Tuesday, April 29, 2014
2015 Revit Revision Rundown Rectacular
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Friday, April 25, 2014
Constrain In The Membrane
So.
I was curious to see if there was a keystroke to toggle Revit's 'constrain' feature rather than having to click in the check box every time I wanted it on or off. A quick search told me that pressing 'shift' would switch constrain on/off (opposite of whatever is checked) while held, but apparently that's it.
Not really a big deal, but definitely par for the course - and not to mention that even if you minimize the 'ribbon' to tabs, it is still taking up 1/2" of real-estate all the way across the top of my viewport (half of which is a blank gray border that turns a sickly green color so it can have three fucking checkboxes for constrain/disjoin/multiple to appear in when in a command). I'm sure there are other 'contextual' things that pop up in there too, none of which would be necessary if they could be toggled with keystrokes.
As usual, after reading a few pages of comments, people were getting berated for suggesting that because ACAD could toggle Ortho on/off with F8, that maybe Revit could do the same thing. Same thing for polar tracking, object snap tracking, etc. - it's always: 'Stop trying to use Revit like ACAD, use Revit like Revit' which apparently involves dropping stuff in wrong, and then tweaking it.
'Use Revit Like Revit' is a bullshit statement though - allowing software to dictate how you do things is how you get into trouble. Instead - how about we 'Design Like Designers' and you can stick your bullshit propaganda up your fucking ass?
Oh - just in case you were curious, pressing 'F8' in Revit pulls up the 'wheel menu'. It's another idiotic 'feature' on par with the 'viewcube' both of which are basically like using your mouse to manipulate a mouse on the screen).
Click and hold 'zoom' and move your mouse to zoom in and out (like the scroll wheel on your mouse does). Click and hold 'pan' and move your mouse to pan (like holding your scroll wheel button down and moving the mouse).
The only thing it adds to the mix is a 'rewind' feature to take you back to previous views, which- by the time you dick with the 'wheel menu', you could've already used your mouse to pan/zoom back to what you needed to see/where you needed to work.
Interestingly enough, this means that Revit IS tracking every zoom/pan (so it could be made to sync up with your 'undo' if it will affect something that you can't currently see - it could be optional, hell - it could be TOGGLED) - although, to tell the truth, I'm actually a little surprised that they didn't remove the mouse scroll/button pan/zoom functionality just to spite ACAD users.
Speaking of idiotic features, the official lists of bullshit that Autodesk has added to their 2015 release (rather than fix their shitty software) have been coming out. I will be reviewing these next time - and I've had a specific request to tear 'sketchy lines' a new asshole.
Request Accepted.
-Skull To The Fuck
I was curious to see if there was a keystroke to toggle Revit's 'constrain' feature rather than having to click in the check box every time I wanted it on or off. A quick search told me that pressing 'shift' would switch constrain on/off (opposite of whatever is checked) while held, but apparently that's it.
Not really a big deal, but definitely par for the course - and not to mention that even if you minimize the 'ribbon' to tabs, it is still taking up 1/2" of real-estate all the way across the top of my viewport (half of which is a blank gray border that turns a sickly green color so it can have three fucking checkboxes for constrain/disjoin/multiple to appear in when in a command). I'm sure there are other 'contextual' things that pop up in there too, none of which would be necessary if they could be toggled with keystrokes.
As usual, after reading a few pages of comments, people were getting berated for suggesting that because ACAD could toggle Ortho on/off with F8, that maybe Revit could do the same thing. Same thing for polar tracking, object snap tracking, etc. - it's always: 'Stop trying to use Revit like ACAD, use Revit like Revit' which apparently involves dropping stuff in wrong, and then tweaking it.
'Use Revit Like Revit' is a bullshit statement though - allowing software to dictate how you do things is how you get into trouble. Instead - how about we 'Design Like Designers' and you can stick your bullshit propaganda up your fucking ass?
Oh - just in case you were curious, pressing 'F8' in Revit pulls up the 'wheel menu'. It's another idiotic 'feature' on par with the 'viewcube' both of which are basically like using your mouse to manipulate a mouse on the screen).
Click and hold 'zoom' and move your mouse to zoom in and out (like the scroll wheel on your mouse does). Click and hold 'pan' and move your mouse to pan (like holding your scroll wheel button down and moving the mouse).
The only thing it adds to the mix is a 'rewind' feature to take you back to previous views, which- by the time you dick with the 'wheel menu', you could've already used your mouse to pan/zoom back to what you needed to see/where you needed to work.
Interestingly enough, this means that Revit IS tracking every zoom/pan (so it could be made to sync up with your 'undo' if it will affect something that you can't currently see - it could be optional, hell - it could be TOGGLED) - although, to tell the truth, I'm actually a little surprised that they didn't remove the mouse scroll/button pan/zoom functionality just to spite ACAD users.
Speaking of idiotic features, the official lists of bullshit that Autodesk has added to their 2015 release (rather than fix their shitty software) have been coming out. I will be reviewing these next time - and I've had a specific request to tear 'sketchy lines' a new asshole.
Request Accepted.
-Skull To The Fuck
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Ex-Communication
I watched people stumble over each other attempting to get the most basic shit together last week because nobody can be bothered to give a shit about making our firm looking like a cohesive unit capable of taking on large scale projects.
Now, this has been a problem since the first project I ever did, and it's a never-ending source of frustration to watch it play out again and again - some idiot slaps together a crappy title block (model, detailing, etc. - whatever, we'll go back and fix it later) as a 'placeholder', and then wait until after the project is code fucking red before realizing that the placeholder became gospel.
Apparently it's just been 'accepted' (like so many other fucking things that sad, sorry motherfuckers are willing to bend over and take) that if you have someones Revit file linke in, that you still have to export their title block family, and then load it into your model (and then have a 'dumb' title block that won't update along with theirs).
This requires either unloading the file you are going to open (because Revit won't let you have a model and a linked model open at the same time), opening another instance of Revit, or closing out of your file in order to open theirs (assuming you have access to it, and your machine doesn't catch on fire).
Of course, having one master file that everyone shares was the selling point (but not the reality) of Revit in the first place. Structural Engineers/Designers that I've talked to say they had to fight for the right to party directly in the Architectural model, and (besides the obvious title block problem) it eliminated a large percentage of the problems they were having (although not all - it is still Revit).
The people who don't use Revit (like the majority of Engineers) are incredulous watching attempts at compiling a set of drawings, only to have basic consistency tossed to the wind, and having to spend 2-3 times the time/effort to fix the clusterfuck (and that's if someone isn't still diddling their dick and changing shit).
Even the ones who are 100% on board with it, and maybe even dabble in it a little are stunned when an archi-twerp fucks something up, and then comes back with a half-ass excuse like: 'Revit blah blah blah - Model blah blah blah', instead of: 'I'm sorry - I neglected to mention that I was going to undertake a fairly elaborate set of steps to fix something that was overlooked repeatedly and there was a very good possibility that other disciplines might get fucked over by it, especially considering we are at the last minute and this isn't the only fucking project on the schedule this week (or today).
Or more accurately - they are scared as hell because they've been flailing to get their work done in Revit (or masturbatorily detailing out shit that nobody will ever see) and now the shit has hit the fan.
And they aren't just fucking themselves over. They are fucking EVERYONE over - often with a complete lack of realization they are doing it. Some are so buried into the task of getting a set of (half-assed at best) drawings out of a Revit model that they aren't even aware that the building goes on a site, and that their constant changes have to be coordinated with Civil Engineers/Designers who aren't using Revit (and aren't going to be using Revit).
I've mentioned the relationship between Civil and Electrical before, and it has to be a tight one - regardless of software, if one of us makes changes - WE FUCKING TELL THE OTHER ONE, or at least make some attempt at coordinating it. Not everything that can be done in a Revit model can actually happen on the site, and all it takes is a single moron to start rearranging deck chairs and 'voila' the entrance to the building now extends over a gas line easement, or forces the electrical service to run an extra 1000' because there is no longer any room for a transformer, etc. etc. - on and on, ad naseum.
The time/money to fuck with these kinds of things is simply not in the projects - even (actually especially) when they've convinced their customer (or had their customer come and request) to pay more for Revit/BIM.
Nobody profits but Autodesk -and that's just fucked up.
Fuck this, fuck that, and fuck that rabbit with a bat in a hat.
-Sick Of Getting Skullfucked
Now, this has been a problem since the first project I ever did, and it's a never-ending source of frustration to watch it play out again and again - some idiot slaps together a crappy title block (model, detailing, etc. - whatever, we'll go back and fix it later) as a 'placeholder', and then wait until after the project is code fucking red before realizing that the placeholder became gospel.
Apparently it's just been 'accepted' (like so many other fucking things that sad, sorry motherfuckers are willing to bend over and take) that if you have someones Revit file linke in, that you still have to export their title block family, and then load it into your model (and then have a 'dumb' title block that won't update along with theirs).
This requires either unloading the file you are going to open (because Revit won't let you have a model and a linked model open at the same time), opening another instance of Revit, or closing out of your file in order to open theirs (assuming you have access to it, and your machine doesn't catch on fire).
Of course, having one master file that everyone shares was the selling point (but not the reality) of Revit in the first place. Structural Engineers/Designers that I've talked to say they had to fight for the right to party directly in the Architectural model, and (besides the obvious title block problem) it eliminated a large percentage of the problems they were having (although not all - it is still Revit).
The people who don't use Revit (like the majority of Engineers) are incredulous watching attempts at compiling a set of drawings, only to have basic consistency tossed to the wind, and having to spend 2-3 times the time/effort to fix the clusterfuck (and that's if someone isn't still diddling their dick and changing shit).
Even the ones who are 100% on board with it, and maybe even dabble in it a little are stunned when an archi-twerp fucks something up, and then comes back with a half-ass excuse like: 'Revit blah blah blah - Model blah blah blah', instead of: 'I'm sorry - I neglected to mention that I was going to undertake a fairly elaborate set of steps to fix something that was overlooked repeatedly and there was a very good possibility that other disciplines might get fucked over by it, especially considering we are at the last minute and this isn't the only fucking project on the schedule this week (or today).
Or more accurately - they are scared as hell because they've been flailing to get their work done in Revit (or masturbatorily detailing out shit that nobody will ever see) and now the shit has hit the fan.
And they aren't just fucking themselves over. They are fucking EVERYONE over - often with a complete lack of realization they are doing it. Some are so buried into the task of getting a set of (half-assed at best) drawings out of a Revit model that they aren't even aware that the building goes on a site, and that their constant changes have to be coordinated with Civil Engineers/Designers who aren't using Revit (and aren't going to be using Revit).
I've mentioned the relationship between Civil and Electrical before, and it has to be a tight one - regardless of software, if one of us makes changes - WE FUCKING TELL THE OTHER ONE, or at least make some attempt at coordinating it. Not everything that can be done in a Revit model can actually happen on the site, and all it takes is a single moron to start rearranging deck chairs and 'voila' the entrance to the building now extends over a gas line easement, or forces the electrical service to run an extra 1000' because there is no longer any room for a transformer, etc. etc. - on and on, ad naseum.
The time/money to fuck with these kinds of things is simply not in the projects - even (actually especially) when they've convinced their customer (or had their customer come and request) to pay more for Revit/BIM.
Nobody profits but Autodesk -and that's just fucked up.
Fuck this, fuck that, and fuck that rabbit with a bat in a hat.
-Sick Of Getting Skullfucked
Friday, April 11, 2014
What The Fuck Did I Just Do?
It's fairly common when working in Revit (what with all of it's bloated, unnecessary context sensitive ribbons, vast number of useless commands tied to various keys or shortcuts, shitty text selection and editing, and of course the way it just goes off into space sometimes) to make a mistake and have to fix it.
It has an excellent 'undo' feature (you can toss that into my previous post as #3), but someone neglected to include a mind-numbingly important aspect to it - the ability for it to take you back to where you were when you made a change.
Instead, you can make a simple mistake, hit 'undo' to fix it, but if you accidentally click it twice, it can undo changes you made in a completely different view - AND YOU DON'T KNOW IT HAPPENED.
Now, it's not like I'm running around clicking 'undo' all the time, but that one time I hit it twice (seems to happen when Revit lags out, and I simply don't know it hasn't taken input - thanks to the lack of a text window like in ACAD that showed you what the program was doing at any given time).
While we are comparing - ACAD would also include pan/zoom into it's undo list, so if you hit it accidentally, you would first be brought back to the location where you had been working, and ONLY THEN have it start undoing what you have done in that location.
Revit includes every move I make with the 'bump' command, but can't switch me back to the relevant view before undoing things? It does include an undo history - allowing you to undo some things out of order, but I hesitate to do that. I tend to 'undo' back to my mistake, and then fix everything from there on out.
If that will be too time consuming, I will sometimes cut the pieces I've worked on since the mistake, hit undo until it's fixed, and then paste the work back in afterward (of course, this only works if you are drafting, and not modeling).
With all of this 'flying blind' in this program, not knowing if an accidental click or keystroke caused something to happen, some setting to be changed, or unknown amounts of work to be deleted (and that's before you get multiple users into the same model fucking things up left and right) it's no wonder it takes users obscene amounts of time and effort to get even a pathetic first draft of an (unbuildable) building out of Revit.
Now that I have been forced into using it for a handful of projects (pointlessly), I can almost guarantee it's going to fuck me over royally sooner or later. For all I know there is already a project floating around out there where a single simple accidental click costs us thousands of dollars (or more), makes us look like idiots, and could even cost me my job.
You won't hear me blaming Revit that day though.
I will just start cracking heads.
FUCK REVIT.
It has an excellent 'undo' feature (you can toss that into my previous post as #3), but someone neglected to include a mind-numbingly important aspect to it - the ability for it to take you back to where you were when you made a change.
Instead, you can make a simple mistake, hit 'undo' to fix it, but if you accidentally click it twice, it can undo changes you made in a completely different view - AND YOU DON'T KNOW IT HAPPENED.
Now, it's not like I'm running around clicking 'undo' all the time, but that one time I hit it twice (seems to happen when Revit lags out, and I simply don't know it hasn't taken input - thanks to the lack of a text window like in ACAD that showed you what the program was doing at any given time).
While we are comparing - ACAD would also include pan/zoom into it's undo list, so if you hit it accidentally, you would first be brought back to the location where you had been working, and ONLY THEN have it start undoing what you have done in that location.
Revit includes every move I make with the 'bump' command, but can't switch me back to the relevant view before undoing things? It does include an undo history - allowing you to undo some things out of order, but I hesitate to do that. I tend to 'undo' back to my mistake, and then fix everything from there on out.
If that will be too time consuming, I will sometimes cut the pieces I've worked on since the mistake, hit undo until it's fixed, and then paste the work back in afterward (of course, this only works if you are drafting, and not modeling).
With all of this 'flying blind' in this program, not knowing if an accidental click or keystroke caused something to happen, some setting to be changed, or unknown amounts of work to be deleted (and that's before you get multiple users into the same model fucking things up left and right) it's no wonder it takes users obscene amounts of time and effort to get even a pathetic first draft of an (unbuildable) building out of Revit.
Now that I have been forced into using it for a handful of projects (pointlessly), I can almost guarantee it's going to fuck me over royally sooner or later. For all I know there is already a project floating around out there where a single simple accidental click costs us thousands of dollars (or more), makes us look like idiots, and could even cost me my job.
You won't hear me blaming Revit that day though.
I will just start cracking heads.
FUCK REVIT.
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