Using Desktop Connector with Keynotes?

[ttotin]

I've heard you can use Desktop Connector to path to keynotes in a Revit model. I have been able to get the keynotes txt file into the BIM360 hub. But, how do you path to that txt file from the Revit model? I'm at a loss. Any help would be great.

[KyleB_Autodesk]

You want to point your Keynote settings to the Desktop Connector drive location.

-Kyle

[ttotin]

Yes, the file location.

[KyleB_Autodesk · Accepted solution]

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@ttotin wrote:

Yes, the file location.

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When selecting the Keynote location, as captured in the link in my last post, you want to navigate to the Desktop Connector drives, which shows up under "My Computer" in the file browsing experience.

-Kyle

[ttotin]

Thanks! I thought this is how I was trying to path before. Apparently not. It works now. 

[Anonymous]

Kyle,

How does one then edit the Keynote file?

Since Revit doesn't provide that ability natively, we use third-party addin -  Keynote Manager by Revolution Design. How do we edit the keynote file in such a setup? especially when we have teams in different offices working on the same project?

Thanks!

[MichaelRuehr]

You can edit the Keynotes file right in your Desktop Connector with Excel or Keynote application 

[Anonymous]

@KyleB_Autodesk Will we get a warning if a user has the document open in another office?

This sounds like a great recipe for disaster:

• User 1 is editing the file all day, saves before user 2
• User 2 opens the file at beginning of the day and then saves at end of the day, erasing all the work on user 1

We need a proper solution for responsibly dealing with this half baked and dangerous system.

[ttotin]

Agreed, this is not the perfect solution for a typical keynote workflow. Our company has built a custom keynote database management add-on. Its seems to work just as well as working on a network based project. But, we have not used it on too many project yet. For the time being, using the desktop connector seems to be the only solution for having any control over keynotes in a C4R project. If there are any other solutions. I'd be all for it.

[Anonymous]

There is a separate product that seems good: Keynote Manager.

https://revolutiondesign.biz/products/keynote-manager/features/

Still, those that cannot afford it are working in a dangerous environment because Autodesk has not create a proper solution and their solution has not evolved or even attempted to evolve for many years.

[Anonymous]

We have been using Keynote Manager for past 10 years. Haven't used it with BIM 360 Design yet, and I am going to test it with the Desktop Connector. Revolution Design also has their own cloud product to be used for BIM 360 Design.

That being said, adding keynotes to construction documents is a fundamental and basic functionality for all CAD and BIM software. I am perplexed by Revit's apathy towards it. It is analogous to using Revit as a BIM platform and having to use a third-party plugin for modeling walls.

[Anonymous]

Indeed, Autodesk is doing a pathetic job.

[Anonymous]

How did it go with using Keynote Manager with desktop connector?  I'm having trouble with it not using the cloud link in the xml file.

[Anonymous]

None of the Autodesk products or recommended solutions work for this. I even brought this up with the "ask anything" Revit experts at Autodesk University 2018. They did not even know this is not workable and is a problem. 

The only thing that works at the moment is a third party solution - Revolutions Design cloud service in conjunctions with their Keynote Manager software. We have been using it for a few months now. 

[Anonymous]

None of the Autodesk products or recommended solutions work for this. I even brought this up with the "ask anything" Revit experts at Autodesk University 2018. They did not even know this is not workable and is a problem. 

The only thing that works at the moment is a third party solution - Revolutions Design cloud service in conjunctions with their Keynote Manager software. We have been using it for a few months now. 

[BIMTeam]

dwp uses Google Sheets to allow collaboration of Keynote data. Numerous team members can be working in a file and then only one person needs to export a TSV version to use to overwrite the TXT file with.

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@Anonymous wrote:

@KyleB_Autodesk Will we get a warning if a user has the document open in another office?

This sounds like a great recipe for disaster:

• User 1 is editing the file all day, saves before user 2
• User 2 opens the file at beginning of the day and then saves at end of the day, erasing all the work on user 1

We need a proper solution for responsibly dealing with this half baked and dangerous system.

---

[Anonymous]

Exporting Keynotes to update Revit seems like a pretty bad workflow. Not because you have a bad idea, but because we are doing DIY  methods because Revit does not have a good solution.

Autodesk should really step up its game on this workflow.

[Anonymous]

I looked at Revolution's cloud solution but they want you to pay extra for it and it is completely proprietary so everyone who uses the model has to have a seat.  Since I did not need to share the keynote file with anyone outside our organization I used a UNC path to a location on our network even though some people will have to access it over the WAN and potentially cause model performance issues.  Keynote Manager works here.  Hopefully it will not run into locking issues with network latency.   I agree with other posters, Autodesk should really fix this. Their solution is only half-baked. 

[Anonymous]

I am glad it worked out for you. As you stated, it is not a problem when a single user needs to work on keynotes. In our situation, several people are working on a project from our location and several from a different office location. Revolution Design is the only solution I could find that actually works. And you are correct - I had to buy a cloud seat + a Keynote Manager seat for each user. Not cheap, but not super expensive either. But my gripe is more of principal - Not being able to effectively annotate in a BIM software, and having to pay extra to get that functionality, no matter how little,  is just wrong. 

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why this is not an in-built tool within revit. The keynote database file should be a file format that allows multiple people accessing and updating it live from within Revit. This is such a fundamental problem that everyone that uses revit understands the need, but autodesk still do not solve. I am so surprised that it is not solved.