Category Archives: Revit

09 Feb

Left / Right Door Updater, Revit® Add-in

Having multiple instances of doors or windows often carries a problem that some of them are (intentionally or not) flipped (mirrored). Flipping doors and windows is neat option but it can bring big problems. Left doors are not equal to right doors (the same goes with windows) but Revit will treat them as they are the same (if they are of the same type). This Revit Add-in solves this problem by updating parameter value whenever door (or window) instance is changed (flipped or mirrored) from right to left or vice versa. Read More →

12 Nov

Modeling Structure in Revit®: 3. Practical guidelines for modeling vertical structural elements

Practical guidelines for modeling structural elements in Revit® include:

Guidelines for vertical structural elements:

  1. Modeling structural bearing walls
  2. Modeling structural non-bearing walls
  3. Modeling other (non-structural) walls (in case they are needed for some reason).
  4. Modeling structural columns

guidelines for horizontal structural elements: Read More →

12 Nov

Modeling Structure in Revit®: 2. Set Levels and Grids

“Set levels and grids? Just throw a few of them in the model and let’s do some real modellin’!”

Level as the most important element

Levels are the most important elements of a Revit model. Grids are important, but not so much as levels (you know, if you delete a grid, nothing will get deleted with it like when you delete a level).

Your whole future (re)modeling work  depends on how you plan and set your levels in the beginning. Levels and grids are “the structure” of your Revit model. You don’t need to be a structural engineer to know the importance of a good structure. Here are some important tips about how to properly Read More →

05 Sep

Dynamo: Copy values between Revit® parameters

To copy values between different Revit parameters quickly, use Dynamo script. Let’s say that we entered information (parameters values) into many Revit family instances in our project just to realize that it should be on another place (in another parameter). Or we change our minds during the project (it happens).
So, in order to do the boring task of copying parameter values to another place quickly, let’s use the power of Dynamo.

The script is simple, it just uses Element.GetParameterValueByName and Element.SetParameterByName methods to get and set the values.
All you need to do is: Read More →

23 Apr

Revit® 2018.3 startup warning

Recently, after I updated my Revit 2018 to Revit 2018.3 version, on startup I received following error message:

DBApplication “bb3086be-63bb-44bd-99eb-d584c013cf2f” Startup failed because an error occurred from OnStartup.”
System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for ‘Autodesk.RevitServer.Versioning.Client.HttpClientHelper’ threw an exception. —> System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly ‘Autodesk.Bcg.Net, Version=7.7.2.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=d672471c03b2c408’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
at Autodesk.RevitServer.Versioning.Client. HttpClientHelper..cctor()
— End of inner exception stack trace —
at Autodesk.RevitServer.Versioning.Client. HttpClientHelper.AddProductInformation (String name, String version)
at Autodesk.Revit.UI.Collaborate.CollaborateDBApplication.OnStartup (ControlledApplication application)
at Autodesk.Revit.AddIn. ExternalDBApplicationManager.startupSingleDBApplication (RevitAddInDBApplication dbApplication)

Read More →

13 Feb

Change Revit® family level reference without moving elements

Changing reference level of Revit family instance can be painful, especially if you do not want to move an element, just change the reference.

For particular object it’s not a big deal, just calculate the offset value, change the level and enter new offset value, the object will go to the same place it were.

But, what if we have several, if not hundreds of such objects. On different heights (offsets) and referenced to different levels? That could take some time to adjust (re-reference). And it’s prone to errors.

Even worst case is with conduits, pipes, cable trays, ducts and similar objects which have point objects (fittings), and linear objects (ducts, pipes etc.) with or without Read More →

12 Jan

Cuttable vs. Non-Cuttable Revit® Categories

If a family is cuttable then the family displays as cut when the cut plane of a view intersects that family in all types of views.

In Family Editor, click visibility-settings to open Element Visibility Settings dialog. There is an option called When cut in Plan/RCP.  (RCP is short for Reflected Ceiling Plan)

visibility-settings-dialog

This option determines if family geometry is shown when the cut plane intersects that family. Family can be cuttable only if it’s Category is cuttable. How can we know which Revit categories are cuttable and which are not? Read More →