Top Six for Revit 6

[Scott Hopkins]

The top six things I am hoping for in Revit 6.0

6. AutoCAD style window/crossing selection – a personal luxury item.
5. Project Browser subcategories
4. Speed! – make it go faster.
3. Parameter improvements – on/off, max/min, lockable, hierarchy, etc.
2. Spellchecker
1. Keyboard shortcuts to dialog boxes – I hate the Element Properties box!

These are just my personal favorites. I left out a few of the biggies like an API. It would be interesting to hear other people’s top six.

[mtogni]

Weel said! SPEED & Parameters Improvements!!!!!!!!

[hand471037]

1. Two-Way ODBC connectivity, or baring that, the ability to have shared perimeters reference information outside of Revit, i.e. a sepirate database or spreadsheet.
2. Export to 3DS; or at the very least export 'by material' to a DXF/DWG format for easyer exporting of Revit models to 3D programs.
3. Some solution for multipule design options beyond currently available workarounds / 'save-as'.
4. Ability to crop schedules within sheets.
5. Make color fill legends have Type perimeters beyond color (i.e. can specifiy the size of text & boxes).
6. Set middle mouse button to aid in 3D navigation, in that the 'orbit' view command to orbit currently selected object when in 3D, when nothing is selected it references the scene center; double clicking the middle mouse button when something is selected centers & zoom extents upon selected objects, when nothing is selected zoom extents whole scene.

[Arnel Aguel]

1. Speed improvement
2. File linking improvement - automatic sub-object color id assignment same as ADT features
3. Structural elements enhancement - for structural detailing
4. Drawing capability enhancement
5. Lofting and NURBS features
6. Keyboard and mouse shortcuts

[beegee]

Arnel,

Re your item 6. There's quite a few keyboard shortcuts there already. What do you want to add ?

[Arnel Aguel]

Well ok, if you allow me to add one more beegee, i think i will add

7. Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Building system to be included

[beegee]

I know the Waltham lads are working real hard.

Just wonder if they can shoehorn all that into R6, by early December.

Course, R6.1, now thats a whole other ball game !!!

[gregcashen]

Well ok, if you allow me to add one more beegee, i think i will add

7. Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Building system to be included

I think he meant, "what do yoy want to add to the keyboard shortcuts functions per your request number 6 above?"

[Martin P]

1. Drafting view and drafting tool improvements, a large range of wishes - and frankly I am bored asking to get this basic stuff! but generally making it easier to 2D with Revit (eg switch off/on temporary dims, transparent hatch, ellipse, scale tool, export drafting view to detail family...... etc etc etc etc etc)

2. Structural tools improved (beams not magnetically snapping, fix the display bugs etc)

3. fix (not)snapping and aligning bug with linked Rvt files and loaded components in families.

4. A new family that is used as a loaded component in familiy creation, and can be freely rotated etc etc.....

5. A new family for detail sweeps

6. Place a view on more than one sheet!! even if though they would have to stay exactly the same scale and crop boundary I would use this all the time, I could have A4 sheets set up A3, A1 planning stage, construction stage etc etc etc

[gregcashen]

1. Improved structural tools, including automatic framing tools for walls, roof and floors; no more automatic aligning and snapping of structural elements, or rather, let them snap, but then let me specify offsets in the 3 axes as instance parameters; connection families for steel, wood...

2. Project parameters...i.e. I can place a dimension in the project such as "Beam spacing" and then set multiple grids up with that spacing and I only have to change the value of the parameter to change all of the beam spacings. I know this can be done with EQ constrained spacings but this is a very simple example...I would use this all of the time to set up floor plans...it also allows for EQ constrained dimensions of non-adjacent elements.

3. Improved 2D drafting tools, including ellipses and other basic geometric tools, stretch, scale, end locking of ref planes similar to grids and levels...

4. Workspace customization...I want to be able to customize right click settings and all of the screen elements such as the project browser organization, initial settings of many of the functions, selection methods, etc.

5. Family export from projects!! Even in-place families!

6. Improved text functions...spell check, alignment/locking of text entities, constrain the leader to lock to the element being called out (an on/off option in properties) so that if the model changes after the text has been placed, text will not lose the changed elements...

[sbrown]

Well theres a lot of small items on my wishlist, but really a live or die wishlist item is for worksets and groups to actually work and work together.

One man an 2 man projects(not even 2 man) can go smoothly, but as soon as you put more people on the team watch the clock hands spin while you save to central, relinquish worksets, reload worksets and then crash.

Now put some groups into the mix and prepare to send your files to the revit development team and find another job to work on. You may have over 2 gigs of data they may want to see. I'm not kidding either.

So please revit I will wait for all else if you just make worksets and groups usable.

[gregcashen]

Look ma! Our wishes were answered! :wink:

[sbrown]

Worksets have been greatly enhanced. Groups however I see no change, I've been working with a stair tower and anytime I make a change it says I can't because there is another instance of the group... huh, isnt the point of groups to update multiple instances at one time.

Keep groups at the top of the list please Revit.

Great work on 6.0, The repeating detail component is my current favorite.(well workset borrowing is on the real top of the pile).

A note to the developers, Think unit plans, unit plans, unit plans. How can we do them for use in a hotel tower. I have many workaround, Thanks Phil R. But they are just that workarounds. We need to create a typical unit plan with all the fixin's(furniture, plumbing, walls, doors, etc.) and be able to copy, mirror, rotate it all over the place, I'm thinking once a group is made it becomes "dumb" like a linked rvt, except the data is all there for scheduling.

[jbalding48677]

To add to Scott's request...

Beyond units, we need a typical floor tool that might just reference the "master level" for info, but schedule etc as if it were there.

[beegee]

I liked the idea that surfaced during AU, of using RVT linked files more extensively. I havn't tried it yet, and I'm sure there are drawbacks, but what about using a unit plan linked in to a "shell" plan, so that it can be copied, mirrored, rotated etc ? And still amended only one time in its own file.

Biggest problem is that you can still only link one layer deep. ( I haven't seen anything in sixoh to the contary .... )

[jbalding48677]

When you link a file you are only getting the geometry and not any of the data. With that in mind we could not schedule any of the items in the unit plan or floors mentioned above. We are, however, looking into linking items that we would not normally schedule, structural slabs, columns, site, etc.

[beegee]

Yes, I realise you can't fully schedule, but with the 6.0 formula schedules, it might be feasible, ( for small multi residential... not WATG size hotels ) to use a "unit number multiplier" to get the correct totals in a schedule.

Just a thought.

[jbalding48677]

We are trying that, but have run into obstacles. (with the doors at least). We will continue to try, we won't give up, we'll never give up!!! (Jimmy V modified)

[Gerhard]

Hi Scott

With German as mother tong, I do sometimes having problems with certain specific words used in the forum. So also with:


A note to the developers, Think unit plans, unit plans, unit plans. How can we do them for use in a hotel tower. I have many workaround

What exactly is a unit plan?

Regards

Gerhard

[gregcashen]

A unit plan represents the floor plan for one typical unit of a multi-unit project.

[Steve_Stafford]

or said another way, consider his project, a hotel. Naturally, the room plans will be similar or perhaps exactly the same from floor to floor. Unit simply means common element(s). So cabinent layouts could be a unit, an entire floor could be a unit. Hope this helps, nice job in the foreign tongue, wish I could do as well!

[christopher.zoog51272]

Worksets have been greatly enhanced. Groups however I see no change, I've been working with a stair tower and anytime I make a change it says I can't because there is another instance of the group... huh, isnt the point of groups to update multiple instances at one time.

Keep groups at the top of the list please Revit.

Great work on 6.0, The repeating detail component is my current favorite.(well workset borrowing is on the real top of the pile).

A note to the developers, Think unit plans, unit plans, unit plans. How can we do them for use in a hotel tower. I have many workaround, Thanks Phil R. But they are just that workarounds. We need to create a typical unit plan with all the fixin's(furniture, plumbing, walls, doors, etc.) and be able to copy, mirror, rotate it all over the place, I'm thinking once a group is made it becomes "dumb" like a linked rvt, except the data is all there for scheduling.

Scott,

Is this an upgraded project? or a fresh one? I wonder that would even make a difference. :?

I've just upgraded one of our big apartment buildings that still use groups for unit plans, but i haven't mess around them yet. I'll let you know my findings after i put them through there paces. A major redesign just landed on my desk so, it should be a good test.

I'm also gearing up to start a new 100 room hotel project, so I can test my starting fresh theory.

I have to agree with scott here, revit. Groups that work for unit plans is my number one request right now!!!

Personally, I'm loving the gray out non active worksets button!!! This is saving me a ton of time getting things on the right worksets.

Z.

[sbrown]

Brand new 6.0 project. I can't even switch out groups properly still. I really don't see any change in groups. So stick to your tips and tricks on using groups.

I've found that you can't align and lock anything within a group either. for example in my stair tower I aligned the stair to the ext. wall so if the wall moved the stair would follow, it workes fine in the original tower, but if you try to place a new instance of the tower it tells you constraints can't be satisfied. Oh well, hopefully 6.1 will be the groups release.

This really is a high demand issue with revit in my opinion, I'm sure z will agree, wether you are doing condos, hotels, assisted living, etc. You must be able to create a typical bathroom, closet, stair tower, unit, etc and be able to modify it in one location.

Chris, let me know if you find any good procedures or new items with groups in 6.0

[sbrown]

Beegee, the linked file idea would be great if schedule data could be extracted, or if the linked file could be exploded at some point. But right now you would have way too much clean up(wall joins etc.) And no useable data.

I like the file size reduction by using linked files but its not "the revit way" Groups just need some more work, then I think they will be the right tool.

We will see. There are allways workarounds.