Revit 2011 Worksharing User Name

Do you have a bunch of public workstations that your users use to access workshared Revit 2011 models? Have you ever noticed that the name that displays in the worksharing monitor does not match the actual user's name?... Well this is an issue that has been resolved in Revit 2012 but is till annoying in Revit 2011.

So if you're still wondering how to change this name (sigh), you can adjust it to read anything you like... just be careful that you do not have two names in any two machines that are the same and have the same model loaded at the same time (this really jacks up how Revit 2011 worksharing works and will cause some dumb stuff...)

So if you have a bunch (or just one) public walk-up or training machines that people use to access workshared Revit 2011 models, enter a name in the user name field that is descriptive as to the machine's use or location:

• San Francisco Giants 2010 World Series Champion Test Machine #1
• Training #1
• 197th Floor Spaceship Walk-up
• Etc.

Navisworks Controls on 64 Bit

If you are running a 64 bit development environment like the rest of the world and have attempted to utilize the Navisworks ViewControl you have probably run into some rather annoying issues. This control will not work in a 64 bit environment at design time in your Visual Studio project, but behold... there is a workaround.

You will need a 32 bit OS where you can install the 32 bit version of Navisworks so you can steal the API dll references that you can use on your 64 bit OS for development. Or if you're super duper lazy, you can just download the one that I'm using and adjust all your Autodesk.Navisworks.Controls references to this 32 bit flavor of the dll for use at design time.

Download the 32 bit control DLL here. Hopefully Autodesk doesn't try to kick my ass for offering this file for download. But after all you can install a 30 day trial to keep this file forever, so no big whoop I guess.

When compiled, the control will work just fine on a 32 bit and 64 bit machine (just like it should otherwise).

Revit 2012 Addin Templates for Visual Studio 2010

Well, if you have not yet begun using Visual Studio 2010 for your Addin development with Revit 2011... you don't have much of a choice with Revit 2012.

If you want the antiquated Revit 2011 templates, go here.

If you haven't heard, the API for Revit 2012 has been updated to support .NET 4.0. Your .NET 3.5 and Revit 2011 Add-ins will still function with Revit 2012 (with some key edits to your .addin manifest files) but you will no longer be able to debug .NET 3.5 Add-Ins with Revit 2012.

I like to maintain separate templates for each flavor of Revit that I develop for since the paths to the API references are different for each product.

All you have to do is export a project as a template (the result will be a zip file) and place them under your current user's profile at:
"%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual Basic".

It is important to place your templates into a sub directory (we'll name ours "Revit 2012") and to NOT unzip the template files. Leave the zip files intact and this will work just fine. Your directory structure should look something like the image below.

For you lazy folks... here are the links to the preconfigured templates:

• RAC2012.zip - Revit Architecture 2012
• RME2012.zip - Revit MEP 2012
• RST2012.zip - Revit Structure 2012