A month or so ago I received an email from a friend asking about dealing with revision numbering in Revit. Apparently the project team is expecting some specific habits to be followed that Revit doesn't support adequately. My response to him was much calmer than the curse words I muttered to myself. I wrote this post then and let it simmer till now. I'm all for Revit being better. It's just that I think sometimes we get a bit carried away with "our" methods or systems.
In California (where I live), and most any other for that matter, they manage to uniquely identify millions of cars with 8 characters (yes I admit, a combination of letters and numbers). In Revit we can choose between Numeric or Alphabetical (or no numbering), not a combination of them. Let's say for example we could live with Numeric. That means every revision will get a unique number starting with 1 or a letter like A.
But Steve we want the revisions to be like this: 01, 02, 03 (those first nine numbers should start with 0), or we want 1A, 1B, and then to start again with 2A, 2B, or we want architecture revisions to be A1 and structural revisions to be S1 and so on and so on.
1,2,3,4,5,6... aren't those bloody unique enough! Just say'n...
Let's not kid ourselves, it really does cost money to "do" things, especially things that a given (Revit) software doesn't support. Does providing the fussier nicer numbering scheme make the project recover money lost to a revision? Does it prevent the expense in the first place? Does it save "man hours"? How many man hours does it actually cost to do what "they want"?
I'd rather use the feature as intended, live with the limited sequence of numbers or letters, than put more energy into creating additional bureaucracy for a team to deal with (and yes cost "us and them" money). Working within the Revit system, however flawed we view it to be, will at least ensure that our documents are consistent, predictable.
Creating and applying workarounds opens the door to the very circumstances we hope to avoid in the first place. We aren't just typing "dead data" into text or attributes like drawings completed by hand or with CAD. The clouds, tags, sheets, views, schedules and revision dialog are all working together to organize them into something we can rely on (assuming we know how to use the tool at all).
Failing that, I sure hope we'll be compensated for the hassle of dealing with it in some other way. If not I hope we'll keep track of the time and effort so next time we'll know how much it really cost?
Perhaps the time and money could be put to better use to avoiding the circumstances that created the need for them (revisions) in the first place?
In California (where I live), and most any other for that matter, they manage to uniquely identify millions of cars with 8 characters (yes I admit, a combination of letters and numbers). In Revit we can choose between Numeric or Alphabetical (or no numbering), not a combination of them. Let's say for example we could live with Numeric. That means every revision will get a unique number starting with 1 or a letter like A.
But Steve we want the revisions to be like this: 01, 02, 03 (those first nine numbers should start with 0), or we want 1A, 1B, and then to start again with 2A, 2B, or we want architecture revisions to be A1 and structural revisions to be S1 and so on and so on.
- It takes effort to resist the urge to be unpleasant...
1,2,3,4,5,6... aren't those bloody unique enough! Just say'n...
Let's not kid ourselves, it really does cost money to "do" things, especially things that a given (Revit) software doesn't support. Does providing the fussier nicer numbering scheme make the project recover money lost to a revision? Does it prevent the expense in the first place? Does it save "man hours"? How many man hours does it actually cost to do what "they want"?
I'd rather use the feature as intended, live with the limited sequence of numbers or letters, than put more energy into creating additional bureaucracy for a team to deal with (and yes cost "us and them" money). Working within the Revit system, however flawed we view it to be, will at least ensure that our documents are consistent, predictable.
Creating and applying workarounds opens the door to the very circumstances we hope to avoid in the first place. We aren't just typing "dead data" into text or attributes like drawings completed by hand or with CAD. The clouds, tags, sheets, views, schedules and revision dialog are all working together to organize them into something we can rely on (assuming we know how to use the tool at all).
Failing that, I sure hope we'll be compensated for the hassle of dealing with it in some other way. If not I hope we'll keep track of the time and effort so next time we'll know how much it really cost?
Perhaps the time and money could be put to better use to avoiding the circumstances that created the need for them (revisions) in the first place?
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