Autodesk Resources for Students

If you are currently in school and looking for either student version of Autodesk software or training materials, them you want to visit Autodesk's website for the student community at www.students.autodesk.com

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2009 Known Issues

REVIT ARCHITECTURE 2009

Known Issues
Revit Architecture 2009


Rendering

• Revit® Architecture 2009 software contains a new rendering engine that makes major changes to the previous workflow. See the Revit Architecture 2009 Feature Summary, What’s New in This Release, and Help documentation for information and instructions.

• Currently, Decal bump image maps fail to import at the correct scale for cut-outs.

• The Plant Height parameter may not scale the nested component correctly (RPC Content).

• When rendering an uncropped 3D view, geometry may appear shifted. Workaround: turn on
crop region for the view.

• For lights, the “Emit from Line Length” parameter may not work properly unless the user has
Soft Shadows enabled.

• Non-English builds of Revit currently display RPC ID’s instead of names for downloaded RPC
content.

Upgrading very large files from previous versions of Revit

• Upgrade of some very large Revit files (~200 MB and greater) may cause Revit Architecture to
crash by exceeding the maximum memory usage allowed by the operating system. Please
contact Autodesk Support.

The Front orientation in ViewCube in a published DWF

• Currently, if the Front orientation in ViewCube™ software is changed from its default setting in
Revit Architecture, the change will not be reflected on the ViewCube in a published DWF™.

Fill Patterns

• Fill Patterns can now be applied to most surfaces (including warped planes), however:

o Only patterns on planar surfaces can currently be moved or rotated.

o Some complex surfaces may exhibit undesirable anomalies (such as areas of missing
pattern).

• Currently, detail components do not support aligning fill patterns to the element

Dimension Text Overrides

• For a multi-segment dimension string in which one of the dimensions had a dimension text
override, adding a new segment to the string causes the override to disappear.



Revit® Architecture 2009 Known Issues

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Dimension Type Text Sizes

• Dimension Types lose their previous Text Size changes when a Duplicate Type is created.

Mass Floors in Groups

• Currently, when binding a link containing Mass Floors, they will disappear because they cannot
be placed into groups.
Far Clip Parameter and Linked Files

• While Linked files can now be displayed By Linked View in Sections, Elevations, and 3D views,
the Far Clipping Parameter in Section and Elevation views will always display per the Host
view’s settings and NOT by the Linked View’s settings – even when the Link is set to display By
Linked View.

Slab Shape Edit

• After clicking Pick Supports for a sloped slab, changing the Curved Edge Condition to “Project to
Side” causes the shape edit to fail for some curved edges. A temporary workaround is to delete
the offending curve.

Room Bounding Instance Parameters

• Currently, not all room bounding elements (e.g. in-place ceilings and in-place floors) have an
on/off Room Bounding parameter.

Foundation Extensions

• Openings do not participate in the Foundation Extensions feature, only Inserts.


Large DWG Imports

• DWG™ imports with entities further than two miles apart (after scaling) may cause accuracy
issues. Very large DWG imports should be subdivided into smaller files.

• DWG imports with coordinates (before scaling) longer than ten digits may be truncated to zero
and become corrupted.

Concrete End Joins

• New behavior is limited to Concrete Beams with the following properties:
o Rectangular Sections with Cross Sectional Rotation that equal 0, 90, 180, and 270
degrees.
o Trapezoidal, T-shaped, and L-Shaped Sections with Cross Sectional Rotation that
equal 0 degrees.
• Sections that do not qualify within these properties will exhibit old behavior.
• Shape Handles are not available for elements participating with new behavior.
• Type parameter changes will not automatically update concrete join geometry.

Automatic Join Geometry



Revit® Architecture 2009 Known Issues

3

• Hierarchal joining rules between element categories cannot be changed, e.g. Slabs always cut
Columns when using Join Geometry.
• Automatic Join Geometry does not occur between Wall and Slab categories.
• It is not possible to disable automatic Join Geometry, but joins can be manually un-joined.
• Joined geometry may impact performance.

Hidden Lines

• On-screen display of hidden lines may not match vector output (e.g. Print, Export) in some
cases.
• Some edges of Wall ends will not show as hidden.
• All Edges of slab edge will show as hidden in a Plan view if obstructed by the Slab.

Beam Extension and Mitering at end Join

• Mitering non-Concrete Beams is limited to 2 Beams of the same type within the same plane.
• Lines within the Beam family (e.g. hidden lines) will not Trim/Extend to the miter plane.
• Beam shape handles do not participate in extensions.
• Edit Beam Join editor is not available when a concrete beam is participating in the end join.
• Beams that have been mitered at any time during their life will be cut by the Cut Plane in Plan
Views using Medium/Fine Detail Level.

Worksharing Monitor

• The Worksharing Monitor tool may behave incorrectly if the Local (or Central) File names
contain dots other than the dot before the .rvt extension.
DWF Markups

• Markups made in Design Review with the Freehand Markup tool do not import into Revit with
properties.

Spellchecking

• Microsoft Office 2007 dictionaries for English, German and Spanish are currently incompatible
with Revit. You can still use the provided Autodesk dictionaries or install an earlier version of
Microsoft Office to use the older Microsoft dictionaries.

Previous Release Known Issues

For Known Issues from previous releases that still exist in Revit Architecture 2009, please click here.


Revit® Architecture 2009 Known Issues

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Revit MEP Resource Center

Craig Parton of Mid-West CAD let me know just found a new Revit MEP Resource Center site from Autodesk. I have not had much time to explore it, but I thought I would put it out there for others to see.

Revit Architecture Resource Center

I just found a new Revit Architetcure Resource Center site from Autodesk. I have not had much time to explore it, but I thought I would put it out there for others to see.

RISA / Revit Seminar Follow-Up

I would like to thank Debbie from RISA Technologies for taking the time to present to the Kansas City Revit User Group at the offices of HNTB in Kansas City. We had a turn-out of about 50 people.

I would also like to thank HNTB Architecture for providing the space for the meeting and providing lunch and MidWest CAD for assisting with the mailings.

RISA to Revit Link Lunch and Learn - April 18th

If you are planning on attending the RISA -Revit Seminar on April 18th at HNTB, please see the following graphic for recommended parking location. Click on the graphic to see a larger view.


















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Deborah Brisbin, P.E. of RISA Technologies will be visiting Kansas City and making a presentation to the Kansas City Revit User Group on RISA and their Revit Structure link.

The date for this presentation is Friday, April 18 over the lunch hour and will be held at the offices of HNTB at 715 Kirk Dr, KC, MO. The session shall begin at approximately 12pm and will end roughly at 1:30pm. Pizza and beverages will be provided.

The date and time have been confirmed by RISA Technologies. For more information, please visit http://www.risatech.com/emails/kcSeminar.html

If you are interested in attending, please send an email RSVP to pat dot davis @ kcrevit dot com

Automated Code Checking Survey

The following rquest is sanctioned by and related to the International Code Council SmartCodes effort and is not an advertisement but a market evaluation effort.

The International Code Council (ICC) is in the process of developing a new product that will facilitate automated code checking. This product is called SMARTCodes and it has the potential to highly impact the efficiency of code checking and by extension the permit issuing timeframe.

In an effort to explore and understand the market for SMARTCodes and to ensure that customer needs are well represented in the final product, we would like to speak with Architects, Engineers and Building Owners.

This should take no more than 30 minutes of your time and will be instrumental in our research of and development of a go-to-market strategy for SMARTCodes.

If you are interested, please contact me directly at <mailto:gwhitmore@obscidion.com> gwhitmore@obscidion.com to express your interest and to schedule a time to talk.

Thank you for your assistance with this important project.

Fake Dimensions - Update

For those who have asked, Daniel Hurtubise has graciously provided a sample faux dimension. Once loaded into the project, the faux dimension is a Detail Component.

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This post started an interesting discussion with a fellow Revit user (No, it was not Daniel Hurtubise) about using fake dimensions. My friend does not work in the design community, he works for a GC that also self-performs and they use Revit. Is opinion is that you should never "fake" anything, anytime. In a perfect world, where fees reflect the amount of work that goes into creating and documenting a design, I would agree.

But we don't live in that perfect world and sometimes design team members need to be creative in order to save time (and money) without sacrificing accuracy and detail. Take the example below. A detail could be created for each option, but if conditions changed, each detail would have to be updated. Creating a detail like what is shown that utilizes a table to represent different conditions or options, is a time saver. If those values in the table need to be adjusted, they are adjust once in this single detail, rather than in a detail for each option.

































I am not suggesting that a design team use fake dimensions to override dimensions of a room, rather then changing the actual locations of objects to get the correct room dimensions. What I am suggesting that you do need the ability sometime to use a different dimension value. With Revit 2008 and prior, we did not have a built in option in Revit 2009, the development team has now provided us with the ability to override dimension text.



I would like to hear what you think (including Daniel Hurtubise).

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I just started teaching an Introduction to Revit class at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas and a student who is taking a similar class at KU in Lawrence, Kansas asked me if it was possible to either override or fake a dimension in Revit. The answer is:

Override dimensions: No. Revit does not have a method that allows you to override a dimension. The parametric nature of Revit requires that dimensions be accurate.

Fake Dimensions: This is definitely possible.

Why use a Fake Dimension?
1. For one, you may want to be able to add descriptive text when the length may or may not be important.
2. You may have a project that you need to break up to place on multiple sheets. If your plans have an overall dimension, those will not display because when you crop a view, you will lose that overall dimension. With the fake dimension family, you can add an overall dimension, even though the view has been cropped.

The downside to this is that you are using a fake dimension, which requires you to manually enter a dimension value, be it a text string, numerical value or combination of both.

I'll upload the fake dimension family as soon as I figure out how to do that.

Autodesk - Fix the Grid Tool!!!!

If you are doing sports work or other non-rectangular shaped structures, then you may have noticed a problem with Revit's Grid tool. It does not allow you to make a single Grid line that consists of multiple line and arc segments. We have come up with a few creative ideas that allow us to use multiple grid lines to make a single grid line.

For example, if need to create Grid line "A" that consists of four grid line segments, we call the first segment "A", and the following segments ".A", then "..A" and hide those bubbles. Not elegant, and it does cause some problems. I have been fighting this problem since 2004, so I would be interested in hearing how others are addressing this problem.

Autodesk Impression 2 for Download by Autodesk Subscription Customers

For those not familar with the product, Autodesk Impression allows you to turn your DWG and DWF files into an impressive hand stylized rendering without having to break out those smelly ink markers, pencils, or talent. Unlike other methods you can update your rendered image when your DWG file changes instead of having to start all over again in the process. Images stylized in Impression provide another way to see the project instead of a exact 3D crisp rendering which communicates to some as a completed design, the 2D or 3D DWG files in Impression can give an impression of in process, quality style, and still pre-construction thinking and convey a different impression and much faster. Give it a try as you will see how fun and easy it is to impress others and sometimes it is hard to tell which was a watercolored, pencil sketched or inked marker rendering from what you output with Autodesk Impression.

The products that get this Autodesk Impression download benefit are:

AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Map 3D, AutoCAD MEP, AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite,AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite, AutoCAD Revit Structure Suite, Revit Architecture Revit MEP, and Revit Structure.

Impression 2 will initially be available in English only.
New in Autodesk Impression 2

Users of the first release of Autodesk Impression, as well as the Technology Preview, will notice several new features and overall improvements. Enhancements include

* New options in the Import Wizards, including Layer Packing for improved drawing performance
* Enhancements to the Area Fill tool, which now offers five different methods for applying styles
* Expanded content libraries, including watercolor trees and pencil strokes in traditional lineweights: H, HB, 2B, and so on

New features include

* The Match Properties tool, used for applying the style, layer, or text properties from one object to another
* A new Power Fill tool fills multiple areas based on shared criteria such as shape, layer, CAD color, and lineweight
* The Drawing Performance Tuner, designed to improve application performance by packing objects on layers and modifying how styles are displayed
* The new Block Editor, which offers a seamless environment in which to create and edit vector-based blocks
* The Global Stroke button, which adjusts the stroke type and lineweight of geometry and inserted blocks

More About Autodesk Impression: http://www.autodesk.com/impression
Become a Member of the Autodesk Impression Community (FREE)

Become a member of the Autodesk Impression Community to stay current with all the latest developments and resources available for this product. Learn how Impression is evolving, find new content to use in your images, and share your experiences with other users. Benefits of membership include access to

* Content Sharing
* Member Discussions
* Blogs, Local Events, and Webcasts
* User-submitted Tips and Tricks

Membership provides you with up-to-date information on the latest developments with Autodesk Impression, and with tools to help you get started.
Go to http://impression.autodesk.com/community.

Thanks for Shaan Hurley at Between the Lines for providing this information.

Hostile Takeover - Google takes on Autodesk and Bentley

Steve Stafford on his RevitOpEd blog has an interesting article on Googles future plans