Navisworks Journal Files

A little while back, I was going through removing my 2013 “stand-alone” products so I could install the Building Design Suite Ultimate 2013 and ran across a folder I didn’t remember seeing in 2012…a Rx folder within an Autodesk folder in my Users directory.  Huh, so I opened it up and there lies a Navisworks 2013 folder…with a Journals folder within it.  Now this is interesting…are they somehow introducing Journal Files for Navisworks like Revit has??

Well, no, not really. From what I can tell, a Journal file is generated when you Append/Open a Revit file in Navisworks 2013.  This Journal file appears to be (my opinion anyway) a “record” of what Navisworks is doing in the background when reading the RVT and creating the NWC. 

And in case you are curious or want to investigate a Revit Journal file that was created when you Appended a Revit file into Navisworks, this is the location it’s located in (Windows 7)…

C:\Users\*USERNAME*\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Rx\Navisworks 2013\Journals

So if you are having issues when loading/Appending in a Revit file into Navisworks 2013, you may want to check out the Journal file to see if there is anything in the Journal that’s pointing to the problem.

Update to Switchback with Revit 2013

I’ve posted a couple times now about the Switchback feature in Navisworks and how it works with Revit.  Well, there is an update to the functionality for the 2013 release in a good way!

When you now use Switchback with Revit 2013, the camera view that you are using in Navisworks 2013 is now created in Revit…literally.  When in Revit, you’ll be directed to a new 3D View called “Navisworks”.  The nice thing is you don’t have to create this view, it happens automatically.  So if you rename or remove the “Navisworks” 3D View and use Switchback again, you’re going to get another “Navisworks” 3D View in Revit.  This is much, much better that what we got in 2012 where the camera didn’t change much in Revit, or maybe just went to a plan view.

Another change is that the object that you’ve selected in Navisworks 2013 to run Switchback with will now actually be selected in Revit 2013 and show the Properties!  Revit 2012 almost had it, but you had to do a few things to make the properties actually show even though the object was “selected”.

One thing though with the object selection potion of this…your results are going to vary depending on what you have your “Selection Resolution” set to.  When I first tried it, I had the “Selection Resolution” set to “Last Object” and the object selection in Revit wasn’t showing.  So I went back and tried the other options for “Selection Resolution” and the one that you want to use is “First Object”.  By using this “Resolution”, the Revit object will be highlighted and the properties of the object will be available.

Here’s a little video showing the new functionality of the Switchback feature for the 2013 products…

Navisworks and Revit 2013 Switchback

One thing to note for those using Revit 2012 and Navisworks 2013…you have the ability to use Navisworks Switchback 2013 in Revit 2012, but the functionality of the Switchback will be the 2012 functionality.

Navisworks 2013 Selection Tree Changes-Similarities

With the ability to now read Revit files, another change with Revit files is how they are organized in the Navisworks Selection Tree.  In the screen shot below, I’ve laid out some examples to illustrate the differences from 2012 Revit based NWC files (2012 and 2013 NWC), Revit 2013 NWC and Revit RVT files…

As you can see, Revit 2012 will export to a 2013 NWC file, but the organization stays the same as if it was exported to a 2012 NWC file.  So the new organization (of Level->Family Category->Family Type->Instance) is only going to show up when a RVT file is read directly into Navisworks, or you generate a NWC file from Revit 2013.

One thing to note with the above image, it doesn’t show an Append 2012 RVT file (oops).  I can say that it will show just like a Revit 2013 RVT file as shown below…

UPDATE:

Based on a comment I received, I didn’t notice the 2013 RVT and NWC files were named the same.  Since I didn’t refresh the NWF, it probably didn’t matter.  But to be safe, I re-appended the files with different names and the RVT and NWC show the same “structure” of Level, Category, etc. I did however notice that the exported NWC breaks down the Instances a step further than the RVT. Here’s the screen shot…

I didn’t look that closely at the tree before to notice this difference with 2013 Exported NWC’s and RVT’s. The NWC Export Settings and Revit File Reader options are the same, so this is something I want to look into further…

Revit File Reader Options

As I’m sure everyone is aware, Navisworks 2013 can read a Revit file natively.  While this is a nice new feature, I have one “compliant” I would like to file…

Why are the Options different when looking at the Export Options from Revit vs. the File Reader Options in Navisworks?  They aren’t totally different and quite honestly it doesn’t matter since everything is present, but why aren’t the laid out the same??

Here’s the Navisworks 2013 Revit File Reader Options…

And here’s the Revit NWC Exporter Options…

Again, is this a big deal…no.  But, it’s just something caught my eye and to me doesn’t make sense since Navisworks didn’t have the options in the first place.

Oh, and one other thing…you can’t Import/Export the Options from Revit to Navisworks and vice-versa.  The Import only works within the same Options dialog/platform.

Selection Tree and Revit Objects

This is something that I get asked quite a bit…when I load in a Revit file into Navisworks, why do things like Columns or Doors (as examples) always show the Type Name twice?

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, here’s a little screen shot…

As you can see, the W10x49 has a “sub component” also called W10x49.  What you are really seeing here is the Element and the Type (respectively).  To help explain this a little further, here’s each one selected and the associated “Element” properties…

 

As you can see in the image on the left, the Properties for the first item selected displays the Instance Properties of the Revit object.  On the right image, you can see the next item in the list is selected, which is now displaying the Type Properties.

So when you see Revit objects with what seem to be duplicate names, you are actually seeing the Instance and the Type.  One thing to note, this isn’t the same for all Revit objects.  Take Walls for instance, Navisworks only lists out the Instance and the actual geometry (as shown in the top image).

From what I can tell, this helps separate out the Properties and the number of tabs that are displayed.  But, there is an issue with having all of these properties broken out like this, specifically the Element ID!  This ties back to the Switchback post…if you try and use Switchback with the Type selected, it won’t find the object.  And, that’s not all…it also affects your Clash Detection reports!  More to come on that subject soon….

Navisworks 2012 Switchback with Revit Video

Way back in July, I posted about a new feature for Navisworks and Revit 2012 being able to now use Switchback.  Well, I finally got around to creating the video that I said I was going to.   It’s amazing how time flies when you’re busy!

The video below shows the interaction of Switchback with Navisworks and Revit.  I didn’t put voice to the video, but did input some “pop-ups” with some explanations.

As you can see, there are some interesting things happening in this first iteration of Switchback with Revit.  Hopefully the 2013 versions have a much better integration.

Navisworks Switchback to Revit

New in Navisworks 2012 (Simulate and Manage) is the ability to utilize the Switchback feature!  This has been accessible/available to those working with AutoCAD for a while now, but it’s a nice addition to those working with Revit.  I’ve received a few questions about working with Revit Switchback and whether or not you have to export the NWC from the central file or local files?  And if local, how does it know what local file to get and how is it going to get a local that’s on someone else’s computer!?

Ok, well, you don’t have to export from the central and it doesn’t matter what local file you export your NWC from.  The nice thing about Revit Switchback is that is goes strictly by the ID number of the Revit objects…so it doesn’t care what (local) file it’s from.  And as far as what file it will try and open, well, it will look initially for the file the NWC was produced from.  But, not to panic, you will be prompted saying that it can’t find the file and allows you to browse for a new file….your own local file.

The key part about Revit Switchback from the Revit side is that you already have the file open and you’ve initiated Switchback in Revit. 

How do you do this?  Great question, glad you asked!

In Revit, go to the Add-Ins tab and External Tools.  There, you’ll find Navisworks Switchback.

Once you’ve selected Navisworks Switchback, you can now utilize Switchback in Navisworks with Revit.  The nice thing, is that you only have to do this once per Revit session.  So if you have Revit open all day, you only have to initiate the Switchback in Revit once.

I have to say though….as much as I like this, there is some work to be done with this feature.  It’s the first iteration, so I expected there to be some little things to work-around, but I guess I also expected this to work similar to AutoCAD and it doesn’t.  I’m creating a little video explaining some of the things that I’ve found that need work, including some of the things I’ve found to get around some of the issues.  Stay Tuned!

BIM and Construction Utilizing the Autodesk 2012 Products

Back in the first part of April, I did a few webcasts around the Autodesk 2012 products and how they fit into a BIM workflow for Architects and Construction firms.  We did record the sessions and I’ve linked below a recording of the BIM for Construction webcast that I did.  It’s about 40 minutes long and since this was done for the company I work for, you get a few minutes of MasterGraphics information at the beginning. 

Hope you enjoy and definitely contact me if you have any questions!!

BIM For Construction Utilizing the Autodesk 2012 Products