They Broke Their Own Cloud Space in Revit 2022

Way back in Revit 2015, Autodesk gave us a really nice enhancement:

• Ability to use all the sketch line drawing tools to quickly create Revision Clouds.

 

Prior to v2015 we had to laboriously draw each arc of the cloud as a segment (2 clicks:  for start and end of the arc) - the longer the segment, the larger the arc radius.  For those who never experienced it, that was a really tedious workflow.

I remember from Beta testing that we requested for the Rectangle to be the default drawing tool (it was not initially - I think the original default was either the line or circle.  Luckily we asked for that request before the code was finished so it was quickly implemented.

One of the other little features they added was the ability to reverse the direction of the cloud using the space bar - as it was being drawn:

 

This allowed the user to create a reverse or inside-out cloud - it may look ugly but it has a very specific use:  To indicate "Hold" on part of the drawing or model.

They Broke it in 2022

I am not sure if it happened in v2022 or 2022.1, but the spacebar trick no longer works for placing rectangular reverse clouds.   Aaaargh.

It still works for circles and both polygon types.

That means you could use a 4 sided polygon to get a square cloud - but the chances of needing that shape are slim.  The only other option is to use the line tool and create a rectangle by drawing the 4 sides in an anti-clockwise direction.

The good news is that it is still waaaay better than the old method pre-v2015.

Let's hope that Autodesk fix this in the next update?

Thanks to Frank Crisp of Koichi Takada Architects in Sydney for pointing this out to me.

Revit Stair Wall Joins in Section

Following on from an earlier post about joining stairs and floors, I just wanted to clarify what happens when you try to join Stairs and Walls in section . . . .

We saw previously that Revit does have some limited capability to join stairs and floors at the base of a stair - but it has many limitations.

Joining a Wall and a Floor

All good Revit users would know that if a floor and a wall are of the same material, and they have coincident or overlapping edges, they can be "joined" in the model.  This is not just a graphic tool that is done per view - it affects the model in potentially all views, including material quantity schedules.  If an overlapping wall and floor are joined, the volume of material that was previously counted twice is corrected after the join so it is counted once.

Join Geometry

Select floor and wall to join

Floor and wall are joined

Providing that the elements are of the same material, the line between the floor and wall disappears.  In this example, the 'Level' line is revealed, as it happens to align with the top of the floor.

Joining a Wall and a Stair Landing

 

Try the same thing with a wall and a stair landing . . .

What happens?  Absolutely nothing.  After selecting the wall, Revit will not even highlight the stair landing (or vice versa if you select the landing first).

Well, that is just plain ridiculous!  You might argue that the wall and landing would be cast separately on site, so there should always be a joint line between them - but the graphic convention is to not show a line, or at least show a thinner line between them in section.

 

What to Do?

There is no good workaround to this problem - each method is clunky and not robust.

Linework Tool

Linework Tool

If you try the linework took, you immediately discover that it will not do the job for you, as it affects the whole wall.

That isn't very helpful, as you only want a small segment of the wall edge line to be invisible (or thin line).

Another strange Revit quirk with the linework tool is that when you select a line in elevation (or projection in plan) it gives you blue dots at each end , which can be dragged so that only part of the line has its style overridden.  That is a very useful capability - but infuriatingly, it does not work on cut lines.

Yet another quirk is that the underside of a run is treated as one line when cut (section), but in elevation, each step is a separate line segment.  Why, or why?

Filled Region

Filled Region

A common method of hiding a multitude-of-sins in Revit is to use Filled Regions.  These have pros and cons:

• They are quick and easy to understand for most users

• Their edge lines can be of different styles, including "invisible" as part of the sketch - so they hide model lines underneath 

• They will merge with underlying element hatching , providing the material hatch style matches the filled region hatching

• They are view-based, so any patching up on one view will not show on other views

• Line edges/junctions can be messy when viewd close-up

• If the model is changed, the filled region will not change with it (unless you constrain the sketch lines, which is not generally advisable - as your model very quickly becomes over-constrained and unworkable)
  

Cut Profile

Cut Profile (View Menu)

You could try the 'Cut Profile' command - this allows you to modify how an element looks in a particular view.  Once initiated, it takes you into sketch mode - so you can draw a shape to add to an element (or cut from it).

The end result is not very promising in this situation

• The added shape does not obscure the wall line in the way that a filled region does
• The sketch lines cannot have a line style (unlike Filled Regions)
  

The worst thing about this idea is that the Linework tool does not work at all on cut-profile shapes - thus making this tool almost useless!

Conclusion

Sadly there is no clever workaround.  The conclusion is that it is not worth fighting Revit on this one - just accept the joint line between wall and landing.  In many cases it is not an issue, but when the stair and wall are both cast in place concrete, it is very annoying.

Preventing Levels and Internal Origins appearing in new 3D Views

How many times have you seen a Revit 3D view obliterated by Scope Boxes?
Well, now we have Levels visible in 3D (2019) and Internal Origins in 3D (2020.2), which can also be visible by default.

There is a simple solution to prevent this happening:

Default 3D View

Typically, when you create a new 3D view, it has almost all categories visible, including Scope Boxes, Levels, Room Separation lines, Base Points and now Internal Origins. These can be very annoying in 3D views - particularly the Origins in perspectives.

Here is a procedure to prevent this:

• Go to a default 3D view 
• In Visibility Graphics, turn off the visibility for Room Separation lines in model categories

 

•  Turn off all three Origin sub-categories (Internal Origins visible in 3D from v2020.2)

• Turn off the Scope Boxes and Levels category (Levels are visible in 3D from v2019); 

• [Optional] turn off other datum and view control categories like grids, reference lines, sections, elevations (in case they become visible in 3D views in the future)
• Create a new View Template from the 3D view – called ‘3D Default – do not delete’- [NB. “do not delete” part of the name is to prevent accidental changes later]

• Untick all the ‘Include’ boxes except for V/G Overrides Model & Annotation

• Click OK to close and save the View Template
• Go to the Type properties of the 3D view

• Set the ‘View Template applied to new views’ property as your new 3D Default view template 
• Untick the ‘New views are dependent on template’ property – this means it just turns off those categories, without permanently applying a view template;

• You will subsequently be able to change other category visibilities;

• All new 3D views and perspective views will have those categories turned off by default (scope boxes, Levels, Origins,  Room Separation lines etc).

This should obviously be set up in your project template as well as all current projects.

Path of Travel - The Dalek of Revit 2020

Path of Travel - New Feature in Revit 2020

One of the new features that is particularly relevant for architects is the 'Route Analysis' tool.  This works by placing point-to-point lines between the start and finish of a route in plan.  Revit will then analyse this and find the shortest route between the points, avoiding obstacles on the way, and it will place a segmented detail line along that path, in the chosen view.  The intention for this tool is to create such things as:

• Fire Escape plans
• Emergency Evacuation plans
• Life Safety plans (USA)

Here follows a detailed analysis of the new feature:

Analysis of Route Analysis

The tool is found on the Analyse tab, called 'Path of Travel'

Once the tool is activated, the ribbon displays a Linestyle choice.  It defaults to a linestyle called 'Path of Travel Lines'

Step one is to draw a line between two points.

 Revit then thinks a moment and places a 'Detail Line' segmented pathway between the two points

The first thing you'll notice is that its really hard to see.

This is because the default linestyle is not set to what you'll most likely need.

Path Linestyle

The default linestyle is system defined, but unfortunately its name is not enclosed in < > brackets, so its likely to get lost in amongst many linestyles.

Go to the Linestyles dialog to change its global settings (Not to 'Object Styles', which might be your first instinct) - it  is after all, just a detail line.

• Note that it cannot be deleted or renamed. 
• You can change its Weight, Colour or Pattern
• In this case I've just bumped up the weight to something really visible

You can also create some more linestyles to use for different kinds of paths - this is the nearest we'll get to creating 'Types'.

In this example you might want to distinguish between an escape path to Outside vs to a Stair:

• The original line can be changed to 'Path to Outside'
•  A new line 'Path to Stair' could be added

 

• Revit will again calculate the shortest path (around furniture/fixtures)

 Notice how hard it is to read the direction of the lines. 

• Sadly there does not appear to be anything the user can do about the dot at the start, or the arrowhead - neither of which are very distinguishable with heavy lineweights at any scale above 1:50 (is that 1" to 48' in imperial?).
• Overlapping lines can be moved Backwards/Forwards

Update Paths

If the underlying geometry is changed, you may want to update the path

• Select a path
• Click on 'Update Path' on the ribbon
• Revit will recalculate it

Move It 

I am quite sure this was not the design intent of the update command, but it serves to demonstrate some weird behaviour:

• Select a path
• Move it
• In this example I moved it partially out of the building (keeping the ends inside)

 

• Try the 'Update' command
• It may or may not work

• This may be your first experience of a very unhelpful warning that does not tell you why it cannot update the path
• My instinct told me to try again, with the whole path kept inside the building

•  This time it worked

• A gold star to anyone who noticed that the path did not avoid all of the furniture - even on the very first attempt

Split Levels & Dizzying Heights

You may have noticed that this example is the Autodesk sample file - a perfect vehicle for testing, as it has a split-level plan:

• The living area is 3 lower than the rest of the house - and this is where Revit has failed to pick up the obstacles.
• The question is, does the furniture project high enough to interrupt the path?
• A section shows that it should - just.

Just to be certain, we should check the calculation heights:

• Click on the tiny, tiny Route Analysis settings arrow

•  The lower height is set to a default value of 203.2mm (8") above the view associated level (upper part of split level)

• This may be just above the furniture, so I tried dropping it to zero, then 'Update' the path
• Computer says 'No'

• Then I tried just above floor level, say 10mm, but it still failed
• The lowest level it would let me go without failing, was 175mm, but it still did not pick up the furniture on the lower floor.

 I then set the lower height back to 10mm, and tried a new path:

• This time the message was a bit more informative:

I still don't know what the problem is, but it is a bit of a worry that the Autodesk sample file has uncovered a problem or limitation in the software so easily.  I'll update this section when more information comes to light, from Autodesk.

[Edit - it seems that the only part of the sofa high enough to be in the analysis zone is the sofa back, which explains the initial problem - but does not explain why the update path does not work when you lower the analysis zone - Refer to this blog post for more detail]

The Dalek of Revit 2020

Whovians would already have guessed that these paths of travel cannot go upstairs (or down).  That is certainly going to be a limitation for some situations, not the least being split-level plans.

Properties

Each Path that you place has some interesting system instance properties

• Strangely there is no 'Comments' property.  This is very unusual, as almost every other element type does have a system Comments property that can be used in almost any situation (Filter, tag, schedule, key schedule etc)
• The only properties that a user can change are the Line Style and Mark
• Time = Calculated time it takes to walk from the start point to the end point of the path of travel. Walking speed is set to 3 mph/1.34 mps (Read only)  [From help file - mps presumably means metres/second.  I'd prefer 5 kilometres /hour]
• Length = Total length of all segments of a path (Read only)

• The system properties can tagged

•  And scheduled

• From Room and To Room properties are labelled as 'Not Available'.  In the Autodesk help files, they are labelled as 'For Future Use', which is a promising sign for something to come.

It is possible to add your own Project Parameters to Path of Travel lines

• These must be instance properties
• If you try Type properties, the Lines category is not available

View Filters

View Filters can access the all the same system properties (except Count)

• Path of Travel Lines can be filtered by such things as Length, which would be very useful for highlighting paths over specified limits.

• Path of Travel Lines can be filtered by Linestyle, for separating different kinds (in the absence of Types)

Since Path of Travel elements are actually Detail Lines, they are view dependent, so it unlikely that you would want to hide them in a view, so its more likely that you would want to override properties.

However, you could just do that with Category overrides - so I am not sure you would use view filters for this, unless you want them with halftone.

Obstructions

The settings menu lets you remove categories from the calculation.  By default the door category is removed (checkbox ticked).
I would like to see the standard filtering ability for the category list (its missing from the dialog box)

• By Discipline
• Show only selected

Path of Travel Calculations

The Autodesk Revit Help Files have a section describing how the paths are calculated.  I am not quite sure I understand it all - particularly as it only seems to be talking about plans, rather than how it checks for obstructions in 3D.
Path of Travel Calculations

Conclusion

This is obviously a first pass at what should be a very useful tool at some time in the future.

I am very pleased that it seems like Autodesk have been careful not to tailor this tool to any particular country or style of doing Escape Plans / Fire Safety, which is a very good thing (NB. Area plan calculations are a real pain for anyone outside the USA, as an example of country specific coding).  In fact the tool is sufficiently general that it could probably be used for all sorts of other purposes.  Presumably the tools have been made available in the API so that developers can create country specific addons?

In its present format, it does have quite a few limitations, which will hopefully be addressed in future iterations:

• The Dalek conundrum - how to get up or down stairs
• No system 'Comments' property.
• Type properties not available (in Project Parameters, or anywhere else)
• Users nominate Start point and End point - it does not allow us to nominate any intermediate points that we want to go through.  
• Perhaps Autodesk could create a way to link paths to allow this?
• It is not possible to move either the start or end point individually - it seems like you have to recreate a new one if you get it wrong first time. 
• What happens if you don't like the route that algorithm has chosen as the shortest route?  You may have good reasons for not wanting that route.  I would like to have the ability to either choose another option (Like Google Maps directions), or else to be able to nominate intermediate points, or even to be able to drag individual joint nodes between each segment.

Cartoon - With thanks to Birkett (Punch Magazine)

More On Path of Travel

• Follow Up Detail on Path Analysis.

Improvements to Path of Travel in point releases:

•  Enhancements in Revit 2020.1 - Move Start/End Points 

•  Reveal Obstacles - New Feature in 2020.1

• 
  Revit 2020.2 Add Waypoints