Revit and the CadLab – Suggestions for Working with it

First, our apologies for the difficulties of running Revit on the machines in the CadLab. We are in the process of replacing a number of them, but we hadn’t realized how problematic the current ones are for running Revit (it seems that Revit is the program that stresses them the most - most other programs run fine).

Revit

What follows are some suggestions (mostly from Jonathan Eboli) about how to work with Revit. We hope that they help.

• Be sure to read the Lab instructions given on VistaBB.  You must follow these directions for full credit. 
  • People with short last names are welcome to use 100 + 10 x LettersOfLastName as the length of the longest side.
• Save often!  As noted above we realize there are issues with running Revit in the CAD Lab.  For now please remember to save every few minutes while working in the lab.
• Some had issues with the viewports (the views of your model that you drag onto the “sheet”) being too large after you placed them on a new sheet.  There are several ways of addressing this,
  • A suggestion would be to move the elevation symbols on your "level 1 plan" closer to the building.  Then when you drag level 1 back onto the new sheet, the viewport will be much smaller. 
  • You can change the scale and thus the size of your viewport by
    • right clicking the viewport
    • Selecting element properties
    • selecting a different “view scale” from the drop-down box.
  • You can change the “cropping” of the viewport several ways
    • Most likely to work without problems is to change the size of the viewport by specifying its dimensions on the sheet. To do this:
      • Select the viewport by clicking on it – this should change the tab on the ribbon bar (top of Revit window) to the “Modify Viewports
      • Click on “Size Crop” in the crop subsection of the ribbon
      • Now put in your desired dimensions. Play till you get it as you want.
    • You are supposed to be able to drag “handles” on the edge of the viewport to do the same thing, but how to make those handles appear is not well documented – we couldn’t find it – sometimes they appear and sometimes they don’t. Here are some posts from the user sites on the web that did not work for Jim Mitchell, but may for you.
      • According to RevitCity.com: if you want to  "resize the viewport in the window go to VP, turn on annotation crop and pull the grips in to your model limits." 
      • Furthermore, another post states: "If you need to adjust the limits of your views, get into the view & right click to choose view properties.  From there you can adjust your view crop regions."
• To make drawings look professional, you may want to use guidegrids.  These help you line up elevations, plans, sections and schedules on your sheet.  See this video tutorial for more info.  Note this is not required but could help with arranging your sheet.
• In order to plot a PDF, select file, print, and then select adobe PDF.  You need Adobe Pro on your computer to do this.  Each computer at the Lab has this feature already downloaded. 
  • I believe Drexel has a site license that includes students so you should be able to download it from – software.drexel.edu
• We suggest uploading your revit model to google docs as another method of transferring your model from back and forth between your PC and the Lab computers.  This is a good alternative to using a flash drive.  To learn more about this, watch the google docs upload tutorial.
• Lastly, Jonathan Eboli will be available all weekend should you have any questions about your lab.  Please email me at jae46@drexel.edu to set up a time to meet in the CAD Lab.  If you don't have time to meet, I will do my best to answer your questions via email.

Jonathan Eboli & Jim Mitchell

Lab-3 – Bridge Collision – Grader’s Comments

• Specifically state "this was an implication of the lab" or "this was a limitation of the lab" in your memos. 
• Many used the height of the wall =8' instead of the length of the bridge =520' for question 4 when calculating the bending moment.  You needed to use the bridge length instead of wall height for Q4.  This changes your bending moment.  Partial credit was given for this question.
• Please put your first and last name in the title when you save the document.
• Be sure to follow the formatting instructions already in the lab: "Example of making formulas visible - We want you to display the formula for calculating the momentum. We show each of the ingredients. Then we show the formula - highlighted in pink. Then we actually calculate the result. Note that we used named variables to make the actual cells read readily."
• Part of being an engineer involves professional calculations and writing.  Your calculations may need to be checked by other engineers at a later date and thus you should be neat and organized.  If you are completing the labs via hand calculations, please be neat and organized. 
• Instead of only stating what numbers were obtained during the calculations, try to think if the numbers make sense and why.
• If you are scanning in calculations, please combine them into a single PDF. 

Discussion-5 – AE – Grader Comments

• The most common place for students to lose points was in the "most interesting" or "most confusing" categories.  
• A few posts lacked sufficient length.  Please dedicate more time to your posts and reference your articles more.
• Overall, most discussions were very thorough, organized and informative.  Keep up the good work.

Discussion-3 – Bridges – Grader Comments

• As with the past 2 weeks, the most common place for students to lose points was in the "most interesting" or "most confusing" categories, although substantially less points were lost in this discussion.  
• However, the course information available on VistaBB states that the "most interesting" and "most confusing" sections of the post should be one to two paragraphs.  So expand upon one sentence, which typically cannot sufficiently describe the most interesting aspect of an article.
• Simply listing dimensions of a particular bridge should not be the most interesting part of an article.  While the facts are good to include in your post, talk about something new you learned about the bridge or actually found interesting, in addition to their dimensions.  And again, if nothing was confusing, simply state that.
• I had a comment about how VistaBB won't let you indent, if you want to clean up your post so it's easier to read add an extra return between paragraphs to space them out nicer.  And still take advantage of the "preview" function associated with the discussion posts and make sure to proofread and spellcheck! 

Discussion-2 Grader Comments - Materials

• The term "material" seems to have been loosely interpreted. No points were taken off for choice of material, but for future discussions, it would be wise to select a material typically used in the field you are studying.
• Make sure to post your discussion reply under the thread that most closely relates to the topic of your discussion post.  Many students wrote on the same material and used the same sources, but few referred to the posts of other students. Do not be afraid to change the title of the post to represent the topic of your discussion.
• The most common areas that students lost points was in the "most important" and "most confusing" categories.  As previously said, each student should talk about what they found to be the most important and confusing things about both their primary and secondary articles.  If the article was straightforward and not confusing, simply state that.
• The rest of the comments are minor. 
• Take advantage of the "Preview" function associated with the discussion posts.  This way the post can look exactly as you want it to, in an organized fashion and easy to read. 
• Finally, make sure to proofread your discussion before submitting it.

Lab-2 Grader Comments

• Fill in the "Assignment #" on the top of the "Summary" sheet
• Explicitly state the implications and limitations of the lab.  And expand upon these more than just one sentence.
• State the objective of the lab clearly and discuss the results obtained or the trends of the graphs plotted.

Lab 1 – Grader Comments

Overall, the submissions for Lab 1 were good, but there are few things that I would like to stress to the students:

• Please fully read the entire assignment before completing and submitting your solution. There were a few instances of incomplete assignments. Partial credit can not be given if a question is not attempted.
• Students should be careful about using significant figures and scientific notation appropriately and applicably. Answers should not be submitted with multiple decimal places shown and there is no reason to represent 180 cm in scientific notation. 
• Because of the amount of difficulty students had with properly using significant figures, the suggestion of having a tutorial/refresher on significant figures will be contemplated by the teaching team.

My last comment is a suggestion for how the students could help the graders. If the students were to include their first and last name in the title of the file they submit, it would make the grading process easier.

Jim Mitchell for the Graders