Can’t Copy Light Fixtures in Gyp Board Ceiling Revit 2013

Something weird I ran into a while back while teaching a class…not being able to copy a Light Fixture in the out-of-the-box GWB on Mtl. Stud Ceiling.  I can copy Fixtures all day long in a 2x2 or 2x4 ACT Ceiling (even the Generic Ceiling), but as soon as the ceiling is changed to the GWB, I get the following error…

The 2nd part or the error just says the the “Elements were deleted”.

This happened even with the latest service pack installed (Update 2).  The only work-around I’ve used and have told my students to use is to basically use either the 2x2 or 2x4 ACT Ceiling for all of your Ceilings to start.  Once you get the Lights placed, then swap your Ceiling out to the proper type.  I even tried taking one of the ACT Ceilings, duplicating and making a new Ceiling Type (mimic the GWB type), no go.

BUT, I did find that if the Ceiling Type doesn’t include the Gypsum Wall Board Material, the Lights can be copied just fine!  And it doesn’t matter what Gypsum material I used from the Library…as soon as Gypsum was applied to the Ceiling Type, the Lights didn’t copy.

Remove Dimension from String Revit 2013

In Revit 2013 (all flavors), we now have the ability to remove a single dimension in the middle of a string!!  It’s always been painful to tell people that they needed to wipe out one end or the other and recreate the string if something in the middle needed to be removed for whatever reason.

Here’s a very, very short video on how it works…just remember, don’t select the string and try to Edit Witness Lines to remove a dimension this way.

Removing Single Dim from String

BDS-U 2013 Doesn’t Install NWC Export

For those you don’t know what BDS-U is, it’s the short form for Building Design Suite Ultimate.

Anyway, finally got this bad boy downloaded, extracted and installed yesterday.  Installed practically everything in the suite and popped open Revit 2013 and noticed the Add-Ins tab wasn’t showing.  This was a little odd since the Suite is supposed to install the NWC Exporters, so the Add-Ins tab should be there.  Even checked the Export within the Application Menu, no NWC Export Option (new feature of 2013 by the way).

Great, I can see the numerous amount of support calls/emails coming in about this.  It’s a simple, yet annoying fix…and I’ve already posted about it.  See this post about the NWC Exporters not installing and how to fix it.  Even though the post is from 2009 (2010 software), it’s the exact same process.

I really, really hope I had the odd-ball install where the exporters didn’t get installed in the proper order…

Revit Architecture 2013

Well, the first few months of 2012 have been busy, which I guess is a good thing!  Since the 2013 products were introduced on March 27, I’m not going to repurpose the what’s new features for 2013….I’ll simply point you in the direction of David Light.  He’s always got a very good summary of the tools.

Here’s a few little things that I’ve run across that you probably won’t see in the What’s New Feature list…

1 – The Home tab in the Ribbon in Revit Architecture is now called Architecture.  This is more than likely to keep the naming convention consistent with the introduction of the Revit 2013 product that will be included for those that will be getting/have the Building Design Suite Premium or Ultimate 2013.  (In case you weren’t aware, the Suite products will have 1 Revit product that will have tools for all 3 disciplines)

1a – The layout of the Architecture tab vs the Home tab has changed slightly from 2012…

2 – When you create a New Project, you now get a drop-down list to choose which template you would like to start with, Architectural or Construction.  You can still browse to choose a different template.  (I’ll have a separate post about what you can do to Customize this as well)

 

3 – If you’re working with Navisworks or need to produce NWC files for Navisworks, you can now access the NWC Export tool via the Export within the Application Menu.  The NWC Export is still available via the Add-Ins Ribbon tab.  Just remember, you need to have either Navisworks (Manage or Simulate) or the NWC Export Utility installed to get the NWC Export ability.

As I run across more, I’ll report back