Would it not be nice if software developers put meaningful labels on their buttons?
Here is a typical example in Revit: You want to let the weatherboards hang down a little lower than the main framing. How to do this? Well, covered very well in this blog here:
http://www.revitzone.com/3d-modelling/182-walls-extending-individual-layers
To get to the part you need, you hit a button marked "Preview". Not intuitive.
This is the dialog box:
Then you get another dialog box with a side view on it, where you click on the layer you want to alter then you unlock it. Then you come back out back to the Properties and you find that you can now edit the "Base Extension Distance". Admittedly, what would you label that button? "Hit this to stuff around with wall layers different base offsets"? Obviously not enough room for that...Or how about:
"Wall Layer Modifications" or "To Alter Wall Layers"? Even then, how would you know to click on the layer and unlock it?
I guess it is one of those "need to know" things that all software seems to have.
Misbehaving Windows
A friend is making a set of wooden windows for an architecturally designed house. I thought this would be a good opportunity to demonstrate my skills in detailing in 3D the details of the strange track system for the sliding door. The architect did not want a guiding track to be visible as you exit the door. The solution was to put the track under the sill. I had not any real problems drawing up the brackets and roller for the door, as seen below:
The fun came when I chose to insert it into the project. It would not go in. After getting the problem solved by going to the Autodesk Revit discussion group, the sins of my family were put on display.
My sin was to have a certain thickness of wall in the family and another one in my project. Not so bad but somehow I had managed to constrain the door part to the wall. A constraint not needed as it happens!
In the process of detailing the rollers and so on, I have come to realise there are no fasteners in "out of the box" Revit. Why not? I guess they are already overloaded in the download department. Could they not make it a separate download? OOPs! Just did a google check and Autodesk Seek has them!
See http://seek.autodesk.com/category/locale/USRevitStr/05090-Metal+Fastenings
