More on Love/Hate Relationship with Worksharing Monitor

We recently update our office suite product to new Office 365. While I am enjoying and learning all the new features from this latest version, I notice something was acting up with my Revit (version 2014) at the same time. Without trying too hard to find out why my worksharing monitor (WSM) isn't working again (also see previous post) this time, it is Lync from the office suite.

Lync, in a nutshell, is another web conference, web based collaboration tool. I haven't fully known the potential of using it yet but I will definitely plan on exploring it more down the road. It seems like it is very easy to use.

Back to the issue, the "fix" isn't hard. Just "exit" your Lync, re-run your WSM and you are back in business.

You can log in back to Lync afterwards. What bothers me now is it seems like there are more of these web based tools that are conflicting each other. Steve Stafford just wrote one today about a file opening issue in Revit with i-Tunes. My wish is having the WSM as part of Revit standard tool just like anything else would fix many of these issues.

Model Archive Using eTransmit Addin

Revit comes with some nice addin through the subscription center.

A good one recently would have to be eTransmit for Revit. This little gadget was first introduced in Revit 2012 as lab plugin and transitioned to a bonus addin from subscription site (In my opinion, this should be a standard tool already after 2 releases.)

The intent for eTransmit is to copy a Revit model (worksharing or standalone file) and other dependent files to a single folder for internet transmission. Using it like uploading a Revit file to different consultants (say Structural and MEP) for coordination will be very useful.

Lately, I have been asked by several new team members and they want to know what's the best way to archive some Revit files (For major milestone or design changes, we usually save a copy and date it). I immediately thought of using eTransmit is a better way to go. Compared to the traditional process of creating a detach model and save it as a new central file; if you have more than one model, you have to do it one after another. It is just tedious.

eTransmit setup is so easy and intuitive to use, you can choose to include other Revit linked models as well as .dwg linked files or even keynote (.txt) file as part of the transmit. The setup will also DETACH the Revit file during the process. In other words, this makes it perfect for archiving.

One suggestion though is I would go through a purge unused process before using eTransmit. Doing so would result a leaner file for archive purpose.

Minnesota University Conference Next Week

Next week on March 20-21, I will be presenting 2 classes at MU (Minnesota University). MU is "a Midwest Professional Development conference for Autodesk Users seeking opportunities to learn, connect and explore the industry they influence. Explore the latest Autodesk software, network
with peers, and learn from industry experts."

This is the first time for me to attend this event. Based on some of the comments I read from last year, this seems like a good, mini-version of AU (Autodesk University). I hope the weather will be nice to me during the conference. If you happen to attend MU this year, please come to say hi.

More Fun with Randomized Plug-in and Curtain Panel

Continue to do more studies with the dp Stuff Randomizer. This time I add a little twist to the curtain panel family. Pretty much using the same principle from the last example with nested family within the curtain panel and have an integer parameter driving the nested family types, I have added a rotation parameter using one of my tricks to create the nested family. Again, let the plug-in do the rest and see the result...

I overlooked one thing from my last experiment using this plug-in. As it turns out, it can perform this randomization with more than one set of parameter simultaneously. I also notice one strange thing the Randomizer does to the "Rotation" parameter. Since I have the minimum angle and maximum angle set to 0 and 360 respectively, all the "angle rotation" parameter from the panels should stay within the range. It, however, sets the angle to 4 digits value to many of the panels.

Applying the same panel to the Slope Glazing system (roof version of the Curtain Wall system) and I was able to make an interesting form as ceiling.

Throw it to the cloud rendering and get a nice perspective view for a group of random "ceiling" panels

I didn't stop there. I went on and used the same concept to come up with a "pattern" out of it. I create 4 different shapes of nested families and nest them to the curtain panel.

Click "Randomize" again...

Coincidentally, the result of this "pattern" reminds me of a famous monogram pattern from Louis Vuitton; maybe this could open up some good use for further study in the future. I am interested to investigate more by using curtain pattern based panel and adaptive components along with Dynamo. After taking the tex-fab workshop last week, I see a great potential of using Dynamo in Revit. Stay tuned to see my future post about my experiment.

Randomize Color and Material in Revit

Over the past few years I have been using curtain wall system for many different things beside storefront and curtain wall, and yet there is an easy way to mimic a design with a random pattern. Since the introduction with reporting parameters, I was able to build in some of the intelligence in the curtain panel. I have come across an plug-in called Randomizer from dp Stuff for some time and really didn't have the opportunity to investigate more in depth until recently. I thought I would take a stab and see how this plug-in can do for me.

According to the description from the site:
"The way it (the Randomizer) works – it lets you locate the instance parameter that you want to randomize among the family instances in your document by selecting the Category, then Family and then Type of your objects." In other words, it will generate a numerical value in the instance parameter for you without doing this manually.

What I am trying to do is to use the plug-in to randomize the color (hint: material) in the curtain panel to create random/mosaic pattern. Since we are talking about a material, not a number, it probably won't work with the plug-in!? I, however, have another challenge to overcome. In the component family environment, Revit won't allow you to formulate the material parameter. All you can do is to set the material as a parameter; in the formula field, you won't be able to input formula like you can for other type of parameter (e.g. Length). I recall a trick from Alfredo Medina that you can parametrize a material with conditional statement using nested family. So, I ended up rigging up a curtain panel family with a setup that looks like this:

Here's the run down of the setup. I have a nested family with 4 types (each type assigned different colors) inside the curtain panel. In the curtain panel family, set up the nested family with a Generic Model type as instance parameter.

I set up an integer parameter called "Driver" (instance parameter). Use the "Driver" parameter as part of conditional statement. The integer is associated with a specific Generic Model type parameter (color):

1 = Green
2 = Yellow
3 = Red
4 = Blue

Now, I have an numerical value (integer) that the randomizer plug-in would recognize in order to run a random integer (material) in the project.

I start off running this plug-in on a curtain wall with grid divided by 60"x60". Select the "Driver" instance parameter; from the value range, I set my minimum value to 1 and my maximum value to 4, which it will randomly choose the color among the 4 types that I assign. Click the Randomize button and let the plug-in do the rest. A nice feature of the Randomizer is I could keep hitting the button and the plug-in will continue to run.

Next, I double up the grid number with the size of 30"x30".

I also have a parameter "Thickness", throw in to the mix with the Randomizer and it gets more interesting...
Note: I set the material with transparency of 20% as the panels appear to be somewhat opaque.

One thing that I wish for this plug-in to work better is to be able to randomize two sets of instance parameters simultaneously. As of now, I have to run the instance parameter one after another one, it will do just fine.

Double up the grid again to 15"x15" at last, this time Revit takes much longer to generate the results.

This has been a great experiment for me to explore this Randomizer to a different use in design without using the more advanced plug-in like Dynamo. On the other hand, I am sure there are other ways to do this using other plug-in.
Next week I will attend the tex-fab workshop up in Austin, Texas to learn more about Dynamo, we will see what I'll be able to get out from this event.

If you are interested in reverse engineer this curtain panel family, you can download it from the link below:

Randomized Panel rfa