Communication Center - Off by default

Here´s a great little tip from MarkB, for those who wants to turn the Communication Center of by default:

• Open Regedit, and replace all the (1) with (0) see image below.
• Then rename WSCommCntr2.exe to AAWSCommCntr2.exe ( C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\WSCommCntr\lib\AAWSCommCntr2.exe )

Autodesk Nucleus

This is an item I would not be surprised to see in RAC 2012 or 2013....Nucleus is a Maya based modeling tool that is starting to be incorporated into Revit. For all of those who remember the massing overhaul a few years back, this transformation makes that look rather generic and archaic.

Granted, with a background in engineering this does make me cringe when I try to imagine all the new non-squared designs that will potentially evolve if this is pushed to be included in the OOTB Revit release. Nonetheless, this still seems like a REALLY cool tool developed and AutoDesk is allowing you to play around with it until the end of this year.

This also does have great potential on the engineering (structural) side as well with its proclaimed ability to simulate loading conditions. Their website says that it has the ability to display gravity, wind, and collision loadings, but I think where this could have a greatest significance in today world, if accurate, is with blast and seismic scenarios.

Though it does state that designs made with Nucleus will still function after the trial expiration date, I would still be wary of overhauling your library before (if) this becomes standard OOTB with Revit.

Best post of the month - January 2011

Congratulations to Dave Jones, who is the winner of the very first "Best post of the month" competition.
Here´s a copy of the post:
Can't see it in the view? Here's 33 reasons maybe why

I found this somewhere online back when I started using Revit and still find it useful. Hope someone else can use it also.

Checklist: 33 steps to being able to 'find stuff'
Check to see if:
1. The object or category is temporarily hidden
2. The object or category is hidden in the view
3. The object is being obscured by another element
4. The object's category or subcategory is hidden in the view
5. The object is outside the view's view range
6. The view's far clip depth is not sufficient to show the object
7. The object resides on a work set that is not loaded within the project
8. The object resides on a work set that is not visible in the view
9. The object resides on a work set that is not loaded in a linked file
10. The object resides on a work set that is not visible in a linked file
11. The object resides within a group (detail model) and it has been excluded from the group
12. The object is part of a design option that is not visible in the view
13. The object is part of a linked file that is not visible in the view
14. The object has one or more of its edges overridden to display as '<Invisible lines>'
15. The object is a family and none of its geometry is set to be visible in the view type
16. The object is a family and none of its geometry is set to be visible at the view's detail level
17. The object is set to not be visible at the category's detail level
18. The element has been placed outside the view's crop region (visible extents)
19. The element is an annotation object and does not reside entirely within the annotation crop region
20. The object's phase settings or the view's phase settings prevent the object from displaying in the view
21. The view's discipline is prohibiting the visibility of the object
22. The object is affected by a filter applied to the view
23. The object is subject to an element override, set to background color
24. The object is subject to a category override, set to background color
25. The object style is set to background color
26. The object is constrained to a scope boxes that is not visible in the view
27. The extents of the object itself don't permit it to be seen
28. The object is a mass, and 'Show Mass' is turned off
29. The object's host view has been deleted (area boundaries)
30. The view's scale is prohibiting the object's visibility
31. The object is a linked instance with coordinates too great for Revit to handle
32. The user has incorrectly identified the link instance to which the element belongs
33. The object is in a link that is not in its correct position

See the entire thread here,  including a few more suggestions that could be added to the list.

You might also wanna check out the runners up:

Second place:
"High end cabinet families" by Twiceroadsfool

Third place:
"Formulas types parameters - switches" by Alfredo Medina

Shortcut Keys. The untold story.

With the introduction of the Keyboard Shortcut UI in Revit 2011 and the change to .XML file format for storing of hotkey information, keyboard shortcuts have never been so user friendly or so powerful.
The basics of the Keyboard Shortcut UI are well documented in how to assign keystrokes, search the UI, import, export etc. but the more useful and powerful side of the .XML format and new UI does not seem to be very well documented at all.

There are several major improvements in how Revit can handle the new keyboard shortcuts format.
• Assigning the same keyboard shortcut to toggle commands.
• Assigning the same keyboard shortcut to multiple tasks.
• The use of up to 5 characters to a shortcut.
• Hotkey Strings (Multiple Hotkeys)

Toggle Commands

You can now assign the one shortcut key to “’toggle” through commands, for example assign
• ZZ to “Activate View” and ZZ to “Deactivate View” (one hotkey = 2 commands)
• AA to "Reveal Hidden Elements" and AA to "Close reveal Hidden Elements" (one hotkey = 2 commands)
• QQ to "Unhide Element" and QQ to and "Unhide Category" (one hotkey = 2 commands)
• RR to “Show crop View” and RR to “Hide Crop View” (one hotkey = 2 commands)
I always hated going to View Control Bar and trying to pick this one.
• And there are a few more.

In a working example if you have an element hidden a your view by hitting AA to activate "Reveal Hidden Elements" , click on desired element ,hit QQ to "Unhide Element" (or Category), hit AA to "Close reveal Hidden Elements" and your done using only 2 hotkeys.
and
ZZ to “Activate View” and “Deactivate View” nice and simple!

Obviously the Keys assigned are personal choice

Multi Assign Shortcut Keys

We can now assign the same shortcut key to multiple commands of a similar kind, for example
• EE can be assigned to approx. 40 different commands
Edit Boundary (click on Roof, Floor or Filled Region etc. hit EE you are in edit mode)
Edit Wall Profile (click on wall hit EE and you are in Edit Wall Profile Mode)
Edit Family (click on a family hit EE takes you to family editor)
Edit Witness Line (click on dimension hit EE and you are in Edit Witness Line mode.
Just about all of the Edit commands work with this one hotkey.
• FF can be assigned to all the "Finish" commands which are all associated with the “Big Green Tick”
There is approx. 30 of these commands
• CC can be assigned to all the "Cancel" commands which are all associated with the “Big Red Cross”
there is approx. 20 of these commands.

A working example

Click on floor hit EE you are in Edit Boundary mode, make your changes, hit FF your Finished
Click on a wall hit EE you are in Edit Wall Profile mode, make your changes, hit FF your Finished
So with 3 hotkeys EE, FF, CC we can activate approx. 90 different command scenarios.





Hotkey Strings (Multiple Hotkeys)

Another feature with no documentation is the ability to drill down into the depths of a command with the shortcuts.
You can enter a shortcut to draw a rectangular or circular wall rather than just hitting a shortcut for wall and then pick the circle or rectangle shape.
If you have assigned shortcut keys to the Context Tab>Draw commands (line, rectangle, circle, pick line, pick wall, etc. ) then you can
• Hit WACL, WA (Wall command activated) CL (Draw Circle activated) go ahead and draw circular wall.
• Hit RFRL, RF (Roof by Footprint activated) RL (Draw Rectangle activated) go ahead and draw rectangular roof.
• Hit FLPW, FL (Floor command activated) PW (Pick Wall activated) go ahead and draw floor by pick wall mode.

..













Up to 5 characters per Shortcut

Then there is the use of up to 5 characters per shortcut which is self-explanatory and lends itself to thousands of key combinations.

Creating a your perfect Shortcut Key file is a huge job and one that I have found is a constant work in progress, but once setup (even near perfect !) and running is worth all the time spent.

I have attached a copy of my Shortcut Key .XML as a guide, import it if you like as a base to build on and of course these are just “my” preferred keys.

Download

mbkeyboard shortcuts .zip at

http://revitforum.org/showthread.php?581-More-Shortcut-Key-Magic&p=5687#post5687

For ease of editing multiple shortcuts at once, open the file in Excel, edit and import back to into Revit

How to load .XML
Unzip to any location on computer,
Backup your existing Shortcutkey.xml located
"C:\Users\users name\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011"
Open Revit, start Keyboard Shortcuts UI (KS by default)click on Import and path to the location where you placed the unziped file,click open,revit will ask to either "Merge" or "Overwrite" select the second Overwrite option,all done.

P.S
it’s still not perfect.
P.S.S
To this day” View Range “ is still not accessible via a shortcut even though it is listed in the Keyboard Shortcut UI