The New Revit Kid Facebook Fan Page

The Revit Kid.com has had a Facebook page for years now but it is about time to upgrade.  The page was created before "fan pages" and lacked many of the new features Fan Pages give you.  The page also got very spammy and it was hard for me to moderate because it was so old.  Well, I finally started a "fan page" for everyone to "like".  I hop you guys will post questions, comments, concerns, or just say hi and "Like" me on Facebook!

Click here to like The Revit Kid.com! on Facebook!

Revit Tutorial - How To Add and Format a Revision Schedule

Hunter, a follower of the blog, emailed me a question:

"Is there a way to change the text size for a Revit revision schedule?"

Yes, there is a way to change the text size and formatting of a sheet revision schedule in Revit.

Revit Tutorial - Standing Seam Metal Roof

This is a cool little tip that some of you may find useful.  Basically, the idea stemmed from wanting a quick way to represent standing seam metal roof ridges in three dimensions.  By default, the Revit material for standing seam metal roof has a surface pattern and an image with a bump map.  Most of the time this is a sufficient representation of a standing metal seam roof: the data is there, the graphic representation is there, and your construction documents will look fine!

So, why bother modeling the seams in 3D?  Well, for rendering!  The default material for standing seam roofs does not look good at all rendered... Not one bit. I am going to show you a very fast way to create standing seams ribs with the roof you ALREADY CREATED!

Revit Technology Conference - Europe 2013

Many of you may have seen my posts about the Revit Technology Conference event I have attended in North America over the past two years. Just by reading those posts you can get a feeling of how beneficial I think the conference is.  For those of you in Europe who may find North America or Australia too far away I completely understand...  Well, this year RTC is coming to you! There is still plenty of time to register.

Revit Tip - How to Hide a Revision Cloud

Funny little detail when using Revision clouds. If you want to hide the revision clouds on a sheet and also hide the revision information from the revision schedule on that same sheet how would you hide it?  Well, common sense would tell you to simply hide the revision cloud and tag categories (especially if you have multiple clouds).  Unfortunately, your revision schedule will continue to show the revision information!

So, how do you hide the revision cloud, tag, AND information from your sheet?

The Super Secret Stacked Wall Methods ... Kind of?

How do YOU construct a wall that changes materials vertically and/or horizontally?

There will almost always be a few answers to this question.  Why is it a secret?  Because it is one of thos subjects that people just DO and don't really think about how or why they are doing what they are doing! I am just as guilty as the next guy.  It wasn't until a buddy of mine asked me the very same question did I sit down and ponder it. 

My honest answer... It depends!  Let me break it down and explain the methods...

Revit 2014 Update 1 - Structure, MEP, and Architecture Downloads

Well, the 2014 platform updates quietly rolled out last week.  For those of you who decided not to take the plunge into 2014 "because you were waiting for service pack 1"... Well, you have no excuse now!  Notice they claim to have fixed the cloud bugs...

Here are some important links for all the flavors of Revit...

Revit Tutorial - Massing and Adaptive Components (Marcello at PDX Rug)

Marcello stopped by pdxRUG on his way home from RTC and gave a lecture about massing and adaptive components.  The screen is a bit hard to see but if you are interested in the world of massing and adaptive components check it out:

Revit 2014 Cloud Issue - "A Problem Occurred. File Could Not be Translated. -1"

Apparently there is a known issue with Revit 2014 and Autodesk Cloud Rendering.  The issue will through a dialogue box that states: "A Problem Occurred. File Could Not be Translated. -1"

Why does this happen?

The Revit Kid Reader's Survey Final Week

Now that I am back from RTC and the getting back into "work mode" I wanted to remind everyone that the Revit Kid Reader's Survey is still active and will end this week.  I have received lots of responses and some excellent feedback.  Thank you to all of those who responded so far.

If you have not responded yet head over the the reader survey page and get your free gift after responding!

Thanks!

- Jeff

Revit Technology Conference North America 2013 - Day 3 Recap

Today is the third and final conference day. My day started with a class led by Lillian Smith and Matt Jezyk. I wasn't sure what to think of the class before going because the description made it sound like it was just going to cover some conceptual energy modeling stuff. Well, in short, it did. But on a whole different level.

Matt and Lillian are some of the original team that helped develop Revit (before Autodesk acquired it) and now their jobs inside of Autodesk are to test, tune, and push all kinds of cool new things to the limits. With the assistance of dynamo, Lillian illustrated some examples of iterating through conceptual masses rotations and parameters to find optimal sizes, shapes, and footprint based on the suns location. Very cool.

Revit Technology Conference North America 2013 - Day 2 Recap

Today's classes felt like they had even more substance then yesterday's. The morning kicked off with Marcello's class about scaling methods. For those of you who do not know who Marcello is then check his blog out here. He is known for pushing Revit to it's limits... Or better yet, illustrating that Revit does not have limits.

Marcello broke down different methods of scaling any family. That's right, scaling a family. Honestly, they weren't even difficult methods... Just ones that no one has ever thought of! Total face in palm moments. I can't wait to get in from of my computer and explore Marcello's methods even deeper. And, of course, share my explorations with you all.

Revit Technology Conference North America 2013 - Day 1 Recap

Yesterday marked the first full day of RTCNA 2013. The day began with a keynote address by Lee Crockett. Lee was a fantastic speaker and really hit home with some of the subjects he spoke about. Mainly, when it came to technology and the future. One of my favorite quotes from his keynote was "when the rate of change outside of an organization is greater than the inside, the end is near". He then gave some solid examples such as Kodak and Borders. Think about your office or firm... I know I thought about mine. Are we changing at a rate parallel to the technology around us?

Special Live Edition of Revit Radio Live from #RTCNA

There will be a live edition of Revit Radio straight from the exhibit hall at RTCNA today at 12PM Pacific Time.

Click here to register and log in!

Vancouver Here I Come! #RTCNA

Just a friendly reminder that I will be live blogging as much as possible for the next few days giving you the run down on Revit Technology Conference North America!
I will also be tweeting (along with lots of others) @TheRevitKid or #RTCNA.
If you happen to be at RTCNA and see me make sure to say hi!

Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com!

The Revit Kid Reader's Survey

Now that I have finished school and will have more "free time" I have been thinking a lot about the blog and about how I can add even more value to it.

I am looking into a even newer look and template that allows for easier navigation of the 959 posts throughout the past 4 years.  I know blogs can be very difficult to navigate if you haven't followed them in chronological order!  I want to make it as easy as possible for you to find the over 700 tutorials that exist within The Revit Kid.com's archives.

Lastly, I want to start creating valuable content in a more organized form such as an eBook, podcast, or downloadable video series.  I've created a little survey I am asking you all to fill out so I can get a better feeling as to what YOU, my beloved readers, want.

Additionally, for completing the survey you will receive a FREE copy of a whitepaper I wrote explaining the process I used to convert a Revit model into a fully interactive CryEngine 3 environment (just like I show in this post...)

CLICK HERE TO COMPLETE THE SURVEY

The Survey is now closed... Thank you to everyone who participated!!

Revit Technology Conference 2013 - North America #RTCNA

In exactly one week I will be on a plane flying to Vancouver to attend the Revit Technology Conference 2013 - North America.  I am very excited to not only attend the lectures/classes but to meet some of you as well!  The one thing that I enjoyed about RTC last year was the intimacy.  By the end of three days you already begin recognizing faces and meeting more than half of the people there!

For those of you not attending make sure you keep checking the blog, signing up for updates via email by clicking here, and Twitter account (@TheRevitKid) or (#RTCNA) as well as all of the other great Revit Bloggers and Tweeters around!

See you in Vancouver!

BIM in Español - Virtual BIM Event from BIMetica

For my Spanish speaking readers there is a virtual BIM event streaming out of Barcelona tomorrow. It looks to be interesting... I don't know if my Spanish is up to par to really get what I want from it but maybe yours is!

A base del interés generado este último mes sobre el evento BIM de Bimetica y Trespa, y el hecho de que muchos de los interesados les es imposible desplazarse a Barcelona, hemos decidido hacer una grabación en vivo del evento. Así, cualquiera que esté interesado y no pueda asistir, también podrá observarlo....

Revit Tip - Family Categories and Visibility

Here is a little tip to keep in mind when using or building families.  If the entire family always shows in a floor plan view (even if the elements that are visible are above your cut plane) you might want to check out the families category.

A perfect example is the default Autodesk "Ladder" family in the specialty equipment category.  When you place the family you will always see the railings at the top of the ladder even though they are far above your cut plane:

Seth Godin's Blog - Keeping the Boat Straight

I follow Seth Godin's blog because it is always filled with short and simple little posts that pack in tons of meaning.  Even though he is not affiliated with BIM, Revit, or the industry abroad many of his posts can be related to it.  For example, he posted a gem this morning.

Can you relate this to yourself?  Are you the person try to steer the boat and keep it going straight?

 I immediately related to the post and my firm's migration to Revit.