revit in plain english

View Filter Walls by Function

2012-01-04T14:30:00.001-05:00

I've noticed some Revit users making Worksets in order to manage visibility. While this can be done it's not really necessary or advisable. Worksets can create more work for the user if they are used like layers in AutoCAD. One such example I've seen is a Workset for interior and exterior walls. View filters can be used to filter walls based upon the 'function' parameter in the wall's Type Properties. Walls Types can be defined as Interior, Exterior etc. Then you can make a View Filter based upon the wall's function which is selected automatically.

How to make a View Filter:

Visibility/Graphics
Filters
Edit/New
New Filter, call it 'Interior Walls'
Select 'Walls' as the Category
Filter by: Function
Equals: Interior
OK
Add-Interior Walls
Turn on/off the visibility or override the graphics

Should Project Managers Learn Revit?

2011-12-22T12:01:00.002-05:00

The role of Project Manager or Project Architect is very hard to define. There are almost as many variations as there are projects. Some Project Managers are actively involved in the production, many mostly review drawings, others are managing relationships exclusively. Of course, most do all of the above. In the end, they need to rely on their production past to know how to manage production present. So even though Project Managers will likely not be involved in production Revit they NEED to know how it works. The sooner a Project Manager realizes this, the happy he will be. In fact, the happier we all will be. If a Project Manager doesn't learn how to use Revit, there will always be this murky unknown that causes tension in the team. It's worth the time to send a PM to training. After or even during training the PM should model up something small from start to finish. Within a month or so, the haze will start to clear...

Revit OpEd: Project Coordination - Early Days

2011-12-22T11:11:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Steve Stafford and Andre Carvalho. Point of this post is too 'out' the acquire coordinates flaw. If you are a consultant linking in the arch model, acquire coords does nothing for you. You will need to update your model 'manually' in order to keep up with building on site movements. Read Steve's post for more...

Revit OpEd: Project Coordination - Early Days: This post attempts to outline how a project will develop (understanding there are exceptions) when considering multiple firms/models and att...

Revit OpEd: Bending Railings to Your Will

2011-12-22T09:37:00.000-05:00

Revit OpEd: Bending Railings to Your Will: Food for thought, what if we used railings for millwork and egress paths? By millwork I mean custom work, not fixed sized cabinets which are...

Revit Structure 2012 Training Videos Released

2011-12-16T12:59:00.001-05:00

Introducing video training for Revit Structure 2012 Fundamentals. This 7.5hr course follows the workflow of a project focusing on industry best practices along the way. Watch some free sample videos here:

Revit Structure Box Truss Space Truss Video

2011-12-16T11:32:00.000-05:00

Revit (any version) does not ship with a 'Space Truss' or 'Box Truss' that I could find. This is a commonly used member and I decided to make one and let you know how I did it. Here's a video explaining the basic procedure.

Overview Instructions:

Start with a 'Beams and Braces' family template. Call it space_truss
Extrude main chords in right elevation and lock to ref planes.
Extrude a solid in the same elevation and lock to ref planes. This will be web eventually.
Start a new family based upon the 'Generic Model Faced Based' template. Call it space_truss_void
Make a void which will cut out the desired space around the web. This will be one cell which we will array. Make sure you use 'Cut Geometry' on the voids and the host, even if they're not touching.
Load the space_truss_void family into the space_truss family.
Constrain and array the space_truss_void family along the member.
Make an array parameter which distributes the space_truss_void family along the solid web.
Load in to project and enjoy.

Download the project file containing the families here.

orug: ORUG at AU2012

2011-12-08T11:35:00.000-05:00

orug: ORUG at AU2012: Canada was very well represented at AU2011. It was nice to see people from across the country and to meet with many of them. Some members...

BIM rocks Insurance Industry

2011-11-25T09:36:00.001-05:00

Please check out this website by Rick Management Consultant Michael Loeters. The BIM revolution is sending ripples throughout the legal and insurance industries. Michael is one of the people who 'get it' and is actively changing with the times. Below is his latest video blog on insurance industry and BIM trends.

James Vandezande Presentation at SU

2011-11-22T15:36:00.001-05:00

Only a month late...Just wanted to say a big thank you to James for coming up to our SolidCAD University event. We're still getting positive comments about the quality of this event.

Free Revit Videos

2011-11-21T09:11:00.001-05:00

Here are a bunch of free intermediate Revit videos, including how to create Revit Titleblocks. More are one their way.

Revit Wish List

2011-11-17T15:20:00.001-05:00

AU is coming up and I need to get my Revit Most Wanted list together. Please comment on the list below:

Open the Revit Database Already!

Most of my wishes revolve around opening up the Revit database.

We need schedules to query anything from any category.

Tags need to be able to read data from other objects and categories ie. Doors reading Room numbers.

We need an automated Room Datasheet maker. A schedule that will list everything in a particular room.

Universal Search. Similar to Navisworks, search by multiple conditions and save searches. Or just start typing a find anything.

Automated and Enhanced Project Browser

Project Browser makes and manages Phase and Design Option views automatically.

Drag and drop views between folders.

Automated naming of views ie. Room 101 South Elevation

Automated 3D Section Box views which are linked to the extents of plans, sections and elevs.

Schedules

Print conditional statement colours in schedules.

Schedules to include Family thumbnails.

Phasing Refinement

Phase filters that show multiple phases backward .

Global visibility control

A global option in the Visibility/Graphics box.

Other Stuff

Universal Annotation Settings Interface

Walls which have a 'centreline' built in for various uses ie.fire rating plans

Edit Family button for Annotation like Levels and View Titles.

Distance lineweight control

Not even going to bother asking for Site tool enhancements.
Two Click Revision Bubbles

Revit OpEd: Elevation Update Update

2011-10-17T10:36:00.000-04:00

Revit OpEd: Elevation Update Update: Comment on my earlier post regarding elevation tags not updating properly...seems that it only affects stand-alone project files. If you ar...

SolidCAD University with James Vandezande-Tomorrow!

2011-10-06T18:07:00.000-04:00

Some news on this; due to overwhelming response the registration is now closed. Sorry. I'll do a follow up post on his presentation.

If you're a BIM manager or are trying to implement BIM in your firm you can't miss this presentation by James Vandezande of HOK, New York. This will inlcude an audience discussion so bring your best questions and don't be afraid to ask them! Keep an eye on this blog for our 'post game show'.

Topics for Discussion:

Roles and Responsibilities (BIM Manager, BIM Coordinator, Thought Leader, Strategist)
Managing Change (new to implementing BIM, what do you do? Sociology/psychology of change, working differently, question everything...)
Proper Planning (implementation, training, project execution)
Legal issues (BIM deliverables, contracts, liability)
Measuring success

James Vandezande is a registered architect and a principal at HOK in New York City, where he is a member of the firm-wide BIM leadership and is managing their buildingSMART initiatives. After graduating from the New York Institute of Technology in 1995, he worked in residential and small commercial architecture firms performing services ranging from estimating to computer modeling to construction administration. In 1999, he landed at SOM and transformed his technology skills into a 10-year span as a digital design manager. In this capacity, he pioneered the implementation of BIM on such projects as One World Trade Center, a.k.a. Freedom Tower. James has lectured at many industry events, including Autodesk University, VisMasters Conference, CMAA BIM Conference, McGraw_Hill Construction, and the AIANYS Convention. He is a co-founder and president of the NYC Revit Users Group and is an adjunct lecturing professor at the NYU School for Continuing and Professional Studies as well as the Polytechnic Institute of NYU.

orug: Sept.27 ORUG Meeting Notes

2011-10-04T18:44:00.000-04:00

orug: Sept.27 ORUG Meeting Notes: Thanks to all who attended our 5th anniversary meeting at the Spoke Club. Here are some highlights from the evening: New venue, lot's of...

orug: ORUG Online Meeting

2011-09-27T15:20:00.000-04:00

orug: ORUG Online Meeting: Internet connectivity permitting, we will be showing our presentation at the Ontario Revit Users Group presentation on GotoMeeting. T...

orug: orug: Sept.27th Registration Closed

2011-09-19T16:40:00.000-04:00

orug: orug: Sept.27th Registration Closed: orug: Sept.27th Registration Closed : Due to the overwhelming response and the capacity of our venue (140 standing), we have to close regist...

New Revit Architecture 2012 Intermediate Video

2011-09-13T11:15:00.002-04:00

I'm proud to announce the release of our latest Revit training video; Revit Architecture 2012 - Intermediate to Advanced. It's over ten hours of Revit standards, advanced modelling techniques and industry best practices. You can also purchase the Fundamentals, Intermediate to Advanced videos as a bundle. It's even available for your iPad no less!

Autodesk Labs Utilities Project Vasari

2011-09-13T09:27:00.000-04:00

Autodesk Labs Utilities Project Vasari

Practice 2.0: BIM Myths and Building Truths | ArchDaily

2011-09-13T08:55:00.000-04:00

Practice 2.0: BIM Myths and Building Truths ArchDaily

How To Activate Project Spark - It is Alive in the Lab

2011-09-13T08:40:00.000-04:00

How To Activate Project Spark - It is Alive in the Lab

Project Spark and Storm - The Revit Clinic

2011-09-13T08:26:00.000-04:00

Project Spark and Storm - The Revit Clinic

Corrupt Revit Project File

2011-09-13T08:25:00.001-04:00

This was written by Chris Aquino, The Revit Clinic...

"We (Autodesk) have started to see a few more of these types of cases, and a new Knowledge Base document has been created to organize some of the options for this scenario:
Data file is corrupt and needs to be manually recovered
Update: If this message is only happening on one machine. Try freeing up some space on the hard drive, as well as clearing out the TEMP folder on the machine. To find the TEMP folder, hit Windows+R, enter %TEMP%, then delete as many files as you can"

orug: ORUG Meeting Sept. 27th

2011-09-05T16:00:00.000-04:00

orug: ORUG Meeting Sept. 27th: Ontario Revit Users Group (ORUG) Meeting When: Tuesday September 27, 2011 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM EDT Where: The Spoke ...

Video Post: Filled Regions

2011-09-02T09:56:00.005-04:00

This is a short video on how to create filled regions and masking regions in Revit.

Video Post: Void Visibility Parameter in Family

2011-08-25T11:04:00.003-04:00

If you're looking for a way to switch voids on and off in a family, you can't. You can only move them out of the solid. You can mimic the 'switch on and off' effect using the following parameters and conditional statement:

D1 (Length) - This is an input parameter where you can enter the distance from the solid.
D2 (Length) - Forumla=if(VOIDCUT, 0 mm, D1) This is the parameter that you use in the label of the dimension from a ref plane to the void.
VOIDCUT (Yes/No)

To translate:
If the parameter 'VOIDCUT' is checked, then it will make D2 a value of 0. This means that the void object will be inside the solid, thus cutting it. But if 'VOIDCUT' is not checked then the value of D2 will be the same as D1.

Here's a video explanation...

Thanks to Patricks (Mask) for the sample family...
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?p=1140127#post1140127