Another new version of Revit, rant time...

[jsteinhauer]

It might be my skewed way of looking at things, but I think it would be easier in Revit to do this then in AutoCad for the simple reason that you can't go backwards versions in Revit like you can in ACAD. Mike, the problem with linking in Word is going to be coordinating test layout with sheet layout. Not that it's a bad idea, I just think it would be difficult. I am struggling to get support to get Revit DB Link working in my office, so a link with Word fall upon similar issues.

Cheers,
Jeff S.

[MikeJarosz]

A link would have to be provided by the brilliant coders at AD. They possess the source code and the ability to change it. It all depends on the elegance of their coding. I think the DB example is a case where the tool isn't very intuitive, and the work to connect it to Revit is more than most end users have the time and patience for. I'm thinking along the lines of drag and drop from Word into Revit.

I wrote an ACAD Visual Basic program that read all the title blocks from a drawing set and formatted them into a Word document. Our firm had decided that the drawings list, with complete issue history, belonged in the specs, not on a title drawing. A program is better than handmade lists because it can be updated -- daily if neccessary. How many Excel drawing lists have you seen that don't match the current dwg status? True, Revit has a pretty good drawing list procedure, but our decision was not to put the drawing list on any drawing at all. The program linking Revit and Word was actually fairly easy to write.

Come to think of it, what if Autodesk decided to incorporate specs into the Revit product line? AD is notorious for buying third party developers and absorbing them into their product line. What miracles could they perform with native Revit specs?

[david_peterson]

The ability to link specs to a revit model has already been done with product codes. We have a residential group in town that spent about 2yrs to fully develop it. They then associated that with an in-place cost. So you can walk into their show room. Look at one of the 40 starting designs they have. Request some small changes (maybe you wanted different cabinets, or you wanted to push a wall out 4 more feet), they adjust the revit model, and show you your new price. They then generate a material list from the model, create the P.O.'s from some 3rd party software, and by all the materials for your house.
They've combined a revit model with specs and a price (via an estimating software).

[MikeJarosz]

It sounds phenomenal. This is the sort of application of Revit that we should see more of, but it is still a third party application. I was musing about what Autodesk, with their resources, might do with construction specs in-house.

[David Harrington]

Well, take heart, the #1 wish for Revit Architecture at this moment is http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...ed-text-editor.

[david_peterson]

Well, take heart, the #1 wish for Revit Architecture at this moment is http://forums.augi.com/showthread.ph...ed-text-editor.

I just hope the factory is paying attention on this one. I spent time on their communispace board, and all I heard was Cloud, Cloud, Cloud. Nothing about what they plan to do to actually fix anything, just add more "features" that in my opinion don't always work and are only there to try to lure more people in to try and use it.

[Wanderer]

Regarding specs. I heard of a specwriter who wrote a requirement into the specs that the contractor bring sandwiches to the first job meeting. He said he did it to see if anyone at the contractor's office bothered to read the specs. It amazes me that some contractors ignore specs. I also know for sure that the lawyers read every word.

Heh, yeah, over the years, I slipped a couple of goofy things into my portion of our project specs, too...
Of course, the only people who call you about them are the ones that don't really need my quality control guidelines anyway, so, I gave up on my games, and just cry quietly into my coffee every time project closeout rolls around.

[david_peterson]

Heh, yeah, over the years, I slipped a couple of goofy things into my portion of our project specs, too...
Of course, the only people who call you about them are the ones that don't really need my quality control guidelines anyway, so, I gave up on my games, and just cry quietly into my coffee every time project closeout rolls around.

Now I know you would never do anything like this, but I've been on several projects now, where our client didn't give us any standards to go by, and then expected everything to match a new standard that they just came up with about 3yrs after we started the project and construction was nearing completion. Of course the other one is clients that required you to use Revit, but then require you're record documents to be completed in Autocad to their specific standard.
First question I ask on every project "What standard are we using." The sad response is "Don't worry about that, we'll just get some intern to convert all the drawings later on" or "Well to export from Revit you just need to push a button and you're done!" Couldn't be further from the truth.

[Wanderer]

Now I know you would never do anything like this, but I've been on several projects now, where our client didn't give us any standards to go by, and then expected everything to match a new standard that they just came up with about 3yrs after we started the project and construction was nearing completion. Of course the other one is clients that required you to use Revit, but then require you're record documents to be completed in Autocad to their specific standard.
First question I ask on every project "What standard are we using." The sad response is "Don't worry about that, we'll just get some intern to convert all the drawings later on" or "Well to export from Revit you just need to push a button and you're done!" Couldn't be further from the truth.

Wow, that sounds like some people who have worked on our project management staff... :-/

The materials and other deliverable specs produced by my department (facilities and engineering) only tend to change about every 5 years, and they're clearly dated. We do have projects finishing up now that are started before some of our last round went into effect, and that's what we accept.

Though, personally, while our standards say that any new projects over 5,000sq ft in size need to be rvt, I will accept dwg files so long as they're according to the old dwg standards. And, if they've got a project under that size and still want to use Revit, though they're not required to... I'll take that, too, and happily.

What irritates me is when our contractors have another customer that doesn't know what they're talking about, or doesn't use what they're given, etc and they just write off EVERY client as being that stupid or careless... it makes my job harder than it needs to be.

[David Harrington]

I just hope the factory is paying attention on this one. I spent time on their communispace board, and all I heard was Cloud, Cloud, Cloud. Nothing about what they plan to do to actually fix anything, just add more "features" that in my opinion don't always work and are only there to try to lure more people in to try and use it.

They certainly are aware of the request for text editing improvements/overhaul. But it is also key that we keep the pressure up. Get people to rank the wishes in the WLS, vote on the top 30, and prove to them that these are features crucial to users' needs. If 100 people say they want a new text editor, okay sure. But 1,000 or 10,000 say that? They pay much more attention.