Reference Plane IsReference Parameter

This post reiterates concepts I wrote about many years ago, regarding the IsReference parameter assigned to Reference Planes. The last post was titled "Is you Is or Is You Ain't", paying homage to Louis Jordan's tune.

IsReference settings break down like this:

Not a Reference - ignored by Revit in the project environment, still useful in a family to create "the bones".

Weak Reference - Seen in Project by dimensions, align tool, Revit favors Strong over Weak

Strong Reference - Seen in project by dimensions, align tool and Revit sees these first. (the black lines you see during dimensioning or using the align tool are the weak and strong references in action)

The nice IsReference names like Right, Left, Top, Bottom are all Strong IsReference choices. A reference plane should be named so it is clear why it was created, to you and anyone else later. Programmers comment their code, as much to help them remember why they did what they did as well as what the code is supposed to do. Same concept for these reference planes properties.

The names don't have to match but if the nice names do match what you think they should be, then great. If your families are meant to be interchangeable for other families, like from the stock library you should examine them to see how they are done. I've seen doors that were built opposite when compared with stock Revit doors and when users swap a stock door for theirs, the door panel flips over...ouch.

When Weak and Strong references are combined with instance parameters you see grips in the project environment. You can drag the grip to alter the family dynamically. If you use the Align tool on a weak reference the family "moves" toward the alignment edge. If you use the Align tool on a Strong reference the family "stretches" instead.

Last, these help Revit maintain orientation and two intersecting reference planes can define the X/Y origin. One reference plane in elevation can define a vertical origin. Theoretically a reversal of Right and Left reference planes in two different families would flip their orientation if exchanged for one another. Haven't tried that in a really long time so I don't know for sure that condition still exists.

Not finished apparently. Alex quite rightly reminded me in a comment that I forgot a goody! So he wrote:

"Another advantage of naming your reference planes using the preset Named Planes is that in a project, it will allow you to pick on the dimension grip and bounce between the Left, Right, and Centre options and ditto (depending on orientation) for Front and Rear, Top and Bottom."

Book Jinx

A little off topic today. I'm developing a complex. I've been involved with two books that are no longer getting published. The first book is Mastering Autodesk Revit Structure 2010 (Wiley/Sybex). I did the technical editing for it. The following year (and version of Revit) Wiley chose not to continue publishing it. The sales were too slight to justify the effort and expense unfortunately.

That could mean structural engineers are too smart for it, or just weren't interested in a book, or that the authors, editors and publisher didn't do a good enough job marketing it, or that it just wasn't very good. The authors were no slouches, the material was solid, the publisher has a little bit of experience so it seems to me that the only possible conclusion is me....that I'm a book jinx!

The second book is Introducing Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 (also Wiley/Sybex). I contributed four chapters to the 2011 and 2012 editions. The sales were too slight for this one too, the 2012 edition (2011 year). Same story as the other book, I've jinxed another book! It did take me longer to "kill" this one though. I wrote the foreword for the 2010 version and then contributed to 2011 and 2012.

If I try to deflect some blame I think Wiley's product offering for Revit Architecture is a bit crowded now. They offer Mastering Autodesk Revit 2013, Autodesk Revit 2013 Essentials and Autodesk Revit Architecture: No Experience Required. I don't see a 2013 version for "No Experience..." yet so I'm not sure there is one right now.

In this case (for Revit Architecture) it may just be that the strongest books survived. Can't deny that the Read/Vandezande/Krygiel team plus their supporting cast of specialty chapters and authors make a pretty formidable product!

Books that "expire" to some degree every 12 months because of new versions of Revit generates a cycle of create/sell that only leaves a very short window to sell before the next one needs to be ready. Frankly I'm amazed that any get published at all.

Feel like living dangerously? Like testing theories? Ask me to help with your book! It might be the best way to stop being an author. ;)

Happy Birthday Revit

A bit belated, meant to write something but didn't. Revit's 10th anniversary of joining Autodesk was on April 1st. There were several mentions of it on Twitter and in other blog posts. The 12th anniversary of Revit as a product is this year and the 15th anniversary of it getting started from scratch is in October this year.

Too cool not to echo, the Inside the Factory blog shared a great photo of the people who both started working with Revit before joining Autodesk and are still part of the product team! I imagine it can be hard to get them all in the same room at times. Congrats on another birthday and may there be many more, for both software and the people involved!

How many can you name?

Kitchen Equipment - RW Smith BIM Booklet

Here's a post doing a little bragging about Taylor. I've known him for many years now. We met first at the South Coast Revit User Group (SCRUG). He has been doing some pretty satisfying work after landing a gig with R.W. Smith. I mentioned him awhile back when he shared a video of some work with me.

The company recently finished up their BIM Services booklet hosted by Issuu. It helps them have a meaningful conversation with their clients. I can see why, polished presentation as well as high quality modeling work. I've embedded it here so you can take a peek. Check out the full size version. Something to strive toward or perhaps raise the bar from for your firm?

RTC has a Blog Now!

I'm pleased to write that there is a Revit Technology Conference News Blog! I begged and pleaded with Bo to get it up and running before the planned website update work that is under way so we can use it to keep people in the loop right on the conference site itself. Actually I only had to ask once. Bo is THE MAN!

You can still follow the conference on the social sites of course, such as Linked in, Facebook, You Tube and Twitter (RTCAUS, RTCUSA...and RTCInEU...hint).

Revit 2013 - Content Folders

Following on yesterday's post regarding Doors and Openings, Daniel Stine wrote to mention that the opening families that we used to find in the door folder along with other doors are now in a new folder called Openings.

The opening families are still assigned to the category Generic Model. That was done purposely so they don't show up in door or window category schedules. It is fairly common practice here in the USA anyway to exclude them. This was more appropriate in the past before the introduction of Filters. Perhaps it would be better if these openings were part of the category that fit their behavior now. We could use filters to exclude them just as easily with more graphic control as well.

The "new" version of Revit called...Revit (secret code name "One Box", not so secret now though?) has created some new conditions for content. First you'll find some folders that include sub-folders for Architectural versus MEP.

Revit MEP users are used to all the electrical content being located under a single folder and then broken down by usage. Now we'll find Electrical and Lighting and these are further broken down by Architectural and MEP. Just when you thought you knew where stuff is..."Who Moved my Cheese?"

As for other subtle library changes we will now find some categories separated by Internal and External, interesting language choice versus Interior and Exterior.

Perhaps these new terms have better equivalent translations in other languages?

Just a few things to look forward to!

The Missing Door

There are two situations that trip up new users when it comes to doors. I wrote about about one of these Reviteristics in April 2010. That post is about Openings and this one is about curtain wall panel doors.

When people first make a curtain wall that is supposed to get a door they quite naturally assume the door tool is the right place to start. Wrong. Curtain walls are special and they are made up of curtain grids, panels and mullions. A curtain wall door is really a curtain wall panel. They are a panel because Revit needs to keep their width and height flexible, to accommodate any changes we might make. A regular door family can vary in size but it can't respond to curtain grids being moved. We can't even put a regular door in a curtain wall. That's not entirely true but I'd have to get into yet another Reviteristic, using other wall types as curtain wall panels.

We need to understand that a door in a curtain wall isn't a "door", at least not to the Door tool. To make matters a bit more confusing Revit treats this curtain wall panel, pretending to be a door, as a door in schedules and in Visibility/Graphics.

It would be better if we could click on the Door tool and have the option to place a "regular" door or a "curtain panel" door. At least this way it would become immediately apparent that there is a difference!

Curtain wall panel doors are found in the Doors folder within the content library. That seems slightly logical, in the same way that Opening families are found there. When we want to load a curtain wall door family, browse to the door library (stock content location).

Placing a curtain wall door is a bit different than a regular door in a wall. We don't use the Door tool. We have to swap out the panel that should be a door with the curtain wall door family that you loaded. To do this we need to use the TAB key to select the panel and then use the Type Selector to choose the curtain wall door family instead.

Once you do this you'll have to make sure that the curtain grids and mullions are adjusted to report the desired size. If you set the grids and mullions before the door is in place you'll find that the size is not quite the clean numbers you probably wanted. You can resolve this with mullions that use different offset values or just re-position the curtain grids until you get a cleaner door size.

I captured another video in the "Five Minutes with..." theme.

If you want to create a new curtain wall door family you ought to examine and/or reverse engineer the stock one first. You can start from scratch with the family template (Door - Curtain Wall.rft)