When Revit presents you with an error message that needs attention, you can view what elements are affected if you expand the error message.  When you do this, you see a description for the elements and at the end of the description, you will see an “id”.   If you have multiple errors, you may want to export the report by expanding the dialogue box and then clicking export.  It will export to a .html file that must be saved.  Once saved, you can open the file and view the elements and their element ID’s.

You may feel like it is worthless information but in reality, the element ID is the way you can find the exact location of where Revit is having an issue.  To search with an element ID, go under the Manage Tab, Inquiry Panel, and select the “Select by ID” button (green bar code with the pointer).  Once you do this, a box will pop up where you can enter one or multiple element ID’s.  You can either click “Show” or “Okay”.  If you select “Show”, Revit will highlight the element in the first available view it can be located in.  If you select “Okay”, Revit will select the element but it will not direct you to the location of the element.  This may be helpful if you only need to edit the properties of the element or a similar situation.  With selecting “Show”, the dialogue box will not disappear.  You will have the ability to select “Show” again and again and Revit will cycle through different views the element is in.  Once you click “Okay”, the dialogue box will disappear.

In order to determine an Element’s ID when you might need to know it outside of an error report, you much first have the element selected that you wish to inquire about.  Then, go to the Manage Tab, Inquiry Panel, and select the “IDs of Selection” button (white bar code).  This will display the ID or IDs of the elements that you have selected. 

Element ID’s are also helpful when using Navisworks.  Navisworks will give you your Element IDs when you run your collision detection report.  Use “Select by ID” within Revit to determine the exact elements that are in conflict. 

Here is a tip for beginners working with Worksets for the first time.

Let's say you have a project with worksets enabled and the whole model is on Workset 1 by default. If you right click on an element that is on Workset 1 and select the option that reads "Make Worksets Editable" you are making yourself the Owner of Workset 1. No one else is going to be able to edit ANY modeled elements that are on that workset. They can add elements to Workset 1 but they can't edit elements already placed.

If you go to Collaboration... Worksets... and you see yourself as the Owner of any workset you're probably locking everyone else out of that workset so make sure you click on the "Non Editable" button to relinquish the user-created Workset... or do a save to central and relinquish user-created worksets so other users can work on the model too.

What you more likely want to do is borrow... or select the "Make Elements Editable" option instead so you are only borrowing a small part of the worksets rather than Owning the whole workset.

Just a heads up for you beginners out there.

http://revitbeginners.blogspot.com/

Filters can be used to turn on and off elements and/or adjust the way elements are shown in a view.  To create a filter, you must go into your visibility graphics and under the filters tab, click the edit/new button.  A pop-up will appear and have three categories: Filters, Categories, and Filter Rules.  Under the Filters area at the bottom, click on the new button.  Another pop-up will appear and ask for a Filter Name.  It is best to name it with respect to what you are going to be filtering.  For example, if you have a piping system like Cold Water, you might name the Filter Cold Water.  Once you click okay, you will now have a chance to add the necessary information for the filter. 

Under the Categories section, you will want to pick the type of elements you wish the filter to apply to.  For example, if you would like to control Mechanical Equipment, you would put a check in the box next to Mechanical Equipment.  You can add as many categories as you like or have only one category selected. 

Next you will pick your Filter Rules.  Under this section, you will pick what you want to Filter by.  You have many choices that all come from the properties of the elements that are associated with the category you picked.  You have up to three “filter by” rule options that you can pick.  These three rules are all associated to each other with “and’s” and therefore must all be true in order for the filter to control the element’s visibility.  Once you pick the property you wish to filter by, the next line down will ask what condition you would like to set on that property.  For example, if you pick “Flow” for an Air Terminal, you can pick whether you want the flow to be equal to, not equal to, greater than, etc; and in the next line, you will input what you want the parameter to be.  For this example, we want “Flow”, “is greater than”, “250 CFM (your input)”.  Once you determine your Rules, click “okay”.  Now you have created a filter. 

In order to get this filter into the particular view you would like to utilize it in, click on “Add” under the filters tab in your visibility graphics.  Scroll to the filter you just made, click on it once to highlight it, then click “OK”.  This will add it to your view.  You can add this filter to any view that you wish to add it to. 

Within your visibility graphics, under the filters tab you can adjust the visibility on/off, line type, patterns, and other aspects of the elements that are effected by the filter.  It can be helpful if you wish to see only some of the elements in a category and not others or to change the appearance of different piping systems and many other things.  For example, if you wanted to see which of your diffusers are over 250 CFM and change them to red, you could create the filter mentioned above and then change the color to red.  As long as the filter is satisfied and the element is not effected by any other filters, the diffusers over 250 CFM will appear in red.  Another filter example would be a filter to turn on and off certain types of Mechanical Equipment.  If you only wish to see plumbing mechanical equipment, you can set up a filter to turn off mechanical equipment that do not satisfy the filter set to plumbing equipment. 

The Etransmit tool in AutoCAD is used by our teams when packing or sending information to the owner or client. Revit does not have a standard tool for etransmit however there is an add-on created by the Autodesk Lab. 

Product Link for Download
http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/revit_etransmit/ 

With eTransmit for Revit, you can:

§  Copy and detach a Revit model and associated files to a single folder for internet transmission. This removes the typical error messages when you copy central files using the operating system.

§  Locate dependent files automatically and include them in the transmittal folder, helping to reduce the possibility of error. All dependent files are automatically converted to use relative paths so the dependent files can be located by the model.

§  Choose to include related dependent files such as linked Revit models, CAD files, DWF™ markups, decal images, and external keynote files. You can transmit any Revit (.rvt) model that has been upgraded to be compatible with a 2012 Revit software product.

§  Transmit models that are using file-based worksharing or server-based worksharing. eTransmit for Revit will also work with non-workshared Revit models.

I apologize for the lack of post over the last few months.  In our defense, we have been mad busy and the BIM push has been crazy as well.  But, now that we have settled down into the initial shock and change introduced by Revit.

 Last year Ross & Baruzzini created the official “R&B BIM Committee” a group of Revit users from each department who meet monthly to discuss procedures and ongoing questions to keep the Revit push on track.  We took all of our current issues, as well as our user group feedback, and created an “outline of needs.”  We then contacted our trainers and gave them our list to create a three-day training session that would cover all of our needs.

This allowed us to tie up all of our loose ends, such as standard templates, sheet sets, automated scheduling and Revit 2011 nuances.  

This was a great next step in our commitment to Revit.  I cannot stress enough the importance of having your standards and templates in place before project kickoff.  Trying to fudge things at the last minute to make the sheets print correctly, knowing that the model integrity has suffered, is not acceptable. Proper templates, standards, family view sets and a BIM execution plan are necessary if you want to consider your organization a BIM shop. If not you are only producing 3D AutoCAD documents. Why bother with BIM if your organization is clearly not getting the point?

What is the next step?  Once the initial training is complete and everyone is up to speed with the new product’s systems and tutorials we will take the next step, bringing your BIM to the next level?  Once all of your templates and tools are in place you can focus on the process. A BIM Execution plan will help you with this process.

We were working on a project where the roof is at different elevations. Normally we would set the view range for the whole sheet at the lowest elevation and "hide in view" the elements we did not want to show.  That seemed like a lot of extra work, until we found the Plan Region tool. The Plan Region tool lets u select a region/view that is different from the overall view. (It can be found in the View tab, go to Plan Views and select Plan Region.)  It works like a sketch, so you are not limited to the shape or size of the area.  If you set your view range so that your elements are not showing, then you will no longer have to hide each one separately.  Saves a lot of time!

Recently I had the pleasure of presenting to the Electrical Board of Missouri and Illinois BIM Basics with Nathan Haas (Electrical Revit Manager) providing live Revit demonstrations for answering questions.  The presentation, “Building Information Modeling, Where Do We Begin?” discussed BIM and the implementation of Revit.  This was a very high level overview of the trials and tribulations, pros and cons, that Ross & Baruzzini faced during our Revit journey.  Through the years we have refined our processes by streamlining the training and implementation.  Sharing this information with the community helps everyone move forward in taking it to the next level.  The group discussed a wide range of BIM topics such as Bidirectional Associativity (a change anywhere is a change everywhere), IPD or Integrated Project Delivery and IFC Format for BIM program compatibility.

The meat of the presentation was spent discussing how to successfully ramp up the Revit initiative. Bottom line is for all of the “cons” we discussed we can always associate a “pro.”  For example, software cost could be seen as a hurdle, however, Autodesk allows you to download a free copy for a 30 day trial per system, giving you plenty of time to test and train.  Expensive systems to run the application could also be seen as a stumbling block; with the new i7 processor we have tested 64 bit systems that run at a fraction of the cost of our expensive Xeon systems. Training and more importantly, the timing of the training was discussed in detail along with our theory on pod training (all users in one room to train off each other) pre- and post-project to get our new users comfortable and confident with the application.

Another way to avoid purchasing and training your managers on Revit is Navisworks, an alternative to use for opening BIM files.  It can be used to open, print and present files without purchasing an expensive Revit license. 

For the past couple of years we have been partnering with a company in Florida called CADD Centers, Gregory Arkin being our key contact.  You may know him from his blog www.Revit3d.com.  For those of you who know Gregory, he is very passionate about his work, which happens to be anything tied to Revit and BIM. Once we started training with our new partners at the CADD Centers, everything started clicking (literally). We began by training our users the Revit basics with a three day on-site class for which we flew the trainer to St. Louis. We then followed up with an advanced class, as well as a Revit Family creation and editing course. 

Once the training was complete we were at a crossroads:   Trained users, but no project to start. Our Revit team met monthly to try to determine projects that we could target, but were struggling with the Owners, Clients and Designers on various items. The project was either too big, too small, too complex, or not complex enough.  We just could never get the go-ahead until recently. 

We have just completed a full Revit MEP project partnering with SOA architects. The project was a great success that I would like to share with you. It has been over a year since the original Revit training.   Our Revit team was working on families and training models to stay involved, but we had no actual projects, so most of the hands-on training was lost or forgotten.  We had to do something to get everyone back on track short of retraining the users. We contacted Gregory at CADD Centers of Florida and discussed our solution to have the trainers online with a live webcast while working on the billable project to save us money and time, and by only covering the areas we needed. 

 The plan was implemented, and the training (or work sessions) was scheduled for the beginning and end of the project. This way, we could get started on the project and have time to create a list of problems or areas that need to be addressed to maximize our time with the trainer. We would have another remote session again at the end of the project so we could address all of the outstanding questions to ensure that the final deliverables were complete.  

With Joe Vivirito running the sessions from the CADD Centers side, the process worked very well. Joe is another passionate individual who is driven by Revit knowledge and challenges. If you have a problem, Joe will find an answer. For collaboration purposes, we put all of the users in a conference room with a phone and projection screen so Joe could share his computer screen with us. With these simple capabilities, Joe was able to spend three days helping our guys through the Design Development phase of the project to get everyone’s deliverables out the door.  This was a great approach; we were not only learning, but doing, while on a billable project, hence creating a small return on investment. We then repeated the process with an additional two-day training webcast for the final document review before the project went out the door. The overall process was a great success due to the dedicated MEP Revit users along with the partnership of CADD Centers, proving that choosing the right Revit partner really makes the difference. 

Ross & Baruzzini is in the process of completing our first Revit MEP project. For those of you familiar with the process you understand what a great accomplishment this truly has become. Ross & Baruzzini has completed a few BIM or Revit models in the Architectural department over the past two years but have never been afforded the opportunity to dive into an MEP model.

The Revit committee has been meeting on a monthly basis to identify potential full service projects that our operators, engineers and owners would be comfortable starting. This proved to be a very difficult task since not everyone in the industry understands the benefits or even has the software and hardware to receive and open Revit files. With the recent addition of the Columbia College project we have been given the opportunity to show our capabilities and I am happy to say everything is moving along great. Nathan, Zak and Kent have taken on the challenge with open arms and not a minute to soon! It looks like we have another Revit project in the lineup for the San Diego Airport which will involve our AES group with Karen, Brad and Travis leading the way. Anyone wishing to learn Revit through the tutorials should give the IS team a call, we will install and configure the software on your system so you can follow the tutorials at your own speed. We are currently building a training and tutorial section on the intranet Revit Page.