Revit 2009 extensions???

[barathd]

Initially I was quite excited to see this - unfortunately they have proved to be totally useless to me. Am I missing something - can anyone enlighten me to their use. I notice when you access the extension manager several other items are available but none seem to work.

[barathd]

Sort of like a "Revit garage sale" not unlike "Impression" and "Inventor LT". Whats next?

[sfaust]

by useless do you mean you can't get them to work, or you don't think much of their quality?

[barathd]

Steve:

Pretty much both.

[sfaust]

hm. Well I haven't done too much testing of them, but they installed and worked fine for me and I can definitely see some worth I think...

[mruehr]

by useless do you mean you can't get them to work, or you don't think much of their quality?

as for me this is an unfair statement
they are very usefull.The freeze drawing alone is worth the whole thing
look into Element Positioning automatic renubering your marks and and position your tags..and and.....
i havent yet used all the other stuff but had a look and can see a lot of potential use.

[Chad Smith]

I'm glad this thread was brought up here, because the Communication Center once again failed to alert me of new information like the release of these Architecture Extensions.
Autodesk, you really need to look into the reliability of your Comm Cent.

[barathd]

Chad :

Fear not - someone will contact you with a new survey as to how well they are preforming there job - sad sad case mate.

Cheers

[barathd]

as for me this is an unfair statement
they are very usefull.The freeze drawing alone is worth the whole thing
look into Element Positioning automatic renubering your marks and and position your tags..and and.....
i havent yet used all the other stuff but had a look and can see a lot of potential use.


Could you please provide me with an example.

Thank you

[twiceroadsfool]

Could you please provide me with an example.

Thank you

I certainly can. Compare models, for instance. Great tool. Especially since the changes to file linking in 2009 and linked views did a lot for Revits scalability, but there is still the issue of managing content across several linked files. I for one, am happy that content is stored in the models (i remember the terrifying days when i used archicad where all the content was reference from a library, when the IT staff MOVED the libraries... WEEKS of tracking stuff down...), but it makes it tough when you update the definition of an element in one model and not another.

One of my longstanding challenges to Revit was getting it to be largely scalable. Now, with the new tools (even without the compare models) ive found im pretty limitless in how big i can build and document. Compare models will just make my life that much easier.

I havent gotten to the others yet, but i hear they are great as well...

[sfaust]

Sure. As mentioned, compare models looks really useful for what Aaron mentioned, but also for tracking changes during construction. If you have a record copy at each issue, you can see what has changed since then...

Freeze drawings could also be excellent during CA for keeping record of SKA's as they were issued. Also for if you just want to play with something in 2D temporarily without worrying about constraints or messing up the model until you figure out what you want.

Text generator looked kind of cool too, although it's not quite a robust as I had hoped, still useful though...

Others look interesting too, but those are the "big 3" for me as far as usefulness. I can see the other stuff being quite useful for modeling an existing building that you have drawings for quickly (i.e. quick way to generate all grids, levels, walls, beams, footings, etc.)

[mwenta]

I got the levels to work, but the grids were rotated 90 degrees, no bubbles and were drafting lines. I was expecting actual grid lines with the information that I prgrammed in. Am I missing something as well???

[kclark.128193]

Are there any more detailed explanations of the capabilities/features of each of these extensions posted anywhere? I don't want to have to bother the IT guy to come and install them if I don't have a need for them.

[patricks]

My Comm center popped up this morning with a link to Revit extensions. I may install them sometime soon when I get some time.

[hand471037]

I got a notice on the Comm center too.

What I wish is that the Autodesk subscription site was better. It only seems to work with IE in Windows, and even then it's a little confusing. Makes it a pain to use. They could really do a better job here I think, especially because we are paying for this after all.

[ejburrell67787]

I have installed them and had a look. I thought I had a pdf of the different functions but I can't find it now...!

I can't see any use for most of them for us yet though...

Generate grids...? We don't do many buildings with regular grids and column structures really...

Freeze drawings...? Sounded exciting but How is it different to exporting dwg files of each sheet? We do this anyway for every issue...

Compare models...? Well maybe ...

Text generator...? Maybe but is it really that much more useful than pasting text in...?


However, I do appreciate that structure extras like this are now made available to architecture also... so I'm not complaining (probably just not using! ;) )

[mitch.cornelius]

I was looking forward to the reinforcing tool that structure has as an extension...not this time.

[trombe]

Freeze drawings...? Sounded exciting but How is it different to exporting dwg files of each sheet? We do this anyway for every issue...


Is this aiming towards the ArchiCAD effect of un-linking ? ?? say it isn't so !

trombe

[Chad Smith]

I find Freeze Drawings is very useful if you want to quickly convert a 3D Drafting view into a 2D Drafting view. It automates the manual labour of having to export to DWG and then import.

[adb]

I got the levels to work, but the grids were rotated 90 degrees, no bubbles and were drafting lines. I was expecting actual grid lines with the information that I prgrammed in. Am I missing something as well???

Yes, I think you might be.

This tool allows you to place an insertion point according to the "x" and "y" direction. It does not allow you to specify a "z" direction or elevation.

If your levels are not near 0' in elevation (my template uses 100' for FF) then your grids that are created by this tool will not show up. You will have to go to an elevation view and drag the extents of the grids up to your levels.

This tool does generate revit grids and not just the model lines that you are describing.

Hope this helps.

[barathd]

Nothing short of a unified product will make me happy - that's what we where promised by the original developers (not Autodesk). These extensions are nothing short of c r a p - irregardless of what the apologist say - we deserve much better and should not accept these convaluted offerings as anything more than what they really are.

[twiceroadsfool]

LOL, so while you originally stated that the extensions werent useful at all, now that youre point had been rebutted by many of us who have found good uses for the tools, its back to the same old story again, hmm?

I will accept the tools as what they are, as you have suggested. Thus far, theyve proven to be a nice addition. Thanks factory. :)

[sven.129574]

I wanted the Autodesk extensions to be useful, but haven't had much luck yet.

We intended to use the Freeze Drawing utility to save bulletins in their issued state, but so far, it merely crashes. Seems to be choking on some filename, though it won't say which one, and I haven't had time to look into it yet.

Compare Models looks like it might be useful, but I am very worried about how long it will take to run on a real model. It took 2-3 minutes to compare 2 models of a single room. How long would it take to compare 2 versions of a 100-room school? Plus, maybe I was hallucinating twice, but it seemed like it was sometimes it just flat-out missing walls that had been added and saved in the previous Revit session (while still catching the the minor changes to the walls joined to the corners of the new ones).

We had some interest using Text Generator for code data on sheets, but it depends a lot on how things are written in the Word document. If the Word document has tables, bullet points, funky indentation, or other formatting, then it doesn't come through so well, due to limitations of text in Revit. Those limitations really aren't the Text Generator's fault, and we know what to avoid in the Word document if we create the file from scratch. It's just that it doesn't look like in practice, conditions will favor Text Generator's use very often.

On the other hand, everybody in the office seems to want the Avatech extensions, especially Room Renumber, Door Mark Update, and Change Case.

[iru69]

Revit Extensions appear to be littering my drawing with parameters. Anyone else notice this?

After using "Freeze drawings", I now have an "Extension.Parameter" in all my element properties.

I've got a dozen or more "Extensions.xxxxxx" parameters (Extensions.Buffer, Extensions.Extensions, Extensions.Group, Extensions.ID, etc.) showing up in the parameters available for schedules, etc. I don't see any way to delete them.

Also, there's now an Extensions toolbar that always creates a third toolbar line, doesn't "remember" where I've put it or that I've turned it off. Quite annoying.

I have to say that I don't care for this kind of implementation of new features. This kind of functionality (provided by the "Extensions") should be the kind of thing that is a "built-in" feature of Revit. This reminds of the "Lisp" routine management nightmare of AutoCAD. I guess this would be an okay way to beta test new features, but this is going to suck if it's considered a long term solution for something really cool like the "Freeze drawings" routine. I'm uninstalling it.

[ededios]

Revit Extensions appear to be littering my drawing with parameters. Anyone else notice this?

I've got a dozen or more "Extensions.xxxxxx" parameters (Extensions.Buffer, Extensions.Extensions, Extensions.Group, Extensions.ID, etc.) showing up in the parameters available for schedules, etc. I don't see any way to delete them.
I noticed that also, it's very annoying.


Also, there's now an Extensions toolbar that always creates a third toolbar line, doesn't "remember" where I've put it or that I've turned it off. Quite annoying.
You actually have to open the Extensions Manager and in the Tools pull down menu, turn off Toolbar In Revit, I'm glad I found it today, it was in my way.


I won't uninstall it yet, but I haven't deployed it. I like the idea, but so far it seems a little cumbersome to get used to, it's a whole new interface and that bothers me. The text generator is nice, but it seems to be another step to cut and paste. It doesn't edit the text it placed. Haven't played much with the other features.