A number of posts skirt around the issue of color and schedules, but none seem to address the subject of being able to wholly format a schedule with color. I originally posted on the Wikihelp site asking what was the point of being able to color 'calculated fields' in schedule views if this was not carried through to sheet views. As an Architect whose output is mostly the sheet views, I would wish them to be as clear as possible in order that my design intentions are communicated to any 3rd party. Therefore I would firstly wish that the coloured schedule fields present in a schedule view can be transposed to the sheet view.
My current thinking is that the the issue of coloring should be extended to comprehensively format a schedule such that fields, rows and columns etc can be emphasised by having coloured backgrounds. The issue of border and grid colours has already been discussed and is possible, I understand, but text colouring would also be a bonus in schedules.
This is not a plea to make schedules pretty, but to make them as clear as possible. Large schedules can be easily misinterpreted, more so when read from a screen.
What do others think?
I think the developers thought that, most of the times, construction documents are printed in black and white, or, that this is a feature for the project manager to be used internally, in order to see if certain elements comply with certain limits, but not something to be printed at the end. I don't know, it is hard to determine the reason why the color in cells with conditional format don't print in color.
"construction documents are printed in black and white"
Exactly what I said, but it didn't make it to print. lol
intelligent question and 'food for thought' for autodesk developers.
This is what we say 'evolving process' for a software.
Revit will be a powerful tools if they implement few good suggestions in coming releases.
Since when have construction documents been printed in Black and White?! What century are you guys from? Is the world Black and White, no, think how much clearer things are in colour. In the UK we have been using colour in construction drawings since the computer revolution began. Come on, it seems a poor excuse to say that the developers thought that construction documents were in black and white, they must be very poor communicators if they did and wouldn't a little bit of thoughtful innovation been more like a developer. As for 'project managers' , have they completelly taken over the world and the Architects or Designers role, I sincerely hope not or I might as well give up now. Sorry for the rant!
I know that sometimes plans are printed in color, but during my experience in architectural offices, only the presentation boards were printed in color, not the set of construction documents. So, we are from this century, (and the previous one), but putting color on paper is still expensive.
Some other people say that printed sets of sheets are going to disappear, and everything will be in a computer screen; in that case, the expense of printing in color won't be a problem, and then, the issue of not being able to print the color of the conditional formatting in schedules won't be an issue, either.
As I said, I don't know the exact reasons. That is a question for Autodesk.
Sorry Alfredo, just me getting excited. I should have made it clear that I no longer see printing as 'paper' but emailed sheet sets. Try not to print anything on paper if I can help it!
Andrew,
I completely agree that Schedule color should be available on Sheets--so if you NEED to, you can CHOOSE to print in color, or black and white.
As a workaround with the current limitations, you can print an image of the Schedule showing color, and then place the image in a view on a Sheet. Not very "real-time / BIM" for sure--but it can work if you absolutely need to show color
in the Schedule.
cheers
There are some brilliant minds at work here. I like the workaround but it would, of course, be restricted currently to the very limited use of colour availible to us for schedules. However it may be that the developers could first tackle the further addition of colour to the schedule view and follow on with presenting it in sheets, thanks Cliff.
Another thought came to me in the wee small hours and that is that Revit gives plenty of opportunity to use colour in sheet views ranging from colored views, elevation and the like, including 'colour schemes' for room layouts etc, as well as the ability to include renderings and images on them. Schedules seem to be the poor relation?
In the United States, color copies are substantially more expensive, especially in large format. The prime contractor will make black and white copies (not even greyscale) for their subs. Ocassionally I have seen them print greyscale from PDF. I have never seen a construction set of documents or specs printed in color in my 17 years.
I agree with you though. Color shows a great deal of information. I have seen large scale elevations printed in color on the walls of the field offices. And I have seen project schedules-timelines-critical paths in color.
The work around seems like a great idea. Perhaps the color image is an additional submittal outside of the contstruction set?
Paper prints, colour or otherwise, I would bet are even more expensive in the UK. However, in the interests of progress most good contractors have now embraced the digital revolution and wherever I can we will email construction drawings to site where even small contractors have laptops/Pcs and colour printers. The UK Planning System also works through an Internet Portal and whilst I have subsequently seen our drawings printed out in black and white it is gratifying that they are also getting the colour message and see such a submission as having more quality to it. Conversely however I have had Planning officials phoning to say that they can't understand a drawing and when asked why we find that they have printed it out in B&W! It is also worth saying that we have a note on our documents saying 'do not print unless absolutelly necessary', sadly however, our recipients are either not on, or unable to follow, our sustainable lead.
To conclude, with the advent of more and powerful mobile devices (many coming from the US), to my mind gives me more hope that the future will be paperless but very colouful. Often wonder if Van Gogh would have bothered with paint and canvas if he had lived today? Not easy to hang in a gallery though.
Oh! You bet. Building Information Modeling and Construction Management personnel with field tablets (iPad, etc) are becoming standard.
This is a great thread, in terms of an important wish list item for Revit... Since there haven't been any new replies to it in almost a year, I assume no one has heard of ADesk planning on implementing/tacking this? It seems that among the many wish list items out there, this one should be a pretty quick slam dunk, from a software coding standpoint..
While I think we're still many years from being truly and totally paperless in the construction industry, there is certainly enough momentum towards paperless technology to justify more consistent use of color in Con Docs. The headscratcher is that so many aspects of Revit are well thought out in terms of color usage, but not schedules - which are where the best "information" graphical display is possible. You know, B-I-M..?
Times are changing. Color output on paper is becoming cost effective.
I recently saw a complete set of construction documents done by Adamson Associates of Toronto, printed by Astley Gilbert Reproductions. The results were spectacular.
Mike Jarosz AIA
Ricci Greene Associates
As the originator of the thread I am pleased that my thoughts are apreciated. A little kudos migh reinforce the message to Autodesk, don't you think? (Only kidding)
Glad to see some are getting the message. I sometimes wonder if there is a gulf between the world of software developers and the end users, particularly in the CAD/BIM arena?
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