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    <title>idea More informative error messages en Revit Ideas</title>
    <link>https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-informative-error-messages/idi-p/7048393</link>
    <description>&lt;P&gt;When using Revit a large amount of time is lost by trying to interpret uninformative and very general error messages.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;In order to find out that something is wrong Revit obviously&amp;nbsp;did&amp;nbsp;the necessary processing to understand the causes. &amp;nbsp;But then, at least in a large number&amp;nbsp;of cases, rather than providing this information, a very general error message is printed which does not help much to solve the problem.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;More informative error messages, if possible even with links to help or internet pages going into more detail, would help to save a lot of time, money and frustration...&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Example:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;When, for example, calculating a distance using&amp;nbsp;a formula like "Length / Number" the divisor might become 0. &amp;nbsp;Rather than complaining when this is the case, Revit generally does not allow this kind of formula and something like "&lt;SPAN&gt;Length / (Number + 1)&lt;/SPAN&gt;" has to be written. &amp;nbsp;Obviously Revit did the necessary analysis to understand the origin of the problem. &amp;nbsp;However, the following very general error message is printed:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;EM&gt; Invalid formula found in the "Length" parameter in the "XXX" type. &amp;nbsp;You will need to import the correct table or edit the formula in order to continue.&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;The user then has to find the problem by himself, for example by randomly searching through all kind of internet pages relating to formulas until he finally might find a note like this:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;EM&gt;Arrays in a family can be controlled using an integer parameter. When the array is controlled with a formula, the formula must contain syntax to ensure the array value is always greater than one (an array value must always be greater than 1).&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Obviously Revit had all necessary information for localizing the error - but did not go through the effort to print it.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;There are plenty of other examples with general error messages not providing helpful&amp;nbsp;information to locate the problem, like the messages concerning conflicting constraints, error messages after reimporting families etc.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;</description>
    <pubDate>Fri, 28 Apr 2017 02:43:41 GMT</pubDate>
    <dc:creator>Anonymous</dc:creator>
    <dc:date>2017-04-28T02:43:41Z</dc:date>
    <item>
      <title>More informative error messages</title>
      <link>https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-informative-error-messages/idi-p/7048393</link>
      <description>&lt;P&gt;When using Revit a large amount of time is lost by trying to interpret uninformative and very general error messages.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;In order to find out that something is wrong Revit obviously&amp;nbsp;did&amp;nbsp;the necessary processing to understand the causes. &amp;nbsp;But then, at least in a large number&amp;nbsp;of cases, rather than providing this information, a very general error message is printed which does not help much to solve the problem.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;More informative error messages, if possible even with links to help or internet pages going into more detail, would help to save a lot of time, money and frustration...&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Example:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;When, for example, calculating a distance using&amp;nbsp;a formula like "Length / Number" the divisor might become 0. &amp;nbsp;Rather than complaining when this is the case, Revit generally does not allow this kind of formula and something like "&lt;SPAN&gt;Length / (Number + 1)&lt;/SPAN&gt;" has to be written. &amp;nbsp;Obviously Revit did the necessary analysis to understand the origin of the problem. &amp;nbsp;However, the following very general error message is printed:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;EM&gt; Invalid formula found in the "Length" parameter in the "XXX" type. &amp;nbsp;You will need to import the correct table or edit the formula in order to continue.&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;The user then has to find the problem by himself, for example by randomly searching through all kind of internet pages relating to formulas until he finally might find a note like this:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;EM&gt;Arrays in a family can be controlled using an integer parameter. When the array is controlled with a formula, the formula must contain syntax to ensure the array value is always greater than one (an array value must always be greater than 1).&lt;/EM&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Obviously Revit had all necessary information for localizing the error - but did not go through the effort to print it.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;There are plenty of other examples with general error messages not providing helpful&amp;nbsp;information to locate the problem, like the messages concerning conflicting constraints, error messages after reimporting families etc.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 28 Apr 2017 02:43:41 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-informative-error-messages/idi-p/7048393</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anonymous</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-04-28T02:43:41Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: More informative error messages</title>
      <link>https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-informative-error-messages/idc-p/7050116#M7750</link>
      <description>&lt;P&gt;I think you're given Revit a little too much credit.&amp;nbsp; Much more likely the formula execution is wrapped in a "try/catch", where it tries to run it as-is.&amp;nbsp; If an error is encountered ("throw") it is handled (by a "catch").&amp;nbsp; Those handlers rarely go into the kind of detail you are expecting, as the errors can come from many different levels of programming and have many different causes and solutions.&amp;nbsp; They only care that something went wrong, and are unaware of where or why it happened.&lt;/P&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 28 Apr 2017 17:38:20 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-informative-error-messages/idc-p/7050116#M7750</guid>
      <dc:creator>dgorsman</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-04-28T17:38:20Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: More informative error messages</title>
      <link>https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-informative-error-messages/idc-p/7050975#M7755</link>
      <description>&lt;P&gt;Hi dgorsman,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Thank you, maybe you are right. &amp;nbsp;But in this case I would opt&amp;nbsp;for doing some more research into better error analysis tools &lt;img class="lia-deferred-image lia-image-emoji" src="https://forums.autodesk.com/html/@D5D66E11BC96A1C8427F98151D3E9A7A/emoticons/1f642.png" alt=":cara_con_una_leve_sonrisa:" title=":cara_con_una_leve_sonrisa:" /&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;I have the impression that the compilers of most programming languages generally generate better error messages, so there should be some margin and better methods than relying on try and catch.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;Also, in the case of &lt;SPAN&gt;"&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN&gt;Length / (Number + 1)&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;SPAN&gt;", a try/catch approach would only work when the value of Number actually is 0 at the time the formula was added. &amp;nbsp;But an error is printed even if Number is different from 0 - and it is not printed when +1 is added. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/SPAN&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;SPAN&gt;Actually, r&lt;/SPAN&gt;ather than speculation, it would be interesting to know what kind of procedure causes the error message in this case.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;For the case that a try/catch approach was used with different values, the Number == 0 one of them, the reason of the error, however, is clear and a better error message simple to generate.&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 29 Apr 2017 08:37:16 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-informative-error-messages/idc-p/7050975#M7755</guid>
      <dc:creator>Anonymous</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2017-04-29T08:37:16Z</dc:date>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Re: More informative error messages</title>
      <link>https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-informative-error-messages/idc-p/9766564#M33802</link>
      <description>&lt;P&gt;vote for this:&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;A href="https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/thumbnail-when-error-messages-appears/idi-p/9766554" target="_blank"&gt;https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/thumbnail-when-error-messages-appears/idi-p/9766554&lt;/A&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;P&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/P&gt;</description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2020 17:47:35 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/more-informative-error-messages/idc-p/9766564#M33802</guid>
      <dc:creator>rbarbosa8DQGJ</dc:creator>
      <dc:date>2020-09-24T17:47:35Z</dc:date>
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