Windows 7 Libraries for Family searching

[nicholas_baum]

Is anyone using Windows 7 Libraries and indexing your Revit families?

I am not using Windows 7 on my computer yet but we have one machine in the office that I have briefly toyed with. It seems to me that the ability to search multiple Revit libraries (OOTB library and company Library, etc...) would be very helpful in finding a particular family.

I have heard that the Windows 7 and Revit thumbnails do not play nicely but if this were ever fixed it would be a great step forward in managing Revit family content.

Any thoughts?,
Nick
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Nicholas Baum LEED AP
Chaleff & Rogers, Architects
Water Mill, NY 11976
p- 631 726-4477
f- 631 726-4478
www.chaleffandrogers.com

[patricks]

I posted this back when we were using 2010 with Win7:

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=113181

It had to do with old versions of family files - when clicking on one it would crash WinExp, but disabling thumbnail previews in Windows prevented the crash. Bad thing is that now I can't view thumbnail previews of anything else like images, etc., either.

Not sure how it works in 2011, haven't tried turning thumbnails back on.

[ron.sanpedro]

I posted this back when we were using 2010 with Win7:

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=113181

It had to do with old versions of family files - when clicking on one it would crash WinExp, but disabling thumbnail previews in Windows prevented the crash. Bad thing is that now I can't view thumbnail previews of anything else like images, etc., either.

Not sure how it works in 2011, haven't tried turning thumbnails back on.

2011 fixes this. As far as I can tell whatever garbage dll was causing the problem is now fixed and works right with even old family files.

Gordon

[nicholas_baum]

Thanks for the replies. I did see that thread. I am glad to hear that the thumbnail issue is resolved.

Is anyone using the search function in windows explorer for finding certain family files?

Nick

[patricks]

2011 fixes this. As far as I can tell whatever garbage dll was causing the problem is now fixed and works right with even old family files.

Gordon

What if 2010 is still installed on my system in addition to 2011? I believe that files double-clicked in explorer open in 2011 by default.

[ron.sanpedro]

What if 2010 is still installed on my system in addition to 2011? I believe that files double-clicked in explorer open in 2011 by default.

I think that 2011 replaces the preview generating dll, which is a shared component. So 2010 would then use it as well, and thus produce viable previews. Actually Revit doesn't use the dll, Windows does. It is just that the dll that is installed with 2011 is the non broken one. I wonder what would happen if 2010 was installed after 2011 for some reason. Perhaps someone at Autodesk could verify?
In any case, we still have 2010 installed, and even a little 2009 in use, and I have not seen any preview based problems in months.

Gordon

[patricks]

Awesome, yeah I changed it back and *whew* it's nice to see previews again!

[twiceroadsfool]

Our previews all work fine on Win7, EXCEPT: If the family was ORIGINALLY saved (during the first save) while in the DEFAULT 3D View. Those families do not display previews. If we do a save as OVER the family, while in 3D View 1, they are fine. We can then switch it back to {3D} and save again, and the preview is fine. It just cant be in that view when the file is first saved. (Drag a copy doesnt count).

What odd behavior...

[martijnderiet]

Same problem as Aaron... Well: at least it doesn't crash and burn.
I use the Win7 search all the time. Love it.