User Interface: Revit Add-in
An introduction to the menus, icons, commands, and other controls used when working with the Autodesk Informed Design Add-in for Revit.
Informed Design Ribbon
When the Informed Design Add-in is installed the Informed Design tab will be added to the end of the Ribbon. It provides the tools to insert manufacturer's products as loadable Revit families (.rfa files) and configure replacement variations for any already placed instances of Informed Design Revit Families.
Customize and Insert Window
The Customize and Insert dialog allows you to navigate to the Autodesk Construction Cloud projects where products were released. You can then customize their parameter values, generate new variations, and place them in your building designs.
Browse and Select
Autodesk Construction Cloud Account – Select an Autodesk Construction Cloud Account to load projects
Autodesk Construction Cloud Project – Select a project containing Informed Design products
Project Folders – All the project folders available based on your permissions in ACC are listed. Select a folder to browse its products. Note: You must have the proper permission to access Autodesk Docs project folders containing Informed Design products. If no folders or limited folders are available, contact the project administrator.
Products – Products in the selected folder are listed.
Releases – If multiple releases are available for the selected product, select your preferred release by its release number.
Product Thumbnail & Details – Thumbnail view, classification and status information for the selected product release.
Open – Opens the selected product release for customization.
Customize and Insert
Customize the product's parameter values within the manufacturer's constraints.
New Tab – The New Tab contains the product customization form, which you'll use to configure new product variations.
Note: The parameters can only be customized within the constraints established in the Informed Design Add-in for Inventor. If a value entry does not comply with those constraints, the manufacturer's rules will correct or adjust the value as needed to fall within their acceptable range.Preview – Preview image of the product release with its classification and release information. When the Insert button is enabled, the image in the preview corresponds to the current values in the customization form. If the Insert button is disabled the preview image is out of sync with the form; click Generate to update it.
Representation to-be-inserted – If multiple representations are included with a product release, after multiple representations have been generated for the current product variation you can choose which representation you'd like to insert from this dropdown menu. If only one representation was included, or if only one representation has been generated for the current variation, the dropdown will be read-only, showing the representation name.
Insert Button – The state of this button indicates whether or not to expect a delay before an instance can be placed. The Insert button is enabled when form's current configuration equates to an existing product variation, which can be inserted immediately. When the Insert button is disabled, the variation is new to the project and needs to be generated on-demand; click Generate and expect a brief delay before it's ready to place.
Representation to-be-generated – If multiple representations are included with a product release, you can choose which one to use for the variation to-be-generated. On the left side below the form the name of the representation to-be-generated is listed. If multiple representations of the current variation have yet to be generated, clicking on the pencil icon button will allow you to change the representation selection. After all the available representations have been generated for the current product variation, this control will disappear from below the form and these representations will be available as choices in the Representations dropdown menu next to the Insert button.
Reset button – Reverts the product configuration back to the release's original default values.
Generate button – When the Generate button is enabled, the values in the customization form equate to a new product variation that needs to be created. Informed Design in Revit uses Inventor in the cloud to generate product variations on demand, so when a variation is new to the project there’s a brief delay before it's ready to place.
- Note: It can take up to a few minutes to generate a new variation depending on product complexity. While you wait for a new variation to generate you can continue editing values and configuring additional variations of the same product, instantiate existing variations of that product; browse, customize and instantiate other products; or work on other activities in Revit. Your new variations will continue generating in the background.
Existing tab – The Existing tab lists all the previously generated product variations which are ready to be inserted. If you are co-authoring a model, the Existing table will also include product variations generated by your collaborators.
Change Product button – The Change product button returns you to the browsing step where you can navigate projects and folders in Autodesk Docs and open a different product or release.
Show / Hide Preview button – Used to control the visibility of the selected Existing row's preview image. It may be helpful to hide the preview when browsing through a long list of existing variations.
Information – the question mark icon button provides access to the following resources.
- Terms and Conditions: General Autodesk terms and conditions
- License Attributions: Autodesk licensing attribution credits
- Version Information: Provides the version information for your Informed Design add-in
- Online Help: Opens the Informed Design Help site in your web browser
Replace
The Replace command allows you to update an instance in the model by configuring a replacement variation using the instance's current release or – if other releases are available – by configuring a replacement variation using a different release.
Customization Form – When an instance is initially selected for Replace, the form will show the current configuration values. Modify these values to configure the selected instance's replacement.
Preview – This image will either show the configuration that is currently in use for the selected instance, or the configuration in the customization form from the last time you clicked the Update Preview button.
Product Details – Classification and status information may come from the product release that is currently in use for the instance, or from another release you are using to configure its replacement.
Change Release button – When other releases are available for the product in use for the selected instance, click here to see releases to use as possible replacements.
Releases dropdown menu – After clicking the Change Release button, this dropdown menu will open allowing you to navigate between the available product releases.
Information – the question mark icon button provides access to the following resources.
- Terms and Conditions: General Autodesk terms and conditions
- License Attributions: Autodesk licensing attribution credits
- Version Information: Provides the version information for your Informed Design add-in
- Online Help: Opens the Informed Design Help site in your web browser
Representation to-be-generated – If multiple representations are included with a product release, you can choose which representation to use for the instance's replacement. Click on the pencil icon button to change the representation selection.
Update Preview button – Click this button to generate the replacement variation without swapping the existing instance. The Preview thumbnail will update after the replacement is generated, allowing you to consider the impact of product modifications first before clicking Apply to replace the instance.
Apply button – When you are satisfied with the replacement configuration, click Apply to replace the selected instance.
Obsolete Instances – If an instance you previously placed in the model has since been made Obsolete, this means the product release is no longer supported by its manufacturer. As indicated by the Lock icon, you can't modify the customization values of an Obsolete instance or change the Representation in use, since either of these actions would generate a new variation which can't be done with an Obsolete release. An instance of an Obsolete release can be resolved in the following ways:
If other usable releases are available for the product, one of these may be selected as the instance's replacement by clicking on the Change Release button.
If no other releases are available for the product, or if you don't want to use one of the other releases, you can either delete the Obsolete instance without putting anything in its place, or delete the Obsolete instance then find a different product release to use in its place by browsing in the Customize and Insert dialog.