Revit System Wall Families - UK Localisation

Ralph Pullinger and I are looking at developing a UK Based System Wall Family Template, and we require your help. But in order to do so you will need a little background information and briefing on the kind of information we need to know.

During the composition of a presentation entitled “Family Planning ~ First Encounters” for the ninth meeting of LRUG the London Revit User Group, I contacted Ralph Pullinger Autodesks’ Structural Technical Specialist, Northern Europe about the disappearance of the GRBENU_Walls.rvt system file from the Autodesk Web site and a long discussion about the need for Autodesk Revit localised family content took place.

For those of you that are not aware of what the GRBENU_Walls.rvt was, I blogged about it way back in January 2008. The naming convention for this system had problems in that it was not documented and was not  consistent in the use of upper and lower case, spelling and use. However it was a good first attempt at creating a UK and Europe Wall System Family.

So our mission is to create a new UK Wall System Family and here is the brief and pre-requisites, it:-

·         Must satisfy historical, current and future needs

·         Be flexible

·         Have a naming convention that is clear and easy to understand

·         Be consistent

·         Include material properties (the I in BIM) weight, thermal, strength etc.

·         Be properly documented for the end user.

The manufactures literature from both block and insulation manufacturers have provided many forms of wall make ups that will achieve or exceed the Building Regulations Part L U-values of the day, however we would like you to contribute by providing information about what forms of walls constructions have been and are currently actually being specified and used on real live schemes.

Thus we will be able to construct a UK Wall System family that is true representation of UK building practice.

This ties in quite nicely with the fact that AUGIuk working in conjunction with AUGI have arranged for Revit Localisation (OK they used the “z” instead of the s) UK Forums, which have just been set up under the AUGI Revit Forums.

Localisation Discussions related to localisation or regional issues of Revit Architecture.

Localisation Discussions related to localisation or regional issues of Revit Structure.

Localisation Discussions related to localisation or regional issues of Revit MEP.

Architecture Thread on this subject see http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=132040
Structure Thread on this subject see http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=132039

The Building Coder - Revit API Training Material

Jeremy Tammik over at The Building Coder has just posted that:-

"The Revit 2012 API training material that we use for our ADN trainings is now available online to the general public from the Revit Developer Center. Here is a direct link to it, with no guarantee that it will remain valid in future.
It includes three subfolders:

• Labs
• Presentation
• Sample Drawing

These are the Powerpoint presentations used for the training:

• 0_Revit_Programming_Training_Class.pptx – Overview
• 1_Revit_API_Intro.pptx – Basics
• 2_Revit_UI_API.pptx – User Interface and Events
• 3_Revit_Family_API.pptx – Family API

The labs parallel the three main presentations:

• 1_Revit_API_Intro – Basics
• 2_Revit_UI_API – User Interface and Events
• 3_Revit_Family_API – Family API "

To read more Click Here to get to the original posting.

The London Revit User Group ran an evening about Revit API's a few months ago, so this may be of interest to those members that attended the evening.
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AUGIuk Revit Camp - Call for Speakers

Call for Speakers

Wednesday 1st February 2012 – London Venue
AUGIuk are hosting a one Day Revit Camp comprising 75 min classes covering Revit Core, Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and Revit MEP. The format of classes will be that similar to Autodesk University and also used in the AUGIuk Design Academy.

If you are interested in speaking at the AUGIuk Revit Camp, you're invited to submit a proposal by 30th October 2011. We welcome submissions from experienced presenters or those with industry knowledge in either the Core Revit product or one of the Revit Vertical products.

Please submit a proposal to the Chairman of AUGIuk Paul Oakley via email at:- Paul.Oakley@AUGI.com

Click Here to read the rest of the posting on the AUGIuk web site

I Am Proud to be an IEng-ineer

You may have seen in The Structural Engineer and the IStructE monthly newsletter that the IStructE are supporting the Engineering Council in their campaign to raise the profile of Incorporated Engineer (IEng) registration.

The Engineering Council has now launched a series of IEng logos and an email signature to be used by Incorporated Engineers. The email signature is designed to promote your professional status while also raise awareness of IEng.

While the signature is designed to be used on email the Engineering Council are also happy for you to use it elsewhere such as business cards, letters and online profiles.

Please visit the Engineering Councils news section to find out more information about the Engineering Council campaign.  Engineering Council launches initiative to up IEng registration.

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Autodesk_Revit_Structure_2012Update_1_Content

As has been documented on my blog the UK install did not give you everything it should have. Autodesks’ immediate fix, was to recommend installing the USA metric families. This does not provide everything.

Previously I reviewed what you should get and what’s missing once you have downloaded the USA Metric and created what should have been installed in the first place.

Autodesk have now release Autodesk_Revit_Structure_2012Update_1_Content (zip-33.4MB) which is strangely available from the Autodesk Revit Structure Services & Support Page – Product Download page and not Updates page, where one would logically expect an Update to be?

The structure within this Guide has been based upon :-

What installed in UK RST2012

What installed as a US Metric Library

Cross referenced with what was in RST 2011 UK Install

Material within the Content Update 1 released on the 10^th July 2011 is shown as ü

Content not included in Update 1 released on the 10^th July 2011 is shown as û

Click Here to download this Guide in Adobe pdf format.

Whilst I applaud Autodesk for actually providing a list of content within the RST2012 Update 1 Content  package they still have not explained why this content is included in the Update etc. In the main it appears to be an attempt to provide the missing templates that did not install for the UK and other countries

There is one family that is not template related i.e. the Rebar Shape 33 – that is contained within Update 1, however none of the material removed or missing from the rest of the library that is documented in my library guide to 2012 posted on my blog on the 15^th April is included within Update 1

My constant request to Autodesk over the last five years has been:-

Each folder should have a basic *.txt file that should contain the following:-

Number of files in the folder

Number and Names of Files Deleted ~ (with some explanation of why they have been removed)

Number and Names of New Files Added~ (with some explanation of why they have been added)

Number and Names of Files Modified ~ ( or updated and why?)

Where Manufactures specific content is supplied it would be useful to have a hyperlink to their web site or information within the familiy, that is after all what the I in BIM is all about! 

Revit is about BIM
BIM is about Information
Information is about good communications
Autodesk you are poor communicators
Your User Base expects and deserves better

6/10 Do Better
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Announcement from MRUG - Manchester Revit User Group

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MRUG - Manchester Revit User Group
Subject: Announcement from MRUG - Manchester Revit User Group

We just wanted to make you all aware of the progress Manchester Revit User Group is making;

Dan and Gavin of Cundall have done an excellent job of setting up the group, and have been kind enough to ask Peter Taylor of BDP, Gary Royle of AECOM and Rob Clark of Cadassist onto the committee (or managers as LinkedIn calls it).

So the MRUG committee are currently as follows;

Dan Woodman, Senior Structural Technician at Cundall
Gavin Bonner, Principal Structural Technician / BIM Coordinator at Cundall
Peter Taylor, Technology Support Manager, BDP
Gary Royle, Associate Partner, CAD Manager, AECOM
Rob Clark, Revit / BIM Specialist and Senior Structural Technician, Cadassist

I'm sure you will agree that this is a very strong committee in terms of resource and knowledge which has representation in all the disciplines. We are understandably excited about getting started! If you would like to get involved in a more "hands on" manner, please do let us know!

The committee are trying to get together over the coming weeks to arrange our first MRUG meeting. We will keep you up to date with progress.

In the mean time, please do invite your colleagues, contacts and friends onto the group. Further, please do make any suggestions, this group is all about participation.

All the best

MRUG
Posted By Rob Clark.

Out of the Box UK Templates ~ Guide to What's Missing

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I reported about the problems with Revit Structure not installing and missing content back on the 15th April - What can best be called a work-a-round from Autodesk was to suggest that UK users install the USA Metric Library and harvest what was missing see my post on the 17th may about Loading Missing Content

This process  does not provide everything, below is a review guide of what you should get and what’s missing once you have downloaded the USA Metric and created what should have been installed in the first place.

The structure below has been based upon :-

What installed in UK RST2012

What installed as a US Metric Library

Cross referenced with what was in RST 2011 UK Install

Click Here if you would like this document as an Adobe pdf

I have fed this information back to Autodesk.

Because of the suites becoming available they are now also looking at the way they install and provide the library when you are installing all three Revits side by side. If you are a regular visitor you would have seen my posting on the 4th June about a Short Family Content Survey this was not open and available for very long.

For those that want a glimpse of the possible futures for Revit families below are some screen shots from the survey



Victor Meldrew Moment - Fixing England 's Economy

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Saw this, loved it had to share it:-

Dear Mr. Cameron,

Please find below our suggestion for fixing England 's economy.

Instead of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan..

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 10 million people over 50 in the work force.
Pay them £1 million each severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. ~ Ten million job openings - Unemployment fixed

2) They MUST buy a new British car. ~ Ten million cars ordered - Car Industry fixed

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage. ~ Housing Crisis fixed

4) They MUST send their kids to school/college/university. ~ Crime rate fixed

5) They MUST buy £100 WORTH of alcohol/tobacco a week ~ and there's your money back in duty/tax etc.

6) Instead of stuffing around with the carbon emissions trading scheme that makes us pay for the major polluters, tell the greedy bastards to reduce their pollution emissions by 75% within 5 years or we shut them down.

It can't get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances

ReVVed - Revit Extensions

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My Padawan (Rikki) who has now left me and is now in training with a much larger multi-national company pointed me in the direction of this nice little collection of FREE extensions.

ReVVed is a collection of Revit extensions that have been designed with the draftsperson in mind. ReVVed turns repetitive tasks into one click commands. These commands work with architecture, structure and MEP flavors of Revit. Commands like:

Merge Text - merge multiple text notes into a single note.

Change Case - changes the case of selected text notes to a user specified case. (Upper, lower, mixed)

Web Link - opens a web browser to the URL stored in Revit components.

Polyline - adjust the total length of end-to-end lines. (Like travel distances, great for checking out exit routes for Fire Escapes)

Open Folder - opens Windows Explorer to the folder where the project file is located.

Project Commander - store critical information about the currently open project in a handy place.

You can  download ReVVed 2011 or ReVVed 2012 for FREE over at the PKH Lineworks Web Site .
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