Printing without Revit??

[whf]

Does anyone know of an aftermarket viewer for opening/printing Revit files? Currently, I am the only one with our firm that utilizes Revit. I have my one stand-alone seat installed on my machine at the office, and the extra seat for the license is installed on another machine in our office for plotting only. The problem is, that while I am the only one creating Revit content, it is the estimating department that does most of the printing of the drawings. I would like to install my other seat on my home machine, but then I would be relegated to printing drawings for someone every half hour as I would be the only one with the ability to print from Revit, and thus would get nothing done. We really need the ability to print the files, but it doesn't seem like purchasing another seat just for plotting would be an effective use of resources. Outputting everything to pdf or similar is one way to go about things, but most of the Revit content that we use is created by a slew of other local firms and it can become a real pain trying to get everyone on the same page with creating standardized 24x36 pdfs...not to mention time consuming when working with ever-changing iterations. Please let me know if anyone knows of software or has a creative solution. Thanks!

Bill

[neb1998]

you can download a copy of revit and use in demo mode just for printing / viewing revit files for free.....i believe this is the actual intent of autodesk and they do not care how many copies you install as DEMO copies

[beegee]

you can download a copy of revit and use in demo mode just for printing / viewing revit files for free.....i believe this is the actual intent of autodesk and they do not care how many copies you install as DEMO copies
Just a note of clarification :-
Demo mode allows all features of Autodesk Revit, but you cannot save, plot or export your project after changes are made.

[neb1998]

Just a note of clarification :-
Demo mode allows all features of Autodesk Revit, but you cannot save, plot or export your project after changes are made.Right, i believe his intent is just to print, not to make changes

[beegee]

>..not to mention time consuming when working with ever-changing iterations. >..................

[john.s.algeo]

Print your sheet to a dwf file.

[iru69]

Just a note of clarification :-
Demo mode allows all features of Autodesk Revit, but you cannot save, plot or export your project after changes are made.
Further clarification needed - what constitutes "changes"? Changes to the model? To the sheets (for instance, a date)? Changing a shaded view to a hidden line one?

I can't imagine what practical harm it would cause to Autodesk's bottom line by allowing plotting even after changes are made.


Print your sheet to a dwf file.
That's missing the point of Bill's question. If he has to stop to print out paper, PDFs, DWFs, etc., every time someone requests them, he's not going to be very productive.

It's kind of funny... DWFs seem to fall into two camps: they're either the holy grail to every issue regarding printing, saving, and exchanging of files... or they're by and large completely pointless and a frustrating waste of development resources (maybe you can guess which camp I'm in).

[Steve_Stafford]

Further clarification needed - what constitutes "changes"? Changes to the model? To the sheets (for instance, a date)? Changing a shaded view to a hidden line one?
ANY change will prevent you from Saving, Printing or Exporting a Revit project. You just want to print out something from Revit, so you add a sheet, oops that's a change. You want to print a view using a different scale, oops that's a change.

You can print anything you want as long as it is just the way you found it. Sort of like, you can get Revit in any OS flavor you want as long as it is MS.

[nole]

Hi everyone!
To whf:
I don't see any trouble and extra work with organizing plotting with REVIT working in DEMO mode. It's free, simple and all work happens in one interface.
And, if you don't know what REVIT counts a change, do something in project, try to close file and, if file closes without any questions, that action is counted as "no change".

[iru69]

ANY change will prevent you from Saving, Printing or Exporting a Revit project.
As I suspected.

<addressed to no one in particular> So, Autodesk is concerned about exactly what? That firms are going to download the demo copy of Revit and draw entire buildings without ever saving the file and print it out and never have to buy the software? Boy, glad they closed that loophole! Or maybe they figure they can squeeze out a few more seats from firms desperate enough. I guess we should be lucky that we're allowed to open and print at all.

Actually, up to this point, none of this has been a problem for my workflow - but it's the principle of it that bothers me.

And while we're at it, it would serve Autodesk well if they not only allowed printing from demo mode under any circumstances, but also allowed saves up to a certain limit - let's say 3MB or so. This would more easily allow firms, manufacturers, content providers, etc. to create and provide Revit content.

These are the kinds of things that help spread Revit. It really drives me nuts that Autodesk doesn't seem to "get" these kind of things.

[Steve_Stafford]

...These are the kinds of things that help spread Revit. It really drives me nuts that Autodesk doesn't seem to "get" these kind of things...It isn't just Autodesk's doing...this condition was present from the beginnings of Revit and it has simply remained. In this case, Autodesk is guilty of inaction.

[whf]

Hi all,

Thanks for your input. Revit is fully active in demo mode for 30 days (or 60, can't remember) and then after that, you cannot print, save, or export anything. We are looking for a longer term solution than 30 days. As far as plotting do dxf, that does not really solve my problem. That is what I've been doing as a work around (except to pdf that anyone can open w/o add'l software). In addition to needing to plot drawings that I've created, we also have several firms all using Revit that provide us with content. We currently have 100+ houses in various stages of design, with at least 5 Revit contributors. Since we are the end client (all are produced as spec), we do all of the design review/red lines etc. Each house design goes through at least 5 iterations with our estimators/design team who work on paper. This means pdf/dxf-ing an entire drawing with every iteration that we receive, x100. This is not an effective use of my time. I usually just do civil work anymore, but am still the only one with a seat in the office....and as long as we are ranting/wishing about Revit features, it seems to me that Revit is the only arch software around that is not backwards compatible. This effectively forces everyone that we work with to not only buy a seat on Revit, but to maintain a subscription in order to be able to work with the team's drawings. I am aware that newer files have data associated with them that may not be compatible/relevant to earlier versions, but it seems that there should be some sort of migration ability. Those are my 3 cents.

Bill

[Steve_Stafford]

Thanks for your input. Revit is fully active in demo mode for 30 days (or 60, can't remember) and then after that, you cannot print, save, or export anything.You can run Revit in Demo mode after the trial period has ended. During the trial period Revit does not run in Demo mode it is fully authorized for the trial period. You may be confusing the term Demo with Trial? When using Demo mode you can do anything you want to the Revit file including print until you make a change of any kind. Then Revit will not allow you to Save/Export/Print.

[whf]

Oh, cool. I'll try that out in the morning.. Thanks!

[Raymond Ncube]

....I have my one stand-alone seat installed on my machine at the office, and the extra seat for the license is installed on another machine in our office for plotting only. I would like to install my other seat on my home machine, .......
Bill

There is a portable license utility for this... install Revit on your home PC then borrow the license from your Work PC to your Home PC when you want to work from Home but you MUST remember to bring it back to work when you want to work on Revit at the office.



I think a network license would have been good for your office. :idea:

[whf]

Thanks.. We used to have network licenses, but they weren't working for us. I seem to remember there being a time limit on check outs or something like that? Something like a "check-out" was active for 24 hours or something strange like that. We couldn't just switch licenses back and forth at will...there were limitations. Is that not the case or has something changed? Thanks!

Bill

[david.kingham]

So, Autodesk is concerned about exactly what?
As far as I'm concerned I would not want someone to be able to print after they make changes because they can't save back! So they make changes, print it out, now we have a document that doesn't jive with the actual model....why would you want that?

[iru69]

As far as I'm concerned I would not want someone to be able to print after they make changes because they can't save back! So they make changes, print it out, now we have a document that doesn't jive with the actual model....why would you want that?
I think the original poster already expressed a reason. There are all sorts of scenarios where you might want to print something that involves turning off objects or annotation without needing (or even wanting) to save.

In a sense, that very concept has been an on-going wish in the wish forum - plot using temp Hide/Isolate settings.

Sometimes, I think we get too caught up in the CAD manager mentality of knowing what's best for the person doing the work?

[ejburrell67787]

Thanks.. We used to have network licenses, but they weren't working for us. I seem to remember there being a time limit on check outs or something like that? Something like a "check-out" was active for 24 hours or something strange like that. We couldn't just switch licenses back and forth at will...there were limitations. Is that not the case or has something changed? Thanks!

Bill
Using the portable license utility you can (manually) move the license between as many computers as and when you wish. It is different to a network license situation that automatically checks licenses in and out. It is also possible to register up to 3 computers on the same license as far as I know. I personally have 2 computers registered on the same license - office and home - and it is much easier than always remembering to transfer the license between them!!

[whf]

Thanks, I guess I was just confused about the Demo/Trial periods. This does solve our problem for about 90% of the printing that we need to do. Thanks all!

Bill

[aaronrumple]

As I suspected.

<addressed to no one in particular> So, Autodesk is concerned about exactly what? That firms are going to download the demo copy of Revit and draw entire buildings without ever saving the file and print it out and never have to buy the software? Boy, glad they closed that loophole! Or maybe they figure they can squeeze out a few more seats from firms desperate enough. I guess we should be lucky that we're allowed to open and print at all.
Actually the initial concept was that you could give your client a demo copy of Revit and they would be able to view and print the model. Having all the save/print features disabled after a change would keep you client from changing your design and issuing drawings without you.

Also if you could open, change and print - then those changes would be lost when you close without a save. That could lead to big problems in coordinating what was printed and what was saved.

If you really need several in your office to be able to change and print, I suggest you get a networked copy. Then anyone in your office can have Revit - just not all at the same time. It does help keep cost down (although I think the extra Autodesk is charging for network licenses is extreme.)

Of course as Revit becomes more widely used, of course your client might own a copy of Revit. So down the road we'll certainly need a more sophisticated system for who can change a drawing and who can print. And I do hope there is a lightweight viewer on the roadmap down the road. Unfortunatly with the DMCA, I don't think we'll see a 3rd party viewer for quite some time. (Remember, it's Autodesk's database - not your's under the DMCA.)

[Maverick91]

Soo.. I guess the answer to the original question is 'no, not at this time'?

What I'd like to see is some free viewer that non-CAD people in my company can accept a Revit file from me or from outsiders, view the model, and print to scale. Does such an animal exist?

[sbrown]

You would need to print to DWF and send that you would never want to send the model. Its too large and doesn't make sense to do. Its just like we never print our consultant Cad files we want pdf or dwf so we don't have to worry about their pen settings.

[Maverick91]

You would need to print to DWF and send that you would never want to send the model. Its too large and doesn't make sense to do. Its just like we never print our consultant Cad files we want pdf or dwf so we don't have to worry about their pen settings.
It's not what I send out; it's what we get from others. Making sense don't enter in the equations; a project manager asks for or offerers to send "CAD files" from or to another PM. DWFs? PDFs? Now you're just complicating the issues with a lot of techno-jargon.

[Scott D Davis]

What I'd like to see is some free viewer that non-CAD people in my company can accept a Revit file from me or from outsiders, view the model, and print to scale. Does such an animal exist?

Yes and its already been suggested here. Revit is free in Demo mode, and can open, view, and print Revit RVT files.

[Steve_Stafford]

Does what you describe exist for any cad software at this time? I don't think so.

Revit will freely (at no cost) do what you are asking for but they'll (those non-cad types) have to be willing to figure out how to open a file and navigate some views. Opening a file shouldn't be too hard, double clicking a view in the project browser shouldn't be too hard.

As for other options most people, even PM's know what a PDF is :wink: DWF is a bit less familiar and is either "Divorced White Female" or "Drawing Web Format" depending on your environment. :smile:

[clog boy]

Does what you describe exist for any cad software at this time? I don't think so.
Actually, didn't TrueDWG view and/or DesignReview have a 'print' function? DesignReview has the option to place notes and save them.

"Divorced White Female"... snicker

[LRaiz]

Actually, didn't TrueDWG view and/or DesignReview have a 'print' function? DesignReview has the option to place notes and save them.

Actually if TrueDWG and DesignReview qualify as cad software then Acrobat Reader should be added to the list. It has print function as well.

[clog boy]

True, CAD drawings can be exported to PDF. But AutoCAD projects can be opened with a viewer, they can't be used to manipulate a project (you can add notes with Design Review) but it might feel abit awkward to use an unlicensed copy of Revit as a viewer. Then again, distributing Revit projects over the Internet is awkward by it's very definition.

A viewer exists for AutoCAD projects, thus in my opinion my response answers Stafford's (rhetorical?) question.


By the way, thank you for Revit mr. Raiz.