Revit Warnings - Who created those warnings?

[Revision_A]

Hi,

I'm working in a BIM manager/Project architect capacity on my current project and have a team of Reviters who get sloppy with their modelling. I'm constantly cleaning up simple warnings (lines off axis, walls overlapping, rooms not enclosed) and want to find a way to export a list from Revit which identifies who created each warning so I can send a list around to everyone and get them to fix their own modelling mistakes.

Is there anything out there (addon, API etc) which will allow me to do this?

[constantin.stroescu]

go to Manage > Inquiry > Review Warnings > Export - export to .html

[Revision_A]

Thanks Constantin but unfortunately this list doesn't identify the user(s) that created the warnings.

I need something that will identify each user so I can instruct them to fix their own warnings.

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@constantin.stroescu wrote:

go to Manage > Inquiry > Review Warnings > Export - export to .html

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[constantin.stroescu]

As long as it indentifies the Workset on which the error belongs , I dare say that you can know which user's belong the warning (as each workset belong to a certain owner)

[Revision_A]

Ownership of worksets is alternated between users based on who needs control of which workset for a certain task. This happens multiple times a day as there are 2-3 people working in the same area (and altering elements in the same workset) so being able to identify the workset doesn't solve the issue.

To put it into perspective, we have 7 people working on the project at the moment, each of which are creating warnings and not fixing them as they create them. I understand that users can own worksets (if they are editable) but as workflows progress during the day, users end up controlling elements of a workset that multiple people are working on. As such, it becomes impossible to identify who exactly is creating specific warnings.

Surely other Revit users have come across this issue.I've read of people using API to compare warnings to Revit log files but I haven't been able to find decent tutorials showing how to make it work.

[damo3]

Hi Revision, 

which warnings are you most concered about? What is the file size and how many warnings are you dealing with? 

Having a zero warning model will make you and your team go crazy. It is an unrealistic expectation. Some things in Revit will be the way you want them to be and they will still throw a warning. I would recommend focusing on the important warnings, such as drawn off axis which can propogate quite quickly through a model from offsets and perpindicular snapping. Mark & Type marks is another as it will impact on schedule output + others. From there look at time vs gain for each warning you spend time on trying to correct. A rough guide, 1 warning for every 1mb of file size. 50mb file, no more than 50 warnings. If your under, fix the important ones and then weigh up if its worth fixing the rest. Based on this ratio, a reduction in model performance is negligible. 

As for trying to make your team accountable, I would recommend reviewing training in lieu of a 'you broke it, you fix it' approach. 

[Revision_A]

Gday Damo,

At the moment, we don't have very many warnings at all (approx 28 at the moment) but it went from about 15 to 130 in the space of 8 hours last week. Given that the directors of our company don't use Revit and don't even know how it works, convincing them to provide more training for my team isn't easy. That's why I'm trying to get them to be accountable for their own warnings so they can learn what not to do in future.

Like you said, it's the easy ones I'm trying to rectify (lines off axis, type mark duplicates, walls overlapping etc) so we don't let it get out of control. To put it in perspective, we just finished a project where the same team of staff created approx 11,000 warnings - most of which could have been easily fixed as they were made.

I don't want this project to turn out like that so I was trying to find a way to make people fix their warnings and be accountable for the way in which they work.

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@damo3 wrote:

Hi Revision, 

which warnings are you most concered about? What is the file size and how many warnings are you dealing with? 

Having a zero warning model will make you and your team go crazy. It is an unrealistic expectation. Some things in Revit will be the way you want them to be and they will still throw a warning. I would recommend focusing on the important warnings, such as drawn off axis which can propogate quite quickly through a model from offsets and perpindicular snapping. Mark & Type marks is another as it will impact on schedule output + others. From there look at time vs gain for each warning you spend time on trying to correct. A rough guide, 1 warning for every 1mb of file size. 50mb file, no more than 50 warnings. If your under, fix the important ones and then weigh up if its worth fixing the rest. Based on this ratio, a reduction in model performance is negligible. 

As for trying to make your team accountable, I would recommend reviewing training in lieu of a 'you broke it, you fix it' approach. 

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[damo3]

directors who don't know how to use the program? I think you have described what 99.5% of BIM managers are faced with. However, after the further information you have provided, I maintain training is definatily needed.

Warnings can be very telling of users skill, understanding and office standards. Warning numbers jumping suddenly in a short space of time is usually indicative of a single activity, such as referencing and therefore mark warnings popping up or a Survey being imported and exploded, hence multiple off axis warnings. Question is, is this the user or is the office standard not suited to revit? We modified our office door and window referencing as it threw up mark warnings. Rather than fight revit, we adapted our standards to make the tool work for us. Perhaps its revits fault, multiple room bounding warnings when the rooms dont actually overlap (glitch) instant 100 warnings in our file. Hence why asking inexperienced users to take care of this, may not be the best option to begin with. 

11, 000 warnings? Job type? File size? What type of warnings are they?  Must be a dog of a file to use. Who was the model manager? I would have been alarmed at 1000, who let it get to 11, 000? This file should be audited if it hasn't already to help identify training needs and project setup. 

Your office modelling practises or standards may need updating and guess who usually approves those big decisions... directors! Just mention it is costing them money, you will have their undivided attention! 

[SteveKStafford]

Have you seen Harry Mattison's blog post about this? He write Boost Your BIM. He provides some code to demonstrate the concept. I doubt it is robust enough to work for all users active on the project unless it is putting the resulting files in the same place and you can then access them to review the data too.

[Revision_A]

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@Steve_Stafford wrote:

Have you seen Harry Mattison's blog post about this? He write Boost Your BIM. He provides some code to demonstrate the concept. I doubt it is robust enough to work for all users active on the project unless it is putting the resulting files in the same place and you can then access them to review the data too.

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Cheers Steve, I stumbled across 'Boost Your BIM' a few days ago and Harry gave me some links to look into. I haven't had a chance to look at them but I'll give it a go and let everyone know if it works out.