Tutorial - Helix Tool (Buildz)

Some more great stuff done in Revit... no, not Maya or 3DS Max... Revit:

This is a Revit 2010 parametric helix family for you to download and abuse. It's good for about 3 full rotations (1080 degrees) before you start having and visible artifacts. You can think of this in some ways as another basic sketch tool like the ones you have in the draw gallery. Just as you would draw an arc, put a profile on it, and make a sweep, you can use this to draw a helix, host profiles on it, and make forms. This includes being able to make in-place sweeps in the .rvt environment of whatever category you want... Continue to post....

BIM Trouble Maker

Cool new blog out there... Looks to be an interesting read with some nice posts already. This first video reminds me of my Calculus Final... Very cool.:

This troublemaker is a licensed American architect who currently lives in Singapore. He has spent the duration of his career working on BIG Buildings with an emphasis on sports and convention facilities. He has used BIM for design, documentation, coordination and construction. His goal in life is to make a western salary while living on the beach in South-East Asia, screwing around on the computer all day........ ...everybody has to have a dream!

• Click here to go to BIM Trouble Maker blog...

Tutorial - Pile Cap Reinforcement (BIM & Beam)

Cool little tip utilizing the Revit extensions....

What kind of pile cap can be identified by Revit Extensions for reinforcement?
There is functionality in Revit Extensions that could add reinforcement to pile caps and piles, shown as below,

But you may find sometimes that the piles or pile caps can't be supported for reinforcement. Just like below image, from the geometry, category, structural material type settings, there is no any difference between them. But one can be identified by Revit Extensions, the other one yet cannot. What's the reason? ... Continue to the rest of the post....

Tutorial - Edit Verticies

I cannot believe that still, to this day, I get a lot of people telling me how "restricting" Revit is. How you cannot make conceptual models and free forms... I typicall would point them to some tutorials of my own such as my Calculus Projects, and Buildz blog... Here is another great post from Inside the Factory to point the neh sayers too:

Dept. of Obscure: Edit Verticies
In the process of reviewing some tool-tips I came across a command that really felt like a blog post waiting to be written. What is this command, where does it live, and why would one need it?
Essentially this command allows you to control triangulation on the surfaces of a blend. The two forms below are made from the same blends but the edgy guy on the right was worked over with the "Edit Verticies" command.



Note: The workflow in the new massing environment is different. This command applies only to general family blend forms of non-mass categories.

When working with blends I typically make some "Bones" using model lines. These can be made parametric and live in nested families that are placed at different heights in the parent family. Not a requirement but powerful (An extreme example of this "rig" technique using the new modeling tools can be found here on David Lights blog and here on BIM Troublemaker)

Once you have your bones use the "Pick Lines" method when sketching the top and base of the blends... Continue to post...

Autodesk Education Videos

Some new videos released in the Autodesk Student Community:

Tutorial - Structural Truss Extension (Do U Revit)

I received a couple emails asking about the structural truss extension that was added in the subscription pack. Well, before I go make a video here is a nice little post from Dave at Do U Revit:

Structural Truss families are quite easy to create: you sketch the top & bottom chords and the webs, and you’re pretty much done. You can obviously constrain the family so it can flex for different conditions, or build a static truss for a particular situation.

If you load structural framing families into it, you can assign them to the Top & Bottom chords and to Vertical and Diagonal webs. If you choose not to do this, you can change them in the type properties later inside the project. But in this case, what will Revit use when you sketch one in the project? The answer is: the last used structural framing family! So if you placed a concrete beam and then you place a truss with undefined members, you get this:

Continue to post and the rest of the tutorial...

goBIM... Revit on the iPhone?!!?

That is right... you are reading my title correctly... Still looks to be in its infancy stages... but WOW!.... This is where it is going people.

goBIM - View BIM Models on your iPhone

I think BIM models are cool. I think the iPhone is cool. So naturally, I thought the ability to view BIM on your iPhone would be cool beyond words. Little did I know that building a simple, functional, good looking piece of software for viewing BIM models on the iPhone would take nearly a year and turn my brain into mush. But here it is, now in alpha testing.

Using goBIM:

We’ve tried to make goBIM as simple to use as possible. Everything you need to get your geometry onto your iPhone should be available in just a few clicks. Currently, the goBIM exporter is only available for Revit. Exporters are under way for Rhino and Digital Project, so please keep checking back.

goBIM for Revit:

◦goBim for Revit will appear as a button in Revit 2010’s “Add-Ins” menu. When you click on the “Export to goBIM” button a dialogue will appear asking for a file address. This is the location where your goBIM file will be saved.
◦When you click export, the selected Revit geometry will be exported. It’s up to you to put it in a location on your server where the goBIM iPhone application will have access to it.*

Download the App here....

How to Download Tutorial Videos

There has been quite a rise in the emails and comments about downloading my tutorials. I found this great CNET article that breaks it down perfectly. I have heard from some readers that the Firefox Plug-In works very well with my screencasts.

• Click here to learn how you can download the videos you see on this site.

If anyone has anymore information on this topic feel free to comment and let your fellow readers in on the knowledge.

I also had a post early last year about the Firefox Plug-in.

Tutorial - Create a Smooth Helix

Zach, over at Buildz, is constantly posting crazy conceptual shapes made in Revit. This is no exception. Great post and proves the versatility of Revit 2010.

Another repeat question: "How do I make a smooth parametric helix in Revit?"

Here's a quick (2 minute) video. The basic principle is to make a rig with a controlled vertical offset and rotation, and then hang your geometry on it. In this example I use a rectangular form to create the rig, but you could use just about anything.

Click here to see the Video and post...

Tutorial - Linked Lineweights (Revit Clinic)

Very cool little tip about project sharing, collaboration, and linking...

Linked File Line Weights

In Revit, line weights are pulled from the project settings > line weights. This holds true for linked files, which will also utilize their specific line weight settings.

Let’s look at the following common scenario and example line weight:

-You have a host architectural file, where walls object style cut weight is set to 5.

-You have a linked structural file, where walls object style cut weight is set to 7.

-You want the weights to appear the same thickness in a section view, so in the host project you set the Visibility/Graphic Overrides > Revit Links > link Display Setting to By Host View.

-This replaces the object style cut weight for walls in the linked file to the host file setting. So in this example, instead of using 7 for the linked walls they will now utilize the host project cut weight of 5....

Continue to view the rest of the post....

Tutorial - Group Revit Schedule (CAD Clips)

Great tutorial that I know will help plenty of you:

Did you know you can edit the 'header' information in REVIT Schedules and 'Group' (or ungroup) columns as indicated above?

It's easily demonstarted in the 1.5 minute CADclip below.... Click here to view post and video...

Great little clip Daryl. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Autodesk Revit Survey

Autodesk is asking it's Revit users to complete a quick survey. I would love to see how many students we can get to complete this survey and maybe add a little something different to their data: Click here to view source...

Hi Folks,

Here at Autodesk, the marketing group is always busy preparing for future launches of Revit Architecture. There’s always a web component to our launch plans. In the future, we’re looking to expand our activity in the blogosphere, on YouTube, Discussion Groups, and several other areas of the social media. To help inform that process, I’ve built a survey and would appreciate your input. For this go ‘round, I’m specifically looking for input from Revit Architecture users and buyers in the US. If you’ve got 15 minutes to spare, please take the survey so that I know where to spend this portion of our marketing resources.

Onto the $50 USD Amazon gift card!
1. Take and complete the survey (link below)
2. Take a screen-cap of the last page of the survey (the Thank You! page)
3. Add your autodesk.com screen name over the ‘Thank You’ text (example attached)
4. Post the screen-cap image back to this thread to enter a random drawing

On Wednesday, January 20th, I’ll randomly select 5 ‘entrants’ and post the winners here. Only one entrant per person.

Here is the link and official blurb. Thanks in advance for your help and good luck!

http://web5.kinesissurvey.com/virtualcauseway/html.pro?ID=227

Autodesk is conducting research to understand how Revit Architecture users and buyers engage in online social media, how social behavior is evolving in your business, and where business buyers choose to participate in online communities.

This 15 minute survey will not ask for any personally identifying information. We will use your responses in aggregate only and will not attribute any responses back to you.

I realize that there’s potential to Photoshop one’s way into the drawing without completing the survey. Standard honor code rules apply.

The first few questions are qualifying questions. I’m looking for a subset of US based Revit Architecture users/purchasers. Only those who qualify for the survey may enter this drawing.

Tutorial/Tip - Doors and Windows

Recived and email:

"Hi TRK,

Let me first introduce myself. I'm Rachid de Wind, 24 year old and an architectural student.

I have always worked with AutoCAD for drafting, mainly because here that's what they use to teach with at school, but now I am revitized ... but to a serious note now, I just started learning revit and began a project after going through your nicely made "student to student" tutorials, which are amazing, I included a pdf of a sheet with just a couple views of the project, and a few SketchUp views of the problem I'm having, wich is that in this house I'm designing there are some doors that have windows attached to it both on one side and on top, and this is a problem for me because I can not find it in the familly, so that means making it myself, so here comes the simple question on this complex subject, is it possible for you to make a quick tutorial on how I would go about making this door/window?? "

Thanks for the email Rachid. This is a question that should not need a tutorial. It is very simple. The answer is project based. First, if you would like to schedule the windows within the windows schedule then do not make them part of the door family. Simply used a window family and place them on the wall where they need to be.

If the project utilized the window and door as a single unit (maybe straight from the factory) then create the window withint he door family. I do not want to go to far into creating the window family because that can be learned from my many tutorial already posted or used for a different subject.

Presonally, I have done both. There are some projects thats benefitted from using the transum and sidelight windows as part of the door and many that have benefitted from seperating the two families.

Hope this helps you, Rachid, and maybe some of my readers.

25 Trends for 2010

Great article from Design Intelligence:

Hope Amid a Slow Construction Comeback

Most professional practices in the design and construction industry will experience an agonizingly slow comeback after the poor and often painful business conditions of the past year, according to a new report in the journal DesignIntelligence. Signs point to a sluggish recovery that will not take the industry back to what had been considered normal in the mid-2000s.

"At the macro level, the private capital that's needed to support growth and urban health will not fall into place anytime soon," notes DesignIntelligence.

Instead, according to the report's co-authors, James P. Cramer and Jane Gaboury, a new normal will unfold, and with it plenty of pesky problems for architecture and design firm leaders. There will be no quick recovery. However, there is hope, they say.

"2010: A Year of Convalescence," published in the January/February issue of DesignIntelligence, points to 25 significant trends transforming architecture and design that can offer sustenance during a painfully slow recovery. Among the trends are opportunities for strategic optimists who can translate recent developments into action plans, say Cramer and Gaboury:

• Sustainability drives design.
• New strategic models spell game change.
• Collaboration builds value.
• Metrics matter more than ever.
• Evidence-based design has increasing impact.

Continue to article to read details about these trends and the remainder....

Tip - Control Key Porductivity (RevitOpEd)

Great little tip over at Revit OpEd. I personally use this keyboard shortcut all the time along with the rest of the keyboard shortcuts and it definitely improves productivity:

Dept. of Subtle - Copy Option Checked or Unchecked
A post at AUGI by Aaron Rumple reminded me of a very subtle feature using the CTRL key. I stumbled into this using the Offset tool in Revit 2009.

Here's the scenario, imagine you are using the Offset tool to create a copy of a wall offset by four feet. The Copy option that appears on the Options bar is checked by default. That's great, but what if you wanted to use the Offset tool to move the wall not create a copy. You have to un-check Copy to get the Move instead. If you press the CTRL key prior to selecting the wall to offset the check mark is cleared in the Copy Option.

The AUGI post discusses this technique in conjunction with the Mirror Tool. Like with Offset the default setting for Mirror has Copy checked, assuming you want to create a mirror/copy, not a mirror/move... Click here to continue to post and video...

Tutorial - Creating Detail Components from Detail Lines (Revit Clinic)

From the Revit Clinic...

Creating new detail components from existing detail lines & components

By default you can copy detail lines from a project drafting view into a detail component family. You cannot however copy a detail component from a project drafting view into a detail component family.

There may be a scenario where you have a number of detail lines, and components organized in a drafting view. What if you want to move this content all into a new detail component family for standard details?

I’ve included 3 options below depending on the complexity of the drafting view or desired detail component:

1. Edit the detail component family from the project drafting view, and then copy & paste the detail lines [in the family] from the detail component family into the project drafting view. When complete you could then copy all of the detail items from the project drafting view into a new detail component family.

Continue Reading the tutorial....

Tip - Error in Revit Silhoutte

From RevitFix...

When you have silhouette edges turned on (under Graphic Display options) in a view in Revit 2010, you cannot “Override Graphics in View” by Element or by Filter as you did in Revit 2009. The override ends up being behind the Silhouette rather than overriding it.

What really annoys me about this bug is I have been trying to spend a lot of time ensuring users are producing good looking drawings with appropriate line weights. When using Silhouette you can still individually line work each line, but having the option of using filters or overriding items by element to change line work is very powerful a large repetitive elevations.... Continue Reading....

Tutorial - Section Annotation Tweaks

Ashley emailed me a question that I thought would be a nice video tip:

"Jeff,

I have just switched over to Revit 2010, and have been having a look at your Revit Website, there is lots of useful stuff on there. I was watching one of your video’s regarding editing the Section head families and the tail families for the section marks.

However I have become stumped on something and would like your help? I have edited the section mark to how I want it to look. If you see the first attachment 01. However when I want to do a vertical section mark the text won’t rotate with the section head and looks like this see attachment 02. When you go to Manage, settings you can only set on Section view head. But I would like the section head to look like this see attachment 03 and also vice a versa when the section view is flipped.

Please could you help me sort out this with a solution I would be very grateful, If you could email the possible solution to this email address that would be grateful, or if you are going to present this on your website, would you be able to let me know when it is Available for me to view. "
Click here to view the three images Ashley attached:

• Image 1
• Image 2
• Image 3

Tutorial:

• Click here to the view the tutorial/tip about section heads and tails.

Tutorial - Floor or Ceiling? What to do...

I ran into an interesting cunundrum that many of you may have run into. If you followed my Student to Student Revit guide you will see the two main ways to create floors in Revit Architecture. Typically, you would create a solid floor and within those floor properties add the many materials. We will use a typical floor structure of 3/4" Finished Floor, 3/4" Sub-Floor, 2x10 Studs, and perhaps Gypsum Board for the level below's ceiling. Hm... But then how do you add a recessed light to the floor in the Gypsum Board added for the level below (when it is hosted to a ceiling). Well, you would remove that structure from the floor and create a ceiling made up of only the gypsum board. Place that underneath the 2x10 solid structre of the floor above.

You continue to design, model, and build. Now... It is time to do some renderings. You set up a camera in the kitchen where there are about 12 recessed downlights you have added into your model. Then you click render. Dark!?! Not a single glimmer of artifical light in the scene?

• Click here to see a video of why these lights are not showing and possible solutions.
  

So, what is the correct way to construct a floor in Revit? A solid floor with joists, a void with beam systems, or place the joists as part of the ceilings? Realistically, I would say using a beam system for the fact of realism, 3D sections, and analysis.

3D Head Tracking

Interesting idea... I wonder what Apple will do with it. Kind of reminds me of Autodesks development of the 3D Cube you can hold and navigate around a 3D model (I wish I could find that video, but cannot seem to have any luck).

From Software Advice:

The latest talk of the town in the Apple blogosphere is 3D head-tracking. Apple recently filed a patent for technology that allows users to change perspective of an object by moving their head or body. So instead of dragging your mouse to rotate a graph or chart, you simply look behind it; a more intuitive approach (at least in the eyes of Apple engineers). Here’s a quick video of how this could be used to view 3D construction plans:

With all the attention augmented reality is getting, we’re not surprised to see big players like Apple experimenting with this genre of technology. Novelty aside, there seems to be endless applications. We think the technology would be great for the construction industry. Combined with construction software, contractors could use it to visualize complex construction projects, like the example above which uses 3D building models from Synchro software.

Rumor has it the technology could also be used with more traditional 2D images like electronic building plans (i.e. digital blueprints). Using the iSight camera to detect head movement, users could potentially scroll up and down or left and right by moving their head.... Continue Reading and see video...

Spontaneous Architecture Competition

Interesting idea for a competition I thought I would share with my readers:

January 2010 : the 20teens

The promises and terrors of our previously projected futures have both manifest and been forgotten. We are not living in a world of flying cars, intergalactic civilian travel, hovercraft skateboards, or robot assistants. No, but we have real-time video chat, the Hubble telescope, maglev trains, and smart phones. We are not living in the wasteland aftermath of nuclear war, but global warming is melting the arctic.

Images of our present future have historically been either utopian or dystopic. The technologies that were going to save us or destroy us have arguably done both to some degree, creating our greatest problems and our most significant solutions. We have more information at our fingertips than ever before and fewer critical tools to navigate that information with discrimination. We are more connected through our myriad telecommunications and more disconnected due to a growing class divide. The future is more complex than could've been predicted. It is more nuanced and diverse than Huxley, Orwell, Le Corbusier, or Nostradamus knew.

Times of crisis and calamity, like today, always put ideas in high demand: big ideas and big dreams to foster the next wave in invention and innovation on our way toward tomorrow.

We are living in what has historically been the future. Now that we are here, what is next? What is our future? This an open call for visionaries.

Answers to this question can take many forms: renderings of future imagined cities, advertisements, photographs, collages, maps, etcetera. There are no limits on content, only limits on format. All submissions must be formatted as a single letter sized (8.5 inch by 11 inch) landscape image, which contains no more than 100 words of text.

You have two weeks to respond. Submission closes at 11:59PM EST on January 15th, 2010.

New Year's Day 2010. Welcome to the future. Y2K is ten years behind us, and 2012 is at our doorstep.

STEP 1: REGISTER
Registration ID: *

Please create a Registration ID.
Example: john.doe_1
Your Registration ID is a combination of your email user name and the number 1, separated by an underscore.
For multiple submissions, use _2, _3, etc.
Registration Email: *

The email address referenced above.
Location: *

US Residents, please enter City, State, and Zip code. Non-US Residents, please enter your City and Country.
Profession: *

Please describe your profession, such as Architect, Graphic Designer, Architecture Student, Photographer, Accountant, etc.

STEP 2: UPLOAD YOUR IMAGE
CLICK HERE TO UPLOAD YOUR IMAGE
STEP 3: $5 ENTRY FEE
US$5.00 Payment securely managed by Paypal.

***IMPORTANT***
You must use the same email address in PayPal that you provided for your Registration Email above.

Archiculture - Movie

Very excited to see this movie. I am sure that most of my readers, who are students like me, will enjoy it just as much.

Archiculture Teaser from arbuckle industries on Vimeo.

FILM SYNOPSIS
Archiculture is a feature-length documentary that explores the role that architecture and design play in our daily lives. The film follows five architecture students through their final senior design projects in order to shed light on the critical issues impacting our built environment.

Tutorial - Toposurface Notes

Great little set of guides from Alan over at Revit Learning Curve. Compliments my Studio Topo set of tutorials (see links on the right).

Here are some Guidance Notes that I put together on Toposufraces for our companies Revit Users when we first got revit, I hope they help anyone who is just exploring Toposurfaces.

I can't find a better way of uploading these to the blog other than by using jpg files that can then be downloaded as pictures and printed. If anyone knows how to upload Adobe files to a blog please let me know.

Click on the images to enlarge

Enjoy

Page 1 of 6

Check out Alan's blog for the rest of the notes...

AIAS College and Career Expo Photos

A couple photos from JoeKrummel.com and myself. Thanks a lot Joe and it was very nice meeting you!

Design Intelligence - AIAS Forum Synopsis

How interesting that one of my favorite websites (Design Intelligence) in which I spent a fraction of my travels to AIAS Forum reading essays and books from, wrote a very nice synopsis about the Forum.

Raising Our Young
Posted: January 4th, 2010 | Author: Jim Cramer | Filed under: Education, Leadership, Professional practice | Tags: AIAS, IDP, professional association, students |

There has never been a time in human history when strategic foresight was more needed. The American Institute of Architecture Students delivered a good dose of it last week. In fact, the AIAS Forum in Minneapolis was an exemplar in several ways.

The Twin Cities’ below-zero temperatures and deep snow did not cool the Forum participants’ expectations that this would be a relevant and dynamic session. More than 500 students participated, 20 of whom were vying for elected office in AIAS.

As the students energetically took over the Hyatt Regency Hotel, there was an organized and spontaneous discussion on meaningful change and overcoming difficulties. Furthermore, there was palpable passion for the future brimming with ingenuity. The emerging environmental leadership was at once sophisticated and convincing.... Continue Reading...