Support for ITMs in Revit? Advanced naming, etc.?

[CIPuyleart]

I am testing out APL right now in trial mode with ITMs (including hangers and pipe) and am not seeing some features I would have expected would exist given the age of the product and the fact ITMs have been in Revit now for several versions.  I am a long time Trimble Field Points user, but their complete lack of ITM support in Revit has left me looking for alternatives before I simply have our in-house guy write our own custom add-in.  Can these things be done in APL and I'm just missing them in the workflows (since the documentation is from 2016)?

• Can I use custom properties or even standard ITM properties to create a dynamic description for hangers that includes things like hanger size and rod size?
• I see hanger points list their "host" element ID, but is there some way to evaluate/reconcile if the host is moved and the hanger point is not?
• Is there some way to default the different dialogues to open to the last-used setting (such as launching "Hangers" and always getting duct instead of going back to pipe hangers)?
• Is there a way to create additional "categories" of hangers aside from what appear to be hard-coded?
• Is there a way to place points on the top quadrant of pipes (as opposed to centerline) along a run?  Bottom quadrant? We can't put the tip of our survey rod in the middle of a pipe very easily...
• Can I select fabrication items in a link for placement of points (to keep the points in a separate file and keep the model more clean)?
• Is there a way to place points over all (or a selected sub-set) instances of an object based on selecting a point on that ITM (such as having top-center of all couplings get a point based on a manual selection of one of them in the model)?

I'm sure I'll have more questions in the next 25-or-so days, but that's a start.

Thanks,

Casey

[s.hamel · Accepted solution]

CIPuyleart, welcome to the forum.  Fabrication parts have been in Revit for awhile now, we started by addressing the hangers first and will continue to add functionality based on feed back.  We have clearly heard the need for additional workflows to be supported and so will be adding these for the next release.  I'll try and answer each of your questions but if I miss something just ask it again in a follow-up:

1. Hanger Dynamic descriptions:

This is planned for the next release.

2. Host elements, Moved items

This is available now.  Host element is stored in this case specifically to cover that type of functionality.  If you re-trigger the Fabrication Hangers function, the first thing it will do for the selected hangers is check if points were already created for them and update their position if needed.  Give it a try, add some points, move the hangers then trigger to add points again.

3.  Reuse last settings

To be blunt we know this is inconsistent and agree that it should always remember last used settings.  It is definitely on our feature request list, but is lower priority than new functionality.

4. Categories

Not at this time.  Long term plans yes, but is such a large change to the background that it has been pushed down the priority list.

5.  Top of Pipe

Not currently for the MEP Pipe or future Fabrication Pipe function.  Will add to the list as I definitely understand the need for this.  It is available in the AutoCAD side, and also in Revit in the Connect Pts function for when you have collected those points out in the field and are looking to generate the runs from those.

6. Mark linked models

No, and unlikely to add this functionality any time in the foreseeable future.  I have looked into it in the past and it would require a very significant amount of work.  What you can do is add the points in the original file and either do a Cut/Paste directly over another file, or export/import and discard changes to the original file.

7.   This is planned for the next major release.  Previously this would have been covered via in family points, however since fabrication parts are not editable, what you mention is the next best solution.  Unfortunately this will not be able to be quite as flexible but should still cover the need.

Thanks,

Shayne Hamel

[CIPuyleart]

I assume by "next release" that you refer to the 2020 products?  That's too bad...

[CIPuyleart]

Oh, and I just tested item 2 and it worked...

Too bad it appears that the pipe points placement doesn't list host elements.

Does this information show up in the user manual at all?  From what I've seen, the manual is dated to 2016, but it appears the function , icons, and even features have changed a bit.  Is there some other source of help for how the program is currently set up instead of how it was in 2016?