Revit 2018: How's it going so far?

[iru69]

Hi all,

I know it's only been a week, but how's it going so far with Revit 2018 as far as bugs/issues?

I'm sure everyone has had different experiences, but I ask in the context of Revit 2017, which our office found to be a bug-fest, with the new text tool a complete disaster that affected our work so badly we probably would have skipped 2017 altogether if we knew what we were in for (though that's just for context, I don't want to get stuck on 2017 bashing).

If they've "fixed" the text tool, we'd probably upgrade to 2018 ASAP, assuming there aren't other similar issues that have been introduced.

Thanks!

[DaveP]

If by "fixed" the text tool, you mean they changed it back to pre-2016, that's not going to happen.
The problem was that Text was broken from day one, and 2017 made text work the same is it does in every other application.
Unfortunately, that meant that the size on most font got slightly bigger and - yes - caused lots of problems.
But they only had two bad options: either bite the bullet and fix it from here on out, or let it remain broken until it caused even worse problems and then fix it.
We opted to depart from our usual upgrade everything every year to only starting new projects in 2017 and finishing out older active projects in 2016.
Took a bit of effort (and some Dynamo work) to make sure our Template was up to snuff, but now we're good to go forward.

[MPwuzhere]

Installed at home....going to be a few months before I see it at work.

[iru69]

Dave, we're still seeing on all of our projects, new and old, text that simply doesn't display on screen unless you drag the text box larger, or shows on screen but doesn't print. This is happening on all of our projects on all of our workstations. There is no excuse for it then, and no excuse for it now. Any excuses about that's what the developers had to do to upgrade the text tools is complete BS. They majorly screwed up, plain and simple.

So, you're saying that they haven't fixed that display issue? That text still just disappears if you don't get the text box length just right?

(btw, just recently got the 2017.2 release - maybe that fixed the text issues?)

If by "fixed" the text tool, you mean they changed it back to pre-2016, that's not going to happen.
The problem was that Text was broken from day one, and 2017 made text work the same is it does in every other application.
Unfortunately, that meant that the size on most font got slightly bigger and - yes - caused lots of problems.
But they only had two bad options: either bite the bullet and fix it from here on out, or let it remain broken until it caused even worse problems and then fix it.
We opted to depart from our usual upgrade everything every year to only starting new projects in 2017 and finishing out older active projects in 2016.
Took a bit of effort (and some Dynamo work) to make sure our Template was up to snuff, but now we're good to go forward.

[DaveP]

I was referring to the size of the font changing as explained here

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2017/ENU/Revit-WhatsNew/files/GUID-F57326A0-BCE1-44D6-A5FE-3F084258EE28-htm.html

I have not seen the disappearing problem you're having in 2017. We're on 2017.1
As far as 2018, I've just got it installed this week. Haven't had a chance to beat on it yet.

[willsud]

I've seen the disappearing text happen regularly in Revit 2017 and had to resize text boxes in upgraded projects to make it appear but then I also have the text set to slightly larger in Windows 7 because I am using a 4K very widescreen monitor.

Using the default Windows 7 text size the problem didn't happen as much.

I reduced the size of my fonts in Revit slightly which I think has helped.

FWIW Revit 2018 seems fine so far on my small projects - rather neat seeing railings snap to topos.

What holds me back on fully switching to Revit 2018 is the removal of iRay from 3dsMax 2018 which has destroyed my workflow, plus waiting for Revitworks door factory new version (soon I'm told) and a driver for my SpaceMouse from 3D Connexions for 3dsMax 2018 (but it works fine with Revit 2018).

Revit 2018 feels a bit snappier - but that could be my imagination

[BillyGrey]

Hi Iru, Dave P: is this the same issue that 17 had with text, and if so, WTF'ingF?

Everything I've upgraded, so far, from 2016 (I skipped 17) blows up my text boxes unacceptably. For instance, a finished D size sheet in 16 with copious text notes is graphically unusable in 18.

All I can say is "Really"? (but I want to shout "AYFKM?")

Does this infer I am going to have to have a copy of 16 forever installed, when ever I need or want to go/look back, edit everything by hand? If so, this is NUTS.

Nothing exotic at all on my new puter: i7700k running stock speeds, nvidia 1050 (resolution is set correctly), win 10

...see attached photos (one is screenshot of 16, one is same in 18), some text is redacted to protect my client's anonymity.

[Steve_Stafford]

No issues so far for me.

With 2018, as with 2017, there is no escaping the text transition when upgrading from older versions. They've re-engineered how Revit does text entirely. All older projects that have to upgrade will have to go through QA for all text. Office templates and annotation families will also need to be reviewed and reworked.

[MPwuzhere]

This was an issue that I found in 2017, not an upgraded project, that I have been told was fixed in 2018.

Top is a tag, bottom is a text note...


As for going from 2016 to 2018 (or 2017)...keep existing projects in 2016 and start new projects in 2018(17) with everything updated for the new text tweaks in the template.

[DaveP]

Yup.
Like Steve said, there were major changes to the way Text works in Revit 2017.
Many people have complained, but the problem is that it was broken before and its fixed now.
The link I provided in Post #5 explains the technical details.
Here's a link from 2014 talking about what was broken

https://revitstructureblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/autodesk-revit-and-text-heights/

The effect of the size change varies by font. Most fonts are a few percent larger. We use Arial NArrow & that grew by about 5 %
Looks like your hand-lettered font is far worse than any other I've seen to date.
I'd wager if you ever exported your Revit files to DWG in the past, they we whacked out just like the upgrade to 2017/18 did now.
Painful, yes, but again, it has been broken for 15 years and now it's consistent with the rest of the world.