Material Library weirdness

Ok, this must be one of the lesser known bugs in Revit. Due to it's specific nature and the fact that it only happens in a specific workflow...
But it drove me nuts for a few months, and I couldn't find any documentation on it. So here it goes...

Let's say you're starting a new company template. Or national standard for that matter. You're going all the way, which means you start a new template and select None as the default template. That means building a Material Library from scratch too. So you go at it. And some more... And then some... And when you are starting to lose it, dream about naming conventions and see hatch patterns floating around when you close your tired and weary eyes..., well you're about half way through.
It took me a full 8 days to get the Material Library to where it's at. But now it is freakin' bada$$.

Ok, not the point. Let's carry on...

Once done, I figured I should get some feedback so I sent it out to a few people. And I started a project based on my shiny new (new, not finished) Template. All went well, until I wanted to create a new Material based on Assets that I predefined in the adsklib-file but hadn't put in an actual Material. For instance: In the template, I created a bunch of different Physical Assets for concrete and structural steel to match different types. But I didn't put them in a Material because that's lunacy. In an average project, you have two or three different concrete types. I have 9 different Physical Assets. Besides, I don't want the architect messing around with that. So I created generic concrete materials WITHOUT the Physical Asset. Once a structural engineer defines which type of concrete goes where, the right one can be added to that specific Material.

So, I wanted to add a Physical Asset to my generic concrete material. It was a Floor, so I went down the usual road: Edit Type > Edit Structure > Select proper layer > Open Material Editor > Add Physical Asset. To my surprise (and horror): no Physical Assets present in my adsklib file... About the same time, I got an email from the guys to whom I sent out the Material Library. They couldn't open it up either...

Was my beautiful library FUBAR'ed before I got the chance to use it??? But that would be weird, cause when I was able to breathe again, I opened my template and there they were. All of them. In perfect shape. I could easily create an extra floor type, duplicate the generic concrete material and add the desired Physical Asset to it. Just not in my project, only in the template.

So I started looking online, but no joy. No mention of such problems what soever. I then contacted a Dutch reseller and sent them the same file. They could open it up perfectly well. He even sent me a video doing it.
I noticed he added and opened the Material Library through Manage > Additional Settings > Material Assets. And all the Assets are there, not a problem.
Also, he wasn't in a project based on my template. Just opened some random Revit project and added the library there.

This got me thinking:
1. Is it the template? Are we not supposed to create a Material Library from a Template Files? Or is it the workflow? Do you need to add a custom Material Library through Manage > Additional Settings > Material Assets to make it work?
2. What happens if I remove the Material Library from the template, and add it while in a project?

The answer to question one is: I don't know. We'll come to the "why don't you know?" later.
Question number 2 is interesting. Because this is the fix. If you unload the material library from the template, save it, close Revit, reopen, create a project from your template and add the Material Library there: not a problem. It's all there.

Now getting back to answer number one: it stays there. The above workflow is a definitive solution to the problem. Once loaded into the project you can reload the Material Library in your template. Then and when you create a new project from that template there won't be a problem. It's like the entire problem never existed.

Which makes investigating this somewhat problematic. Once fixed, you cannot recreate the problem. Unless you create a new blank template, with new custom Material Library with new Materials.
If you do that, and don't find any Materials in your project, well you now know how to fix it...

Thank you!

Well, it's official now. After a major twitter/weblog/forum/email uproar Autodesk issued a statement saying this whole thing all was a tiny little mixup. You can find the formal notice here.
Which off course is awesome!

And with this blog we would, again, express our deepest gratitude to all the wonderful responses we got in the last 24 hours. Some numbers:
The hashtag #legallyrevit literally got hundreds of supporting tweets,
the thread where we explained the situation has been viewed 6400 times in the last 24 hours and received 140 responses,
the previous blog where we made our cry for help was viewed over 600 times (that usually takes a few weeks)...
Off course I don't know how many people responded on our call to email the Autodesk customer support, but I'm guessing those numbers too will be overwhelming.

All in all your support was heartwarming!

But I still wonder: before we were targetted, some other sites were too. Websites with the same signature as hours, like www.openrevitstandards.com. They were just unfortunate not to have 17.500 people supporting them and raising their voices.

Make no mistake: even as we speak of this great success, others have not received their notice relinguishing them of the threat of a lawsuit.

What happens to those websites?
Are we satisfied with this one victory? Or do we want a lasting change in the way Autodesk perceives their customers right to help each other out?

To Autodesk:
Call off the pursuit of others just like us. And give back the domains people already "voluntarily" handed over. Pretty please? It shouldn't matter that we have the power of the masses and they don't. What should matter is whether a community is helping each other out, without any form of  commercial interest.
I suggest you have your lawyers use two drafts for infringement notices. Reserve the one we got for commercial sites. Draft a new one, which can be very short, for those like us. Something like this maybe:

Hi guys,

Been looking at your website. Love what you did with the place. It's people like you that feed our thousands of employees by spreading the word of our great software solutions. For that we want to express our heartfelt gratitude! You make us realise that in fact we are all part of one big happy family.
However, there is one tiny little thing: would you be kind enough to put some Trademark disclaimers up here? Just to satisfy our legal department, it's a formality we ask of all people who devote their free time to help us making our products better...

Thanks for all the efforts and keep up the good work!

Sincerely,


It's just a thought really. I'm sure if we got this kind of letter, the disclaimers would be up there faster then you can say "initial interest confusion".

One last thing:
Just to be certain, let's all keep an eye #legallyrevit hashtag. Just to be sure...

Legally Revit?

A few months ago I was shocked to learn that the website www.openrevitstandards.com was shut down due to legal actions taken by Autodesk.
Autodesk claimed that the website was infringing their Trademark due to the use of the word Revit in the domain name. Although the owner tried to reason with the Autodesk lawyers, it was of no use: they had to take the site down and surrender the domain name to Autodesk. The website www.openrevitstandards.com is currently redirected to the Autodesk corporate website.

February 13th of this year Autodesk "Customer Care" hit a new low. Revitforum.org, founded and funded by Autodesk customers to provide each other with knowledge, tips and tricks and other insights and dedicated to solving day-to-day problems these paying customers, received a letter claiming Trademark infringement.

That's right: our 17.559 members (as of today) are accused of participating in criminal actions. Even though they put it nicely, we are being acquised of breaking the law...
Let that sink in for a while. Now think about that most likely a vast majority of these 17.559 people have an actual license. Let's say 80% of them has spent around $6.000,- obtaining that license. Which means Autodesk just called a staggering 105 MILLION dollars worth of client revenue more or less a criminal...

Now believe it or not: this post is not meant to start a riot. So I'll leave that subject for what it is (for now), and move on to the important stuff.
This blog is written for two distinct purposes:

1. Informing our members.

Revitforum.org has been founded on the belief that our members are our community.
Their efforts in building this great place from the ground up have to be protected. Their knowledge needs to be preserved in an open and respectful manor.
Therefor we see no other option than to make the actions taken by Autodesk to bring this site down public. We want our members, plus all of you out there who just browse the forums, to know what is going on. We want to ensure you that we will do whatever it takes to preserve this community. Even if it means getting bullied by a multinational with a rather twisted idea of "Customer Care". If necessary we will move the forum to another domain name.

But for now we responded to their letter with a writing of our own. Basically, that says a couple of things:
1. There can not be any Trademark infringement since we do not use (part of) the Revit trademark in any commercial way. We do not provide any commercial service or product. So how can we be harming Autodesk's business then?
2. They claim we invoke something called "initial interest confusion", which basically means we lure people away from the Autodesk website using similar Keywords and metadata-tags for search engines.
We don't. I checked. There is NOT ONE keyword in the Autodesk main page similar to Revitforum.org. Wanna know why? Autodesk does not even have the keyword "Revit" or anything alike in their Keyword list.
3. Our members are by vast majority Autodesk clients (because, well we are a USER forum). O right, and we harbor no less then 37 Autodesk employees. What chances are there these people will get "confused" about what we do vs what Autodesk does?
4. According to US law we can use or refer to Autodesk trademarks as long as:
- We provide a service that cannot be identified without that trademark (productXforum.org does not ring a bell for that many people)
- We only use as much of the mark as necessary. (we only use the word Revit, not AutodeskRevit, not a symbol or sign)
- We don't do anything to suggest sponsorship or endorsement by Autodesk (HELLOOOO!, we keep an annual donation rally to pay for our hosting bill)
5. We cited several lawsuits where a COMMERCIAL use of a trademark was permitted because the user committed to the above rules. We do to, and we're not even having any commercial activity or gain. So shouldn't the logical conclusion be that we are not doing anything wrong?
6. According to ICANN, the organisation controlling domain names and IP-numbers which happens to be endorsed by the US Government, there are three circumstances in which a trademark may be legitimately used without infringement (btw: it's an OR-statement. Visit Autodesk Wikihelp, look for an article called "Revit Formulas for day to day use" to find out what that means):
- when you previously engaged in the same activities without any consequenses. Which we have been doing for two years now. Now, Autodesk could claim they knew nothing about it... But then maybe we shouldn't have 37 employees as a member. Or regular referrals on wikihelp. Or be mentioned in Autodesk twitter messages. Or in Autodesk corporate blogs. Or... well, you get the point.
- When you are commonly known by your domain name. Without being too cocky, I think we can safely say that Revitforum.org has become a solid "brand" in the Revit world (not in the least thanks to all those endorsements from Autodesk)
- When you make a legitimate non-commercial use of the domain name... Need I say more?

btw: in the interest of being open and honest to our members, we posted both the original letter from Autodesk and our response here.

2. Finding support.

We did our research to our best knowledge. Drafted a letter to respond using our biggest words. But we are geeks. Not lawyers. And, since we're a non-profit member-funded community, we cant afford a bunch of expensive lawyers. So if Autodesk sues us, even though they are clearly wrong, we will have to vacate our domain. All we can do is hope Autodesk will come to it's senses.
However, the case of www.openrevitstandards.com does not fill us with confidence. They were in the same spot. And Autodesk just bullied them out of their domain name.
If necessary, we will pack up and leave. We can't afford to go to court. But we don't want to.
We believe we have every right to keep our domain name. To not have to find another home for our community. To not be chased of like some stray dog by the very company whose products we all use and love (and sometimes hate) on a day-to-day basis.

So consider this our cry for help. Help from the entire Autodesk user base out there. We need your support. This is not a call for outrage or to start a digital witch hunt. We simply want you to repost, retweet, Like, Dig, or whatever it is you want to do to show your support (as long as it doesnt involve virtual lynchmobs).

If you want to express your concerns to Autodesk directly, please use one of the following options:
By email: Autodesk Public Relations, feel free to cc a message to revitforum.org
Twitter: @autodeskAEC, @autodeskcare, @AutodeskRevit using the hashtag #LegallyRevit
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AutodeskRevit
On Revitforum: Revitforum.org domain dispute
Or just respond to this blog. We will try to collect all of your responses and hand them over to Autodesk.

Thank you

To all (European) Reviteers: Clear your schedule: RTC Europe is coming to town!!!

As of this week registration opened for the very first RTC Europe which will be held in the beautiful city of Delft, the Netherlands. To get the obvious questions out of the way first:

- Language will be all english.
- Yes, Delft has coffeeshops too (and some of them actually serve coffee)
- Yes, as a foreigner you can still access those (laws forbidding that were recently overturned)
- No, I do not think it's very polite (or appreciated) to get stoned out of your mind and have the munchies during classes...

Now that we have this dealt with, let's focuss on the more important stuff.
Us Europeans aren't really used to having high-end conferences like these. When I went to AU this year I had to defend myself quite a lot for making those expenses. I usually responded by asking which education the other party followed this year, and how well they would rate it.

The RTC Committee invited fifty of the worlds most recognised Revit experts to enter submissions for classes and sessions. Approx 1/4 of those (the best of the best) will teach at RTC. Starting at experienced level, upping to real Guru-sh#t.

If there even is a "regular" course anywhere in Europe that you can take all year around, offering this kind of expertise: let me know. I'll put it in my budget for next year. And gladly travel halfway across europe for.
But over here in Holland, you can get a starters course (AOTC, which suuuuuucks) and a follow-up. The follow up suuucks (slightly less) too if you have any real-life experience and is 800,- for 2-3 days. 

So basically this is the deal to layout for the powers-that-be:
- This is the first time EVER there is an opportunity in the entire European continent to actually learn from the best and brightest in the world for your primary tool.

- It's only slightly more expensive then a regular no-good-to-anyone Revit course. It's only 1400,- for 2 days conference and including 3 nights of hotel accomodation. Seeing as you almost always pay around 100,- for a night hotel accomodation it's really only just 1100,- for a two day conference.

- Best part: it's only one workday lost. The conference is on friday and saturday. Fly from anywhere in Europe thursday evening and you'll be in Delft around 10pm. That means that the extra expenses in registration fee are partly covvered by you studying in your free time...

- There will be some awesome classes with even better tutors! Here is a brief extremely personal summary of the line-up:

1. David Conant will be teaching on the API,
2. Kelly Cone will have two classes (FYI: this is the guy at Beck keeping Aaron "Twiceroadsfool" Maller in line which HAS to mean something...),
3. RFO's own Julien Benoit is teaching a class about the use of BIM beyond design,
4. Matt Jezyk will be unveiling super top secret stuff about self aware families
5. And the list goes on here.

I will be teaching a class there about Revit and IFC Interoperability and have been invited to join a panel discussion on building National Standards. Unfortunately for Matt my class is scheduled against his, so I want to apologise in advance to him for the embarassingly low amount of people attending his class...

(just kidding, totally sick of that one. To whom ever is making the schedule: pretty pretty pretty pleeeeaaaase change this. I even registered to his class, just to be on the safe side in case the schedule does get tossed)

Anyway, the point being: this is going to be the best learning experience you have ever been to, completely overheating your puny brains! Space is limited to 200 registrations, so I would very much encourage you to act fast! Sign up NOW!!

AU2012 & Inspiration

Upon returning from Autodesk University I was in a Loooong planeflight. Got time to think about my first AU and which class I liked best. Due to my surprisingly mellow hangover my thoughts even were coherent too! (note to self: jelloshots actually do contain alcohol and mixing them with Corona, Heineken, vodka and red-sparkly-drinks-which-I-have-no-idea-of-what-it-actually-was might not be a good idea)

I'd have to go with the class I attended dealing with masses, taught by Marcello Sgambelluri and Kelly Cone. Frankly, I've seen classes that better connect to my day-to-day reality. I've seen classes that were better conveying technical Revit stuff. I've seen classes that gave me more insight in what is to come for the next upcoming years...

So why the hell is this one the best one might ask?

INSPIRATION!

Watching Marcello hop up and down when he got to the cool parts and then watching Kelly translate this into a real-life example (even though I will probably never do that type of projects) was mind-blowing. It got me into that state where you just feel the lightning bolts inside your head firing up the most powerful machinery mankind has, and kick my imagination into overdrive. 
That night I was discussing the class with Jay Zallan over a beer (or two) and I was still in that zone. Random thoughts and ideas bursting out of every fibre in my brain, connecting to each other, making plans and forming ideas that will keep me occupied for months and months trying to recreate them...

That got me thinking on the plane. What is inspiration? I see it like this:
Think of your mind as a wasteland. A vast, endless stretch of desert. Nothing growing there. Over time, with lots of work on fertilising the ground, watering your crop and hard labor on your lands you can cultivate a part of it. That's the process of education.
Now every once and a while it will rain. Not much, and certainly not often. But when it does, magic happens. Out of nowhere, the most beautiful flowers and plants will grow on parts of the desert that you always thought were dry and dead. And suddenly you find yourself in an oasis of green, newly explored land with endless new possibilities.
That, to my humble opinion, is inspiration. It will be there, and if you act fast you will be able to hold on to most of it. However, the smell of fresh rain in the morning will fade away and always make you long for the next time it happens...

So thanks to Kelly and Marcello for making it rain in my head. That, and that alone, made the whole thing money well spent.

Until next time! For now, I can still smell the rain. And with that, I'm off to an early night already looking forward to the hours I will spend, lying awake and mentally exploring the new found possibilities in my mind.

#OpenRevitStandards

So, it's been a while. After ever so smoothly seducing my wife into letting me go to AU I've been freakishly busy (more on that later). Which in turn made me neglect this blog... Sorry people!

I am still busy though. And should definately not be writing this. In fact, what I should be doing is finishing off a few project reports before I leave to AU on saturday. What I am trying to say is:

Autodesk, if you make me miss my deadline with this bullsh#t, I'm holding you accountable!

Every now and then the Twitterverse is likely to catch your eye. Sometimes you go like "ahh, how sweet" (remember that voluntary bus lady that got bullied, which got filmed and went viral and now she's like a gazillionaire from all the donations she received?)
Anyway, point being: most of the time it's just people talking to their smartphone assuming there is somebody out there who gives a flying crap about what they do all day. Some use it work-related, like myself, others just tweet about their difficulties finding matching socks, or why their cereals get all soggy and mushy before they have the chance to eat them.
Drifting away again...

Today was yet another one of those days that Twitter actually meant something. So much, that it is keeping my head from actually focussing on the work at hand. And, being me, that usually means, I'm kind of irritated. Soooo, rant on:

There is this great endeavour over at www.openrevitstandards.com. It's aim is to develop an (as the name so clearly states) open standard for working with Revit. It's run on a voluntary basis (so no, it's not moving forward at the speed of light). But it's a great effort by Revit enthusiasts to bring clarity and standardization to the Revit platform. Which we all know this great tool is severely lacking...

Autodesk killed it. Yup, they did.
Picture a nice, pure, young deer. Big brown round watery eyes... (thinking about Bambi already?) And: BANG! Brain matter splashing all over the place...

Last week the owner of the website got an email from Autodesk telling him to surrender the domain. Because they "had to".... Because otherwise "third parties could claim rights to Autodesk trademarks".

I say: BULLCRAP!
It has been prohibited to use the Revit name in any commercial url or advertisement for as long as I know. And this is enforced too, which is great. Commercially speaking, the name/trademark belongs to Autodesk. Once again, that's fine by me.
But this is not, I repeat NOT, a commercial site. No services or content are being offered. Not one penny is made out of this effort. Heck, they don't even charge members a contribution. The costs for keeping the site in the air are carried by the owner. It's a community website, aimed at helping the Revit user. I find it repulsive they are targetted.

So really Autodesk, you had to? There was no other way? Not a simple note / email stating that you were willing to grant user rights to your precious trademark as long as the site stayed a non-commercial resource for your users?
So what about this website: www.revitforum.org? Revitforum.info? (different forum)? Revitcity.com? Revitusers.nl?

What about User Groups with the Revit name in the website (like the dutch Revit User Group www.revitgg.nl? Or can't we call ourselves REVIT User Groups any more? Are we to be known as "Dutch User Groups For That Particular Autodesk Software-No, Not That One, The 3D One-No, Not That Either, The Other 3D One"
Also conveniently known as DUGFTPAS-NTOT3DO-NTETO3DO.

How about the Revit blogger community? Wanna wrinkle their necks too? From what I hear from WhatRevitWants (woops, sorry Lukey. Guess you're the next target), you already started to harrass them too...

And one more thing: just about any possible website name in The Netherlands with the word Revit in it is claimed by Autodesk resellers. Probably the same for other countries. When will they be getting their notices? Or don't you bite the hand that grabs the money?

FYI Autodesk: you just bit the hand that gives you the money. Put your 250 dollars-an-hour lawyers to work and find another way. And while you at it, claim a discount price. If it wasn't for the internet community spreading the name of your software, they would not have you as a client anyway...

<rant off>

How to tell your husband you're going to AU

After my previous post I got a question on twitter by LanaGMEP:

"@mdradvies: funny post but men know those tricks. What about the women needing to go to #AU2012?"

Well, as a husband, I know that it's not that complicated: a large pizza and two sixpacks of beer for each day you're gone plus a premium sports channel package on tv should keep him rather oblivious to the fact that you're not around...