Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Typindicular

"Everything happens for a reason.  But sometimes the reason is that people are stupid and they make bad decisions'.

-Unknown

A follow up to the typical (typical) debacle - I had become a little concerned about the responses I was getting from people after my attempt to explain that there were issues, so I decided to print out three versions of a plan.  One Normal, one ADA, and one Alternate.  The problem was now plain to see - they weren't just three variations on a plan, they were three different plans.

I started by taking these plans to the Revit 'Guru' who originally set up the model, and who I think might finally be starting to realize that I'm not just some 'holdout' - and that there are actual incompatibilities with the way Revit operates and/or is being used by our firm and the things I (and others) desperately need it to do (although I'm not holding my breath).

After explaining to him what had been going on since he set his little Revit boat afloat on the tides of Architectural dumbfuckery, he started to stir from his Revit-induced trance (making him look at pieces of paper instead of a fucking Revit model for once might have helped).  I gathered some information from him and proceeded to the Architectural lackey's desk.

At the Architectural lackey's desk I made my presentation - polished from having run it through once with the 'Guru' (who also pointed out one more mistake that I wouldn't have noticed), and showed them the blatant errors (some of which they were aware of, most of which they were not), and as luck would have it, the actual Architect walked by and I was able to bring them up to speed.

After the Architect saw that the lackey (and their Reviteer) had dicked up the project beyond all recognition (and pointed out other errors and inconsistencies of their own), the lackey and I proceeded to the Reviteer's desk, only to find them missing - so we went back to the Guru, who didn't really have much more to add, but it was good to watch the lackey's struggle to comprehend what we were discussing.

After leaving the Guru's desk - it was back to the Reviteer, who had returned from whatever masturbatory bullshit they might have been up to (I was amused to see another Reviteer/Guru Wannabe sitting next to them and flipping a model of some kind of fountain around and around), this was the trickiest confrontation yet because this is where the retarded Revit rubber hit the retarded Revit road.

Explaining (with the lackey's 'help') to this guy that he had fucked up both the work we had already done for zero gain - meaning that additional effort on his part was necessary in order to bring things back under some semblance of consistency, plus the difficulty factor of trying not to fuck up any more of our work, plus the instructions from the Architect to make other changes to standardize the plans (which the lackey disagreed with - but fuck them) all added up to me going back to my desk - only to almost immediately be called again.

A confused babble of nonsense ensued (from their side) so I decided to return to the Reviteer's desk (with another of my designers) and we looked at how to best initiate damage control, while maintaining some standard of consistency (some of which was being dictated by the Lackey), with the final result being that we will have to redo at least two of our plans (from scratch) - but only once they figure out what the fuck they are doing first.

Now - from the outside, there are probably any number of 'obvious solutions' to prevent (or minimize) this from happening again in the future.  Making people that know what the fuck they are doing responsible for doing things that require knowing what the fuck they are doing being primary among them.  My solution is simple - stop using shitty fucking software that sucks donkey balls and licks corpse ass-cracks.

Fuck Revit and the clusterfuck it allows idiots to bury everyone in.

-Skullfuck

Next Time: Maybe I'll finally get to flesh out my ideas for solving some basic fucking shit in regards to all Revit content sucking ass.

Trypical

It's another day in Revit land - let me take you by the hand, and slam that fucking hand in a drawer.

I had intended my last post to discuss more about Revit content (or lack of content) and maybe trying to flesh out some kind of way of getting the fuck around all of the bullshit garbage nonsense and other shit, but it got a little off topic.  It also didn't help that I had someone else asking me to help bang their head into a project with typical units - which is what I'm going to start off talking about today and try to tie it back into the content suckhole.

As I discussed in a previous post - people in our office have been trying to figure out a way (after 7-8 years of sucking the Revit dick) of getting it to actually let them do a project with typical units - and assemble them into buildings.  They had tried this, and tried that, and failed miserably, generated fuckloads of duplicate work,  screwed multitudes of people over, burned money, and drug projects out far beyond their deadlines.

If history is any indication, this latest attempt will be more of the same. I mentioned laughing when I heard another discipline almost immediately start explaining reasons how this new method was incompatible with their design criteria - and after looking at what the guy who is working on our electrical drawings is doing, I'm seeing some of the same holes.

We start with a typical unit (we'll call it '1'), with a typical panel - we'll call it 'A'.  Okay - now there are variations of unit '1' all of which will be virtually identical from an electrical perspective and will all be using panel 'A' (and yet, each have to be manually laid out thanks to Revit), but once you've used 'A' in the first unit type, you have to call the next one something else, or it will vomit up an error about duplicate panel names.

Looking back at the last mongolian clusterfuck (that got done from scratch twice due to a total lack of communication) I saw where the guy who did it the second time simply drafted the typical units, with text instead of circuit tags, making it possible to have all variations on unit '1' show circuits on panel 'A'.  I didn't look too hard, but I assume at least one of these typical units had an actual panel hiding in it somewhere, and either they did actual Revit circuiting on it, or just connected the devices to it and faked in the homeruns and tags (the same for all of them).

I came up with two possible solutions - the first was to go ahead and put a panel in each variation and call them "A1", "A2", etc. (or what the fuck ever) and when we put the schedule for "A" on the sheet - simply overwrite the text for it with "A/A1/A2/etc.".  The next was to basically do the same thing, but instead of tagging the panels and homeruns on the other units, simply use text so the panel and homerun circuits could be tagged "A" (my reasoning being that as long as we're being fucked by Revit, we might as well make it do the homeruns, wire ticks, etc. even if we had to manually tag everything with text).

I think option two is what we will do - and (of course) this is all pointless and retarded, because at the end of the day, we won't be tallying up the loads for the buildings based on these panel loads anyway since there are calculations we run to determine demand load on buildings depending on the square footage of the units, the equipment in the units (including either cooling or heating - whichever is larger), and finally - a demand factor based the number of units per building.

This all comes from the code (which the Autodicks responsible for Revit obviously don't have any concept of) and I'm sure if you wanted to carefully wedge your entire cock 'n balls into the Revit grinder, you could probably figure out a way to extract this information and get it to automatically calculate, generate a schedule to let you enter this information and let it crank out the answer (or you can spend 5-10 minutes with a calculator and a functioning brain to do it manually.

As far as the layouts are concerned - my traditional (i.e. ACAD) way of going about it was to get all of the floor plan variations in front of me, lay out the first one, and then copy and adjust to the rest of them - now in Revit, you get to go through and lay out every single one from scratch - and that's before you get to all of the variations they want (or need) to have on the plans (primarily handicap accessible, but also owner driven options).

Add into that the fact that Revit files get tossed from moron to moron - and the next thing you know a plan that you had completely detailed out is now fubar because they decided to modify that plan for an alternate instead of going to a new unit (now we have to fix one plan and do another from scratch).  As usual 'workarounds' abound, all of which have their positives and negatives - but none of which address the actual problem.

We can try to cram as much as possible onto each plan to keep from having 12 sheets full of typical units (since the point in typical units is that you don't detail out the entire fucking building in the first place) but that could become cramped and illegible (even after considerable time is wasted trying to tweak it) - or, we can try to create a bunch of little details off to the side showing all of the variations and options and hope to God that it doesn't fuck us (again and again).

This, of course, will result in a bunch of partially detailed out plans in the overall model and individual unit models - and it won't surprise me if they are 1) not done fucking around with it or 2) bitch endlessly about us not Reviting properly (in which case they can suck my dick).  And, of course - all of this while we attempt to finish the rest of our details - and a site plan that won't stop shifting around because nobody took the time to lay it out properly in the first place.

Then work on the rest of these fucking projects.

Fuck these 'people' - fuck Autodesk, fuck Revit, fuck every single person responsible for 'developing', 'programming', marketing, re-selling, using, practicing apologetics for, or otherwise propagating this piece of fucking shit.

Balls Upon Their Faces.

-Skullfuck.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

The Final Solution

When Revit sets the pace - everyone loses.

Someone posted a great line in the comments of a page I was reading aimed directly between the eyes of Revitbots everywhere - it basically said 'Why would Autodesk improve Revit?  They've already got you, and you aren't going anywhere'.  Their attitude of indifference when it comes to the people they fuck on a daily basis has been on display for everyone to see - making anyone who continues to use it complicit in their crimes against humanity. 

I spent some time doing the bare minimum in Revit for a fairly simple project (ha - there is no 'simple' anything in Revit) this morning, and finally figured out something that had been bugging me - I would try to rename a sheet view, and, like every time you try to type something in any of the fields in properties, it automatically opens a 'menu' to allow you to select items you may have already typed.  This is great if you are wanting to put the same piece of information in several places, but it starts to filter based on what you type, and if it can't find any matches - when you hit 'apply' it reverts back to what was in the box before.

In order to keep your changes, you basically have to click on another field, and it will automatically update - meaning the 'apply' button is only there to fuck up what you've typed (it even grays itself out after a few seconds - begging the question of why the fuck it is even there in the first place).  I had run into this several times - and had chalked it up to an intermittent problem.  Now I know better - it's just a piece of shit, like so many other things in Revit.

If I'm going through the 'Approved By', 'Designed By', 'Checked By' fields, I can type the engineers initials in the first field, and then use the pulldown to select the same intitials in the other two fields, but if I start typing - bang the automatic pulldown tries to match (or displays 'no matches') instead of just letting me type (frustrating when I'm trying to quickly jump from field to field - but instead, I have a pulldown in the way of the next field).

Anyway - minor issue, but just another pain in the ass when I'm in a hurry trying to set up sheets - which already require me to start a new sheet, have it default to a subheading under 'Sheets' labeled '???' instead of just asking me the discipline and sheet name right off the bat - fuck, it should just let me fill out all of the information instead of having to scroll down through a 81 field long list of 'properties' (with a glitchy as fuck control) which includes three fields each for SIXTEEN FUCKING REVISIONS THAT DON'T EVEN FUCKING EXIST YET in order to get down to where I can change the discipline and sheet sort order.

I've complained repeatedly about the way that so much stuff in Revit seems to be based on a 'do it wrong or put it some random place first and then fix it' workflow.  Views operate the same way - try to set up a new floor plan, ceiling, etc. (more on that in a minute) and it defaults to 'Coordination' instead of asking you (or - god forbid, when you are using worksets - GOING TO THE FUCKING DISCIPLINE RELATED TO YOUR WORKSET - although this is probably because it doesn't know that 'Electrical' workset means I'm doing Electrical Engineering).

Speaking of Electrical Engineering - I decided to use the Architectural model to do my work in - because in the past I've been able to save time by simply copying Architectural views and working in them.  Something has been fucked up in the last few projects I've worked on though.  I'm not sure if it's because of something that the idiot fucks that are setting them up have been doing (90% chance), or if it's because of something specific to the type of building, but half the time when I copy their view it looks fine - right up until I switch the discipline to 'Electrical'.

In this case it was a ceiling plan - and the Revitbot that set up the project first tried to tell me that it had something to do with phasing (it didn't), then tried to tell me that it was something in their template that could be tweaked for next time (it wasn't).  I finally broke down and asked the 'Revit Guru' and after looking at the file, he was able to do something to the underlay to make it show up correctly - well, I say correctly, but I still had to go in and change the underlay again to get a door to show up.

I was successful in drafting in 95% of the crap I needed to show - because fucked if I'm going to dick around modeling a bunch of shit that is:

1) Still in the DD phase.
2) Gains me nothing to show in 3D
3) Doesn't take into account existing field conditions.
4) Probably wouldn't get installed the way I showed it anyway - meaning that drawing a schematic to communicate design intent is all I'm trying to accomplish in the first goddamned place.

I've got a fuckload of other shit I needed to be doing, but I decided to jump on it due to Mr. 'It's something in the phasing' Revitbot whining because he had stuck his dick in the Revit pencil-sharpener to get the building (which, along with pretty much everything we needed to do, was already sketched out by someone else in ACAD) modeled and wanted some company in the sharpened pencil-dick ward of the Revit mental hospital.

While I've been dicking around with this - I ran across another useful piece of information while attempting to help someone else hone their dick to a point - provided by a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed (and incomprehensibly slow) Mechanical designer/Revit apologist on how to select individual elements from a linked model by clicking on 'select links' (the icon in the lower right with an arrow pointing at what is apparently supposed to be two chain links, but looks more like an infinity symbol) to turn off the red 'x'.

Despite his (possibly unintentional) condescending tone of voice while he was over-explaining how to do this, it was extremely helpful of him - which almost made me feel like a jerk when I informed him that 'Revit sucks dicks - and that's being nice about it' (my exact words) in response to his comment as he was walking off about how 'Revit isn't so bad'.

It's great that someone thought of putting an icon down there to give you the option of not accidentally clicking on individual items in a linked model - but there is no reason it couldn't prompt me to enable this functionality if I'm trying to click DIRECTLY THE FUCK ON a piece of equipment from that linked model instead of just sitting there with it's dick in it's hand.  My first inclination as it ignores my clicks (or attempts to tab to the piece of equipment) is that something is fucked up - and while it's great to know this functionality exists, it's yet another goddamned thing I had no way of knowing about, and have to remember for future reference (it also gives me one more reason to want everything in one model so linked shit isn't a fucking issue).

There is probably a ton of functionality within Revit that I am unaware of - but it becomes a moot point when everything on the front end is so fucking clunky, glitchy, and shitty-looking.  I'm sick of fighting the view settings, and trying to track down a solution to something (not always for myself) every time it decides to go tits up - and it's about to get someone's hands smashed with a hammer.

Fuck Revit, Fuck Revitbots, Fuck Revitards, Fuck 'BIM', Fuck Autodesk, and if you don't like it - go model yourself a massive dildo in Revit, send it to a 3D printer, and proceed to go FUCK YOURSELF WITH IT.

 Indisputably,
 -SkullFuck

I almost forgot - it's 'Web Gem' time - I can't seem to figure out when the fuck this douchebag posted this cock-slobbering nonsense, but 'Jason Hale' of 'Perry Crabb' licks the Revit ballsack raw:

http://www.perrycrabb.com/electrical-revit-time-saver-or-not/

His spurious claim that 'once you've managed to beat one project out of Revit, you will save time on future projects' is beaten only by the final line about 'every time Autodesk comes out with an update, it only gets better'.  My assumption is that this is from a while back (3-4 years), as most posts regarding Revit seem to be.

Next Time -More Typical Bullshit On Typical Units

Monday, August 3, 2015

Layout Fast

All Right.

So, since day one I've been complaining about the lack of electrical content for Revit (or at least usable content), and while some manufacturers have made valiant attempts at providing Revit families, it has been a mishmash of pretty looking (but virtually useless) garbage.  I don't blame the manufacturers - as they were attempting to respond to engineering/design firm's requests for content, but were most likely running into the exact same confusing nonsense that everyone (except for a few autofellating Revit whores) were running into.

As I've mentioned previously, my firm made the mistake of purchasing a 'productivity pack' that contained mostly useless crap that they had apparently compiled from various websites (I seriously doubt if they generated any of it themselves).  It was a waste of money, time, and effort on our part - and for the most part I ignored it (only digging through it when I couldn't find anything else that would work - with mixed results).

The frustration of having to stop and hunt through folders (and the internet) for something usable, download several files, only to find out they would not work properly (or weren't even making an attempt at being usable - out of the content that I've seen individual users put up online, most of it is so sub-standard that I can't imagine anyone 'proudly' putting it out there with their name on it), only to finally give up and fake something in in order to move on with the project was incomprehensible.  Attempting to compile a folder of useable equipment/devices served to be equally frustrating, since even if you could find something that sort of worked, there was no guarantee it work the next time you used it.

The other day, though, (and this should not be mistaken for any kind of 'aha moment' or change of heart), I ran across a free Revit plug-in from Schneider Electric (of 'Square-D' fame)  called 'Layout Fast'.  It was kind of a fluke - I was actually looking for something completely different, and ran across a quick video explaining what it was:

http://tv.schneider-electric.com/site/schneidertv/?video=Ewd29wcTqfD0NSKnyoeVwF4T1NUrIteC&chnl=Corporate&args=us/EN

It has apparently been out for a little while - so I set up an account and downloaded it.  I was unable to log in to it at first - because you have to go through the account setup a second time once you install it (for some reason), but once it was installed I could run it from my desktop and have access to the entire catalog of Square-D distribution equipment (cut sheets, details, etc.) - but more importantly, upon opening Revit, I had a new tab on my Ribbon that allows me to bring up this virtual catalog, select a piece of equipment (transformer, panel, switchgear, etc.) name it, specify voltage/phase/ampacity/etc., and insert it directly into the model.

The equipment comes in at the correct size, already named (I had been running into problems the other day convincing a transformer to let me name it so I could tag it), with clearances (assuming Square-D equipment gets used), and connections to allow me to lay out distribution - which I am going to attempt on the next project I do.  It was kind of a bittersweet moment - because while I was somewhat excited about the ability to finally have this equipment at my fingertips (much of which already existed - but was difficult to locate) - it almost immediately reminded me of how the rest of Revit continues to operate on retarded logic, arbitrary limitations, and other counter-productive methods for accomplishing even the simplest of tasks.

The only real hope for this stupid piece of shit (short of getting replaced by something better) is for manufacturers and other 3rd parties to step in and fill in the gaps - which if I'm not mistaken, was what Autodesk was gambling on (that, or individual firms generating their own content) which is a sad fucking way to do business, and a shitty way to treat customers - but ever since the inception of Revit, that's been par for the course.

As always - Fuck Revit, Fuck Autodesk (and if you don't like it fuck you) - but YAY SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC!!!

Next time: Permanent Solutions.