My New Role – Applications Expert, BSD with IMAGINiT! (Updated)

I'm happy to announce that today I accepted the position of Applications Expert-Building Services Division with IMAGINiT Technologies, a Rand Worldwide Company. My start date will be January 11, and I'll be based in their Seattle office.

With 42 offices in the US and Canada, IMAGINiT is the world’s largest provider of enterprise solutions to the engineering community.

I'll be providing training, technical support, and implementation services to IMAGINiT clients, and sales support to prospects, with an emphasis on Autodesk Revit and associated products. I hope to also factor into product development and other IP development efforts at IMAGINiT.

The position will feature extensive travel to client sites throughout the US and Canada, which I enjoy. I also hope to be a frequent presenter at industry events like Autodesk University, The Revit Technology Conference, the BIM Workshops, and local user groups, which I greatly enjoy. I may even have opportunities for business travel abroad, which I would absolutely love.

This position is very similar to one that I held up until a decade ago with the now defunct CorDax. Aside from Marine embassy guard, that was my favorite employment experience in my career – by a country mile – and I am absolutely thrilled to be joining IMAGINiT in a similar role. And what a great way to ring in the New Year!

What does this portend for Revit Add-ons? I don't foresee any changes, except that I'll be out and about and hope to meet many of you. Travel to conferences was severely curtailed by my previous employer for the past few years, and now I look forward to becoming a staple at such industry events.

Updated 2/5/2016: Revit Add-ons will continue to operate as an independent source of Revit-related add-on information that is wholly separate from my employer, and I will continue to strive to offer an objective viewpoint, regardless of software vendor.

Happy New Year everyone! May it be a good one for each of us!

See you down the road apiece!

Updating Revit to Use the the Current OmniClass Standards

Over on his What Revit Wants blog, Luke Johnson has posted about how to update Revit to use the OmniClass 2012 standards. Handy!

Credit: 

Updated #OmniClass 2012 Taxonomy File - Download and Install for Revit: Here's how… https://t.co/0iBulfblBw #revit

— Luke Johnson (@lukeyjohnson) December 31, 2015

CGS Revit Tools – A Rose by any Other Name...

For new content on Revit Add-ons, I get a lot of my leads from the Autodesk App Store, and on Twitter from Luke Johnson of What Revit Wants, Jason Howden of RTV Tools, and Scott Sheppard of It's Alive in the Lab (@lukeyjohnson, @RTVTools and @scottsh115, respectively – by the way, my Twitter handle's @TimGrimm_). And occasionally, developers and vendors reach out to me, especially those who advertise on the site.

All that is to say that it's rare that I troll the Internet for fresh add-in content, especially ones that I don't already know about. I would you see, but rarely have the time, or lack for other content.

Back in 2011, when my then employer LMN Architects was transitioning from Bentley Architecture to Revit, in the process of evaluating the local Autodesk resellers, I became aware that two of the three, IMAGINiT and Ideate, offered add-ins to their subscription customers for free as a type of competitive advantage (IMAGINiT Utilities for Revit and Ideate Explorer, respectively – and now you know why my first four posts on Revit Add-ons that same year were about IMAGINiT and Ideate products). I then mentioned to the other local reseller, The PPI Group, that I thought their lack of a similar offering was a deficiency, and, subsequently, they developed their own, The PPI Group's Revit Briefcase.

Several months ago, Scott Zabilla dropped me a line letting me know that he had moved to an Autodesk reseller, Initial AEC. I hadn't been aware of this company before so, like I do, I went to their site to see if they offered any Revit add-ins of their own. They do, a tool suite called Pro Revit Tools.

Initial AEC's Pro Revit Tools

Having written a rather lengthy product review of the popular CGS Revit Tools, I thought I recognized the tool grouping names, and, when asked, Scott was kind enough to confirm for me that Initial AEC's Pro Revit Tools are indeed a rather attractive rebranding of the CGS Revit Tools.

The CGS Revit Tools

Interesting, I thought, and filed the information away in the trash heap that serves as my mind.

And then it happened again.

When time permits, I do try to visit vendors sites to check for updates on products I know about, and that's what I was doing when I discovered that The PPI Group's Revit Briefcase had transformed from a much smaller offering to a near duplicate of the CGS Revit Tools.

The PPI Group's Revit Briefcase

Son of gun, CGS Plus seems to be franchising the CGS Revit Tools! That's smart; I'm sure it adds value for them, and the other companies get a very impressive suite of tools with their own branding to offer their customers without having to invest in the development effort, which can be very expensive indeed. That's a win-win-win.

Like I said, smart.

2015 – Year in Review

2015 was a bit of an uneven year here on Revit Add-ons. Things were moving along at a fair clip until August, when I had to more-or-less take a 3-month break from the site to better deal with matters that required my undivided attention at my day job. That's a story I may share, someday...

Over the last two months, I've been working hard to catch up on the site, and I'm happy to say that I think I finally have.

Post Count and Pageviews

Post count on the site eclipsed the previous high mark by over 50, at 286 posts for the year. I don't know if I've ever stated this here before or not, but my goal has always been to average 1 post a day, or 365 a year. I'm happy to inch closer than ever to that target.

Although post count was up by about 39% year-to-year, pageviews declined by about 12%, from 343,615 to 300,877. This was the first year-to-year decrease in pageviews since I started the site in 2011. I think this was owing largely to my three months of relative inactivity, followed by two months of binge posting. Could there be some add-in fatigue setting in though? As a peer design technology manager recently quipped to me, "How many add-ons do you really need?"

I think there may also be a shift in popularity in the marketplace away from traditional Revit add-in applications to Dynamo definitions. A friend of mine, Rob Snyder, once said, "I foresee a day when add-ins will be delivered as generative definitions." That was in 2007. I do so admire folks who are smarter than me, especially those who see what's coming next.

Time will tell, and we'll see how things go in 2016. And hey, Dynamo is a Revit add-on too.

Branching Out

Attempting to duplicate the success of Revit Add-ons, I launched Civil 3D Add-ons in February and AutoCAD Add-ons in July. These sites have suffered even more since August though. I briefly thought about divesting myself of them, but have put that decision on hold. I'm currently eyeing a career opportunity that might motivate me to, and allow me opportunity to, refocus on these sites.

Advertising

Ad revenue continued to rise in 2015.

Revit Add-ons is ad-supported, and I'm very thankful to our current advertisers ArchVision, RTV Tools, INVIEWlabs, Ideate Software, RevitWorks, CTC Express Tools, Vabi Software, 3DCONNEXION, and Xrev.

If you'd like to support Revit Add-ons by advertising your products or services on the site, please send me an email. We'd love to have ya.

Editor's Choice Award Winners

Editor's Choice Awards are given to add-ins that strike my fancy for some reason or other. It may be because they do something particularly innovative, or do something mundane in a particularly innovative way. Or it might be that they deliver exceptional value, or because I consider them to be a best-in-class product. Whatever the case, these are the add-ins that I recognized thusly in 2015.

Early in the year it seemed that there was tweet after tweet from customers extolling the virtues of RTV Exporter PRO by RTV Tools. I joined the cacophony in February when I recognized the add-in, which can be used to schedule fully automated printing and exporting of files from Revit, and more too.

Read more about RTV Xporter PRO here »

ViewSync Version 2 Released – Includes Free Features

From the Marsh API website...

NEW in Version 2.0.3!

• Free Features!  Sync 3D views for Free! Whether or not you decide to purchase advanced features, 3D syncing will continue to work after the trial expires!
• New LIVE 2D and 3D sections!  Sync two 2D sections and one 3D section with your active plan view!  Select two 2D section views and one 3D view of your choosing to have automatically sync'd to your active plan view.
• Persistent settings between Revit sessions!  Your ViewSync settings are now preserved for the next time you start up Revit!

ViewSync is priced at 19.99 USD. A trial may be downloaded from the Autodesk App Store, or from the Marsh API website.

Roundup – New and Updated Revit Add-ins on the Autodesk App Store for the Week of December 20, 2015

It was a relatively quiet week on the Autodesk App Store last week. Project Sweeper, an add-in to assist in cleaning unwanted items from Revit files, debuted, and at a very modest price.

The popular CTC BIM Suites were updated.

ArchVision's DETAIL WAREHOUSE debuted on the app store. In addition to a free trial, a free content channel is included.

NEW

Project Sweeper
OS: Win64
Project Sweeper is a collection of tools that allow a user to quickly and accurately remove clutter from Autodesk® Revit® projects | $2.00/Y


UPDATED

OneRay-ST Spiral Stairs
OS: Win64
OneRay-ST Spiral Stairs for Autodesk® Revit® creates wonderful highly customizable spiral stairs for Revit within just a few minutes. Revit Family for Spiral Stairs creation included! | $28.00
About This Version: Erroneously listed as "Version 1.0.0, Initial release"

Enscape™
OS: Win64
Enscape™ – Realtime 3D rendered walkthrough for your projects in Autodesk® Revit®. It enables you to show and communicate designs in your team or to your customers effortlessly | Trial
About This Version: Version 1.4.1, Solved issues: Fixed an issue where upgrading a floating license would fail in certain situations, fixed an issue with standalone exports on certain laptops with Nvidia Optimus software, fixed glass rendering issues on the very latest AMD drivers v15.12, fixed some minor spotlight artifacts.

CTC BIM Project Suite 2016 (Purchase)
OS: Win32 and 64
Automate tedious tasks, use the power of Excel with Revit, manage content, compare a project at 2 points in time, validate families in rooms and much more. For Revit 2014-2016 | $450.00
About This Version: Version 16.0.4, See this post for release notes.

CTC BIM Project Suite 2016
OS: Win32 and 64
Automate tedious tasks, use the power of Excel with Revit, manage content, compare a project at 2 points in time, validate families in rooms and much more. For Revit 2014-2016 | Free
About This Version: Version 16.0.4, See this post for release notes.

Free Change Text Case Macro

From the ArchSmarter website...

This macro changes the case of all text notes and leaders in the current Revit model. You can convert to UPPERCASE, lower case, and Title Case (the first letter of each word gets capitalized). The macro file contains three macros:

• ConvertAllTextToUpper
• ConvertAllTextToLower
• ConvertAllTextToTitle

To run the macro, first load the macro RVT file. Make the file containing the text you want to change the active file in Revit. Go to Manage > Macro Manager to open the Revit Macro Manager. Select the macro you want to run from the list then click the "OK" button to run it. The macro will update the text and alert you when it's complete.

Macro files are included for Revit 2014, 2015, and 2016.

To download the free Change Text Case macro, which is part of the ArchSmarter Toolbox, subscribe to ArchSmarter email updates.

Free Insert DWGs to Drafting Views Macro

From the ArchSmarter website...

Ever need to import a lot of DWGs details into your Revit model? This macro make the process a snap.

Simply select the DWG files you want to insert, set the insert type (link or import), positioning (center-to-center or origin-to-origin) and color settings (invert, preserve or black and white), then click OK. The macro inserts each file into its own drafting view and names the view using the DWG filename. You can insert hundreds of DWGs in only a few minutes.

To download the free Insert DWGs to Drafting Views macro, which is part of the ArchSmarter Toolbox, subscribe to ArchSmarter email updates.

Free Change Elevation Crop Line Weights Macro

From the ArchSmarter website...

This macro is particularly useful for making your interior elevations graphically consistent. The macro changes the crop line weight of the selected elevations to the specified line weight value.

Select the elevation views you want to update then specify the line weight and click OK. The macro will loop through all the views and update the crop boundary's line weight.

To download the free Change Elevation Crop Line Weights macro, which is part of the ArchSmarter Toolbox, subscribe to ArchSmarter email updates.

Free Batch Link RVT Files Macro

From the ArchSmarter website...

This macro links a batch of RVT files into the current model file. Simply select the files you want to link then click the "OK" button. The macro loops through the files and links each one using an absolute file path. The files are positioned using "origin to origin".

To run the macro, load the macro RVT file. Once the file has loaded, make the file you want to link the RVTs into the current model file. Go to Manage > Macro Manager, select the "Batch Link RVT Files" macro from the list then click the "Run" button. When the dialog box opens, select the files you want to link using the "Browse..." button then click OK.

To download the free Batch Link RVT Files macro, which is part of the ArchSmarter Toolbox, subscribe to ArchSmarter email updates.

CTC BIM Manager Suite Version 16.0.4 Released

From the Autodesk App Store...

About This Version
Version 16.0.4, 12/22/2015

Batch Family Loader Enhancement:

• Checks the project family against the loading family. In most cases, BFL can avoid loading a family which is identical to the one in a project -- enhanced performance

Import and Link Manager Enhancements:

• Now presents warning when changing remote file data on central files regarding requiring re-save to central the next time the project is opened.
•  Grid now has columns displays "Referencing Sheet" and "Sheet Number" for applicable link types.

Revision Cloud Remover Enhancement:

• Now has the ability to keep revisions on sheet after deleting the revision clouds.

Shared Parameter Manager Enhancements:

• Find/Replace -- Can now find parameter names by pattern and replace with user specified pattern
• Prefix/suffix can be added to parameter names in the master shared parameter file

Type Swapper Bug Fix:

• Corrected the issue when in Revit 2014 or Revit 2015, Type Swapper would produce an error regarding trying to use a DLL for Revit 2013.

BIM Manager Suite is priced at 1,250.00 USD.

The 30-day trial / free version may be downloaded from the Autodesk App Store here »

The full purchased version may be downloaded from the Autodesk App Store here »

CTC BIM Project Suite Version 16.0.4 Released

From the Autodesk App Store...

About This Version
Version 16.0.4, 12/22/2015

BIM List Enhancements:

• Improved performance when switching databases. Browser will display a notice if database needs updating rather than doing it automatically
• "Sort By" context menu (right click) now includes "Updated Date"
• Improved node drag and drop in Tree View
• Improvement to Content Update Tracker file and path handling of character case
• Database list shows data location
• Database upgrade improvements
• Checks if database has valid characters in file naming.
• Moved display options to a settings file under roaming profile
• Can now add families with type catalog that has blank lines in it.
• Content List tab now shows average rating and total load count.

BIM List Bug Fix:

• Corrected issue when using Rename function, the database would not reflect the changes

BIM List Server (sold separately) Bug Fixes:

• Corrected issue when using Rename function, the database would not reflect the changes
• Larger amounts of data can be sent to BIM List Server, particularly if it's running on a 32-bit computer.

Project Sweeper

From the Autodesk App Store...

Project Sweeper is a collection of tools that allow a user to quickly and accurately remove the following clutter from Autodesk® Revit® projects:

• line styles
• line patterns
• text styles
• fill region types and
• fill patterns.

Except for text styles, these items are not checked by Revit "Purge Unused" command. Project Sweeper goes beyond just checking for unused styles and patterns. It also allows a user to convert from one style\pattern to another, delete all the elements using a style\pattern and to preview all the views\elements using a style\pattern before removing it.

About This Version
Version 2016.1.1.0, 12/21/2015
Initial release

Project Sweeper is brought to you by PKH Lineworks and is priced at 2.00 USD/year. There's more information available on the Autodesk App Store.

Free 3DWarehouse-For-Revit – Use SketchUp 3D Warehouse Content in Revit

From the AMC Bridge website...

3DWarehouse-For-Revit is an innovative plug-in for Autodesk® Revit®.

The plug-in enables Revit users to browse SketchUp® 3D Warehouse and supports bidirectional data exchange between live Revit sessions and SketchUp 3D Warehouse. 3DWarehouse-For-Revit is compatible with Autodesk Revit 2014-2016.

The set of operations includes:

• Browsing documents in 3D Warehouse
• Select and Import models to a Revit session
• Export models from a Revit Session to 3D Warehouse.

The video demonstration below shows basic functions of the plug-in



Here's a direct download link  »

Or get it from the Autodesk App Store »

There's more information available on the AMC Bridge website  »

Roundup – New and Updated Revit Add-ins on the Autodesk App Store for the Week of December 13, 2015

It was a big week on the Autodesk App Store for live, interactive 3D presentation authoring add-ins with new versions of CL3VER, Enscape and Unity dropping.

A major update of the popular CADtoEarth add-in was also released.

CADstudio Revit Tools and SOFiSTik Reinforcement Generation were each updated to Revit 2016.

NEW

RVT 2 DWG (PWGSC NCA)
OS: Win32 and 64
Convert Autodesk® Revit® Sheets to AutoCAD® DWG files - Compatible with PWGSC NCA CAD Standards (version 5, and 6) | $600.00 

RVT 2 DWG (PWGSC Atlantic)
OS: Win32 and 64
Convert Autodesk® Revit® Sheets to AutoCAD® DWG files - Compatible with PWGSC Atlantic CAD Standards (version 4, 5, and 6) | $600.00

Find Element Detached
OS: Win32 and 64
This add-in will find any columns and walls that are not yet attached. Very fast and safe | $5.00

OneRay-ST Spiral Stairs
OS: Win64
OneRay-ST Spiral Stairs for Autodesk® Revit® creates wonderful highly customizable spiral stairs for Revit within just a few minutes. Revit Family for Spiral Stairs creation included! | $28.00  

UPDATED

CL3VER
OS: Win32 and 64
CL3VER transforms your Autodesk® Revit® projects into web based interactive 3D presentations for any device to reach any stakeholder with an engaging presentation of your design intent and win bids | Free
About This Version: Version 3.3, details here.

Enscape™
OS: Win64
Enscape™ – Realtime 3D rendered walkthrough for your projects in Autodesk® Revit®. It enables you to show and communicate designs in your team or to your customers effortlessly | Trial  
About This Version: Version 1.4, Export standalone executable, New settings: motion blur (on/off), polystyrol mode (on/off) and image sharpening slider, Added support for texture scaling, offset and rotation, and Improved loading performance. See Autodesk App Store for full details.

CADstudio Revit Tools 2016
OS: Win64
Set of productivity tools for Autodesk® Revit® Architecture and Autodesk® Revit® MEP - job-time tracker, door/wall legends, text replacements, renumbering, anaglyph... | Trial
About This Version: Version 2.0, Support for Revit 2016

Unity for Autodesk® Revit®
OS: Win32 and 64
Unity for Autodesk® Revit® 1.1 is an add-in to connect Autodesk® Revit® and Unity® gaming development platform | Free  
About This Version: Version 1.1.0.0, Added fly mode along with support of materials colors, light sources, and positioning of camera by the Revit human model.

CL3VER 3.3 Release Introduces Direct VR Authoring, Plus New Free Viewing App for PC, Mac and iOS

At AU2015, CL3VER, the platform for interactive 3D presentations, announced some enhancements for its pending 3.3 release...

Direct VR authoring from Revit, Sketchup, Max and Rhino

Following the trend for the future of Architectural Visualization, CL3VER introduces a pro VR solution that streamlines VR content creation from Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Revit, SketchUp and Rhino 3D. This effectively makes CL3VER the first 3D content provider that natively support the standard.

New CL3VER Desktop App

To provide users with a seamless experience on any device online and offline, CL3VER presents its brand new solution. The CL3VER Desktop App enables users to save and open presentations to Windows and OS X devices making it easier for designers to present their projects anytime and anywhere.CL3VER 3.3 redefines publishing for 3D content on web and offline devices

CL3VER 3.3 dropped on the Autodesk App Store late last week. From the CL3VER blog...

CL3VER 3.3 includes two major updates that significantly enhances mobile quality and the ability to play CL3VER presentations without the need for an internet connection

New CL3VER App for PC, Mac and iOS…and Free!

CL3VER content is often presented in situations where there is little or no internet connectivity, like meeting rooms, events or construction sites. The New “CL3VER App” enables users to save presentations to Windows, OS X and iOS devices. A User can then open presentations without the need of a internet connection. This update makes it easier to present projects anytime and anywhere.

RVT 2 DWG (PWGSC NCA) – Convert Revit Model to Standardized AutoCAD Files

From the Autodesk App Store...

The RVT 2 DWG Suite is a line of conversion utilities (which includes processes as well) that allows users to convert an Autodesk® Revit® Model to a standard AutoCAD® DWG file format. We use the Revit Export to CAD option that is built into Revit of course, but our conversion utilities much further and have been customized for different Federal and Provincial Government Dept. and for commercial clients usage as well.

Who needs it? Anyone using Revit to create AutoCAD drawing files that need to meet a specific DWG CAD Standard. It does not matter if you are the Architect, Structural, Mechanical or Electrical engineering or if you are an Interior Designer/Decorator. If you’ve committed to Revit because of its efficiency over AutoCAD (or other CAD platforms) for production drafting, then you need to finish it up by adding RVT 2 DWG. It will save you countless days of labor!

If you need to convert to DWG, but with a different company standard that is not listed below, give us a call, we would be happy to adjust our software to meet your requirements!

RVT 2 DWG is currently available in 3 different Standards, PWGSC Atlantic, PWGSC NCA and NS DTI (Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure).

RVT 2 DWG (PWGSC Atlantic) – Convert Revit Model to Standardized AutoCAD Files

From the Autodesk App Store...

The RVT 2 DWG Suite is a line of conversion utilities (which includes processes a well) that allows users to convert a Autodesk® Revit® Model to a standard AutoCAD® DWG file format. We use the Revit Export to CAD option that is built into Revit of course, but our conversion utilities goes much further and has been customized for different Federal and Provincial Government Dept. and for commercial clients usage as well.

Who needs it? Anyone using Revit to create AutoCAD drawing files that need to meet a specific DWG CAD Standard. It does not matter if you are the Architect, Structural, Mechanical or Electrical engineering or if you are an Interior Decorator. If you’ve committed to Revit because of its efficiency over AutoCAD (or other CAD platforms) for production drafting, then you need to finish it up by adding RVT 2 DWG. It will save you countless days of labor!

If you need to convert to DWG, but with a different company standard that is not listed below, give us a call, we would be happy to adjust our software to meet your requirements!

RVT 2 DWG is currently available in 3 different Standards, PWGSC Atlantic, PWGSC NCA and NS DTI (Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure).

How does it work? The conversion is a 3 step process. The first part of the process (before creating the model) is to learn how to use the pre-built Revit families (such as TitleBlocks, Elevation, Section and Details Markers and other, all included as part of the conversion utility – specific to your standard) which will be compliant to the standard that you are trying to convert to. The second part makes use of the Revit Export to CAD conversion utility to map the Revit object to AutoCAD layers, as close as possible based on the standard you are trying to export to. However, as you know, Revit messes up the Text Styles, Dimensions Styles, layers and many other items. So there is a 3rd step. The third and final step is our conversion utility (which can be run in batch mode using ScriptPro) which takes the DWG file (created by Revit) and cleans up the messy DWG, in order for your DWG file to pass any QA check.



Installation Support is FREE. Product support can be purchased separately.

Once the software has been purchased and payment has been processed, you will receive an e-mail with an Install Key based on the e-mail address of the user that did the purchase. The Install Key is required to install and run the software.

Pre-Requisit: At the end of your cleanup process and before submitting to PWGSC, you will need to run the PWGSC QA check. And since a portion of "passing" the QA Check requires the PWGSC Color Tables for printing, this means you will need to download and install the FREE PWGSC Atlantic, CAD Standard software (see link below).

apps.autodesk.com/ACD/en/Detail/Index?id=appstore.exchange.autodesk.com:pwgscatlanticregiontools40:en

About This Version
Version 1.2013.400, 12/17/2015
Works with Revit and AutoCAD 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016

The RVT 2 DWG (PWGSC Atlantic) add-in is brought to you by Atlantic CAD Solutions Inc and is priced at 600.00 USD. There's more information available on the Autodesk App Store.

Find Element Detached – Find Non-Attached Walls and Columns in Revit

From the Autodesk App Store...

This add-in can help you check every column and wall that hasn’t been attached. The only thing you need to do is click on it, then the expected result will be displayed.

The columns which have been attached will show up by their ID. With this result, you can schedule or select them for editing in the model.

About This Version
Version 1.0.0, 12/16/2015
Support for Autodesk® Revit® 2014, 2015, 2016
Original release.

The Find Element Detached Revit add-in is brought to you by SLG Solution and is priced at 5.00 USD. There's more information available on the Autodesk App Store.