Excitech Revit Toolkit · Page 2 of 28 Overview of the Coordinate Schedule tool The Excitech...

Documentation

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Contents

Overview of the Coordinate Schedule tool ........................................................................................ 2

Overview of Renumber Elements Tool ................................................................................................ 3

System Requirements ............................................................................................................................ 4

Installation Guide................................................................................................................................... 5

Accessing the application ................................................................................................................... 8

Authorising the application .................................................................................................................. 8

Using the Coordinate Schedule tool ................................................................................................. 10

Creating Parameters ....................................................................................................................... 11

Coordinate User Options ................................................................................................................ 14

Running the Coordinate Schedule Tool ....................................................................................... 16

Using Element Positioning ................................................................................................................... 17

Creating Schedules with Shared Parameters .................................................................................. 20

Defining a coordinate origin of custom families .............................................................................. 22

Sample File ........................................................................................................................................... 22

Renumber Elements Tool .................................................................................................................... 23

Starting the utility ............................................................................................................................. 23

The Main Dialogue .......................................................................................................................... 23

Selecting Elements .......................................................................................................................... 25

Renumbering the Elements ............................................................................................................ 25

Filter ................................................................................................................................................... 26

Tags ................................................................................................................................................... 26

Swap Element Numbers .................................................................................................................. 27

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Overview of the Coordinate Schedule tool

The Excitech Coordinate Scheduling application is a powerful tool for Revit Architecture,

Structure and MEP that will enable users to automatically acquire precise X, Y and Z

coordinates from certain Revit objects. The coordinates are added to the objects element

properties which will allow schedules to be generated and tags to be placed.

At present the Revit API does not allow access to the standard schedules within Revit. As

such, the coordinates will have to be updated manually when the model changes. For

example, if you move an object, add new objects or delete objects you will need to re-run

the coordinate schedule tool. To maintain the accuracy of the schedule we have built-in a

number of features that will always maintain an accurate set of schedules. The image below

shows various user options for configuration of user prompting to update coordinates.

A sample file is included within the installation which can be found in

C:\Program Files\Excitech\Excitech Revit Toolkit 2017\samples\

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Overview of Renumber Elements Tool

The Renumber Elements utility allows the rapid renumbering of multiple elements (e.g Rooms,

Windows, Doors, etc.), of the same category, in a view.

The elements can be selected individually or automatically based on their position and

further filtered by their properties.

The utility then applies prefix, suffix and other rules, defined by the user, to renumber the

elements.

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System Requirements

The Coordinate schedule tool requires one or more of the following Revit products installed

and running on the appropriate hardware and operating system.

• Autodesk Revit Architecture 2017

• Autodesk Revit Structure 2017

• Autodesk Revit MEP 2017

• Autodesk Revit 2017

The Excitech Toolkit will require 7.46 Mb of free disk space.

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Installation Guide

The application is a plug-in which will be run inside an Autodesk Revit application.

NOTE : The installer does not check whether the Revit Toolkit is installed on previous versions of

Revit, this allows the user to install the toolkit for Revit 2014,2015,2016 and 2017 at the same

time.

Uninstalling the application can be done via Add/Remove Programs (XP), Programs and

Features (Windows 7) Add/Remove Programs (Windows 8)

or via the Remove tool if you re-run the old version installer.

To install, make sure that you exit any programs that you have running, including Revit.

Unzip the file and within the Setups folder. Locate the sub folder named Release with

Renumbering.

To install both the Coordinate Schedule tool and the Renumber Elements tool run the

setup.exe file located in the Release with Renumbering folder.

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Double-Clicking on the setup.exe file will start the installation wizard.

The following dialog box will appear.

Always accept the default install location and choose either Everyone or Just Me.

The default install location is:

C:\Progam Files\Excitech\Excitech Revit Toolkit 2017

NOTE: If the default install location is changed you will need to manually change the location

in the

ExcitechToolkit.addin file in C:\ProgramData\Revit\Addins\2017

Click Next to begin the installation.

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The installation will commence

Click the close button to finalise the installation.

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Accessing the application

Open the Revit application and the Excitech Revit Toolkit plug-in will be located under the

Add-Ins tab.

Authorising the application

Before using the toolkit registration of the application will need completing. Click the About

icon on the Excitech Tools Ribbon as shown below.

You will then see the Excitech Toolkit Dialog box with the Registration tab current. Fill in all the

fields and then select Submit Online Registration or Submit Offline Registration.

If you choose to register online then this will automatically generate an Activation code

which will be sent to you via email. If no internet connection is available or you choose to

register offline then you will see the following dialog box. You will then need to copy the text

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string shown within the text field and email this to [email protected]. Your activation

code will then be emailed to you.

Once you have received your activation code, click on Activation and paste your activation

code as shown below and then click ‘Activate Toolkit’.

If the Activation fails with the following error, email [email protected]

For more information on the Excitech Toolkit and links to support, documentation and help

topics, click on the about tab as shown below.

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Using the Coordinate Schedule tool

The application has been designed to publish the survey and project X, Y and Z coordinates

to selected object categories and store these within the objects instance properties. In the

below example you can see that a pile has been selected and the Instance Properties are

Storing

Excitech_Survey_X, Excitech_Survey_Y,Excitech_Survey_Z, Excitech_Project _X,

Excitech_Project _Y, Excitech_Project _Z coordinates.

Typically, you will want to assign a unique reference to each object to facilitate scheduling. In

the below example you can see that each pile has a unique reference number

The above operation can be achieved automatically by using the Element Positioning tool

that is found on the Revit Structure extensions tab of the Add-Ins ribbon.

If you have not installed the Revit Structure extensions you can find the download and

supplementary information by using the following link:

http://subscription.autodesk.com/sp/servlet/public/index?siteID=11564774&id=11607975

It is worth noting that you will need your subscription user name and password before the

download can take place. You can find additional information on Element Positioning on

Page 18 of this document.



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Creating Parameters

Go to the Add-Ins tab on the Ribbon.

The first stage is to create the Excitech Project and Survey shared parameters which will allow

the coordinates to be added to the objects Instance Properties. On the Excitech Tools panel,

click Create Parameters as shown below.

You are then prompted to select one or more object categories to write the shared

parameters into. In the below example you can see Structural Columns and Structural

Foundations have been selected. It is worth planning ahead and making sure that you select

any categories that you may need as adding these at a later date will remove the

coordinates already added to a schedule. Once you press the OK button the Excitech

Project and Survey coordinates will be written into the instance properties of all the

categories selected.

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The following table shows the default library of categories and whether the schedule is able

to obtain the XYZ coordinates.

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Table 1.1

Please note that custom content could be generated on categories that function and then

transferred to another category that wouldn’t normally obtain the coordinates though still

retain the functionality to obtain coordinates. With this in mind we have left the complete

category list in the toolkit.

Please note the following:

In order to obtain the correct cut-off level of a Pile It is recommended that you use the

recommended Excitech families which can be downloaded from the Excitech website or

create custom pile families following the Excitech method of family creation.

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Coordinate User Options

The Coordinate Schedule User Options dialog box has two main functions. The left hand side

of the dialog box will show the Categories previously selected within the create parameters

dialog box. When one or more categories are selected, Revit will proceed to write the

coordinates to each objects instance parameters.

The right hand side of the dialog box is used to prompt the user when executing certain

commands within Revit.

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As stated earlier, as the schedule table will not update automatically you will need to ensure

that the coordinates are always updated after design changes. In order to assist the user in

this there are a number of options available to provide a prompt before performing any of

the tasks below:

• Viewing Schedule Tables

• Printing

• Saving Documents

• Saving As

• Opening a document

• Exporting a file

• Closing Documents

• Synchronising with the Central File

If one or more of the above options have been selected you will see the following warning

below.

Additionally you have the option of being presented with a Yes/No dialog as an added level

of security. This is available for the following functions:

• Printing

• Saving Documents

• Saving As

• Exporting Files

• Closing Documents

• Synchronising with a the Central File

Below is an example of the Yes/No dialog box

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Running the Coordinate Schedule Tool

The coordinates can be created or updated at any time by selecting the Coordinate

Scheduling tool. Once the tool has run, a small information dialog will be displayed showing if

any objects have failed to update.

An example of where objects fail to update is shown below. You will generally see failed

objects if the category is not supported by the coordinate scheduling application. See table

1.1 on pages 12 and 13.

In the example below, Structural framing was chosen and all 68 members have failed to

update.

By default, the precision of the coordinate output is controlled by Project Units.

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Using Element Positioning

The Element positioning tool is used to automatically add a unique reference to a variety of

Revit Objects. The Element positioning tool is found on the Extensions panel on the Add-Ins

tab.

Once the element Positioning tool is running, you can select one or more categories to add

references to. In the example below, Structural Columns and Structural Foundations – Spread

have been selected.

The next stage is to select how the Element Positioning will apply the numbering. You are able

to configure the numbering sequence of the XY axis and also the Z axis.

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On the naming tab you are able to configure how the Element Positioning tool will name and

number the selected elements. You can define the syntax for each position name created

during the structure element positioning. Define a formula using variables:

• %S - inserts a number of identical sets of objects with identical types and features

%E - inserts an element number (each element is assigned a successive

number).

• %L - inserts the number of the lowest level (numbers are assigned in ascending

order)

In the example below the Structural Foundations have a Formula P-%E. This will produce a list

as follows. P-1,P-2,P-3....

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The final tab will allow you to tag the various options. As you can see in the example below,

you are able to set the leader length, what views to tag etc.

Below is an example of the element properties of a column.

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Creating Schedules with Shared Parameters

The Coordinate scheduling tool will automatically create three shared parameters that hold

the X,Y and Z coordinates. These are created as Excitech_Project_X,

Excitech_Project_Y,Excitech_Project_Z, Excitech_Survey _X, Excitech_Survey_Y and

Excitech_Survey_Z and will need to be added to a standard schedule and possibly renamed.

The schedule below is showing the Easting and Northing which have been created from the

shared parameters.

The following example will create a piling schedule based on structural foundations. Begin by

clicking the View tab and then choosing schedules – Schedules/Quantities.

In the dialog box shown below, select Structural Foundations as the category and then

rename the schedule to ‘Piling Schedule’ and then click OK.

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Next you add the various required fields to the schedule. Add Type, Mark, Project and Survey

points or both and as shown below.

On the Formatting tab you are then able to rename the Fields to the appropriate names as

shown Below. Click OK.

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Defining a coordinate origin of custom families

When developing custom content for Revit it is useful to know that the Excitech Coordinate

Scheduling application will return the coordinates of the two reference planes that define the

Origin as shown in the example below.

Sample File

Included with the toolkit is a sample file of a piling layout.

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Renumber Elements Tool

Starting the utility

The utility is available only on plan views (floor plans, ceiling plans, etc.) and can be started by

clicking the Renumber Elements button on the Excitech Tools panel located in the ribbon’s

Add-Ins tab.

The Main Dialogue

On the left, a list is displayed containing all the categories of elements in the current view that

can be renamed - these include categories that have a Number, Mark or Name attribute.

In the centre are the commands to select the elements, the list of elements that will be

renumbered and options to allow the automatic creation of tags.

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Next, to the right, are the controls to regulate the creation of the element’s numbers.

At the far right of the dialogue is the filter which can be used to further limit the number of

elements that will be renumbered after a selection is made.

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Selecting Elements

After selecting on the Visible Categories list, elements can be selected from the drawing

using three different methods:

• Clicking the Pick Objects button will hide the dialogue temporarily and allow the user

to select elements in the desired order. Only elements of the selected category are

allowed to be selected and only once. The selection is finished when there are no

elements left to select or the user presses the escape key.

• The Select Horiz. Button will select all elements of the selected category ordering them

by their position - first left to right and then top to bottom.

• The Select Vert. button will select all elements of the selected category ordering them

by their position - first top to bottom and then left to right.

The list shows the current number of the element, the new number that will be applied, the

element’s name/family name and the room it belongs to (if applicable).

Renumbering the Elements

Elements’ numbers start at the value specified on the Start No box and are grouped by room.

Clicking the Run button will renumber the elements on the list using the specified Prefix, Suffix

and Zero Padding values.

The utility uses the elements’ room number as a prefix, if one is not specified.

Clicking the Renumber button shows a menu with all the previously saved formulae and options

to create new ones and edit and delete existing ones. Formulae are a way of saving the prefix,

suffix and zero padding values so that they can be used later without the need to re-enter the

values manually.

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Clicking on one of the saved formulae from the Renumber menu will apply it to the elements

on the list.

Since the elements’ numbers are created according to the order on the list, the Up and Down

buttons allow the user to reorganise them.

Filter

The filter grid on the right allows the user to filter the elements in the list by their attributes

(these vary according to the category). Only the filtered elements are renumbered.

Clicking the Clear button removes all filters.

Tags

If there are available tags loaded in the project for the selected category then the controls in

the Tags group will be available.

Checking the Create Tags option will tag all the elements in the list using the tag selected in

the drop down list. The With Leader option controls whether the tags are created with, or

without, leaders.

The user can click the Load Tag button to load a new tag into the project without the need to

close the utility.

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Swap Element Numbers

Because two elements of the same category cannot have the same number, a check is

made during execution to avoid leaving errors on the project.

Checking the Auto Swap Element Numbers option will automatically swap any duplicate

elements’ numbers to avoid conflicts.

If the option is not checked, and a conflict is detected, the following dialogue is displayed.

The dialogue displays information about which elements are creating the conflict and offer

options to resolve it:

• Swap this time - this will swap just the specified elements. Further conflicts will display

this dialogue again.

• Always swap - this will swap all elements that need to be swapped automatically.

• Don’t swap - this will not swap the specified elements’ numbers and will leave the

conflict on the project.

Execution

Click the OK button to execute the renumbering.

This will renumber the elements performing the duplicate numbers check and create the

tags, if specified. An action is recorded in Revit so that the operation can be undone using

Revit’s Undo command.

Click Cancel to leave without performing any change to the project.

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