New Autodesk BIM Curriculum / Materials

Getting Ready to Go Back to School: Autodesk BIM Learning Resources

Building Information Modeling Tools to Help You Build the Future

Check out the newly updated Autodesk® BIM Workshop - the online learning resource center with educational tools for architecture, civil engineering, structural engineering, and construction management studies. The site is designed so students can easily drill down into a specific discipline or field-of-study to access a wide selection of videos, tutorials, and interactive learning tools.

Check out all the great learning material available to you on the BIM Workshop, just in time for Back to School!

Autodesk BIM Curriculum

This curriculum is designed to help prepare architecture, engineering, and construction management students for professional practice by exploring BIM sustainable design practices along with integrated project delivery (IPD) concepts. Students and graduates can more fluidly design and communicate, test, and plan using BIM models in an IPD framework. The BIM curriculum contains student workbooks that highlight essential concepts and learning goals and are accompanied by comprehensive learning tools, instructional videos, and datasets. 

New Autodesk Structural Engineering Curriculum

The new Autodesk® Structural Engineering curriculum was created to introduce Structural Design and Analysis to help students efficiently design, analyze, document, and build their projects. The student workbooks, tutorial videos, and datasets support key that support the complete workflow from building structures to cloud computing to analysis and documentation. 

BIM Execution Plan - The Beck Group

Following the trend of an older post which focused on the idea that people love seeing examples of BIM Execution Plans (BEP) I thought I would share another one that popped up on Twitter.  Aaron Maller, of The Beck Group, was kind enough to share their BEP.

Click here to view the BEP

So far my favorite part is the terms used in the title:

"Design and Construction Model Procurement and Coordination Practices"

... Juicy ...

Revit 2013 - New Level Properties

Great find over at Revit Alliance....  I, too, did not even notice this...  Freaking awesome!

Click here to find out what it all means...

Elliptipar Lighting Revit Models

For those of you seeking out some nice lighting fixtures to use Elliptipar has some great Revit Models.  Not to mention their lights are pretty sexy to begin with...  They also have two levels of model (for and not for rendering).

Check them out here:
http://elliptipar.com/bimrevit.aspx

Name That Clash! - #BIMBattlefield

How many clashes can you find in the picture below?

Revit Toposurface Sub-Region Annoyance #BIM Battlefield

Dear Autodesk,

Please allow the "create similar" command to create a new sub-region and not an entirely new toposuface.

Thanks,

- Jeff

Revit View Template Check Box Annoyance

Dear Autodesk,

Please add a "Select All / Deselect All" for these check-boxes....

Just saying...

Revit Tip - Revit Families Above the Cut Plane

Just something to keep in mind when you are selecting what Category your family will be.  Found this little gem from The Revit Clinic:

For component families this is determined by the family category.  The following component family categories will appear in the view even when above the cut plane:

-Casework
-Generic Model
-Structural Columns
-Windows

Click here to see the rest of the post.... 

Revit, Augmented Reality, and Showcase ... Awesome

We all knew it was coming sooner or later.... I haven't tried it out yet but I will soon.  Augmented Reality is now a Showcase plug-in available in the lab...

OVERVIEW 
 Augmented Reality allows the ability to overlay semantically in context information (graphics, text, video, sound) on to a live video feed of the real-world in real-time. 

 Autodesk Showcase is already a gold standard for photorealistic high quality interactive 3D real-time rendering. With the Showcase 2013 Augmented Reality plug-in, it is now easier than ever to visualize showcase 3D models in the real-world as viewed through your web or video camera. With the Augmented Reality plug-in, Showcase scene environments can be more dynamic, allowing you to Imagine Design and Create in context to the world around you.

Click here to try it out now....

 

Revit Families on Pinterest...

Great use of Pinterest and Revit...

I have been slowly getting into Pinterest and there are lots of things to like about it.  It is great for pinning architectural ideas, common interests, and even Revit content!  I can see many more architecture/Revit/BIM opportunities and ideas arising in the future.  How about you?

Architecture vs. Structure ... Who "Owns" the Grids

I am going to put it out there... some architects may cringe... some engineers may rejoice.

Where I work it seems to be an ongoing battle between who "owns" the columns grids.  Some of the architects want complete control throughout the entire project.  Some could care less.  Some engineers refuse to copy the architect's grids... Others work with them...  In the end, it always seem to end up with two sets of grids.  One independent grid owned by the architect and drawn inside the architecture model.  The other owned by the engineer and drawn inside the structural model.

Let's break this habit NOW!

I propose a solution.  We use a basic three phase workflow (SD, DD, CD).  During the SD and beginning of the DD phase the architect will draw the grids.  This will allow for design intent, some control of where columns would like to go, and the ability to adjust them at will.  Once the architect considers the grids to be sufficient the engineer will link in the model and re-draw the grids (that's right... re-draw... not copy/monitor).

I am proposing that once the structural model has its grids in place the architect's grids will be removed and structural's grids will be copy/monitored (***Edit*** No need to REMOVE the architects grids because you can simply set up a "monitor" relationship between them.  See here.).  That's right... I said it.  The architect should copy/monitor the structural model's grids into the architectural model.

Because the only things that will be locked to a grid in the architectural model will most likely be dimensions and column enclosures a change in the grid location will have less of an unwanted modeling impact than on the structural model.  Of course, because of the copy/monitor a notification will make the architect aware of the change and... well... he or she will have to COMMUNICATE with the engineer....

Am I really that crazy??