See you in Dallas? (Digital BILT Week 2023)

 

I am super excited to announce that I will not only be attending my first (in-person) conference since 2019, but I will be speaking at it, too!

Digital BILT Week (formally known as BILTNA, and RTCNA) is a conference that is near and dear to my heart.  I have been attending and speaking at this conference since 2012.  

Check out all of my previous posts about previous events... 

If you are looking for a conference that is just the right size to actually MEET people, has high quality classes to actually LEARN something, and, well... where you can actually meet ME, then you should try to make it to Texas in June.

If you do decide to sign up... Make sure you sign up for my session as well:

Session 1.2 

Thursday, 15 June, 2023 - 10:45 AM

TWINMOTION IS FREE FOR REVIT… WHAT NOW?!

Click here to register for the conference today... 

I'll see you in Dallas?!

Key Takeaways from BILT NA 2019 in Seattle

I am finally over my jet lag and getting back in to the grove of things after returning from BILT NA 2019 in Seattle.  I wanted to put together a couple of the key topics I took away from the conference this year...

It's BILTNA Week! See you in St. Louis!?

BILT North America is this week!

I am pretty excited to be heading to another BILT conference (formerly known as RTCNA).  I love looking back on my previous review posts from this conference...  They remind me about how valuable and impact each year has been for me.

Every year I come home with a sense of vigor and excitement.  Additionally, my mind is usually spinning around all of the ways I can use the new tips, tricks, and topics discussed that week.

4 Reasons You Should Attend RTC, #4 is My Favorite (#RTCNA)

I've officially registered for Revit Technology Conference North America 2014 (#RTCNA).  RTC is by far my favorite conference to attend.  If you have followed this blog over the years you would have seen numerous posts before and after the last few RTCNA's.  This year, I thought I would publish a post long before the event and give you my reasons why YOU should go. 

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 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?

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!

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....

  

Day 3 - Revit Technology Conference 2012 #RTCUSA

Today marks day 3 of my Revit Technology Conference adventure and boy was it a cracker.  I started the day with a 9:00AM Lab about Vasari and Dynamo given by Matt Jezyk (click here to read about it). I missed my second class because I was getting ready for my lab.  I did make it to Scott Davis's (@scottddavis) lecture on "Rapid Energy Modeling".  Scott, Matt Jezyk, and myself all happened to be speaking about practically the same thing, but I think we all have very different ways of speaking about it.  Scott did a great job and jammed an incredible amount of information in a short period of time.

Finally, it was time for my very first Revit Technology Lab titled "Revit Energy Analysis Workflow: Analyzing Your Model from Concept to Reality".  When the conference in over I will post the handout.  If you don't count the internet not allowing anyone to sign on to Autodesk 360 I'd say it went pretty well.  The room was full and everyone seemed very engaged.  For those of you who sat in on the lab thanks for coming and I hope you took something away from it.  I plan on breaking down my lab content into a smaller video series here on The Revit Kid.com for all of you who did not get to attend.  So look out for that sometime this summer.

The last class I sat in on today was freaking awesome to say the least.  Marcello Sgambelluri, or "the elephant man" according to Jim Balding, demonstrated the possible workflow of Revit to 3D Max to the CryEngine 3 game engine.  All I kept thinking about is how I cannot wait to throw my masters thesis building into CryEngine and blow it up with some grenades...  Yeah... It is that cool.  I am sure I will be talking more about this considering the amount of real time visualization software I have been exploring lately...(I already bought the book...)

Looking forward to some cool lectures tomorrow about adaptive components and extending my BIM models to shop/fabrication.  

Until then I will leave you with one Pro and one Con of today:

• Con:  The Internet is absolutely atrocious.
  
• Pro:  This awesome creation we had for breakfast...
  

 

Day 1 & 2 : Revit Technology Conference 2012 - #RTCUSA

I am here in Stone Mountain, Georgia and so far it is a blast. Yesterday was mostly traveling followed by watching the soccer game. The night ended with a Speaker and Sponsor event loaded with alcohol and appetizers.

Since 9:00 this morning I have been sitting in labs and lectures that have been very informative. The first lab was by Brian Mackey and ran through some nifty tips and tricks within a Navisworks. The more I become exposed to and use Navisworks the more I believe that every Revit users should now at least the basics of Navisworks.

Currently, I am listening to John Tocci, Jr. (@jtocci2) of Gilbane. All I can say is that every Principal and Partner of design firms should be in this lecture. It is all the stuff us BIM-evangelists have been saying for years but said by a contractor... John opened up with the crazy idea that we create a 3D virtual model, make 2D documents out of it, print them on hundreds of sheets of paper and stamp them with liquid stamps, and then try to build the building again in 3D (reality)!?

Anyways... Tonight is another social function with more alcohol. I'm hoping to get back to the room early and run through the material for my lab tomorrow.

Don't forget to follow my adventures he on Twitter @TheRevitKid and follow the event at #RTCUSA

RTC North America 2012 - Tomorrow!

I will be getting up bright and early tomorrow morning and heading to Atlanta for the Revit Technology Conference. For those of you going, I look forward to meeting you!  For those of you not attending, make sure to keep an eye on the blog here and also to follow me on Twitter @TheRevitKid .  I will be trying to post as much as possible on both sites.

Also, don't forget to sign up via email to the blog in case you always forget to check the site itself (sign up next to the red arrow to the right ----->>>>>>)

Four days of Revit discussion, labs, complaints, and brilliance!  Looking forward to it!