Revit Technology Conference USA 2011

Well, RTC AUS 2011 is going on as we read (speak), and RTC USA 2011 is just around the corner (28 days)! I can't wait to work hard at the beach!

I've been working on my dataset for the class that I will be presenting at the inaugural RTC North America 2011 in Huntington Beach, California entitled "Building a Dynamic Facility Management Web Application with Revit Using APIs."

Here's a sneak peak of my interiors model:

Stretchable Grips for Type Parameter Lengths

Have you ever noticed that you do not get the stretchable grips on parametric families that have their element lengths bound to type parameters? Did you know there is a way around this?

DISCLAIMER!!!  Before we get started, I have to warn you... this may not be a good idea depending on what your application and goals are as this method will result in the possible loss of integrity for family type sizes!!!


This method comes in handy for block and stacking of masses for the purpose of laying out relationships of departments in a large facility... so... that being said, let's get started:

Most people like the convenience of stretchable grips. But it is a good practice to use type parameters to control the widths and lengths of elements that need to resize together. Here's how you have have the best of both worlds and it is silly how simple it is:

Draw an extrusion and place a dimension along the width that you want to control. Add a label to this dimension and name it InstanceWidth.

Then create a new length parameter and name it TypeWidth.

Set the formula for this parameter to = InstanceWidth.

Now you get the convenience of grips, but the power and honesty of a type parameter.

Tell your friends or better yet... the cute girl sitting at the end of your favorite bar, you can thank me later.

Revit Tip, Ceiling Displays Messed up by Tall Furniture

Have you ever had an issue where your ceilings do not display correctly when you have elements that you need to show in your ceiling plans that are taller than your cut-plane? This is a common issue worth discussing, so here's one of many ways to get your displays fixed...

Issue: Tall cabinets that will obstruct lighting design cause unwanted breaks in the ceiling patterns. You do not want to raise the cut plane because it makes your door openings display incorrectly.

In this case, the ceiling is placed at 9'-6", the furniture causing the display issue is 8'-0" tall and the RCP view cut plane needs to be set at 7'-6". The image below shows how the grid pattern is broken incorrectly by the tall furniture element:

Solution: Use a series of "Plan Regions" and set their View Range to the necessary height so that the ceiling above these items displays correctly. The image below shows the correct plan display for the ceiling pattern:

This issue was resolved by placing a Plan Region over the tall furniture item and setting the cut plane to 8'-0"

Draw the region around the necessary area and set the cut plane's height to the height that you require.