August 20, 2012

Case of the Phantom Keynote

With apologies to Donald J. Sobol (R.I.P.)

Monday evening, Chief Brown took his seat at the dinner table. He stared off into space. Encyclopedia knew what that meant. He had a Revit riddle he could not solve.

“The Mountain View School Project has a keynote in the legend that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the project,” Chief Brown said. “The case is a puzzle.”

“Tell Leroy about it, dear,” Mrs. Brown urged. “He’s never failed you.” Chief Brown nodded. He took a small notebook from the breast pocket of his uniform. Using his notes, he went over the mystery for Encyclopedia.

“Shortly after the last save to central,” Chief Brown said, “a mysterious keynote popped up in the keynote legend.”

“Is that a big deal?” Mrs. Brown asked.

“It is for Mr. Crabapple, the spec writer,” Chief Brown answered. He looked back at his notes and continued. “Mrs. Corbu, the BIM Manager, searched the entire sheet for the keynote but could not find it anywhere.”

“Did she try Reveal Hidden Elements?” Mrs. Brown asked.

“She did,” Chief Brown said. “She also checked all the tabs on the Visibility Graphics dialog and when she came up empty she contacted us.”

“Aren’t there any other clues?” Mrs. Brown inquired. Mrs. Brown glanced at Encyclopedia as if expecting him to speak. The boy detective was ready to ask his one question. Usually he needed to ask only one question to solve a case at the dinner table.

“Does the phantom keynote have a specific number or text value?” asked Encyclopedia?

“Why, it does happen to say ‘TEMPORARY PROTECTIVE WALL COVER,’ why do you ask?” said Chief Brown.

Encyclopedia whipped out his laptop and queried the RVT file with Ideate Explorer. “I know exactly where that keynote is lurking, and I know why it’s been hiding.”

HOW DID HE KNOW?