list of enhancements for this tool. To get around this bump, one has to leverage the power of calculated parameters in schedules to perform the number crunching. A simple Yes/No parameter could be used to raise a flag and your condition would just look for the value and format the cell accordingly.

We can actually add multiple conditions to test for, but it is very limiting because it assumes an “AND” operator between them. What if I want an “OR” (which is what one needs when testing to see if a parameter falls between certain values and criteria….they can’t all apply at the same time! An “AND” operator expects all conditions to be satisfied and would thus force the overall condition to fail). It also took me a while to figure out how to add or remove conditions from the list. By the way, why does this dialog use the label “Field” when referring to a parameter? Seems to lack consistency with Revit’s terminology.

So I’ll stop rambling now and discuss how I plan on using this new find. The first two things that spring to mind are to check for human errors (egress calculations) and for room area comparisons between actual and target area.

Checking Occupancy

Unfortunately Revit cannot do calculated parameters in tags (my jaws are hurting repeating this one!) and so we have to resort to a “stone age” method: use a calculated parameter in the schedule and then manually type a copy of the result into a shared parameter that is added to both the schedule and the room tag so you can display the information in plan. PS: You cannot use the built-in Occupancy parameter because it is Text….DUH!

Yes, yes I know, the API can be used to copy values for you probably, but WHY do I need to resort to this for something that is a required task on every job by every firm? I’m getting side-tracked again….

So at least now we can use conditional formatting to help us identify values that don’t match the calculated values, which would happen when room sizes change. Here’s an example calculated parameter:

In the schedule Formatting tab, select the parameter you want to add the condition to and type Alt+N to reveal the hidden gem:

Here’s an example of what the schedule would look like when values don’t match up.

Note: You can check the option Hidden field in the Formatting tab to hide the calculated parameter used for the condition and it will still work just fine.

Some observations: Null values are ignored in calculated parameters (see the yellow cells above) and in conditional formatting. My condition “Flag = No” is not being met because the value is null, yet Revit is not coloring my cells. This needs fixed!

Room Area

For this scenario, I want to ensure that Actual Area:

1. Is never below the Target Area
2. Is never more than 5% of the Target Area
3. Never varies by more than 100 SF from the Target Area

So the formula for parameter Flag would be something like this:

or(not(abs(Area - Program Area) < 100 SF), % Area Variance < 0, not(% Area Variance < 0.05))

where Area is the Actual Area, Program Area is the Target Area, & % Area Variance is (Area - Program Area) / Program Area.

Here’s what the resulting schedule would look like:

In the above example I added a conditional format (in orange) to highlight cases when the % Area Variance was below 5%, but the area difference was 100 SF or more.

Some observations: It would be really valuable if we could specify the boolean between multiple conditions instead of having Revit assume an “AND” operator. And we should be able to specify different colors for the various conditions instead of just one!

If that were the case, one would be able to highlight rooms with areas above the target with one color, and others below the target with another color. Finally, I also noticed that for Yes/No parameters, the Conditional Formatting dialog would let me change the value of my parameter Flag to “Yes”, but it would revert it back to “No” when I clicked out of the dialog or clicked on something else. Not sure why.

All in all this tool is of great value and I’m sure lots of you will find various ways to use it. Let me know how you intend to implement it!

Conditional formatting