In Autodesk Informed Design's first public release, the team has implemented many highly requested enhancements based on valuable feedback from our beta testers. We are delighted to present the progress we have made since the conclusion of the private beta two months ago. Our team is genuinely thrilled to keep rolling out new functionality that closely aligns with the invaluable feedback provided by our incredible community. We greatly appreciate your input and look forward to delivering features that address your needs and enhance your experience with Informed Design.
Our beta testers were required to include the bill of materials with their published products. Bills of materials are no longer a requirement to publish.
On the Rules tab, the workspace toolbox now includes a Comment block. Unlike the Comments that are added to individual codeblocks via the contextual menu’s Add Comment command, the new Comment blocks in the toolbox are searchable by keyword (Ctrl + F) in the workspace canvas. This makes Comment blocks the ideal method for explaining a rule’s intent, flagging incomplete rules for follow-up, tracking changes, and sharing useful context with a product definition’s co-authors.
Beta testers and those who visited our team’s Demo Booth at Autodesk University 2023 may recall the option to pre-generate product variations, which can then be placed in the project instantly from the Existing tab. This workflow aims to minimize the disruption of generating product variations on demand during placement. With these recent enhancements, product customization is more efficient than ever.
During the beta it was only possible to generate one variation at a time, so our beta testers had to wait until each variation had finished generating before starting to configure the next one. Today you can generate multiple product variations at a time and configure a new variation while the others are in progress. You are also free to browse other products and place instances of existing variations while you wait for new ones to finish generating.
Much has changed when it comes to modifying the values of existing instances – most notably the command name. What our beta testers knew as “Edit Instance” is now called Replace. The previous name implied, misleadingly, that the values of an Informed Design instance could be modified in place and maintain the same Revit element ID. In fact, this command works by generating a new product variation using the modified values, which then replaces the existing instance and is assigned a new element ID. “Replace” better conveys this nuance.
During the beta it was possible to navigate between multiple releases of a product while browsing products to insert, but using a different release to update an existing instance in-place was not yet supported. For products with multiple releases available, you now have the option to configure a replacement variation with the release that is currently in use for the instance, or to select a different release of the product to use as the instance’s replacement.
When multiple representations are included with a product release, beta testers could choose which representation to use for their instance to be generated or inserted, but this option was not available for the Replace workflow. You can now choose from all the release’s available representations while configuring an existing instance’s replacement.
In the previous build, the Replace dialog did not include the preview or product details.
Replacing an existing instance in the model with the new variation was the only way to see how modified values would look and behave. Today the Replace workflow includes the option to Update preview, so you can consider the impact of product modifications before replacing the instance. The product details under the preview include the classification and release information.
When a Revit project includes instances from more than one release of a product, you can now specify both product and release during instance assignment. Navigate releases with the Product dropdown menu’s nested Release menu.
We'd love to hear from you! Have an idea for additional functionality you'd like to see in a future release of Informed Design? Post or upvote ideas on our IdeaBoard.
Check out Product Help for the full documentation of Informed Design for Inventor, Informed Design for Revit, and the Informed Design Web Portal, including the latest Release Notes.
Autodesk Informed Design's public release showcases significant enhancements driven by valuable feedback from beta testers. The team is excited about the progress since the private beta's conclusion. The latest release focuses on addressing user needs, including more control over output availability. Notably, the requirement for including bills of materials with published products has been removed, providing users with greater flexibility. The team expresses gratitude for the community's input and is committed to delivering features that enhance the Informed Design experience based on user insights.
