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Monday, May 31, 2010

Revit Tip - Controlling Wall Joins in Revit

Nice tip for your frustrations...

Controlling Wall Joins in Revit

Sometimes when you are drawing walls that are close together you may find that they automatically join. What you are really trying to do is stop the wall short but it just keeps joining up again. This could be because it is attempting to join to something higher or lower on a different level, or a multitude of other reasons. What ever the reason, you can manually override the wall join.



This is what you want to happen. Stop the plaster faced wall on the edge of the blockwork wall and dont allow it to join.



But this is what keeps happening. The blue grip joins to the centre of the other wall (which in most cases is what you would expect it to do).



The answer to this problem is very simple (but not so obvious to find).



The function is called 'Disallow Join'


Click here fir the rest of then post and a few more tips...

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Autodesk and AIAS 2010 Student Sustainable Design Challenge

Just a reminder to my readers who are participating... The submission deadline is soon!

Autodesk and AIAS 2010 Student Sustainable Design Challenge
There is still time to enter the Autodesk and AIAS 2010 Student Sustainable Design Challenge!
AIAS and Autodesk challenge you to design a school for Haiti’s displaced students using the Autodesk BIM portfolio. Submissions must be posted by June 4, 2010 by 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time.
Visit the official contest site to review the rules, download the materials family, and submit your design.
 

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Revit Tutorial - 3D Sections (Revit Rocks)

Nice little tutorial/tip from Daryl... I use 3D sections all the time.  They are an absolutely priceless way to "tell the story" about your building...

REVIT Rocks ! - REVIT 3D Section Views [Tutorial]



I like to take advantage of ALL of REVITs wonderful benifits . . . . . and here's another.
Watch the CADclip below to see how you can instantly turn a regular section view into a 3d sectional view.
Posted by Daryl Gregoire


REVIT Rocks !

 

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Purge Imported Categories

Courtesy of The Revit Clinic

Purge Imported Categories

At some point or another you've probably had some leftover imported categories in a Revit project and couldn't seem to delete them.

ImportedCateg
In most cases you can remove these using Manage > Purge Unused, or by deleting the last instance of the import in the project.  However if a detail or model group is using an import instance you will be unable to purge the instance from the project.

If some imported categories remain and they don't appear to be in use, check the project for the following:
1.  Under Project Browser > Groups > verify if the project contains any detail or model groups.
2.  If so you can expand to highlight a group > right-click > Select all Instances > In Entire Project.  Then temporarily delete the group instance[s] > Manage > Purge Unused.
3.  See if the import instance now appears under Families > <Import Instance Name>.
If not you can undo and test selecting \ deleting another group to isolate which one may contain the import instance.

Revit Tutorial - Chair Rail and Two Tone Wall

Gary emailed me and asked about how to create a wall where the bottom half is painted differently from the top half and a chair rail seperates the colors.  I felt it was a good topic for a video tutorial.

Topics Covered:
  • Creating a wall sweep profile.
  • Editing a wall.
  • Creating a new wall style.
  • Splitting wall surfaces.
  • Applying layers to different wall surfaces.
  • Add a wall sweep.
Click here to view the Chair Rail and Two Tone Wall Tutorial...

Monday, May 24, 2010

Revit Tutorial - Aligning Model Patterns of Curved Wall (Revit Elemental)


Chris created a nice little tip/tutorial over at Revit Elemental...  This tutorial goes great along with my EIFS Tutorial from last year...

Aligning hatch patterns on a curved surface

Hatch patterns can be manually positioned on a wall to suit brick coursing or other setting-out requirements. Normally you do this in an elevation view or 3D view using either the 'Move' tool or the 'Align' tool.

If you have a curved surface (like the one shown here), it is not possible to adjust the vertical lines in an elevation view or 3D view with the above mentioned methods.

Here are the steps you need to follow to adjust curved hatching...

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

New Revit Blog: Revit Elemental

Nice little blog getting started over in the U.K. by Chris.

Chris already has a couple useful tips/tutorial type of posts such as this one:

Example: Instance Based Window Family

One of the methods I have used to combat this with items such as doors and windows is by generating families with instance-based parameters. In the following example we take a look at a typical window family and how we can change the way it works to in a measured building survey.

In this example we start with a window family from the standard Autodesk Library called ‘Sgl Plain.rvt’

If we want this to be an instance-based window family (i.e. able to control the width and height without having to create a new instance every time), then we need to change the parameters from Type to Instance.



Ok, so we have hit our first problem. The standard Autodesk Window category will not allow you to ‘Modify’ the Width or Height parameters so how can we change this?

…Well here’s a little work around:

In 2010 or 2011, Go to the Create Tab > Category & Parameters and set the category as something such as Generic Model and click OK.



Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Revit Tutorial - Polished Concrete Floor Rendering Material


I received a few emails about the rendering material/settings I used to create the polished concrete floor on my design studio project seen in the picture below.  Also, some of you may like this previous post about creating custom materials and bumps..









Revit Tutorial - Solar Radiation Technology (Revit Clinic)

I have been waiting for this tool for a while and some documentation/information about it...  It has been within Ecotect for a long time but now you can use it directly inside Revit.  Thanks to The Revit Clinic for the post.


Creating an Analysis Display Style in Revit 2011

Using the recently released Solar Radiation Technology Preview, we can create or modify an analysis display style.  Additional documentation is also available in the video here.



By default, the solar radiation add-in will create an analysis display style calledSolar Radiation Default.  You can access the menu under the view Properties >Analysis Display Style.  Once in the menu there are 3 tabs to modify the display style settings or create a new style; SettingsColor & Legend.
Let’s look at the Settings tab first:
The only option here is if you would like to see or hide gridlines in the analysis view:
Section1 

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Revit Tutorial - Broken Pattern (Buildz)

Nice little post from Zach over at buildz...
Help! I broke my pattern



User question: "How do you make a smooth, continuously divided pattern across multiple surfaces"


The problem here is that Revit does one divided surface per face, so you can't identify multiple faces and have a uniform pattern across them all by default. This video demonstrates a method for using the divided surface properties to even out your pattern.


Friday, May 14, 2010

Revit 2011 - Visualization Tips (Revit Clinic)

Great set of tips over at Revit Clinic:

10 Revit 2011 Visualization Tips

Some of these are new to the Revit 2011 release; other tips have been around for some time.  I’ve included a number of items to keep in mind for renderings, presentations, materials and more…
1.  Consistent Colors

The advantage to this visual style is that the shaded color always matches the material setting.  Regardless of how the object is oriented to the light source, the color will be the same from view to view.  I’ve included a comparison image fromshaded with edges and consistent colors below:
ConsColors 
2.  Ambient Occlusion
Ambient occlusion can be enabled under the view properties > Graphic Display Options.  Keep in mind at this time you cannot print ambient occlusion, per thistechnical solution.
3.  Override View Graphic Display Options

For each view you can modify or create new Properties > Graphic Display Options.  This allows you to create or tweak modified sun, sun intensity, indirect light, shadows, and ambient occlusion settings.  I’ve included a quick video example below [no sound]:
Video Example

Continue to the post for seven more great tips...

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Revit Kid.com Poll - Members Only Area?

Hey guys,  I have been thinking more and more about creating a place for "Members Only".  My idea is to create a forum community of like minded Revit students and professionals.

For a monthly subscription this area will have unlimited access to specific tutorials I will create for this area only (also including the completion of The Student to Student Revit Guide) and a forum with users like me, and as many top names in the BIM/Revit industry I can get, to answer your questions and create great conversations. Finally, perhaps have some way of sharing user created Revit Content... I know we have Seek and RevitCity... But, let's be honest, you get a quality, parametric, model about 1 out of 10 times on those sites.

Why not make it free?

Well, the first, simple answer, is the subscription price will help pay for the services provided by the forum hosting, etc...  Second, I feel that if members are paying for the forum the quality of posts, threads, and information will be greater.

Please, take the time to complete the simple poll at the top of the page...

Those of you reading this on my RSS Feed or Email subscription, here is a quick link to the post and you can answer the poll on the right.

Also, my fellow Revit bloggers... Please, let me know what you all think of this and if you would be interested in helping me make this happen or being a moderator and add the to the conversation.

Comments are welcome on this post for sure!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Tutorial - Roof Basics (Revit Rocks)

Daryl created a nice set of simple tutorials that breaks down the basics of creating a roof in Revit.  Thanks for the tutorials Daryl.  If any of my readers have questions and want me to create a more detailed tutorial on any of the subjects write a comment and let me know.







Tutorial - Titleblock Basics

Topics Covered:
  • Importing Titleblocks
  • Editing a titleblock
  • Adding/Editing Labels
  • Editing Project Information

Click here to view the Titleblock Basics Tutorial

Monday, May 10, 2010

Tutorial - Sheet and Sheet Basics

I am happy to say that I have two more finals left this week and my Design Studio Project is finished!  This finally leaves me some time to make the tutorials that I have been wanting to make all semester.

This first tutorial is very simple and many of you may know the topic well.  Although, during this semester I have had countless number of sutdents asking me how to do it.

Topics Include:
  • Multiple methods to create sheets.
  • Lodaing in different Titleblocks.
  • Multiple methods to adding views to a sheet.
Click here to view the Sheet and Sheet Basics Tutorial..

Stay tuned for Titleblock creation/editing tutorials...

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Autodesk 2011 Products Officially Released to Students

Today is the day. Head on over to the Autodesk Student Community and download your new Autodesk 2011 software!

Already downloaded Revit 2011 and have been using a free trial? Just activate it with your information.

Oh, and by the way, Autodesk has updated the Student Community Website with some new features and layouts.... Check it out.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Revit on the iPad

I mentioned LogMeIn ignition on my first iPad post but Greg over at Revit3D.com just got his iPad and made a video of what it is like to USE Revit on the iPad.... Very cool stuff...