Content Highway 2006 - Pre announcement (Due Q1 2006)

[Marek Brandstatter]

Firstly - apologies to all for the late delivery. Content Highway has undergone 3 complete rewrites since we started on it 15 months ago. Furthermore we've simultaneously been developing Estimate Highway (also due Q1 2006).

Content Highway's status is as follows - we're busy testing the program internally and all main features are working. However there's still a few weeks polishing and code cleanup ahead of us. In the meantime, here's a brief description/overview of the latest feature set.

Content Highway is an ambitious and exciting project to manage and share Revit families - from your desktop, to the web and back again.

Content Highway is comprised of two separate yet related applications, Content Highway Desktop and Content Highway Web.

Content Highway Desktop

Content Highway Desktop is a content management solution for Autodesk Revit that allows you to manage Revit family (RFA) files on your computer and optionally publish them to Content Highway Web for sharing and collaboration.

Key Features

- manage Revit families on your computer and network
- batch publish your families to the internet for communal sharing
- optional uploading of family metadata, images or RFAs
- simultaneous grid and thumbnail dualview
- dynamic resizing of thumbnails using a slider
- find families using instantaneous "search as you type" methods
- assign and edit family properties
- sort families by any number of fields, including Supplier, Uniformat, Masterformat, Path, Filename, Cost, etc.
- associate custom images to families
- associate multiple URLs to families
- create URL 'thumbshots'
- create local Suppliers list
- classification by Revit Category, Supplier, Uniformat, Masterformat 95, Masterformat 04
- drag drop families into Revit
- type catalog editor
- manage types from catalog files (coming later)
- manage types from Revit (RVT) project files (coming later)

Content Highway Web

Content Highway Web is a web service that lets you share Revit family files with collegues or the world. Although you can use the site to host Revit family files and share them privately, Content Highway Web is more appealing as a communal Revit resource.

Key Features

- upload/download request system that simulates 'peer to peer' file sharing
- classification by Revit Category, Supplier, Uniformat, Masterformat 95, Masterformat 04
- powerful filtering methods: by user, country, category, ranking, etc
- three rankings methods, namely owner's ranking, your ranking, global ranking
- separate discussion thread per family/type
- multiple pricing fields: material, labour, equipment, sub contractor
- supply pricing for new construction and demolition

Marek Brandstatter

[Mr Spot]

Sounds awesome Marek, Looking forward to seeing the final product!

[rhys]

Great Marek, sounds like you are getting there. I look forward to seeing the product. Any hint on pricing yet?

[Marek Brandstatter]

Any hint on pricing yet?Probably somewhere between $149 and $349 but we will only finalise pricing closer to actual release date.

I'll post some screenshots later today of the current working version .

[Kevin Janik]

Do you have any information on your "Estimate Highway" and how it works?

Kevin

[zanzibarbob7]

Thanks Marek,

Iv'e been anxiously awating your program. Glad to see it near the end,

[blads]

Looks and sounds great. Estimating package sounds interesting as well - thanks for keeping us informed, Marek.

[Chad Smith]

Damn, that looks sexxy.:Puffy:

[dhurtubise]

Can't wait, anyway to endup in the beta testing team ?

[Marek Brandstatter]

Content Highway is on track. Everything slowed down a little bit over the holidays but our coders are now back in full swing. Main features are wrapped and working, its all about optimisation and cosmetics now. We're close but not there yet - stay tuned.

[blads]

Content Highway is on track. Everything slowed down a little bit over the holidays but our coders are now back in full swing. Main features are wrapped and working, its all about optimisation and cosmetics now. We're close but not there yet - stay tuned.Thanks once again, Marek... for the heads-up

[Marek Brandstatter]

Here is a preview of Content Highway's Catalog Editor Tool. It provides a spreadsheet environment for editing a Family's type catalog file.

[dhurtubise]

Awesome, can't wait to try it out, when ?

[Marek Brandstatter]

sticking my neck out... but hopefully within 4-6 weeks...

[Kevin Janik]

Where are you regarding the Content and Estimating Highway? Look like very useful tools. Has the release of Revit 9 changed things?

[Marek Brandstatter]

Content Highway finally has an Install EXE and we're currently testing across various machines... So far impact of Revit 9 looks minimal.

In December we allocated coders from Estimate Highway to Content Highway to help push for completion. In Feb with the extra coders on board I succumbed to the temptation of adding 2 key features, namely -

* DWG management
* Dynamic Cataloging - dynamically groups families in rows and columns by any two values eg Width and Height

These 2 features were just recently completed and coders are now back on Estimate Highway.

Estimate Highway comprises 3 interoperable modules - Desktop, Web and Mobile. Its looking good - I'd say we're about 2 months from a beta release.

Shortcut Highway - .NET rewrite complete, now V9 compatible, to be released simultaneously with Content Highway

I'll post a Content Highway update next week...

[dhurtubise]

Can't wait

[zanzibarbob7]

Thanks Marek. Also can't wait.

[blads]

Marek, thanks once again... for the heads-up

[narlee]

Hi Marek,

Always have a hard time finding Shortcut Highway and Content Highway on Cadplan's website??? How does one find them?

Also, do you have plans or is there an ability to have Shortcut Highway get to the options bar? (Specifically the Edit button).

Thanks, Geof.

[Marek Brandstatter]

Geof

Content Highway is not available for download yet.

Shortcut Highway can be found here ... (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/RevitSH8.exe)

http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/RevitSH8.exe

[Marek Brandstatter]

We are busy working through an internal 'fix' list for Content Highway which shortens daily. However the application is quite complex so certain fixes/optimisations take longer than others. The coders will compile a new EXE later today which I will test over the weekend.

[narlee]

Thanks, Marek.

[dhurtubise]

Any plan on release a shortcut highway for R9
Also, any plan on translating that to other languages ? I could help with french.

[Marek Brandstatter]

Shortcut Highway - .NET rewrite complete, now V9 compatible, to be released simultaneously with Content Highway.

No translation plans as yet . We need to be 100% satisfied with stability, etc

[blads]

Thanks once again, Marek... for the heads-up...good things come to those who wait... :)

[gordie_v]

Marek any chance for an update on your progress?
many of us are quite anxious to take a look at these
Do you have a release date planed?
what is the web site for information?

Thanks
Gordon

[Marek Brandstatter]

We're pushing as hard as we can with clean up and optimisation, BUT coding somehow always takes longer than predicted.

I now expect that we will release next month... Q2 :Oops:

website will be www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/)

[Marek Brandstatter]

I just checked - the application is sitting at 24384 lines of code.

Is that a good or bad thing? ;)

[Marek Brandstatter]

Things are on schedule. Testing a new Install EXE this weekend. Application is coming together nicely. Minor tuning...

[BWG]

Killing us with suspense! :mrgreen:

[Marek Brandstatter]

Oh boy I'm certainly learning the pitfalls of making overly optimistic release date forecasts on a public discussion forum.

The bad news is we need to postpone for another month. The reason is there are still a few aspects of the application that are unnessarily complex and need reworking.

As this a first release we've got to get it right. If we don't a lot of users might not give us a second chance.

[Steve_Stafford]

I bet those early adopter minded among us would be glad to help you find those quirky things. Otherwise it may never get out of the mad professor's basement?

Never stopped Microsoft :wink:

[Marek Brandstatter]

I bet those early adopter minded among us would be glad to help you find those quirky things
I intend to take you up on that Steve.

We're still addressing easy to find 'obvious' non-quirky things.

[rhys]

I bet those early adopter minded among us would be glad to help you find those quirky things. Otherwise it may never get out of the mad professor's basement?

Never stopped Microsoft :wink:
Exactly Steve, bit of Alpha testing is good for the soul>

[tom.56962]

Marek,

Just downloaded the Shortcut Highway. Fantastic tool. Have several users that were waiting for something liek this.

Can't wait to see the other tools. This is something that's long overdue for Revit.

As the others have indicated, if you're in need of any testers I have a dozen users that would be more than willing to give it a try.

[Marek Brandstatter]

Tom - thanks for the vote of confidence. I've attached a recent screenshot of the application as well as the new 'My Content' dialog box from where you add content from Folders & Revit Projects.

[BWG]

Autodesk should pay you guys a handsome sum to integrate this into Revit, not just for management, but also placing the families into the project.

[dhurtubise]

Where did you download it from ?

[tom.56962]

Marek,

One thing on the Shortcut Highway. It looks like i can open existing txt files but it doesn't appear to load the existing Shortcuts. Is that correect or am I not loading them correctly?

[Marek Brandstatter]

Where do you download it from?
http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions...es/RevitSH8.exe

Shortcut Highway for Revit 9 to be released simultaneously with Content Highway.

[dhurtubise]

I'll wait for R9 then. Thanks and keepus posted

[ford347]

Rockin'!!!:cool:

[Marek Brandstatter]

We're grappling a bit with coordinating the relationships between project families (and their types) and folder families (physical rfa files). These relationships are quite complex - as families can exist across mutiple projects as well as multiple folders. The problems are not insurmountable - just time consuming to code through.

Content Highway's probable release date is now September 2006.

FYI - we're coding several Revit related applications simlutaneously - including Estimate Highway - with limited resources, so sometimes delays are unavoidable.

[blads]

Once again, thanks for the heads-up Marek

we're all waiting in the wings for the big announcement ;)

[Kevin Janik]

Any word on your products?

Kevin

[Kevin Janik]

It sure is quite out there!

Kevin

[Marek Brandstatter]

Funny - its as busy as hell this side. Content Highway's lead programmer - Craig - is getting married Dec 2 and then goes on honeymoon, so its imperitive we release by then. We expect Estimate Highway to go live round that time as well.

[gordie_v]

Is there any chance of seeing Content Highway at AU?
at least a Beta maybee?

[Marek Brandstatter]

We won't be at AU, but there is a chance of a beta release by then

[Marek Brandstatter]

A quick update - we're readying to release Content Highway (Beta) AND Shortcut Highway either later this week or early next week. There's a few minor installation issues we're sorting out but otherwise its all systems go. Til then...

[Simon.Whitbread]

A quick update - we're readying to release Content Highway (Beta) AND Shortcut Highway either later this week or early next week. There's a few minor installation issues we're sorting out but otherwise its all systems go. Til then...
Cynical Hmmmm....

Should I hold my breath?

[Marek Brandstatter]

Hey I'm putting it all down to experience

[Kevin Janik]

This sounds great! Are there some webpage images and information about the product?

Jim Balding talked about a piece of content software a while ago he was going to look at also. Does anyone know anything about that? Maybe Jim could let us in on what it was.

This new software is exiting!

Kevin

[jbalding48677]

I have been looking (and am still looking) at a total of 4 solutions at this point. None of which are ready for us to use. We are looking at a Jan/Feb time frame for implementation of the winner. I will let you know how that goes...


.

[Marek Brandstatter]

I have been looking (and am still looking) at a total of 4 solutions at this point. None of which are ready for us to use. Annoying isn't it? Today the cupboard's bare, tomorrow it might be full...

[barathd]

I have been looking (and am still looking) at a total of 4 solutions at this point. None of which are ready for us to use. We are looking at a Jan/Feb time frame for implementation of the winner. I will let you know how that goes...


.

Jim:

This is the only plausible solution I have been able to find ... http://www.excelize.com/. They already have an Autocad solution and told me this summer that should have a Revit content manager shortly. Who knows????

Regards

db

[jbalding48677]

Excelize is one of the solutions and we are underdevelopment with them on AutoCAD details. While, I would like to have just one solution, we are currently looking at 3 others to determine "best of breed", if that means one solution great, if it means 3 (or more) so be it. Ideally, the solution will be transparent to the user and easy/intuitive to use...

[Simon.Whitbread]

Its sooo close I can almost taste it!

Web site (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/content_highway_about.html)

Forum (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/forums/index.php)

[Marek Brandstatter]

Its sooo close I can almost taste it!
It'll be this week.

[dhurtubise]

I just downloaded R2, it,s only for version up to 8 ot it's just that i need to wait a little bit more ?

[Marek Brandstatter]

I just downloaded R2, it,s only for version up to 8 ot it's just that i need to wait a little bit more ?
Daniel I assume you're referring to Shortcut Highway V2.0. I suspect you're using an outdated link. The correct link is...

Download:
http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/ShortcutHighway.msi (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/ShortcutHighway.msi)

Webpage:
http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/shortcut_highway_about.html (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/shortcut_highway_about.html)


Also see http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=51663

[dhurtubise]

That's where i got it from. I posted an error message on your forum about it.
Thanks and can't wait to see the Content Highway :-)

[Marek Brandstatter]

Content Highway Beta is scheduled to go live Tues 19th Dec 2006

[rhys]

Content Highway Beta is scheduled to go live Tues 19th Dec 2006
Great I'll look again later today

[Marek Brandstatter]

Content Highway Beta is scheduled to go live Tues 19th Dec 2006
We're close... but it looks like it will creep into Thu 21 Dec.

[gordie_v]

I can't wait

we are really looking forward to this product

[gordie_v]

Content Highway is LIVE!

Sorry Not quite yet (there is a link but not yet active)

Thanks Marek

http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/downloads.html#shortcut

[dhurtubise]

Can't run the installer :-(

[Marek Brandstatter]

Sorry Daniel it's not live yet - Thu Dec 21 is the likely date. That's a 'dummy' installer for placeholding purposes.

Until then here's the preliminary help file. It should give a pretty good idea of how Content Highway works.

http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/ContentHighway.chm (2 MB)

[Simon.Whitbread]

gone blue.. lack of air!
taking last gasp...

[Marek Brandstatter]

Right here we go... Content Highway Beta is now officially available for download and testing.

You must first register at:

http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/ContentHighwayRegistration.aspx (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/ContentHighwayRegistration.aspx)

I would apreciate if all technical problems with Content Highway can be posted on its forum at http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/forums/ (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/forums/)

As this is the first public release there will be bugs but hopefully they shouldn’t take us too long to sort out.

The help file can be downloaded separately at:

http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/ContentHighway.chm (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/ContentHighway.chm) (2 MB)

Please note:
Content Highway is a .NET application and requires .NET Framework 2.0 from Microsoft.

[gordie_v]

gone blue.. lack of air!
taking last gasp...


Breathe !

Breathe!

[Kevin Janik]

This looks great and the web support when available will be super. It looks like you all did an extensive job putting this together. The functionality is deep.

Could the web portion function like the exchange here on AUGI?

What do others think?

See: http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/content_highway_about.html

Kevin

[barathd]

Marek:

Proverbial question - how much is the cost?

Thanks

Dick Barath

[zanzibarbob7]

Marek,

Thanks for the download. Cost too please and I couldn't locate any help or tutorial files. It looks fairly straight forward but a video or two would help. Glad to see it's here.

[LouisJ]

Try this:
http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/ContentHighway.chm

[zanzibarbob7]

I get the help file but there are no active links yet. Guess I'll be patient.

[Marek Brandstatter]

Thomas (Zanzibarbob7) - I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "active links"?

The Help file is not yet integrated into the application - we plan to do this closer to final release. There should be enough "help" in the help file to get one started. We have also duplicated Content Highway's help on the www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/) web site.

If there's any aspect of the program which you feel is inadequately documented, just ask. :)

[Marek Brandstatter]

Proverbial question - how much is the cost?
Somewhere between $149 and $349 but we will only finalise pricing closer to actual release date.

[LouisJ]

-- Updated --

[sjsl]

Tried to open Beta and got about 25 lines of errors. The main title was "Unhandled Expression"

[LouisJ]

-- Updated --

[Marek Brandstatter]

Just to clarify the Content Highway installation process:

Step 1 - Register at

http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/ContentHighwayRegistration.aspx (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/ContentHighwayRegistration.aspx)

You will receive a download link by email for Content Highway's .msi installation file (13 MB). This is version 1005.

Step 2 - Download the .msi file and run the install.

Step 3 - Download the latest update .zip file (760 Kb) - currently version 1008 - and overwrite ...\Content Highway.exe

We plan in the next day or two to update the .msi installation file to include the latest updates.

The help file must be downloaded separately at:

http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/ContentHighway.chm (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/files/ContentHighway.chm) (2 MB)

[LouisJ]

-- Updated --

[LouisJ]

Content Highway Beta (build 1009) FULL Install msi (10.5 MB) is now available via the Register link.

ContentHighwayRegistration (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/ContentHighwayRegistration.aspx)

WARNING for EXISTING USERS

For now Content Highway requires an Uninstall (Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs) prior to performing a new install. The current uninstall procedure will delete all files including Content Highway's database file. You therefore need to backup the database file before performing the uninstall. This is an oversight on our part and future installs will not require that you backup the database.

To install this version:

1. Back up your current database by copying the file ...\Program Files\DigitalBuildingSolutions\Content Highway Beta\Data\Project.mdb to a safe location.

2. Uninstall the current version by using 'Control Panel - Add and Remove Programs'.

3. Install the new version.

4. Restore the database by copying Project.mdb back to the ...\Data folder.

[bsuccar]

Hello and thanks for the good work. I have moved the Project.mdb then uninstalled the older version using CCleaner. Upon installation of the newer version I received an 'Unhandled Exception' message...See attached.
Bilal

[LouisJ]

Does the file: HashListControl.dll exist in your \Content Highway Beta\ folder?

[bsuccar]

No. I've deleted the whole folder after the uninstall. It had only the .chm in it.

[LouisJ]

Try this:
Backup your database and also your .chm file
Uninstall (using CCleaner)
Delete the ..\Program Files\DigitalBuildingSolutions folder
Install the latest build (msi file dated 2006/12/27 (10,593,792 bytes))
Check again if the HashListControl.DLL exists in the application folder.
and Run Content Highway.

[bsuccar]

That's what I've done this morning. That is...I had the first Beta installed which was working fine then downloaded the new 27.12.2006 build...unistalled the old version...deleted the folder...tried installing the build...received the error message.
I no longer have the first-released build to repeat the process as suggested (I think).

[LouisJ]

Bilal

We're emailing you directly regarding this problem

[bsuccar]

The update is working now...Thanks for your rapid assistance.

[LouisJ]

Catalog Editor ( build 21566 ) for Content Highway Beta ( Build 1009 ) available

CatalogEditor_21566.zip (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/updates/CatalogEditor_21566.zip)

1. Close Catalog Editor.
2. Unzip the file into and overwrite
C:\Program Files\DigitalBuildingSolutions\Content Highway Beta\CatalogEditor.exe


Version: 2558.21566 Date: 02/01/2007
FIX: Catalog Editor exception appears on Catalog Files (.txt) containing empty rows

[LouisJ]

Content Highway Beta ( Build 1011 ) available

ContentHighway_1011.zip (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/updates/ContentHighway_1011.zip), FolderManager_1001.zip (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/updates/FolderManager_1001.zip), ProjectManager_1001.zip (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/updates/ProjectManager_1001.zip)

These are the Content Highway.exe, Folder Manager.exe and Project Manager.exe files only. A full install is required initially.

1. Close Content Highway.
2. Unzip the files into and overwrite
C:\Program Files\DigitalBuildingSolutions\Content Highway Beta\Content Highway.exe, Folder Manager.exe and Project Manager.exe

Version: 0.1011 Date: 03/01/2007
FIX: On some systems, the Revit Session is not available

Version History (http://www.digitalbuildingsolutions.com/contentversions.aspx)