Smart Details is going to be phased out over the next few months. In its place, we present you Smart Connections, our newest BIM Solution for Revit, that brings additional functionality and more intuitive performance along with a name that more clearly reflects its main purpose.
IMPORTANT NOTE for EXISTING USERS of Smart Details! Although you can use the same configurations as you’ve been using with Smart Details, some of them might be disrupted due to changes in the software. Smart Details will still be available for a time so that you can finish your current projects and then modify your configurations for new projects so that they will mesh with Smart Connections.
The remainder of this post is dedicated to showing what configurations existing users of Smart Details may need to modify when transitioning to Smart Connections. For starters, when making the switch, you might need to modify your wall, column, and beam connection configurations.
For example:
| If my Smart Details configuration was inserting corbels, column shoes, and bolts as shown below… | …the same configuration used with Smart Connections gives me this messy result. |
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That’s because the definition of faces of Columns and Foundation elements has been changed in Smart Connections. But this way it will be clearer and more systematic. So, to fix it, you will have to go in and redo that part of your configurations. Check the descriptions below for details on how to do that.
Columns & Foundations
If you open a Column Family and go to Floor plan, this is how you should think about it from now on with Smart Connections.
The horizontal line is the x-axis. End Faces will be in the x-direction, Side Faces in the y-direction, and Top/Bottom will be the top and bottom of the column.
Also, insert point of details for connection with Framing elements has changed. Whereas (in Smart Details) the point of insertion was at the location line of the beam, with Smart Connections it can be at the Center, Start, or End of the beam.
For example, I can now insert a corbel in the ways shown below without using any special parameters.
All that was needed to do that was adjusting these settings:
Walls
Mostly affected in the software changes are L, L butt, T, and T butt connections. Automatic placement of details will be easier and more accurate with Smart Connections. Because of that, fewer tabs need to be used.
- Now
the Layout Axis is working as it should. For example, if I have a T connection between walls, I can set
to insert details at the Start End of connected wall faces. In the example below,
although the thicknesses of the connecting walls differ, the details are adjusted
automatically.
- For L connections, if you use asymmetrical elements like loops with bent wire, they are automatically flipped and fit to any situation with one rule:
We will remove Smart Details after a while, most likely in January 2019 based on our users’ requirements. But we really encourage you to transition to Smart Connections as soon as you can. Of course it’ll take a little getting used to for seasoned users of Smart Details , but the switch will definitely be worth it for you, so the sooner the better!
We will update the Sample Projects soon too with modified configurations, which will fit with Smart Connections.
As always, if you have questions, suggestions, issues, let us know.
