News at 9:48

!!BIMBLAM!!

A secret meeting has taken place in “Diver’s Paradise”!!. Bonaire, a little island in the Dutch Caribbean best known for its diving opportunities, was the host for this clandestine gathering. A group of executives were observed on a catamaran, in the sea Northwest of the island, near a favorite diver’s location known as Boca Bartol. Two members of this group were immediately recognized as top executives from Autodesk and Bentley Systems.

Later, in the evening, this group was observed in the Blue Moon Waterfront Restaurant, a local favorite featuring French and International cuisine. It was here that the purpose of this gathering was discovered.

Chief executives of Autodesk, Bentley, Graphisoft, @Last Software and Dassault are planning to create a super application, code named BIMBLAM. This application will combine all the power and knowledge of these corporations into the killer app the building industry is seeking. No explanation for the acronym BIMBLAM was mentioned.

BIMBLAM thank ya' man! What a discovery!

Representatives from each organization later denied that the meeting took place when asked and further, declined to comment on BIMBLAM, claiming that this story is preposterous. A representative of Nemetschek, from whom no one was seen at the meeting, said that a meeting such as this could not have taken place without their knowledge.

About the Author: Freddy Latherdon is a 54 year old writer who has the uncanny nack for being in the right place at the right time for a story. This time, diving with old drinking buddies from his days with the CIA placed him in the water just 10 yards from the catamaran in question. Clever sleuthing led him to the elusive meeting at the Blue Moon. Nearly discovered evesdropping when his false teeth fell into his wine, we continue to be amazed at his ability to get the story!

(ummm, yes you guessed it!...any resemblance to people, places or things, real or imagined is entirely coincidental!!)

(Credit to Billy Grey, fellow Revit user for the term Bim- Blam which served as subtle inspiration for this bit of fiction)

Astroturfing Discussed

Richard Binning discusses an internet blight in his blog recently. Don't let "Astroturfing" get you!

http://www.integr-8.com/besidethecursor/2005/04/astro-turfing-and-other-boorish.html

News at 9:48

Bentley Gets Bent!

Keith Bentley is mad, he's livid! Inside sources at Bentley headquarters in Easter, PA say that after reading the recent story of President Bush's endorsement of Autodesk Revit, he threw the paper out of his office window and stormed down to sales. He reportedly returned to his office still visibly perturbed and slammed his office door. He didn't re-emerge until late in the evening. Rumor has it he may be plotting to buy out Autodesk to squash that young upstart software.

You heard it here first!

About the Author: Freddy Latherdon recently moved to Easter, PA to get into the center of the cadd industry and we see it has already paid dividends. He sold his ex-wife's French poodle to the neighbors for an undisclosed sum. He hasn't told his ex...we wouldn't either... His ex-con butler, Belvedere, says Freddy can often be heard yelling at the phone, "Facts?!? Facts!?! You want facts? Fine!...I'll send you a facts! What's your facts number?"

(yup...nonsense too...you're pretty quick for somebody who browses the internets all day)

When Things Go Wrong...

Working with Autodesk Revit families can be confusing sometimes. Here are a few things that go wrong:

Profile does not contain a closed sketch: A profile family has to be a complete loop. If it sure looks like a complete loop, did you copy and paste sketch lines from another profile? Revit fails to acknowledge lines when you do. You'll need to create new linework over the "bad".

I picked the wrong category for my family: Pick the right one, it's not too late. Open your family, choose the Settings menu and then choose Family Categories and Types. Now choose the category you really wanted. Want an interesting trick? Build a non-hosted generic model family and switch it to the door category. You now have a door that won't require a host to place it. This is good for gates in railings.

Stuff doesn't stay put: You need to get friendly with ALIGN and LOCK. Not to mention their friend LOCKED DIMENSIONS. Also be vigilant about the current workplane.

Revit Wants to Delete Types: Several causes...

• Empty Values - You've left a parameter with a value of zero causing geometry to "not exist".
• A Bad Host - The host in the family isn't big enough to host the size of the family you are inserting or... not thick enough.
• A Formula is missing pieces - If you renamed a paramter in the family, Revit deletes the parameter from the formula. You need to recreate the formula entirely. OUCH! (FIXED in 8.1, now it renames the parameter in the formulas too)
• Values Just Don't Work -
  There is a value that makes the family break. Most often one value in a family that has several types has a value that is wrong, similar to the Empty Value above.

Unit Conversions go Haywire: Revit insists that formulas are using the same unit types within math operations. So you often have to consider how to convert one unit type to another. There are a couple handy cheat sheets at AUGI. (I'll track them down)

Can't Label my Dimension: You've got a dimension. You've got a parameter. Revit won't let you assign the parameter to the dimension. Most likely you have a value in the parameter that is different than the dimension value. Change the geometry so the dimension matches the parameter value or change the parameter to zero. Revit will let the dimension define the parameter value if it is set to zero.

Revit Complains That There Is Nothing To Show in the View: If you create a family that doesn't have solid geometry or Model/Symbolic lines visible in a plan view and you try to put this family in a project you'll get an error telling you that there isn't anything to see. Make sure you put something that is visible in the view you intend to place the object from.

That's enough for now...anything else I should include? Let me know!

News at 9:48

To follow up the great news story yesterday, thanks to a fortuitous turn of events, this author has discovered an image of President Bush's new home.

Part of the proposed new house that we wrote of yesterday, the image below depicts the proposed "loo", according to an architect with Lahng Phunni Nayme and Howe, LLC. Fearing reprisals for letting this image loose in the public domain, he anonymously made this post using the moniker, "SkiSouth" and claims to live in the "Great State of Confusion", which we all know to be Texas of course!


Exclusive Image of GWB's Loo Property of SkiSouth

About the Author: Freddy Latherdon shares a studio efficiency in Connecticut with his ex-wife's French poodle, Yentle. He likes to say, "There isn't a story that couldn't use a little distortion to make it more interesting".

(Again, nonsense, un-adulterated nonsense, our sincere and humble apologies to the good people of the Great State's of Texas and Confusion. Freddy asks that we quote him on his position on this claim, "I am insulted that you would call me a dulterater." I've never dulterated anything before, and I'm not sure what a dulterater is!)

News @ 9:48

Revit! President chooses design Software

At a recent gathering of dignitaries, President Bush was overheard discussing the new home he intends to build when his term in office ends. He spoke eloquently about the architect (Lahng, Phunni, Nayme and Howe, LLC) he hired, praising their great attitude, professionalism and use of cutting edge technology.

Then he mentioned the newest hot architectural software program, Autodesk Revit. He said, “This new Revit software is the “bees knees”, you’ve just got to see it in action!”. Then he called to his wife to join the small group and asked her to tell them what she thought when she saw the presentation. The President’s wife said, “I have to be honest, I was completely uninterested in what I thought I would see”. She continued, “Then the architect took me through my new home room by room, I was stunned”, adding “This Revit is going to change things!”

Change indeed! This is Freddy saying Overanout!

About the Author, Freddy Latherdon: Freddy is a distinguished writer and has written pieces for many notable publications. When asked recently about his long streak of ground breaking stories he replied, “I try not to let truth, facts or reality interfere with getting my story done”. That sums up what makes him a great reporter and we are pleased to share his work with our readers!

(Please note...this article is complete and utter nonsense, just in case you didn't figure that out earlier...)