Publishing Hyperlinks in PDF Documents

[Batman]

Does anyone know of a method to be able to publish, in PDF Documents, hyperlinks assigned to certain objects in Revit?

Is there some API add on or other proprietary application that could do this?

Certainly it shouldn't be too hard right?

Any help appreciated, thanks.

[dhurtubise]

Its an interesting idea.
I'm assuming we're talking about the hyperlink in the family right? If so i dont think so. You could open a schedule in excel and make them a URL then print though.

[jsteinhauer]

I think he wants references (Elevation, Section, View References) to be live in the pdfs. In the Print Setup there is a check box for (View Links in Blue). I have never tried this, and I'm not sure it will work. You might be able to get them to work by publishing DWF's, and printing PDF's from there.

Cheers,
Jeff S.

[Batman]

Actually I want objects (ie. any Revit item) in drawings to link to other information such as specifications and other external data.

Thanks for help so far but really need to find a way to do this so appreciate any help.

[jsteinhauer]

Oh that is easy. You need to use the URL Type Parameter, or create a URL parameter. This can be done at the project level and assigned to as many categories as you want. You can have an absolute path or a relative path. I prefer relative, because then all you have to do is have a sub-folder in the same folder as your Revit model. You can link that URL parameter to almost any file format.

Hope that helps,
Jeff S.

[damon.sidel]

Does this example scenario work?

I take a chair family, add a URL Type Parameter to it, place it in my model, print a plan to PDF showing that chair.
Then open that PDF and click on the chair it will take me to a designated URL?!

So far, I've only been able to create a tag with a URL that works in a PDF. And the tag shows the WHOLE URL. I'm sure that's not what we're going for.

I guess I'm asking you, jsteinhauer, to be a little more specific about how one uses the URL Type Parameter.

Just found this: http://www.pinebush.com/products/hyperpdf/index.html?utm_source=60intro&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=prev_evals

[jsteinhauer]

Sorry Damon, but no I don't think it does. Although I've never tried it, I'm pretty sure it only hyperlinks within Revit a object's properties, not through a print. I guess I misunderstood the OP's intent.

[Batman]

Thanks jstein but I am after exactly what Damon has described, thanks for iterating Damon.

I tried the method you described jstein but it doesn't seem to provide any link through any kind of drawings. The closest thing to hyperlinking I have found is that sheet views reference one another when publishing to DWF which is cool but nowhere near as cool as being able to link supplier data to a piece of equipment or specification for some built component to an external source on the Internet for example.

Damon, are you aware if that PDF creator mentioned above offers more functionality for these sorts of links then Adobe Acrobat does?

Really seems quite miserable that this all seems reasonably feasible (and has been for many years now) yet we haven't seen anything introduced into Revit to allow this. By very essence building information modelling should support this sort of functionality.

Really appreciate all your help guys, Thankyou.

Maybe a solution lies in a third party app...

[jsteinhauer]

I tried just for the S&G to export out a floor plan DXF, to see if element properties were available for selection. They're not. Could you export out an equipment schedule with the URL parameters listed. That would be one way to access & use the data outside of Revit.

Just a thought,
Jeff S.

[damon.sidel]

Damon, are you aware if that PDF creator mentioned above offers more functionality for these sorts of links then Adobe Acrobat does?

I don't know. I'd probably just email the people at Pinebush Technologies to find out.