Topography Links and Using Tag by Category Makes Revit Angry

This one is subtle, like so many Reviteristics.

A team is testing the Revit to Civil 3D relationship via BIM 360 and Autodesk Desktop Connector. I don't think there are enough moving parts for this equation but I digress. A user reported that Tag by Category (TbC) causes Revit to crash.

We narrowed it down to linked Topography. If any exists then TbC gets dicey. Here's what we know so far:

• Topography link Not Loaded status > Topography category visible in active view > TbC crash
• Topography link Loaded status > Topography category NOT visible in active view > TbC NO crash
• Topography link Loaded status > Topography category visible in active view > TbC NO crash

The team's project has two different linked topography sources so there are two of them in the Manage Links dialog. I haven't tried with just one present yet.

I'd be curious to see if anyone else can corroborate our situation. I've submitted crash reports (several/many) as I worked on this so perhaps Autodesk will find some lurking evil to contend with in the meantime.

Happy troubleshooting...

Autodesk Installation and Updates Exercise Survey

Autodesk staff are reviewing the terms that are used for software installation and applying updates. They are looking for our help by performing a set of exercises that should take less than 15 minutes to complete. Your responses will help them organize and more clearly describe things that are delivered as part of the installation or update process.

Would you like to help? START HERE

Autodesk Insight 360 Survey

I have no idea how many readers of this blog are active users of this product. Just in case...

The Autodesk Insight 360 team has put together an industry marketing survey. The survey itself is HERE and THEIR BLOG POST provides more information.

What's in it for you? Take the survey, enter your email address and you’ll be entered to win one of ten (10) $50 Amazon gift cards. The survey closes on the 31st of May.

If this product is part of how you do your work take the survey now so you don't forget. If it isn't then consider taking the survey anyway; offer up your insight regarding why you don't use it now (see what I did there?).

Revit Version and Build History

Philip and Luke both mentioned this on their blogs so I'm just echoing their mentions of this recent development. Autodesk put together a list of versions and builds going back to Revit 2012.

It's important to keep everyone that works on the same Revit project(s) on the same version/build, perhaps this will help?

It was fun discussing (while talking to a friend on the phone) the version/build/service pack/update naming yesterday, he'd missed the recent Update Release 1 for 2016 R2...damn it gets confusing.

That Time of Year Again - Revit 2016

The media embargo has been lifted for Revit 2016 so we're beginning to see some information surface on blogs and other sites. Fwiw, people involved with activities that carry an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) aren't permitted to discuss things they are aware of until their particular agreements are lifted. Naturally Autodesk would like to manage what is being said about their products when they release new versions, or at least be the first to start the conversation. The internet increasingly makes this impossible.

Dan Stine wrote a nice article describing the rendering changes we'll find in 2016. It will seem a little like deja vu all over again if you remember the transition from Accurender to Mental Ray. Read Dan's article, he explains it all quite well.

Luke has been sharing links to download different versions of Revit 2016 (and other Autodesk products). I'm refraining from doing so until I'm free to do so. In general Revit, on its own, gets released a bit earlier than the versions that are considered part of the Building Design Suite. I'm waiting for the latter personally.

Jeffrey (aka The Revit Kid) wrote a post earlier today about this subject too.

If you visit Autodesk's Revit pages you'll find new information is trickling in. For example there are some new Feature descriptions HERE now. Here's the Revit 2016 versus Revit 2016 LT COMPARISON. No such thing as LT for MEP users still, sorry...you're not considered light-beer drinkers.

This is also the time of year when the wailing and gnashing of teeth begins with renewed vigor. I think Autodesk manages to stub their toe each year by not adequately preparing their customers for their longer term plans and goals. Seth Godin weighed in on Hope and Expectation with his timely thoughts. Maybe it isn't possible to do that with as many customers as they have, or their frequently stated restrictions on forward-looking disclosures made by publicly traded companies? Seems to me they could do better.

As such this means each year we manage to build up hope that this year will be more awesome than the last (or the skeptic thinks less awesome). For example if we think that Revit 2016 is going to be transcendent then consider (it's my understanding) that, if you've got an active subscription and installed 2015 R2 already, you've already seen a percentage of 2016 features. The 2015 R2 is/was an early release of features slated for 2016, released early for subscription customers only.

Less surprise for you...because you're already on the inside track...

Based on what is published on their site so far, the big push with 2016 is:

A360 Collaboration for Revit (aka C4R)
Performance (more fasterer Reviting)
IFC Interoperability
Dynamo Integration
Fabrication and MEP
Structural Analysis and Modeling
Site Designer (part of R2 release only, now formally released to all 2016)
Online Analysis Feature Enhancment/Improvements
View and Tools enhancments (Reveal Constraints, Perspective View editing, PDF Exporting)

I have been quite pleased with the significantly improved performance experience with the 2015 release all year. I found myself resenting any work that required 2014 (or worse...earlier releases) very quickly. If 2016 stands on 2015's shoulders the way I've been hearing it does, then I'll be really happy to use 2016 too, right away.

Also keep in mind that, if Autodesk keeps to their timeline, next year, around this time, it will cease offering what they call Perpetual Licenses. They'll honor existing contracts/subscriptions but all new purchases will either be what they are calling Desktop Subscriptions or Cloud Service Subscriptions. Check out their BUY page for details.

I'm looking forward to getting to work with 2016.

Autodesk 360 Rendering Competition

Nisha with Autodesk wrote to let me know that they've opened a rendering competition, beginning today, to help demonstrate the usefulness of rendering via Autodesk 360. What can you win? They will select three winners and those three will feature exclusively in their Autodesk® 360 newsletter, worldwide distribution, as well as receive prizes like an iPad, a $500 gift card and more!

• When: Oct 21 – Nov 15 2013
• Where: Autodesk 360 Rendering Competition Site
• Who: Anyone, student, rendering artist, designer or small business professional

Here’s your chance to show Autodesk your talent and do what you love doing from now until November 15th, 2013.

Interested? Follow these instructions:

• Create a still image rendering of anything you like: a building model, residential interior or object design.
• Visit Rendering in Autodesk® 360 and sign in to your Autodesk® 360 account.
• Upload your design from Autodesk® AutoCAD®, Autodesk® Revit® or Autodesk® Fusion 360.
• The final render must be done in Autodesk® 360 to qualify.
• Upload up to 5 images at once to enter here: Autodesk 360 Rendering Competition Site

New for 2014 - Autodesk Presentation

Autodesk will host a presentation tomorrow at 11 AM (EST) via the web. If you'd like to see and hear what they is on offer for 2014 Revit products check it out. Once that's over I expect the blogging and tweeting will begin in earnest.

Autodesk's Thirtieth Birthday

Shaan Hurley posts about Autodesk's latest milestone...time flies. I stole this picture from his post...founders "floating" in air.

Happy Birthday Autodesker's, don't eat too much cake!

Media Day at Autodesk - Day One

I am attending this event today and tomorrow. We've been tweeting away like madmen and women...well some of us. We seem to have "killed" Twitter for the moment.

Autodesk Graphics Hardware Site

The Revit Clinic shared a link to Without a Net which has a post about a new site dedicated to help customers find graphics card/driver information.

http://www.autodesk.com/graphics-hardware

I tried it and guess what... "no information found". Oh well...that's the story of my graphics card life! ;) Revit also tells me my current driver is "too new", so that's good right? It's either "too old" or "too new". Is there a "just right" message??

Autodesk and Computational Fluid Dynamics

Read today that Autodesk intends to purchase Blue Ridge Numerics. Then BIM Apps posted some more information about it with a link to their site that offers some videos that describe a Revit plug-in.

One of the topics that came up during presentations at the BIMForum last week was, "When will BIM move/transition to simulation, not just modeling/building virtually but testing/validating a design by simulating conditions. So this is interesting timing. I've also traded emails with a couple people with Blue Ridge Numerics in conjunction with the upcoming Revit Technology Conference in Australia and the USA this year. Looks like our future conversations might change a little?

The Autodesk press release includes this
...snip
“Simulation represents a significant growth area for Autodesk, and we are focused on strengthening our portfolio in this area both organically and through acquisitions,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president of the Manufacturing Industry Group at Autodesk. “The acquisition of Blue Ridge Numerics will add important new simulation capabilities to virtually test and predict how a product or building design will work, allowing our customers to compete more effectively at every step of the design process.”

“Since 1992, Blue Ridge Numerics’ comprehensive CFD tools have helped engineers improve quality, accelerate time-to-market and drive profitability,” said Ed Williams, president and co-founder of Blue Ridge Numerics. “Autodesk is a valued business partner, and the combination of both companies’ proven Digital Prototyping technologies will help customers worldwide tackle complex engineering challenges and ultimately be more successful with their designs.”
...snip

You can watch some videos at the Blue Ridge Numerics site.

Autodesk Research

The beauty of an RSS feed is that new stuff gets added to a pile and I can sift the pile really fast instead of traveling to each and every blog I'm aware of. The time it takes just waiting for web pages to load even in this day and age of fairly ubiquitous and fast access would add up to serious time. I use Google's Reader, maybe not the best but it works for me either on the notebook PC or my phone. It isn't as rich an experience as actually visiting the blog itself but if there is some meat in a feed then it's a simple matter to go there for more.

Aaron at D|C|CADD's BLOG posted a bit about Project Dasher, an Autodesk Research project they are sharing some information and videos for now on their site. I heard about Dasher during a marketing session I attended on Monday at Autodesk University. It was pretty cool looking but the discussion was fairly brief so it slipped my mind since.

Here's their description for Project Dasher:
...snip
Project Dasher is a web-based application that helps to augment existing Autodesk® Revit® design models with real-time building submeter and sensor data on electricity and occupancy. Using meter and sensor data, Autodesk Project Dasher aims to demonstrate the value of integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) and building instrumentation to provide building owners more insight into how existing buildings perform in real time and throughout the lifecycle of the building.
...snip

Here's what their site has to say about what Autodesk Research is:

...snip
Autodesk is working to help solve some of the world's most complex design problems, from pressing ecological challenges to the development of scalable smart infrastructure. Designers use Autodesk tools to not only create plans for buildings, for example, but also to simulate their impact on the environment and track their performance over time.

Autodesk Research is unique in that we are dedicated to innovation and discovery in this realm. Our interests range from methods to help users learn powerful digital prototyping tools, to visualization and simulation techniques which enable designers to achieve new levels of performance. Advancing the state of the art in human-computer interaction, computer graphics, and digital design technology, we collaborate openly with researchers at leading universities around the world.
...snip

My first thought after reading this was how does this connect to Autodesk Labs? It doesn't appear to literally connect and I didn't see any mention of a connection but I suspect Labs can get involved once research moves beyond academic research and can become a product focused concept? Enough conjecture on my part.

You can watch a Project Dasher VIDEO. I didn't see a way to embed it here because it isn't hosted at You Tube. There is a second VIDEO which is an interview titled "Extending BIM to Real-Time Energy Performance Monitoring".

Dept. of Off Topic - Hotel Thoughts

I caught a red eye flight from LAX on United courtesy of Autodesk Saturday night so that I can attend "Blogger Day" at the Trapelo Road office, near Boston. A webcast for bloggers starts up at 12:30 PM EST Monday, September 27th so hopefully you'll be hearing quite a bit about the substance of the event from bloggers during and shortly thereafter.

I've been joined here (so far) at Aloft (A Vision of W Hotels) in Lexington by Robert and Krista Manna, David Light, David Baldacchino and David Harrington. What is it about the name David and blogging about Revit?? I also learned too late that Jeffery Pinheiro (The Revit Kid) is also attending and we didn't know to look for him while hanging out at the WXYZ Lounge tonight.

There is evidence in the picture above that HVAC engineers do use flat oval duct! Nice that 2011 provides for such ducts!

I wrote about my visit to Aloft the last time I was here. This time I was pleased to see that a couple of the things that I found curious were not still curious. For example I found that there was an outlet available for my phone charger this time. The roller shades both fit in their tracks properly and extend to the base of the window sill.

The entrance slider doors haven't changed (not too surprised though) and I took a picture of David Baldacchino rushing out of the building in an emergency and running into the fixed panel of the second slider.

Well, off to bed to dream about new features for Revit! Be sure to check your news reader at lunch and after, Twitter too!

New Autodesk Revit Blog - Family Jewels - Revit Content

Autodesk staff members have started a new blog with content as its focus - called Family Jewels.

As long as Gene Simmons doesn't go after them they should be fine. Authors, William Spier, Ian McGaw, Martin J. Schmid and Jason A. Spleha are teaming up to contribute to the blog. Their first post appeared, according to the archive, on April 26, 2010. Might want to add it to your reading list?!?

Accountability - A Strategy a Customer Could Love?

Read a blog post on this site today that Seth Godin provided on his blog.

There are numerous comments in various user groups, forums and newgroups suggesting that Autodesk could be more transparent, communicate better with it users/customers. The story goes that a publicly traded company must be very careful how it shares future leading communication(s). If done incorrectly it can affect that companies ability to collect and claim revenue earnings. I don't pretend to understand the subtleties of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Regardless every customer would appreciate greater insight into what we can expect from future versions of the software we rely on so heavily.

The concept is similar to the the "Take your child to Work Day" where Autodesk would bring a client(s) to their office and let them shadow someone around the office for a day. This would give that customer greater insight into what it takes to make software or whatever sort of person the customer wants to shadow.

The question is would Autodesk do it? Would customers want to? How many customers would get to? Is this something that Autodesk could pull off at Autodesk University in the form of video documentary and worksessions?

Autodesk Revit Building Customer Council

Autodesk has established a new way to communicate with them regarding the development of Revit. Similar to the approach taken for Autodesk Architectural Desktop in the recent past Autodesk has partnered with Walker Inc (Marketing Firm)to create the Autodesk Revit Building Customer Council.

By joining you are expressing a willingness to take part in surveys sent out to members once a month to help guide the development of Revit. If interested be sure to read through the various links that explain how it works and what to expect. If you are still interested, then join!! Then vote and vote often!