C3 Consulting Solutions Newsletter - April 2009
In this issue:
Revit Architecture 2010 new features
- Conceptual Design Tools
- User Interface
- Performance and Interoperability (next issue)
- Less well-published items (next issue)
This month we take a first look at Revit Architecture 2010's new features, including the controversial new UI (user interface) and conceptual design tools.
We isolate some of the features NOT included (that you may have been hanging out for), and what querks you'll have to get used to until subsequent releases.
- Image: Spline through points
- Image: X-ray mode
Conceptual Design Tools
The conceptual masses are now fairly simple to create, can have their surfaces rationalised (to become buildable) using a new special Curtain Panel Pattern Based family template.
Some of us have yearned for these improved modelling tools for some years now ("Why can't we make a loft?"), and now we have them! The form generation is much easier, though precision can tend to suffer when you 'play hard'. With that said, however, the role of precision in conceptual modelling is probably questionable anyhow.
Reference points are new, and more powerful than most would consider. They now form an arsenal of reference geometry, which has traditionally included Reference Planes and Reference Lines.
You can sketch splines through existing reference points, although the default sequencing algorithm when multiple points are selected is not yet clear. The result is the spline usually doesn't form through the points the way you might expect or intend. To get around this, you can draw the reference points that will define the spline as you go, thus determining the sequence.
A new X-ray mode allows forms to be seen transparently, with reference geometry highlighted, allowing better manipulation.A form can be created from a series of profiles, or a path and a profile (and likely more ways still).
- Image: Reference planes seen in 3D
- Image: Sketching on auto-activated planes
Once a surface has been created, you can add edges (these run perpendicular to the base profile) or profiles (these run parallel to the base profile).
Sketching has been enhanced, but these changes apply only when creating conceptual mass forms. You can select a reference plane (level, grid or surface), and begin drawing on it immediately - no need to set it first. The levels and reference planes can now be seen and manipulated in 3D. This is great for teaching new users that aren't familiar with thinking in three dimensions and understanding the nature of reference planes.
As mentioned earlier, surface rationalisation is necessary if an abstract form is to be built. Ultimately, the parts that make up the whole have to somehow be fabricated. This requires the breakdown, or the rationalisation of the surface. There are a number of different base patterns available, and the number of units applicable to each grid direction (U and V respectively) can be determined by the user.
This allows rapid iterative work towards design resolution. The patterns can have components applied (special curtain panels), which are dynamically and intelligently adapted to the surface. The user has limited control over what happens at surface edges - i.e. whether the panel component should be applied in part, overlap the edge, or not exist at all.
The Curtain Panel Pattern Based template contains a default rectangular 3x3 grid, but this can be altered to suit other patterns. The size of the grid modules can also be edited, and is necessary when flexing the component before use.
- Step 1: Conceptual surface form created
- Step 3: Component applied to surface division
- Step 2: Surface divided by pattern
- Image: Sample component applied
User Interface
- Image: Goodbye menus and toolbars; hello ribbons and panels!
The most obvious and talked-about (or blogged-about) feature of the new User Interface is the Ribbon. (The conjecture reminds me of a Seinfeld moment: Kramer being mugged because he "didn't want to wear the ribbon!").
Essentially it brings Revit into line with other current Microsoft standard applications (such as Microsoft Office 2007). The ribbon is seen as an improvement on the common (developers might describe it as 'dated') system of menus and toolbars. Availability of tools for the user based on the context of their recent commands or current activities is theoretically a good thing, but the execution leaves some users still wanting.
The Ribbon itself can be minimised to present in several different ways. You can elect for greater visibility at the expense of screen real estate, or vice versa. Most of the standard panels can be 'undocked' from their home positions, and placed elsewhere on the screen (perhaps closer to one's task in the drawing area).
- Image: Application menu
Consistent with the new Microsoft standard, Revit now exhibits an Application menu. There are less items available from this menu compared to the familiar 'File' menu. Despite this, each command is focused on file-based actions. Note also that Options also resides in this new menu.
At last the Project Browser is relocatable! It remembers its last position (unlike the predecessor, which resumed its default location after each new file was opened or closed). Unfortunately, while you can drag it to a second screen, it will default back to the primary screen, in the closest position it can manage (usually aligned to one side of the screen).
- Image: the new Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)
The new Quick Access Toolbar (abbreviated to QAT) holds frequently used tools, and is customisable, for the most part. Apart from the standard tools it contains by default, you can right-click on other tools and add them to the QAT. The ability to do this even for the Type Selector, Workset selector and Design Option pull-down is one saving grace of the new UI changes. Unfortunately, the type of a selected item is not displayed until you click on the Type Selector. Instead, it reads 'Change Element Type'! This is an unnecessary change that is not congruent with efficiency, but rather the user's learning experience, which of course is temporary. It is also a known issue that some of these items added to the QAT can tend to 'drop off' during use.
Some users have expressed a desire to be able to upsize the QAT, since if frequency of use indicates the importance of a tool, then the QAT should be larger than the ribbon! Given it remains so far away from the drawing area, this does appear somewhat at odds with the ethos applied by the development team. It should be noted that the QAT can be positioned below the ribbon, which is marginally better for frequent use.
The default 'dark' colour scheme doesn't display items on the QAT particularly well (especially text displayed - e.g. in the Type Selector), but clarity can be improved by swapping the colour scheme for the 'light' option instead (go to Options to do this).
Autodesk has made advances in pushing the development of their content site, Autodesk® Seek. In past releases of the Revit suite of products, we've been able to search for content directly from the product interface. It's now possible to search AND publish, directly from the application.
Like the UI, there are varying opinions on the value of this. On the one hand, a mammoth repository of components is a good thing (particularly if you're a sole practitioner, and can't afford to be creating all of your own content, or just don't want to). On the other, having every 'man and his dog' making their content and uploading it to one place would suggest a good chance that the resulting collection will vary greatly in the quality and performance of the content. Moreover, some parties have expressed a desire to ban the ability to interface directly with the Seek website, since colleagues could upload proprietary content regardless of copyright infringements.
In the author's opinion, achieving a global standard on content development is not something that will be achieved any time soon. Until that happens, the best option is to create your own content based on agreed and resolved standards that satisfy pre-established criteria. A consistent and high-quality, high-performance library can be absolute gold, when combined with the knowledge of how the elements within it are designed to work. As such, application of this Seek functionality in a micro- rather than macro- context could be very rewarding indeed. Permitting organisations should have their users able to search within, or publish to their own location (all centrally managed, of course).
- Image: A sample tooltip with illustration
Autodesk have kicked this idea around, and have welcomed feedback on this idea. One possibility is to have sub-sections of the Seek website created for enterprises, with all the functionality to work directly with the Revit software. This would preclude company's intranet sites from having to be adjusted to communicate directly with the application. This is theoretically possible, as the Revit.ini file allows the associated URLs changed, so all it may take is someone with the right skills, perhaps?
Tooltips have been improved greatly, with a multi-layered approach to the information presented. Hovering over a tool will present the first level of assistance, and if the cursor remains there long enough (only a few seconds are required), a second, more detailed level of information is displayed. It's great for new users - that much must be said.
Well, that's it for this edition. We'll complete our round-up of new features of Revit Architecture 2010 in the next edition of INFOCUS. In the mean time, if you find other little gems that you'd like to share, or just comments on this newsletter, please feel free to let us know.
Stay tuned!
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