Revit Easter Eggs

[Anonymous]

Hello Revit Community,

I am writing to ask if anyone has left objects hidden within their Revit models - the equivalent of an "easter egg" in other kinds of media (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media)).  If so, could you post an image in this reply along with a caption or description?

many thanks,

Sam

[barthbradley]

Not Easter Eggs, per se, but components or annotations that are controlled by formula-driven visibility parameters that are activated based on the value of another parameter(s). 

Out of curiosity, what are you trying to "hide"? 

[Anonymous]

Here's why I asked:

I am interested in the ways that BIM has transformed architectural work and departed from older, two-dimensional forms of representation.

We could say that when one draws in BIM, one is representing much more than what one sees on the screen. Each line or component is instantly reproduced in other views, and carries with it an extraordinary amount of information- more information than the draftsperson can possibly possess on their own, or that a builder would necessarily need to know (although the knowledge of the draftsperson and the demands of the builder are also changing to meet these new conditions of production).

What was formerly implied in two-dimensional drawing sets is now shown in three-dimensional models, even if these excess areas of a project are never seen- one still looks at and presents a BIM model through a series of selected two and three-dimensional views rather than an exhaustive survey of the model (please let me know if this is your experience as well).

And so, my question is, what happens within these surplus, and hidden, spaces of architectural representation? Do they function like the margins of medieval illuminated manuscripts, where monks would leave illustrations and complaints to one another in periods of boredom during their long hours of transcription? There is a more established history of this kind of reflexive activity in the film and television industries- think of 30 Rock, for example, where the dynamics of the writers room become the entire premise for the show.

I suspect that these sorts of insider jokes play out in architecture as well, and that Building Information Modeling presents a new kind of venue for this discourse. This is why I have introduced this hypothesis within this software forum- where else could one find out the answer to this question?

[barthbradley]

Psychedelic, man. 

Peace and Love

[ToanDN]

Deep.

In reality, the sloppy folks I work with leave a lot of stuff manually hidden in the model that drive everyone else including themselves nut.  I actually want to organize an Easter Eggs to hunt them down and nuke them into nonexistence. 

[Sahay_R]

Hidden catastrophes - yes.....

[andybrack]

Yeah.  I find stuff all the time. In general as the model changes over time, we are left with tidbits of previous design work that is no longer valid.  So whether you call this an 'easter egg' or just 'junk' is in the eye of the beholder.  I'd say most of this is unintentional, but needless to say these things inadvertently show up on drawings.

Andy Brack

[loboarch]

Working on learning content for Revit I have made some of the example projects that ship with Revit and Revit LT. There is one "Easter Egg" in the advanced Architectural Sample model for Revit and one "Easter Egg" in the Residential Sample model in Revit LT.

They are not really hidden things necessarily, just "personal" in nature. Just little known facts (maybe me and a handful of people know about.) But if I give away the "secret" then it is not exactly an Easter Egg anymore.  

P.S. The one in the Revit Advanced Architectural Sample model is far easier to "find", than the Revit LT one.

[barthbradley]

@loboarch: Please; do tell. Or, at least give us a clue. 

...you are the author of the Sample files? Is that right? 

[Sahay_R]

Shhhh @barthbradley. Didn't you see - @loboarch said it's 'personal'.......

[loboarch]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@loboarch: Please; do tell. Or, at least give us a clue. 

...you are the author of the Sample files? Is that right? 

---

I am the author of some of the sample files, but worked on almost all of them in some way.

Hint: The Easter Egg in the Revit Advanced sample model can be easily seen in a number of the pre-defined views in the project. Like I said the Easter egg is NOT hidden, or more aptly hidden in plain sight. In fact I think a couple of people (customers) over the years have actually asked me about it at AU and I confirmed the Easter Egg nature of it.

[RobDraw]

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@andybrack wrote:

Yeah.  I find stuff all the time. In general as the model changes over time, we are left with tidbits of previous design work that is no longer valid.  So whether you call this an 'easter egg' or just 'junk' is in the eye of the beholder.

---

I call them CAD droppings. I suppose if they were shiny or painted, you could call them Easter Eggs but they would still be CAD droppings.

[chrisplyler]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What was formerly implied in two-dimensional drawing sets is now shown in three-dimensional models, even if these excess areas of a project are never seen- one still looks at and presents a BIM model through a series of selected two and three-dimensional views rather than an exhaustive survey of the model (please let me know if this is your experience as well).

And so, my question is, what happens within these surplus, and hidden, spaces of architectural representation?

---

Although not evident on printed document sets, they are used for collision detection, code-required clearances, manufacturer-required clearances, etc.

On the project I'm working on at the moment, I could just represent the chillers with rectangles. But I don't. I modeled a family for them that's dimensionally accurate. This is so that my pipe routing isn't just showing intent, but is showing actual locations that I know clears the body of the chillers with room for installation around certain joints.

The extra detail in the chiller family isn't for the field guys who are reading the print. It's for me to have confidence in my piping layout.

I've modeled a bunch of other bits and pieces representing existing obstacles in that mechanical room too. They're turned off now. They don't even show on any of the prints. But where my piping layout shows an offset and return, requiring a bit more pipe and a few extra fittings than might otherwise have been the case, there's a good reason for it. My mechanical superintendent, who will be ordering the pipe and fittings based on the quantities shown on the drawing, doesn't need to see those in-place generic model obstacles, but I did when I was routing the pipe.

[dgorsman]

Deliberate "easter eggs" can get tricky, as what's humorous to some are legal repercussions to others.  A few legendary examples:

A worker/person on a crane, when looked at more closely, is actually Spiderman.  Problem with that is copyright violation.  Disney lawyers are notorious for lack of humor or tolerance, second only to LucasArts who went after both Motorola (Droid flip-phone) *and* Google (Android operating system).  Think about that level of commitment compared to your own employer and client.

Another worker/person, inspected closely, is actually urinating.  I shouldn't need to state the level of legal problems that would bring up for all involved (EPC all the way through to client) if someone found it.

A logo is found embedded on something inside a model.  The owner of the logo is a competitor to the client and had *nothing* to do with that project.  Somebody copy-pasted/downloaded/etc. the wrong thing.  Now the client has a problem as their model has proprietary information; do they need to compensate the third party?  Remove the content entirely?  There can be a loooong and expensive chain of legal repercussions there.

[barthbradley]

Excellent contribution. A must read. Thank you, @dgorsman. 

[Sahay_R]

Moral of the story - leave Easter Eggs out of Revit, BIM, your work in general, and let the Easter Bunny take care of them.  

[118137AMM2M]

Haha. Someone actually did that?