Revit Electrical Panel Madness - #BIMBattlefield

An interesting set of events have taken place in the past week or so about Revit Electrical Panel schedules and their calculations.

July 17, 2012

For me, the affair started with engineers at the firm I work for claiming the math was wrong.  After some research and a deadline that had to be met my colleague, Doug, and I came up with a handout seen in the post.

July 24, 2012

A year old thread over at AUGI is revived with a video from an AUGI member named Martin Schmid.

The same day, Kyle Bernhardt publishes a very comprehensive post about all of the math that goes on behind the scenes of the Revit Electrical Panel Schedule.  Personally, I do not have the electrical know-how to understand every piece of post so Doug and I sent it off to our engineers to read over.  The response from our engineers was:

"If we take the separate load per phase the math is correct. In real world we do not have panels with single phase only. In any panel it will be 2 pole and three pole loads. We can’t separate the electrons per phase."

July 25, 2012

Kyle Bernhardt publishes another post proclaiming that something has been done about his in the latest Revit 2013 update.  Kyle states that "An update in Revit 2013 Update Release 1 makes this [computing per phase load demands] functionality possible..."...

I have not installed the update to Revit MEP 2013 yet to see exactly what it did (did it unlock the parameter or calculated values?) but it sounds like it might be a step in the right direction.  

July 26, 2012

Doug and I would like to think that maybe, just maybe, the handout we posted here had some sort of effect on this chain of events.  After all, we all need little victories fighting on the #BIMBattlefield. 

Revit Tip - Select Element by Offset Height

Here is a nice little tip that I think will help many of you out.  The example I am going to use is a ceiling.  Let's say you have a bunch of 2x4 ACT ceilings in your model.  They are all at varying heights.  You want to take the one set of ceilings that are at, let's say, 10'-0", and lower them to 9'-4".

How do you select all those ceilings without selecting the others? A schedule!  Check out the video below for the tip.

Topics Covered:

• Creating a Ceiling Schedule
• Sorting the Schedule by Height Offset.
• Grouping the height Offset..
• Changing the Height Offset of the Ceilings.

Click here to view the video via YouTube.

Click here to view the video via Screencast.

Revit Tip - Quickly Find Warning [and Clash] Elements (What Revit Wants)

Great little tip/workflow from Luke.  He uses some simple steps to find elements that appear in your warnings reports... I would take it a step further and say "why not use it for clash detection too!?".  Just export the clash report and use the same steps...

Now, if only Revit would integrate Navisworks ability to zoom in and auto-show an element... Come on now!

Click here to view the tip/tutorial....

Creating Custom Revit Families Book

Michael Anonuevo, author of the Little Details Count website, has created an awesome book to help you create any Revit family you can imagine. The number of views my "Family Creation Series" of tutorials has received over the years illustrates the interest people have in creating families.  Well, Michael takes family creation to a whole new level.

I have been fortunate enough to read through this eBook already and it is packed full of great information.  For only 20 bucks you get 751 pages of fantastic content all related to Revit families.  Not to mention Michael teaches you how to create an alto sax at the end... I am absolutely mystified by the amount of time this book must have taken to write.

I promise you that it is a 20 dollars you will not regret spending.  Don't forget to mention that you heard about the book from "The Revit Kid.com!" during checkout.

Click here to read a PDF with a sample chapter and Steve Stafford's forward...
Click here to purchase the eBook...

Revit Tutorial - Revision Trickery (Revit Alliance)

Cool post from last year that I stumbled upon today...

As I was blog-stalking today, I saw Steve Stafford over at Revit OpEd posted aboutthe revisions on sheet dialog that is somewhat hidden in the sheet properties but helps with revisions schedules so much! It got me thinking I should post about some other little revision tricks that I think are hidden or people just don’t think about....


Click here to see the rest of the post and tutorial about Revisions, Clouds, Tags, and schedules.....

The Revit Kid.com! is Now an Official Wiki Contributor

I am excited to announce that The Revit Kid.com! is officially a contributor of the Autodesk Revit Wiki Help pages...

The idea of merging a Help File with a community driven Wiki is a great move on Autodesk parts (even if it still has some funky bugs).  I look forward to contributing lots of information to the community and Revit Users abroad.  

Check out the first contribution from The Revit Kid.com!

GTeam - Gehry Hits the Cloud with BIM

Juliana, who jokingly referred to herself as "The Revit Grandma" in an email to me, pointed me to a very interesting link. Looks like Gehry Technologies is hitting the cloud... FOR FREE to try!  I can't wait to give this a try later....

Greetings, 


We are very excited here at Gehry Technologies to announce the public Free Preview launch of GTeam, our new cloud-based 3D, file management and project collaboration platform. Inspired by Frank Gehry’s vision of collaboration, GTeam was created specifically for Architecture, Engineering and Construction professionals using a 3D centric approach to project delivery. Unlike traditional file-sharing solutions, GTeam is purpose-built for the AEC industry to support the needs of BIM teams, with an open platform that enables collaboration regardless of the authoring tools being used by the individual participants. 


 Many of our early customers are having great success with GTeam and we hope you give GTeam a try on a few of your projects! You can try it free today with unlimited users, projects and storage. 


 About GTeam 
GTeam is a new way for Architecture, Engineering, Construction professionals and Owners to collaborate and share project and 3D design information. Using GTeam as a central platform, you can easily share and view 3D models online, organize all your projects files in one place, and keep everyone on the same page! 


 Start your free trial 
Click here to learn more about GTeam and to register for your free trial!

Click here for a list of features....

Looks like Autodesk's BIM 360 and Graphisoft's Open BIM may have a competitor... I wonder what the price margin will be...

Free Revit Walls, Ceilings, and Details (USG Design Studio)

My buddy Nick sent me this link and I thought I would share.

The site is loaded with standard details, wall, floor, and ceiling constructions for FREE.  You can filter walls by fire and sound rating, materials, all kinds of stuff.  Really cool site and worth a look.

http://www.usgdesignstudio.com/

Revit Tutorial - Fix the Electrical Panel Schedule Math

I have posted a handout from my colleague Doug Campbell sometime last year and it was received well.  Here at the office when we arrive at some interesting Revit issues, workaround, or tips, Doug usually takes the time to make a handout to send to all the Revit user.  

We recently ran into some funky math that Revit MEP has built into it's Electrical Panel Schedule.  I wont go any further because Doug does so in the handout but basically the Panel Schedule divides by he wrong number...

Click here to download the handout regarding Electrical Panel Schedules....

An Outlook for the AEC Industry from Futurist Edie Weiner

Very cool article by a renowned "futurist"... That's right... a "Futurist"...

A good quote here:

“Physical space is moving to cyber space,” believes Weiner, thanks to virtual reality and CAD/CAM technologies. Not only are these technologies impacting the way we work, but they are also altering the structure of our professions. “The architectural profession was traditionally a top-down world,” according to Weiner, “but it has shifted to a bottom-up culture” that allows even recent graduates to excel based on their expertise in these technologies.

Also, "being blue" is a great notion to take away....

Read the article here to know what I am talking about...

Article: Phillip G. Bernstein On The Future of Design Practice - Technology, Bim - Architect Magazine

Phillip G. Bernstein On The Future of Design Practice - Technology, Bim - Architect Magazine
http://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/phillip-g-bernstein-talks-about-the-future-of-design.aspx?cid=ANW:070212:FULL

Some good pointers and insight by Uncle Phil...

Revit Tip - Curtain Wall Grids Appear After Wall Re-Sizing

I have had numerous posts about curtain walls throughout this blog  so I figured I would add another little tip.  This is just one that can remove much of the annoyances I am sure you have run into in the past.

First, I highly suggest using a curtain wall type that does not have any grid lines predefined right from the start.  I can almost guarantee that you will be unpinning and manipulating at least one grid line in each of your curtain walls.  Once you do that, adn you start changing the length or height of the curtain wall... Good luck to you...  Grids will start appearing out of no where, panels will get replaced, doors will disappear, and fluffy kittens will die...

Before we kill anymore fluffy kittens follow these steps for curtain walls that were drawn with a pre-defined grid system and giving you a headache now:

1. Select all the internal grids of the curtain wall.
2. Unpin them.
3. Select the curtain wall..
4. Change the wall to a wall type without any defined grid pattern.

Now take a deep breath and smile.

Autodesk 360 is Going Mobile

Good find from Alan...

Autdoesk is looking to go mobile with their 360 cloud services and they are looking for your input on devices to use.

Click here to sign up for more information and to submit your device type.

Autodesk Activation Problem - Solved

If you remember a few weeks ago I had an activation nightmare when trying to activate Revit 2013.  Every time I would run the activation process I would get a blank screen or radial buttons off the screen.  After research and trial and error I finally got the damn thing to activate.

Well, fast forward to today.  I am fresh off of RTC USA and installing some new software out of pure inspiration.  This software includes Navisworks Manage 2013, 3D Max 2012 and 2013... and CryEngine 3 (thanks for the class Marcello!).  Well, it turns out the activation issue doe not only effect Revit.  In fact, all the setting and tweaks to HTML files I made for the Revit activation were overridden by me new Autodesk installs!

Well, for the sake of my sanity and yours I decided to take a few minutes and tweak every HTML file that has to do with the Autodesk installs.  For subscribing to this blog you can download the files and never have to tweak the HTML codes again....  

So from now on when you try and activate any Autodesk product and you are staring at a blank window, offset radial buttons, or nothing at all give this a try.  Simply use the zip file I created.  Extract the files somewhere safe.  Copy and paste them into the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\AdLM\R5\en-US\Webdepot

Notice where I highlighted the "R5" in the directory location.  From what I can tell "R5" has to do with the 2013 products and there will be an R4 and R3 folder if you have 2010 and 2011 products.  You will have to do the copy and paste into each "Web Depot" folder of each "R..."  folder.  It will ask you to give permission and if you want to replace the current files.  Say yes.  Launch your Autodesk and run the activation sequence again.

One little caveat.  You have to re-copy and replace these HTML files every time you install a new product... So save the zip file for sure. 

Subscribe to this blog FREE and download the working HTML files:

Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

Revit Tutorial - Walls the Follow Topography (Intersection Method) #RTCUSA

As I mentioned earlier I was fortunate enough to attend 2 out of 3 of Marcello's RTC classes.  The second, and final, class is when he introduced the intersection method.  It is one of those things where after you see it you say, "Duh!  Why didn't I think of that?!".  Well, Marcello was nice enough to post a little tutorial explaining how he used the intersection method and another little workaround to make the bottom of a wall follow the topography lines in Revit...

Click here to see the tutorial....

Oh, and I urge you all to follow his blog.  It might not have 3 posts a day but the quality of every post is worth a look...  I mean, just look at this image of his Revit cow....  Insanity.

Day 4 - Revit Technology Conference 2012 #RTCUSA

I am now home and reflecting on the past four days and it's overwhelming to contemplate what happened.  The virtual typhoon of information that washed over me the past four days is unimaginable to anyone but an attendee of RTC.

My final day at RTC started with a bang as Marcello explained "the intersection method" he uses to place structural beam on complex surfaces.  By the end of the class he placed some beams around the surface of a cow he modeled inside Revit.

After Marcello opened my eyes to some new ways of using old tools Tim Waldock made us all feel like we were in high school trigonometry and he was the teacher... But with awesome images.  Tim used the new "repeat" tool in Revit 2013 along with adaptive components and the new "divided line" tool to do some really cool things (like make an octopus building).


The day went on and ended with a formal dinner consisting of a three course meal and lots of free wine (and quite a few bottles ended up at our table...)

For my first Revit Technology Conference experience I could not have had a better time.  I met such great people and interacted in some very informative classes.  Overall, the feeling of being in the presence of 400 people who are all experts in what I am passionate about was nostalgic to say the least. I highly recommend you find a way to go next year. Personally, I think a larger group of students should try to attend because I believe we are the ones who will drive the industry in the directions we discussed for the past four days(they do have a student and professor price reduction).

Oh, and if you do plan on going next year I highly advise you not to book a flight on Sunday morning any earlier than at least 11 A.M....