Free Xrev UpRev Add-in for Quickly Adding Revisions to Multiple Sheets in Revit

From the Xrev website...

Xrev UpRev enables you to quickly apply a revision to many sheets. Simply select the Revision you wish to apply, then select all the sheets you want to apply it to, click OK and its done!

No longer will you have to go into each and every sheet and go into the Edit Revisions dialog and tick on the applicable revisions! Or use workarounds like placing a cloud on the sheet and copy/pasting it to selected views.

Download now and start saving time for free!

There's more information available on the Xrev website.

Credit: Luke Johnson's What Revit Wants blog.

Free Xrev View Box Add-in for Revit

From the Xrev website...

View Box enables you to select any element or elements in the model and in a single operation:

• Create a 3D View,
• Isolate the elements so nothing else is visible,
• Name the view,
• Control the offset of the section box,
• Hide the section box

This tool was originally developed internally for Revit projects where we were producing shop drawings in Revit and also for generating laser cut files.  If that's what you are trying to do then this tool could save you a lot of time!

There's more information available on the Xrev website.

Free Fire Rating Macro for Revit 2014

Excerpted from Paolo Emilio Serra's Point Revit blog (cleaned up a little to compensate for the Italian to English translation)...

Since it is not yet possible to have a single-line representation for the walls in Revit, I wrote this macro for version 2014 [that] takes into account the parameter types of wall Fire Rating.

Based on the parameter of Fire Rating are created categories of lines and the corresponding lines are drawn in detail at the center line of the wall (if the parameter is not filled nothing happens).

When you need to update the plan views, detail lines are eliminated ... [and] recreated to avoid typos and errors to update.

This process can also be adapted for any other parameter present in the walls (transmittance, noise reduction, etc ...), then if you run the command for the first time on a view that contains all kinds of wall you can develop and maintain the standard of representation in a much less expensive and effective [when] compared to [other methods].

If you're happy with my code, please Pay What You Want via PayPal to puntorevit@gmail.com.

There's more information available on the Punto Revit blog.

Credit: Luke Johnson's What Revit Wants blog.

The Award-Winning Kiwi Codes Bonus Tools Add-in for Revit Now Includes 46 Tools!

Since I last posted about Bonus Tools in October 2013, Kiwi Codes has released a series of updates, including updating to Revit 2015 and adding the following new tools.

Align Sheets

• Align viewports on selected Sheets with a master Sheet setup.
• Copy Parameter Values
• Copy Parameter Values from one Parameter to another.
• Choose a parameter from the current element or its host or level, and the parameter to copy it to.
• Choose your selection set:
• Current View.
• Current Selection.
• Entire Project.

Copy Parameter Values

• Copy Parameter Values from one Parameter to another.
• Choose a parameter from the current element or its host or level, and the parameter to copy it to.
• Choose your selection set:
• Current View.
• Current Selection.
• Entire Project.

Export Schedule to Excel

• Export any Schedule to Excel.
• Select the Schedule to export to Excel.
• First row in Excel is the Parameter Name used during Import (Do not delete or modify this row)
• Second row in Excel is the Parameter Type (Do not delete this row)
• Third row in Excel is the Parameter Id (Do not delete this row)
• First column in Excel is Element Id used during Import (Do not delete this column)
• Delete any other rows and columns after Export as desired (except for those mentioned above)

Highlight 2D Elements

• Highlight 2D elements across a project.
• Check how many 2D patches have been applied to you project.

Note: Complete this procedure on a copy of the file as it 'Override Graphics in View' by 'Element'

Free Open-Source BipChecker for Revit 2015 for Checking Built-In Parameters

Jeremy Tammik has updated his BipChecker to Revit 2015. It may be downloaded from GitHub. Luke Johnson has an excellent post on how to get it up and running on his What Revit Wants blog.

Sample output from BitChecker

A Free Open Source, Light-Weight Web Viewer for Revit and Other Source Model Types

I doubt that anyone will ever call Jeremy Tammik a layabout. At the recent New York AEC Symposium and Hackathon, Jeremy and Matt Mason of IMAGINiT Technologies worked around the clock to create an easy, open source, general-purpose 3D AEC model viewer based on components like WebGL, Three.js and HTML5 via REST and JSON. Dubbed va3c, exporters are available for Grasshopper, Revit, 3DS Max and Sketchup.

The va3c HTML viewer

One may test drive the viewer here.

There's more information available on Jeremy's The Building Coder blog.

Credit: Luke Johnson's What Revit Wants blog.

Project Chronicle Graduates from Autodesk Labs to Autodesk Screencast - and It's Still Free

The Autodesk Labs project for creating and sharing screen capture videos, Project Chronicle, has graduated to the free Autodesk Screencast. Scott Sheppard's post on the subject is here on the It's Alive in the Lab blog.

Credit: Luke Johnson's What Revit Wants blog.

Source Code for Finding Constraining Dimensions

For the DIYers out there, over on his Boost Your BIM blog, Harry Mattison has posted source code to find constraining dimensions.

Credit: Luke Johnson's What Revit Wants blog.

Revit Add-ons Gets Social

You can now follow Revit Add-ons on Facebook and Twitter. Simply use the appropriate widget near the bottom of the left sidebar!

The Autodesk 360 Integrated 3D Viewer and Revit Files

I recently posted about the New Autodesk 360 Tech Preview, including the ability to view over 60 different 2D and 3D file formats in the integrated viewer.

There's an excellent post from Scott Sheppard on the It's Alive in the Lab blog detailing Autodesk's move away from Autodesk Design Review desktop software to the zero client, cloud-based viewing capability of Autodesk 360.

Also, over on his What Revit Wants blog, Luke Johnson details his positive experience with uploading and viewing Revit files on Autodesk 360. Luke also makes the following keen observation: "With features for team communication and wiki, it is obvious that Autodesk 360 intends to be more than just a file sharing and viewing tool."

Free Revit Macro to Set Scope Boxes and Reference Planes to the Shared Levels and Grids Workset

For you DIYers out there, over on his BIM 42 blog, Simon Moreau has posted the source code for a Revit macro to set all scope boxes and reference planes to the Shared Levels and Grids workset. This way it's then easy to turn of these elements in linked files.

Credit: Luke Johnson's What Revit Wants blog.

Free OBJ Exporter Add-in for Revit

From the IngleGreen website...

OBJ Exporter for Revit – free plugin – New v1.8

A free Revit 2014/2015 add-in to export Projects and Families to OBJ format. The OBJ files have been tested with 3ds Max Design 2014/2015, Blender and Octane Render.

The images show the resulting OBJs from the Revit Sample Projects inserted into Octane Render and Blender.

There is the option to export material textures. Texture image files are copied to a ‘textures’ directory based on an XML file listing. A sample XML file is provided. (It is not possible to identify the texture image files from Revit directly).

As from Version 1.3 by default now exports as Revit Objects. The exports do take longer. You can however still export as individual polymeshes if you untick the ‘Group Meshes’ checkbox.

Version 1.3.3 adds the Revit Category to the Element Name and provides a fast Group Option.

Version 1.8 has the option to export only the items you have selected.

Paolo Emilio Serra has created a video showing the Revit OBJ Exporter in action on his Point Revit blog.

There's more information available on the IngleGreen website.

Credit: Luke Johnson's What Revit Wants blog.

The Revit Sundial Release Preview

You've probably heard about Revit Sundial by now, the cloud-based, hosted release preview that "provides a sneak peek into potential future enhancements for architects and MEP and structural engineers. With more than 35 features and enhancements to try, the preview includes Solon integration for more personalized building performance analysis, sequencing for power circuits, and enhanced rebar tools."

You may have also read that this release preview heralded the return of the Inside the Factory blog, following an over 2 year hiatus.

To this point, thinking that Revit Sundial was simply a preview of Revit 2016 (!), I've been quite content to sit back and watch my esteemed blogger colleagues' post about Revit Sundial. What's especially interesting to me though is that when one clicks the What's New link on Inside the Factory, Revit 2015 Help is opened! What is then described is a "Revit 2015 Subscription Advantage" release, with Revit Sundial being a preview of features that are being considering for a future subscription release.

While I have no inside information on the matter, it seems that Autodesk subscription customers may be in store for a mid-model year Revit release (I don't know if subscriber-only full-on product releases are common from Autodesk, but there is certainly precedent from competing vendors like Bentley Systems). Alternatively, some features may be rolled out as subscription enhancements, which puts this topic in the purview of Revit Add-ons. Again though, I have nothing to base this on, other than what I've already stated.

Mark this one as developing, and stay tuned. :)

Useful Links:

Revit Sundial
What's New in Revit Sundial (AKA "What's New in Revit 2015 Subscription Advantage")
Inside the Factory (for Revit Sundial updates and information)

You might also be interested in: Project Solon: Building Performance Dashboards for Revit

Number Add-in for Revit

From the Autodesk Exchange Apps website...

Allows the (re)numbering of any family instance into a text based parameter. Use prefix or suffix values in the numbering. Number family instances by clicking on them in sequence. Option to isolate the model category being numbered. Pick categories and parameters from an available list.

The Number add-in costs USD 1.99.

There's more information available on the Autodesk Exchange Apps website.

Free Room Sync with Linked Models Add-in for Revit (Updated)

From the Case Apps website...

If you have ever needed to schedule elements by room from a model that did not contain the actual room elements and realized that you were up a creek, this tool is for you.

This tool will display a simple dialog box where you select the linked model that you want to sync rooms from and click the sync button! All rooms that exist in the linked model will be either copied into the current model or have their parameters updated if any changes in parameter values for the rooms are detected.

The linked model can be in a different location or even rotated, your rooms will come in where they ought to.

There's more information available on the Case Apps website.

Update 5/8/2016: CASE and the CASE Apps website are no more but, courtesy of WeWork, the CASE Apps are now open source. They may be accessed on GitHub.

Free CGS Revit Family Upgrade Add-in

Family Upgrade

With the Family Upgrade Tools user can upgrade all families from previous version of Revit Architecture to current version. User can choose whole folder to upgrade.

You will save time upgrading Revit libraries of different formats (*.0001, jpg, txt...) with just one click.



There's more information available on the CGS plus website.

Free UBM (Universal Building Model) Export Add-in for Revit

From the Autodesk Exchange Apps website...


Export current model to Universal Building Model (UBM) format.

Format is developed by Lement LLC, NPO Sodis (nposodis.lement.pro), contains geometry, hierarchy, element parameters and states (i.e. flashed, transparented, hidden).

Save exported file dialog

Exported UBM file in SurveyViewer tool

Hierarchy generation dialog

Ribbon button of plugin

There's more information available on the Autodesk Exchange Apps website.

Paraline Add-in for Revit: Convert Detail Elements from Orthographic to Isometric

From the Autodesk Exchange Apps website...

Paraline is an Autodesk® Revit® program extension that allows you to convert the  detail elements from standard orthographic drawings like plans and elevations into 3D isometric drawings.

Editor's note: This add-in may not do all that readers expect. Readers are encouraged to watch the following video.



Cost is USD 5.00. There's more information available on the Autodesk Exchange Apps website.

Free EasyDimension Add-in for Revit

From the Autodesk Exchange Apps website...

EasyDimension tool helps you add dimensions for all visible elements in a view for several different categories. It supports general view types: plan view, elevation view, ceiling view and 3D view. In plan view, only the element which is perpendicular with the view normal direction can be dimensioned.

There's more information available on the Autodesk Exchange Apps website.

Free Revit File Performance Tracking

For you DIYers out there, on his BIM 42 blog, Simon Moreau has shared some code to track Revit file performance in terms of open, save and synchronize times. Here's an excerpt from his post...

My previous post about Revit performance highlighted the need for precise feedback from user about starting and synchronizing time. This is important when dealing with many users, with potentially different configuration and performance. In this case, these loading times can alert you soon enough of a problem with a model.

Having feedback from every user is also important, since you need to detect quickly if any user is having more difficulty to open a file than the average.

You can also compare file size progression with loading time to establish and check your set of good practices for keeping Revit models powerful.

To be more accurate and systematic with these measures, I create a small piece of code to log every opening, synchronizing and closing of Revit model for multiples users.

Once these information are stored, it is pretty easy to collect them and write them down to a csv file.

It is now possible to quickly create very precise graph displaying opening time of different model, compare them and show their evolution along time.

There's more information, including the source code, available on the BIM 42 blog.

Credit: Luke Johnson's What Revit Wants blog.

Free Autodesk-Authored Lighting Analysis Add-in for Revit

Just when I thought I was up to date on the Autodesk-authored add-ins on Autodesk Exchange Apps, along comes the Lighting Analysis add-in...

Lighting Analysis for Autodesk® Revit® is a fast cloud service that uses Autodesk® 360 Rendering to expose electric and solar lighting results directly on the Revit model. The results are validated against Radiance, a commonly used simulation tool, and displayed in-canvas more quickly. The service also offers automated daylighting analysis for LEED.

There's more information available on the Autodesk Exchange Apps website.

The Lighting Analysis add-in graduated from Autodesk Labs where it was previously known as the Daylighting Analysis for Revit technology preview.

Roundup: Autodesk-Authored Revit Add-ins on Autodesk Exchange Apps

Following is a list of the Revit add-ins available on the Autodesk Exchange Apps website that were authored by Autodesk, sorted by date posted or last updated.



FREE ADD-INS

IFC Export Alternate UI 2014
7/9/2014
This application provides an alternate user interface for the export of IFC files from Autodesk® Revit® 2014 and Autodesk Revit LT 2014.
Product page

IFC Exporter 2014
7/9/2014
Seamlessly replaces the built-in IFC export capabilities of Autodesk® Revit® 2014
Product page

IFC 2015
7/9/2014
Seamlessly replaces the built-in IFC import and export capabilities of Autodesk® Revit® 2015
Product Page

Autodesk FBX Review - Windows 64 Bit
7/7/2014
Autodesk® FBX® Review is a lightweight, standalone tool for reviewing 3D assets and animations.
Product page

Structural Analysis Toolkit 2015
6/16/2014 
The toolkit is a suite of tools that supports the BIM process and allows structural engineers to analyze structures from within the Autodesk® Revit® environment
Product page

Structural Analysis Toolkit 2014
6/6/2014 
The toolkit is a suite of tools that supports the BIM process and allows structural engineers to analyze structures from within the Autodesk® Revit® environment
Product page