The Revit Clinic

Extensions Available for Autodesk Revit 2013

Just wanted to send out a heads up that the following Extensions have just been released on the Subscription Center for Autodesk Revit 2013:

• Globe Link for Autodesk Revit 2013
• Batch Print for Autodesk Revit 2013
• Worksharing Monitor for Autodesk Revit 2013
• Autodesk Revit Model Review 2013
• Autodesk Revit DB Link 2013
• Space Naming Utility for Autodesk Revit MEP 2013

Improving Revit Server Stability Under High Load Conditions

Thanks to Michael Brian Lee in Autodesk QA for the following Revit Server information!

Some users with heavily loaded Revit Servers may experience periodic network disconnects and a lack of server availability. In the most severe cases Revit Server may become completely unresponsive and require a restart of the operating system itself. This issue is related to the underlying Windows Communication Foundation technology underpinning Revit Server, and generally manifests itself with one of the following symptoms:

• A message in the Windows Event Log with the following description:
  
  An error occurred while dispatching a duplicated socket: this handle is now leaked in the process.

• Exceptions in the Revit Server logs that resemble the following:
  
  System.ServiceModel.CommunicationException: There was an error reading from the pipe: The pipe has been ended. (109, 0x6d).
  --->System.IO.PipeException: There was an error reading from the pipe: The pipe has been ended. (109, 0x6d).
  at System.ServiceModel.Channels.PipeConnection.OnAsyncReadComplete(Boolean haveResult, Int32 error, Int32 numBytes)
  --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
  at System.ServiceModel.Channels.PipeConnection.EndRead()
  at System.ServiceModel.Channels.DelegatingConnection.EndRead()
  at System.ServiceModel.Channels.TracingConnection.EndRead()
  at System.ServiceModel.Channels.SessionConnectionReader.OnAsyncReadComplete(Object state)

Microsoft has issued a fix for this issue, and it can be downloaded here:

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=35626

We recommend that all users with heavily loaded Revit Servers download and install these updates.

Hotfix: Improve Stability When Working with Large Datasets (64-bit only)

The following Hotfix has just been released for Autodesk Revit 2012 x64 products:

Hotfix – Autodesk Revit 2012 – Improves stability when working with large datasets (64-bit only)

The Hotfix is meant to address crashing issues when working with large file sets. Some common symptoms of the issue include:

• Typically, journal files will have the following exception code near the end: ExceptionCode=0xe0434352
• Journals will show plenty of available RAM at the time of the crash.
• Crashes will commonly be reported when users are doing things like activating a Drafting View, clicking on the Application Menu, or drawing Detail Lines.

This Hotfix applies to 64 bit systems only, and Web Update 2 must be installed first - so verify that the build number of Revit 2012 is 20110916_2132 before you apply it.

New Version of Autodesk Revit DB Link 2012 Available

A new version of Revit DB Link 2012 was just posted to the Subscription Center, in the Product Enhancements section.

The new release is intended to address the following issues:

1. The following error when attempting to export:
   
   Error: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
   
   
2. A blank RoomFromToAssociations table caused by project phasing.

 

You want to update a revision/issue title block label globally in multiple sheet views

A user who recently migrated from AutoCAD to the Revit Architecture Program and wanted to know how to update a revision/issue title block label globally in multiple sheet views without the need to edit every single individual sheet view contained within the project. When the user used to issue drawings using AutoCad, every drawing has a revision consisting of an xref with the revision data attached to every drawing.

Following these simple steps set out in this link below to our Technical Solution contained within our Knowledge Base to explain how to add a label to a titleblock, which can be updated globally in multiple sheet views in Revit Architecture 2012.

You want to update a revision/issue title block label globally in multiple sheet views

Hotfix: Improve Stability When Uploading to Revit Server, Part 2

The updated version of the Revit Server stability Hotfix has been released, and is available for download here:

Hotfix - Autodesk Revit Server 2012 - Improve stability when uploading to Revit Server

This Hotfix addresses a crash that may occur when Revit is uploading data to Revit Server during a Synchronize with Central operation.

The Hotfix must be applied to both Revit Server and the Revit product to be effective. Instructions on how to do so can be found in the Readme.

Please also note that you need to have Update Release 2 installed for your Revit product (build number 20110916_2132).

Thanks for your patience while we worked on getting the files updated!

Autodesk Cloud Rendering Hotfix released

Here is a list of what has been fixed. 

Cloud Rendering Web Portal: 

1. Re-render rendered the wrong view or had wrong thumbnail or view name.  We fixed two bugs in the gallery re-render feature. These should fix the wrong view re-render issues for new and previously uploaded files. 
2. Estimated time remaining information on progress bar.  The thumbnail progress bar remaining time estimate was not showing up when the mouse was hovering on it. 
3. Shorter view name in tooltip.  When you hover on a thumbnail in the gallery the pop-up that appears now displays the short version of the view name. 
4. Re-render email option added.  In the dialog that appears when re-rendering an image it's now possible to enable/disable the email notification 
5. Zoom sensitivity in panorama viewer.  We adjusted the zoom sensitivity in the panorama viewer.  There are slightly different behaviors depending on the browser used. That's expected. 
6. TIFF panoramas display.  Panoramas generated from TIFF images were not showing in the panorama viewer. 
7. Panorama size limited.  A Flash limitation in the Internet Explorer panorama viewer cannot display large panoramas.  Panoramas sizes are now capped for this reason and for overall system performance control.

Renderer:

1. Materials with bump set to 0 rendered black.  When a bump of relief map was set to 0 intensity the material was rendering black. 
2. Index of Refraction for Generic materials not working.  Generic materials had a fixed IOR of 1.5. Now we use the refraction parameter value correctly. 
3. Better rendering timeout estimation.  Some renderings were failing if they were taking longer than the estimated time. Now we allow extra time. 
4. Reflectivity parameters (equal values) error.  When Generic material reflectivity parameters were set to the same value the material was rendering incorrectly. 

Revit Add-in: 

1. Section box fix.  In some cases the section box was not cutting the geometry correctly when objects were visible in other non-sectioned views.  We now handle that case correctly. 

Download the add-in again and reinstall it to get this fix. 
http://rendering.cloud.autodesk.com 
New Rendering -> Download Rendering Add-in 

To download localized versions of the add-in, switch the page language before downloading (the option is a the bottom of the page). 

Important Update Regarding Revit Server 2012 Hotfix

We have been seeing some issues with the Revit Server Hotfix that was recently released. Some of your users may experience an error when attempting to Sync with Central for larger models or over slower networks. The issue can be identified by the following exception in the journal:

  ' 5:< Retry Count: 0 . Caught exception: 
  ' 5:<   System.ServiceModel.CommunicationException: The server did not provide a meaningful reply; this might be caused by a contract mismatch, a premature session shutdown or an internal server error.

which will typically occur during the following call to the server:

  ' 7:< Time: 11/9/2011 11:14:10:266 Calling: Boolean writeUpdatedElementPermissionsRecords(DataStorageDataContract.ServiceModelSessionToken, System.Collections.Generic.List`1[DataStorage.Permissions.PermissionRecord], System.Collections.Generic.List`1[DataStorage.Permissions.PermissionRecord])

We are working as quickly as possible to correct the issue.

If you have already applied the Hotfix and you are seeing this behavior, you can roll it back by reverting to the original DLL files.

 

Hotfix: Improve Stability When Uploading to Revit Server

UPDATE: Please see this post for important details about this Hotfix.

01-20-12 UPDATE: Please see this post for the updated version of this Hotfix.

The following Hotfix addresses a crash that may occur when Revit is uploading data to Revit Server during a Synchronize with Central operation.

Hotfix - Autodesk Revit Server 2012 - Improve stability when uploading to Revit Server

Please note that it must be applied to both Revit Server and the Revit product to be effective. Instructions on how to do so can be found in the Readme.

Before you apply the Hotfix, make sure you have Update Release 2 installed (20110916_2132):

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 UR2

Autodesk Revit Structure 2012 UR2

Autodesk Revit MEP 2012 UR2

Hotfix : Apply Material Family Parameters Using the Paint Tool

In 2012 you may have noticed that you are unable to apply material family parameters to faces of family elements using the Paint tool. A Hotfix has just been release to restore this functionality.

Hotfix – Autodesk Revit 2012 – Apply material family parameters using the Paint tool

Before you apply the Hotfix, make sure you have Update Release 2 installed (20110916_2132):

Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 UR2

Autodesk Revit Structure 2012 UR2

Autodesk Revit MEP 2012 UR2