Is your Computer Ready? Revit MEP 2011 Hardware Requirements

The Internet is a buzz with new features lists for various new Autodesk 2011 products. For example, Revit MEP 2011 has real-world conduit and cable tray, schedule types that report the overall length of cable tray and conduit runs, panel schedules, sloped piping improvements, more content, oval ducts. YES! OVAL DUCTS! Sun Path Analysis! Great news! But, is your hardware ready for the new tools?

Take a look at Autodesk's suggested and recommended hardware specifications for Revit MEP 2011.

For 32-bit Autodesk Revit MEP

• Microsoft® Windows® 7 32-bit Enterprise, Professional, Ultimate, or Home Premium edition, or Microsoft® Windows Vista® 32 bit (SP2 or later) Enterprise, Business, Home Premium, or Ultimate edition, or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional or Home edition (SP2 or later)
  
• Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ dual core, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology for Microsoft Windows XP SP2 (or later), or Intel Pentium 4, or AMD Athlon dual core, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology for Microsoft Windows Vista 32 bit SP2 (or later) or Microsoft Windows 7 32-bit
• 3 GB RAM
• 5 GB free disk space
• 1,280 x 1,024 monitor and display adapter with true color
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 (or later)
• Microsoft Mouse-compliant pointing device
• Download or installation from DVD
  

For 64-bit Autodesk Revit MEP

• Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Home, Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise edition, or Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit (SP2 or later) Business, Home Premium, Ultimate, or Enterprise edition, or Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (SP2 or later)
  
• Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon Dual Core, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology for Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2 (or later), or Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon Dual Core, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology for Microsoft Windows Vista 64 bit SP2 (or later), or Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit
  
• 3 GB RAM
  
• 5 GB free disk space
  
• 1,280 x 1,024 monitor and display adapter with true color
  
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (or later)
  
• Microsoft Mouse-compliant pointing device
  
• Download or installation from DVD
   

Performance Recommendations for 64-bit Autodesk Revit MEP

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2 (or later), Business, Home Premium, Ultimate, or Enterprise Edition
  
• Quad Core Intel® Xeon® W3570 3.20GHz, 8M L3, 6.4GT/s Turbo or equivalent AMD processor.
  
• 8 GB RAM
  
• 256 MB DirectX® 9 capable graphics card with Shader Model 3
  

Who Knew? Revit Tip for Fast and Accurate Creation of 3D Level Views

Indeed, who knew? Not me, and perhaps not some other experienced Revit users who haven't experimented with the features found on the View Cube right-click menu.

I did a post back in December, 2009 where I showed a method for making 3D views of individual Revit levels a bit easier, but it lacked the speed and accuracy I was looking for. I became inspired this week by a video I came across on designreform.net posted by David Fano on November 2, 2009 entitled “Revit-View and Orient to View (3D to 2D)” at http://tinyurl.com/yav7h7z. David spent just a few seconds on how the Revit Orient to View tool can be used. I  thought Orient to View just might be the tool I've been looking for to quickly create precisely cropped 3D views of levels.  Not bad! Try out the following process:

Create a 3D Level View Cropped to your View Range

1.  Create a floor plan view and apply your typical view template that specifies the view range you require to control the top and bottom boundaries of your plan.

2. Check to see if you have a default 3D view named “3D” in the Project Browser that you need to keep. If you do, right-click the 3D view name in the Project Browser and choose Rename to prevent it from being written over by the following process.

3. Click on the 3D View (the house) tool on the Quick Access toolbar or click on the ribbon’s View tab > Create panel > Default 3D View (the house) tool.

By default, the View Cube will appear in the upper right hand corner of your View Window whenever you are in a 3D view. If not does not appear, go to the ribbon’s View tab > Windows panel > User Interface pull-down to toggle it on.

Adjust View Cube characteristics such as View Window position, size, etc. on the Options dialog > View Cube tab which can be found at the bottom of the Application Menu (click the big purple “R” in the upper left hand corner of your Revit window).

4. Right-click the View Cube and click Orient to View > Floor Plans. Select one of the floor plans that you wish to create a 3D level view of as shown below, from left to right. The current 3D view will be replaced with the plan view you selected.

5. Click on one of the top corner hotspots on the View Cube or the house icon located above the View Cube as shown in the image to the right to quickly flip this new plan up to a 3D view.

You should now have a 3D level view of the plan view you selected with a Section Box cropped precisely to the top and bottom values of your plan’s view range (as well as the four vertical crop boundaries). No need to eyeball the size (and resize) the Section Box’s top and bottom to get the 3D view you need.

6. If you are satisfied with the Section Box cropping and no longer wish to see it in this view, uncheck its listing on the Visibility/Graphics dialog > Annotation tab. If you turn off the display of the Section Box in the View Properties dialog you will disable its ability to crop your view and your entire 3D model will be displayed in your view.

7. Don’t forget to rename this new 3D level view as in step #1 above so that it is not overwritten if you repeat the process to create another 3D level view.

Who Knew? Revit MEP Pipe Elevation Tag Tips

A question that pops up just about everytime I do onsite Revit MEP implementation training/consulting is: “How can we get the Invert Elevation command to measure pipe locations from the current level rather than from than from the project’s 0’-0”?

The standard definition of an invert elevation measurement is the dimension from a reference level to the inside bottom of a pipe. If you select a pipe and go to Element Properties you will find that Pipe Types actually have read-only Instance Properties for Outer and Inner Diameters. You will find that these diameter values automatically change when you change the type property for the Material for a pipe type. These pipe diameters are just a few of the pipe characteristics that can be defined and modified in Revit MEP’s Mechanical Settings which may be found on the ribbon on the Manage tab > Project Settings > MEP Settings > Pipe Settings > Sizes.

However, the Invert Elevation tag ignores the Inner and Outer Diameter parameters. The Invert Elevation tag displays the value of a read-only parameter, Invert Elevation that appears to report the distance from the project’s 0’-0” to a Pipe’s Reference Level plus/minus the Pipe Offset (from the Reference Level) minus the pipe’s radius calculated from Size/Diameter (nominal parameters) to provide an elevation value from a project’s 0’-0” to the bottom of a pipe.

With this calculation method, the Invert Elevation tag does not satisfy a need for a tag which provides a pipe offset elevation from the current level (other than 0’-0”) or provide accurate information when labeling a sloped pipe as shown in the image to the right. The same elevation is supplied at both ends of a sloped pipe.  Also, Invert Elevation tags cannot be applied in a 3D view.

Use the Spot Elevation Tag

The most flexible solution currently available for labeling pipe elevations appears to be the Spot Elevation tool located on the ribbon’s Annotate tab > Dimension panel. You will find several pre-defined spot elevation tag types in the Revit default templates. You can also create and use custom spot elevation tags that might include ELEV:, or I.E.= or something similar as a prefix, choose different arrowheads, text size and font, etc. 

Sect a Spot Elevation tag type that suits your need
Most likely you will want to try out a tag with a (Relative) suffix. Use this type of tag to choose which level you would like to measure an elevation from on the Options Bar. If you choose a tag type with (Project) listed as a suffix the Relative Base pulldown on the Options Bar will be unavailable.

Specify the type of elevation that the tag is to display

Use the Display Elevations pulldown on the Options Bar to specify the type of elevation you wish to display.

Notice that there is no centerline option. This tool is not specifically designed for pipes or determining the centerlines of objects. Rather it is designed to dimension to the top and/or bottom of any Revit object in plan, section, or 3D.


TIP! Measuring to the Centerline of a Pipe with the Spot Elevations Tool

In a section or elevation view select a relative spot elevation tag and choose the level you wish to measure from. Make sure your Display Elevations setting on the Option bar is set to Actual (Selected) Elevation. As you move your cursor over a pipe the centerline temporarily displays and you will find that it easy to place the centerline elevations you require as shown in the image below.

If you adjust the Spot Elevation tool settings as for a section/elevation view referencing a specific level and set the display elevation setting on the Options bar to Actual (Selected) Elevation as described above and then drag your cursor over the centerline of a pipe in plan view you will be disappointed to find that the real-time spot elevation read-out is displaying the top of pipe elevations directly beneath your moving cursor (even if you set your Model Graphics Style to Wireframe or change the visibility of your pipes to Transparent). Interestingly though, the software finds an elevation at the bottom and top edges of along the pipe length in plan view, corresponding to the 9:00 and 3:00 o’clock locations on a pipe cross-section… which happens to be the same elevation as the centerline. Run your cursor over the top or bottom edge of a pipe in plan view, and you will find it is reading the centerline elevation as shown on the pipe below that has a 9’-0” centerline elevation on the left end and a 9’-10” centerline elevation on the right.

Who Knew? Yet One more Tip for Using Revit MEP Filters

My husband likes to do Sudoku puzzles to challenge his brain. When I have some spare time I may check out what is happening on the Forums to see what issues people are bumping into when working with Revit MEP, AutoCAD MEP and NavisWorks. I like to figure out how to manipulate the software to get the solution that people are looking for, then see what solutions have been offered by others. If I have something useful to offer I make a suggestion if none have yet been offered.

I answered a question on the Revit City forum recently that I thought might serve as a good follow-up to last week’s Revit MEP piping filters post. A person had created filters to differentiate duct insulation thicknesses by hatch pattern. He would have created a filter similar to the following image in the Revit MEP, Visibility/Graphics Overrides dialog to define his filters by insulation thickness.

For more detailed step-by-step documentation of the process for creating a filter and other examples of their use please check out these previous BIM Bulletin posts:

• Who Knew? Setting Electrical Wire Appearances in Revit MEP 2010:  http://tinyurl.com/ygg26os 
• Display Control of Revit MEP Pipes in a Plumbing Plan:  http://tinyurl.com/yazuvbl
• Using Filters to Control Revit MEP 2010 Pipe Display-Part 1 of 2:  http://tinyurl.com/yejmh7g                                         
• Using Filters to Control Revit MEP 2010 Pipe Display-Part 2 of 2:  http://tinyurl.com/yehcjyx

The Revit City user ran into a roadblock when he attempted to increase the line weight of the perimeter of the insulated ducts to match the line weights of his non-insulated ducts.

If you were to increase the line weight of an individual duct to which insulation had been applied you would see something similar to the image below when the duct was selected with Thin/Thick Lines toggled on.

The increase in duct line weight affects only the duct edges which, would be hidden by the insulation on the outside of the duct with the Model Graphics Style set to Hidden Line as shown on the horizontal duct with the magenta hatching in the image below.

Option A - Use a filter to control the display of the outer edge of the duct insulation in individual views

To adjust the line weight of the edges of the insulation with a filter click in the Projection/Surface > Lines column in the Visibility/Graphics Overrides to the right of an insulation filter as shown in the image above to specify the line weight for the filter lines. The result is shown on the vertical pipe with the purple hatching. Notice the vertical duct’s edges have a thicker line weight than the horizontal duct that matches the line weight of the elbow fitting. The default line weight for duct edges and fittings is 5.


Option B – Use object styles to control the display of the outer edge of the duct insulation in all views

If your goal was to increase the line weight of the outer edges of duct insulation in all views where it appears with or without hatching, you might take a look at Manage > Settings > Object Styles > Ducts > Insulation. As shown below, the default line weight value for Duct Insulation is 3. This value works pretty well if a dashed line is used to indicate duct insulation edges. However, if you were to set this value to 5, your duct insulation edges would match the default line weights of Revit MEP’s duct fittings and non-insulated ducts throughout a project unless of course, if they were overridden by a filter.

Filter Tips

The parameters you are offered under the Filter Rules on the right-hand side of the Visibility/Graphics > Filters tab are limited to those parameters that are shared by all of the categories you select from the Categories list in the middle of the dialog… and it appears, object subcategories.

For example, if you attempt to create a filter with Categories set to Duct and Duct Fittings and then open the Filter by: pull down on the right side of the dialog you will not find insulation thickness on the list of parameters to choose from. However, if you uncheck Duct Fittings and go back to the Filter by pull down, you will find that insulation thickness is now an available selection choice. If you select an out-of-the box duct (or pipe) fitting and check out its Instance Parameters you will find no insulation thickness parameter.

However, you might assume that since ducts and pipes both have instance parameters for insulation thickness that you would be able to check on both ducts and pipes as filter categories and then choose insulation thickness from the Filter by list to create a single filter for both ducts and pipes by insulation thickness. But, it is not to be. Even though they have the same parameter name of insulation thickness they cannot be specified with a single filter because they are each subcategories of their respective categories (duct and pipe) as illustrated in the Object Styles dialog.

Who Knew? Setting Electrical Wire Appearances in Revit MEP 2010

I have a friend whose company’s evaluation of Revit MEP includes whether they can replicate their existing company standards in Revit construction documents. A question he passed on to me was whether it was possible to show wires with solid line styles connecting light fixtures in two separate rooms on the same circuit yet display the single wire that connects the fixtures from each room with a hidden linetype. I responded that the answer was yes, in fact, his company would have two options!

Option 1:
Quick Solution-Override Graphics in View by Element 

Each time the different wire appearance is required, users could select the wire that connects the fixtures in the two separate rooms, right-click, choose Override Graphics in View by Element..., and in the resulting dialog choose a line pattern of Hidden 1/6" (or any other pattern, color, or line weight as shown below.

The disadvantages to this method are that it takes several clicks to accomplish and that the process requires that users know specifically what Revit line pattern to select for the  room-to-room wire to meet their company's standards for wire display.
  

Option 2: 
Create New Wire Type(s) and a Visibility/Graphics Filter to Standardize Room-to-Room Wire Display

This option takes a bit more effort to set up. However, once the required wire types and filter are available in a project, a single click will allow users to replace solid line wires with a room-to-room wire type that will automatically meet their company standards for wire display.

You will find that that you can change many of a wire's parameters such as tick mark display, material assignment, etc. in the Element Properties dialog, but not a wire's line style. However, you can create new wire types and use them to define a new V/G filter that can be used to uniquely control the appearance of wires connecting fixtures in multiple rooms while carrying the same electrical data as the other wires on the same circuit as described below.

Create a New Wire Type

1. Select any wire in the current project and navigate to the Modify Wires tab > Element Properties panel > Type Properties, or, right-click, select Element Properties and then click the Edit Type… button.

2. Evaluate the wire types you currently have defined. Create as many corresponding new room-to-room wire types as needed. For example, since I am using THWN wire for my lighting circuits, I will make a new “THWN Room-to-Room” wire type.

3. Click the Duplicate button to create a copy of an existing wire type used for wiring lighting circuits (THWN in my example). Name the new wire type so that users will easily recognize its purpose by name when listed in the Type Selector. In our example, the new wire type will be named THWN Room-to-Room and click OK.

Create a New Filter

1. With your cursor in the Revit drawing area, type in VG to open the Visibility/Graphics dialog and click the Filters tab.

2. Click on the Edit/New… button at the bottom of the Filters tab dialog.

3. Working from left-to-right across the dialog, click on the New filters button to create a new filter named Room-to-Room Wire.

4. Check on Wires in the Categories column in the middle of the dialog to specify what category of objects are to be affected by this new filter.

5. On the right side of the dialog under Filter Rules set Filter by: to Type Name > contains > Room-to-Room and click OK. This will assure that any wire types names created by your users containing Room-to-Room will automatically be set to display as you specify on the Visibility/Graphics Filter tab.

6. Back on the Visibility/Graphics Filters tab click the Add button to open the Add Filters dialog.

7. Click the Room-to-Room Wire filter from the list of filters available in the project that have not yet been added to the Visibility/Graphics filters for the current view and click OK.

8. Click in the Projection/Surface Lines column to the right of the newly created Room-to-Room Wire filter.

9. Click on the Override… button which appears in the cell. In the resulting Line Graphics dialog click on the Pattern pull-down and select the linetype you wish to assign to the Room-to-Room Wire filter. I chose Hidden 1/16” for my 1/8” scale plan.

Any wires in the current view that contain Room-to-Room in their Type Name will now automatically be displayed with the hidden 1/16” line pattern.

Users will also be able to select a solid line wire in the current view and click on a Room-to-Room wire type in the Type Selector on the Modify Wire ribbon tab to easily apply the company standard for room-to-room wire appearance in the current view.

Once you are satisfied with the display of objects in the current lighting plan, save the settings so they can be duplicated in other lighting plan views in the current and future projects as described below.


Reuse Lighting Plan Display Settings in the Current Project

Create or update a view template

In the Project Browser, right-click on the name of the view with the ideal display settings and click Create New View Template from View… You will then be prompted to provide a view template name.

• If you type in the name of an existing view template you will be alerted that the view template already exists and have the opportunity to replace it or to provide a different view template name.

Apply the view template to to similar views within the current project

In the Project Browser, right-click on the name of the view that you wish to apply the view template settings to and click Apply View Template to View…

In the resulting dialog, select the name of the view template you wish to apply to the current view and click OK.

Reuse Lighting Plan Display Settings in Future Projects

If you are responsible for maintaining and improving your company’s Revit MEP project start-up templates use the Transfer Project Standards tool to copy the settings we have created into one or more of your company’s project templates.

1. Leave the  project open that has settings you wish to copy from into a company project template.

2. Open your company project template and set it to be the current project. You start the Transfer Project Standards tool in the project that requires additional settings.

3. Navigate to the Manage tab > Project Settings panel > Transfer Project Standards.

4. In the resulting dialog confirm that the project you wish to copy your project settings from appears in the Copy from: slot at the top of the dialog. If not, use the pull-down arrow in the slot to select the correct project. Only those projects that are currently open will be available for selection.

5. In the Transfer Project Standards dialog click the Check None button to uncheck all the possible settings that could be copied over.

6. For this example, we need to click to check on: Filter, View Templates, and Wire Types to transfer these three setting categories into your company project template.

Tip! You are selecting categories of settings to copy from one project to another in the Transfer Project Standards dialog. You do not get to pick and choose which specific filters, view templates, or wire types you wish to copy from one project to another. So, you might do some housekeeping, by deleting outdated filters, view templates or wire types in the file from which you are going to copy settings or be prepared to do so in the project to which they are copied.
  

If you already have filters, view templates or wire types of the same name in the project you are transferring settings to, you will be provided options to override or rename the transferred settings.

Links to other BIM Bulletin Revit MEP filter related posts: http://tinyurl.com/yazuvbl, http://tinyurl.com/yejmh7g and http://tinyurl.com/yehcjyx.