Ductwork for Architects - An Introduction to Revit MEP Systems (with Sample Files!)

During this weeks live happy hour I demonstrated how to make ducts and piping in Revit.  As an architect, it took me a long time to realize how much I could gain from understanding how to properly model MEP systems in Revit.  If you've ever attempted to model a duct in Revit and got the "the routing solution failed"... This tutorial is for you!

Continuing reading to view the tutorial and download the sample file...

Twinmotion vs. Enscape (Operating Room Case Study)

I was a bit nervous last night while presenting this case study live...  But, it all worked out in the end!  No crashes, no freezing, and the conversations were great!

Ultimately, last nights episode was a fun one.  Back when I started to dive into Twinmotion 2020, I wanted to really test it out on all fronts (exterior, interior, VR, etc...).  I thought a perfect way to really compare Twinmotion to other software I had been using was to force myself to use it on a real project.

Then the perfect project came along to test out the interior rendering abilities of Twinmotion and Virtual Reality (VR).  The project was a virtual mock-up of an operating room.  Normally, I would do this in Enscape and use it for renderings, live walk-throughs, and VR.  So... I decided to do it in both Enscape and Twinmotion to compare and contrast...

Last night, I presented my results...

To view the video replay and links mentioned, keep reading...

Rhino, Grasshopper, & Revit (w/Marcello Sgambelluri)

The great Marcello Sgambelluri joined me again during last night's happy hour and it was one to remember.  First, YouTube decided to go down 10 minutes before we went live!  Luckily, everything was up and running we were only a few minutes late.

By the way, if you have missed any of the Happy Hours live, you can get notified by either subscribing to my email list or subscribing to my YouTube channel... And, if you have missed the last 7 episodes you can see them all here...

As for last night, well, Marcello demonstrated how "Rhino Inside Revit" works and we discussed some of the ways we believe this technology will benefit the AEC industry...  Yes, we are talking about running Rhino (and Grasshopper) inside of Revit... Super cool... Of course, Marcello also made a few 3D animals as well...

Continue reading to view the replay and see all the links mentioned in the episode...

Photoshop for Architects - Replay

Last night I hosted another live happy hour on YouTube. I ran through some of the techniques I've developed over the years in Photoshop. We went through making sketches look better, cutting out a photo of IM Pei (to demonstrate masking), and post-processing renderings.  If you missed it, the replay is now live...

Continue reading for the replay and links mentioned during the happy hour...

Happy Hour Replay: BIM + Construction

During what has become a weekly ritual here at TheRevitKid.com, I held another live happy hour last night.  I had a few different ideas for topics this week based on conversations happening in the chat of the previous week. So, I took a Twitter poll and the overwhelming winner was "BIM and Construction"...

During the Happy Hour I demonstrated a bunch of examples that illustrate how Revit (and adjacent software) is used throughout the typical process of a construction management company.  We went on for almost 1 hour and 10 minutes thanks to some great questions by you all!

Keep reading to check out the replay and additional links/resources....

From Revit to Twinmotion 2020 (using a reader's model).

Last night I held another live happy hour.  This one was pretty different and exciting!

I always make tutorials using my own models that I have created from scratch.  I thought it would be fun to take a reader's model and do a live tutorial about rendering a scene in Twinmotion 2020.  That's right, I will be taking someone else's model and attempting to make a real-time rendering scene, live...

This could have been a complete failure... But, I think it was a success! In fact, I was able to create 3 renderings in 58 minutes.... From scratch.

Continue reading to view the replay and let me know what you thought....

Revit Coordinate Systems with RevitPure

During last night's happy hour I was joined by Nicolas from RevitPure. We ended up chatting and answering questions for well over an hour!

We had an in-depth discussion about coordinate systems and Nick demonstrated the differences between internal origin, survey point, shared coordinates, and so on.  We also touched base on a few new features in Revit 2021 and gave our opinions on them.

Learning Revit, Together. Introducing the new "BIM After Dark".

In my last two posts I asked a couple of questions that I was hoping would elicit some valuable responses, and they did.

The first question was "how do you get your Revit answers?"

The second question was "have you taken a Revit course online, and did you complete it?"

In the past, I have sent out links to surveys and took data that way.  These questions were meant to start conversations with you directly.  And it worked! I've had some awesome email conversations with many of you about your frustrations, victories, and Google searching journeys.

Have you taken a Revit course online? Did you complete it?

Yesterday, I posted a simple question here on the blog: "If you have a Revit question, where do you get your answer?".

I received a bunch of great emails and comments!  Thank you for replying!  It is always way better to have a bunch of email conversations than read a survey response...

Some of you answered with the one Revit question that has been nagging you recently (I will get back to you on those!), and others listed the order of their typical "Revit searches".

It was also apparent that some of you are frustrated with the process of finding the right answers to your problem.

For example, Don from Indiana mentioned he stumbled on YouTube videos often but:
"It is just like you say in your email. Some help here and some help there and a lot of talk close to the issue, but never a pin point solution for what I need at the moment."

Have a Revit question? Where do you get your answer?

We have all been there before.

Late at night, with a YouTube tutorial, three forum posts, and a blog post open, smashing our keyboards in frustration.

"How do I do that in Revit?!"

I've also been there before.  In more recent times, I have found myself frustratingly searching for Dynamo or DAX (Power BI) solutions.  For example, I was recently trying to figure out how to count working days in a Power BI formula.

I took the route most of you probably do: I started with Google.

How to Use Physically Based Rendering (PBR) Materials in Revit

This post was inspired by a presentation from Josh Radle.  I remember somewhere someone mentioning a new physical based material library in Revit back when 2019 was released but I honestly didn't look into it.  After diving heavily into Twinmotion and Lumion I began to learn more about "scanned" materials and the different types of maps (normal, relief, reflection, light, etc...).

These materials are called Physically Based Rendering (PBR) materials.

Have you ever download a material set and all of these were in the folder?

As a Revit user, you must look at these (just like me) and think... "What the heck am I supposed to do with all of those?  I just need a texture and a bump map, at most".

Not anymore!  Now, you can use most of these to create much more realistic renderings in Revit...

Continue reading to find out how...

Happy Hour Replay with Special Guests Paul Aubin and Marcello Sgambelluri!

Last nights live happy hour was pretty special.  I got to hang out for an hour and answer your Revit questions with two of my "Revit Heroes".  

The topics we chatted about were everything from Twinmotion, to documentation, to origin points, and finally light sabers.

Who were the special guests??

Click to read more to find out who and watch the happy hour replay....