Featured on BIM Thoughts Podcast - Episode 46 !

Bill and Carla, from the BIM Thoughts, thought it would be a great idea to re-cap this years Revit Technology Conference North America (RTCNA) on their podcast.  A few months ago, we recorded an episode in anticipation of RTCNA... Kind of cool to listen to the before and after of the conference...

Click here to listen to the podcast...

Bill and Carla, thanks again for having me on!

Dynamo Tutorial - Rotate Multiple Elements on Their Own Axis

A reader (sorry, I lost your email and name!) emailed in and asked about rotating a series of elements by something other than 90 degrees.  She referenced an OLD post I published (circa 2011) about selecting columns and rotating them all 90 degrees using the space bar.   This was an interesting little task to think about.  When you select more than one element and use the "rotate" command they rotate about one axis:

After attempting to place some reference planes and use the space bar method without success I decided to fire up Dynamo... Here is the simple script...

5 Days ON the Sun: #RTCNA Recap

"It's a dry heat", they say... I don't care what they say... 120 degrees feels HOT with or without humidity. 

Two weeks ago I attended my fifth Revit Technology Conference North America (RTCNA).  I can't believe it has already been five!  For a look at my recaps and posts from the last 4 years of RTCNA's click here... 

This year the conference was held in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Kierland Westin Resort and Spa. The venue was fantastic with lots of great amenities including a beautiful golf course.  In fact, my buddy Steve and I decided to get up early Saturday morning and play a round before the conference started....  After all, the hotel does a great job at supplying amazing views of the course everywhere you turn... It makes you want to play...

Are You Going to be at #RTCNA this Year?!

Revit Technology Conference North America 2016 begins this week!  Will you be there?

If you are attending the conference make sure you sign up for my session on Friday afternoon: Session 2.5 - How are Contractors Using My Model?  

Snippet of my slides for Session 2.5...

During the class, not only will I be running through real-world examples of how contractors are using Revit models after you (architects and engineers) hand them off but there will be some free giveaways!  That's right... Can you say free BIM After Dark t-shirts?!

The Revit Kid Featured on BIM Thoughts Podcast

After a year or so of "Yeah, we have to do an episode together", Bill, Carla, and I got on a call and chatted a bit!  If you have not listened to the BIM Thoughts podcast yet, what are you waiting for?  Bill interviews all of the "Revit-Stars" you can think of on an array of different topics.   

I remember thinking about podcasting years ago and I told myself "You can't talk about BIM without video!"  Well, 40 episodes later, Bill has proven me wrong.  In fact, Marcello and Steve are also creating information packed podcasts of their own!

So, if you want to hear what Bill, Carla, and I talked about be sure to check out episode 40 here...  (Hint, I talk a bit about my upcoming presentation at RTCNA 2016!).

Bill and Carla, thanks for having me on!  I hope we can make this a more regular event!

Revit Tutorial - Shed Roof High Eave Detail

Shed roofs are simple to create in Revit but lack a very important ability: creating a square cut perpendicular to your roof at the top of the shed slope.  Previously, I illustrated the options that Revit gives you when it comes to a roof's eave.  Unfortunately, the same options don't exist for the high side of a shed roof...

Continue reading to view a video tutorial demonstrating how I work around this issue...

Photoshop for Architects... What do you think?

I’ve been in the process of examining BIM After Dark - Volume 1 and looking for areas where content could be updated or enhanced (if you haven’t checked out Volume 1 yet, check it out today!  It really is packed full of incredible presentation tips and tricks I promise you have not seen before).  Anyways, as I run and re-run through the content I realized there is a bit of information that can be applied to any architect and not just one using Revit.

I thought to myself, “Jeff, what if you made a ‘mini-course’ that doesn’t discriminate the non-Revit users?”  Well, I am posting today to see what you all think about the idea.  Photoshop for Architects would be a mini-course teaching you everything from working with scanned sketches to annotation techniques and processing renderings (regardless of what program they were rendered in). 

Most Photoshop courses start by teaching you how to remove red-eye, crop a photo, or remove unwanted background elements. Skills used by photographers, not architects.

Revit Tutorial - Understanding Your Roof Eaves / Soffits

In my experience, the roof tool is still a mystery to many Revit users. Either they have only had to create flat roofs, they have been using extrusions, or they just haven't been using it correctly.  If you are one of these people, it's okay... You are not alone!

For the reasons mentioned above, roof tutorials are always the most searched on this blog.  I was demonstrating an eave detail to a colleague of mine when it was apparent that he had NO IDEA you could do what I was doing... That led me to this post.  A simple run down of the different eave (or soffit ) settings effect your roofs...

Continue reading to view the tutorial....

V-Ray for Revit : A Case Study

I have been publishing content on this blog for over seven years.  Until now, I have never featured a "guest" or "guest post".  Sure, there may have been links to other awesome content people have created, but nothing like this.  It's that good.  The author of this case study is my good buddy (and previous cubicle neighbor), Sam Davis.  Sam now works for JCJ Architecture. 

When I got back from RTCNA last year, Sam and I had some lengthy discussions about the announcement of "V-Ray for Revit".  He mentioned that he planned on trying it out when he got the link from Chaos Group (getting the download link took forever...).  A few weeks had gone by and we didn't discuss it again.  Then, out of nowhere, Sam sends me the first draft of his case study on V-Ray for Revit (Beta).  Sam did an excellent job evaluating the beta release, comparing it to current standards, and communicating his findings...  Well done, Sam, and thanks for letting me share it with my audience, exclusively.

Continue reading to view Sam's incredibly in-depth case study on the V-Ray to Revit Beta release...

My $300 "Revit Server"

I have been looking for a solid solution for small firms to host workshared Revit files for a long time.  I experimented with Dropbox, Jungledisk, OneDrive, and so on... The problem with all of these services is they duplicate your data.  They "cache" information and upload/download in the background (so it seems much faster for you when you work).  When it comes to workshared Revit files, this caching will corrupt your file.   Notice, I said it WILL, not it might... 

If you are a company of around 1 to 10 employees I have finally created a cost-effective and simple setup that will allow you to work with a Revit Central file from your local area network and as far as anywhere in the world!  Oh, did I mention it only costs around $300?!

Keep reading to find out more...

Revit 2017 - My 3 Favorite new Features

As I have stated in the last few releases Autodesk's move to a subscription model makes the "release" of the latest version of Revit less of an event.  For those of you who aren't updating your Revit software throughout the year there have been two releases of Revit 2016 since it launched.  Each release added new features.  So, always make sure you are up to date!

That being said, Revit 2017 is here and comes equipped with some welcomed new features!  Before I talk about all the good stuff the designer in me has to talk about the new "R" logo... I don't get it?  I know Auotdesk updates their product line logos every so often and makes it a uniform design (ie, Autocad's "A", 3DS Max's "M") but this go around is even stranger than the last for me.  What do you think?

Okay, enough on the logo... Now, onto the new features!!  Continue reading to see my top three new features and entire feature lists....

Revit Pattern (.pat) Source File - Version 2!

Believe it or not, pattern files are popular.  As in, some of the most visited pages on this blog have to do with Revit pattern files.  You know, those files with ".pat" extensions that look like jargon when you open them?  Well, if you want to learn how to customize them yourself (or make your own from scratch) here is the tutorial from way back in 2011!  The other extremely popular post on patterns was a simple free download created by a former colleague of mine, Doug Campbell.  Doug and I were partners in crime at our previous place of employment but now he is running the software ship at BL Companies.

You may recognize Doug's name from that very pattern post.  If not, then you may also remember him from the much loved "understanding view ranges" handout...  Either way, you will definitely know Doug now as he has recreated his pattern files library AND the PDF handout.  Doug added over 80 pattern files!  Plus, he was nice enough to offer them to the Revit Kid community free of charge!

Continue reading to download the pattern files for FREE today...