Revit Tip - Double Duplicate for Less Headaches (Material Browser)

This is one of those things that can make you throw your keyboard if you don't know about it.  That's right, throw your keyboard!

What am I talking about?  Well, here is the scenario:

You are cruising through a Revit model creating walls, doors, windows, and applying materials.  You are also duplicating and creating new materials.  Assigning them some properties and continuing along.  Finally, you stop to take a coffee break and save.

When you get back from your coffee break, you flip tot he default 3D view and turn on Realistic Shading.  To your disbelief, your entire model is yellow!  What?!  Why??

It turns out the first material you made was a yellow gypsum wall.  Then, you duplicated that material while creating all of your new materials.  The problem is that you did not duplicate the "Asset" as well! I know what you're thinking, "what the heck is the asset?!  I never had to duplicate that before!".

Well, Revit 2013 and 2014 introduced some major changes in the material browser (I promise, I won't talk about the disaster of Revit 2013's material browser).

Revit Tip - I Can't Select my Link!?

This is one of those little gems that sort of slips through the cracks. I had a colleague who was extremely frustrated because he could not select the structural model linked into his architectural model!

He had checked worksets, design options, visibility setting, the link type, etc...

Well, with the release of 2014 there are some new buttons on the bottom right hand corner of your Revit window.

 "Select Links" is one of them.

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 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?

Revit Tutorial: Revit 2014 – New Rebar Tools

Great little write-up on the new rebar enhancements for Revit 2014.

http://revitstructureblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/revit-2014-new-rebar-tools/

There was also a video linked in the post worth checking out...

Revit 2014 Cloud Rendering and Custom Materials

Revit 2014 was released near the end of my semester this year (much later than normal).  Being extremely anxious to install and use it,  and extremely frustrated with Revit 2013's material editor, I installed Revit 2014 a few weeks before my final.

Everything was running smooth and the new/old material editor was a great pleasure.... Until I sent some renderings to the cloud.  

Take a good look at this test rendering.... Notice anything funny?  

That's right... the brick, stone, and wood materials are HUGE!  Those are pyramids of Giza size bricks...  When this exact scene is rendered locally (or in realistic) the brick, wood, and stone look perfect....

It looks to me like the Revit 2014 exporter/cloud has something funny going on with custom materials.  These maps and bump maps are all custom and look great locally... The second I send them to the cloud this is the result...  This did not happen with Revit 2013 and the cloud.

I remember some major improvements when Revit 2013 was released with the cloud exporter from the Revit 2012 exporter... Looks to me like they improved the cloud but not the exporter for the 2014 release...

Revit 2014 for Students Finally Available!!!

........ In French .......

Go over to the Student Community and see if you have your language....

Oh, and don't forget... If you have issues with the activation screen to check out my post for a solution...  I had to update the HTML files again (every install seems to need it)....

Revit Tutorial - Using Thermal Properties in Revit 2014

The pace at which the integration of energy analysis and Revit has grown is fantastic.  With the release of Revit 2014 all of the little aspects that have been slowly making their way into the software are really starting to combine and become a powerful asset.  Exhibit A, the video below (produced by Emile over at BPA) illustrates the use of the thermal massing properties of a material and Revit's built-in energy analysis...

It's About Time ... Revit 2014 Released!!!

You may have seen my posts in the past couple of days about the release date of Revit 2014 being a tad bit later than previous years... Well, it's finally here!!

You can download the 2014 suites on your subscription login pages (for subscription users).

If you are a student then you will have to wait a little longer for an activated version but you can download the trial version from Autodesk here and use it for 30 days (you will most likely be getting the student version before those 30 days are up).

Now... here's to waiting for the first web update!

Where's my Revit?

Am I the only one who feels like the wait for 2014 is much longer than other releases?  Do you find it strange that the free trial link on Autodesk's website is still for Revit 2013??

Hmm......

Revit 2014 - Student Download Date... Still waiting...

By this time last year Autodesk had already released the latest version of Revit (2013).  My prediction last year was that the student release would have been around April 18th.  I am wondering when it will be released to students this year.  Looks like AutoCAD 2014 and some other software suites are good to go for students...  Hmmm...  Additionally, the 30-day free trial download for Revit on Autodesk's website is still setup for 2013... 

Navisworks 2014 is also available for students to download....  

What about Revit?!

#Revit2014 - What's New?

Well, it is that time of the year again.  Get ready for the social media storm everyone!  Autodesk has lifted the NDA on Revit 2014 and you all get to find out about it!

For the first time that I an remember Autodesk has taken it upon themselves to beat the bloggers!  

Click here to view Autodesk's Revit 2014 new features (and old features) website...

Autodesk may have released the features before most of us bloggers but David Light still wins for the most comprehensive post about the new features... 

Click here to read David's post about Revit 2014... 

What am I most excited about in 2014?  Well, the displaced views function will be a lot of fun to play with (especially for presentations).  The new (well old) material editor makes me happy.  I learned to live with 2013's but my goodness did it suck!  Non-rectangular view-ports will help me greatly in the office (no more hidden elements and masking regions!).  Lastly, the new scheduling functions will be pretty useful.

What do you guys think?!

Oh... And how about that new "R" logo.... At least I think it is an "R"....

  

Autodesk 2014 Product Release Webcast - March 26th at 11AM (EST)

As Steve noted on his blog Autodesk will be holding a webcast event tomorrow where many of the new features of their 2014 line of products will be announced.  If you are not a Beta tester or are interested in seeing the presentation then follow this link. 

And no, that is not the Google Drive logo it is Autodesk's new logo...