My Article in the AIA Journal – “What’s Keeping Architects from Embracing Energy Simulation?” Overview

Well, I’m happy to announce that the article I wrote on challenges that architects face while performing energy analysis has been published in the AIA Journal. Pretty cool! It’s actually the first part in a 3 part series and I intend to get some feedback from readers to help guide the next articles so that we can overcome these challenges. Energy simulation isn’t just something that MP&E engineers should be concerned with. According to a recent article in JBIM Magazine, many architects are already performing energy analysis on a good portion of their projects, but based on my experience with firms throughout the west, this doesn’t appear to be the case. With tools like Ecotect, Green Building Studio, IES, eQuest, and new capabilities of Revit, architects have the power of doing some really useful calculations. Check out the article and be sure to leave some comments. I’d love to hear from you!

Underlay Orientation and RCPs with Revit (especially Revit MEP)

Mowing the Revit RCP Lawn

I want to give a shout out to Jeremy Smith from the invaluable Autodesk Revit Clinic blog for a great post on an issue that many users, myself included, have found to be very frustrating. As Jeremy highlights, the answer is actually really easy, but often overlooked. I won’t parrot his post here but to sum it up quickly, here are 2 important take aways:

1. If you have trouble getting a ceiling to appear in an RCP view, even after checking all the usual suspects (ceiling category is on, view range is correct, used the right view template, etc.) check the Underlay Orientation and make sure it is set to Reflected Ceiling Plan.

2. The most important take away is this: While part of the View Properties, for some reason, Underlay Orientation is not controlled by View Templates. This is counterintuitive and is the reason why this issue causes so much frustration. I think we get in the habit of using View Templates to control all aspects of a view, and we expect that when we apply a ‘Ceiling’ template, we expect that it would obviously set the Underlay Orientation to RCP. It doesn’t. Set it to RCP yourself and you’ll be mowing the grass in no time.

P.S. – If you’re baffled by my mowing the grass comment, or just want more details on the Underlay Orientation and RCP issue, just check out Jeremy’s great post at http://revitclinic.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/08/where-is-the-ceiling-check-the-underlay-orientation.html

Using updates with downloaded software.

Network, Multiseat or Standalone – Using Downloadable software for repair, reinstall, clean installs or updates.

Using software downloaded from Autodesk Subscription website entails a little forethought where repair, reinstall, clean installs and updates are concerned. If many users are like me I will download and extract from an executable file, this is an example of one that is downloaded:

Autodesk_Revit_MEP-B_2011_English_Win_32-64bit.exe

When extracting the contents of the executable file, the default folder is usually along the lines of the example below:

C:\Autodesk\Autodesk_Revit_MEP-B_2011_English_Win_32-64bit\RevitSetup\RevitMEP\

Users have the option to point to external drives or the server when extracting the contents of the executable file with the Browse button.

However if I was using DVD media as deliverable source,  for repair, reinstall, clean install or update, the installer would call for the location of the contents of the executable I would have specified the alternate in the Use Source to be:

Autodesk Revit MEP 2011 DVD

Contents remain on the DVD media to be utilized by popping the DVD back into the drive when Repair/reinstalls or clean reinstalls and updates are needed.

With deliverable DVD media replaced with subscription downloads, an installation from the extracted contents folder looks the same as a DVD installation with one exception being path to DVD or extracted media in the Use source field. (see image below)

For other software; there are differences in the path format with name of the software. For Network or Multi-seat deployments; the general idea is to be aware of the path and the fact that user specified path can be defined in such that the server can store the extracted files to make it easier to install on multiple of seats and apply updates throughout the organization. If you use a path of your choosing it should be on a shared folder on the network server.

Single seat users, after installing products, are inclined to delete the extracted files on the local drive to save space. This fine with the exception that when repair, reinstall, clean install and applying updates are needed, the contents extracted to a folder are no longer available to utilize during these tasks when called for by the installer script. In addition to the msi file there may be a need for some of content of the extractions to be available when performing repair, reinstall, clean install and applying updates. So once again, the executable file needs to be extracted to a folder either default or user specified to utilize the Autodesk Revit x64.msi or Autodesk Revit x86.msi file. Just for fun, I have attempted to use a Revit Architecture Autodesk Revit x64.msi file with my Revit MEP update to see if I could get around the need to keep or extract the files on the server or my local drive. This was unsuccessful as it seems even similar named files are structurally different in some way in the code and the Revit Architecture and Revit MEP msi does not work across one another.

Being on subscription allows the benefits of using downloads of older versions, extensions and getting updates. When on subscription regardless if a network, multi-seat deployment or single user, product downloads and extensions are available online and contract management is available online for the company’s contract administrator.  Where ever possible try and use a multi-seat standalone if network license is not an option in the firm. Because a multi-seat standalone allows the use of a single license serial number with deployment image configured at one time. It allows applying service packs to deployment image once and using the deployment on the server for repairs, reinstalls, clean installs and updates. Link to Autodesk Multi Seat Standalone

So to summarize how best to use downloaded executables in three scenarios:

Standalone installation – Extracted content can remain on users own hard drive or the server to use for repair, reinstall, clean installs and updates for more than one seat. This scenario uses a different serial number for each seat. Extracted content can be removed leaving the zipped executable to extract again if needed for repair, reinstall, clean installs and updates.

Multi-Seat Standalone installation – Deployment image can be left on the server to be used for repair, reinstall, clean installs and updates for more than one seat. Deployment image allows a single serial number up to the allowed number of seats licensed.

Network Installation – Like multi-seat deployment, image can be left on server to be used for repair, reinstall, clean installs and updates for more than one seat. Deployment image allows a single serial number up to the allowed number of seats licensed to be administrated by a license server.

If are any questions you can contact us at support@cadsoft-consult.com or call us at (480) 820-0408 and we can help you with your licensing, updates and managing your subscription options.

Revit and RPC Archvision Content

This tip is fresh out of the CADsoft Consulting tech support department. I hope it helps out anyone who may be running into the same issue.

Several RPC (Rich Photorealistic Content) files ship with Revit and are a great way to add entourage (trees, shrubs, people, etc.) to liven up your scenes. If you use only the RPCs that come with Revit, you shouldn’t have any trouble rendering out your scene.

However, if you have any additional RPCs, that you have created yourself or purchased from Archvision, you will need to install the Archvision Content Manager and properly configure it so that the plugin can verify that you have licenses for the RPCs you are attempting to use. You can find detailed instructions on how to set this up at

Here are the instructions from the Revit help file:

1. Install and configure the ACM. This utility is available free from http://acm.archvision.com. For instructions, see the ArchVision Content Manager Help (http://acm.archvision.com/help).Now you must specify the location of the ACM so that Revit Architecture can access the additional RPC content.
2. In Revit Architecture, click Options.
3. In the Options dialog, click the Rendering tab.
4. Under ArchVision Content Manager Location, select Local.
5. For Executable Location, specify the location of the ACM executable file (rpcACMapp.exe).By default, Revit Architecture attempts to connect to the ACM using the IP address 127.0.0.1 (the local host) and port 14931. If it cannot connect to the ACM there, it attempts to start the ACM executable that you specify here.
6. Click OK.

Happy rendering!

Revit Families – Endless combinations with nested families and the Family Type parameter

Have you ever created a Revit family that had several nested families in it that you wanted a simple drop down menu to give you the chance to choose which nested family you wanted? Well, here’s a brilliant method for creating powerful nested families that seems to be difficult to find solid documentation on. I’d like to thank Bob for reminding me about this easy to use yet dynamic technique for controlling the visibility of nested families.

Here’s the scenario:

Let’s say you have a family (we’ll refer to this as the parent family) that contains several nested families that are possible options within it. For example, you might have a door family that consists of the frame and the opening, but that has several panel families nested into it. One panel might be a typical flush door panel, another is a panel with glass, another is a panel with louvers, etc.

We want to make it easy for users to insert the door family, then choose the type of panel they want. Now the way I’ve seen this documented the most often is to use the Visibility control tied to a Yes/No parameter that controls whether Panel 1 is visible or not, Panel 2 , Panel 3, etc.

This method works ok, but has some potential problems. You end up inserting all the families into the parent family, then having to align and constrain each one, then you have to set up a bunch of Types in the family that in turn have those Visibility Yes/No parameters set correctly. Still following me? One of the problems we’ve run into is that the user now has to create their own types, or manually run through those parameters and make sure that the panel that they wanted is turned on and all the others are off. If they make a mistake, it’s possible that they have more than one panel turned on and all sorts of craziness can ensue.

Also, if you have quite a few nested family options, this list of parameters can get to be pretty unwieldy and difficult to set correctly.

What would be great is to simply have a dropdown parameter in Element Properties that shows all the nested family options and just lets you pick it, having it swap out the appropriate nested family. Well, with the technique we’ll show here, you can do exactly that.

The Solution – Create a Family Type parameter and use it to drive your family Label

After you’ve created your parent family, load up all the nested families that represent the options you want to have available. It’s important that these families be as identical as possible. They won’t be completely identical, of course, but you should create them from each other, keeping the reference lines in the same place to ensure that when one family gets swapped out for the other, things don’t jump around on you and constraints don’t break.

The next step is to create a new Parameter that is configured as a “Family Type” parameter.

Here I’ve named it “Door Panel Type”. You then need to choose which Category of families you want to be available to that Parameter. We’ve created our panels as Generic Models, so I choose this category.

Note that all families that are assigned to that category will be shown in the drop down for that parameter, so make sure you aren’t cramming too much into one family. For instance, if I also had a bunch of families nested in that represented door hardware – knobs, pulls, etc. and they were assigned to the Generic Model category, our drop down for the panels is going to be really confusing, because you’ll see families for both panels and hardware.

Now here comes the little trick that brings it all together: insert one nested family and position it correctly.

You don’t need to insert all of the nested families and go through the trouble of aligning them and constraining them. All the nested families have to be loaded into the main family, but not inserted. Now select the nested family and go to its Element Properties. At the bottom you’ll see Label. Set this value to use the parameter you created earlier (the Family Type parameter) so that this family instance will be driven by it.

That’s all there is to it! Now, when you change the parameter for Family Type, it will swap out this instance with the appropriate family. Brilliant!

In the example at the top of this post, we’ve got two instances of a nested door family that allows endless combinations. Each side of the door can have unlimited family options. This door has 7 panels for each door, giving us a LOT of possibilities.