View Filter Sort Order in Revit

In Revit, View Filters are not automatically sorted in the 'Visibility Graphics' dialog box - meaning that you often get a jumbled list that is really hard to read. [Edit: There is good reason for this - the order of the list is the order that filters are applied, from the top (as pointed out by Steve Stafford);  but sometimes you just want all similar filters listed together so it is readable]

Recently there has been a subtle change to how filters are added to the list (in v2015 of Revit):

In Revit 2013, when you add view filters, the most recent one will always be added to the end of the list.

In Revit 2015, when you add view filters, they appear to go in just below the selected filter in the list.  Once you add a new one, it does not become selected.  That means that if you add several in succession, they won't go in the order you add them - they will be added in reverse order just below whatever you happened to have selected.

To correct the Sort Order:

Initially I thought that you either have to live with the mess, or remove the filters and add them back in again.  Of course, if you do this, you lose all the filter override settings.

We actually have the ability to move filters up and down the list (Edit. Thanks to various comments - this paragraph has been corrected).

Revit 2015 - Adding new filters

• Click on the filter in the list that you want new ones to follow

 

• Add the first filter

• Then click on the one you just added

• Add the next one

• Click on that one

• Add again

• etc - until you have the list as desired.

If at any point you forget to select the last one before adding the next one, all is not lost.  All you need to do is to move it up or down the list

This method does give you much more flexibility than how it worked in v2013.  However, it is confusing as hell until you see what it is doing.

I noticed that you can also add several filters at once, but it does not necessarily add them in the order that they are shown in the 'Add Filters' list.

There is also the curious question of why the list of filters in the Filter dialog box is not alphabetical.  Only Autodesk can solve that for us . . . . .

Revit 2015 Shared Parameter Tool Tips

Isn't it great that you can add tool tips to parameters in the family editor?  It is a nice new feature that should help us to manage all those cryptic parameter names.

Shared Parameters

You can also add tool tips to Shared Parameters.  But, you can only add them at the time of creation of the shared parameter - in the Shared Parameter edit dialog box (not in the family parameter dialog box).

  

Click on the Edit Tooltip button and then add your description

Once you have created the Shared Parameter, you cannot modify the tooltip - try clicking on the Properties button:

It shows the tooltip grayed out, and the Edit Tooltip button has gone.

Project & Family Parameters

In the project or family editor, when you try to add a new Shared Parameter, it lets you do so, but only shows the tooltip that you have already created (if you did so)

 If you choose a Shared Parameter that does not have a tooltip, then it displays a tooltip "Shared Parameter"

If you create a Project Parameter or Family Parameter, then it lets you create and modify the tooltip at any time later.

Summary

You cannot add Shared Parameter tooltips later, and you cannot modify the tooltip later.  That means you have to get it right first time.
You cannot edit the shared parameter file externally either - I tried it even though every bit of Revit advice tells you never to do that.

What a shame!  This means that we cannot retroactively make use of this new feature where we already have large Shared Parameter files set up.  It also means that anyone who has set up a standard SP file cannot make use of the feature (eg. ANZRS).

What this also means is that your Shared Parameter tooltips must be very specific because you cannot add tooltips when you use a shared parameter in the family editor (or project).  For example, if you create a SP called "Width_Two" then you have to define its tooltip at creation, not when it is applied to a family.  You might have an L-shaped object where Width_Two means the width of the short leg.  You might also have a double-panel door where Width_Two could be the width of the smaller panel.  That would mean you could not create SPs for multiple uses on different categories or situations (maybe a good thing?).

If I am wrong about this, or anyone knows how to get around it, I'd love to hear from someone.

Other new Parameter features in v2015

New in Revit 2015 - Schedules & Parameters

We still don't have a definitive list of what is new in Revit 2015, but here are a few more details about some of the new features - with the proviso that I don't have my hands on the final release version so I can't be a 100% sure I have the details right.  But you will be able to test the software as soon as you have it, and you'll know what to look for.
[Edit:  Autodesk have now published their v2015 help online, including the Whats New in 2015 section;  be sure to check out the Upgrade Information section]

Parameters

Parameter Reorder

Up until Revit 2015, the sort order of Revit parameters in the family editor and in the project was a mystery to most people.  It starts off adding parameters in reverse alphabetic order;  but as you start changing parameter names it soon goes haywire and the order becomes unpredictable.  Various people have come up with ingenious workarounds to reorder parameters but those methods are painful to say the least.  A fix for this problem has been on wishlists for Revit from the early days.  In Revit 2015 a partial solution has been applied to a very tricky problem to solve.

This new feature has several parts to it:
1.  You can change the order that new parameters will be added in the family editor

• It can be set to ascending or descending alphabetic order.

• You might think that it will be a simple decision to make it "Descending" as this is how almost every (latin) alphabetic list is sorted.  The one exception to this in Revit is how the family editor used to work - reverse alphabetic (to start with).  So if you want semi-consistency with all your old Revit families you might go with the old method of "Ascending".
• Personally I will set it to the normal alphabetic order "Descending" as soon as I get my hands on it - so that we can start getting some logic to new families (the old ones are all mixed up anyway).
• If you change a parameter to a different group heading, it will honour the sorting order within that group - this may be a kind of workaround for reordering, rather than using the Move Up/Down tools described below.
• This sorting order setting will not affect parameter order in existing families.
• Will not control system parameter order (not visible in family editor)
• Will reorder by standard unicode ascii character order - this means all special characters (accented letters) may go after the 26 characters used in English.  This sort order may not work so well for other languages (I am not 100% sure about this one).

2.  You can move individual parameters up and down in the list

• If a particular parameter is not inserted in the order that you want, you can use the "Move Up" and "Move Down" buttons to get it in the right place
• I believe that it only allows you to select one parameter at a time to move up or down.
• You could obviously use this feature to reorganise all your old families - but I can't see myself laboriously going through thousands of familes, moving parameters one by one to fix them up!

What we really need is a batch method to reorder parameters in existing families in a library.  I believe that Revit 2015 may have some sample API code that could be used to do this - but you would need to compile that yourself.  If you haven't learned how to do that yet, it will be another skill you need for rolling out 2015 to get the most out of this new feature.
No doubt someone will write/compile the API fairly quickly, and hopefully post it on the web for us to use.  [Edit:  refer to the Upgrade Information section of Autodesk Whats New help online - it refers to the Software Developers Kit (SDK), but it does not say where to find the necessary code sample]

I would prefer to have it built in to the batch family upgrader that is supplied by Autodesk;  I believe that Aaron Maller may have devised a clever way to use journals to get this happening? 
I understand why an "automatic re-order on upgrade" is not built in to the software as it would not suit everyone.

Tooltips for parameters 

In the family editor, you will be able to add tooltips to each parameter that you create (or have created in the past).  This is accessible from the Parameter Properties dialog box.
This is a really cool little new feature, which works well.  It will enable you to give instructions to users about what the parameters might do and how to use them -

• It has a character limit, which I think is about the same as a tweet, so most people should be able to cope with that.

• The tooltips will show up in the project environment when the user hovers the mouse over the parameter.

• Obviously this won't apply to system parameters as you cannot access them in the family editor.
• You probably won't go back over old families adding tooltips to all parameters, but certainly it will be worth doing so for the cryptically named ones.  
• Hopefully it will be possible to access this capability in the API in which case someone will probably write a tool to speed up the addition of tooltips to old families

[Edit:  NB. You cannot add tooltips to existing Shared Parameters - refer to Shared Parameter Tooltips]

Shared Parameters for View Titles

You will be able to add shared parameters to view title families - this will be done by editing labels in the family editor.  I see this as useful for things like bilingual drawings where you want two (or more) languages on each view title.

Schedules

Images in Schedules

Revit 2014 introduced the ability to insert images to schedule headers.  In v2015, images will now be able to be put into the body of schedules, linked to instance or type parameters. The purpose of this is for such things as room data sheets - which is something that many people want to be able to do. 
I find that prospect really scary for a number of reasons:

• Images cannot be linked into Revit - only imported (Aaargh!);
• There is no method of controlling file sizes during the import process (unlike many email image attachment programs that let you reduce file sizes);
• Project pressures and human nature is such that very few people take care to check image file sizes before they are imported;
• We do not have proper image management tools in Revit - we need to be able to locate all instances of any image regardless of whether it is placed or not. [Edit:  The Autodesk online help tells us that the "Manage Image" dialog now has listings for Count and Path - this will help with tracking down some of those images, but it really needs to report the image Size too]

This means that our Revit project file sizes could be blown out of the water very rapidly unless great discipline is used to manage this process.

There are a number of other limitations to this new feature:

• You must create the images - Revit cannot use the automatically created family previews in schedules.  It would be good if it could because they are already small file sizes
• Schedules cannot be placed to automatically flow onto multiple sheets when they get too long to fit on one page, so this is only going to work if you place the schedules on large drawing sheets.  This kind of schedule is typically done on small sheet sizes (A4 or Letter)

Schedule More Parameters

More Wall parameters can now be scheduled:

• Base Constraint
• Base Offset
• Top Constraint
• Top Offset
• Unconnected Height

What is not included in this list is "Top is Attached" or "Base is Attached".  I find this really worrying because it means that when a wall is attached at top or bottom, the "Unconnected Height" is almost certainly going to be displaying a false value in the schedule.  At least in the properties dialog you can see those "Attached" checkboxes so it might alert you to the issue.
If we could also schedule the "Attached" properties then we could use the schedule to identify attached walls, and perhaps use conditional formatting to highlight possible false height values.  Lets hope it makes it into v2016 . . . .

The same problem could also happen if a wall has had its profile edited - again the wall heights could be scheduling false values.  This is not so simple to solve as there is no property for "Profile is edited" - however, Revit knows if it has been edited or not because it displays a "Reset Profile" icon in the ribbon if a selected wall has had its profile edited

More detail on this issue in this blog post

Custom Total Titles

You will be able to specify custom text to display for the Grand Totals title on the Sorting/Grouping tab of the Schedule Properties dialog.  This is one more small but welcome step in the process of improving schedules in Revit.

For info on other new features in Revit 2015, refer to Sketchy Lines

New Sketchy Lines in Revit 2015

The big new feature for architects in Revit 2015 is the Sketchy Lines setting for views.  I have found some interesting subtleties in the way that it works.

In the Graphics Display Options dialog box there is a new section for "Sketchy Lines"

• Firstly there is an "Enable" checkbox to turn the effect on or off - initially it seems to do nothing because the default slider settings are zero.
• Jitter does two things:  as the slider increases, all the straight lines in the view become more wavy;  at a certain point the lines start doubling up, and then becoming multiple lines - so you get a combination of the two effects somewhat like running a pencil back and forth to emphasise a line.
• Extension does what you expect from the name - it "virtually" extends the lines past their real end points or intersections.  The extension obviously increases with the slider value, but it is not an equal extension on each line - it is proportional to the length of the line

It seems like the line extensions and jitter are applied to the model before any hidden line removal is done - this means that all lines are jittered/extended even if they would ultimately not be visible in a normal hidden line view.  This has some unexpected side effects that you need to be aware of:

Jitter

• Jittery lines seem to be actually waving in 3D, which explains why you will see sections of jittered lines disappear as they duck into or behind an adjacent surface.  On the roof in the Revit sample file that looks quite good because you don't want to emphasise the roof stripes.  Once you bump up the level of jitter past the halfway mark it starts to create multiple lines so that in most instances where a line partially disappears another one will be waving the other way so it remains visible.
• On an outside edge the effect is less obvious - in fact it tends to emphasise horizon lines as the lines are less likely to be hidden by adjacent surfaces.
• On an inside edge the effect is the opposite - the lines are even more likely to disappear as they have much more chance of being hidden by a surface - have a look at the coving on this image

• Jitter is applied equally to all lines, categories, element types, internal and external edges, silhouettes, depth of view, scale etc.  What this means is that some elements get much darker as soon as you enable jitter - such as railings and window frames.  This is partly due to previously close parallel lines now overlapping, but also due to the multiple line effect on higher levels of jitter.  It is currently not possible to be specific about which elements become more jittery than others.  It may become necessary to start applying overrides like halftone to certain categories, so that they do not dominate.

Extensions

• Line extensions can have unexpected results if you bump the slider up too high - lines from elements that should be totally hidden can start showing through surfaces.  On the Revit sample house there are some internal walls (?) that start to project through the roof;  balcony lines project right through the side wall.  

• This effect is also dependant on the overall line lengths, as shorter lines generally extend less at their ends.  The overall effect is more sketchy but the random lines might confuse people - so you need to balance the extension settings to match your desired effect.

 

• If you have a few persistent line extensions you can always use the Linework Tool to make them invisible.  Likewise where jitter makes too many lines on a particular element - the Linework Tool will be your friend (or enemy if there are too many lines and not enough time!).

Settings

In order to get the effects that you are happy with you'll need to experiment, but it is probably a good idea to set both sliders at 3 and start from there.  The sketchy line effects are going to look better if you use them in combination with other view-based settings such as Smooth Lines, Ambient Shadows and Gradient Backgrounds.  It would be nice to be able to create standard combination settings of all these effects, to apply at one click.