AVAIL Browser for Revit BETA Update

New AVAIL Browser for Revit BETA Release now available!

We’ve released an updated version of the AVAIL Browser for Revit BETA and it’s now available here. Update now to get the best out of your BETA program participation and be part of the movement to improve your Revit experience.

The AVAIL Browser for Revit BETA can help bring order to chaos, add time to your day and make your team better. It also helps you quickly find exactly what you need without changing how you work, so you can spend more time designing. For the first time, all content has thumbnails.

No more cryptic Family file names; get a graphical preview of the Family right in the browser
Browse, search and load Families, Views, Sheets, Schedules, Legends and Groups
NEW! Support for Nested Families and Legends
NEW! Identify and jump right to content loaded anywhere in the model!

Reduce steps in your workflow

New scalable thumbnails help save time by previewing content before placing it into your project

20180205_views-thumbnails 20180205_families-thumbnails

BETA Program Highlights:

Visually browse Revit project content such as Details, Sheets and Families with thumbnails right from within Revit
Understand your project, visually, without double-clicking yourself to death opening view, after view, after view
See how many instances of any family exist, jump to and select them, and even see the hosting element, all right from the AVAIL Browser for Revit plugin

Updates since 3.0.4:

We’ve been working hard to address the feedback that we’ve been receiving so far. So far, most of the feedback you have already provided has been around Thumbnail generation, which we thought might happen. We’re laying the groundwork for addressing your requests and will continue to do so throughout BETA period. But, we need your continued feedback… so:

We want to hear from you! We’re all ears! Join our slack channel by clicking here.

We’ve squashed a bunch of bugs and added some cool new features which are described in detail below. Enjoy!

Content Mode bug fixes

Fix for issue with drag & drop of families from a project file
Fix for inability to access file info when file is open by another user

Project Mode updates

Added feature to immediately load thumbnails for an active project after thumbnail generation
Fix for issue with active projects failing to load in Project Mode
Fix for thumbnails that would not load properly after generation (correlated to incorrect thumbnail filenames)

Thumbnail Generator updates

Fix for exporting thumbnails with incorrect filenames (correlated to some thumbnails not loading after generation)
Removed default thumbnail export location going to Project Directory
Added messaging feature about setting the thumbnail export location on your online AVAIL Management Portal
- Thumbnail location MUST be set from getavail.com/Manage/Settings
Based on all the great feedback, we’re working on making the Thumbnail Generator even better.

Other Updates

Installer check for minimum AVAIL Desktop version requirement; 3.5.3.0
Analytics reporting feature added for AVAIL Browser for Revit BETA

We want to hear from you! Be sure to tell us what you love, want to see more of, think needs to be tweaked – whatever! We’re all ears! Email us at info@getavail.com or join our slack channel by clicking here.

AVAIL Release News: Project Mode is now Live!

Happy 2018 everyone! We’re kicking off this new year with some really great new updates, and some really great news across the board!

First, the newest release of AVAIL, version 3.5.3!

You can now download the latest release of AVAIL Desktop and the AVAIL Content Browser for Revit HERE.

Here’s a summary of what we’ve been working on:

AVAIL Browser for Revit BETA – Project Mode is now Live and available for Team and Enterprise customers!
AVAIL International Expansion (Sydney & Pacific Rim)
Search bar improvements
Stream availability is close!
Various bug fixes and performance enhancements

Project Mode

First, many of you have heard us talking about a few things that we’ve been working on for a while now, and we’re excited to announce that the AVAIL Browser for Revit – Project Mode is now available in BETA for Team and Enterprise customers! If you’ve heard us talk about Project Mode, or actually seen a demonstration of it, you know how anticipated this release has been and we can’t wait to hear what you think!

Project Mode is a graphic browsing interface for your Revit project files. Any Revit user knows that the standard Revit project browser is, quite honestly, lacking a little bit in design, and with some added functionality over the standard project browser in Revit, AVAIL Browser for Revit – Project Mode is something that all Revit users have been waiting for. Thumbnail preview images of your loaded Families, Views, and Sheets in a tabbed interface provides a beautiful browsing experience and enhanced understanding of your Revit project files. Finally, a Revit project browser that thinks the way that building designers do!

20180205_families-thumbnails

International Expansion

Additionally, you may have noticed some spots of Scheduled downtime lately… We’re very excited to announce an AVAIL international server for Sydney, Australia! For those of you using AVAIL in offices in closer proximity to the Australia/New Zealand region than to the USA, you will experience faster response times overall. We always strive to enhance AVAIL’s performance and this is just the latest of improvements that we’ve made.

Search Improvements

Speaking of improvements, we’re always trying to make your digital life easier here at AVAIL; in fact, that’s ALL we want to do. To that end, we’ve released our third iteration of Search Bar functionality! Previously, using the search bar was a great way to search across relevant filenames in a Channel of content… Well, as we’re always listening to our customers and trying to improve, we’ve expanded the Search bar functionality to now search across Tag data as well as filenames! Search results are always ranked in order of relevance, so what you’re looking for should always be right at the top of your search results. Please let us know what you think about the new Search results at info@getavail.com!

Stream

Those of you that have been around AVAIL for any amount of time have probably already heard of Stream. Stream is our rules-based content-routing technology that will monitor for files on your network, and show them in a Channel(s) of your choosing in AVAIL. Well, a lot of our work over the last couple of months have revolved around the development of Stream, and we’re happy to say that we’re getting very close! We’ve already started talking to some of you about Stream and it’s availability, and we’ll be continuing to do so throughout the rest of this month. We will start the first installations of Stream in Beta this quarter, and we’ll be posting more about it soon!

We love hearing from you so always feel free to contact us at info@getavail.com. Cheers!

PRESS RELEASE: ARCHVISION & AVAIL KICK OFF 2018 WITH ADDITIONS TO EXECUTIVE TEAM

Lexington, KY – January 30, 2018 – AVAIL and ArchVision announced today that both companies have made new hires to augment their executive lineup. Corey Rubadue joins ArchVision as Chief Executive Officer and Jim Clifton joins AVAIL as Chief Operating Officer.

Mr. Rubadue has refined his knowledge of visualization development and software engineering during his experience with ASGVIS and Chaos Group. First-hand knowledge of the challenges faced in architecture led to the founding of ASGVIS in 2005 and pioneered the integration of the V-Ray renderer into SketchUp and Rhino. ASGVIS was acquired by Chaos Group in 2011 and Rubadue and his team continued to refine the software. In late 2016, he oversaw the launch of V-Ray for Revit. In August 2017, Rubadue founded Oonix Solutions LLC to expand his focus on visualization to support a broader range of technologies and applications.

“I’ve always had a great appreciation of the ArchVision technologies,” says Rubadue. “Joining ArchVision is a strategically aligned fit with where my professional sights are set.”

“Corey’s expansive experience in the visualization industry is unmatched and he brings a wealth of partner relationships he has developed over the past 15 years in the field. I’m looking forward to having Corey at the helm of ArchVision and know that he will lead the company to the next level”, said Randall Stevens, founder of ArchVision.

In Mr. Rubadue’s new role as ArchVision CEO, he will oversee Product and Content development, Sales, Marketing and Personnel.

Mr. Clifton comes to AVAIL most recently from Bluegrass Vascular Technologies where, as Chief Operating Officer/Founder, he developed technology from product concept to regulatory approval to initial market launch. With over twenty years experience in software product management, Jim provides energy, drive, and creative force to early stage, complex technologies.

“Jim’s experience with every phase of the product development process makes him the perfect candidate for his new role as Chief Operating Officer”, said Randall Stevens, CEO of AVAIL.

Mr. Clifton will focus on developing and refining AVAIL’s go-to-market process and provide oversight for Sales and Marketing, Operations and Finance.

About ArchVision

Founded in 1991, ArchVision improves design modeling and visualization with RPC technology that provides architectural entourage in the form of people, tree & plant and automobile content and environment clutter. The newest product to the ArchVision lineup, Family and Detail Warehouse, is a collection of over 27,500 Roof, Window, Door and Foundation details, available as native Revit Drafting Views and AutoCAD DWGs, with unlimited downloads. ArchVision currently serves customers located in over 100 countries. For more info visit www.archvision.com.

About AVAIL

AVAIL’s enterprise and content management software solution indexes content and helps users find it in new ways. Based in Lexington, KY, AVAIL grew out of a need for a better way for AECO professionals to access the voluminous content being managed across their enterprise. With over 50 combined years in the AEC industry, the AVAIL team is passionate about helping firms discover a new way to find and manage content. For more info visit www.getavail.com.

AVAIL Release 3.4.1

We’ve learned a lot by talking with our users over the last few months, and many of the new features described below come from listening to you. The best part is, there’s more to come… the next few releases will be really exciting. There is some seriously big new stuff coming and we think you’ll really like what you see!

You can now download the latest release of AVAIL Desktop and the AVAIL Content Browser for Revit HERE.

We’ve been hard at work making a lot of great improvements recently. While many of these improvements are behind the scenes to increase performance, there are several new application features that you will get really great benefit out of!

Here’s a summary of what’s new:

ReSync feature automatically updates AVAIL when files are renamed on your network server
Large, expandable and full window previews make seeing your detailed content and custom thumbnail previews much easier
Collapsing Keys make large tag sets easier to use and manage
AVAIL Marketplace has been introduced
Improved Flags & Comments Panel
Bug fixes and improvements (the Sync Spinner is fixed!)

ReSync
“What happens when I rename a file on my server?” Well until recently, you had to re-index that file in AVAIL to update the index. No more. Now, if you rename a file, AVAIL will automatically repair that index location and filename with no need to re-index. In essence, it corrects your file names without you having to do anything at all, just work as usual.

Large Previews
In AEC, many of the assets in use are very graphic in nature. Whether it’s Revit families, details, PDFs or photos, seeing a picture can make a world of difference. With that in mind, we’ve introduced scaling thumbnails, a large preview pane in the Properties panel, and a full window preview. You can now view that detail or photo in full scale before bringing it into Revit or Photoshop.

Collapsing Keys
With large data sets of Channel contents and Key and Value pairs, the Filters Panel can accumulate a lot of rows. Now, when a Key has no more Values associated with it, the row will collapse and no longer be visible until filters are cleared that repopulate it. This makes the Filters Panel with many lines of Key Values in larger Channels a little nicer to work in.

AVAIL Marketplace
Ever wish digital content could be delivered to you, instead of having to go search for it? Now it can. The AVAIL Marketplace is live!

From the Browse Channels tab, you’ll see a new area called Marketplace. This is where content can be delivered to you, already tagged and ready to download or add to your internal AVAIL Channels, from the outside world. Have a favorite building product manufacturer that you want to deliver their content into your AVAIL ecosystem? Please let us, and more importantly them, know that you want them to be on the AVAIL Marketplace.

Family and Detail Warehouse from ArchVision is the first content available in the Marketplace. F+DW is a great collection of almost 30,000 drafted details and over 1,500 native Revit detail components and other families. This content can be delivered into your firm with Tags already applied, ready to download and put to use immediately!

Other Updates
There are many other updates in this release. Flags and Comments Panel has had a makeover and is easier to understand. Moving / Copying content between Channels is easier as you can now not only search for a Channel to Copy / Move content into, but also Create one on the fly. For Channel Publishers out there, the Primary path for content is now indicated graphically for easier understanding. Among other more minor bug fixes, the Synchronization notifications have been fixed, and now reflect when your content has completed synchronizing.

As always, we want to hear from you so please stay in touch. Until next time!

AVAIL Release 3.1

The first few months of 2017 have gone by so fast that it’s amazing to think what all has transpired! And now with Spring well underway here in Central Kentucky, and AIA, BCS and BiLT conferences rapidly approaching we find ourselves settling into this new year. Headphones on, nose to the grindstone… we are getting A LOT of good work done here at AVAIL.

The Big Picture

Speed is crucial when you’re trying to produce on a daily basis, and it’s something that you should expect from your Enterprise Content Management system. We’ve spent the first quarter of this year mostly behind the scenes in an effort to continually enhance speed and performance. You may not overtly see most of the improvements that were made in this newest release materialized in the interface itself, but you’ll notice remarkably enhanced browsing and searching speeds. As Ricky Bobby famously said, “I wanna go fast!” It’s been our motto around here lately, and we can hear the engines roaring!

New Features

Improved and enhanced indexing experience
- Ability to use regular expressions to include or exclude desired content in very specific ways
- Use pattern matching such as ‘begins with’ or ‘contains’ options to find relevant content
- New feature to NOT add tags automatically upon index, just add content and path locations, or use to re-path content
Filters Panel is now re-sizable!
Faster search and indexing due to optimizations in the AVAIL back end services
Minor bug fixes.

At it’s core AVAIL is an Index of your content – and that initial indexing experience is now more powerful. The use of Regular Expressions, or RegEx, is now supported. RegEx is often used in software engineering and is a powerful way to be extremely specific about the results of a search. We have provided some simplified RegEx indexing options in pattern matching such as the ability to specify “begins with”, “ends with”, “exactly matches”, or “contains” in a file path. This is one of the new features that you will see in the Indexing Filter interface, and AVAIL also supports specific full Regular Expressions.***

As an example, let’s say you want to be able to utilize all of the detail drafting views from previously completed and closed-out school projects, but don’t want to manually go searching through your entire project database to find each one of them. And perhaps you only want projects from the past 5 years. Designed in Revit. But just Elementary schools. Sounds like it will take forever to find these, right? No, it won’t, just use RegEx inside of AVAIL to search for, and find those files, and use the AVAIL Content Browser for Revit to easily access the content buried within them!!***

Automatically tagging content is great, but sometimes, you just don’t want tags to come in automatically. For example, when the path of a piece of content changes and you just need to add a new path. We’ve got you covered! You can now choose to not automatically add tags, and just index to update path locations.

We get lots of requests and do our best to incorporate all that we can. You’ve asked, and we’ve listened. The Filters Panel is now re-sizable! Now… onto incorporating an ‘Easy Button’. 😉

There’s a lot to say about the optimizations that we’ve made behind the scenes, but let’s just simplify it all and say; we think that Ricky Bobby would be happy. It’s fast. And we have no intentions of slowing down anytime soon.

See you next time!

***Let's pretend that your firm standard names project files with a specific format, let's use {ProjectNumber_Project Discipline code_Project Name_Project Phase}.rvt. A matching file name could be: 15224_Arch_Harper Elementary School_Archive.rvt. The project was started in 2015, and the project number reflects this by the leading '15' in the project number. An example  of matching Regular Expression search (though other expressions would work as well) could look like:

^1[2-7][0-9_ ]+_[a-zA-Z0-9_ ]+Elementary+[a-zA-Z0-9_ ]+Archive.rvt$

This expression would return the following results, as well as others matching it:
15224_Arch_Harper Elementary School_Archive.rvt
143766388_Arch_Laurel Elementary_Archive.rvt
134_MEP_Elementary School_Archive.rvt

AVAIL Release 3.1 Coming Soon!

AVAIL Release 3.1 is coming!

Improved and enhanced indexing experience
- Ability to use regular expressions to include or exclude desired content in very specific ways
- Ability to use pattern matching such as ‘begins with’ or ‘contains’ to find relevant content
- New feature to NOT add tags automatically upon index, just content and path locations
Filters Panel is now re-sizable
Optimization of the AVAIL back end services = FASTER INDEXING!

AVAIL Release 3.0

There is a lot to cover in this one, so get ready. We’ve been hard at work over the past few months making some major improvements to AVAIL. In continuing to build more of the core building blocks of our platform we’ve integrated a lot of really very cool features with this release.

THE BIG PICTURE

The serious technical details are described below, and for those of you who like to talk, read, and ponder life’s mysteries, head over to our blog to read AVAIL CEO Randall Steven’s post about our theories behind all of this. His post is the rug that really ties the room together.

AVAIL as a System of Engagement

NEW FEATURES

UI / UX updates
- Channels Panel list can be customized and searched
- Graphic interface updates
Flags and Comments system added for User Feedback
Ability to have Multiple Publishers / Editors per Channel
Role definitions can now be customized for Enterprise customers
Per-Channel Permissions for shared users can now be modified: Can View, Can Edit
Index multiple operations at once
- Indexing is now done passively
- Enhanced UI feedback that a data synchronization is in progress
AVAIL Content Browser for Revit is reporting data to your Analytics account
Push parameters from AVAIL Content Browser for Revit into AVAIL Desktop as tags for content

Most of the UI changes you’ll just have to experience for yourselves, but we always strive to achieve a beautiful modern user interface and user experience because we truly believe that it makes a difference. In this release we addressed some of the user feedback about the not-quite-right terminology that we previously used in the Channels Panel by introducing tabbed lists, and Channel names can now be searched. Let us know what you think!

Optionality in Content Management

Through our new Flags and Comments system you can really dig into the why behind opinions about content. Don’t just rate a piece of content ‘1 star’ and move on… We believe that someone needs to know why a piece of content is rated unfavorably. Flag that content, and Comment about what is wrong so that it can be addressed. Or, maybe read that Comment that says “for rendering use only” and don’t use it for a purpose that it’s not intended for in the first place.

A great new feature allows you to specify Multiple Editors per Channel so that you can collaborate with others on curating your Channels of content. Now you can share the management of your Channels with other individuals in your firm.

AVAIL originally shipped with two Roles: Publisher and Consumer. For Enterprise customers, we can tweak the definitions of what each of these Roles can, and can’t do. For example, a Consumer wasn’t originally allowed to create their own Channels, but could only see Channels that had been shared with them. If you want to change this to allow Consumers to create their own Channels, but not be able to share them, you now have that capability. This could be useful to let everyone use AVAIL to organize their local “stash” as we call it.

You can also set what Permissions people have within any single Channel. Users, even if they are in a Consumer Role, can now be assigned the rights: Can Edit, and alternately, Can View per Channel that has been shared with them. These permissions are helpful for those one-off cases where you do want someone in a Consumer only Role to be able to have greater permissions than they’re assigned by default, but on a per Channel basis. Publisher/Consumer are firm wide settings that a Channel Publisher can override with Can Edit to specific members of their team. This is great for workflows where you’re using AVAIL to help manage projects.

(See chart below for Roles and Permissions definitions)

Multiple operations can now be indexed at the same time. Basically, you can drag ‘n drop a bunch of files into a Channel, and it will process in the background while you move on to index or tag the next set of content, perhaps in a different Channel. This is really useful as you’re getting started or trying to index lots of content. You no longer have to sit and wait for AVAIL to actively process that content in the foreground.

On the AVAIL Content Browser for Revit side of things, we’ve laid the groundwork for future capabilities and opened a connection from the Content Browser plugin to your AVAIL Desktop application and Google Analytics account. You can now see advanced Analytics about what your users are doing! Want to know which wall types are being used regularly, or which details are always being used (or not being used…)? AVAIL Analytics can tell you. Time to get educated about your Revit content, and NOT just family files but content buried inside of .rvt files too!

Because of this bi-directional data flow ability, Publishers can now easily push parameter data that’s buried within a Revit family, as tags in AVAIL. Want to add all your OmniClass number parameters as tags back into AVAIL? Great, just pick that parameter from the AVAIL Content Browser for Revit and push it into AVAIL Desktop as a tag! I know… that’s a little bit too manual of a process for most of you to be satisfied with, but don’t worry, we’re not done yet! 😉

Optionality in Content Management

One of the observations we’ve made regarding the current state of content management is the strong reliance on two tools to manage your company’s files be they on a WAN/LAN or in the cloud; the ability to create and name file folders and the name of files themselves. I don’t have to tell you how limiting those tools can be. Our only option for decades we’ve all become somewhat numb to the pain.

We think there is a huge opportunity to improve both management and access to content. In many ways the existing file folder and file name means of storing and retrieving files has pitted the needs of centralized control and file management versus the ease of finding what you’re looking for.

AVAIL is providing a new alternative, a way to separate where a file is stored from how it is retrieved. A way to reduce your dependency on those cumbersome folder and file names for retrieving content.

Optionality

One of the themes we’ve developed over the past couple of years during the development of AVAIL is optionality. Optionality should be a good thing. Given optionality you take advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself.

Optionality is present in several ways at the core of how AVAIL has been designed. If you’ve used AVAIL or sat through any of our webinars you’ll hear us talk about the important of context in retrieving content. That’s a form of optionality that lets the publisher and consumer of content in AVAIL get to the same content in different ways mirroring the way you’re thinking about it at the time.

With the new 3.0 release of AVAIL you’ll find a couple of additional features that play on this theme as well. We’re extending the ability to contribute to the management of content in a Channel in AVAIL beyond the firm-wide Publisher/Consumer role definition. Now, the owner of a Channel can allow anyone they’ve shared that Channel with the ability to contribute via a new “Can Edit” setting that is controlled per user. This means a Publisher of a Channel can invite select others to add or remove content and tags from a Channel without having to make that person a firm-wide Publisher. Optionality.

Another update in 3.0 are initial moves toward providing each individual control over how they organize and consume Channels and content. You’ll see this manifested in a redesigned Channels panel that now provides each desktop the ability to “Pin” the Channels they consume most. Additional features that let everyone customize their experience while letting you maintain administrative oversight and control will continue to make AVAIL more powerful and customizable to fulfill differing needs and workflow preferences. Optionality is a good thing.

AVAIL as a System of Engagement

I just returned from Autodesk University where we engaged in numerous conversations about the value of employing content management systems. There’s obvious value in the immediate task-at-hand of organizing volumes of files (content) and making them easier to find and use throughout your organization. A topic that isn’t quite as obvious is the value of a content management system as a System of Engagement (SOE).

In traditional enterprise speak a System of Record (SOR) is defined as a conventional enterprise system designed to contain the authoritative data source for a given piece of information. A System of Engagement goes a step further. According to Forrester, “Systems of engagement are different from the traditional systems of record that log transactions and keep the financial accounting in order. They focus on people, not processes…. These new systems harness a perfect storm of mobile, social, cloud, and big data innovation to deliver apps and smart products directly in the context of the daily lives and real-time workflows of customers, partners, and employees.”

Being able to capture knowledge throughout your organization in the form of the content that is being generated and more importantly, where, when and how it is being used is of tremendous value. Knowledge can be fleeting. At AVAIL we’re focused on helping you capture and manage that knowledge.

To help you engage and capture feedback related to the content you manage with AVAIL we’re introducing a new feature we refer to as Flags & Comments. As a start, Flags are labeled as “needs attention” and provide a mechanism for your users to alert you or your content admins. Tightly coupled with Flags are Comments. You can require that a Flag be accompanied by a Comment. For example, if a user triggers a “Needs Attention” flag they can then be required to include verbose notes on what problem they see with the content. AVAIL then provides the admin an easy way to filter the content containing Flags and take appropriate action. Over time we plan to let you define a Flag’s meaning (“needs attention”, “mark as complete”, etc). We will also soon introduce Notes which allow you to provide information to permanently accompany any content managed with AVAIL.

Flags, Comments and Notes are just the first step in providing you with valuable workflow tools to manage content and an important piece of a System of Engagement solution.

AVAIL 2.9.5 Release

AVAIL Release 2.9.5

Updates to the AVAIL Active Directory (AD) support includes ADFS 2.0 SAML and ADFS 3.0 with OAUTH2 federated identity (sounds impressive!)
Ability to suppress “Join AVAIL” invitation when sharing a Channel.
New ability to share a Channel with “Everyone in My Plan”

Active Directory integrations are in full swing this fall as AVAIL is “rolling across the enterprise”. With AVAIL Active Directory (AD) integration it has never been easier to manage hundreds of users. As new users are added or removed from your normal IT process through AD they’re automatically logged into AVAIL and authenticated. No login or password required! AD users can also suppress the “Join AVAIL” emails when sharing a Channel across your firm. If you have 50 or more users contact sales@getavail.com to discuss AVAIL Enterprise Licensing for your firm.

As hundreds of new channels are created in AVAIL each month we’re working hard to fine tune how you can most easily deploy and manage your AVAIL Channels. With this release of AVAIL we’re adding the ability to easily create a Channel that is shared with everyone in your firm without having to select them individually. We’re turning this on for existing accounts this week so look for the new built-in group called “Everyone in My Plan” shortly.