Release History Archives

TestFit Addin for Revit 1.0 – Free Beta

Our users often tell us that TestFit helps them say no to projects more often, so they can say yes to the projects that best accomplish their development goals. And for those projects that meet the development outcomes, teams want to carry forward their configured buildings from TestFit into their downstream toolset. Today we are unleashing a significantly improved ability to connect to one of the leading BIM platforms, Autodesk Revit.

TestFit has historically supported the output to Revit via Dynamo Scripts. These scripts worked for those experienced with the Dynamo platform, but were time consuming (and occasionally frustrating!) to implement. Now in less than 10 clicks, all the geometry and data that you created in TestFit can be brought into your construction documentation processes.

View the webinar recording to learn more about this addin, or read on below.

– Nat MacDonald, Product Owner at TestFit Inc.

Improved Installation Process

Easily install as you would any other desktop application. The addin is also highly deployable via IT departments for large firms to make sure all users have access to it.

Also – no complications associated with Dynamo versions & packages 😎

Import TestFit sites and buildings to Revit

Pretty straightforward – bring in the TestFit building geometry to Revit, all while using your firms’ standard Revit families. Even the parking stalls.

Interior fitouts from TestFit to Revit

Use your firms’ standard Revit apartment units to automatically populate your buildings’ interiors using TestFit’s layout.

Export Kit-of-Parts from Revit to TestFit

Accurately translate your standard Revit apartment units into a TestFit Kit-of-Parts database.

Get started with TestFit Addin for Revit today with our knowledge base article:

If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear from you at nat @ testfit.io.

TestFit 3.04: Topography, Industrial Manual Mode, and Garden Building Mix

We consistently have feedback about one very real problem that buildings need to cope with: topography. TestFit is in the fortunate position to have users from low density planners all the way to high density developers. This means that the resolution in which we deliver topography to the end user needs to be very carefully considered.

I’m happy to announce that we have developed a unique feature: Instant Topo. In its first iteration we hope to show high fidelity performance in two dimensions. This foundational technology will enable us to be more effective with future topographic features. Also included in this patch is a foundational upgrade to the Industrial configurator: Manual Mode. The garden configurator can now be driven by building type (in addition to the already supported unit mix targets). Lastly, a collaboration with Arkio led us to upgrade the high density configurators low detail mode. This will help urban planners with their geometry exports.

If you have any feedback, we’d love to hear from you at support @ testfit.io.

– Clifton Harness, CEO at TestFit Inc.

First steps into topo

Visualize your topography in 2D with labeled incremental contour lines in order to better place ponds, low-grade garages, and more. Customize the increments of elevation (not on buildings – yet!) and overlay them on roads & satellite views.

To get started with topo in TestFit, please check out the Knowledge Base article.

Industrial manual mode

Move, rotate, resize, and add industrial buildings to maximize your chosen site as much as possible or accommodate unique requirements.

To get started in manual mode on industrial buildings, check out our Knowledge Base article.

Garden building mix

You can now choose between solving your garden site by either building mix or unit mix. This new building mix functionality allows you to manipulate the mix by percentage.

Get started with all our garden apartment functionality with this Knowledge Base article.

Low-detail mode improvements

Get rough massing and exclude all distractions including balconies, color & surface parking changed to gray.

UX updates

Users can now double-click site & amenity names in the navigation tree (panel in the top-left) to rename them. You can also add sites’ preset name and spaces’ type to the navigation tree.
Sites are labeled in 2D views with names and configurators.
Added support for custom site names.
Presets now show a description on hover.
Users can drag the divider between the two left-hand navigation panels to display more or less information.
Combined the road and satellite underlay buttons into a 3-way toggle.
Unit database dropdown interface improvements.

Other improvements & bug fixes

Added descriptions to all presets.
Removed the 3D and 2D view buttons from the top view bar.
Enabled renaming some elements on the tree view.
Allow removing garden buildings from the 3D view.
Restored the context menu for spaces in the 3D view.
Fixed incorrect setbacks when selecting some presets.
Fixed the default mass-based metric preset to produce sane buildings.
Fixed ‘square feet’ labels in the deals tab showing up for metric sites.
Improved the ability to restrict rows of townhouses to longer runs.
Removed the automatic switch to the 2D view when deleting manual changes.
Fixed missing elements in the low detail 3D and SketchUp models.
Fixed duplicate townhouse buildings in the low detail 3D and SketchUp models.
Fixed garden buildings being occasionally un-interactive in the 3D view.
Fixed a rare crash when placing units in concave gurban sites.
Fixed incorrect roof areas in the energy panel for buildings with multiple roof levels. Prior analyses will show “out of date” and require re-analysis.
Fixed the 3D model disappearing when switching road profiles.
Fixed the rotation of trucks in freight parking stalls in Enscape.
Fixed presets producing odd buildings after switching measurement systems.
Fixed default road sizes after switching measurement systems.

TestFit 3.03: Mixed-Use in TestFit

Mixed-use is hard to accomplish well, let alone easily. There are a lot of stakeholders involved, and their needs change quickly. To this end, in release 3.03, we’ve made it easier to subdivide (and merge!) sites. This allows users to edit the building typologies on each sub-site, and make the most of each with the power of user-controlled configurators.

If our population in the United States is going to densify, clever mixed use design helps to lift the human spirit amidst tall buildings. We certainly hope that this will help lower friction for new-urbanism.

Please read on to check out what’s in this release.

– Clifton Harness, CEO at TestFit Inc.

Mixed Use

Subdivide sites

Draw one big plot of land, then cut it up into smaller sites designed for different uses. This allows you to capitalize on TestFit’s configurator power, optimizing for different building typologies on each smaller site.

Merge aka undivide sites

Pretty straightforward: undivide sites that were previously divided. Think of it as your site merge / undo button.

To get started on dividing and merging sites, check out our Knowledge Base article.

Better 3D interactions

Manual interactions in 3D view for garden sites

Seamless manual mode. Whereas before you had to click into manual mode in 2D, now you can easily manipulate buildings in 3D in garden sites. Options include:

Increase individual building heights
Manually rotate each building
Move each building aligned to the plane
Move each building around on the plan

Check out our Knowledge Base article to get started.

Improvements

Renamed lifts to elevators
Changed the site boundary outlines to appear thicker.
Site selection UI improvements.
Improved the toolbar by grouping the measure & site boundary tools, and tidied up the side toolbar.
Added a button to revert manual changes to the side toolbar.
Added a red box on manually-placed buildings that are outside the boundary.

Bug fixes

Fixed missing facades around garages in mass-based sites.
Fixed missing roofs above garages in mass-based sites.
Fixed flickering roofs on mass-based sites in Enscape.
Fixed large visible artifacts in 3D when sites are partially behind the view.
Fixed the PDF export over-reporting the office plate size.
Fixed garage entrances missing in the PDF export.
Fixed low-density site exits being duplicated in each unique setback.
Fixed low-density manual mode occasionally generating undesired drive aisles.
Fixed a bug causing buildings to disappear near holes in low-density sites.
Fixed drive aisles being invisible in low-density manual mode.
Fixed the inability to remove boundary points with multiple sites present.
Fixed gurban sites extending outside complex envelopes.
Fixed a crash when creating very tall podium buildings.
Fixed missing manually-placed buildings in very large sites.