Cabinet Pull Visibility

So I decided to hide my 3d pulls in elevation and use a simple line instead. I created the symbolic linework in the pull family, told the 3d part to hide in "front/back," but after loading it through to my cab family and then the project I kept seeing both the symbol and the 3d. After changing the visibility within the cab family, I lost both the 3d and the symbol.

What seems to have happened however is the 'front back' visibility setting I switched off in my pull was the wrong one. Because my generic pull family was laying on a flat host, I had to switch off 'Plan/RCP" because this is the angle you see the pull from when viewing my cabinet from "Front/Back."

So far that seems to have fixed my visibility problem. I thought it was going to turn into one of those things where I couldn't have a nested pull family and get it to work right, but so far so good!

Looks like loading the pull into the project won't update it within my cab families. I have to load it into each cab family and then reload each cab family into the project.

Level Lines, 3d or 2d grips, round 2

In addition to the earlier post on this subject, also remember the crop region. When editing the end of my level line, I noticed the grip shows 3d, but when pulled beyond a hidden crop region, it switches to 2d. So it appears that if your 3d grip is beyond the crop, only 2d may be available. Turn on crop region, extend it as req'd to find the end of your level line, then the 3d option should also be available.

My next obstacle is to determine just how to re-marry the 2d and 3d grips after they have been separated.

Later that day...

OK, so it seems that you can re-marry them if you carefully place the 3d grip right on top of the 2d grip just so long as this marriage occurs within the confines of the crop region. Apparently if it takes place 'across the border' it is not binding. So anytime I want to adjust my 3d and 2d grips on my levels, I am going to make visible my crop region and extend it way beyond my work area, then readjust it when I'm finished.

Break lines & masking, failing

Here's another simple one that can give you some grief.

Break lines and other masking objects don't mask anything if your view is set to "wireframe."

There, I said it.

And man, until I heard someone say it, I was having some grief.

That was easy, too.

That was easy.

I searched for some time before I figured out the easiest thing. It's the easy things that get you because no one has posted about them before - everyone already knows.

So when you have a serious dilemna that no one on the web has ever encountered, you're usually missing something simple.

I discovered there was a difference between adjusting grid lines and level lines by their 3d and 2d representations. Many people have faced that one before, and I noticed that sometimes I was adjusting the 2d and sometimes the 3d. I used to think it didn't matter, but it does. Usually what you're after is the 2d just to get some linework out of your way. But, how do I switch from editting the 2d or the 3d!? Some of my lines had a 2d grip and some didn't. And for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to edit just the 2d as I should have been doing all along.

Eventually I found an aside by someone that set me on the road to recovery.

Click the little "3d" indicator. It will toggle to "2d" and then you can edit your lines without adjusting the actual "3d" locations of grid and level lines. The 3d locations affect what views levels and grids appear in. 2d affects the linework you see in a specific view only.

Whew!

Dimension Hidden Reference Planes

Before I forget, this is how I just got it to work. I'm not sure if this will hold or not. I needed to put some reference dimension on my site plan for my code summary, but there was nothing to dimension to. So I used reference planes, only they were turned off for the site plan. I turned them back on and every reference plane in the project showed up. So I tried doing my work, adding my dimension, and then hiding them, but the dimension I added to the reference planes disappeared along with them.

But when I hid the reference planes individually, the dimension I needed remained. Great! So after I hid the first few, I tried hiding the reference planes by category again. Well, so far the dimension has not hidden itself and I managed to remove all the reference planes from the drawing.

I hope it doesn't disappear unexpectedly later.

Tutorial Files

So I think I started off with the trial version of 2008 or 2009. Not sure, but I am currently using Revit Architecture 2009. So I downloaded the latest and greatest tutorials from the page I referenced in my previous post and discovered that I need additional tutorial files. What follows is a tedious rendition of downloading the latest tutorial files onto a vista machine.

I headed to the Autodesk Revit Arch. 2009 documentation page. Clicked on 'Revit Architecture Imperial Training Files 1 of 4.' Saved it to my system (you can save it anywhere, you specify the unzip location later).

Take 1. I double clicked on the file "rac_2009_training_01_I.exe" then clicked 'Run.' The Winzip self extractor appeared. I know from the instructions on the autodesk page that since I'm on Vista, I have to specify a different file location than default. So I click the browse button and work my way to C: drive, program data, Autodesk, RAC 2009\training folder. I selected the folder then clicked 'Unzip.' The 'Overwrite existing files' box was already checked by default. Well... I guess Vista didn't like that. As soon as I clicked 'Unzip' I got an error 'Can't create output file...' Apparently some of the tutorials in this download are the same ones I already have installed.

Take 2. I double click the .exe, click 'Run,' browse to ...RAC 2009\training, uncheck the 'Overwrite existing...' box, click 'Unzip,' immediately asked if I would like to overwrite the i_cohouse file. 'No.' Then I was asked about overwriting the next file, and the next. No, no, no. After about 10 files I tried to overwrite one. I received the 'Can't create output' error and the extraction process terminated. Oops.

Take 3. Dbl click the .exe, Run, Browse, Unzip, forget to uncheck the 'Overwrite existing...' box, process terminates with 'Can't create output file' error again. Oops.

Take 4. Dbl click .exe, Run, Browse, Uncheck 'Overwrite existing...' box, say 'No' to overwriting each and every file as they came up (like 20) then I got a dialogue box "6 files extracted successfully."

Yay.

But now a dialogue appears asking where to Unzip to... Wait, never mind, it's the original extraction dialogue I just completed so I clicked close. Whew.

However, I still don't have my Common\Express Workshop... training folder yet.

5. Download 'Revit Architecture Imperial Training Files 2 of 4.' Repeat 'Take 4,' say 'No' to 20 files then get "23 files extracted successfully." Yay. Still no Express Workshop folder though.

6. Download 3 of 4. Wait 5 minutes for download (typical for each file).

7. Off Topic - I have yet to figure out how I can be the administrator on my machine, but still not be 'logged in as administrator.' Whatever.

8. Dbl click 3 of 4, 'Run,' Browse, Uncheck, Unzip, 'No, no, no...' 13 times (I counted this time). "16 files extracted successfully." Yay.
And now I have my Express Workshop folder available to me under the training files. Wootness.

9. Might as well finish. Download 4 of 4, dbl click, Run, Browse, Uncheck, Unzip, but this time there are no files to overwrite. "5 files extracted successfully." 'Ok' 'Close.'

Interestingly enough, upon opening my first tutorial file, it had to do the 'one time upgrade process.' Well, it's a 'one time' process if you save it after the upgrade. I usually do a 'saveas' to be on the safe side.

Hopefully this was an hour well spent.

Guides

The three main guides where I spend my time these days are available at the Autodesk website. To find the documentation page, you start in Revit. Click the help menu, then click tutorials. A window pops up explaining that all the tutorial information is available online at the Autodesk website and a link is provided. Clicking the link opens your browser to the documentation page.

It's nice that the actual Autodesk documentation can be so useful. When learning Architectural Desktop (AutoCAD Architecture) I relied almost exclusively on outside sources.

My big 3 are:
Revit Architecture 2009 Families Guide
Revit Architecture 2009 Imperial Tutorials
Revit Architecture 2009 User's Guide (basically your instruction manual but still useful)

Here's the current link to the Autodesk documentation page.

Initial Post - Revit

Little more than a placeholder, there has to be a first post. Cleverly, and stubbornly, I named it 'Initial Post' to make it imperceptibly less lame than first post. And since I intend to focus only on my progress in Revit, well...

Clever.