When a client calls me up with a support question and I can't seem to find the solution I contact Autodesk Support. Now Autodesk has two youtube channels dedicated to MEP support.
On the AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP support side at Autodesk I often speak with two individuals to find the solutions to our clients problems. The two MEP support specialists at Autodesk have launched two channels on youtube called SupportAcadMEP and SupportRevitMEP
At those channels you will find answers to questions that had been asked through Autodesk Support. Check them out you will find the videos very informative and helpful.
Don't forget to signup for a youtube account and subscribe to those channels and the many more channels offered by Autodesk on youtube.
enjoy!
William Wright
Application Consultant
In my line of work I have clients asking me the question. “How can I control the line weights of an architects model that has been linked into my Revit MEP as a background.
So what has happened is when using Revit MEP, the workflow is to link in the Architects Revit model into your project. When you create views under any other MEP discipline the Architects model (background) is automatically grayed out and the line weights are control by the software. This is a hard coded feature inside of Revit MEP 2009 and previous releases.
Some clients felt that the view was way to light and had troubles viewing the background when the view was printed. In Revit MEP 2009 and previous releases you had to change your MEP views to a different discipline either to Coordination or Architectural and then control the linked model components individually using object styles. This can be a pain especially when you are trying to use the software to its fullest and utilize MEP disciplines to clean up the project browser.
In Revit MEP 2010 the display of the background is still the same hardcoded however Autodesk has created a new setting under Manage > Settings called Halftone / Underlay that will allow you to modify the linked background line weights within a few clicks of the mouse. See screenshots below.
Image 1: As you can see the image to the right shows that I have my 1 – Mech view under Mechanical discipline and HVAC Sub-Discipline.
Image 2: Shows the Architectural background as Revit MEPs default hard coded line weights.
Image 3: In Revit MEP 2010 with your view open that you wish to make the underlay change to click on Manage then click on Settings and activate the Halftone / Underlay tool.
Image 4: With the Halftone / Underlay box open you are able to control the underlay line weight by clicking on the No Override fly out and changing the Weight to a different line weight. Make sure you uncheck Apply Halftone box for this override to work.
Image 5: Or you can click on the reset button and control the halftone of the underlay as indicated in this photos.
This has been a long post, but I hope that the post has helped many of you with your underlay line weight issues. Again assuming you have upgraded to Revit MEP 2010.
Revit MEP users have been waiting for a long time ever since the inception of Revit Building Systems now called Revit MEP for Manufactured Specific Content.
Well wait no longer as more and more manufacturers on the mechanical side are creating content for Revit MEP. I have compiled a list of the ones I know of. If you know of more please let me know and I will add them as well. Be careful when using manufacturer content, as some content may be bloated and slow down your model. It is difficult to know who actually build the families for these manufacturers.
Below click on the manufacturer and you will be taken to the Revit content page. Some of the sites require you to create a login.
I hope I have been able to help some Revit MEP users with these links. My posts have been far and few between lately, however I will post topics as I find them interesting enough to share.
You can now access temporary snap overrides from the right-click context menu when you place an element or component in the drawing area, or while moving, copying, rotating, or arraying existing elements.
For this post I have decided to put the industry aside for a day and tell you about some geek news on a different level. A great new web browser has been launched this past week by Google and they call it CHROME.
Google has taken a different approach on a web browser and have decided to create a browser for today's web based user requirements, such as watching and uploading videos, chatting over the Internet and playing web-based games.
Other web browsers like IE, firefox, maxthon and safari all were designed many many years ago based on the IE architecture when people just used the web for browsing the internet. Google has taken a fresh approach to the web browser and I think you are going to like it.
You can download the Google Chrome from here, after install you will be presented with a streamlined web browser with two tabs. What I like most about the browser is how Google created quick easy to watch videos on some of the features of Chrome and also a comic book explaining the story about Chrome being development and the theory being the browser.
I tested Chrome this past weekend and I must say I am very impressed. I used Maxthon for the past 4 years I felt Maxthon was a great browser far better than firefox and IE. however Google has now made web browsing smoother and faster. I have now officially made Chrome my default browser.
Below I will list some of the features:
Crash Control
- Every tab you're using is run independently in the browser, so if one app crashes it won't take anything else down. Basically each tab runs as a separate process.
Application Shortcuts
- Use web applications without opening your browser. Application shortcuts can directly load your favorite online app.
Incognito Mode
- Don't want pages you visit to show up in your web history? Choose incognito mode for private browsing
Simpler Downloads
- No intrusive download manager; you see your download's status at the bottom of your current window.
Those are just a few of the features available. So what are you waiting for? This browser is a must download and try. I am sure within a week you will be making Google Chrome your default web browser.
Not sure who all knows about this or if it's relatively recent news. I received an e-mail last week from my feedback portal that Autodesk will be hosting a sneak peak at AutoCAD Plant 3D.
Three sessions will be hosted on Wed. July 30th, 2008 at the following times.
7:30 am (PDT, GMT-7hours)
10:00 am (PDT, GMT-7hours)
6:00 pm (PDT, GMT-7hours)
This application is a follow on to AutoCAD P&ID and is for 3D piping design and modeling. I am excited to see what Autodesk will be showing.
My questions I hope to have answered would be will this package compete with other software on the market place like ProCAD, and CADWorx?
Will we soon seen a Revit Plant package? I think that is what everyone is wondering and hoping for. I guess Autodesk feels it's better to bring the AutoCAD solution for plant before the Revit solution. Either way I can't wait to see what's they have in store.
Well that's about it from now, I will post more on this down the road, I have yet to get my hands on a beta version and from my knowledge one has not been released yet.
Autodesk has released update #1 for AutoCAD MEP 2009 release date July 25th, 2008.
Here are the links below
AutoCAD Revit MEP Suite 2009 Product Update #1 32-bit only
AutoCAD MEP 2009 Product Update #1 32-bit
AutoCAD MEP 2009 Product Update #1 64-bit
Many improvements have been made with this update, I recommend reading the Readme file.
Don't forget to turn on communication center if you have not done so already. That way you will always stay up to date.