Biggest Revit Annoyances...

[hand471037]

OK, just a fun topic for a friday: what are the things that annoy you the most in Revit?

Me:
That if you pan/zoom in the middle of a command, and then cancel out of that command with Esc, that Revit will sometimes bounce back to the orginal view you had prior to starting the command. This screws me up all the time, esp. on slower large models that take time to regen.

That Revit still doesn't know how to jive with my dual monitor setup.

That you can't make project families, like walls, export onto specific layers within a DXF/DWG.

The Plant Editor in Accurender. :)

[GS Fulton]

Ditto. that jumping back to the previous view drives me NUTS. :banghead: Haven't figured a way around that one yet. That's probably the worst. I thought there was a plant editor in accurender?

[beegee]

I thought there was a plant editor in accurender?

There is a plant editor in accurender. Try using it and I think you will see why JMcG included it in his list.

[overcaffeined1745]

OK, just a fun topic for a friday: what are the things that annoy you the most in Revit?


Although I already know many people disagree with my opinion, the biggest annoyance I've found is that you need to use 2D detailing tools for fixing drawing problems in the 3D model. I could admit working in 2D for construction details (and even in such case it could be argueable), but I totally disagree about using 2D tools when modelling the 3D virtual building.

Another annoyance is about families parameters. In some situations, specially when a family is inserted inside a group, the component is not correctly regenerated if you change a parameter (no matter if you do it from the Properties dialog or from the Family Editor), so the only way is to delete de component, purge the family, and reload it (you sometimes really need to purge the family, or otherwise it will inherit the previous parameter value). This is annoying because of the extra work required to workaround it.

[jacob chavez]

The current status of parameters bugs me. It seems like they are not very consistent in functionality between family and project. Often times I have make a family that seems to flex well in the family editor, but then when its loaded into the project, it doen't function. I had this problem with arrayed mullions in a window that I made and also with a titleblock which had an NFC (not for const) label in it. Worked fine in the family editor, but then didn't in the project.

JC

[aikitect]

As newbie, I can say that the lack of explination about concepts and the sketchy help files are my biggest annoyance. Also, the tutorials only brush the surface of most commands and often do not provide real world solutions.

After sitting through 6 days of training we (our group) still do not know how to construct some of our more complex real world walls - you know, the kinds with multiple materials, multiple brick patterns, foundations, EIFS parapets, etc. The instructors were not much help, each with a different approach none of which worked well and none of which we really understood.

Perhaps we just don't get the concept of building walls, which leads back to the original gripe.

[sbrown]

Groups and Worksets.

Groups just don't work for well over 50% of the uses we need them for.

Worksets just cripple our workflow.

[bclarch]

After sitting through 6 days of training we (our group) still do not know how to construct some of our more complex real world walls - you know, the kinds with multiple materials, multiple brick patterns, foundations, EIFS parapets, etc. The instructors were not much help, each with a different approach none of which worked well and none of which we really understood.


Who provided the training? Revit staff or a reseller?

[rreissig1788]

Not being able to copy/paste from one Revit model to another!

[sbrown]

finger, why can't you copy from one project to another, I do it all the time.

[gregcashen]

Maybe he is referring to the inability to export families from projects into their own family files.

[overcaffeined1745]

Not being able to copy/paste from one Revit model to another!

Partially related to this, there's another annoying thing IMHO: The fact that every RVT file saves its own settings (like "Project Standards") is user-unfriendly, and hard to learn, specially if you're doing a big project made of several RVT files, because maintaining them in sync can become a nightmare sometimes. I really hate the "Transfer Project Standards" tool... it turns RVT files into somewhat obscure black boxes.

[Vincent Valentijn]

- my nr.1 is definately the pre-described family parameters. Not only -not being able to delete useless parameters- but also not being able to add something like a from-to parameter for anything else than a door. PLEASE :idea: just get rid of all that ****, no more door-families / window-families / electric fixtures / etc.. just give us generic families to which we can assign all parameters currently available, and let us make our own family-groups... let -us- decide what's usefull.

- not being able to save a family from a projectfile

- groups simply fail all the time! :cry:

- a very shallow structure, you can just link projectfiles into another but that's far from something like XRef functionality. Big projects are not do-able because of this.

- no schedules in families

- family construction methodes are unclear.. too much options. Put a parameter dimension inside a solid-sketch, on the 'outside' of a solid, on it's constraining Ref. planes.. what's the difference, no-one knows. It does give different results though.. just think about the angular doors. We all just adopt the methods we feel that work, from trial and error.

- limited parameter options in general and specially when functioning between families and project-file.

[Martin P]

accidentally hitting the edge of a toolbar.... whooosh!! they all crunch up inside each other... agGGHH!!! :roll:

[aikitect]

Who provided the training? Revit staff or a reseller?

Afraid I can not go into that - you would be amazed at the aftermath of my post. It totally took me off guard.

To not loose site of the real issue, here is an excerpt from an E-mail I sent to one of the parties:


My issue is not with the walls, it is with the lack of Revit documentation. It was not meant to be a reflection on the instructors – and is still not meant to be.

The wall was just one of many examples of situations where we found ourselves looking for ways to solve a problem. It is very difficult for us to research these types of problems as there is no road map.

I push this because I do not think that the rollout of the program will be successful without proper reference material – not tutorials or vague references and definitions as found in the help files, but flushed out, fully documented reference information.

There is a basic standard for this type of reference information and I have books on programming, AutoCAD, and web design that follow this format. Even the LEED reference manual follows this basic format.

Its all about the documentation.

[Scott Hopkins]

Every little task in Revit involves about nine or ten mouse clicks too many. Dialog boxes should be made quicker and easier to use. There are so many examples of this but the Hide/Isolate, Element Properties, and Visibility/Graphics dialog boxes are the prime offenders :banghead:. Keyboard shortcuts to the individual elements in these dialog boxes might really speed things up.

[Martin P]

I must admit I agree about the help files. I found them often to be out of date, or just plain wrong in some cases when I was starting out. And you are correct about walls, everyone here has their own approach to doing things - for example I barely use vertically compound walls, and prefer to still to stack different types. I wouldnt use the split face tool I would create a new wall (which can have problems) - there are several ways to skin several cats with Revit, unfortunately a lot of it comes down to experiencing what you can put up with - once you realise with Revit that it is NOT going to work 100% of the time in complex situations and you will have to "fudge" things now and again, it comes down to how much "fudging" you can accept - by fudging I mean 2D, or overmarking detail blanking out etc, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing..... the drawings come out 100% correct even if the model has bits not "correct"