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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Revit Tutorial - Adaptive Components (Design Reform)

Three or four years ago when I began learning/exploring the world of Revit there were very few resources for video tutorials (especially FREE tutorials).  David, over at Design Reform taught me a lot of the more advanced things I know about Revit thanks to his great tutorials.  Well, he is BACK!  After a long while of a post here and there, David created a very useful tutorial:

Autodesk Revit 2011 – Intro to Adaptive Components

Software: Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011
Description: In this Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 training video, we’ll cover the basics of how to build an adaptive component.  This is not the traditional or expected use.  This video used the adaptive component to construct a mass.  That being said the logic can be used independence of scale (from a panel to a mass).
Topics Covered:
  • Adaptive Components
  • Mass Families
  • Reference Planes

Click here to view the post/video...

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Revit Tutorial - Design Options (Revit Zone)

Great post over at Revit Zone about Design Options.  Those of you not familiar with design options should definitely check out the post.  I used them on a day to day basis at the firm I work in. In fact, the project I am working on right now has 5 Option sets with more than 3 options in each set.  That is over 15 options for those keeping up. Very powerful tool in the design/conceptual process.  I was going to make a video about this but why reinvent the wheel?


Design Options: An Introduction

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Welcome to the Revit Zone article on Design Options. In this article we are going to take you through what Design Options are, when you would use them and also a quick-step-by-step example of their use. After reading and digesting this article, you should be comfortable with setting up “Option Sets” and also in creating individual “Options” within those sets.

What are Design Options

 

Quite simply, the Design Options facility in Revit allows you to explore different options for various parts of your project. The important words to pick up in that statement are “various” and “parts”. Let me now explain the importance of these two concepts in relation to Design Options.

Various: You can consider different options for different elements of your design, all at the same time. For example- you may want to consider four variations of entrance lobby; AND you may also wish to consider three variations of kitchen layout in the same scheme. This is what “Option Sets” are for- and we’ll discuss these in detail later.

Parts:  It is crucial that you appreciate that Design Options are best used when you wish to study varying options for small, distinct elements of your scheme. The majority of your project should be determined- leaving you to explore isolated (and distinct) areas.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Revit Tutorial - Creating Complex Families (Club Revit)

Going right along with my basic Revit Family tutorials is a great write up over at Club Revit:


Creating Complex Family Shapes in Revit: Part-1

Family Modeling in Revit Architecture 2011

This is part of a series on creating complex family shapes in Revit. In my previous post (Creating Complex Family Shapes in Revit: Introduction _June 7, 2010), the Beer Mug example was modeled in Revit Architecture 2010. However, from here on, I’ll be using Revit Architecture 2011 (RA 2011) to take advantage of its new features and enhancements.
This post will deal with my firsthand account of RA 2011 Family editor tools in the creation of the Pool Table Set found on my website (https://www.littledetailscount.com). As I explain some of this latest version’s features, I’ll show you my modeling setup as an example. Later on, I’ll present annotated isometric views of the pool table with explanations on how it was modeled.

Summary

RA 2011 is a huge improvement that addressed a lot of issues from the 2010 version. I recommend you upgrade to this latest version because you’ll be able to work with less clicks. Aside from the enhancements to the Ribbon interface, a lot of cool features has been added. You may have already read about them in numerous articles and internet blogs. We’ll take a closer look at some of these features relevant to this post and as outlined below:
A. Significant changes to the family editor tools
1. The improved Ribbon Interface, Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) and Tab Behavior Display
2. The Modeless Properties Palette
3. The Modify Tab
4. Visual Enhancements
B. Some Rendering Issues with RA 2011:
1. Carpet & Fabric_Velvet materials
2. Glass_Clear material
3. Metal Screen material scaling
C. How the Pool Table was Created
D. Conclusion

Autodesk Design a Dorm Contest - Win $500!!

A competition that I think all of my creative minded readers will surely win:


Dorm Design Contest:  Autodesk Education will run a contest for students to design their dorm room using Autodesk® Homestyler, a free online home design software. Winners will be selected based on star ranking and number of votes.

Dates:  August 19- September 9, 2010
Winner announced: September 16, 2010

Contest Details
·         Autodesk Dorm Design Contest is for students (at least 15 years old) who are college-bound.
·         Anyone can vote for their favorite design in the dorm design contest gallery.
·         Winners will be selected based on rating and number of votes.
·         First Place wins $500 gift card at Target
·         Second Place wins $300 gift card at Target
·         Third Place wins $200 gift card at Target
·         Autodesk Homestyler is free online home design software.
·         This is part of Autodesk’s Back to school campaign.
 Resource Links
Contest Landing Page: www.autodesk.com/dormdesigncontest
Autodesk Education Community: www.autodesk.com/edcommunity

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Revit Family Series Part 5 Link fixed.

The link to video of Part 5 of the Revit Family series has been fixed... I apalogize for those of you who might have been effected by the mix up... check it out now!!

Revit Tutorial - Revit Family Creation Series - Part 5

Let us add a little flair to the table... using a nice sweep.

Topics Covered:
  • Creating a sweep.
  • Creating a sweep by chosing 3D edges.
  • Manipulating a sweep using Parameters.
  • Making a sweet ass little table.

Revit Tutorial - Creating and Rendering Walkthroughs

Taking a quick break away from the Family Creation Series here is a nice little tip. There might be some information out there on this already but given the nature and collection of tutorials on this site I figured I would add it here.

Topics Covered:
  • Creating a walkthrough.
  • Editing a walkthrough.
  • Previewing a walkthrough.
  • Exporting a walkthrough.
  • Rendering a walkthrough.
Click here to see the video on creating and rendering walkthroughs.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Revit Tutorial - Revit Family Creation Series - Part 4

Creating and using nested families will also help save you time, money, and frustration.

Topics Covered:
  • Using Nested families.
  • Loading a Family into a Family
  • Using Instance Parameters
  • Creating a chair leg family.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Revit Tutorial - Revit Family Creation Series - Part 3

Here is a little one all about Family Types, etc...

Topics Covered:

  • Creating Family types.
  • Manipulating Family Types
  • Loading your family into a project.
  • Using your family within a project.
  • Creating family types in a Project.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

New Blog: Under NDA

As many of you may remember I love learning things that boggle my mind (See Calculus Final).  David Light, over at Revit, introduced a new blog called Under NDA.  From what I have seen this is going to be quite an interesting blog to follow.  Fair warning... It will not be for the faint at heart.  If calculus, algorithms, and the overall unknown scare you to the point where you cannot sleep at night I suggest staying away.

Welcome to Under NDA:


The coming posts will (hopefully) explain my thinking: I've read a lot about using Genetic Algorithm in an architectural design process, combining the "analytical approach to Design" that Prof. Baudizzone taught me in Uni, back in 1997. Yet I never got it implemented - the closest I got to it was a GWBASIC program for a Museum competition, that was not really using Genetic optimization.


Will, the author of Under NDA, already has two posts up (one of which already blows my mind and feeds my cravings).  Welcome to the blogging world and I hope The Revit Kid.com's readers will be good to you. 


Click here to go to Under NDA's blog and follow him/subscribe or whatever...




Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Revit Tutorial Series - Family Creation - Part 1


Finally!!! I know... Finally, The Revit Kid has made a new video... I would like to deeply apalogize for the lack of original videos.  I have been super busy with tons of new and old things going on in my life.  I am still quite busy but I should have a few spare minutes to create some videos for you guys.

This is the first of a series of Family Creation Tutorials I will be doing.  I originally starting writing out exactly what topics, families, and steps I would take in the video but decided that would not be realistic.  A realistic model of instruciton would include me messing up, improvising the steps of creation as I would in a real world work situation, and ultimately problem solving to create a high quality family.

One of my biggest pet peeves of the advent of Revit picking up traction is the lack of good families.  The great thing about Revit is the ability to share these high quality models from manufactures or costum built designers.  I garuntee you that more than half of the models you grab from RevitCity and even Autodek's very own SEEK are garbage.  Some are simply 3D masses imported from CAD and Max while other throw error and crash your machine when you try to change a dimension.  With this series I hope to put an end to crappy families and start a revolution of good quality, parametric, and useful family creators... Enjoy..

Revit Tutorial Series - Family Creation - Part 1

Topics Covered:
  • Starting a Revit Family Project
  • Understanding Reference Planes
  • Using dimensions as constraints and parameters.
  • Manipulating Reference Planes.
  • Manipulating Geometry using dimensions, reference planes, and parameters.

Click here to see the Revit Tutorial Series - Family Creation - Part 1 video...




Revit Tutorial - Stair with Landing at Both Ends

Nice little tip from Revit OpEd...