Keynote Manager Program (Free)

[sfaust]

All

We have been developing a stand alone utility to work with Revit's keynote files (Excel and Notepad did not cut it). We are now sharing this application as a free download on our website for the Revit community.

The quick list of features is as follows:

Add, Edit, and Delete keynotes in a tree view (like Revit displays them)
Automatic File Backup
Search Function
Automatic CasingI have also included the readme file as a pdf for a more verbose description of the program :).

To download it, go to http://www.emc2architects.com/revit_tools.html and just click the link.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Steve

[dbaldacchino]

Thanks Steve! We'll take it for a spin :)

[sfaust]

I realized I should mention too that it works off of .NET 2.0 so that is required. That is also what Revit works off of, so that really shouldn't affect anyone.

Lastly, we have tested it in house, but all our computers are 32 bit XP, so that's all it's tested on. It's a pretty simple program and I see no reason it wouldn't run on Vista or 64 bit, but I would be interested to hear someone test different setups...

[mbalsom]

Thanks Steve. So far, brilliant !!!!

[mruehr]

Thanks Steve
Been waiting for this.
And lots of scope for adding features.

Thanks again

[d.stairmand]

Steve
Awesome!!!

One issue - there is the handy automatic backup etc - but if i make a mistake - i cannot undo?
I have to go and retrieve the backup.

[sfaust]

Dwane. Yes, unfortunately this is true, there is no undo. The reason for this is because of the "Save as you go" nature of it. I used this approach so that multiple team members can work on the file at the same time. I could use a normal open/save process and have an undo, but that would lock everyone else out of the file as soon as the first person opened it. The intended workflow that has worked well in our office is to just keep the keynote manager up while doing the noting in Revit. That way you can use the search functions, etc too.

That being said, suggestion taken, I will look at making a way to perhaps step backward or at least open the backups folder directly from the interface. Thanks for the suggestion.

Lastly, a note for 64 bit users. I had some feedback that the program will hang at certain points on 64 bit systems. I think I have fixed this but am trying to test it, so as soon as I get that going I'll re-post a new version and post here to let you know...

Thanks,
Steve

[sfaust]

OK all, I've posted a new version (5.1) to our website with several fixes and enhancements including making it viable for many more systems. The current readme is attached here and the list of fixes and adds is at the end. Please re-download and let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Steve

[sfaust]

Ok, to anyone who downloaded in the last 4 hours, you may want to re-download. I just caught a bug and fixed it. The Keynote Manager would throw up a button if the text file was moved or deleted , but pressing the button would just cause an error. I have fixed this system so that it notifies you properly if this happens. Also, I added some code that allows it to know if the file name changes while KM is open, and update itself to the new filename.

Sorry for the inconvenience, new readme is attached...

Thanks,
Steve

[david.199936]

The second time I hit "Find" It always crashes. Other than that, it looks pretty handy.

[sgermano]

great prog, very useful.

[sfaust]

The second time I hit "Find" It always crashes. Other than that, it looks pretty handy.

Can you give more more info on this? I can't get it to do it on my system. Although it does seem to be a bug that you can press "Find" several times without closing the last find. It should de-activate the find button until you exit out of the other find I think...

If you could let me know (either here or on email through the program) what your system is, what exactly you are doing that makes it crash, and anything else you think may be relevant...

Thanks,
Steve

[randy.sallwasser]

I like this program. Just a couple things, I noticed that if you change the case of the text without changing how the text reads it doesn't update the text file. Also it would be great if you could change the parent of a keynote after it's been created

[sfaust]

I like this program. Just a couple things, I noticed that if you change the case of the text without changing how the text reads it doesn't update the text file. Also it would be great if you could change the parent of a keynote after it's been created

glad you like it. Regarding the casing, could you give a little more detail? Are you talking about when you are using the edit command and you change the note in the dialog box? I'm not seeing that behavior. Remember that there is an auto-casing function, so if you have that checked it will change the casing automatically, so any purely casing edits you made would be thrown away. If you uncheck that box does that fix it? If so and you do this regularly, you can permanently uncheck it in settings...

In regard to changing the parent after creation, that is a known issue, but not for long...

BTW, I've started a list of people who want to be contacted with updates, if you want to be on it just let me know via email or pm and I'll put you on the list.

[sfaust]

Ok, Y'all, New version - 6.0 is posted on our website at www.emc2architects.com\revit_tools.html (http://www.emc2architects.com\revit_tools.html). The new readme is attached here, look to the bottom for new additions to this release.

Also, as I mentioned, if you want to receive email updates let me know...

Thanks,
Steve

[randy.sallwasser]

Well the problem with the casing seems to have been resolved in 6.0. The problem was that if you used the right click menu or the drop down menu to change the case it wasn't being updated in the text file. Although like I said it's been resolved in version 6.0

[sfaust]

Good, wish granted! :). I'm not sure what I changed there, but apparently it was a good change, I like those kind of fixes!

[sobernagle]

Thank you so much, this is EXCELLENT!!!

[sfaust]

All,

Keynote Manager 6.1 has now been released with a few bug fixes and a few new features. It can be downloaded from our website at www.emc2architects.com/revit_tools.html (http://www.emc2architects.com/revit_tools.html) as usual. I have attached the new readme file for your review.

Enjoy,
Steve

[sfaust]

6.2 is available for download. Readme is attached.

Thanks,
Steve

[sfaust]

7.0 is released. See readme attached...

[Kevin Janik]

This is getting really sophisticated! It's neat that you keep improving it!

Maybe Autodesk will buy it from you for million! Well maybe!

Kevin

[sfaust]

Yeah, it's become kind of a learning project for me. Had tought myself some programming on some other little things, then this one just kind of took off, so whenever I get another idea or have one submitted it's a new thing to learn :)

As for Autodesk, I would probably even settle for half a million :). Lets just say I won't wait around for the phone call :)

[KIDLATJ]

Great program, I really like the tree view. I have had some font errors with it though. I have some keynotes with the Diameter symbol in Arial "Ø" (alt + 0216), it imports this symbol in the program and converts it into a small Rectangle "�" (see image) and then Revit reads it as a funky Ø in the keynote where "Ø" should be... Any Ideas?

-Thanks

[sfaust]

Seems to be working ok here, could be a couple reasons why it isn't for you. First, it doesn't appear that you are using Arial as your font, I think you are using the default which is MS Sans Serif. Change the font on your KM (new capability with 7.0) to Arial and it should work correctly.

Secondly, version 6.2 changed from ANSI to Unicode formatted text files to allow more special characters. If you are using something older than 6.2 the ANSI character set may not have that one.

In short, make sure you are using the latest version and change your font to Arial and I think you should be fine. If you still have issues please let me know...

Thanks,

[mbalsom]

Hi Steve

I think you will find it's a 2010 bug. See post http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?p=974165#post974165
I truly can't believe Autodesk let this one slip through.

Mark

[sfaust]

No, I'm pretty sure that's not it. KM is completely seperate from Revit. It's essentially a specialized text file editor. That issue is with the keyboard shortcuts within Revit not allowing you to insert the symbol in Revit text. Once it's in the text file, though, Revit reads it fine. So if you're editing in KM there should be no issue there. I tried it on my computer in both 2009 and 2010 and it worked fine as long as I had the font set correctly...

[KIDLATJ]

Seems to be working ok here, could be a couple reasons why it isn't for you. First, it doesn't appear that you are using Arial as your font, I think you are using the default which is MS Sans Serif. Change the font on your KM (new capability with 7.0) to Arial and it should work correctly.

Secondly, version 6.2 changed from ANSI to Unicode formatted text files to allow more special characters. If you are using something older than 6.2 the ANSI character set may not have that one.

In short, make sure you are using the latest version and change your font to Arial and I think you should be fine. If you still have issues please let me know...

Thanks,

Thanks for the help, I have version 7.0 however I am not seeing any option to change the font... Is there a menu I am just not seeing?
-Thanks!

[sfaust]

select settings from the main menu strip which will bring up the settings dialog. In the "Interface Settings" at the top is a font readout. Click the current font to change it.

let me know if that still doesn't help...

[DoTheBIM]

Curious why my file size doubles after one edit. Original file was 216,526 bytes w/ 5376 lines... added one top level and now the file is 433,034 bytes w/ 5345 lines.

We don't use key notes at this time, but neat program at any rate. I'd of probably went for more of a table look with filters and searches for direct edit with an interactive preview like you have, but it seems to work and flow very well. Nice Job.

[sfaust]

thanks. Not sure about the file size, though. One thing may be the unicode formatting. If your file was previously ANSI formatted I would think that may be smaller than a Unicode one because it has less available characters. I'm not sure though. It doesn't keep going up right?

[DoTheBIM]

that's what it is. I opened the file in notepad and saved it to several formats. the unicode format, made the file about twice as big. and it doesn't keep growing either.

[jnickerson2]

Hey thanks for the work you put in this sweet helper!! Man it streamlines nicely.

[sfaust]

no problem, glad it is helping :).

[sfaust]

All,

I was hoping to get a few more things incorporated before releasing Keynote Manager 7.1 but I’ve been busy with other things lately. I have incorporated several bug fixes and a couple new items that should be useful, so I decided to release it to get those items out on the street. As always, the download is available on our website at www.emc2architects.com/revit_tools.html and the readme file is attached.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any issues or questions!

[sfaust]

Update: 7.2 is available...

This release was mainly to fix a bug that was reported to me, but there are a few other enhancements too.

Enjoy,
Steve

[borgmeyer]

Steve, it appears the site is down. What's up? Thanks.

[sfaust]

Seems to work for me, is it not loading at all for you? Perhaps there were server issues, I'm not sure (the computer that hosts it is in our other office so I'm not up on the day to day).

[borgmeyer]

No, it's not loading at all. Wait, I just checked again to see the exact error message and it what do you know it loaded up. I did previously try it both in Firefox and IE7 (32-bit versions on an XPx64 system) and I would either get the "cannot load page . . ." error or simply a white page.

But now it works. Maybe the server was sleeping in late on a Friday. Thanks for the quick reply and sharing the program.

[sfaust]

no problem, probably just a hiccup in the server...

[afastudios]

Hello,

Great program...I ran into an error talking about the text file wasn't formatted correctly. The result was that I lost all my top level division headings...it kept all the sub-note entries though...

Any ideas?

jason.

[afastudios]

I should clarify the previous thread...I got the error when I hit "R" to refresh.

[afastudios]

it just happened when I opened it this morning...the error is the same...something is triggering the error and it proceeds to remove all hierarchy...

when I copy over the re-organized file with a good version of the backup...it works fine and doesn't try to remove the hierarchical tree...

I should note that the program created, thus accepted, the backup and its format...

jason.

[afastudios]

I managed to create a repeatable sequence of events that will trigger the hierarchical melt down....when I added a sub-note, then deleted the sub-note....this is doing it every time...

[sfaust]

Ok, I will look into this. Good that you have a repeatable sequence. So every time when you add a sub-note then proceed to delete it immediately it will delete all the headings correct?

[afastudios]

That's it...the program doesn't crash...it deletes all the headings and lumps everything together. I can send you the before and after txt files to look at if you want?

Jason.

[cporter.207875]

Steve,
Have you ever encountered a situation where the Keynote Manager erases everything in the text file? It has happened to us a few times, usually at the worst of times. I can't figure out why or come up with a repeatable sequence to cause this.

[sfaust]

I have gotten scattered reports of large chunks of the file being deleted, but never the whole thing. So far I haven't been able to figure out what's causing it, so I haven't been able to fix it. If you can figure out what you did to make it happen I would be very appreciative...

In the mean time, remember that the program makes a backup copy on the users computer every time you open the file, so if this does happen you should have a recent backup to go back to. Also, the backup is per user, so if you have multiple people working on the keynote file, you probably have several recent backups to try...

[cporter.207875]

Thanks Steve. And thanks for the explanation on the back-ups. I always wondered why there were multiple back-ups that appeared to be identical.

[NKramer]

Someone at AU first mentioned this to me and I have seen it myself recently. It appears to be linked to multiple people writing back to the file at the same time. If you finish editing while the file is not idle it tends to throw the file all out of whack, lose parent grouping or delete parts of the file.

Is there anyway that the program can wait to write back if the file is not idle?

Nick

[sfaust]

Thanks for the leads, I'll look more into that. It should be checking to make sure the file is idle before writing back, perhaps that part isn't working correctly.

Thanks,
Steve

[cporter.207875]

In my case I was the only one with the file open when it happened. I was showing someone how to use it and it deleted everything in the file in the middle of my tutorial. Needless to say how skeptical that can make the pupil from the outset.
Anyway, I thought perhaps I closed the KM while it was writing to the text file. I tried to do it again, but I can't manage to perform the click before it goes idle... so who knows?

[sfaust]

Is it possible that you edited a couple things in quick succession? Since the writing is in the background, it's technically possible that you edit a note and commit it to write before the other is done writing. As I said, I thought I had the code in there to have it wait for the file in this scenario, but it could be broken...

[cporter.207875]

It's possible

[robert.manna]

We too have seen complete loss of keynote data in the file. In our case I suspect the server side WAN acceleration technology may have played a role in the problem.

-R

[cporter.207875]

Is it possible that you edited a couple things in quick succession? Since the writing is in the background, it's technically possible that you edit a note and commit it to write before the other is done writing. As I said, I thought I had the code in there to have it wait for the file in this scenario, but it could be broken...

Did it again today. This time everything looks good on screen. At some point I decide to close the KM, probably 30 minutes since the last time I edited the keynote file with it. When I open the KM again a little later the file is empty.

[sfong]

Thanks for the software. It really is what keynoting should have been all along.

I am having trouble printing from KM7.2. None of the methods of printing ever seem to send any data to the printer. Has anyone else had trouble with this?

I am using a 64bit Vista machine.

Steve Fong
Overland Partners

[MTristram]

Hi there - I'm having problems creating the keynote file using KM. I've got a couple of txt files that were created using excel (well first word...) and when I try to import them it appears KM isn't doing anything, I can't activate any commands. Says it is idle....any ideas?
Mel

[stellarblue153]

Here's free tool I created in our office. It does use Excel 2007, but it is simpler in some ways for doing Sheet Keynoting. Let me know what you think!

http://www.ma-architect.com/projects/main.php?g2_itemId=2831

[sfaust]

Ok all, there is (finally) a new version of Keynote Manager out for your use. Version 8.0 can be downloaded from http://www.venturearch.com/DesignProcess.aspx and the readme is attached. While you're there take a look around our company website and feel free to send constructive critisism about that too :).

Thanks,
Steve

p.s. as a sidenote, this is stated on our website, but KM now uses .NET 4.0 so you will have to install that to use the new version (links on our website) - hope that doesn't cause too much heartburn for anyone.

[dlampley.41310]

We're just getting ready to start using keynotes in conjunction with Revit Structure 2010 & 2011. So, I was really happy to find this Keynote Manager tool. I first downloaded the 7.2 version.
Most of the commands cause the program to become unresponsive. I am unable to click on anything. I have to use task manager to shut it down. Task Manager doesn't show it has unresponsive though.
So anyway, I finally found v8.0 and installed that. As soon as it started up, the program informs me that I have to have .net framework v4.0.30319. So, I downloaded and installed .net framework 4.0. And again, I'm having the same issues as before.
I would really like to get this working. I think it will be very helpful.
If you have any thoughts or ideas, I would really appreciate it.


Thanks!!

[dlampley.41310]

I figured it out. Really not too big of a deal. I had KM working in a MAXIMIZED window, and any popup forms that are initiated by commands were popping up kind of off screen. I could just barely see the edge of it up in the upper right corner.
So, I reduced the window size, and now everything works fine.

Hope this helps someone.

[gwnelson]

I'm into my first foray with Keynotes on current commercial project - great job, Steve. I love it.

[rami1]

The Keynote Manager is really excellent.

I have a keynote question that I think is a limitation of Revit itself, but maybe someone has a workaround.

In our office we like to note drawings with the six figure spec section numer followed by a note. For instance gyp board would be " 09 29 00 GYP. BRD." The problem is that a gyp. board cornrer bead would be "09 29 00 CORNER BEAD" - the same spec number without any suffix of .A1 or H1 as the keynote file has. KM does not like having more than one note with the same spec number and crashes, but after some experimentation, it turns out that Revit does not like it either and just displays in the keynote list the first note of duplicate notes.

Is there a workaround here or do we need to change our standard?

[Darken_Rahl]

This looks fantastic, but our office uses a couple of workflow processes in Excel (evil, evil program) that might be of use to your program.

Specifically:

Multi-line Keynotes. We use these to list the makeup of exterior walls, and the manager only seems to support single line keynotes.

Noting of the keynote file in a meta sense. Our keynote / spec writers like to highlight and write in the "margins" of the excel file, which can be stripped out as it is saved to txt. Currently I found no ability to add "post-its" or reminders or to highlight keynotes that need more work.

None of these things are required to make a useful addon, which you definitely have. But if you ever get bored, or if you decide those features would benefit your firm, we'd love to see them appear.

Thanks for your hard work and especially thanks for sharing it.

[Darken_Rahl]

The Keynote Manager is really excellent.

I have a keynote question that I think is a limitation of Revit itself, but maybe someone has a workaround.

In our office we like to note drawings with the six figure spec section numer followed by a note. For instance gyp board would be " 09 29 00 GYP. BRD." The problem is that a gyp. board cornrer bead would be "09 29 00 CORNER BEAD" - the same spec number without any suffix of .A1 or H1 as the keynote file has. KM does not like having more than one note with the same spec number and crashes, but after some experimentation, it turns out that Revit does not like it either and just displays in the keynote list the first note of duplicate notes.

Is there a workaround here or do we need to change our standard?

The suffix is simply Revit's way of keeping tabs on keynotes and where they belong. The "09 29 00 CORNER BEAD" which you want the keynote to read would not have it.

For example, the table would look like

092900.A1 "09 29 00 GYP. BRD."
092900.B1 "09 29 00 CORNER BEAD"

But the keynotes would look the way you want them to, with no A1 or B1.

This is how Revit works by default.

[sfaust]

This looks fantastic, but our office uses a couple of workflow processes in Excel (evil, evil program) that might be of use to your program.

Specifically:

Multi-line Keynotes. We use these to list the makeup of exterior walls, and the manager only seems to support single line keynotes.

Noting of the keynote file in a meta sense. Our keynote / spec writers like to highlight and write in the "margins" of the excel file, which can be stripped out as it is saved to txt. Currently I found no ability to add "post-its" or reminders or to highlight keynotes that need more work.

None of these things are required to make a useful addon, which you definitely have. But if you ever get bored, or if you decide those features would benefit your firm, we'd love to see them appear.

Thanks for your hard work and especially thanks for sharing it.

All good suggestions that will be taken under advisement. Some of them would take some significant development time, so I'll see what I can do...

The one problem with the meta-notes is that it would almost require a separate file format or file. As far as I'm aware, the Revit file does not allow for any "comment" lines or data that is ignored by Revit. Because of that, the KM would have to store that meta data in the text file or some other file and that wouldn't be read by Revit. Any thoughts on having 2 files or a separate file format that would have to be exported to be used by Revit? Also because of development time is something that you would be willing to pay a small fee for? Just throwing out some thoughts...

[sfaust]

Hey all,

I know it's been forever since I posted an update here, but I wanted to let everyone know that version 10.0 of Keynote Manager is available with some pretty exciting (I think) new tools. To check it out and download it go to http://keynotemanager.revolutiondesign.biz.

Thanks,
Steve

[dbaldacchino]

Thanks Steve! Can't wait to try the new version since now I use keynotes in projects (and I hate managing them)

[cdatechguy]

Is there a way to multi select keynotes? Like if I wanted to create a new Top Level and move more than one keynote to that level?

[sfaust]

You are welcome, glad you like it!

As far as multi-selecting keynotes there is not a way currently to do that, you would have to select each and edit and move the parent. Great idea for an update, though, I can see where that would be quite helpful in certain instances. I will definitely look into that for a future release. Thanks for the suggestion!

[sfaust]

Just a heads up that version 10.1 is available for download. http://www.keynotemanager.revolutiondesign.biz

[sfaust]

I just realized that I forgot to post an update here. I sent this out to the mailing list so many of you may already have seen, but there is a new Pro version benefit for Keynote Manager called Keynote Watcher. The Revit 2012 API now allows access to the file path for the kyenote file, although it still does not allow reloading unfortunately. However this means that applications can monitor the keynote file and notify the user when a reload is needed, which is what Keynote Watcher does. It is a separate applicaiton from Keynote Manager so while it requires a Keynote Manager Pro license it does not require Keynote Manager to be running.

The license for pro version on a single machine will cover both Keynote Manager and Keynote Watcher so there is no need to purchase a second license, it's simply an addon for Keynote Manager Pro.

You can find more info at http://keynotemanager.revolutiondesi.../Features.html (http://keynotemanager.revolutiondesign.biz/Features.html) and download at http://keynotemanager.revolutiondesign.biz (http://keynotemanager.revolutiondesign.biz/)

Thanks!
Steve