Behind the headlines

Written by Paul Woddy

Published Wed 16 Jul 2008

When introducing the latest incarnation of a popular software application, marketing machines swing into action and a number of development themes are identified and pushed doggedly forward, shouted from the hilltops and widely demonstrated by vendors. Often however, the long-term user will give a cursory glance at the advertised features and jump into the software with the attention span of a toddler in a toy box; trying out a host of features, enhancements and–dare I say–bug fixes, cutting a swath through the ‘What’s New’ list, accompanied by a soundtrack of grunts and ahs. The purpose of this activity is to explore the improvements and changes made to the day-to-day usability of the software and the process of obtaining results from it

The 2009 Revit platform provides a classic case in point with a big headline feature focusing on the replacement of the Accurender render engine with mental ray technology. This new render engine provides in most cases, a far superior image in a shorter period, and congratulations are due to the Revit team for keeping a potentially complex feature relatively simple. If however, as a structural engineer or technician, you have no need for such pleasantries, then you could be justified in issuing a harrumph of dissent toward the cheering and flag-waving.

Revit Structure is Autodesk’s first real step into the arena of the Structural Engineer since vanilla AutoCAD, and its reception has so far been very good. On paper, it should not win over rivals that automate more and are more feature rich, and yet due to the flexibility, ease of use, and the principles of rule-based design, the user experience is streets ahead of the competition. As well as being a stand-alone design and documentation tool, Revit provides a friendly interface to the many analysis packages, with which it interacts.

A headline feature of Revit Structure 2009 is the incorporation of a Structural detailing package. This remnant of the Robobat acquisition is an AutoCAD-based add-on and does not interact with Revit other than by standard DWG interface. I am sure that this tool has many great features but as a BIM stalwart, I cannot bring myself to look at it just yet. As a Revit evangelist, I have battled hard to change the misconception that Revit cannot effectively handle detailing and cannot help but feel that this move to include AutoCAD-based detailing features indicates that Revit is less than capable. I guess I have to remind myself that whatever gets the job done well is the right tool!

There are also some great improvements to concrete design, both in modelling and reinforcement, as well as increased flexibility with dimensions, but the list seems relatively short this year. It is however, the small pleasures in life that can provide the biggest smiles and Revit 2009 provides a lot of small improvements and tweaks that unite to make life easier. They may not always be lauded in the press releases and have to be hunted from the pages of product notes–a cynic may conclude that in some cases, no one wants to admit that it should have been designed like that from the start–but they are non-the-less welcomed by the user-base. Here are a handful of my favourites that have perhaps missed the headlines.

Selection Count

When filtering selected elements, a count of the objects currently in the selection set now appears as a column down the right-hand side of the filter dialogue. This is proving very useful in situations where the creation of a temporary schedule was previously required in order to provide a quick object count.

Closing a shape

A good example of a small feature that is an obvious request from ex-AutoCADers, this snap does not work exactly as AutoCAD, but still works. Access to the tool is via the snap forcing shortcut SZ, much the same as SE for snap to end and SC to centre of arcs, and as with the others, requires a left mouse click to confirm.

Mirror and rotate a project

The need to mirror and rotate a project arise from very different scenarios but are both welcome features in 2009 and grouped together by the same underlying coding feature.

As a Revit evangelist, I have battled hard to change the misconception that Revit cannot effectively handle detailing and cannot help but feel that the move to include AutoCAD-based structural detailing indicates that Revit is less than capable

Mirroring a project is usually required in circumstances of handed building duplication and in order to minimise duplication of effort is therefore deferred until the drawing set is well progressed.

Rotating a project is different and the need usually comes about due to error. Either the information provided for the basis of the Revit model was incorrect–wrongly labelled elevations or North direction–or an inexperienced Revit user attempted to apply the AutoCAD-style approach to co-ordinates and drew the building at an odd angle, hoping to be able to rotate the UCS to show the views orthogonally on the title sheet. For those that don’t know Revit too well, the process of project set-up using surveyed or OS data can be an uncomfortable prospect for CAD converts as it involves rotating any imported CAD data so that the building plot sits orthogonally to the screen and most walls run north-south or east-west. This seems odd and even frightening to people more used to information drawn accurate to World co-ordinates and the view window located at the correct place on the globe. Revit, on the other hand, takes the rather divine approach of drawing the building comfortably and orthogonally in front of our eyes and then spinning the world around so the co-ordinates match up. The result is no less effective or reliable, and is simply a different way of achieving the desired outcome.

Working in a holistic BIM environment with overlaid, view-specific annotations and details means that no one view provides access to all information. A 3D view will allow the selection of all geometry, but no dimensions, rooms, tags or detail components will be included. You can tile your views and switch between them to add further items to the selection set using the Ctrl key, but this is painstaking. The upshot being that prior to 2009, rotating or mirroring a building meant an assumption that several elements may have to be re-drawn and all tags and rooms will have to be re-assigned to the correct spaces or removed and replaced, resulting in a mammoth checking procedure.

In Revit 2009, we have the ability to capture all data–2D and 3D–for rotation or mirroring, and whilst it sometimes returns one or two discrepancies, an explanation is provided, requiring minor rectification. In the case of project rotation, which is labelled as Rotate project north under the tools menu, my advice is to use this feature as a recovery plan in the case of error, rather than a change to the recommended procedure given above.

Beam Annotation

A new interface with labels (Attributes) is evident in 2009 and one result is a new dialogue box for controlling the appearance of framing annotation. The first noticeable feature of the change is that when you move a beam, the tag moves in conjunction. This may seem obvious but the odd behaviour of previous releases caused some raised eyebrows in training. The new dialogue allows the automated allocation of numerous tags to parts of each beam within a view, so the type name can for instance, be displayed above the middle, with the TOS elevation at each end.

Labels in Tag Creation

Another improvement along similar lines is evident in the creation of new annotation and tag families. Label definition and editing is now managed through a dialogue which allows a much greater degree of flexibility–compound strings with prefix and suffix capabilities. Take for example, and element, which has a frame with parameters controlling the number of members of a variable size. The new tagging features allow us to create a tag, which will read; X no of size Y members, without the need to calculate the probable length of each attribute and then set the justifications accordingly.

Subscription tools

Those of you on subscription should not overlook the extra tools available for download. Many were previously available from the Robobat site, but are now incorporated into the benefits of subscription and should justifiably see a wider audience. Some great little tools in here and worth spending some time evaluating.

There are many more similar improvements to be found, such as sloping site pads, enhanced beam-end manipulation and off-grid column incorporation in graphical column schedules for instance. All these features, when considered in isolation make a little difference, but combine into a good step forward in usability and efficiency. It is for this reason that I feel this release to be largely aimed at improving the lot of existing users rather than targeting new audiences, and is, as a result all the better for it. Therefore, I urge you to look beyond the headline-grabbing features and explore the tweaks, improvements and additions, which unite into a release far greater than the sum of its parts.