Brand New App for the Revit Market - Door Factory

I would like to introduce you to RevitWorks, a new company specialising in providing Revit content.

I have been working with the guys at RevitWorks over the past few months, helping them develop some of their tools. They have a fresh approach to creating and using Revit families that, I think, offers real time saving benefits.

They currently have some great packages available on their website for working with Casework and Interior Joinery, Piping for Revit Architecture, 2d Fixings & Flashing families for your detailing, and more to come.

The one I have been working on, and really excited about, is the first ever Door Factory add-on for Revit. You will be able to create almost any door you want in seconds, on the fly, without ever going into the family editor. This is still in beta testing at the moment, but there is a video on their web site www.revitworks.co.nz that is worth having a look at.

Check them out.

Cheers

Phillip

New Family Insert Behaviour

With the recent update released for Family Browser 2012 we slightly changed the behaviour with the way Families are inserted into Revit from Family Browser:

1. With Family Browser pinned open focus will return to the Revit canvas as soon as you select a family.  There is now no need to click in the Revit canvas before seeing the family.
2. Moving your mouse over a family in Family Browser will now finish the currently active command in Revit and allow you to place a new family.
3. To swap a preselected family in Revit you need to hold down the "Ctrl" key when entering Family Browser.

I have uploaded a video to YouTube that explains this.

Cheers
Phillip

"My Favorites" Tab and Family Linking

As mentioned in my last post below we have released a new build of Family Browser that has a User defined "My Favorites" tab along with the ability to add links to one family in many tabs.

This has many advantages which include:

• The end user now has the ability to locate their personal favorite families in a prominent location without effecting other users Family Browser setup.
• As the families on the tab are created as a link to the original location of the family, if that family was updated by the BIM manager all linked family icons are updated to the latest family instantly.
• There is now no need to have duplicated families spread over multiple directory locations.

To see how this all works watch the below Video

New Build of Family Browser Avaliable for Revit 2012

We are pleased to announce a new build for Famiy Browser for Revit 2012:

New Features:

1. Addition of “My Favorites” Tab - Video coming soon
2. The ability to link one family to multiple tabs - Video coming soon

Enhancements/Fixes

1. When a Revit command is active and the user moves into Family Browser the current Revit command will finish and Family Browser will be ready to insert the new family.
2. Fixed an issue with Tabs not flipping on duel screens with the primary monitor on the right hand side
3. Fixed an issue with group selector showing when Family Browser was collapsed
4. Removed all hard coded paths, to allow for custom location of Family Browser on a shared network folder

The new version is now availble in the downloads and Current section on this blog.

Family Browser - 1 Year Old.



Family Browser ver 1

 Last week here at Kiwi Codes we celebrated 1 year since Family Browser ver 1 was released to the public.  Just for fun I uninstalled the latest version and reinstalled ver 1 to see how far Family Browser has come.

WOW.  I forgot just how basic it was.  As you can see from the screen grab on the left it lacked the following enhancements that have been added in the following year:

1. Significant UI enhancements. ie boarder less forms, expandable floating palette, right mouse click options to name a few.
2. The ability to insert families with multiple types and type catalogs.
3. Search function.
4. Catalog creator.
5. Icon creator.
6. Automatic start up on Revit start up

It has been a mind blowing year for us here at Kiwi Codes as we never thought Family Browser would have been the success that it has.  Thank you all for your support, comments and suggestions.  They all go towards providing a better product in the future.