Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Ontario Revit Users Group Meeting

Wednesday, July 11th 6:30
Alice Fazooli's, 294 Adelaide St.W. Toronto

Agenda

Reception: Join us for hors d'oeuvres and drinks at 6:30.

Introduction: Latest News of Revit Use in Ontario and Canada.
The new ORUG logo will be unveiled and Web address announced.
Manufacturer content available and most requested for Revit

ORUG Member Presentation: Discuss specific topics in-depth with experienced Ontario Revit users at four Topic Stations. At least one Revit expert with a computer will be stationed at each table.

The Topics discussed will be:

Families and Content
Presentations and Rendering
Sections and Detailing
What's New in Revit Architecture 2008 (and how to make best use it!)

Registration: Please email your interest in attending to Jay Polding

Friday, June 08, 2007

No Saving in Sketch Mode

This may seem trivial but when you save to in sketch mode Revit will save only what you did before entering sketch mode. My recommendation is to always save before entering sketch mode. If you're working on a very complex sketch you may want to occasionally exit and save if possible.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Missing Callouts Bug

The latest build fixes the following bug:

When upgrading a project from 9.1 to 2008 some plan Callouts disappear when the Crop Region is on.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Conditional Statements Translation..Part 1

You will find the following examples of conditional statements in the Revit help menu if you search for 'conditional'. I wanted to let you know what I learned from these...

First of all, the conditional statement goes into the Formula field of the parameter that you want to control. This formula will automatically fill out the Height value of the example below. Formulas are like a language and Syntax is the spelling.

Now to translate...

The example below is an either/or situation. It's saying 'If the Width is LESS THAN 3000mm THEN the Height will be 2000mm IF NOT (LESS THAN 3000mm) THEN it's 1000mm.

The commas are acting as a THEN and a IF NOT THEN.



This can be taken further by having multiple variables. The example below is found in the help files and provides the syntax for such a case..

Monday, May 14, 2007

Revit Architecture 2008 Tutorials Error

Have you tried downloading the tutorials for RA 2008 yet? If so you probably got an error. The reason is that the files are trying to replace 'read only' files found in your Revit install directory. Here's how to workaround it:
1. Download files
2. Extract to a different folder than the default

You could then overwrite the help file this was intending to replace but you may not want to. The previous file has the link to the site where these help files are supposed to be kept and updated.

It's unfortunate. The developement team could have avoided this issue by a simple test, trying it.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Sketchup 6 crashes Revit 9.1

I just had this happen to me and wanted others to know that Revit 9.1 (latest build) crashes when you import a Sketchup 6 file. To avoid this, save down to Sketchup 5 in Sketchup.

This is confirmed on this fine blog:
CAD Shack by Todd Shackelford

Friday, March 23, 2007

ORUG Members in the Globe and Mail

There is an article in the Globe and Mail Real Estate Section today about a Solares' Design Build project. Christine and Tom are both active members of ORUG and are 'sustainable design' advocates in practice.

You can read it on-line at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/RTGAM.20070323.re-construction-0323/REStory/RealEstate/

Thursday, March 22, 2007

ESpecs for Revit: Review Part 1

Especs for Revit promises to link the assembly code information from Revit objects with Masterspec in order to create a written specification package. In our initial testing we have found that it does what it promises in this regard. Getting there is not overly complicated as implied by the length of training needed; for the full package, a day and a half. As of today Masterspec is the only standard available which they said that they will be expanding to include CMS, NMS (Canada).


We are currently testing this product and I will post further reviews as we go.

There is a video demo on their site.
http://www.e-specs.com/

Structural Objects in Revit Building

Many wonder if the structural objects that come with Revit Building work in Revit Structure seamlessly. The answer is yes they do. You may use the Copy/Monitor function to copy them into the Revit Structure from a linked Revit Building model.

Monday, February 19, 2007

The Next Revit

Just saw this and thought you might be interested. This blogger is talking about some of the new stuff that is being developed for the upcoming Revit.

http://knowingwhatyoudontknow.blogspot.com/
2007/02/snooping-under-tree-for-revit.html

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Welcome to 2007 ORUG Members!

Our first meeting of the year is scheduled for Feb.21, 2007, starting at 6:30pm

Please email your confirmation to jpolding@cadmicro.com

Location: Alice Fazooli’s

Toronto

294 Adelaide St. W.
(At John Street)
M5V 1P6
Tel. (416) 979-1910

Topics:

Revit in Production

A local architect will reveal techniques used to create a full set of construction documents within Revit. This will be followed by a Q+A discussion.

Toronto the Green- Advances in Sustainable Design in Ontario

There is an opening for this presentation. If you would like to present or would like to make a suggestion please email Jay Polding-jpolding@cadmicro.com.

Revit Implementation Techniques

The Autodesk recommended steps for a successful Revit implementation. This will be followed by a Q+A discussion.

The winner of the Revit Building NFR is Rosario Tan. The software will be presented at the next ORUG meeting. Thanks to those of you who sent in your input sheets!

Logo Design Competition Update:

So far, we have only one entry. Unless we get more we will have to plaster our lone entry all over our website and t-shirts (you might want to see attached).

Monday, December 11, 2006

Implementation Certified Expert

No, I didn't go to Waltham Mass. (Near Boston) just to have a pint at Cheers (although I did). My main purpose was attending the Revit Implementation Certified Expert (ICE) training. The course was really well taught and developed. It was interesting to meet counterparts from all over the world; Japan, Korea, USA, and even from my little ol' Canada. One thing that was impressed upon me was that even though Revit is easy to use you need a plan to implement it. The other thing is attitude. If someone doesn't want to learn something, forget it. So, choosing the right people for your team is very important. Here are some basic steps to a successful implementation and for project planning in general:

Establish a baseline of where you are; people, projects, workflow, technology etc.
Make a detailed plan; training, deployment etc.
Follow your plan and try not to get sidetracked.
Follow up on your plan and see how you can do things better the next time.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

CDV Systems Video Review

I have recently went through the instructional videos "TLC AR01 TFER - The Family Editor Revealed ". This is found at http://www.cdvsystems.com/

The videos are well organized into 68 vignettes based on topic. The content is accurate and concise. There are also some tips and tricks which the help files don't tell you, these are gems. The only faults that I found was that the audio volume was a little low and the video size had to be adjusted for each of the videos. The price is $30 for each download which I would say is quite reasonable.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Ontario Revit User's Group

Plan to attend the inaugural Ontario Revit Users Group Meeting with guest speakers from KPMB Architects and Phil Read from Autodesk.

When: Wednesday, October 25th 6:30pm to 9:00pm.

Location: Alice Fazooli's, 294 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, ON


Agenda

Reception: Join us for hors d'oeuvres and drinks at 6:30.

Introduction: Meet the Ontario Revit User's Group Organizers and dedicated volunteers who are leading the Revit wave in Ontario.

Revit - Cross Country Checkup: This year has shown tremendous gains in the adoption
of Revit. Caesar Ruest from Autodesk Canada will report on who, where and how Revit is being used across Canada.

ORUG Member Presentation:
The Revit team from KPMB Architects will discuss their experience with using Revit on the Manitoba Hydro tower project.

Guest Speaker - Phil Read Speaks on Design Iteration in Revit: Phil is a Revit implementation architect with Autodesk and works directly with firms in training, project implementation, and establishing best practices. Phil holds Bachelor of Science degrees
in Communications and Architecture, as well a Master of Architecture degree from the University of North Carolina and has over 13 years combined experience in the engineering and architecture fields.

Q & A: Use this great opportunity to ask questions about your use of Revit.

Registration: Please email your interest in attending to Jay Polding at jpolding@cadmicro.com.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Change a Revit Mass Name

Here's how to change the name of a Revit mass object.

1. Go to the Families listing in the Project Browser
2. Find Mass
3. Find Instance, right-click, rename!

Detailing in Revit

Many people who haven't used Revit claim that it doesn't do detailing well. They are wrong in two areas:

1. Revit doesn't 'do' details, a person does. It seems obvious enough but just because you have the ability to cut sections through components doesn't mean that section will know the specific conditions that you need to communicate...
2. Revit does have a robust set of detailing tools that enable you to draw BETTER details than AutoCAD.

You need to ask the following question before you start detailing:

1. Should I model this in 3D, 2D or both?

These questions help you answer this:

a. Will this condition be visible from any other views?
b. Is this a generic detail that is used over different projects, or is it specific to this one only?
c. How far are we into the design, will this part of the building change drastically?

An good example is a door section.

Will you see the structural lintel and flashing from other views? No, draw it in 2D on top of the section/callout view.
What about the connection to the wall, insulation, frame extrusion shapes etc? Again, no. Draw it in 2D overtop of the section/callout view.

Will I see the masonry lintel from another view? Yes. Model the lintel in the door family in 3D so it shows correctly in sections and elevations.

If the door manufacturer has sent their own pre-engineered detail in AutoCAD just import that file into a Drafting View and link it to a callout. Why 'reinvent the wheel'?!

Friday, September 15, 2006

Ontario Revit Users Group

Revit Ontario Users Group Meeting

Plan to attend the inaugural Ontario Revit Users Group Meeting on Wednesday October 25th from 7:00PM to 9:00PM.

Location: Alice Fazooli's, 294 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, ON

Agenda: Introduction to the ORUG organizers, report on Revit usage across Canada, update on Revit development, guest speaker, Q+A, networking, food and drink.

Registration: Please email your interest in attending to Jay Polding at jpolding@cadmicro.com

Friday, September 08, 2006

What's Really New in Revit 9.1

First off, I would like to say, after reviewing this release, GREAT JOB and THANK YOU to the development team. They have listened to us, the users, and fixed some of the persistent issues that have been coming up.

I would categorize the enhancements into two areas:

Talking to other programs
Autodesk has purchased FM Desktop which will allow Revit and AutoCAD to mesh into the Facilities management arena. Great idea. They have also acquired Robobat, a leading engineering calculations software. Great idea. What this means is a more disciplines working based on the Revit model. So this is where the development team has to integrate existing functions into all of the other necessary programs.

Adding common wishlist items
As we all know, details are critical. We make suggestions and the Revit team is listening. Is their reaction time fast enough? We have to balance our reaction to this. No, we don't want them to be complacent but at the same time we need to be realistic. They did fix some of my wishlist items but the major test will be what release 10 fixes and adds.

Here we go...

Selecting units for DWG export (Talking to other programs)(Adding common wishlist items)

You can set the DWG units for projects you export to DWG format. Unit options are feet, inches, meters, centimeters, and millimeters. The default units are inches for imperial projects and meters for metric projects.

Exporting room and area properties to 2D DWF (Talking to other programs)

When you export a project or a view that has rooms or areas to 2D DWF, you can have the room/area properties exported on a separate layer than the geometric representation. Setting this option allows you to view individual rooms and room data when you are exporting a project or a view for use with facility management software (such as Autodesk® FMDesktop), or DWF markup software (such as Autodesk® Design Review).

Specifying the building type and zip code for exported gbXML files (Talking to other programs)(Adding common wishlist items)

You can now specify the building type and zip code for projects that export to gbXML. Several analysis software packages use this information when importing gbXML files to add default design values for energy use and costs, thermal loads, and construction.

Hiding elevation tags(Adding common wishlist items)

You can set the view scale at which elevation tags are hidden in project views. Each elevation tag instance can have a different view scale at which it is hidden.

Improved snapping for section views(Adding common wishlist items)

You can now snap a section line either parallel or perpendicular to a non-orthogonal datum or wall. Snapping to a wall is available in plan views.

Set room bounding condition for columns prior to placement(Adding common wishlist items)(Talking to other programs, especially Revit Structure)

You can now specify whether an architectural column is room bounding before placing it. This setting persists until you change it.

Placing windows and doors on in-place walls in plan view(Adding common wishlist items)

In plan view, you can now place windows and doors on in-place and face-based walls, for example a sloped wall.

Moving end-joined components(Adding common wishlist items)

Components that share a common end join can be moved simultaneously without breaking the join by using a new drag control, or by selecting an option on the context menu. This functionality is available for walls, lines, beams, braces, and line-based families.

New area property for filled region(Adding common wishlist items)

To quickly determine area you can now use the filled region tool and view the new area property.

You view the area property for a filled region in its Element Properties dialog. The area value is the area of the region's closed perimeter loop less the area of any closed loops within the perimeter. The area property is reported in the project units (for example, square meters or square feet). The area property is read-only and cannot be scheduled or tagged.

The following topics could be grouped under (Talking to other programs, especially Revit Structure) (Adding common wishlist items)

Using the Trim/Extend tool with beams and braces

You can now use the Trim/Extend tool (trim/extend to corner and trim/extend single element options) to trim or extend braces and beams.

Moving braces out of their originating plane

You can now copy, move, mirror, array, and rotate braces out of the vertical plane they were created in. You can accomplish this in plan and 3D views.

Non-planar beam systems

You can create non-planar beam systems in which the elevation of a beam is defined by its sketch lines. Sketched beam lines:

New option for the Layout Rule instance parameter

Concrete drawing improvements

Concrete beams that are in the same plane and are joined to the same concrete column (where the beams are wider than the column) automatically clean up.

Automatic concrete joins

Beam Direction Edge tool renamed

New options for sketching beam directions

Different display options for hidden, non-rectangular concrete beams

Independent visibility control for revision clouds and revision tags

Monday, August 28, 2006

Revit 9.1 and Structure 4, SURPRISE!

Wow, that was quick. Here's what Autodesk is saying about this release coming out tomorrow (in Canada anyway):


The Revit Building 9.1
products deliver the best possible information for decision making by increasing support for interoperability and enhancing coordination and quality, while optimizing workflow across the Autodesk Revit product suite. (this is an interchangeable blurb Autodesk uses when it a. doesn't have anything to report b. doesn't want us to know.)

Revit Structure 4 contains many new modeling features, pre-cast concrete and steel content, analytical tools and enhancements for reinforced concrete documentation. Of particular note are the TrussWizard (available only to Subscription customers) and the one-click beam system creation feature. (sound interesting)




Thursday, August 24, 2006

Tell Autodesk how to improve Revit

Just saw this on AUGI, it's a site that helps get our wishlist items onto the next release.

http://www.revitcc.com