Revit 2021.1 and Load Autodesk Content

Revit 2021.1 was recently released by Autodesk - for those waiting on the first 'point release' before upgrading to Revit 2021, this might be time to go for it.

But wait - there is a new feature in 2021.1 that you need to know about:

"Load Autodesk Family" Technology Preview

When you install Revit 2021.1 there will be a new icon on the Insert tab:

 

'Load Autodesk Family'

This is a "Technology Preview", which means it is a finished product that is released early for any Revit subscriber to test - refer to the Autodesk Blog.  It is a cloud-based (only) tool that lets you search for and download the latest Autodesk Revit families - but it is currently restricted to that content only.

 

If you click on the icon it will firstly ask you to log in to your Autodesk account - that means it will only work with named licenses (which Autodesk is forcing us towards anyway).

 

Once logged in, the Technology Preview dialog box opens:

This content is located somewhere on an Autodesk server(s) - at this stage we have no ability to select where the content is.  We can assume that this will eventually be expanded to include other content in locations that we can choose - it is not clear whether it will have to be on the 'Cloud' or our own company servers?

This content can be filtered and searched in a number of ways:

1.  First choose your region, from the World icon

2.  Filter by Category - but sadly we can only choose One category at a time or All ('Any') - surely it would make sense to be able to choose multiple categories?

 

Search

Families can also be searched for by category name or keyword:

 

 

The resulting list of families can be viewed in a grid or a list, by clicking on the list format icon:

 

Well, what do you think?

If we had been offered this by Autodesk about ten years ago, I might have been excited - but I think that Autodesk are about a decade late to the party.  There are now so many third party content browsers out there on the market that it seems very strange for Autodesk to put any of its valuable development resources into this product at this time.  Most of those third party solutions already offer way more capability than this Technology Preview - it has a huge amount of catching up to do.

 

As noted, this is currently limited to Autodesk content.  Most companies have a policy to use only approved content - and that excludes Autodesk families and most third party families.

As a BIM Manager, you will almost certainly want to prevent your users from accessing this Technology Preview.  Luckily the Autodesk development team listened to the beta testers, and they have provided us with a way to disable the 'Load Autodesk Family' icon:

Add the following to your company Revit.ini so the button and the technology preview will not display:

[Misc]
ShowLoadAutodeskFamily=0

Make sure that you do this before you roll out any version of Revit 2021 - even if you don't yet plan to install 2021.1.  Then it will be in place in advance.

Get Autodesk Content

There is another new icon in the 2021 Insert ribbon: "Get Autodesk Content"

The purpose of this is for BIM Managers to be able to download the Autodesk content that is no longer part of the install process - refer to upgrading to Revit 2021, 

 

If you click on this button it takes you to the content download web location.  

• Scroll down and find your region content.
  

• Select either Family or Family Template content, and download:

Obviously you do NOT want your users to be doing this!  This is either a BIM Manager task, or no task at all if you don't want the content - most likely once you have developed your own company content.   The only exception is that you may want the latest family templates because Autodesk have a habit of sneaking little updates and fixes into the family templates.  The only way to get some of those fixes is to use their templates and recreate your own from those.

Currently there is no way to disable this functionality in the Revit.ini file (Revit 2021 or 2021.1).

A million ways to view Revit

Last week this blog reached a big milestone: 

One million views.   

OK, some of those viewings may be bots and a few were admin views, but it is still a big deal for me.  It is great to know that so many people out there are interested enough to look at this blog, and hopefully spend time reading the content.  It is also really rewarding when I meet people at conferences and user group meetings, and they tell me that the blog has helped them out (so they must be reading it).

Top Ten Blog Posts

By far the most popular is the post on stair path arrows in Revit.  What this tells me is that this is still a huge issue for people - ever since Autodesk created the 'New Component Stair' tools, and totally changed the stair path annotation method, it has confused users.  Autodesk have not only confused people, but they have continued to neglect the issue for 7 years (?) and have still not fixed the bug that prevents you from copying and pasting stair path arrows from one view to another - shame on you Autodesk.

In the top ten are five blog posts on stairs and railings - yes it is still a part of Revit that people need a lot of help with.  I hope that my blog posts have made life a little easier for people - although I do need to do some updates for the recent tweaks to the software, such as the new multi-storey stair tool.

Number 2 on the list is Copying Views between Revit projects - the reason this is confusing is that each view type has a different method of copying or transferring views. 

One way to get Autodesk to fix some of these issues is to vote on their Revit Ideas wishlist site.  Here is my list of things that I think should be voted up the list.

Revit 2019 Installation

Notes on  installing Revit 2019:

I learnt a couple of versions ago that it is vastly better to change your install options for Revit to one of the two 'Download' methods, instead of the default 'Install Now'.   This gives you so much better control.  In fact you can change your Autodesk profile settings to default to Download instead of Install Now.  Despite this, the 'Content' is not included in that, and still gets downloaded during the install - but once you have the content from your first install you can uncheck that option for any future installs.

Once you have downloaded the software, you can run the install from your own network or C drive when it suits you, not as part of the initial download process.

The Install

The Autodesk install Help Files section on 'Changes to Installation' states the following:

If you are responsible for installing or upgrading the Revit or Revit LT software to a new release, learn about recent changes to the installation process.

• Advanced material library: In addition to the standard material library, an advanced material library installs with Revit. This library provides new appearance assets that use physically-based definitions, optimised for use with the Autodesk rendering engine.
• Microsoft® Windows® 10 must support .NET Framework 4.7: Older versions of the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system (Version 1507/Build 10240 and Version 1511/Build 10586) do not support .NET Framework 4.7, which is required for Revit 2019 and Revit LT 2019. Before installing the software on a computer that uses one of these versions of Windows 10, upgrade to a newer version of the operating system. 

Advance Materials Library

This is one of the new features of Revit 2019 - you may not use it yet, but it is sensible to install it anyway.  The default setting is to install it, but with no explanation of what or why - see the Autodesk help files for an explanation of 'Physically based appearance Assets'.

Windows 7

I guess that means that Autodesk does not support Windows 7.  Many large companies have not yet switched to Windows 10 (thankfully - I am not a fan at all, for many reasons, not to be discussed here) - but it should not be a problem.  We hope!

 .NET Framework 4.7  was released for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 10 in May 2017, so if you have updated your copy of Windows 7 since that date, you should be OK?

Install Settings

The first thing to do (after confirming the install language, which apparently I could not change), is to configure the install settings - particularly the first section below 'Autodesk Revit 2019'

Discipline

The word 'Discipline' has many meanings in the English language.  There are two relevant meanings here:
1.  Which sector(s) of the construction industry do you work in?  The default setting is 'All'.  As an architect, I'd like to be more specific, so that I only install stuff relevant to me, so I choose 'Architectural'.  Therefore I am not remotely interested in MEP Fabrication.  A structural engineer might feel the same way, as might a landscape architect or urban designer, or interior designer (oops, they don't even get an option here).  For the third year running, MEP Fabrication has two install options - metric and imperial - both are ticked by default, which means that I have to be on my toes and manually untick the options (unless I happen to be an architect who designs/fabricates duct or pipe installations in both the USA and almost any other country you care to name).

2.  Discipline can also mean adherence to defined standards and procedures; or following through to make sure that your work is neat and tidy, and does not adversely affect others.  When I choose a construction industry discipline, I do not expect to have to manually follow through to prevent getting redundant stuff installed on my computer.   Who knows what else is being installed that I don't want?  Clearly whoever has been managing the installation software at Autodesk for the last three years does not understand the second meaning of discipline.  Perhaps they need to be administered a severe dose of the third meaning of discipline (which I won't elaborate on here!).

Talking of 'Neat and Tidy' I like my local files to go somewhere other than 'My Documents' - so this is a good chance to set that rather than messing about with Revit.ini files.

Content

By default, you should get your own country content.  We used to get a choice but now the installer is obviously burrowing into your computer to figure it out for you.  However, you can change that.  In fact you can choose more than one set of content.  Last time I did that, I found an amazing wealth of component libraries in some other country contents - but you need a lot of time to sort through that stuff, so I would only recommend doing it once during your BIM manager career!

Shared Components

Shared with other Autodesk products like Inventor & 3DS Max, I guess?  The 'Medium Image Library' now has an advanced version for 'Physically based appearance Assets', which is a new feature in Revit 2019.

Pretty Pictures

Autodesk obviously expect us to sit and watch the install process so they have kindly provided a series of pretty pictures of things that bear almost no relevance to the construction industry, with only one exception - you figure it out.  None of them could possibly have been created in Revit, that is for sure.  Yes, I know that this part of the installer is not controlled by the Revit team, but it says something about Autodesk as a company.

Autodesk Desktop App

This pretty picture is a special treat - because it happened to pop up while installing a piece of software that I absolutely do not want, and was not given a choice about!  Autodesk Desktop App.

Autodesk describes it as: "A powerful cloud-centric software delivery solution that helps you discover and manage updates for Autodesk products".  That says it all as far as I'm concerned - "Out damned software".  In the last few years the general consensus has been that it doesn't work well, so I shall leave it to others to test it out, while I remove it.  I find that social media is a more reliable way to find out about Autodesk updates anyway.  As a BIM Manager in a multi-license office you almost certainly don't want this software on all computers, as you'll want to control when updates are pushed out rather than allowing a free for all in the office.

Installation Complete

On completion, all the things I selected were successfully installed, along with one item I did not select (as described above).

Launch Now

 I clicked on the 'Launch Now' button, and it asked me to select a license type (fair enough), then prompted me to log in.  Why?  I don't want to log in when I start up Revit - not unless I'm using BIM360 or whatever it is now called (it will most likely be renamed by the time you read this).   So I cancelled the log in and launched it from the desktop icon.  No log in prompt this time, thank goodness - just the license dialog.  Activation went smoothly, using my license number & key.

Dynamo - Warning

Unlike the Revit 2018 installation, the latest build of Dynamo was automatically installed:  1.3.3
Refer to DynamoBIM blog

Be warned:  this version of Dynamo will not work with Revit 2016.  When I fired up Revit 2016, I could not find Dynamo.  Could the Revit 2019/Dynamo 1.3.3 installer have uninstalled it automatically?  Yes, it could, and it did.

If you still need 2016, you need to protect your older Dynamo install for Revit 2016 before you do the Revit 2019 install.  I tried this rather dodgy workaround - from what I read on the DynamoBIM forums:
Make copies of the relevant files - I think it needs to be these files (assuming Dynamo 1.2):

• Dynamo.addin file in the C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\2016 folder
• These two folders:
  C:Program Files\Dynamo\Dynamo Core\1.2
  C:Program Files\Dynamo\Dynamo Revit\1.2\Revit_2016

Then replace those files after the 2019 install has stripped them out.  Of course it means that the uninstaller won't work for that version of Dynamo, so you'll have to remember to remove them manually later.

Just to make your life even more complicated, Dynamo 1.3.2 does not support Revit 2019.  That means there is no version that supports both 2016 and 2019 - not even a brief overlap while you are updating packages and code.  So if you are still running Revit 2016, don't even think of installing Revit 2019 until all your projects are upgraded to some intermediate version - or you go straight to 2019 and spend 24 hours fixing all your Dynamo stuff!  That doesn't sound like a recipe for a peaceful life to me.

Addins

It looks like we have the same Addins automatically installed as in v2018:

• Batch Print
• eTransmit
• Model Review
• Worksharing Monitor
• Dynamo
• Formit Converter (Optional)

Summary

All in all, this was a relatively painless installation process now that I know the tricks and pitfalls (apart from Dynamo pain).  It did not vary greatly compared to the 2018 install, which is nice for once.

Autodesk Add-ins incorporated into Revit 2018

I don't recall seeing any documentation about this but it seems that Autodesk have incorporated some of their Add-ins into the Revit 2018 install:

Well, not quite true - they did tell us about the Formit Converter add-in.  There was a checkbox for it during the install process, and if I remember correctly the default setting was ticked so that it would install automatically.

But I am delighted to see that the following add-ins have also been automatically installed in Revit 2018:

• Batch Print
• eTransmit
• Model Review
• Worksharing Monitor

This is great news as it means that you don't need to search for those and download, then organise to get them installed as part of a deployment, or install them later (possibly involving much pleading with your IT department).

In addition to this, we obviously have Dynamo & Dynamo Player, which are now properly incorporated into the Revit install, and can be found on the Manage tab, alongside Macros (logically), instead of being stuck on the add-ins tab.

What is New in Revit 2018

I have recently installed Revit 2018, and to my great pleasure, the install process was a whole lot better than 2017, which I found quite painful last year (or maybe I have just learnt what to look out for this time around?).

I am not going to list all the new features - not because it would take too long, but because it has been done elsewhere.  On the contrary, compared with the list of enhancements we used to get 4 or 5 years ago, it is embarrassingly quick to list the new features in 2018, even if you throw in the enhancements from 2017.1.   So, I will just comment on a few things, particularly those undocumented.  Having said that, I really appreciate the work being done by the development team - I just wish that Autodesk would assign more resources to core Revit instead of going off on a hundred other tangents - after all, Revit is the tool that many of us use most of the time to create BIM content.

Download

After the pain of downloading last year, I tried to order physical media.  It only listed v2017, despite saying that it would only allow the latest version.  On contacting Autodesk I was told that the website was under maintenance and I would not be able to order physical media until further notice!  What a time to do that, within a week or two of release of the new version.  At least I won't have to pay again for the software that I have already paid for once.   Back to Download  . . .

Providing you choose the right download method, you can actually get a proper download of the install software - but the default setting is to install straight from the Autodesk website.  Install Now is what I did with v2017 and it was excruciatingly painful last year.

Make sure you click on 'View All' and choose one of the two Download options - whatever you do, don't leave the setting on 'Install Now' .  It is categorically not the fastest way to install on a single computer (at least it was not on v2017), despite what it says.

Install

Once you have downloaded, and you start the install, it will ask you to choose a discipline.  I chose Architecture, as I did not want all the MEP clutter that I got last time.  Luckily I looked at ALL of the options and settings before going ahead with the install because those two pesky MEP Fabrication options were both selected to install by default.  But I already told the installer that I didn't want any MEP stuff (and it is a lot of stuff, I can assure you).  How dare the MEP Fabrication software be a big upfront default install setting!  Why can't it be respectful of my choices like all the other discipline specific stuff.  Anyway, I narrowly avoided it.

One other thing I changed during the install was to choose British English - this often causes a problem during beta testing but it should be quite safe for a proper release, shouldn't it?  I am very particular about my spelling, and Australian is much closer to British (in spelling even if not spoken form!).

The best thing about this install are the pretty pictures that pop up during the process.  You can be absolutely certain that none of them was modelled in Revit - I couldn't see a single one that Revit would be capable of creating even if you knew the conceptual modelling tools well enough

[Edit:  I am delighted to discover that Autodesk have incorporated some of their add-ins to the install process (click here for more info):

• Batch Print
• eTransmit
• Model Review
• Worksharing Monitor
• Formit Converter (checkbox Option) ]

Help  -  Oops!

The in-built help web address seems to be wrong on my install.  When I clicked on the HELP icon (or pressed F1), all I got was a 404 Not Found  error message in the browser

 

There appears to be a typo in the code - just changing the last ENG to ENU (in the web address) seemed to fix it.  I am guessing this may have something to do with British English vs US English?  If so, it is probably something Autodesk can fix on the help website rather than requiring a patch?

Oops!    How did that one slip through ?  Oh, I forgot to mention that I am running just plain Revit, not one of the industry collections.  I'm also on maintenance - perhaps with the 'enhanced help' you get on monthly subscription it actually works?  The Autodesk support team can't seem to replicate this, so I'd be interested to hear if anyone else is affected?

Declutter 

One of the 'enhancements' is a change to the look of the UI to make it look less cluttered.  In fact what Autodesk are doing is following the Microsoft UI changes.  Microsoft are not renowned for their good design - so we are inheriting some examples of questionable design from them.

The ribbon has been stripped of all dividing lines and several blocks of colour so we now have a very flat looking UI, which you may prefer.  Yes it does look cleaner and less cluttered, but some of that stuff was there for a good reason - to delineate different things.  There are some unfortunate side effects that I don't like:

• The 'R' application button  has been replaced by a 'File' menu - very sensible. Except the tab is dark blue, and remains dark blue all the time, which draws your eyes to it - talk about totally unwanted visual clutter (courtesy of Microsoft)!  Apparently the German version does not have the dark blue colour - it is grey like the rest of the menus (Well, the Germans are good at design, so they get a better designed UI) 
• There is still a small 'R' icon, which doesn't do much useful (just minimise etc).  You will click on it quite a few times until you get used to the file menu.
• Running along the base of the ribbon are text titles for each tab - these are now the same colour background as the rest of the ribbon, (with no borders) so they get lost.  It is confusingly clean.
  However, in the family editor, the Family Editor Load tab has a pale purple background.  Very pretty but it stands out like the proverbial dog's b****.  I would prefer all the tab titles to have a light grey background.

• Try changing the 'Active Scheme' (Options) from light to dark.  You won't be able to read the QAT properly!  I warned Autodesk about that during beta testing, but it has still come through in the final released version.

Stairs

We now have a proper multi-storey stair tool - it looks very promising and seems to be relatively easy and logical to use.  More on that later when I get a chance to really test it.

The old stair sketch tool has finally been removed from the UI - hurray!  So many people kept using it because it was right there all the time - meaning a mish-mash of old and new stairs.  You'll still be able to edit the old style stairs (I assume).  For those people who want to dive straight in to sketching a stair rather than creating stair components, it can still be done using the new stair component sketch tool - refer to my blog post on that

 

An unfortunate side-effect of one of the changes is that I could not create a new stair in a 3D view in my test project - it prompted me to choose a plan or RCP view in order to create the stair.  It works fine in a new project from the 2018 template.   It seems to be a problem only after you edit a top rail on a railing in the project.  I have reported this as a bug, and we'll see how it goes.

Railings

I have yet to test exactly how the new multi-storey stair tool handles railings, but it is supposed to let you edit railings per individual stair within the multi-storey group of stairs/railings.  This sounds like a good thing, but you can be sure that it won't seamlessly join different railings on each level where they vary.  Perhaps I'll be proved wrong?

Control of start and end points of railings sounds good, particularly with closed loop railing sketches - more on that when I've tested it.

Railings on toposurface - great.  At last we can run a fence (or wall) up over sloping terrain, without having to resort to tricky adaptive component workarounds.  No doubt we will all invent new (mis)uses for railings on toposurfaces.

Parameters for Groups and Links

The ability to schedule links & groups and to add user defined parameters to both groups and links sounds wonderful - it should open up all sorts of new workflows.  It will be really useful when you have the same element nested inside multiple instances of the same group or link, but you want to be able to identify it uniquely (like doors for example).  I have tested this and it seems to work really well in schedules.  I can't wait to use this on a real project.


Not withstanding my earlier comments about the list not being extensive, there are a few new features in Revit 2018 that promise to improve our workflows, so I am keen to upgrade soon.  For the full list, refer to the Autodesk help pages or Autodesk knowledge site.
Refer also to what was new in the enhancements from 2017.1

Revit 2017 Install Take 2 - Using Physical Media

After my first attempts to install Revit 2017, I have just tried again, as my regular laptop came back from being repaired.  This time I used physical media to do the install, as I found it to be so painful to download/install from the Autodesk website:

Ordering Physical Media

The biggest obstacle to overcome is your willingness to pay the new 'Nominal Fee' (Aus$40) for something that was previously part of your annual subscription - so we now have to pay for something that we've already paid for!  What a cheek!  Autodesk have made some lame excuse about most people preferring the convenience of downloading the software - well that might be true if you could just download it and keep the install files locally and reuse them.  But you cannot - I tried it!
I copied the (download) unpacked install files from the C:\Autodesk folder on my old computer and put them in exactly the same location (with the same two folder names) on my repaired laptop.  Then I tried to run setup from there - but it gave an error message saying that either the connection had broken (back to Autodesk account) or the install file location had changed.  Everything I tried gave the same result.  After wasting a lot of time I decided to cough up the $40 and purchase the physical media - I was not about to waste a whole lot more time downloading again.

On the Autodesk Account, under 'Revit' the order Physical media option is hidden away under 'More Actions' as 'Get a physical copy'.

Previously, when I tried to order physical media from the Autodesk account website, it failed - giving an error message.  They seem to have fixed that now, so I was able to order the DVD, and it duly arrived a few days later, all the way from Singapore.  To add insult to injury, the website charged an additional 10% GST, despite the fact that the importer was registered in Ireland and media shipped from Singapore (overseas orders do not normally incur goods and services tax in Australia).

Install from DVD

I normally copy the contents of an install DVD onto the C: drive just to speed up the actual installation - and so that I don't need to find the DVD in order to (re)install any missing components.  This worked just fine, and setup ran happily from the C: drive this time.
I may be mistaken but it also seemed to give me much better control over what was actually installed (or maybe I just missed the options first time around during the download process, fondly imagining that I would get a chance to change them later?).
This time I was able to choose:

• Country
• Omit the MEP Fabrication (both imperial and metric)
• Discipline - can be 'All', 'Construction', 'Architecture', 'Structure', 'Plumbing', 'Mechanical', 'Electrical' etc.  This means that you cannot choose a combination (say M,E + P or Architecture + Structure) - you would have to choose 'All' or just one - so I chose 'Architecture' just to keep it simple.
• UK Terminology.  It still amuses me when I choose "the British English", which is clearly grammatically incorrect in British English, but perhaps just fine in Chinglish?

As I had previously installed with Australian content, I chose not to install any content this time around - normally it gives you a warning, but I don't remember one this time.

The install process went smoothly - no nasty error messages that I had with the online install (IDP Alexa or DXSetup), where my Anti-virus software didn't like the install process.  Several things could not be prevented from installation - the Autodesk Desktop App being one of them

Autodesk Desktop App 

 This is billed as a "Powerful cloud-centric software delivery solution".  The phrase 'cloud-centric' is enough to put me off using it - why are Autodesk obsessed with putting everything on the cloud?  Don't they realise that not everyone in the world is connected to the internet all the time - if you don't live in the USA, the internet is not always reliable, fast or available all the time!
Aside from that, I have heard from several reliable sources that the 'Autodesk Desktop App' is not a good or reliable piece of software.  In fact it may be a liability - so I intend to uninstall it immediately.

Installed Folders

Since I chose not to install the MEP Fabrication tools nor any content, the installed folders are a lot cleaner than last time.  Of course, I was able to copy the libraries and templates across after I had tidied them up and reinstated all the missing family templates, and removed the unwanted language options.
However, I did notice one piece of  bloatware that should not have been installed, considering that I specifically chose an 'Architectural' discipline install - in C:\ProgramData\Autodesk:

However, if I had been allowed to install a combined discipline of 'Architecture and Structure', that would have been very welcome.

Conclusion

The install process from physical media was dramatically better than the painful online download/install experience.  The only downside was having to pay for software that I had already paid for.  This morning, while Revit 2017 was busy installing on my laptop,  I went to the upmarket Sydney suburb called 'Double Bay', but universally referred to as 'Double Pay' - how appropriate!

Installing Revit 2017

I have just downloaded and installed Revit 2017 - so I thought other people might like to know some of what is different to previous years, as there appear to be quite a few changes.
For a different experience, refer to  install v2017 from physical media (DVD)

• Firstly, I installed just Revit 2017 (not Building Design Suite).  In previous years it was called Revit Architecture, but now they have come full circle and it is just called Revit again.  This means I have full(?) access to Structure and MEP commands, which may or may not be useful.  It used to be the case that Revit Structure was much better at joining beams than Revit Architecture - so now I can take advantage of that.  I guess this is a good thing, except for the possibility of bloatware (see later).
• In previous years I ordered a physical copy of the media because I found it much more convenient to install from - particularly when you need to reinstall after a hardware failure or upgrading your computer.  This year Autodesk have had the temerity to start charging for this service, despite the fact that we pay a substantial annual subscription. In the email I received a few months back, their rational  was that most people prefer to download software these days - well, there is nothing to stop those downloaders from just not going to the hassle of ordering the physical media.  I would like the choice, particularly as I had already paid for the privilege before they told me.In fact I tried to order a copy just now, and not only is it very carefully hidden away on the website, but it just plain did not work - the website seems to be broken.
  I am wondering if this so called 'nominal' charge to order media is a desperate money-raising measure, or part of a cunning scheme to force everyone to download and install while being connected online (signed in), so that Autodesk can take more control of the process?
  [Edit:  I have since managed to order a physical copy, and done a second installation from this - the experience was dramatically better than the download install, even though I had to pay again for the software that I had already paid for]

• So I ended up downloading - which is a slow process in Australia, partly due to our slower broadband networks (compared to the USA), and possibly we do not have an Autodesk download server hosted in Australia (?).  A lot of other countries would find it considerably slower than here.  The whole download/install took about 5 hours.
• I am not sure when this changed, but now Autodesk have adopted the same horrible system as other vendors of just allowing you to downlad a small setup exe file, then running it so that the software install/download is all wrapped up in one process.  I much prefer being able to download the whole install file then running the install from the C drive, as it gives us more control about when and how it happens.
• As I was signed in to Autodesk, I guess it knew my language and location, as I do not recall being asked for that during the install?  It also did not give me many other options, and it ended up installing some strange bloatware like:
  - MEP Fabrication Imperial Content
  - MEP Fabrication Metric Content [Edit: it may be possible that I missed seeing the checkboxes to avoid installing these]
  I personally don't want either, but I guess MEP engineers would want just one, but very seldom both.  Luckily they seem to be separate programs that appear in my uninstall list.

Firewall

During the install process I had two problems where my anti-virus program took exception to something being installed, and would not allow them - so I skipped them:

• IDP.ALEXA.51
  My anti-virus program said this:  "IDP ALEXA is a potential threat. Threats, when malicious, can be used to interfere with the normal operation of a computer, gather personal information or allow a hacker to access the device remotely without the user's consent.  This kind of software usually arrives in the form of an unwanted download from a malicious website or as code illegally injected into a legitimate website without the webmaster's knowledge."
  Of course it is just being cautious, but I don't like to install anything like that.  We will see if Revit runs ok without it!
• DXSETUP.exe
  Even though I told the AV program to accept this one, it refused.  Then the whole install/download hung for quite a while until I cancelled and restarted.  Luckily it moved on to the next thing.

Installed programs

The final list of installed programs looks like this:

• 'Autodesk Desktop App' is a replacement for 'Autodesk Application Manager'.   I do not like having the application manager running as it prompts for upgrades at inopportune times, particularly for every user in the organisation where upgrades should normally be managed by the IT or BIM manager.
• I believe that Akamai Netsession Interface is part of that deal?  It is giving an error on startup - so I intend to uninstall both of those in due course. 

Autodesk License Service - 270Mb !! looks like more bloatware, but I suspect I won't be able to get away with uninstalling that one.

More Bloatware (and missing family templates)

There seems to be a lot of extra stuff installed this year - here is some more, related to different language versions.  I suspect that 'Revit' comes in a multi-language install whereas Building Design Suite allows you to choose the language (as did Revit Architecture in previous years).  The extra language family templates give me 270Mb of installed stuff that I don't need.

It is curious that each language has a different number of templates.  English Imperial has 82 rft files, while English Metric only has 73.  Some other languages had even fewer.  I noticed that the following seem to be missing from the Metric templates (for Australia at any rate):

• Casework wall-based
• Casework
• Door
• Door - curtain wall
• Entourage
• Generic Model (non-hosted)
• Plumbing Fixture
• Profile Mullion
• 3 extra imperial rebar templates added in for good measure

So none of those are particularly useful to architects (not true!).  Perhaps I'll use the Chinese or Czech templates for all my casework and doors?

[Edit]
In the Public Folders is a new Autodesk folder, with MEP fabrication 'stuff'

• I just don't want this stuff installed at all.  
• And even if I did want it, I would want it in the ProgramData folder along with the rest of the content.
• And if it went to the right location I would want either metric or Imperial, not both!

Foreign Project Templates

Oh, and here is another 40Mb of stuff I don't want (unless I get a project in Europe or Asia) - in a new 'Generic' folder under Project Templates

Temp Install Files

My last task will be to make a backup of the install files so i don't have to download them again.  And that looks different too.  There seem to be two different folders, with lots more language packs that I don't need.

• Revit_2017_G1.. .. . .    seems to be the setup files
• WI                                  seems to be the 4.7Gb install files

[Edit] It would have been nice if they were all contained in one folder, or else the 'WI' folder had '2017' in its name so that I can identify it later.
[Edit again:  I later tried to reuse these downloaded install files on another computer, and they did not work]

Conclusion

This process  was not much better or worse than previous years - just different problems!  There seems to be a lot more bloatware now that Architecture/MEP/Structure have been bundled together again.  There also seems to be a lot of sloppy work with things like languages and templates.  I have not looked at the libraries yet - I hope they are complete.  I will not be putting v2017 into production work for a while yet - I only installed it so I can use it for preparing my RTC presentations, which should be a good test-bed, and allow me to try out the new features.
[Edit:  I have since managed to order a physical copy, and done a second installation from that - the experience was dramatically better than the download install, even though I had to pay again for the software that I had already paid for.  Refer to  install v2017 from physical media (DVD)]