Turning the Page

Recently, I turned the page and started a new chapter in my work life.  I’ve moved on from being an Application Engineer for an Autodesk reseller in the Chicago area and am happy to announce that I am now the Technical Application Manager for a General Contractor in the Chicago area!

I’ll continue to keep this blog going, just may have a slightly different twist on some of the items I’ll be posting about. I’ll now be dealing with much more that just Autodesk products, so you may start to see some info coming across about how non-Autodesk products are being utilized in conjunction with Revit.  You may even start to see posts about non-Autodesk products in general!

It’s definitely a different world being back in the AEC industry…should be a fun ride!

This Operation Could Not Be Completed

This error message came up for a customer of mine when they were upgrading a Revit 2013 project to 2014 and using Revit Server.  The file worked perfectly in 2013, but as soon as the file was upgraded to 2014, they couldn’t save it to Revit Server 2014…the above mentioned error popped up.

So, like I do with a lot of my customers, I had them send me the file so I could test it out on my end.  This allows me to test the file using my setup, which helps determine if it’s a file issue, Revit Server issue, or maybe both.  Now, you might be asking…”how do you know what issue it is?”  If I can replicate the error on my end, it’s likely a file issue or potentially both.  If I can’t replicate the issue, then chances are it’s an issue with their Revit Server.

While I was getting the file downloaded from the customer, I had them try another file (different project) and it worked perfectly.  Okay, that narrows it down to more than likely being a file issue…but I still wanted to verify that on my end to make sure.  Sure enough, I got the file and received the exact same error message when trying to save the file to Revit Server 2014.  Autodesk, here we come!

I worked with Autodesk support to get their take on the file. They attempted to do the same thing we did, get the file saved to Revit Server 2014…same error.  After they reviewed the journal and log files (which I looked at as well, but couldn’t decipher what was going on) they determined that it was an issue with the project’s permission data.  The “short-term” fix was to detach the central and blow away the worksharing…yep, bring it back to a single-user file.  Then, once that process was completed, re-enable worksharing.  By doing that process, the permission data was stripped out and re-established and the file could now be saved to Revit Server 2014.  However, the file was sent over to the development team for them to take a look at what was going on in the upgrade process since the file worked just fine in 2013.

The development team came back and said they found the issue, it was an invalid workset ID assigned to one of the elements.  They were able to fix the file by assigning a workset ID to the problem element.  They sent me the fixed file and it worked perfectly.  And they didn’t sent back the converted single-user file back, they sent back the original file with the original worksharing/worksets.  Sweet!

But, I couldn’t stop there….I had to ask the question; “Is this a fix I could have done, or does this issue need to be handled by the development team?”  The answer, they had to do it as we “end users” don’t have the ability to assign workset ID’s to elements.  However, you might be able to cut/paste the problem element once you know what element it is (by investigating the journals/logs) and fix it that way…

Challenge Accepted!! (when I get time to test it out …)

Autodesk BIM 360 Products

So I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog front this year (that’s kind-of an understatement!).  It’s not that I don’t have much to share, but it seems like every day passes way too fast.

The main reason though for my practical non-existence in the blogging world is that in the summer of 2013, I started the trek down the BIM 360 road with Glue and Field.  I was one of only a select few that were chosen by Autodesk to partake in being trained on the BIM 360 products in the US. The BIM 360 products are not like the majority of the Autodesk software and Autodesk didn’t release these products to all of the channel partners/resellers.  So much of my time that I have “free” (time that I’m not spending with customers around a handful of products), I’ve been diving into BIM 360 Glue and Field

I’m still involved in the Revit products, whether it’s teaching, consulting, implementing, supporting, etc., so I still have information to share around the Revit products.  This particular blog isn’t going to become a BIM 360 blog, I’m handling that over on my Navisworks/BIM 360 blog   I will however, be throwing some “nuggets” of information about how Revit works with BIM 360 Glue and Field on this blog, as well as hopefully posting more about Revit this year!  So hopefully you won’t be seeing a 9 month lapse in posts from me

Revit Backup File Notice

If you’ve used Revit, you pretty much know that you should avoid opening up a backup file unless it’s absolutely necessary to do so.  What I mean by that is you typically aren’t going to open up a file that has “filename.0000.rvt” (for example) as a name…the .”four digits”.rvt (or .rfa) in the file name means it’s a backup.

Well, the other day I was explaining to a group of new Revit users how saving and Revit’s backup files work and I opened up a backup file to show that it is a full size, fully functional backup file.  I went to hit save to show that when you save the file, it would still allow you to save the file.  To my surprise though, a little notice popped up asking if I actually wanted to save to the ORIGINAL file, not the backup!  This was a surprise to me since every time I’ve opened a backup file, I’ve always performed a “Save-as” to give the file a new name or overwrite the original file.

If you click “Yes” on this message, it will actually save the file over the original file, just as if you would have opened up that file instead of the backup.  If you click “No”, then you’ll be saving the changes to the backup file, thus creating a “new” file and the subsequent backups will now be “filename.0001.0001.rvt”!

I’ve been working with Revit since it was Revit Building 7 (I believe, whatever it was called in 2005) and I’ve never seen this.  So, I went back to Revit Architecture 2011 (which is as far back as I have installed) and this message does appear.  I’m not really sure if this has always been there or when it was introduced?  Regardless, I like the message and hopefully it will help those that accidently open a backup file save the changes to the appropriate file. 

Can’t Change Scale of Elevations, Sections, Callouts

The screen shot below is the Ribbon/Options Bar after initiating the Section tool….notice anything missing?

What used to be in the Options Bar is now gone….the ability to “set” the scale of the View you are about to create.  In 2013, you have to basically just create the Section, Elevation or Callout, then once the view is created change the scale. 

Not sure the reasoning behind this one, but it’s kind-of annoying that you can’t set the scale prior to placing/creating the View.

Ceiling Grid Lines Don’t Move

Never had this one happen until the last class I taught.  Had a student moving their Ceiling Grid lines in one of the exercises and the Lines were not moving.  I watched a couple times (to make sure they were using the Tool correctly, which they were) before I noticed something…the “Disjoin” checkbox in the Options Bar was checked, but it was greyed out…couldn’t change it.  So I had the student get out of the Move command and then grab something else (like a piece of furniture or something) and go back into the Move command.  There, we could uncheck the “Disjoin” checkbox and had them move the object (to make sure the “Disjoin” unchecking stuck).  So with the “Disjoin” unchecked, I had them go back and try to Move the Ceiling Grid Lines…bingo, it worked!

If you weren’t aware, the “Disjoin” checkbox remembers whether or not it was checked the last time you were in the Move command.  So, if you try and move your Ceiling Grids, make sure the “Disjoin” checkbox has been unchecked.

New Ceiling Modify Option

Here’s a little something I ran across in my last training session…

When you want to modify a Ceiling, you typically had to get the to edge of the ceiling, select it, then you would get the option to Edit Boundary (left image).  If you select just a grid line, you don’t get that option (right image)…

   

This has now changed in Revit 2012!  If you select just a grid line of a ceiling, you now get the option to Edit Boundary…

So, no more placing your curser at the edge of a ceiling/wall and using the Tab key to cycle until you get to the ceiling to select it.

Revit Architecture 2012 Update 1 Available

I knew this would happen… get busy and things slip through without being noticed.  Thanks to a co-worker, I was notified this morning that the 1st service pack/update was now available for the Revit 2012 products.  You can download the update HERE.

For some reason, the list that’s typically included isn’t available quite yet.  There are a few people that have posted about some of the fixes (What Revit Wants has a post that explains this a little along with a couple of the items people have notice that are fixed).  As soon as the list becomes available, it will be plastered all over the web!

One of the things that I noticed and am very, very happy that is fixed is Revit 2012 crashing when working with the Materials dialog.  My Revit 2012 has been crashing every time I went to close the Materials dialog, and now with Update 1, that’s been fixed!

So keep your eye on the web for the list of updates…I’m sure it won’t be too long before it’s out.

Copy Doors and Constrain

I’ve had a few people ask me recently why they can’t copy Doors from one wall to another.  I was surprised they couldn’t as I could without any issues.  But then something clicked…the Constrain checkbox.  Sure enough, if Constrain is checked, you can’t copy a Door outside of the wall it’s placed in.  So in order to copy the door from one wall to another by utilizing the Copy tool, just make sure the Constrain checkbox is unchecked.

Or, just utilize a right-click and Create Similar.