Revit ArchCenter

Tip - Increase / Decrease Focal Length of Camera

2015-03-23T12:32:00.001-05:00

Great tip!! I wonder how long this has been available? I only have back to 2014 and it's available there. It's nice to be able to do this, just wish Autodesk would bring forward the setting in the Properties so we could choose an actual focal length :) TheRevitKid.com! - Tutorials, Tips, Products, and Information on all things Revit / BIM: Revit Tip - Increase / Decrease Focal Length of Ca...:

Turning the Page

2014-09-23T10:04:00.001-05:00

Recently, I turned the page and started a new chapter in my work life. I’ve moved on from being an Application Engineer for an Autodesk reseller in the Chicago area and am happy to announce that I am now the Technical Application Manager for a General Contractor in the Chicago area! I’ll continue to keep this blog going, just may have a slightly different twist on some of the items I’ll be

What’s New in Revit 2015

2014-03-27T11:00:00.001-05:00

Instead of listing out all of the new features of Revit 2015, I’ll point you over to Steve Stafford’s Revit OpEd blog where he’s got the entire list of updates. Thanks Steve for pulling this together! Highlights for Revit Architecture are the following for me (in no particular order)… Sketchy Lines (Visual Style) Family Parameter Order You can now adjust the order of your Family Parameters (

Managing Room Separation Lines

2014-02-03T08:30:00.000-06:00

For many of the users I teach Revit to the first time, the inevitable questions arise when we discuss Room Separation Lines… “Do they print?” Yes, yes they do. “How do we get them not to print?” You can turn them off in Visibility Graphics. “But then do we have to keep turning them on/off every time we need to add or manipulate them?” Yep, pretty much. Then I usually get the disappointed

This Operation Could Not Be Completed

2014-01-31T13:38:00.001-06:00

This error message came up for a customer of mine when they were upgrading a Revit 2013 project to 2014 and using Revit Server. The file worked perfectly in 2013, but as soon as the file was upgraded to 2014, they couldn’t save it to Revit Server 2014…the above mentioned error popped up. So, like I do with a lot of my customers, I had them send me the file so I could test it out on my end. This

Autodesk BIM 360 Products

2014-01-30T14:56:00.001-06:00

So I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog front this year (that’s kind-of an understatement!). It’s not that I don’t have much to share, but it seems like every day passes way too fast. The main reason though for my practical non-existence in the blogging world is that in the summer of 2013, I started the trek down the BIM 360 road with Glue and Field. I was one of only a select few that were

System Requirements for Revit 2014 Products

2013-04-03T15:29:00.001-05:00

Instead of copy/pasting a giant list of requirements that Autodesk has listed, below is a link to the System Requirements page on Autodesk’s website: System requirements for Autodesk Revit Products Please, please note that Windows XP is NOT listed!! If you are still using XP (or even Vista, which I rarely run into), you’re going to need to upgrade your OS! Not to say that Revit 2014 won’t

What’s New in Revit Architecture 2014

2013-03-26T13:12:00.001-05:00

Yep, the wonderful time of the year when bloggers all across the globe push out their “version” of what’s new in the 2014 Autodesk software. Instead of reposting a long list of enhancements, here’s a couple posts that do a great job of showing the new features… As always, David Light has his great post on the new features! Click HERE to go to his post. Autodesk even got into the “game” this

Flipping Stairs Flips Stringer Side

2013-03-19T13:24:00.001-05:00

Little something I ran across during a class a couple weeks ago. When working with Stairs in Revit 2013, someone asked about having a stringer on one side and not the other. No problem with Component Stairs in Revit 2013. Then I went to show how you can change the “direction” of the stair by using the Flip Direction arrow at the top of the stair….and this happened: Notice how the stringers

Revit Backup File Notice

2013-02-27T15:23:00.001-06:00

If you’ve used Revit, you pretty much know that you should avoid opening up a backup file unless it’s absolutely necessary to do so. What I mean by that is you typically aren’t going to open up a file that has “filename.0000.rvt” (for example) as a name…the .”four digits”.rvt (or .rfa) in the file name means it’s a backup. Well, the other day I was explaining to a group of new Revit users how

Can’t Change Scale of Elevations, Sections, Callouts

2013-01-01T12:00:00.000-06:00

The screen shot below is the Ribbon/Options Bar after initiating the Section tool….notice anything missing? What used to be in the Options Bar is now gone….the ability to “set” the scale of the View you are about to create. In 2013, you have to basically just create the Section, Elevation or Callout, then once the view is created change the scale. Not sure the reasoning behind this one, but

Can’t Copy Light Fixtures in Gyp Board Ceiling Revit 2013

2012-12-31T14:45:00.001-06:00

Something weird I ran into a while back while teaching a class…not being able to copy a Light Fixture in the out-of-the-box GWB on Mtl. Stud Ceiling. I can copy Fixtures all day long in a 2x2 or 2x4 ACT Ceiling (even the Generic Ceiling), but as soon as the ceiling is changed to the GWB, I get the following error… The 2nd part or the error just says the the “Elements were deleted”. This

Remove Dimension from String Revit 2013

2012-04-30T15:57:00.001-05:00

In Revit 2013 (all flavors), we now have the ability to remove a single dimension in the middle of a string!! It’s always been painful to tell people that they needed to wipe out one end or the other and recreate the string if something in the middle needed to be removed for whatever reason. Here’s a very, very short video on how it works…just remember, don’t select the string and try to Edit

BDS-U 2013 Doesn’t Install NWC Export

2012-04-17T09:05:00.001-05:00

For those you don’t know what BDS-U is, it’s the short form for Building Design Suite Ultimate. Anyway, finally got this bad boy downloaded, extracted and installed yesterday. Installed practically everything in the suite and popped open Revit 2013 and noticed the Add-Ins tab wasn’t showing. This was a little odd since the Suite is supposed to install the NWC Exporters, so the Add-Ins tab

Revit Architecture 2013

2012-04-04T13:59:00.001-05:00

Well, the first few months of 2012 have been busy, which I guess is a good thing! Since the 2013 products were introduced on March 27, I’m not going to repurpose the what’s new features for 2013….I’ll simply point you in the direction of David Light. He’s always got a very good summary of the tools. Here’s a few little things that I’ve run across that you probably won’t see in the What’s New

Ceiling Grid Lines Don’t Move

2011-12-30T14:49:00.001-06:00

Never had this one happen until the last class I taught. Had a student moving their Ceiling Grid lines in one of the exercises and the Lines were not moving. I watched a couple times (to make sure they were using the Tool correctly, which they were) before I noticed something…the “Disjoin” checkbox in the Options Bar was checked, but it was greyed out…couldn’t change it. So I had the student

Autodesk University (AU) Virtual 2011

2011-11-14T09:14:00.001-06:00

As much everyone would like to go to Las Vegas in 2 weeks, many of you do not have the opportunity. Budget limitations and work demands will keep you from attending the Autodesk University in Las Vegas. To expand the audience and make Autodesk University more accessible to a greater number of people the Autodesk created AU Virtual. This year AU Virtual is offered at no charge to all AU Members

Revit 2012 Service Pack 2 Available

2011-09-27T17:17:00.001-05:00

Well, the latest service pack for Revit is now available! You can download the update HERE. As always, make sure you download the appropriate version (for OS) and read the Readme file. The update list isn’t available yet, but check back on the download site within the next couple days and it should be available. I posted this morning that SP2 was needed in order to utilize the Cloud Rendering

Autodesk Cloud and Revit Rendering in the Cloud

2011-09-27T10:41:00.001-05:00

By now, many of you have probably already have heard or read about Autodesk Cloud for Subscription Customers. One of the items available in the Autodesk Cloud is being able to Render Online (in the Cloud) directly from within Revit 2012 via an Add-in that you can install (from the Cloud site). One thing (and kind-of a big thing) is that in order to install the Add-in for Cloud Rendering, you

New Ceiling Modify Option

2011-07-25T08:58:00.001-05:00

Here’s a little something I ran across in my last training session… When you want to modify a Ceiling, you typically had to get the to edge of the ceiling, select it, then you would get the option to Edit Boundary (left image). If you select just a grid line, you don’t get that option (right image)… This has now changed in Revit 2012! If you select just a grid line of a ceiling, you now

Off Topic–Autodesk Certification

2011-07-19T16:35:00.001-05:00

Last week I received my results from taking the Autodesk Certified Instructor program back in early June. It was a tough 4 days, doing 3 presentations, 2 of them recorded, scored and critiqued during that time. Then, the videos of the 2 presentations are sent around the world (from my understanding) to get critiqued as well. I thought I did well, but it’s a little nerve-racking waiting

Revit Architecture 2012 Update 1 Available

2011-06-30T12:48:00.001-05:00

I knew this would happen… get busy and things slip through without being noticed. Thanks to a co-worker, I was notified this morning that the 1st service pack/update was now available for the Revit 2012 products. You can download the update HERE. For some reason, the list that’s typically included isn’t available quite yet. There are a few people that have posted about some of the fixes (What

Vault Integration with Revit 2012

2011-05-19T09:31:00.001-05:00

Last week I spent a couple days starting to learn the ins and outs of Vault Collaboration 2012 and it’s integration with the AEC products for 2012. This is the first iteration of Vault being integrated with the AEC products, so this is definitely a work in progress. At this point, here’s how Vault works with the Revit family of products for 2012… Archival of Central files – This process

Copy Doors and Constrain

2011-04-27T16:29:00.001-05:00

I’ve had a few people ask me recently why they can’t copy Doors from one wall to another. I was surprised they couldn’t as I could without any issues. But then something clicked…the Constrain checkbox. Sure enough, if Constrain is checked, you can’t copy a Door outside of the wall it’s placed in. So in order to copy the door from one wall to another by utilizing the Copy tool, just make sure

How Much RAM Should I Get

2011-04-15T11:10:00.001-05:00

I get this question quite often from many people, whether they are looking to get a new computer or looking to make some updates to their current computer. Here’s a little excerpt from the Revit Model Performance Technical Note… “Please keep in mind the amount of local machine RAM required is approximately 20 times the size of your compacted central project file. Each linked file would apply