Tutorial - Creating Bump Maps for Revit Renderings

In our last "Residential Revit" series post we talked about finding custom materials for your residential renderings and images.  This week, I want to show you how to make a "bump map" from those images you find using the resources in our last post.

A "bump map" is essential when rendering with Revit.  The bump map is a high contrast, black and white version of the rendered texture.  When paired with your rendered material in Revit the bump map will tell Revit how to slightly displace the texture to add realism. 

DIY Dynamo - Spring 2019 Opening Soon...

Over the last couple of weeks I have received quite a few emails asking about when the next enrollment of DIY Dynamo would be.  Due to the demand, I'm going to put the Residential Revit series on hold for a week or two and we will have the DIY Dynamo Spring 2019 Enrollment next week!

Make sure you sign-up for the DIY Dynamo mailing list to get information on how to enroll and enrollment week discounts, content, etc...

Residential Revit - Finding Custom Materials

For this week's "Residential Revit" post I am going to answer a question that I get quite often when posting rendering and images to the blog.

The question is something along the lines of "where do you get your custom materials?"

This, of course, can apply to more than just residential types of projects but I received quite a few questions about materials due to the recent posts and renderings of "The Rocky Mountain Modern House".

Continue reading to learn where I get my custom materials...

Residential Revit: Parametric Angled Wood Bracket

Today, I am going to continue the "Residential Revit" series with the same project from last week: The Rocky Mountain Modern House.  Today, we are going to look at a family that I created specifically for this project (but continue to use on other projects to date). The family is a fully parametric wood bracket with a steel plate and some bolts (seen above and below).

Continue reading to learn some of the family creation techniques I used to create the family and download it for yourself to use and explore...

Residential Revit: Wood Slat Wall (Yoga Room)

Over the last ten years I have received many questions, requests, and general emails about Revit and residential architecture.  I finally decided to put together a little series of tutorials related to my own personal residential work (check it out at studio.bad architects).

My goal with the "Residential Revit" series is to highlight specific details  of real-world residential projects created in Revit and develop little tutorials about them.

The first project and detail I am going to highlight is a project I have featured here on the blog in the past, "The Rocky Mountain Modern House".

The detail I am going to focus on today is a wood slat wall that provides shading for the home's "Yoga Room".'

Continue reading for more information about this detail and the video tutorial...

Lumion 9 Review - Real Skies, Real Grass, Real Problems...?

A couple of things to note before you read my review of Lumion 9 to provide a little context and history.

First, I have been an avid Lumion user and fan for over five years now. It has been, and continues to be, my main software for renderings and videos.

Second, I have reviewed previous version of Lumion and you should read those before reading this review. They provide my commentary on features that still exist in Lumion and give you a sense of how the software has grown:

Lumion Reviews Over the Years:

Lumion 5.0 - From Revit to Lumion: The Ultimate Review

Lumion 7.0 - From Revit to Lumion: The Ultimate Review (Revisited)

Lumion 8.0 - From Revit to Lumion: The Ultimate Review #3

Finally, be sure to read/view this entire review (especially the conclusion). When I review a software on the blog I have two rules: It must be a software that I have used to a significant capacity (ie. completed actual projects on it and had a chance to really “dig in”), and it must be an honest review (no holding back, even if the company offers me a “review copy”, etc…).

So, here we go...

2018... A Year in Review...

"The Revit Dad" + FREE Dynamo Workshop

Over the last nine years, I’ve always made it a point to not only share Revit tips and tricks with you but to also share things about my personal life. For example, I shared when I became a licensed architect and when I got married.

Why do I share my personal life with you? 

First, so you get a chance to know the person behind the “avatar” that is “The Revit Kid”. Second, because the events that take place in my personal life help give context to the content I create here on the blog.

For example, when I made the tough decision to leave my full-time job at a large architecture firm and took on a role at a construction management firm it was not a surprise that some of my content had a construction focus.

Revit Tutorial - Parking Striping the Follows Topography

I was pretty excited when Autodesk introduced the ability to host railings to topography a few releases ago... But, I didn't realize the possibilities a simple new feature (albeit, one that should be applied to more than just railings) would open up.

The ability to host a railing (which contains swept profiles (rails) and repetitive families (balusters)) can be "hacked" to created other types of objects that host to topography.  To date, I have taken advantage of this feature to make things such as earth retention, utility piping, site fencing, retaining walls, curbs, and guard rails...

Today, I want to demonstrate how to use the railing tool to overcome Revit's limitations in parking and road striping.

Continue reading to learn how to "hack" the Revit railing and make parking / road striping that will actually follow your tomography.

Case Study - Rocky Mountain Modern House

Even though this project is from a couple years back I’ve been wanting to use it as a case study and share it on the blog since it’s completion.

Why?

Because this project and the initial presentation illustrates all of the facets of Revit for presentation style graphics in one deliverable.  What I’d like to do in this blog post is break down the presentation page by page and give a little background on what technique, tip, or tick was used to produce the graphics (ie. floor plan, elevation, diagram, etc…).

First, I’d like to give a little background on the project itself …

Continue reading to view the “Rocky Mountain Modern” Case Study…

I Need Those Renderings… By Tomorrow

Yesterday I published a post about how ugly “default” Revit could be.  I was hoping to evoke a response out of you, and it worked.  I received a bunch of emails and comments describing your experiences with Revit and presentation graphics.  As I suspected, this problem is an epidemic in academia and pervasive in the workforce.

Doesn’t it feel great to know you’re not alone?  In fact, I decided to highlight a few of the stories:

Your Revit = Ugly

Let’s face it. Out of the box, Revit is ugly.

I bet many of you reading those first two statements are nodding your heads.  Those who aren’t, create a new camera view in Revit right now without applying any templates.   Yeah, pretty ugly right?  Like you, I have always been frustrated with the un-attractiveness of “default” Revit.

The good news is you don’t have to live with “default” Revit.  There are lots of features and settings that can make Revit sexy.

The bad news?  No one knows about them!

Between teaching at a university, working for a large construction firm, and running this blog for the last ten years I have seen my fair share of Revit projects and presentations.  The quality of presentation materials (plans, sections, elevations, renderings, diagrams, etc..) coming from these models is inconsistent to say the least.  Therefore, Revit still has a reputation in many corners of our industry for “looking bad”.