• Tag: design

    HIVE Revit Family Standards

    Posted on by David Medeiros

    What are HIVE Revit Family Standards?

    HIVE Standards is a system that helps BIM managers check and maintain the quality of Revit family content for the organization. It is set up in the HIVE Portal and runs automatic checks on the content in chosen libraries. It can also be modified to fit the organization’s own standards.

    Qualified content in a library has the checks performed. If you have 500 items in a library, there may be only 100 items that qualify.

    What qualifies a piece of content?

    • families of versions greater than Revit 2020
    • families that can exist outside of a Revit project model
    • families that have not been automatically upgraded (checks the source version only)

    Configuring Family Standards

    Access Family Standards by logging into the CTC HIVE Portal.

     

    HIVE Standards

    Select the “Standards” tab and select the “Family Ruleset” on the left side bar.

    HIVE Standards

    Select the applicable settings to be used for checks.

    HIVE Standards

    • Include Shared Parameter Use in Automated Rating: if a shared parameter file has been uploaded to HIVE, it will be used in this check
    • Include Custom Parameter Use in Automated Rating: checks for parameters not typically found in families (such as built-in parameters)
    • Include Custom Parameter Naming in Automated Rating: checks that custom parameters meet the established naming rules
    • Include Parameter Grouping in Automated Rating: checks that parameter groups follow established rules

    HIVE Standards

    • File Size: set a maximum size for the family file and include it in the rating

    HIVE Standards

    • Include Mapping in Automated Rating: check that the mapping used follows established standard
    • Include Unused in Automated Rating: check if there are unused sub-categories

    HIVE Standards

    • Reference Plane Naming in Automated Rating: check if the reference planes are named according to established standard

    HIVE Standards

    • Exclude Public Content with Combined Rating Less than Minimum: content from public libraries rated below this threshold will not be shown in search results
    • Exclude Org Content with Combined Rating Less than Minimum: content rated below this threshold will not be shown in search results

    Along with the Family Ruleset settings, additional options with the Common Standards can be applied. Common Standards are organization specific standards that apply to both projects and families. To access the Common Standards, in the left side bar select Common Standards.

     

    HIVE Standards

    Configuring Common Standards

    • You can upload your organizations Shared Parameter file to be used for various features within standards such as family checking.
    • You can use Parameter Grouping to establish valid parameter groups to be used with standards, select it from the left tree and use the arrow to add it to the right.
    • In addition to the Common Standards, you can set Parameter Name Rules and Custom Sub-Categories
      • Valid Parameter Name Parts: put valid parts of names that should be used when naming parameters. ie. ARCH E_ LC-
      • Invalid Parameter Name Parts: combinations of letters and symbols of names that should not appear in parameter names.

    Running Family Standard Checks

    Select the libraries you want from the organization list by ticking the boxes next to them. A green button will show up on the top right corner of the list when you do that. Press this button to start the process.

    HIVE Revit Family Standards

    • The checking process runs silently, without requiring any input from the user.
    • A scoring process is used during the check (Ex: Identity Data, MEP Connectors, Warnings etc.) to validate the content against the Family Standards settings (Family Ruleset and Common Standards).
    • You will receive a email with the review results and have the ability to download a Excel file that consists of all the results from the checks.
    • You can access and review the data in multiple ways.
    • Directly using the Excel spreadsheet, leveraging PowerBi and utilizing the WebAPI are a few examples.
    • For more information on CTC HIVE Family Standards visit www.ctcsoftware.com.

    For any questions reach out to your sales rep or contact us at info@solidcad.ca.

    Civil 3D: Profile Grade Intersections

    Posted on by admin

    The goal in this example is to design the profile where each grade is an even number.  It’s not as obvious as you might think.  Thanks to my colleagues Dave Hill and Jae Kwon for pointing out the proper tool.

    Read on to learn more…

    Begin by modeling the first 2 segments.  I’ll assume you know the best tools for this, but I’ll give you a hint.  Use the Grid View; it’s your friend here.

                 

    To model the last 5% grade is not entirely obvious.  Yes, a 5% tangent can be drawn from the end of the 1% grade, but it doesn’t end in the right place.

    We sort of want to draw backwards from the end of the red profile then extend the 1% grade.

    Use this tool and follow the prompts.  First select the 1% grade, then pick Station and Elevation and the tie-in point.  Then enter the grade, in this case -5% (the grade from the intersected PVI).

               

    C’est voilà!

    Working From Home with HIVE – CTC

    Posted on by Rikki Kenzhebayeva

    This article was created by CTC Software

    So, you need to work remote from the office and you have discovered it is a bit of a pain for production. Or, perhaps you have yet to discover the pains of extended remote work and you want to be prepared? CTC Software has tools to make all aspects of production more efficient, including the remote workforce.

    The biggest delay when working remotely in Revit, after the project model access, is getting and loading content. The project model has been properly solved by Autodesk’s BIM360 eco system. Sadly, that system is not very efficient at holding the content and allowing it to be loaded into project models. This content loading process typically involves someone using a VPN connection to remotely access the office network, then browsing across that VPN connection. When the time comes to load family content it is rather slow, but even worse is when system families or typical detail views must be accessed. These pieces of content are stored in project models, and these models can be rather large. Opening and transferring settings from these models is extremely slow across VPN.

    CTC has heard it said, “Well, I’ll just use Google docs, or Dropbox then…” Well, this may work, but keep in mind, small company libraries are about 1GB of content per Revit version so this could easily mean storing and syncing 4GB of Revit content, and this is estimating conservatively. Most firms have way more than that.

    So, what is the solution? CTC Has a toolset called HIVE. It is tuned to manage Revit’s custom libraries but can also be used for any kind of content. Since we are discussing Revit here, understand this, HIVE allows easy google-like searching of the regular loadable families, System families, typical drafting views, Schedules, and even fully assembled sheets. This all can be done with very minimal setup, and users get the content they need on-demand. All they need is an internet connection. This would not require any VPN for the content stored in HIVE.

    CTC has run demonstrations of HIVE from conferences like Autodesk University and BiLT. These conferences often have acceptable but certainly not speedy internet, and sometimes the internet at these events can be very unstable. While there, CTC often conducts HIVE demonstrations, browsing for any needed content with no perceptible delay.

    What does this mean for you? Well, your BIM Management team can easily configure HIVE to host all needed Revit Content, and your workforce can access it from any workstation connected to the internet. They will need the internet anyway to work on BIM360, so the system requirements and connections are already in place for them to use HIVE almost instantly.

    Contact your local CTC representative to get your trial of HIVE and understand how you can purchase this perfectly tailored solution for times just like the ones we currently find ourselves in.

    Contact:

    Mughees Altaf
    Account Manager — AEC Productivity Tools
    mughees.altaf@solidcad.ca