Features, Fixes, and Enhancements
ADSK DevOps: “Hey, you got snoo in your hair.”
RVT: “Yeah, what’s snoo?”
ADSK DevOps: “Not much, what’s new with you?”
Yeah, ikr, anyhow it’s a new Revit® release cycle and as long as they happen we will continue to bring you all the new and exciting, if not simply “known,” enhancements and “features” for Revit 2017.
Figure 1: Illustrating Depth Cueing’s added granularity and clarity that can now be brought to bear in Revit Elevations and Sections
This piece will focus on the Architectural, Platform-flavoured enhancements. We (and when I say ‘we,’ I mean ‘I’) will not list all the possible other flavoured enhancements (API, MEP, Structure) that should abound in this issue…and in the help menu ;)
Features
Elevation and Section View Depth Graphics (see Figure 1 and rejoice; it’s a nice start)
"Allow" or "Disallow" Wall Join during wall creation is available.
The new(ish) "Multistory Stair" feature allows user to create a multistory stair, which can contain one or more stair components.
The multistory stair is a level-based stair that is created by selecting the stair component and the levels to which to align the stair (see Figure 3).
Users can add or delete stair components by level and maintain the overall properties for the multistory stair.
Figure 2: Depth Cueing settings
Figure 3: Multistory Stairs under selection
Enhancements
- Copy is available in a Camera view.
- Preview of Railings in the creation type dialog.
- Railings can now be hosted and adjusted to the top faces of floors, roofs, and walls.
Energy − Simulation
- Added a help link to the Energy Settings dialog.
- Streamlined the Energy Settings dialog by moving parameters for advanced settings to the Advanced Energy Settings dialog, which is accessible from the Energy Settings dialog.
Graphics − Rendering
- Implemented a file size limit of rendering output to 2G to avoid system failure.
- Improved stability when rendering with Autodesk Raytracer.
IFC
- Corrected an issue with IFC Export so that openings consisting of multiple voids in floors are placed correctly.
- Corrected the orientation of certain surfaces in the IFC file when performing an IFC4 Design Transfer View export.
- Enhanced the IFC user interface to reflect the alternate UI previously available as an add-in. See the online help for details.
- Improved IFC Export by removing redundant and disallowed styles of information.
- Import/Export/Link DWF
- Corrected an issue that might cause Export DWFx to fail if properties contain invalid characters.
Point Clouds
- Improved the "Cannot link point cloud" dialog to use a Close button rather than Cancel.
Stairs
- Fixed a crash that could occur when using the Stair command in a specific model.
- Resolved an issue where part of a stair landing is missing in 3D views.
Walls
- Resolved the issue that the attached wall is not updated when the roof is edited.
Platform Enhancements
Graphics − Display
- Added tooltips to provide information about the Depth Cueing feature.
Linked RVT Files
- Refined the Manage Links dialog to improve alignment of command buttons for a more consistent user interface.
Parameters
- For global parameters and the Family Editor, moved the Label field for dimensions from the Options Bar to the ribbon, and made the list of parameters in the Label combo box searchable. YAY!
BTW: Do you use Global Parameters? This is one for all the control freaks and creative types who like to use data to push other data around. The ways these can be used is just beginning to be explored. Where can you take Global Parameters? Where can’t you?
UI Frameworks
- Fixed behavior issues when working with large DPI settings.
Annotation − Dimensions
- Corrected an issue in which witness lines for some types of dimensions extend beyond expected end points.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when creating aligned dimension on specific rvt files.
Assembly Views
- Fixed an issue with the new dialog for creating assembly views.
Ceiling
- Fixed an issue where the Auto-Ceiling tool highlighted a boundary, but was not able to place a ceiling.
Constraints
- Corrected a worksharing issue to prevent a reporting global parameter from being applied to a multi-segmented dimension.
Content
- Fixed a nested family issue in the Japanese family "2 Layer Sliding_Shoji.rfa".
- Improved the function of UK door families by fixing a center alignment issue.
Curtain System
- Fixed an issue with creating a new grid line on the attached curtain wall file.
Family
- Fixed a crash that occurred when two families were loaded into a project and the category of one family was changed mid-load.
- Fixed an issue in using Copy and Paste for instances of a structural family.
- Fixed an issue that prevented some complex families from being placed in the project.
Family Editor
- Fixed an issue that prevented the purge of unused materials in the Family Editor.
File Corruption
- Fixed an issue that could cause Revit to crash when Mechanical Settings are validated.
Graphics − Display
- Corrected an issue so that Revit link geometry displays correctly when the "Draw visible elements only" option (occlusion culling) is turned on, regardless of the zoom level.
- Fixed an issue with decal mirroring.
Graphics − Image Import/Export
- Fixed an issue with inverted color for monochrome PNG files inserted into Revit.
Groups
- Fixed an issue where face-hosted families in a group did not rotate correctly when the group was rotated by 90 degrees. Finally ;)
Keyboard Shortcuts
- Corrected an issue so that reserved keyboard shortcuts display in tooltips.
Object Styles
- Corrected an issue so you cannot create subcategories whose names contain trailing spaces.
Parameters
- Fixed a problem that allowed global parameters to be associated with parameters in a nested family.
- Fixed an issue in the Associate Global Parameter dialog in which a new global parameter is not created if the currently selected item in the dialog has not changed.
- Fixed an issue where family parameters with type selectors could be driven by unrelated types from the project using global parameters.
- Corrected an issue with non-rectangular crop regions in wireframe printing.
- Fixed a print and export issue with non-rectangular crop regions and MEP elements in hidden line views.
- Improved consistency of printing with non-rectangular crop regions.
- Improved stability when printing a large number of sheets to PDF.
Properties Dialog
- Corrected an issue so that when you are placing air terminals, changes to properties in the Properties palette are correctly saved.
Revisions
- Fixed a crash that could occur when cancelling the Sheet Issues/Revisions dialog after making changes.
Schedules
- Fixed an issue with handling conditional formatting in schedules.
- Improved stability when using schedules.
Sketching
- Fixed an issue when transforming sketched elements (e.g., mirroring a floor).
UI Frameworks
- Corrected an issue for add-ins so the component avoids indexing issues resulting from the add-in's on-the-fly ribbon panel modification.
- Corrected an issue so that a ribbon drop-down menu does not obscure its button.
- Corrected an issue so that Revit can start normally, even if the WINDIR environment variable on the computer is not set properly.
- Corrected an issue so that when you display a tooltip from a drop-down tool in the ribbon, the tooltip has a background to obscure graphics behind it.
- Corrected an issue to avoid an OLE error after double-clicking on a Revit file and selecting upgrade.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when exiting the System Inspector.
- Updated the Exchange Apps links to the new links for the Autodesk App Store.
Upgrade
- Fixed a crash that occurred during upgrade.
- Fixed an electrical connection issue that could prohibit a project from being upgraded.
View − Other
- Fixed a crash that could occur when rebar elements were regenerated if no cut plane was available.
- Fixed an issue that resulted in incorrect graphics when applying Rotate True North to a view with a non-rectangular crop region.
Worksharing
- Fixed a crash that would occur when checking the document's worksharing status during a Sync with Central operation.
Background Processes
- Corrected an issue to ensure that when you cancel the editing of a group and the background process is being used for a calculation, the cancel operation is completed as expected.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when using Reload Latest while a background calculation is in progress.
There you have it! Revit 2017 may appear close to 2016R2, but these enhancements, combined with the enhancements to all Revit flavours create a stabilizing release that points to a future of big things. As all releases go, there may be some undocumented adjustments, so keep your eyes open and remember: look at all the buttons!
