Uncovering the Revit Subscription Advantage Pack

Harlan Brumm (from over at the Revit Clinic) has posted a couple of videos on the Autodesk YouTube channel "uncovering" the many features in the recently released Subscription Advantage Pack. We are curious to hear feedback about your experience with the new features.

The Revit Update

The Revit Extensions

Comments

[Tim Waldock]

Thanks for the link to the video - it would be better split into 3 as it takes a while to download when we may only want to see part of it - 1 for structure, 2 for keyboard shortcuts, 3 for the rest.

1. Find and replace text - good but it needs to highlight each bit of selected text in the view as you move down the list of matches it found.

2. Conditional formatting is great but we need the ability to carry that over to sheet views.

3. Split with gap - what is 1/16" in metric? But seriously, it splits on the centreline - so if I was using it for wall joints, that is fine but maybe I'd want to keep the wall as one entity (but with a joint). If I wanted to split it for other reasons, I'd probably want to control the wall length either side so split by centreline of mouseclick is a pain - easier to use the old tool.

4. Love the ability to switch between modify tools after starting the command. It fixes the UI problem with two mirror commands, and some. Great. I missed that in the documentation so it was worth watching the video for.

[DoTheBIM]

Of the ones that seemed like they'd be useful to us....

Wood framing extension is pretty much useless as far as being productive.

Didn't the old split with gap ini setting (that was "unsupported") keep the walls as one wall just shown with a gap? Might be thinking of something else.
Not really much use for us but nice if you have to make a lot of specific gaps after having already drawn walls full length.

Conditional formatting great for checking things, would be real nice to extend this to a presentation level on sheets... including font manipulation based on rules rather than just color background. Limitations on formating count, family, type, etc columns stink.

Shortcut editor seems like very nice addition... didn't get much face time with it yet though. Searching for commands is an excellent feature within this tool.

Find & Replace text... nice addition. ditto on Tim's comment about highlight.

Convert line Types - was surprised how well this one works. would be nice if when converting from detail lines to model lines it prompted for work plane if none defined yet (i.e. elevation/section views) or always prompted so not to assume anything.

Like the inclusion of text format shortcuts.

[Tim Waldock]

More feedback on the subscription advantage pack - generally this is a very welcome release, and now finally we have sufficient reason to upgrade the office to v2010:

5. The ported structural commands (and structural tab) are fantastic - something really meaty in this release. I was nervous when I saw the 3D snap checkbox as that feature is a nightmare in MicroStation - but you guys have got it right, it seems so simple to use. My users cheered when I showed them the ability to pick a line to place a beam - haven't tried it yet with linked 3D CAD, but works great for Revit objects

6. New look Type selector is a huge improvement, especially now you can see the active type when its on the QAT. No mention of this in the release notes - I think you sometimes undersell small improvements like this (and the 3D snap and change to modify tools), which make a huge difference to users.

7. keyboard shortcuts - heading in the right direction, but some hiccups in this release (you already know about): missing commands; sort order; command names not clear; more complicated rollout. Will we have to wait until v2011 for a fix on this - I hope not? If you see the number of comments on AUGI, I think it needs a quick fix so that users see the change as something positive (which it will be) instead of a frustration. Hotfix?

[Ian Kidston]

Hi Guys

The new keyboard shortcuts are fantastic, easy to use and nice to do it on the fly. A error message promting when there is a duplication would be nice, but all in all a vast improvement.

Likewise the structural tools - long over due and very, very welcome.

The change to the type selector is welcome, but in reality for me of little value as I work pretty much exclusively with the ribbon minised to the full extent possible. (using SpeedyUI AutoHotKey script)

The wood framing tool is a good start but as yet not a fully mature tool with a few substantial problems when running it.

Changing lines from model to detail and back is a very welcome addition.

For me, the advantage pack has made revit 2010 a worthwhile, indeed a very good release.

The one major issue I still have with release 2010 is how resource hungry the ribbon is and that it substantially slows down modelling, even with 8gb ram and windows 7 64 bit! Anything which can be done to reduce this lag would fantastic.

Nevertheless, two thumbs up.
thanks,
Ian

[Joe B. Learnin]

Any chance of the Subs advantage coming to the student download tool?

[Rhys]

Pity it was pulled from the UK until 23rd November, bad local marketing - just so it could be released with other EMEA versions, another very bad descision.
Frome my download (before this sillyness stopped the rest of the UK getting it) I must say its an excellent release, more of this and subscription will at last be worthwhile. The stand alone product Imagemodeller is very good indeed, better than Archifacade. Integration into Revit directly, would be a very good move, if it could be done.

[Tom Vollaro]

Ian, there is more information regarding your question about access to students here:
http://therevitkid.blogspot.com/2009/10/revit-2010-advantage-pack-and-students.html

[Ian Kidston]

Hi Tom, Erik and Crew,

Working my way through the various add on's in the enhancement pack, I decided to try out the freeze tool to create a new detail.

Unfortunately, this tool is, in my view, an abject failure. To test the tool, I created a very simply detail. You can check out the before and after screen shots at: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=110429

Obviously the result is very poor, but what was more disturbing was that this program simply automates the process of exporting to dwg and then reimporting the dwg into the project.

Dwg files imported into Revit are a constant and consistent source of problems in the model.

A quick trawl through Augi will leave one in no doubt that using cad files as details in Revit is not a good practice and that it is far better to create native revit families for any such details.

There is certainly the need for a tool to create such details, but only if they are created as a Revit family, not as a dwg file.

Regards,

Ian

[Joel Osburn]

Overall, I'm happy to see the improvements brought by the Advantage Pack, and echo the sentiment that sometimes the little things aren't trumpeted loudly enough (or at all); the right little things can make a tremendous difference!

I'm disappointed though, that the Text Find/Replace tool inherits the limitations of spell check: only text objects are affected. All other textual data is ignored. I would like the option to have the tool walk the entire object tree, with the ability to affect instance and/or type parameters. In addition, the tool's dialog box absolutely needs to allow the user to pan and zoom within the current view; highlighting potential changes would be even better.

I won't repeat the previous comments on the keyboard shortcuts editor; I'll just say that you're almost there! It looks like you're moving in a good direction.

[4 years with revit]

i can't have this stuff because i refuse to become a subscription member..