Insert Revit Families using a XYZ text file

It took some time to do this. Finally I succeeded in developing this extension.

This Revit extension reads a TXT file in which the coordinates are seperated with a semi-colons (so a ;) and inserts on these coordinate a selected Revit family.

1. Select the Revit Family (RFA file) that has to be inserted on these coordinates
2. Select the TXT file. This XYZ file has the following format (X;Y;Z), eg:

• 50.8;60.2;1.25


• 43.5;55.8;1.731

3. Press OK

This extension uses the Shared Coordinates and has been developed for Millimeters (mm). If you are interested, just send me an email or download it here.

Whatch out! You have to stop after the last coordinate in the TXT file. So, no extra empty lines after the last coordinate. This has not been solved yet.

PS This extension has been developed for Revit 2010!!!

Add-In Manager for Autodesk Revit 2010

Within the SDK of Revit you can find a very handy tool called the Add-In Manager. With this tool you can manage the Add-Ins easily without manually changing the Revit.ini file.

1. Install the SDK (see C:\Autodesk\RST_201_English_Win_32bit\support\SDK or the CD)


2. Close Revit


3. Start the Setup (for path see the image above)


4. Use the default settings


5. After installation, start Revit and open a Project


6. Go to Add-Ins Ribbon menu, press the External Tools and see that the Add-In Manager is installed properly

Zoom Object in Revit

When you are in a 3D view in Revit, and you select some objects using the Project Browser, I want to be able to Zoom to these selected objects. Until now, this feature is not available in Revit.

Or did I miss something?

NavisWorks and LMtools

Yes, we installed NavisWorks on a new workstation.
On this PC we installed the LMTools and used the Network License Activy Utility to receive our new network license. That all works fine.

So NavisWorks runs nice on that PC (actually 64 bits, Windows XP!). Because it runs the service and NavisWorks. Anyhow, now the other pc's have to connect to this new server.

Finally we found it. Still at the workstation with the LMTools running, the Microsoft Windows Firewall had been turned on. When turning this off, everyone can use the NavisWorks licenses again!

Now, I have to find out what ports have to be set for the firewall.

How to link Excel using DataTools within NavisWorks

This is not in the NavisWorks tutorial, but very handy.

1. Start MS Excel and open:
   C:\Program Files\Autodesk\NavisWorks Manage 2009\Examples\gatehouse\gatehouse.xls


2. Insert a Row on the top of the file and add column names (eg Layer, Date and Remark)


3. Save the Excel file
4. Start NavisWorks and open: gatehouse.nwd
5. Activate DataTools via Tools\File Options
6. Select the Tab DataTools
7. Press on New to create a new DataTool set

8. Type a Name eg: Excel link


9. Choose for ODBC driver: Driver Microsoft Excel (*.xls)


10. Press the Setup button and select the Worksheet


11. In the SQL String type:
    SELECT * FROM [GateHouse_LayerInfo$] WHERE "Layer"= %prop("Item", "Layer");


12. Whatch out! The $-sign is very important here!

13. Double click in the Fields section and Enter the Field names according to the Column names you entered in Excel earlier


14. Press OK
15. The new Excel link is activated
16. Press OK again
17. Now, select an object and show the property in NavisWorks

18. An extra tab "Excel link" is shown with the linked data to it.
    

?Not able to change parameters when in Family Editor

This happenend to us when changing parameters in the Family Types dialogue.

• not able to change a Revit parameter from Type to Instance (or otherwise)
• not able to change a value of a Revit parameter eg width = 600 to width = 400

History

We changed the "UniformatClassifications.txt" to our own classification.
We developed our own Revit library and added directly the Assembly code in it for all objects.

Problem occurs when

• Re-install of Revit and forgot to change the "UniformatClassifications.txt" file, OR
• Use of other Revit objects referencing the wrong assembly code, OR
• Use of another Revit project specific "UniformatClassifications.txt" file

Solution

Select the Assembly Code in the Family Types dialogue and
- delete the value
- change the value by pressing on the ... button to a good Assembly code

Your own avatar in Revit

At http://www.andekan.com/our-revit-family-meet-andy.html you can download an avatar family called Anders Kan. It is fully parametric and works in all Revit flavours (Architecture, Structure and MEP).

Using text symbols in Revit, like ø

For most of you this will be obvious. Anyhow, you can use the ALT button in combination with 4 numbers to insert a text symbol in Revit. You can use this in each Text, Family Name, Type Name and so on because Revit uses True Type Fonts (TTF).

To find out which number code I need, I do the following:

1. start Microsoft Word
2. Go to Insert Symbol
3. Select your symbol
4. Select ASCII (Decimal)
5. Now, you see the Number code. Remember this one, eg 248 will become 0248 -this looks like ø
6. Go to Revit start eg a Text and use ALT + 0248 (ALT button in combination with 0248)

Bridge toolkit for Revit

On the subscription site of Autodesk you can download a bridge toolkit (appr. 132 MB) full of datasets and methods how to do this in combination with AutoCAD or Civil 3D.

And more important, Autodesk created an Revit extension. It is a good start, especially when you are in a feasability study or even before that phase.