What Makes the ULTIMATE Revit Computer System?

 

What is the best Revit laptop? What is the best Revit desktop? What is the best Revit computer? In over 12 years of blogging about Revit, I think this could be the most common question I get. On this episode of BIM After Dark Live I will be joined by Buck Davis. Buck is the founder of BIMBOX and has spent the last 12 years taking his AEC experience to specialize in the hardware we use (ie. computers, laptops, peripherals, etc...). I asked Buck to come on the show to talk generally about what it takes to piece together the perfect Revit laptop / desktop. The goal is to help you better understand what hardware selections to focus on when you're building your next Revit computer system.

We talked about what to look for when specifying a new Revit computer including processors, graphics cards, RAM, storage, cooling, and more...

The conversation was great and the questions from the live audience were probing.  If you have ever had to spec a desktop or laptop and were wondering "does this speed matter?  How many cores should I get?  How much RAM?".. Then you HAVE to give this episode a watch...

Continue reading to see the replay and view the links mentioned....

Enscape 3.0 and Revit (w/Dan Stine)

 

Dan Stine has joined me here on the show twice now to talk about Enscape... (Episode 12 and Episode 26) So, when Enscape 3.0 for Revit was launched, I had to have him back on to chat about it.

The release of Enscape 3.0 has some great and welcomed new features (as well as improvements on some old ones).  

Yesterday, Dan showed us some of the great  new improvements and features the Enscape team has put in place with this milestone release.

We talked about the UI/UX, view management, settings, visual setting control, video paths, displacement maps, custom assets, and more!

Oh, we also chatted a bit about Dan's role at Lake Flato (an award winning architecture firm, and one of my favorite design firms, personally) and how they are using BIM/Technology/Revit...

Continue reading to view the replay and links mentioned...

Community Open House Replay + Big News

 

Yesterday's episode of BIM After Dark Live was as humbling as it was fun.  

First, my little man, Jacob, joined us for the introduction and BIMBOX sponsor read... Before heading off to nap with Mommy.

Second, I was joined by a bunch of amazing BIM After Dark Community members!  Walking through the community platform and showing the livestream audience around sparked some great conversations in the chat and also between us on the call.  In fact, we broke into a few discussions about Revit issues (like topography edges) we almost forget we were live!

Third, I made a couple BIG announcements about the blog, livestream, and community...

Continue reading to learn more...

Revit 2022: The New Features You DON'T know about, but SHOULD (w/Aaron Maller)

 

By now you may have heard about all of the fancy new features in Revit 2022... Or have you? Instead of doing a simple "here are the new features" run-down of the latest Revit release, we thought it would be fun to have friend of the show, Aaron Maller (of Parallax Team), join us to talk about the less glamorous (but super important) features in Revit 2022. You know, the ones that will truly enhance your workflow, improve your lives, and eliminate some of those ridiculous workarounds you have been doing for years.

We had some great questions and great conversation about Revit 2022 and our opinions on the features.

Also, this is one with A LOT of links mentioned so be sure to continue reading...

"3D Coordination" Explained (Revit + Navisworks) Replay w/Sample Files

 

I wasn't sure what I was expecting going into this episode of BIM After Dark Live.  I know its an area of BIM that a lot of people aren't very familiar with, or if they are, it's an area of mass frustration.  Either way, the topic of 3D coordination with Revit and Navisworks was a huge hit.  Over 200 of you joined me live and there were tons of great questions that guided the conversation.

Some of the topics we covered were:

- An Overview of the 3D Coordination Process (w/a sweet diagram, see below)

- How design teams can help improve the process

- How to export from Revit to Navisworks

- The only tools you need to know in Navisworks (for coordination)

- Running Clash Detection in Navisworks

- Ways to communicate issues with team members

- and more...

Continue reading to view the replay, see the diagram, and download sample files...

Revit "Super Users" AMA - Replay

 

Well... that was fun!

Last night marked the 50th episode of "BIM After Dark Live".  To mark the occasion I was joined by 6 other previous guests and Revit "super users" all with their own Revit super powers.  ;)

We took questions and discussed an array of topics for almost 2 hours!!  

Some of the topics included:

- Phasing, Design Options, and more.

- What feature we wished would be in the next release of Revit

- Linear light fixtures...?

- Interior design (tagging wall materials, etc...).

- PyRevit... Lot's of PyRevit

- What versions of Revit we all started on.

- Shared Coordinates (and coordinate systems)...

... and so so much more...

This was, honestly, just a great time.  Not to mention, the chat was on fire.  Literally, the 7 of us could not even keep up with the discussions, questions, and more...  

Thank you all who joined us live.  For those who didn't, continue reading to view the replay!

I've also listed all of the guests previous appearances on the show and whatever links I could scavenge together mentioned throughout the 2 hour session! 

How to Filter Walls BY LEVEL in Revit

 

This "Community Quick Tip" talks about one approach to filtering walls by their levels.

File this one under, "why can't Revit just be able to do this?!".  In this tutorial we mix a little Revit and Dynamo to show you how you can filter a Revit wall by it's host/base level.  Something that is NOT possible out of the box...

I know, crazy... Right?  

Well, hopefully this tutorial will help!

Continue reading to see my approach to this out of the box Revit limitation...

Architects, Developers, & BIM: Test-fitting with the TestFit Team (Replay)

 

I remember seeing a GIF of TestFit a few years back on Twitter.  It showed a 3D diagram of a simple apartment looking building and a parking lot around the outside.  The site was pulled in one direction and the building grew,  changed shape, and the parking lot reconfigured as it was stretched... 

Mind blown.

Fast-forward to today, TestFit is a platform that blends architecture, building codes, crowd sourced input, real-estate developer knowledge, BIM, and generative design to completely disrupt the early stages of a project development.

On this episode of BIM After Dark Live I was joined by Clifton and Nat to not only discuss how an application like TestFit interacts with your Revit models, but also about how an understanding of what developers value and an acceptance of co-creation tools will ultimately benefit you as much as them...

The conversation was awesome, the questions were great, and Nat showed us how you can bring a TestFit building into Revit ... yes, those are Revit Walls, Floors, Roofs, etc... Automatically!

Continue reading to view the replay and see it in action....

Adding a Detail Item in a Wall Sweep in Revit?!

 

Here is a great little tip on how to embed detail component items within your profile families in Revit.  For example, if you had a metal coping profile that was a wall sweep and you wanted to see 2x6 blocking when you cut a section (but don' need to model it) then this is a great solution for you!

This tutorial was inspired by a question from Emil, a member of the BIM After Dark Community.  Thanks for the inspiration, Emil!

Continue reading to view the "Community Quick Tip" tutorial...

From Revit to Unreal Engine (Replay) w/Carl Gibson

 

As expected, last night's episode of BIM After Dark Live was a ton of fun!

Many of you have tuned into my Twinmotion and Revit tutorials, streams, and tips... Many of you may not know that Twinmotion runs on a gaming engine called "Unreal".

On this episode of BIM After Dark Live I was joined by Carl Gibson as he ran through the process of getting your Revit models into the Unreal Engine environment for renderings, animations, and VR!   

Some of the topics Carl touched on are:

-Summary of tools needed (Revit, Unreal Engine, Datasmith Exporters)

-Prepping a model for Datasmith

-Importing into UE

-DataPrep graph for model optimization, material replacement, etc.

-Setting up a project for VR.

If you have been wanting to learn the process of getting your model's into Unreal or are curious as to what Unreal can do for you, be sure to check out the replay below...

Easy Gutter End Caps in Revit

 

This is a great little tutorial that I can't take credit for.  Chris Broda, a member of the BIM After Dark Community (learn more about the community below) came up with the solution and let me share it with you all!  This is a simple tip to make fully functioning gutter end caps in Revit (and no, it is NOT modeling in place!).

Continue reading to view the tutorial and links mentioned...

Interactive 3D Revit Models in Power BI (w/Nate Miller) - Replay w/Links

 

On yesterday's episode of BIM After Dark Live I was joined by Nate Miller to talk about Revit, Power BI, and an application he built that gives you the ability to interact with 3D models IN a Power BI dashboard... Nate is the founder of Proving Ground, and has a long history of creating useful applications for architects, engineers, and contractors including LunchBox, Rhynamo, & Slingshot. Nate will be joining us to talk about some of his new projects that deal with how Power BI can interact with 3D modeling programs (like Revit & Rhino). Tracer, his suite of applications that let you export Revit data, import it into Power BI, and generate an interactive 3D model (in Power BI) is sure to be a game changer for data analytics, visualization, and more...

We had a great conversation, Nate showed some awesome stuff, and there were excellent questions from the audience...

Continue reading to view the replay and the links mentioned (and to try out Nate's dashboards!)...