Adding your office manual to Revit

[STHRevit]

Does anyone know if you can add your own office manual to Revit for reference by staff. If so how can this be done?
What we were hoping is to perhaps have it as an external plug-in or linked to the help file in some way>

Any thoughts or ways to do this?

[BigBadBIM]

Does anyone know if you can add your own office manual to Revit for reference by staff. If so how can this be done?
What we were hoping is to perhaps have it as an external plug-in or linked to the help file in some way>

Any thoughts or ways to do this?

One idea that we have been kicking around, is to use the URL parameter that is in ALL Revit families to link to a "Mini- Manual" that documents how to use that particular family.

Not really what you were looking for, but a step...

[STHRevit]

Thats sounds like a very good alternativet though.
It would certainly be a time saver, having access to the exact bit of information when required. I think we will also look into this.

Thanks for teh reply. Great idea

[Scott D Davis]

Under Help, you can Add Search Location, and add in a path for your office manual. Then when you Search, your own documents will be searched and returned as results along with the help menu.

[JohnnyFortune]

ditto on the request. I would really like to have a simple link from a button in the add-in's that opens up our PDF manual for users to have quick access but I don't currently posess the programming skills to accomplish that.

[STHRevit]

Hi Scott,
I will look into that, sounds like it could be a solution for us.

Thanks for the reply.

[TroyGates]

When I was a consultant helping companies setup Revit in their offices, I suggested using a legend in the template file and having it the view that is opened when a new project is started. The legend would contain information about whats in the template, network locations, addresses for Revit related websites, etc. Its a nice intro page for people when they are starting a project, but also its in the project so later on they can refer back to it.

[peterjegan]

We do it like this- in a C# add-in:

This opens up a web page (our office web-page-based help.)


string q = Convert.ToChar(34).ToString();
string cmdLine = q + "iexplore.exe" + q;
string destFile = q + "J:\\WIDocs\\Technology\\Revit Help\\Default.htm" + q;
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(cmdLine, destFile);


This opens up a PDF (our shortcut key list)


string q = Convert.ToChar(34).ToString();
string cmdLine = q + "AcroRd32.exe" + q;
string destFile = q + "J:\\WIDocs\\Technology\\Revit Help\\docs\\Short_Keys_2010_STD_Alpha.pdf" + q;
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(cmdLine, destFile);


The line "string q = Convert..." allows you to pass a double-quote to the "Process.Start" command- every other thing I have tried will strip the quotes and "Process.Start" doesn't like that. You may need to add "using System.Diagnostics;" to your code- I can't remember.

[peterjegan]

Just a clarification: what I showed in my previous post will work, but is more complicated than necessary.

I was reading a C# reference manual and ran across the section on escape characters. I was escaping my slash but never thought to try the quote. This also works with fewer lines.




string cmdLine = "\"AcroRd32.exe\"";
string destFile = "\"J:\\WIDocs\\Technology\\Revit Help\\docs\\Short_Keys_2010_EXT_Cat.pdf\"";
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(cmdLine, destFile);

[STHRevit]

wow. Thanks Peter.
Now I just have to figure out how all this works and where to put what.

Does this create an icon in the external tolls menu on the ribbon?

Cheers

[peterjegan]

Yes, it will display as an add-in on your menu- varies a little between 2009 and 2010, but it is basically the same.
Here is what I suggest to get started:
Download the Software Development Kit (SDK).
Download the free Microsoft Visual C# Express Edition-2005 for Revit 2009 or 2008 for Revit 2010. (I suggest using C# because there are ten times as many samples in C# as in Visual Basic.)
The SDK contains a bunch of samples- one is called "Hello World." Open "Hello World.sln" with the Visual C# Express Edition. In "Command.CS," find and replace the one line that says "MessageBox.Show("Hello World");" with the three lines above, changed to point to a file on your system. "Build" it to create the file called "HelloWorld.dll."
Copy "HelloWorld.dll" to your "C:\Program Files\....Revit\Program" folder. Add these lines to your Revit.ini:

[ExternalCommands]
ECCount=1
ECName1=Hello World (CS)
ECClassName1=Revit.SDK.Samples.HelloWorld.CS.Command
ECAssembly1=HelloWorld.dll
ECDescription1=Display Hello World.

In Revit, "HelloWorld (CS)" should now display your office manual.

Don't "fix" anything (change names) until you get it to work. Once it works, put a copy of "HelloWorld.dll" in a safe place and you can always return to it. Fix the names as you see fit, but if all you want is this one thing, change "ECName1=Hello World (CS)" to "ECName1=xyz Ofice Manual" and move on.