Revit OpEd with Steve Stafford
Selecting Multiple Saved Selection Sets
Sibilance! I used to work for Syracuse Scenery & Stage Lighting, Co. in Syracuse, NY. It was fun when I had to introduce myself formally starting with, "Hi, I'm Steve Stafford with...". The title of this post reminded me of that, sorry! I was going to lead into it with Dept. of Subtle but that was too many "sssss"... it is really subtle though. Okay I'll get to it then.Revit 2013 added Saved Selection Sets, a feature that was part of an extension for Revit Structure originally.The concept is simple,...
iRevit
What Revit Wants: Repurposing the Autodesk USB Media
What Revit Wants: Repurposing the Autodesk USB Media If you happen to have a 16Gb or 32Gb 2012 Autodesk Design Suite USB thumb drive gathering dust in a drawer, I repurposed one (after backing up the data) by using the following tool … after reading Luke’s handy post and a handful of the comments: Formatter.zip It’s a simple tool with one button. I make no guarantees or warranties but it worked for me. Cheers...
Buildz
Hey look! Real stuff! Made from fake stuff! User Question: Can Revit/Vasari unfold my geometry so that I can make a paper study model? I get this question all the time and the answer is a resounding “No! Tough beans!” However, I do have a simple formula for solving this problem: Revit Panels + Pepakura = Awesome Pepakura is a hobby papercraft software that unfolds and tabs your 3d data. Just import any compatible file (obj, dxf, mqo, 3ds,...
openRevit
Announcement from gbXML.org: gbXML Webinar: “How gbXML Works with New Building Performance Software from Autodesk and Bentley” May 23, 2012 from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm EST – Live Webinar We are holding our semi-annual gbXML webinar on May 23rd, 2012 at 2:00 pm EST. This webinar will demonstrate the integration of building energy performance and BIM software by using the interoperability capabilities of gbXML. This is all in the name of designing more energy efficient buildings. Presentations...
BLAUGI
AUGI HotNews May 2012 - Spring Release: New Autodesk Software
Features Letter from the President - 2012 May AUGI President David Harrington takes a look at recent AUGI developments. Spring Release: New Autodesk Software Autodesk has made the transition to new software easier, but there are still some protocols you......
Jason Grant Blog
Why stop at 3D printing your face or a small representation of a building... why not 3D print an entire house....
Do U Revit?
Fine-tuning of material surface patterns
When materials with surface patterns are used, there is a good chance that you need to tweak its position, and perhaps even rotate it to some degree. With system and in-place families, this is very easy to achieve, the latter being a little more tricky. So let’s take a wall with a surface pattern for example. You can tab and pick one of the lines and nudge/move/rotate as desired. Even the align tool works like a charm in cases like this. In fact, we use it all the time for tile-work in interior...
The Sustainable Design Toolbox
Last week was a very busy one at the UK's Ecobuild show. What stood out was the sheer volume of activity around Building Information Modelling with both the number of visitors to the stand wanting to know more, and the topic widely covered in the conference seminar programme. We also had some great customer presentations on our stand from Architype, BIM Technologies and Pozzoni that were very well received. Many thanks to them for participating....
Inside the Factory
I sit next to Zach Kron here at the Factory. One thing Zach and I talk quite a bit about is the “hands on” approach to parametric modeling in Revit/Vasari vs. the more abstract approach of applications like Grasshopper and......
Revit ArchCenter
Revit MEP
Using Revit as a Team. Use Same Builds.
When using Revit on a project, make sure everyone on the team is using not only the same version, (2011, 2012, etc), but the same build number as well. The build number can be found by clicking on the question mark pull down in the upper right corner, and click the About button…. From there, you’ll see the splash screen of the version, and the build. The first 4 numbers in the year the build was released, (2010) The next 2 are the...
A Beginner Revit Blog
Revit Clinic Post - 3 Levels of Masking
Bolt Out of the Red
Compiling and running .NET4.0 Revit commands
For those of you excited by .NET4.0’s new features and wanting to test Revit commands compiled with .NET4.0, you’re in luck. Before I show you how, a few caveats: I’ve tested this for a few days. While I haven’t run into any unexplained issues , there are areas of new functionality in .NET4 that can cause a bit of a head scratch. Of course this is unsupported so you can try submitting a bug but don’t be surprised if Autodesk just laugh at you. In other words,...
Between the Poles
Benefits of a 3D land and property information system for sustainable urbanization
At the GSDI 13 conference in Quebec City, Serene Ho and Abbas Rajabifard from Australia delivered a paper on the benefits of a 3D land and property information system (3D-LPIS) to an increasingly urbanized society. 70% of the population of......
dODDS and ENDS
Laser Scanning Webinars now available online
Back in February we mentioned some upcoming free laser scanning webinars. They've been and gone now, but if you missed out they are still available from our website. Click the banner below to access the older webinars and sign up......
AutoCAD Insider
Did you know that speakers at AU 2012 get free admission to the entire conference? It’s true! That’s in addition to the prestige of adding “AU Instructor” to your resume…and the speaker shirt to impress your friends. The Call for......
Lynn Allen's Blog
Catch My Virtual AutoCAD 2013 presentation!
Hi everyone! For those of you who haven't been able to catch one of my live presentations - I want you to know I'm doing my first AutoCAD 2013 virtual presentation(s) this week for Imaginit. You have three days to......
Through the Interface
Creating a 3D viewer for our Apollonian service using HTML5 Part 2
In the last post, we created another, basic 3D viewer for the data from our Apollonian web-service – this time using HTML5 via Three.js. In this post, we’ll extend the code to listen for keyboard events and manipulate the model......
Without A Net
Performance issues in AutoCAD when Autodesk Showcase 2013 is running at the same time
Some users have experienced performance degradation in AutoCAD and other Autodesk products when running them side by side with Autodesk Showcase 2013. This issue has been resolved in Service Pack 1 for Autodesk Showcase 2013 which can be downloaded from......
Between the Walls
AutoCAD Architecture 2010 and AutoCAD MEP 2010 Update 2 Released
Autodesk has released Update 2 for AutoCAD Architecture 2010 and AutoCAD MEP 2010. http://bit.ly/d3HfrA & http://bit.ly/9ApjyI...
LT Unlimited
Did you know that speakers at AU 2012 get free admission to the entire conference? It’s true! That’s in addition to the prestige of adding “AU Instructor” to your resume…and the speaker shirt to impress your friends. The Call for......
Connected
All in a Day's Work for the Buzzsaw Activity Log
I just got this great little tidbit from KBR's Aakanksha Luthra - what a great story! I've personally been in meetings just like this, when it was discovered that somebody was doing a little jiggery-pokery with the facts...it's great to......
Beyond the Paper
Autodesk Design Review Mobile - Now for Android!
You asked. We listened! The wait is over for our Android customers. The free Autodesk Design Review mobile app is now available on the Android Market! Similar to its IOs cousin, the Android version of the Design Review mobile app......
BIM & BEAM
We are looking for structural engineering classes for Autodesk University 2012
The Call for Proposals site for AU 2012 is currently opened and accepting class proposals. If you would like to teach a class now is the time to submit your proposal. The Structural Engineering Design track focuses on topics that......
Family Jewels - Creating Quality BIM Content
"Don't Judge Me by my Size - I'm Pretty on the Inside!" (Smart family file quote.)
Hey all - I just got back from Greenbuild Expo in Chicago, and over the 2.5 days there, I spoke to probably 15-20 manufacturers who came by the Autodesk booth - all to ask about BIM content creation. So that's great - way up from a half dozen per expo in years past. I was able let all the folks I spoke with, know about Autodesk's Seek team's cool new Content Services page where any building product manufacturer (BPM) can either get consulting on creating content themselves, or choose to have it made...
Inside the System
Integrating Building Energy Performance and BIM
Want to see a demonstration of the integration of building energy performance and BIM software? Then sign up for the upcoming gbXML webcast....
The Building Coder
Prompt User to Avoid Modeless Interaction
Once again on the topic of asynchronous interaction with Revit, which is not supported by the Revit API, and often worked around using the Idling and external events... As I recently pointed out, no Revit API methods at all can......
Easter Island Prokect Diary
Nobody knows who carved the huge stone figures, or why. There are 1000 of them, ranging from 6 feet to more than 30 feet in height. The biggest weighs about 270 tons. All have the same appearance: a long shaped......
The Revit Clinic
Revit 2013 \ 2012 Contextual Panels do not display or update
We’ve had a few users report missing panels or contextual panels one command behind in Revit 2012 and 2013. The symptom looks similar to the image comparison below: Revit 2013 – Incorrect Result Notice on selection the expected contextual panels......
Cracking the Vault
Increasing Timeouts for Autodesk Project Sync
If you need to synchronise a large amount of data between Vault and Buzzsaw after installing Autodesk Project Sync, you may get a timeout error. There are three components to Project Sync that would need to be configured:- Autodesk Vault......
It's All Just Ones and Zeros
One of the optimizations in Vault 2013 is the use of JPEG as the format for storing thumbnails. Previously, the format used by the CAD file was stored in the database. For example, Inventor uses the metafile format, which is usually much bigger than a JPEG when at thumbnail size. Regardless of what format the file’s thumbnail is, the Vault 2013 Server converts it to JPEG when storing it in the database. What this means for the Vault developer is that you have to handle 2 possible image formats...
Under the Hood
PLM Tip of the Week - Linking Workspaces in PLM 360
“That rug really tied the rooms together,” -The Dude Lebowski Today’s post will cover some best practices in tying linking data together within PLM 360. Items from one Workspace can call upon and provide a link to items in another Workspace. There are a number of ways to do this,......
It is Alive in the Lab
eTransmit for Revit 2013 Available in Subscription Center
eTransmit for Revit is a free technology preview of an add-in application for Revit Architecture 2012, Revit Structure 2012, and Revit MEP 2012. With eTransmit for Revit, you can: copy and detach a Revit model and associated files to a......
Voice of Community
An event is not a community, but...
My wise friend and brilliant futurist Wayne Hodgins once told me, “never confuse an event with community” but there I was at Autodesk University 2011 the other week, surrounded by community. Communities of mechanical engineers, automotive engineers, civil engineers: bridge builders, highway engineers, canal builders, “dirt movers”; architects – high rise and low density residential, hotel and stadium architects, institutional architects designing schools, hospitals, universities and prisons;...
Classroom Connection
Animation Academy - Providing Another Pathway...
If you haven’t read it – you better. By "it" I’m referring to the draft report on Multiple Pathways developed by WestEd. created in response to CA Assembly Bill 2648 (Bass) that “ requires the State Superintendent of Public Instruction......
Engineering Education for Mechanically Inclined
PLM in Education? Is that really even possible?
PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is a term that’s been around for a long time. It’s also a subject that has been made to seem so incredibly large in scope that only a few wise sages huddled in caves on steep......
Beyond the Silos
A common thread of conversation in BIM circles over the past few years has been that while we have seen great progress in the development of BIM authoring, analysis, and construction software, the owner side of things has lagged behind. The use of BIM for facilities management has remained something of a frontier, at least in terms of the availability of ready-to-deliver solutions.This morning, I stumbled across an article by Susan Smith on AECCafe, Integrate...
RobiNZ CAD Blog
The Autodesk 2012 Launch Aquatic with Salesoft CAD Solutions
It takes something special to lure you into an underground bunker filled with sharks. After a photo at the door (easier to ID the remains?) it was quite a trek, stopping to observe the Penguin Colony, to the Antarctic Hut......
Point-to-Point
Autodesk University 2012 Call for Proposals - now open!
The Call for Proposals for Autodesk University 2012 is open now till May 22nd. There will be 4 key industry segments featured this year: Automotive, Industrial Machinery, Building Product Fabrication, and Consumer Products. We are interested in classes that help engineers thoroughly understand the tools used for designing, visualizing, and simulating their designs digitally. Find out more information here: http://bit.ly/KZMlmK. Send in those proposals! - Ananda Arasu...
BIM Apps
Revit – STAAD link for Revit Structure 2013 now available
Another quick update that the Revit – STAAD link is now available for Revit Structure 2013 from Structural Integrators....
Phil Bernstein's Blog
I've recently given a few talks on the implications of model-based "measurement" strategies for the building industry, and how the ability to measure outcomes prior to construction becomes the basis of all sort of new stuff, particularly new delivery and compensation schemes. The delivery implications will be the subject of......
Beyond Design
BIM Coordinator – An easier way to share coordinates between Revit, Civil 3D and Navisworks
When you want to share coordinates between a Revit building model and Civil 3D site in the past it has tended to be a manual process. This tool from Autodesk Consulting allows you to share coordinates and height of a site to Revit to ensure you can simply create a......
Bad Revit!!!
a tip about windows schedule cost field
Welcome to my first blog and my first post!I could start with any kind of tip or article about Revit Architecture... so i'll start with a simple question that a former student asked me today.This is a tip for newbies... but very useful!question:in a window schedule, how can i have a cost per unit field and a total cost field? (assuming i'm not using the "itemize every instance" check box)answer:first step we have to create a window schedule. (the project must have windows!)Now, when you reach the...
Don't Think: Do Revit
RTC North America 2012! Oh & Revit 2013
So the veil has lifted for yet another year on the latest release of Revit. I know that David Light will provide a detailed overview of the new features so I'll spare you re-writing my own post. That said I'm very excited by the changes to View Templates and View Types, I view this as critical to help maintain a graphically consistent document set in your model, particularly when working on large projects with big teams. The other big piece that I think many architecture users will get excited about...
Everything Autodesk Revit & BIM
Some people are still very precious about graphically output from Revit, certainly project managers! I can understand why, because in many cases a print, a dwg, a dwfx, a pdf is the project deliverable, it is what people have become accustomed to from CAD. The graphics convey the message, it explains how components are connected or how the design is assembled. At the recent London Revit User Group I gave a quick overview on the new stair & railing tools in Revit 2013. One eagle eye member...
HOK BIM Solutions
Auditing Navisworks models for distant elements
In a recent post on the Beyond Design blog, Lee Mullin illustrates some techniques for fixing a Navisworks composite model that has elements extremely far from the main model. Some symptoms of this problem may include: Holes in elements or triangles missing when you render Section plane in foreground when you are navigating Jerky performance when navigating Model disappears when navigating Two faces apparently occupying the same space giving a jagged surface Click here to read the rest of Lee’s...
Knowing What You Don't Know About CAD
Autodesk Labs have a new product to assist with coordinating Revit with Civil 3D. This new add-in tool will allow the coordinates inside of Civil 3D be saved out as an external file, that can be imported into Revit to acquire the Shared Coordinates. This process appears to work without having to import the actual Civil file. A quicker, simpler way to make sure you Revit model has the correct coordinates.The add-in app is written for release 2012, but I copied it to my 2013 version...
Revit Tips and Tricks
Creating a Quick Trellis in Revit using a Curtain Wall
1. Start with a rough idea of how big the trellis will be and a rough idea of what the major support structure for the trellis. This might be using parts that are already built in your model or you might need to put in some columns, beams, etc.2. Start sketching the outer boundary of the trellis with a RoofHome > Roof > Roof by Footprint3. Go to the Properties of the Roof and switch the Family to System Family: Sloped Glazing (this is a Curtain Wall used for skylights) and then create a new Type...
Revit Beginners
Remodels in Revit... the untold story
To my surprise, there's not a whole lot of discussion on this very important topic. Anyone who has developed a custom remodel residential project can tell you it's not as simple, clean, or intuitive as a custom new construction residential project.The first step is pretty staight forward... build your as-built model in the existing phase. Once an as-built model is done you might want to archive a copy of the model just incase the design scope changes and you have to start all over again with a clean...
The MEP CAD Engineer
Changes to the Autodesk Subscription/Upgrade plans
Greg Arkin has posted a pretty detailed article about upcoming plans to change the Autodesk pricing/subscription model. This wasn't really surprising to me, as Autodesk is gradually moving to similar software vendor models (re: can you say online sales, severely whacked down channel). The fact is, they've been more than generous to users that have held on to their old AutoCAD's (I had to work with a guy who was still on a DOS System using ACAD 9 a few years back), but the reality of it is, the companies...
The BIM Bulletin
Avatech Solutions and Rand Worldwide, Inc./IMAGINiT Merge
On Tuesday, August 17, Rand Worldwide, Inc. and Avatech Solutions, Inc. announced that they have closed a definitive agreement under which the companies have merged.The combined company will be called Rand Worldwide and the Autodesk focused operations will operate under the name, IMAGINiT Technologies, when the transition is completed.For more details check out: http://tinyurl.com/273ljtl....
CAD Application Development
Point Cloud Fix in Revit 2012 Web Update 1
One of the biggest problems that people have had with the new Point Cloud capabilities of Revit 2012 is how it dealt with multiple point clouds inserted into your Revit project. If you had multiple scans that all were from the same origin, and you inserted them all origin-to-origin, then they would all line up, right? wrong...Some of the problem related to how Revit handled large coordinate values (as you may know, Revit doesn't like it when elements start showing up miles from the model origin)....
CADDHELP
Recently bought a Dell XPS9100. Be sure you research the components before you buy from Dell...or you will regret it. I've had several problems so far all related to the video card and misinformation on the Dell website. Then in trying to sort it out I get the runaround between sales, technical support, returns, etc. That of course is broken up by the eventual disconnect at about the 45-50 min mark during the support call. At this point I have given up...sigh....
REVIT Structure Learning Curve
RIBA publishes BIM Overlay to the RIBA Outline Plan of Work
The following press release has been brought to my attention - Original Here Date: 16 May 2012 Press office contact: Howard CrosskeyT: +44 (0)20 7307 3761E: howard.crosskey@riba.org The Royal Institute for British Architects (RIBA) has published a major piece of guidance for architects on BIM (Building Information Modelling). The BIM Overlay to the RIBA Outline Plan of Work, edited by architect, BIM expert and Vice Chair of the RIBA Practice and Profession Committee, Dale Sinclair of Dyer Architects,...
REVIT Workflow
Well, I am here, excited for another year at AU. Hoping to catch up with those I haven't seen since last year, meet new people, and learn about what's going on out in the industry as well as what's to come. I am guessing that this will be like any other year, I write my first post the minute I get to the hotel room and than never have time to write again once I step foot out the door. Hope this isn't the case this year, but we will have to wait and see....
(bim)x
Are We Approaching BIM Adoption Correctly?
Charles Duhigg’s February article How Companies Learn Your Secrets includes a number of fascinating (I think) threads:Consumer “predictive analytics”Habit loopBehavioral changes and marketing I am completely stuck on the concept of the “habit loop”. Duhigg blogs frequently on the habit loop, describing it as a cue àroutine àreward. In this article, Duhigg discusses how it impacted Febreze’s marketing strategy, which tried to create a new habit of daily Febreze use: Initial...
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