What upsets your workflow.

[barathd]

I am sure that each and everyone of us has been working at break neck speed ... ... things could not be going better and then all of a sudden we get stopped dead in our tracks and hours pass with very little being accomplished.

What do you find to be the most disturbing process in REVIT that upsets your workflow?

I don't know if I can put my finger on a single item they seem to change from job to job. Any how here are a few:

1. Walls joins will not do what you want them to do.
2. Planes of complex roofs will not totally align.
3. Model is not accurate enough to accept detail components correctly. (i.e. roof truss heel heights)
4. Unable to dimension non orthogonal objects correctly.
5. Annotation tools or lack of them.
6. Creating new families in the middle of a project.
7. Topography and site tools lack flexibility - at times totally futile.
8. Scheduling - just too ... too much effort at times for something very simple.
9. Drawing notes - badly need a descent text editor and spreadsheet.
10. Sweeps - many problems i.e. rowlock cutting curtain panels.

Overall seems relatively easy to create the model however to create good clean accurate sections and details with good documentation and schedules can be cumbersome.

These are just a few of the items that can consume an inordinate amount of MY time. Seems like hours are totally wasted.

Perhaps we could expand upon this to give the programmers a better idea of what we really need from them to make our work a little more pleasant and productive.

[eivendur1]

- the sluggish UI,

- unnecessary redraws, i.e. when, while in visibiltysettings and switching from model to annotation overrides without overriding anything (sorry if this is confusing - i'm on a german revit trying to remember what things are called) without hitting apply there should be no reason for a redraw.

- hitting in keyboardshortcuts, waiting and finally realise i was too quick for revit... again

its these small holdups, which annoy me and disrupt my flow most

[Kbosch.184344]

I don't like to keep pushing the minus signs in your project browser on the left of your screen. In my opinion it would be nice that this automaticaly closes when you haven't used a view or sheet for a short while.

[patricks]

I don't like to keep pushing the minus signs in your project browser on the left of your screen. In my opinion it would be nice that this automaticaly closes when you haven't used a view or sheet for a short while.

ahhhh no that would annoy the snot outta me. *working for awhile* HEY where did that view go??? Drat, gotta click the + again *grumble grumble grumble*

The UI already jumps around enough, no need for the PB to be jumping around on its own.

[Joef]

What upsets my workflow? The telephone; AUGI ; Coffee!!!

[brethomp]

Slow Sync With Central
Sluggish UI
Ribbon buttons jumping around (drunken leprechaun mode)

[ejc]

Not being able to plot a title block because there is an image in it!

ejc

[sthedens]

Creating families (doors and windows) that are flexible enough for designers to use, yet meet all the needs of production such as Plans, Elevations, Sections, Legend Components, Schedules...

Can someone please come up with a better Railing interface!

[BDR_Architect]

- Stairs, railings

[twiceroadsfool]

In order of MY importance rating:

1. No Nested Family Type parameters.
2. No native curving Line Based Families.
3. "Number of Clicks to access certain things." (Enter viewport, edit group, edit sketch, edit family, properties (type), properties (VP)) Many of these could have much more elegant solutions.
4. "Copy" behavior in Copy-Monitor. Actually, CM in general. This is one of the BEST CONCEPTS in Revit, BAR NONE. But the way it works SUCKKKKS. This tool needs to be designed with people who use it all the time. PERIOD.
5. Hard coded Family Issues: Shared/Unshared display inconsistancies combined with inability to make new catagories. Fixing either/or would make life grand.
6. Railings and Stairs. (In many cases i make them out of families... I have to to show design intent).
7. Further segregate Components. Doors have their own button. So do windows. But Specialty Equip is the same button as furniture. But then when i place furn, i can only swap it out for other furn. What the heck??
8. User Interface, and i DO NOT MEAN THE RIBBON. I mean all the things that are minor that would make Revit FLY.
-Non-modal/option-for-palettes for: Instance AND Type properties, View Properties, etc.
-Consistancy in the ribbon. (i personally like the proposed alteraings on ITF blog)
-Speed. Make it haul ***.
-Better right click menu. Delete shouldnt be near ANYTHING. More options here would be great. Some things are redundant if the other solutions above were implemented.
9. Site tools.
10. More control over hard coded items. Broad, but true. :)

Thats my top ten, though i adore working in this program every day.

[cliff collins]

One word (twice) Sketchup Sketchup

[Jun Austria]

Slow render....

[patricks]

Speaking of railing interface... a graphical interface or some sort of preview would be cool, so that you don't have to exit out every time just to see what the heck your changes did to the rail structure.

[sthedens]

Allow users to modify railings in a similar manner to curtain walls. Have baluster guidelines that work like curtain wall grid lines. Allow baluster panels at end conditions to be tweaked fill properly. Allow baluster guidelines to be non-vertical (perp. to stringer). Provide an easier, more elegant means to handle (shameless punster) top and bottom of stair conditions for railing extensions and returns.

[nsinha73]

Not being able to plot a title block because there is an image in it!

ejc


Creating families (doors and windows) that are flexible enough for designers to use, yet meet all the needs of production such as Plans, Elevations, Sections, Legend Components, Schedules...

Can someone please come up with a better Railing interface!


- Stairs, railings

Yes Yes O Yes!! That uprintable Image, Railings, Stairs and Ramps.....they give headache to set up right. Otherwise all is good.

[dfriesen]

UI oddities like:

I want to change a line width of a line style.

Click on Manage tab.
Click on Settings.
Click on Line Styles (woah! I see that Line styles are finally expanded!! That's the kind of UI improvement we needed!!!!)
Click in the Line Weight space, where I know a drop-down arrow will appear. No? Hmmm...
Click there again. (Ah-HA! There's the arrow. (now why didn't that drop the list so I could choose with my next pick...)
Click yet again - there's the list!
Now I choose the weight I want.
Click OK.Clicks # 5 & 6 are the equivalent to stubbing your toe on an unevenness in the sidewalk. It doesn't prevent you from getting where you're going, but it makes you resent that sidewalk a little more each time it happens. I don't like resenting the software that I choose to make my living with.

If there were a dozen or so improvements to the workflow to clean up nagging idiosyncrasies like that, it would go a long way to making a bunch of happy users.

[Kbosch.184344]

Spot elevations ...the horror.

[patricks]

Click on Line Styles (woah! I see that Line styles are finally expanded!! That's the kind of UI improvement we needed!!!!)


huh? The Line Styles dialog box has always looked like this, since at least before Revit 6.1.

I see what you mean about the multiple clicks, though. First just highlights that line, second highlights the weight number so you could type a different number if you want to, instead of dropping down the box. But IMHO the box should drop down on the first click if you click where the down arrow should be.

Also looks like this has become more of a wish-list or "things that should be fixed" thread. There's already a few of those in Out There.

[barathd]

Seems to me - near everything needs to be fixed or at least improved upon even if not by much.

[Kevin Janik]

Seems to me - near everything needs to be fixed or at least improved upon even if not by much.

It's like finishing up the last 5% of a set of construction documents. You spend a great amount of time, coordinating everything to make everything work right and depict exactly what is needed to build the building. You don't throw everything out and head a new direction but you need to get in and really work back and forth through the many documents to make sure everything is coordinated and you did not miss anything.

The same should have been true with the interface in Revit. It was pretty good but it needed the finish, polish, coordination, verification the right features were there and available and then it would have been really good!

Now we have stepped back many versions and will have to wait for many more to get things really working right. In our business we can not afford that on our jobs but maybe others can in this economy??? But I am not sure!

Kevin

[Wes Macaulay]

UI oddities like:

I want to change a line width of a line style.
:shock: I'd never even THOUGHT of that before. Now I'm frustrated by all those clicks that ought not to be there!

I agree with stairs and railings -- that whole business needs to be easier, and yet provide greater design freedom. (Yeah, I know -- good luck with that)
The CAD export dialog is mildly incomprehensible
Switching from project to family to project -- those waits kill my headspace!
I agree with Dick that sometimes you get to detailing and parts of the model in the view are no good for detailing -- so the view ends up being a hack of 3D and 2D.
Dialog boxes five levels deep: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK... uh, now what the heck was I doing before this??
Need better text tools so specs can be brought in from Word more elegantly
Having to build a 3D/2D family you don't have and need. I can build them -- no problem, but I may lose an hour in the process

[barrie.sharp]

I agree with most but the thing that gets me all of the time is having to use the = for a formula. I'm adding a string of dims from a survey to get a total length and Revit spits "Enter a value or a formula with '='." which is a total waste of time. I think the use of mathematical symbols hints towards my intention. If it's there as a safeguard, a popup with "Yes/No" could confirm the entry (with a little tick box to say don't show this message again). Now that IMHO is one of the most pointless things in Revit.

(...and breathe)

[gbrowne]

View range stops me dead. It confuses me terribly.. If only it could be controlled graphically or something...

[twiceroadsfool]

I agree with most but the thing that gets me all of the time is having to use the = for a formula. I'm adding a string of dims from a survey to get a total length and Revit spits "Enter a value or a formula with '='." which is a total waste of time. I think the use of mathematical symbols hints towards my intention. If it's there as a safeguard, a popup with "Yes/No" could confirm the entry (with a little tick box to say don't show this message again). Now that IMHO is one of the most pointless things in Revit.

(...and breathe)

Except for all the people who type "four feet five and a half inches" as 4'-5 1/2" it could read it as 4 feet minus five and one half inches.

[patricks]

Except for all the people who type "four feet five and a half inches" as 4'-5 1/2" it could read it as 4 feet minus five and one half inches.

Yeah, I have ALWAYS used the hyphen to separate feet and inches when typing dimensions. I NEVER type the ' or " symbols when entering dimensions. I type that dimension above as 4-5.5 pretty quickly, all on the numpad. I sure wouldn't want it to be subtracting.

And yeah, the CAD export dialog is UNREAL!!! What the heck is that?! When you try to export a number of views/sheets, it lists them in some random order so that you ALWAYS have to resort them. :mad:

[barrie.sharp]

Except for all the people who type "four feet five and a half inches" as 4'-5 1/2" it could read it as 4 feet minus five and one half inches.

Touche! Im in the UK so I work in metric. If you didn't use the minus symbol you'd agree with me ;)

[twiceroadsfool]

And yeah, the CAD export dialog is UNREAL!!! What the heck is that?! When you try to export a number of views/sheets, it lists them in some random order so that you ALWAYS have to resort them. :mad:

Dont feel bad, i didnt notice this either... But thats because the NEW export dialogue lets you pick how its listing the sheets. Click on the "Sheet number" header, and it will sort them by sheet number.

I didnt notice that til it was pointed out to me either. But MAN that new dialogue sucks!

[jarosa]

The UI is killing me. Besides the sluggish ribbon, the program slows to a crawl after about 40 minutes or so. The only solution is to close the program and restart. This never happened before 2010.
I can't ever get in a zone. I don't miss ACAD but I do miss those days when I was able to power draft. It was rewarding to knock out a ton of work in one sitting. I'm sure you know what I mean. You just were drafting without even thinking about it, using all the commands, making the program sing. I love Revit and would never go back, but I don't get Revit to sing, just obey.

[dpasa]

1. UI needs improvement
2. Not having decent modeling tools for misc content so I have to use other apps....Also some "modifiers" like Max to make smooth surfaces, fillet corners, and of course subobject handling... Νοt in the way mass modeling does, this is not good...
3. Imported objects are all dead so there is nothing we can do with them... Instead, this should be a translation of other formats to a revit compatible format...For example a cube imported as SAT can't become a revit solid... Maybe this is very difficult but very useful.
4. Important!!! Not being able to use Greek language for things like schedules and area categories..
5. Site tools are always a problem

[Martin P]

Cad export I agree is a very weird set up for a straight forward operation.

Save reminders annoy me a bit with 4 options to pick from every time - why? Can it not just be save or cancel or Autosave?... I expect almost 100% of users just switch it off. It also seems to be triggered by executing a command, ie it waits till you are in the middle of something before appearing... Cant it just work away in the background without having to pester and tempt me to just switch it off every time it appears? - And an option to simply Autosave would be very nice... I think I am just going to switch it off right now

[Jun Austria]

We are quick in coming up with a design in Revit. But when we hit "render" for interior perspective with a "Best" setting... this is the part where time stood still.

[eric.piotrowicz]

[quote=Martin P;1037633
Save reminders annoy me a bit with 4 options to pick from every time - why? Can it not just be save or cancel or Autosave?... I expect almost 100% of users just switch it off. It also seems to be triggered by executing a command, ie it waits till you are in the middle of something before appearing... Cant it just work away in the background without having to pester and tempt me to just switch it off every time it appears? - And an option to simply Autosave would be very nice... I think I am just going to switch it off right now[/quote]

What annoys me is that it always seems to pop up right when I'm in a groove getting a chunk of work done and knowing the whole time as soon as I finish this portion of work I will be saving. I find its like when people keep stopping by your desk every few minutes, sure it only takes a minute (less most time) but it keeps breaking my concentration and forcing me off task.

[STHRevit]

Definitely stairs, ramps and railings.

[Munkholm]

- Not being able to use batten insulation patterns in wall styles (Like ACA)
- Not being able to draw tapered insulation
- The lack og moddeling tools in the Family Editor

[davidcobi]

Troubleshooting and then reporting new bugs that popup when a new release of Revit comes out. Trying to figure workarounds for the bugs before Autodesk has posted their solution, which sometimes never happens.

Also, have to agree with wall intersections, railings, stairs, aligning roof elements properly.

Other things that upset my workflow are:
- Fixing developed models where elevations/levels were relocated improperly
- Adjusting individual Topo points one at a time along existing retaining wall (topo surface tool makes spikes along retaining wall lines when topo surface is generated from autocad survey. Most of our projects have existing retaining walls on hilly sites.

[DaveP]

People coming up to ask me "a quick question".
That's a guaranteed 20 minutes. :roll:

[davidcobi]

People coming up to ask me "a quick question".
That's a guaranteed 20 minutes. :roll:

I actually don't mind these interuptions. Helps me gauge the skill level of the users and can lead to interesting discussions on methodology when the questions come from advanced users.

[bregnier]

I agree, we've instituted a 5 minute rule at our office- if you can't figure it out after 5 minutes you ask someone who knows more...

[Scott Hopkins]

Large two dimensional drawings can be a huge problem in Revit. For example, as a large 2D site plan begins to grow, it will eventually come to a grinding slowdown. I think the cause may be because Revit is constantly looking for relationships between geometric shapes and gets overwelmed with large numbers. Yes there are a few work-arounds that can alleviate this problem somewhat, but it is safe to say that Revit's Achilles heal is large 2D drawings. It is a dirty little secret of Revit that no one wants to talk about.

[markusb]

Elevations!