Autodesk Cloud Rendering and Light Sources

If you have followed this blog over the year you would know how much if a proponent of Autodesk's 360 Cloud Rendering service.  In fact, there is quite a bit of talk and information on cloud rendering in BIM After Dark, too.

Click here for a lists of posts mentioning cloud rendering over the years (ups and downs)... 

Also, here are few interesting oldies when it was in the labs as "Project Neon"

Well, there has been a pet peeve of mine when it comes to using the cloud for renderings that include artificial lights...

Revizto 2.0: The Club Revit Review

It fascinating to me how things can organically connect throughout my blog.  For example, my tutorial about adding depth to elevations flowed beautifully into my announcement of BIM After Dark (without me even know about what BIM After Dark would be when creating it).  Additionally, my "Revizto for Revit: The Complete Guide" post galvanized the interest you, my readers, had in real-time visualization.... leading to the creation of a bonus eBook within the BIM After Dark series.

Well, in another ubiquitous connection, after reviewing BIM After Dark, Michael Anonuevo published an excellent Review of Revizto 2.0!  

BIM After Dark - Ultimate Gallery

BIM After Dark has now been live for almost two months. The concept of "BIM Can be Sexy" and "BIM for design" has really began to surface and develop in my mind throughout the process of creating BIM After Dark and discussion with you, my readers.

I wanted to create a post to document the images I have created (and hopefully you will create) using techniques I illustrate in BIM After Dark: Volume 1.  I hope to continue adding images (created by both you and I).  Every image below was made using Revit, Photoshop, and BIM After Dark. (oh, some images may have required a pen or pencil too).

If you have not done so yet, head over to my BIM After Dark website to purchase your copy of the video series (or check out the free sample video).  If you have done so, email me images you have created using the techniques within the videos and I will add them to this post for everyone to see!

BIM After Dark: Image Gallery

(Click to enlarge or start slideshow)

...be patient while they load...

Revit Tip - Double Duplicate for Less Headaches (Material Browser)

This is one of those things that can make you throw your keyboard if you don't know about it.  That's right, throw your keyboard!

What am I talking about?  Well, here is the scenario:

You are cruising through a Revit model creating walls, doors, windows, and applying materials.  You are also duplicating and creating new materials.  Assigning them some properties and continuing along.  Finally, you stop to take a coffee break and save.

When you get back from your coffee break, you flip tot he default 3D view and turn on Realistic Shading.  To your disbelief, your entire model is yellow!  What?!  Why??

It turns out the first material you made was a yellow gypsum wall.  Then, you duplicated that material while creating all of your new materials.  The problem is that you did not duplicate the "Asset" as well! I know what you're thinking, "what the heck is the asset?!  I never had to duplicate that before!".

Well, Revit 2013 and 2014 introduced some major changes in the material browser (I promise, I won't talk about the disaster of Revit 2013's material browser).

Tutorial - Using Revit on Multiple Monitors

It is no secret that Revit does not natively support multiple monitors... At least not without some manual labor.  

Well, there has been a good discussion over at RevitForum.org about the subject. within the discussion some members were sharing their workflows while managing multiple monitors.  One member (BLothian) even posted a descriptive "how-to".  I thought it was valuable enough to post here.  First, here is a look at his final result:

Now, onto the tutorial...

Free Revit Classes from Autodesk University 2013

About 200 Autodesk University classes are available On Demand (for free with a simple email registration).  I've taken the liberty of searched and filtering the Revit classes for you:

Click here to view the list of AU2013 Revit courses...

Some good stuff from likes of Marcello, Paul Aubin, Brian Mackey, and more...

Do yourself a favor and check them out!

Revit Tip - I Can't Select my Link!?

This is one of those little gems that sort of slips through the cracks. I had a colleague who was extremely frustrated because he could not select the structural model linked into his architectural model!

He had checked worksets, design options, visibility setting, the link type, etc...

Well, with the release of 2014 there are some new buttons on the bottom right hand corner of your Revit window.

 "Select Links" is one of them.

Prezi for Architects - Available Now!

As many of you know, I released BIM After Dark almost a month ago.  The response has been awesome and the feedback has been great.  If you have not checked out the BIM After Dark website yet, click here.  Originally, I packaged "Prezi for Architects" as bonus materials for the "Complete Package".  This will remain as is.. with a new option.

I received quite a few emails from people who purchased the "Videos" and "Videos Plus" package asking if I could offer "Prezi for Architects" on it's own.  So I did!  There is now an options to buy the Prezi videos and templates separately (if you so desire):

Have you heard of Prezi? Have you used it yet? Are you still using those boring old PowerPoint templates for your presentations? You've embraced technology enough to be using BIM authoring tools but you still present with PowerPoint!?

Get with the times! Prezi is perfect for architecture!

Revit Tutorial - Corinthian Column Capitol (Paul Aubin)

I have mentioned Paul Aubin quite a bit on this blog over the years.  Most recently, I published a post about his latest book "Renaissance Revit" (click here to read my review).

In "Renaissance Revit" Paul makes creating a Corinthian column seem so simple!  The concepts and techniques are well thought out and easy to follow.  Well, while accepting a challenge, Paul took a chapter from his book (Chapter 13, to be exact) and created an information packed video.  Warning: the video is 20 minutes long but worth every second.

Click here to view the post and the video tutorial...

BIM After Dark New Year’s Sale!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed your festivities.  I can say with all honesty that I ate more cookies that past 2 weeks than I have the entire year! 

I am extremely excited for the year 2014.  With the first video series from BIM After Dark finally live and receiving awesome feedback I will have some time to start taking the ARE’s.  While doing so, I will be planning the next volume of BIM After Dark as well as continuing to publish content here on the blog. 

In the meantime, I want to offer a New Year’s sale to you.  But, before I do, make sure you check out this post with numerous reviews of BIM After Dark.  Additionally,  Steve Stafford, from Revit OpEd, posted a nice review on his blog. You can check it out here:

A notable quote from Steve:

"...I particularly liked how he tweaked the stock content and tools to get what he wanted for his presentations. He's clearly got a talent and opinion about documentation style that's worth sharing and worth you taking the time to listen. I also enjoyed his conversational approach to demonstrating his techniques.

Too often a video is too obviously scripted or worse comes off as if the presenter thinks his/her audience is a school child. With Jeffrey you feel like he's just sitting next to you and asking if he can "borrow the mouse" for a moment. In fact I think a few times he gets a bit too excited and rushes his delivery as though he can't wait to tell you this, and this...and oh, this too! " ... Read more here ... 

Now that you have read some awesome reviews, (thanks Paul, Steve, Michael, and Luke for taking the time to review/write about BIM After Dark), here is some information about the sale:

For today only (January 2^nd, 2014) save 20% off of ANY package on the BIM After Dark website using the promo code:  iamarevitkid

I’ve also put the “FirstPerson BIM: Revit and CryEngine 3” eBook back in every package for this sale… 

Click here to take advantage of this limited time offer today…

Revit Tutorial - Wrapping the Base

I could not help but think of this when typing in the title of this post... "Wrappin da Base" ...

Anyways.... You may have run into this in the past.  Have you ever placed a wall base (either using the in-place Wall:Sweep method, or built into the wall method) and could not figure out how to make it wrap at the ends?  For example...

You want this wall....

To look like this wall...?

LEED Daylight Analysis Using Revit

It is very cool to see some analysis tools that will actually HELP with the LEED paperwork process...  Check it out.

Click here to check out the BPA Blog post about it...
Click here to learn about using Revit for Illuminance Simulation...

Click here to get the plugin now!