Flipping Stairs Flips Stringer Side

Little something I ran across during a class a couple weeks ago.  When working with Stairs in Revit 2013, someone asked about having a stringer on one side and not the other.  No problem with Component Stairs in Revit 2013. 

Then I went to show how you can change the “direction” of the stair by using the Flip Direction arrow at the top of the stair….and this happened:

Notice how the stringers also flipped sides, which is not the outcome that someone would want.  Sure, we can go in and remove/add the stringers to be on the appropriate side, but that’s just extra work!  Besides the fact that the stringers aren’t continuous …there’s a piece of stringer missing on one side of the landing (in the 2nd image).

Just a little something to be aware of when flipping stairs.  And it doesn’t even pertain to one sided stringers…it also pertains to each side having a separate profile being used!

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.

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…

Couple Font Issues with Revit

I ran across a couple issues with Revit and using Fonts, whether they are “custom” fonts or if they are out-of-the-box Windows fonts.

First off, when looking at the Windows Fonts folder, you’ll see TrueType fonts (TTF) and OpenType fonts (OTF) and you’ll see pretty much the same list when you look at the font list in Revit.  Well, not all OpenType fonts are created equal and it actually matters when it comes to Revit!  OpenType fonts come in two “flavors”…one being made with TrueType Outlines and the other is made with Postscript Outlines.  Windows doesn’t care which “type” they are, but Revit does.  It took me a second to adjust my eyes to notice that my font list in Revit wasn’t matching the font list in the Windows font folder. I verified this with Autodesk and Revit can only read OTF’s that are made with TrueType Outlines.  So if you are investigating (or investing) in a custom font, make sure it’s either a TrueType font or an OpenType font with TrueType outlines!

The other thing I’ve run into recently was with using either custom fonts or “hand-type” fonts from Windows.  Apparently, fonts when read in Revit do not keep their true size!  Take a look at the image below.  You can see that only ONE of the five are actually 1/4”!  So if you are going to use a non-blocky type font, be careful as the size you want might not actually be true!

I again threw this one to Autodesk and here’s what they had to say…

“This is a known issue with Revit and TrueType font types. Depending on the font type it may not always match the actual dimension it is displayed in Revit as.

I added your case onto the development team request, and notified the team. This is scheduled to be addressed in a future product release.”

Well, in order to get the text to actually to be 1/4” when plotted, you have to increase the size parameter up 1/32” or some other value.  It varies with different fonts, so there’s no rule or anything that I came across for getting the true size when plotted.  I know many might be thinking…it’s such small difference, just leave it alone…now one will notice!  Yes, you definitely can leave it alone and some may not notice.  But, I was surprised to see how much difference it can make when the text is used in Tags and referenced against what it looked like in the AutoCAD symbols.  Big difference in what we used (which was the Graphite font by the way).

Oh, and regarding this being addressed in a future product release…I’m guessing 2012, but hopefully in 2011.

Sweeps using Pick Path Option Issue Update for 2010

Back in June 2008, I posted about an issue that came to light regarding the surface pattern not displaying in a Sweep when using the Pick Path option.  Happy to report that another bug that was in 2009 has been fixed!  (if you don’t know what the other bug was, check out this post.)

If you are upgrading a project from 2009 and you have some sweeps that used the pick option, they will not be updated automatically.  You’ll simply have to edit the family (in-place or component family) and either finish the in-place family or reload the component family and it will show the surface pattern from the material.  You really don’t have to do anything to the family…just open it up and reload/finish it.

Edit Witness Line Issue Update for 2010

Back in October 2008, I posted about an issue about dimensions and the text moving around when trying to edit the witness lines.  Well, I’m happy to report that after a little bit of testing in Revit Architecture 2010, this problem appears to be fixed!

Also, in the same post I reported that if you have added text (above, below, prefix or suffix) to a dimension within a dimension string and edit the witness lines, the text would disappear.  Again, I’m happy to report that this bug has also been fixed! 

One little thing…If you edit the witness line to change the dimension with text added to it though, the added text will disappear.  Which kind of makes sense, since you are basically “remaking” the dimension within the string and it would be almost impossible for Revit to figure out which “new” dimension it should apply the text to.

And who says all they did was change the interface and put in new conceptual tools… ;-)

Labels Can't be Kept Readable in Tags

This is a true statement believe it or not.  I was working on a Room Tag which called out some finishes and at times needed to be rotated Vertical so it could fit into a space.  To my surprise, when the Tag was set to be Vertical, the text that was vertical on the side of the tag and now on the top of the tag was upside down.

Ok, so the Keep Readable checkbox must be unchecked for the Label.  Open up the family and check the props of the Label...Keep Readable is checked...interesting.  So, I check the usual source of AUGI and the only thing that I could find was there was a check box in the Family Category and Parameters to keep Text Readable...for a Annotation Family and not a Tag. 

Well, sent the issue along with the family to Autodesk to see what they had to say about it.  Here's the response that I received...

I’m sorry this functionality isn’t available in Revit. Thank you for pointing out this issue. I'll make it a wishlist item and send your service request to our development team. If you have any other product related feedback that you'd like to give, you can do so on our website at http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1109794. Thank you for your patience.

So now what you may ask?  In the case I'm working with we'll either make a second tag for vertical instances or maybe make another Label in the family that is "upside down" and tied to a visibility parameter to allow users to check a box to swap out the correct Label orientation.  Interesting piece about the whole thing...the Label acts appropriately in the Family!  So if you do happen to rotate your Labels in the Family, just be aware you may get some undesired results.  Or in my case, maybe desired results with this potential work-around.

I can't stress enough for people to utilize the link above to submit any feedback they have about Revit!!  The more users bang the door on issues, the more chance things will get looked at and potentially pushed to the top of the wishlist.

Edit Witness Line Issue Update 2

Well, I finally received an answer from Autodesk Support on the issue I posted about back on Oct. 10.  And the news is good and bad...

The good news is that the problem is going to be fixed!  But the bad news is that it's not going to be very soon.  It is scheduled to be fixed in a near future version of Revit.  Reading between the lines, I'm guessing it's not going to be fixed until Revit 2010 is released.  Maybe I'll be surprised by a service pack (if they come out with one) before then, but I'm not holding my breath. 

And if I am surprised, I'll post that it's been fixed!

Edit Witness Line Issue Update

Yes, there is an update to the previous issue I posted on about Dimension text moving around when editing the witness lines.  Well, there's actually a couple updates and they are not all good...

First, the(somewhat)good  news.  It appears you can edit witness lines to the right and the dimension text will not relocate itself.  Thanks to fellow AGUI member Andre Carvalho for pointing this out.

Now, to the bad.  If the dimension is vertical, it actually matters which direction you draw the dimension and which side you are editing witness lines.  Example, if you draw the dimension from bottom-up and go to edit the top witness line, the dim text will stay where you moved it.  If you go to adjust the bottom, the moved dim text goes back to the "home' position.  And of course, reverse it if you drew the dim from top-down.

And the other bad...yes, there's another!  If you add text to your dimension (above, below, prefix or suffix) and got to edit your witness lines (in any direction I might add, vertical or horizontal) the added text WILL DISAPPEAR!!  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this...and see for yourself in the video below.

Stay tuned...I'll update this subject again (hopefully all good) when I find out more information or get a solution from Autodesk.

Edit Witness Lines and Dim Text Moving Issue

A problem has come up and it's very interesting...editing witness lines and the dimension text moving if an existing dimension text has been moved from it's "home" location.  It even looks like the added dimension text isn't placed in the correct location.

Take a look at the video below to see what happens.

 

So, for the time being...don't edit witness lines if you've moved any text in your dimensions and want to add to it.  Just create a new dimension string.

I submitted this to Autodesk and it's currently being investigated by the development team...seems like the story of all the issues I run into!

BUG - Sweeps using Pick Path Option

This one comes courtesy of fellow AUGI member patricks.  He posted that he "discovered that sweeps with picked paths instead of sketched paths will not display a surface pattern when a material is applied. This occurs in both in-place families and regular families."

I was able to confirm this (with and without Web Update 1) and submitted a SR (Support Request) to Autodesk.  Here's their response...

Thank you for contacting Autodesk Support. I have submitted this issue to our development team and will let you know their findings/recommendations as quickly as possible.

So for now, if you are creating a family with a sweep and want a material with a surface pattern, do not use the Pick Path option until we get a fix.

I'll post an update as soon as I receive one.