All comments were generated from using 2012

1. Type Properties
   1. Needs to be stretchable
   2. 
2. Profiles
   1. from the project browser, double picking selecting the same family type twice in a row brings up a blank Instance Properties dialog the second time. You have to select a double click different type, cancel that then go back to the one you want to change. (at least on profiles)
   2. Shared Detail components in window frame profile families do not show up. (2011, 2012?, 2013?)
   3. It would be nice to be able to ‘flip’ a profile in window mullions. (2011, 2012?, 2013?)
   4. It would be nice to be able to place detail components in 3d families (2011, 2012?, 2013?)
   5. add a button to ‘edit profile’ when in mullion properties
3. 3point align (similar to AutoCAD)
4. MultiThreading – Pretty much all production staff have multicore CPU’s. Please write the code to take advantage of this.
5. It would be nice to be able to talk to Autodesk directly about issues we have
6. Filled Regions
   1. add the ability to tab through to objects behind a filled region that is set to transparent.
7. It’d be nice to be able to select an objects working plane directly from the Properties Palette
8. Hot Keys/Short Cut (need to be able to assign)
   1. Lock Hot Key – Right after aligning an object it’d be helpful if a hot key would lock the alignment (rather than having to pick the lock icon).
   2. Viewport scale
   3. Everything should be accessible from a shortcut
   4. Edit Type
   5. Go to view
   6. View Range (maybe not so important)
   7. select mullions on gridline (2011, 2012?, 2013?)
9. Stop asking me if I want my walls to go to the floor bottom…I don’t..it’d be great if you could remember that.
10. voids need to be easier to select when editing in a family
11. Views
    1. hotkeys should be assignable to designated views. This would be helpful in the model (user settings) and in families. For example, in families it’d be helpful to select ‘ff’ to go to the front view.
    2. View Templates – Should be ‘hot’ so that if a default view template has been applied to a view and the view template definition changes, then the view should automatically update accordingly.
    3. zoom to selected objects
    4. don’t zoom out to extents when the view scale is changed (2011, 2012?, 2013?)
12. need family types (such as roof) in loadable families so that generic models and be assigned to roof and be controlled with categories
13. Families – General
    1. Linking – It would be nice to be able to link files into families. What I’m thinking here is that in the case of seals a firm would prefer for those seals to not leave the office. If the seal graphic could be linked into the family (title block), then when the rvt file went out of house it wouldn’t contain the seal.
    2. Need versioning (similar to architectural desktop)
    3. It would be helpful to be able to array groups in profiles. For example I might want to have a variable number of reveals added to a wall. Current if you group a set of lines and then array it will only recognize one of the groups.
    4. Paramaterable Fill Patterns – I would like to be able to assign a hatch pattern to a filled region within a family through parameters. eg. for ADA hatching on toilet elevations/ plans.
    5. Edit-In-Place – similar to autocad
    6. Parameters
       1. It would be helpful if a parameter could be view specific. For example. I may want the door panel to be shown as open 90 degrees in plan, closed in elevation and 20 degrees in perspective/ axo.
    7. Visibility
       1. have an option to ‘hide’ in 3d view.
       2. maybe have these options parameterizable (if that’s a word).

       Create similar does not work inside edit family when selecting model lines (2011, 2012?, 2013?)

14. in place families
    1. model names do not show up in the properties palette (for in place families)
    2. need to be able to assign to stair
    3. in-place families need to be able to be copied so that they are the same family. That way one can be edited and all would reflect the change
15. locking of objects (similar to 3ds max)
16. sweep – need to be able to reverse path
17. Wall Sweeps (integral) should respect and respond to wall profiles.
18. rectangular wall openings should have the option to cut integral (and non integral) wall sweeps
19. Loadable Families
    1. when loading a family into a project, load into my last active view, not ___
    2. when opening a new family don’t open a bunch of views
    3. expand views by default in families
    4. When returning back to the RVT file after editing a family, go back to the same view I left.
    5. Lights – Need to be able to set elements to not cast shadows to be able to exclude elements from being affected by the light source. This is especially true when just trying to get a quick rendering out.
20. wall sweeps
    1. reset built in wall sweeps
    2. hide-able built in wall sweeps
    3. fix bug that causes a crash when assigning built in wall sweeps. It looks like it’s happening when the profile is illegal (has overlapping lines).
    4. make it easier to get to some commands like built in wall sweeps. Make the sweeps so you don’t have to be in section to pic…or default to section…or remember last.
21. Railings
    1. You should be able to tab through to get the the nested baluster families (to select edit family)
    2. Balusters should be in their own subgroup…not mixed in with railing families
22. Some commands take too many keystrokes to get to. Such as:
23. Materials
    1. Merge /Collapse Materials – This may be possible with the API
    2. Why does it take so long to rename a material? Renaming!
    3. Why does it take so long to update a material? (fyi, it’s only using 1 core)
       
24. Put backup revit files (.001, .002, etc.) is a subfolder or do something so that they don’t clutter up the dialogs.
25. You shouldn’t have to put an equals sign “=” in front on a formula. Infer it from the fact that users puts in a = or -. Hmmm…maybe that won’t work for a minus.
26. Assign materials all the way through a wall so that when it is linked into Max all six sides have the correct material assignment. Additionally do this when the wall has a cut.
27. Align hatch patterns by default. (brick is not when looked at in 3d with a hole in the wall)
28. FBX
    1. FBX’s take way too long to create and are way too big. Maybe create a ‘lite’ version of FBX that doesn’t have all the bitmaps and such. All I need is to get the material assignments and UVW’s from the geometry in Revit to Max.
    2. Remember my choice (automatic – short, automatic – long, etc.) from session to session
29. Edit Assembly Dialog – it’s too small. Allow it to be stretched. Remember the last width.
30. Ceilings
    1. It’d be nice if you didn’t have to go into edit boundary to modify the offset at tail property
31. Project Browser
    1. There needs to be quick ways to collapse/expand all.
    2. it’d be helpful to be able to filter the families section
    3. Remember scroll when switching between files. Currently it goes back to the top of the list when returning from editing a family. This is a pain when you’ve spent time drilling down to find your family in a long list.
    4. Export to Autocad
    5. visibilty bug – a generic annotation family placed inside of a 3d family will display correctly in Revit, but will not show when exported to Autocad in hidden line mode. It does show up in autocad when exported in wireframe. Verified in 2011 and 2012
32. Workshare Enabled Files
    1. It would be nice if double clicking on a central file from windows file manager, would automatically create a local file. If the user wanted to open the central file directly make them have to check a check box in the file open dialog.

1. V-Ray Frame Buffer
   1. Add copy image to clipboard
   2. Show Last VFB does not open the frame buffer at the current (or even last) resolution. If it did it would make it easier to render out a region from a newly opened file. Ger resolution from MAX is checked.
   3. A copy selected region to clipboard would be nice too
   4. When changing the render output size, it would be nice if the “region render” option in the vary render buffer would remember it’s relative position. So, if i was rendering the bottom right area of my image at a low res and I changed to a higher res it should still be doing the bottom right corner (not the middle).
   5. Display the rendered frame number on the dialog somewhere (like the max FB)
2. V-Ray messages dialog
   1. add the ability to bring it onto the screen when located off screen. This happens when going from an office environment (multiple monitors) to remote destop (single monitor). Maybe a button on the Vray Frame Buffer. [note: one way to get this is to use windows cascade windows]
   2. calculate and show the render server name rather than just the IP in cases like “warning: Could not connect to host: 192.xxx. No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.”
3. Add some kind of dialog that indicates the performance of the render slaves. Which are currently rendering. Relative render speed. Which are unavailable. Etc. similar to what happens at the beginning of the render process but more dynamic, graphical and always available. Maybe a drop down in the V-Ray messages dialog box.
4. Scene Xrefs
   1. Gets confused when xrefs are loaded after the file is loaded. checkerboard rendering
   2. Bug when rendering animations with both xref scenes and RPC’s
   3. Bug – render a scene with xref scenes, then add additional xref scenes. On re-render the DR nodes do not render correctly and seem to be unaware of the newly added xref scenes. The whole max file has to be reloaded before it will render correctly.
   4. Bug – When rendering a scene with xref scenes. If xref scenes are set to automatic update and the file is updated while rendering (might have to be DR), max will crash.
5. Vray mesh export – default to current folder or have a button to take you to the same folder as the mesh is currently in.
6. Vray RT – doesn’t work very well with xrefed scenes. It re-renders the entire scene if an xref mesh or xref material is changed.
7. V-Ray distributed render settings dialog
   1. add a check/ uncheck all button

   Forum

   1. expose it to google and such so that result show up in google searches

last submit to autodesk: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1109794 on 1/29/12

1. Dialogs
   1. Why do dimensions sometimes (often) show as 4 31/32″ when I input 5″?
   2. Add history bar to all dialogs
   3. all dialog boxes should remember your last location
   4. dialog boxes should remember their last stretched size and location
   5. when choosing “Open File” my dialog doesn’t scroll to the top of the file list. Instead it goes to the middle
   6. display dialog- position needs to be able to be controlled with ctrl+space (like typical windows) so that it can be relocated when using remote desktop
2. XRef Scene
   1. Often hangs up when reloading, adding a new or disabling an xref. If allowed to sit for several minutes (yes minutes!) it will usually finally finish. There is no CPU activity going on during this time (for max)
      1. Why does my history (on file open) keep defaulting to the UNC path? I want it to go to the last place I visited. (iin this case a mapped path)
3. Viewports
   1. Bring back the U for Orthographic viewports – why would you take that away? Or…maybe provide named viewports that can be recalled with a hotkey. All the old shortcuts that used to be able to be applied to set/recall a view
   2. Add the ability to ctrl + tab to flip through windows.
   3. Named views – so a particular orthographic or front, or left view can be quickly recalled
   4. Lock view – lock a view to a specific view angle/ camera where it can’t be changed without unlocking it.
4. Materials
   1. material – tile – percent missing(?) – doesn’t seem to make logical sense.
   2. When xrefing a new material in, load the material so that we don’t have to manually reload the xref object (auto reload does not do it)
   3. Fix the slow interface if UNC root is illegal
   4. Tile – 1/2 running bond is 1/3 running bond. running bond is 1/2 running bond. these items are named wrong
   5. When xrefing a material, allow the material to be selected from the list by first character (like a typical dialog). The type in portion does not seem to work at all. It should probably work like a filter (similar to the object selection dialog)
   6. xref material – Can’t paste in a file path to the “File Name:” input.
   7. Often (but not always?) when selecting on a new material slot in the Material Editor, a large scale version of the material will pop up. I don’t want that. It just slows down the interface.
   8. When assigning a new xref material, I shouldn’t have to reload the xref object in order for the material to view correctly…but I do (currently)
   9. Reload Xref Materials (Object) via maxscript – locks up file. This has been going on for several versions now.
   10. What happened to Get Material By Selection?
5. Menu/Interface system
   1. recent files – doesn’t seem to take into account that there are probably multiple versions of max open
   2. show shortcut on hover
   3. Selecting the big icon on the upper left to load file. If you don’t get the name fast enough the pull-down disappears. It happens way too fast.
   4. a better interface is needed for assigning and navigating keyboard shortcuts. there is no easy way to find a command within the dialog
   5. Add option to create a backup (or multiple) of the file when saving…but keep the current name. For example, if I am working in bldg_a.max then there should be backup files called bldg_a.backup001.max, bldg_a.backupup002.max, etc. Similar to what Revit does. Currently the file gets named ‘MaxBack.max’ but that gets overwirtten too easily by other saves in the same max instance or other max’s that are open for the same project. It’s too cumbersome to search through autoback files and vault is difficult to implement (and not documented very well for Max).
   6. Control Panel – add some way of quickly getting it back onto the main screen. When working at the office I use 2 monitors, but at home I remote in with just one.
6. Other
   1. bug – on open I get
   2. Some kind of warning if UNC root is not found
   3. fix the filelink dll missing issue!
   4. Terrain – It would be nice to be able to extract the polylines out of the terrain model as an instance (similar to other tools…like boolean)
   5. Stop popping up a browser window every time an error is reported. It makes me want to stop reporting them
   6. a drag copy (or sim) that doesn’t prompt for copy/ instance/ etc.
   7. Create the ability to ‘pin’ objects in place  trick – apply a position script with the values at 0,0,0 (after resetting the pivot to 0,0,0)
   8. xrefs set to be ‘invisible’ are shown after reloading the file. Toggling the visibility back on then off turns makes it invisible again…but the problem comes back on the next file load
   9. An array modifier would be very helpful
   10. Array – an option to array along the local axis rather than just x,y or z.
       
7. Maxscript
   1. xref materials – expose these so that they can be created/ modified.
   2. add a little ‘x’ so script windows can be closed easily
   3. check if script has been updated by another version of max that may be runnning
   4. allow command panel to be accessed with max so that its position can be changed. This will be useful when using remote desktop and switching from two monitors to one.
8. Vault
   1. Please explain the correct work flow for using vault with xref scenes / xref objects
9. General
   1. LZW compression – add to tif image options so that the workflow with Photoshop is a little smoother
   2. Line – Right picking on line and choosing ‘conver to editable spline’ does not work…it remains a line (even after attaching other lines to it)
   3. Add the capability to stop operations that are taking too long. i.e. if you choose too many iterations on MeshSmooth. That or have a timeout where you check with the user if something is taking too long.
   4. Post bugs, their status and any known workarounds. Be considerate of your customers time. Don’t let them waste trying to figure out a problem only to discover that it’s a known bug!
   5. Re-targeting multiple paths via asset manager causes a crash
   6. crashes when closing a file when there are xref scenes attached (in OGL?). It looks like the files might have to be set to autoupdate for the crash to happen. Not sure.
   7. xrefing in a scene that has volume light effects crashes max. need to refine this issue. is it vray specific? lights were standard
   8. When adding or reloading xrefs, the program sometimes hangs for a very long time (minutes). I wonder if this has to do with Vault.
   9. Proboolean objects do not scale up correctly then switching front inch to ft based units
   10. crash reports – stop generating a thank you web page on every crash report. The crashing has slowed us down enough. You thanking us for it doesn’t help any.

   install/ uninstall
   

   1. - provide a UI interface for the install that is graphic simple (no video, slide show, etc.). When installing on a farm with remote desktop, the graphics slow things down needlessly.
   2. Provide an interface to uninstall (with one click) all the programs that install adds
      Network Job Assignment Dialog
   3. Add a setting to automatically connect to backburner server
   4. BackBurner
      1. define what the errors are and what might cause them such as “bad task assignment” “task assignment timeout”
      2. show what service pack is installed on each render server

      Asset Tracking

      1. Add a folder history option to the “Specify Asset Path” dialog

      Terrain

      1. make it multi threaded

limited release – 07.29.11

hatch22-2012 is a free addin utility (dll) for Autodesk’s Revit 2012.

It helps you create model and drafting fill patterns (hatch patterns) by drawing a template for the pattern directly in Revit.

Please post comments, suggestions and such here.

It looks pretty good, but there were problem along the way and it’s those problems I’d like to explore in this and future posts. Some I have solutions for, some I don’t (at least not yet).

off the top of my head they are:

1. Propagating detail lines from building sections to wall sections to section details. I’m curious about how other firms address this. Do they use model lines and some custom work flow, do they…?
2. Structural – Why do structural members only show up on medium detail?
3. Structural Coordination – How do other architectural firms work with structural firms. Do they show there model in the architectural drawings or do they rebuild the elements they want to show?
4. Memory. We were having crashes which appear to be due to exceeding the 2gb memory limit. This project was not that big and I am a little suspicious of how much it was using. Test I performed indicated that there was a memory leak in Revit 2010. I’m not sure if this documented by Autodesk or not.
5. Curtain walls – We are setting up so that our mullions allow the glass to come into the frame (as it does in the real world). This is great and it also allows us to put some detail lines in the profile so that sections automatically have some high detail. The downside is that separate mullion members must be applied around doors (in a glass/ door frame system). This means some extra work and was a little difficult for some staff to work with. I’m wondering if there is an easier approach.
6. Demo/ New work – I incorrectly changed the way that revit works with existin/demo phasing. It’d probably be good to document how that was a mistake so that others don’t make it. But, autodesk could certainly have done a better job with naming the phases and phase filters.
7. Project Browser – We explored a little with customizing the view order in the browser, but users still found it to be cumbersome. There must be options to make this easier.
8. Plan callouts (i think) – plan callouts are different from detail callouts. They show structural different, stairs different and there is no way to switch between the two. This is a problem if one is created incorrectly and other details are referenced from it.
9. Details referenced from details referenced from details … – I suspect there are some rules that should be followed here about where the original / master callout is made from. What I’m thinking about is what happens if one of the base views is no longer needed or will no longer appear on a sheet but the sub details are still needed.
10. recovering from backups – how can hosted elements be recovered from backups (without bringing the host with it)
11. 3D – there (shockingly to me) seems to be a reluctance to work in 3d by people used to working in ADT/ autocad.
12. deleting dimensions – some users indicated that they were having to redraw dimensions over and over. They were being deleted whenever they made edits to elements like stairs. I suspect the element they were dimensioning to was being redefined.

There will be more…but that’s all for now.

———–
So the current issue is how to issue 8.5×11 revision sheets. I found some posts on augi.com that seem to reinforce one of my guesses. That is to create a title block with a large wipeout around the tb and place that on the sheet. We’ll see.