Wednesday, April 30, 2008

VSTA for Revit Architecture Install - (Think VBA's replacement!)

I installed the recently received Autodesk Revit Architecture 2009 application on my laptop the other day. In browsing the DVD, I noticed a folder titled VSTA. If you want to install the Visual Studio for Applications for use with Revit, pick the bottom installer option for tools and utilities as shown below.



I didn't see any mention of this in the documentation, readme, or the installer for the basic product. I did see reference and tutorials in the SDK install, but one has to know to look for these. I found a cryptic mention of this in the New Features Workshop. If you look in the Revit Architecture Help file, you'll find mention of "Creating Macros with Revit VSTA"...grab Gregory Arkin's pdf version using the link below.

Install Steps:

  1. Install the Revit Product First
  2. Go back to first page of installer and then install the VSTA tools.
The install is much improved in this release...much faster too!

Now lets see how it runs.....

Note: The product install forces an install of Design Review 2009. This may impact those of you running the BIM Smart Library by Reed Construction Data. If you create a deployment, you can potentially modify the installation.

Links: Looks like other sites have more info on this.
Check out

Labels: , , , , ,

# posted by Richard Binning : Wednesday, April 30, 2008 2 comments links to this post

Friday, January 18, 2008

Creating New Build Deployments - Tips

When a new build is available for Revit, you'll probably want to get it installed as quick as possible, but who wants to wait for all the content to be installed? During your client deployment creation select "skip content creation" and create your deployment. Aha...that seemed easy enough but unfortunately, this may result in your new build not finding the various libraries that you intend your users to utilize.

Here is a tip for you: You can predefine all the correct file locations by editing an ini file.

Navigate to your new deployment, find the "Revit Building" folder inside the "Revit Setup" folder within the "Admin Image" folder. There you will find a file named Revit.ini. This file gets copied to your hard drive's program folder when the deployment is run, so make your standard changes to this file prior to pushing your installs.

You can predefine the file locations by adding them to this ini file. Find the strings between [Directories] and [Design Pane] and edit them to point at your company standard folders.

Ex:

[Directories]
AccuRenderRoot=\\BIM\apps\Data\Office Library\RAC
2008\Content\Rendering\AccuRenderRedistDefaultTemplate=\\BIM\apps\Data\Office
Library\RAC 2008\Content\Imperial
Templates\default.rteFamilyTemplatePath=\\BIM\apps\Data\Office Library\RAC
2008\Content\Imperial TemplatesDataLibraryLocations=Imperial
Library=\\BIM\apps\Data\Office Library\RAC 2008\Content\Imperial Library, Metric
Library=\\BIM\apps\Data\Office Library\RAC 2008\Content\Metric Library, Imperial
Detail Library=\\Bim\apps\Data\Office Library\RAC 2008\Content\Imperial
Library\Detail Components, Metric Detail Library=\\BIM\apps\Data\Office
Library\RAC 2008\Content\Metric Library\Detail Components, Training
Files=\\Bim\apps\Data\Office Library\RAC 2008\Content\Training, Haskell
Standards=\\Bim\apps\Data\Office Library\Haskell
StandardsMaterialLibraryLocations=..\Data\MaterialsProjectPath=C:\Revit_LocalImportLineweightsNameDWG=\\BIM\apps\Data\Office
Library\Haskell
Standards\DataFiles\importlineweights-HASKELL.txtExternalParameters=\\BIM\apps\Data\Office
Library\Haskell Standards\Shared Parameters\Issue_Date.txt
[DesignPane]

This will keep all your users accessing a consistent set of standard files.

Note: The installer doesn't appear to overwrite an existing Revit.ini file in that same location, so be sure to uninstall the previous build or rename this file prior to running the new deployment.

Labels: , , , ,

# posted by Richard Binning : Friday, January 18, 2008 0 comments links to this post

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Under the Radar indeed...isn't this SP4?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that the "January incident" is fixed, but giving this latest build the identity of SP3 leaves the original SP3 build of 20071109_2345 lost to history. I celebrated that build because of the things it fixed and because it was the first time that I didn't have to wait for the MEP release to be posted. If you saw my blog on November 19th, you'll remember the party that was thrown!

Nevertheless, the "Failed to open document" error is no more with the latest release, so create your deployments and announce them to your users. Now get back to work!

Labels: , , , , ,

# posted by Richard Binning : Thursday, January 10, 2008 0 comments links to this post

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

The January Fix for REVIT Products is In...under the radar!

Looks like the fix for problems associated with the Jan 2008 bug are now available. Had problems recently opening older files? Trouble editing schedules or groups?...Install the latest build 20080101_2345 to fix these problems and more! It is definitely time to upgrade and install the latest Revit Builds! Learn about and download the latest builds using the links below.

Click on the Web Update Enhancement List links below to read about the changes and fixes provided in the latest builds.

Want to download the latest English builds directly? Get it/them at Autodesk by clicking on these links:

Don't forget to read up on the content changes. I'll include this important reminder until the next full release.

Thank You Autodesk for understanding the need to release all the disciplines tools at the same time!...

Labels: , , , , , , , ,

# posted by Richard Binning : Wednesday, January 09, 2008 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Stagger your STCs, use High Speed LAN, Face Based Families and more

Fifo - (First in First Out) -Here is an example of what the user sees when attempting to work with others connected to the central file who beat them to the punch.




It is the primary reason for the following recommendations:


  1. High Speed LAN Required - 100mbs is just not enough...standardize on 1GB LAN...Anyone working with black fiber?

  2. Stagger STC for Teams - Ensure that Save to Centrals are done on set intervals at different times for each team member.

  3. Provide Dedicated Server for BIM/Revit Projects

  4. When using multiple disciplines in a single model, ensure that hosted families are used only where necessary...otherwise Face based is the choice du jour.

Labels: , ,

# posted by Richard Binning : Tuesday, January 08, 2008 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Revit Uses Relative Links on Network

Did you know that by default Revit uses relative links when importing other files? While this may or may not be news to you, it does require you to think when moving or copying files to new destinations on your network.



Lesson: Don't assume that Revit will remember the full path and filename of linked files.





Sidenote: This opens up possibilities for remapping drive letters, using dos subst commands etc.

Labels: , , ,

# posted by Richard Binning : Tuesday, December 18, 2007 0 comments links to this post

Monday, November 19, 2007

New SP3 Revit Builds Available - All co-released! (20071109_2345)

It has happened. All three releases on the same build at the same time! It is definitely time to upgrade and install! Learn about and download the latest builds using the links below.

Click on the Web Update Enhancement List links below to read about the changes and fixes provided in the latest builds.


Want to download the latest English builds directly?
Get it/them at Autodesk by clicking on these links:

Be sure to read up on the content changes. I guess the renaming wasn't complete when they released the last build. Hopefully this will be the last.

It is a party now that all disciplines are on the same build....

Labels: , , , ,

# posted by Richard Binning : Monday, November 19, 2007 0 comments links to this post

Friday, November 02, 2007

Identify Revit Builds Painlessly

I thought you might be able to use a tool to identify what Revit build is sitting on your pc. If so, continue reading...


  1. Are you a CAD/BIM manager responsible for installing and updating Revit on multiple computers?

  2. How about a quick way to check all the Revit Build Numbers on each computer without actually launching Revit?

Sounds good right? Download the zip file containing a short vbscript routine and run it on each machine that has Revit installed. It will display a web page with all the build information for each Revit product installed. It will look more or less like the image shown below.


?


Want to capture info from multiple computers?



  1. Search the code for the following string: "c:\BTC\revitbuild.log"

  2. Replace it with a path to file somewhere on your network.

  3. Make sure to create the file in the appropriate folder

  4. Every machine that runs the script will now append it's info to the log file.

Lather, rinse, repeat....

Labels: , , ,

# posted by Richard Binning : Friday, November 02, 2007 0 comments links to this post