Its the little things...

A few years back I was renovating a bathroom and after the demolition and new framing I vacuumed all the stud bays and nooks before putting up the cement board.  The plumber noted I had done this an remarked on it.  "I saw you cleaned...not many would do that knowing it won't be visible later.", he said.  "Yeah I'm obsessive this way", I replied.  "Sure", he said, "I had an uncle who made me do that...I told him Why bother when it will be hidden?"  My uncle replied, 'God will see it' ".

I filed this little exchange in my memory.  Whatever your beliefs are its always nice to walk away from a job knowing everything is ship shape.  Electrical outlets are aligned, the switches are off in the down position, door knobs are at the right height, doors swing the correct directions ect...

2011 has lots of subtle tweaks to make your life better.  Some of these were requested and others were things we observed since we too use Revit and what bothers you bothers us.

Temp Dims: They have some new UI to control their display (App menu>Options>Graphics):

When you reposition them they stay next time you select the same element:

Family Types: When making parameters the default type is length (most parameters are length right?)  When you choose another type like "Material" Revit will set the group to "Materials and Finishes" for you.  Less work for those conscientious family craftsmen out there.

Properties: Aside from loosing their modality (not so subtle) which should save a few thousand click a year the properties are indented under their groups.  This helps with scanning.

I have a long list of new requests for properties such as better ordering of the properties and shading of the dialog. Each time we are "in the neighborhood" we try to make things a little tighter.

More are out there. If you caught any feel free to share with the other readers.

_erik

Comments

[Gig]

It's easy to get the big stuff more or less "right", but the little details always show how much thought went into the design.

[Anthony Hauck]

Its that extra bit that makes the difference between mediocre and exceptional.  Im not sure the big stuff is easy to get right all the time though..at least not in Revit.  There are so many constraints and angles to consider.

[William Sutherland]

You may not see frequent, or indeed any ;-) praise for these nice little features but many of us who use the software intensively every day of our working lives definitely notice and appreciate it, thanks.

[Anthony Hauck]

Not looking for praise but thanks.  Some might have been this way from the start but its not always obvious until you use something for a while.

[pierre-felix breton]

Glad to see those fit and finishes improvements!

Side note: while cleaning interior partitions prior to put on the drywall is a neat idea, there is also another practice that helps increasing thermal mass and reduces waste:

Put inside the walls all the small pieces of drywall that you would put in the garbage otherwise. It helps with the cooling/heating loads and helps the environment.

[DoTheBIM]

Still trying to clear my desk to get 2011 installed, but I always wonder why these "little things" never get communicated... for some if not many of them are much more benificial to many people than the biggest enhancements such as adaptive components. As impressive and powerful as they are, I don't see much use for them in our line of work, so things such as indentation in the properties pallet are much more important to us... but would probably go un-noticed otherwise.

With that said, I look forward to finding the time to upgrade to 2011 for the little things.

[Brad Clark]

Erik,
Sounds like you have been reading a little Donald Norman, huh?

[Anthony Hauck]

Norman is a good read.  I think many would enjoy his books.