keeping the drawings smart

[nrenfro]

Is their any form of two way communication between Revit and anything such as Excel or ODBC? We are finding that Revit is giving us much more control over the design process. As a result we are strengthen our ties with suppliers and relying less on builders to tell us what they can and can't get and install. A good example of what we would like to do involves window and door. We provide the supplies general window size and specification information. They then provide us actual unit, and specs. that their product can provide and at what price. Currently we have to update the drawing schedules manually which is a waist of time and allows for errors :oops: . If we could get the supplier to provide us a Excel or text files that we can use to update our schedules this redundancy could be eliminated. As far as I am aware this can not be done, but wouldn't it be cool?

[Dimitri Harvalias]

If you are using one supplier on a regular basis it might be worth your time to create a familty type library based on their standard unit sizes. They could provide that in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. All you have to do is make sure that the parameters you include in your family are the ones they provide (or vice versa? :? ) These could include currrent pricing information as well.
Using this method no changes would be requried since you're choosing from their standard catalogue.
As a side benefit, if you do a good job, you might be able to sell the library back to the supplier for them to distribute to other Revit users.

[nrenfro]

It is true that the number of window suppliers we work with is limited based on a number of variables such as price point, quality, geography... And I would not mind at all having a library of Revit Families for each suppliers. However, I may not know which supplier will be providing windows for a particular project until after the projects go's to bid. I rather work with a generic set of window families that could somehow read a external file with the proper dimensional information provided by the supplier.
I buy full heartily into the concept that all the building information resides in a single location. I don't see this happing unless Revit is able to pull in information from external sources. Double entry problems just open us up to liability issues whether its retyping schedule information or picking windows from pre-made families.

[christopher.zoog51272]

have a look at type catalogs. In theory it would seem possible to have an excel spread sheet (file from winodw manufacturer) drive a type parameter catalog txt file which in turn drives the window familiy geometry. I havn't really looked into this but with a little clever programing, it should be possible.

Take a look at Chris Y's windows-all manufacturers on rugi, they are driven by the catalogs of four major window manufactures. You would just need to figure out a way to get the data in the same format.

Z

[gregcashen]

get familiar with the concatenate(), left(), right(), mid() functions in excel, and you will be a lot closer to being able to turn any manufacturers excel spreadsheet into a useful type catalog. you could create a simple set of macros that took the mfr data and parsed it into a comma delimited format that would work in revit. it takes a bit of setting up, but would be worth it in the long run.

[GuyR]

I've been meaning to write this one as it's straight forward. Find attached zip with python script, Excel spreadsheet example,config file and example type catalogues generated by the python script.

It's rough but usable.

For the moment you need python http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.3.3/Python-2.3.3.exe and win32 http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pywin32/pywin32-200.win32-py2.3.exe?download to run the python script.

I'll wrap it as an executable this weekend for those that don't want to download the whole package.

The way it works is :
Each directory where you have type catalogues needs a different Excel file.
Each sheet of a workbook is a unique type catalog within this directory. The name of the sheet is the name of the type catalog.
The first row are the parameter names
The second row are the parameter types.
The third row are the parameter units.
For units just use mm,cm,in etc and the program adds the appropriate full name. eg mm gets written to the TC as millimeters.

The file spreadsheet_files.txt needs a list of all the spreadsheets you want processed (with full paths) and also the write directory for the type catalogues.

Run the script and it will generate/update all type catalogues.

This way you can store all the spreadsheets in one directory and write the typecatalogues to the appropriate directories where you keep your families.

HTH,

Guy

[frame]

I was trying to make this catalog work to no avail. Using Excel, and prescribed formatting, it simply does not generate the catalog properly.
Maybe I am missing something that you all have discovered on your own, if so, I'd be interested in knowing how you got it to work.
Catalog is for a noteblock.

[nrenfro]

ummm....
I tryed to open the keynotes-schedule.rfa file and got a
-this file was saved in a later version of revit...- error I am running 6.0

[rhys]

Me too thats good the factory have a new version of Revit already :wink:

[Steve_Stafford]

Aah...Greg must be using a newer build since he works at the "factory". Better try it on the same build we're using Greg. :D

[rhys]

if it wont open in 6 it must be a little more than just a new build lets start the v7 rumour

[gregcashen]

Alright, I'll start the rumor...It's TRUE! Despite all of thier denials, the Revit development team has gotten their hands on pre-alpha versions of new Revit versions 6.1, 6.5, 7.0, 7.1, 7.5, 8.0, 8.1, 8.5, 9.0. You heard it here first, the Revit Development Team is way ahead of us on this one!

Alright, I'm totally joking. Don't take me seriously. :wink:

[GuyR]

I was trying to make this catalog work to no avail. Using Excel, and prescribed formatting, it simply does not generate the catalog properly.

Oops a number of problems. I obviously didn't explain the .xls format well enough. Find attached a corrected .xls.

BUT, it still won't work. There are some issues exposed by this example which I need to address. So it still won't work even with the corrected spreadsheet.

Will post another update tonight, stay tuned.

Guy

ps: I don't know what you guys have been drinking but the latest build (20040114_2100) of V6 reads the .rfa:-)

[Steve_Stafford]

Mr. Frame works at the "factory" Guy so he's got the inside track on the next "version"...we'll just assume it's 6.1? He replaced the earlier incompatible file with a nice new compatible file.

[GuyR]

Ok, I can resolve all errors Frames spreadsheet kicks up except the " in text parameters. A great tester for parsing type catalogues.
I've tried all the ' " ',""","" combinations I can think of and none of them load correctly in Revit.

Can an imperial user post a type catalog with " in text parameters that works.

TIA,

Guy

[GuyR]

Totally rewritten to correctly parse Excel spreadsheets and convert to type catalogues. Much faster as well. I think I've addressed all the parse situations likely.

Parameter naming/type/units are defined as per the attached image.
One row for name,type,units. Units are defined by using the short-form ,mm,cm,m,in,ft .

As I said will build an .exe this weekend for those that don't want to download python. I've commented the code for those wanting to try and understand how I did it.

Attached zip has the rewritten .py script plus generated TC's to prove it works :-)

Guy

[christopher.zoog51272]

Awesome Guy! Thanks for putting this together. 8).

I can't wait to mess around with this, but alas, it will have to wait a bit, as deadlines are looming large :(

[nrenfro]

I have been playing with Guy's script and type catalogs in general and am loving these new tools. My question is if I load a family and a few types into a project and then reload the family with type catalogs should this update the family used in the drawing? For example if I that the keynote family posted above and place it into a drawing then go back and edit the description in the text file reload the family yada yada yada. I look at the properties if the family and the change I made in the text file is not reflected in the family.

BTW love the script Guy

[Scott Hopkins]

Guy,

Thank you - Good work! Although I have python (don't know how to use it yet) I am really looking forward to your exe file.

[GuyR]

My question is if I load a family and a few types into a project and then reload the family with type catalogs should this update the family used in the drawing?


You're right. Either delete the family and reload or change the type in the project.
This should at least update types if they haven't been modified in the project. Something else to add to the wishlist...

Guy

[christopher.zoog51272]

Guy, I've had a chance to play around with this, and I can't seem to get to work at all. I can't even replicate what you did by running it in the excel2TC directory. It must has something to do with the paths file. Is there any special trick to writing the input and output paths. I know that have to be absolute, but does that also mean no spaces as well?

thanks for your help, this looks soooo promising :D

[christopher.zoog51272]

tried it without spaces and it's still a no go. Here is the debug trace I got:

[code:1:d2e42d4378]Python 2.3.3 (#51, Dec 18 2003, 20:22:39) [MSC v.1200 32 bit (Intel)] on win32
Type "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.

****************************************************************
Personal firewall software may warn about the connection IDLE
makes to its subprocess using this computer's internal loopback
interface. This connection is not visible on any external
interface and no data is sent to or received from the Internet.
****************************************************************

IDLE 1.0.2 ==== No Subprocess ====
>>>
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "D:\Excel2TC\excel2TC.py", line 12, in ?
import win32com.client
ImportError: No module named win32com.client
>>> [/code:1:d2e42d4378]

Thanks for commenting the file, my python skills are so weak, it great to see a description of what's going on. 8)

[GuyR]

Chris,

Have you seen this thread?

http://www.zoogdesign.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2635

if you are trying to run from source you need the win32 python library from here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=78018

If you have this then there must be an installation problem with python or win32 because excel2TC can't find the win32 library?

BTW I find pythonwin an easier to use editor although you have to make sure you reload the imported modules before running sometimes.

HTH,

Guy

[christopher.zoog51272]

Chris,

Have you seen this thread?

http://www.zoogdesign.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2635



Guy

No I totally missed it :roll:

This is awesome thanks so much!

[Scott D Davis]

I'm curious about the Type catalogs and Keynotes. I'm missing something, though. How is this working?

You have an excel speradsheet that has all of your Keynotes for that particular project included in it. Then you run the scripting, and it converts the excel to a TXT type catalog? So now, when I place the Keynote Tag, the drop-down list has all of my keynote numbers preloaded so that I simply select the one I want? Or, when I select an object to place a keynote, the object already has a keynote number associated with it, so the tag automatically fills in, and then will display the proper information about that object in a schedule.

am I on the right track?

I really need keynotes to work, because we would use them almost always. What I need, is to place a keynote tag, and have the number automatically fill in. Then a schedule would be generated depending on what keynotes were used in that project. I would then place keynote schedules on sheets, and that schedule would only show the keynotes that were tagged in views on that particular sheet. Hope I'm making sense!

[gregcashen]

I requested back about 9 months ago to have all objects have a description associated with them that would automatically get called out with the keynote tag. Placing the same text over and over again seems silly in Revit. If we attach descriptions to the objects then just tag the description, the notes will all be the same and Scott will have his dream!

[aaronrumple]

...all objects should have:

1. Keynote
2. Note <short>
3. Remarks <long>

This includes materials, so you could tab to a sub-object inside a wall and keynote or note materials as wall as the wall itself.

The note and remark fields should support a linefeed and carriage return characters.

[GuyR]

Scott,


I'm curious about the Type catalogs and Keynotes. I'm missing something, though. How is this working?

The significance of the type catalog in the examples has more to do with it's nasty 'gotch ya' text strings for conversion than as an example of a working keynote type catalog.

From discussions with the factory people use keynotes in many ways. Some rigid, some want more flexible keynoting. I would suggest sending examples to them. It must be a curly one, I can remember discussing current keynote limitations back when Revit was on their own.

I would also like to have text notes I can trigger external events with or at the very least exported via ODBC or API.

For sheet specific notes you can do this as a work around in V6 see the V6 rvt in this thread:

http://www.zoogdesign.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1974&highlight=

Would be nice if keynotes did this automatically at least.

Guy