Revit Curtain Wall HACKS You’ve Never Tried w/Philip Chan - Replay

 

In this episode of BIM After Dark Live, Philip Chan returns to the show to break down one of Revit’s most misunderstood and under-used tool: the Curtain Wall system.

Phil demonstrates 5 different out of the box methods to creating curtain walls and panels.  And, in typical Phil fashion, drops a couple of extremely useful "hacks".... like, custom cutting curtain panels?!

Click here to view the replay now...

Never Lose a Revit Family Material Again: 2 Easy Tips (Office Hour Sessions)

In this Office Hour Session I spend some time riffing on Revit material parameters and management between a Revit family and project.  I also dive a little bit into materials within nested families, family material parameters, and more. 

Click here to view the office hour session now... 

P.S.

If you think you would benefit from joining an office hour like this one... Join the BIM After Dark Community today...

Advanced Revit Family Concepts with Revit Pure - Replay

 

Nicolas from Revit Pure joined me last night to demonstrate some advanced Revit family creation concepts.  Some of the topics included...

- Strategies to simplify formulas in Revit for family creation

- Use a trick to use text as a condition in If statements in Revit family creation

- Protect your Revit families dimensions with secret formulas

- Using lookup tables to avoid lengthy and complicated formulas

Oh, and he may or may not have made a cocktail live, on air! 

Click here to view the episode now...

Electrical Plans in Revit (for Architects) - Replay

 

To wire, or not to wire... That is the question....

No, it's not... YOU SHOULD ALWAYS WIRE!

Brenton Wiberg, of RevitFamily.biz, joined me on last night's episode of BIM After Dark Live to talk about making electrical lighting and power plans in Revit (from and Architect's perspective).  Brenton went through 3 methods of approaching these plans and talked about the pros and cons of each...

This is one episode that I think EVERYONE will take a little something away from...

Be sure to check out the replay here...

Revit Family Tutorial - Visibility and Filtering Options (Office Hour Sessions)

 

On this episode of Office Hour Sessions I use an example of modeling a fish tank family to create a Revit tutorial that demonstrates Revit family visibility and filtering options...  

Click here to view the video now...

Every other week I hold a private call with members of the BIM After Dark Community.  I thought it would be valuable to highlight some of the conversations here on the channel.

If you think you could benefit from an Office Hour like this one, Join the BIM After Dark Community for full courses, support, and sample files today !

Modern Kitchen Renovation Series - Revit Light Fixture Family Creation (Episode 14)

In episode 14 of our modern kitchen renovation series we will take a minute to build a fully parametric Revit light fixture family!   In this tutorial I will walk you through the steps it takes to build a pendant light fixture family in which you have total control of the size, height, materials, and light intensity!  

Oh.... all in like 9 minutes or so.. :)

Click here to view episode 14 now....

Modern Kitchen Renovation Series - "Sketching" Cabinets in Revit (Episode 6)

 

In episode 6 of our Modern Kitchen Renovation series we are going to build a fully parametric Revit family from scratch!  Placing cabinets using the "out of the box" Revit cabinet families can be restrictive and frustrating in the early stages of design... This Revit family creation tutorial will show how how to create a simple two-click placed family that will have you "sketching" your layouts in Revit and developing your design without restriction!

Click here to view episode 6 of the Modern Kitchen Renovation series now...

Advanced Revit Family Tutorial (with Brenton Wiberg)

On last night's episode of BIM After Dark Live, Brenton Wiberg returned to the show to share some of his most useful (and impressive) advanced Revit family techniques, tips, and tricks...

Brenton demonstrated some of the following real-world advanced Revit family creation techniques:

- Nesting multiple windows or doors that are fully parametric but also able to be tagged and scheduled on their own...

- A custom window tag you WON'T want to miss...seriously, it is a really cool tag. 

- and more...

Click here to watch the replay of episode 77 with Brenton now... 

Revit Family Formula Tip

In this BIG "BAD" BIM Tip of the Week was submitted by one of our subscribers, John.  This Revit Family Formula Tip shows a unique way to manage more complex family formulas without having to deal with LONG parameter names... Pretty cool!

Click here to view the family formula tip now... 

Parametric Revit Family Tutorial - Curtain Panel "Chippendale Rail"

In this parametric Revit family tutorial video I walk through the thought process and steps it took to build what we are calling the "chippendale rail".  The solution ended up being a fully parametric Revit curtain panel family that had some unique characteristics and demonstrated some really cool Revit family creation techniques.

Thanks to Jak of the BIM After Dark Community for inspiring this Revit tutorial video!

Array Based Families in Revit - What You NEED TO KNOW! (+ Free Guide)

 

Missed the show live?  Be sure to check out the replay below and a link to my Free Desktop Revit Family Cheat sheet...

Yesterday's episode of BIM After Dark Live was inspired by a subscriber's email (Matt).  Matt had a few questions about using an array in Revit to build families and some of the tips and tricks when doing so...

So, I thought it would be fun to build an array based family live!  And walk through some of those little "need to know" tips and tricks along the way.

Topics Covered:

- Creating a nested family and "carrying over" the parameters.

- Creating a line based family.

- Using and applying arrays

- Formulas to drive the array

- How to handle single objects and arrays in the same family...

There were a bunch of great questions and even some comments from Paul Aubin and Nick of Revit Pure!

Continue reading to view the replay, see the links, and download the free desktop family guide...

Residential Revit: Parametric Angled Wood Bracket

Today, I am going to continue the "Residential Revit" series with the same project from last week: The Rocky Mountain Modern House.  Today, we are going to look at a family that I created specifically for this project (but continue to use on other projects to date). The family is a fully parametric wood bracket with a steel plate and some bolts (seen above and below).

Continue reading to learn some of the family creation techniques I used to create the family and download it for yourself to use and explore...

BIM After Dark: Mini-Course #1 - Family Creation (Enroll Today!)

I am finally back from my wedding and honeymoon... Thank you all for the kind words of congratulations.  It means the world to me that so many of you took the time to send your love!

Three weeks ago, I held an e-mail only relaunch of BIM After Dark - Volume 3. (If you did not get the e-mails then you are either not on my email list (GET ON IT TODAY!) or you already own BIM After Dark - Volume 3). 

During the relaunch, I offered a bonus to those who purchased within the set time frame.  Well, there was so much interest in the bonus offer that I decided to open it up to the public for one day... and that day is today!

The bonus offer was enrollment in my first ever live, online, and interactive class.  It is no secret how much I enjoy teaching and I have always wanted to take the concept of BIM After Dark live.  Well, this is the first step.  

For today only I am opening enrollment into the first ever mini-course: Family Creation.  Continue reading to learn more about the course and to enroll today...

The Drafting Workaround...

Yesterday, I published a post that explored the dangers of NOT building custom Revit families.  I used the example of out of the box casework families. Today, I want to expand on this idea and present a common work around I see every day.  In fact, you or your company may use this workaround too!  What is the workaround I am talking about?  Let’s call it “drafting”...  For example, when you create an interior elevation and you use drafting lines and filled regions to show details, patterns, and information.  Let’s talk about how dangerous “drafting” in Revit can be...

I Don’t Have Time to Create Custom Families...

When I think about the least customized elements in a typical Revit project casework, or “millwork”, always comes to mind.  It’s true, the out of the box (OOTB) casework families are well-made and fully parametric.  But, when you have something other than flush solid door cabinets, as you would in many residential applications, the out of the box cabinets are lacking...

Revit Tutorial - Constant Slope Rigging Family (Rigid Insulation)

We've all seen the wall section before.  A flat roof with rigid insulation that is sloping towards a roof drain.  I would venture to say everyone reading this post has drawn or modeled the above detail at some point in their lives.  I would also venture to say many of you are drafting the rigid insulation as a filled region EVERY time you draw this section.

The following tutorial (extracting directly from BIM After Dark - Volume 3, set to re-release in a couple of weeks) illustrates how simple it is to make a parametric detail component for this typical condition... Continue reading to view the tutorial...

Revit Tutorial - Parametric Table: A Revit Family Introduction

In my previous two posts I discussed the topic of downloading bad Revit families and allowing free content to dictate your design.  These are two major issues in the Revit community and we are all guilty.  

What can we do about it?

BIM After Dark - BIM Can Make Families is live.  Volume 3 focuses on family creation.  From the basics (as demonstrated in the tutorial below) to advanced techniques (like adaptive repeaters and complex formulas) this volume will give you all the skills you need to build your own Revit families.

Keep reading to learn more about the course and view the tutorial...

Don’t Let Free Content Dictate Your Design…

How many times have you been asked about why you used a specific family in your project?  

How many times was your answer “because it’s all I could find”?

Frank Lloyd Wright is turning in his grave.  A man that custom designed everything from a desk chair to a drawer pull.  Imagine the horror on his face if you told him that you threw your design intent in the trash for the simple reason that there was no model available.  The time has come for you to stop settling for what is out there and build your own Revit families...

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: