New Book - Delivering COBie Using Autodesk Revit

A team of authors led by Bill East (COBie inventor) has finished a book dedicated to COBie and Revit. His team consists of: Shawn O'Keeffe, Richard Kenna and Emma Hooper.

Bill writes:

"This is the first comprehensive COBie How-To Guide! We explain the implications of COBie requirements on your professional standard-of-care. Next, we describe the architectural and engineering design best-practices we adopted to help us capture COBie as part of our standard design process. We show you how to unlock the power of the Revit COBie Extension and Classification Manager Add-Ins to automate COBie file production details. And we show you how to share your new found knowledge with your team, company, and stakeholders."

David Philp, Global BIM Director, AECOM reviewed the book and had this to say:

"This book offers a comprehensive and real-world insight to the COBie value proposition but most importantly it demonstrates HOW this can be practically achieved. This book is an essential read for anyone that is interested in effectively capturing and using project information. If you want to better understand how to deliver COBie from a Revit environment then this book is a must.”

David Light, Autodesk Senior Customer Success Manager also reviewed the book and said this:

"Finally, the AEC industry and the Revit user has an unparalleled guide for helping you understand, as well as deliver COBie from Autodesk Revit!

Delivering COBie should not be scary, as noted, the guidance provided in “Delivering COBie Using Autodesk Revit'” is designed to help AEC industry deliver COBie on any building, as easily as possible.

East and the authoring team provide a detailed history of COBie, so you understand the background of why COBie? It helps demystify some urban myths around COBie, allowing you to better understand the value of this industry standard digital exchange format. The book runs through best practice tips for model development, model configuration and data preparation for Autodesk Revit.

The guide leads the user onto the configuration of the free Classification Manager and the COBie Extension. Lastly, 'Delivering COBie Using Autodesk Revit' teaches the reader how to apply various concepts on a Dormitory Project example, through shared best practice from recognized industry experts, explaining how to prepare the Revit model for repeatable COBie deliverables."

The authors of “Delivering COBie Using Autodesk Revit,” Dr. Bill East, Dr. Shawn O’Keeffe, Richard Kenna, and Emma Hooper look forward to showing you how to make COBie an integral part of the standard design process for yourself and your team, company, and stakeholders. The pre-release spiral-bound “workbook edition” is now available for individual Revit users. The version for purchase by libraries, institutes, and companies available 15-Sep-17.

You can Order your Copy HERE.

New Command Reference Book for Revit Architecture - Daniel Stine and Jeff Hanson

Daniel Stine and Jeff Hanson have teamed up to create a new book called Autodesk Revit 2017 Architectural Command Reference book. The inclusion of the term architectural in the book title means it does not delve into the Systems ribbon tab commands.

It has 13 chapters: Introduction, Application Menu and User Interface, Architecture Tab, Structure Tab, Insert Tab, Annotate Tab, Analyze Tab, Massing and Site Tab
Collaborate Tab, View Tab, Manage Tab, Modify Tab and Contextual Tab.

You probably already know Daniel from his pretty extensive Revit collection of books. You already know Jeff too assuming you've read any of the help documentation or watched the training videos Autodesk provides online. That's been his focus for many years now working for Autodesk.

SDC Publications, their publisher, offers the book via eBooks using Apple iBooks ($39.99), Google Play Books ($42.40) or RedShelf ($49.47). It is available in hard copy via Amazon USA print on demand ($84 on Amazon) or Amazon International options. They also offer training videos, via separate download, for those who purchase the book. The prices are those that I saw at the time when I followed the various link options for purchasing. Fwiw, the Redshelf link took quite awhile to load at first, subsequent tries loaded faster, though the fact that I've never visited their site before might be why.

An aside, I've warned Daniel that Jim Balding (The ANT Group) has long been suggesting to me, at least since 2003, just this sort of book ought to be written. He'll either be happy it exists now or sad that they've beaten him to it.

Congrats to Daniel for yet another book and to Jeff for his contributions as co-author. Starting a book is easy...finishing it and getting it published is no small thing.

Dept. of Subtle - V/Gs or V/G?

Maybe this is something that only freaks out someone trying to write about something. Is it Visibility/Graphics or Visibility/Graphic?

I'm used to seeing and writing Visibility/Graphics but the dialog actually says Visibility/Graphic, no "s". The Properties palette uses the "s" however.

The review of one of my chapters for the 2012 version of Introducing Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 flagged it as a question about consistency. I opted to go with the dialog "s-less" version. I hope it doesn't make anyone mad! :)

Stay tuned, we'll let you know when the book is finished and ready to ship! Here's the new cover, recently shared by Pat Davis on the Tampa Bay Revit User's Group blog.

Dept. of Events - New Books at BUGIE Next Week

I will be making two copies of the new book available for the BIM User Group of Inland Empire (BUGIE) meeting next week, October 26, 2010.

Just as I did for LARUG and SCRUG, I'm suggesting that the two newest Revit users get them since it is an Introduction to Revit book. I'll leave it up to Brian to sort out the details.

Dept. of Events - New Books at SCRUG Next Week

I will be making two copies of the new book available for the South Coast Revit User Group (SCRUG) meeting next week, October 28, 2010.

Just as I did for LARUG, I'm suggesting that the two newest Revit users get them since it is an Introduction to Revit book. I'll leave it up to Jay and Miguel to sort out the details.

Dept. of Events - New Books at LARUG Tonight

As if an evening talking about Revit stuff isn't enough to get people to go to a Revit user group meeting I've got two copies of our new book waiting for a new owner. I'm heading off to drop them off with Jay Zallan (co-leader of LARUG with Tom Weir) so he can give them away.

I'm suggesting that the two newest Revit users get them since it is an Introduction to Revit book. I'll leave it up to Jay to sort out the details. Unfortunately I can't attend myself because of needing to be in several places at once.

Mastering Revit - In the Wild

The authors of Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 recently invited people who have the book to participate in a humorous exchange of placing the book in a setting to capture it in-the-wild. I visited the South Coast Revit User Group last evening and posed the book next to a scale model and the beverage it chose for me.

The group's venue is the Irvine office of LPA. They provide the venue for three user groups, one for each version of Revit. Very generous of them and every group needs a benefactor like them.

Vanessa with DPR talked about how the firm is using BIM and Jason Dodds presented Autodesk's Quantity Takeoff product. An interesting evening, everything a user group should be!

New Book - Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011

Today I received a review copy courtesy of Eddy Krygiel. No I didn't read the entire book already. That would require taking a speed reading course first. It is a really FAT book, as a few other blog posts have demonstrated already. In addition to the foundation of twenty chapters (833 pages) it includes seven chapters (243 pages) above and beyond Revit feature focused subjects. Without these extra chapters the book would have been substantial, these additional chapters up the ante considerably.

This book is the update to the previous editions written by Eddy, Tatjana Dzambazova and Greg Demchak. For this edition Eddy teamed up with Phil Read and James Vandezande for a complete overhaul.

The additional featured chapters are:

Chapter 21: Revit in Construction
by Laura Handler from Tocci Building Corp.
Josh Lowe and Mike Whaley, Findorff & Sons.

Chapter 22: Revit in the Classroom
by Adam Thomas and Jereme Smith

Chapter 23: Revit and Virtualization
by Peter Streibig, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

Chapter 24: Under the Hood of Revit
by Don Rudder, HOK

Chapter 25: Direct to Fabrication
by Jeffrey McGrew, Because We Can, LLC

Chapter 26: Revit for Film and Stage
by Bryan Sutton, Camel Design

Chapter 27: Revit in the Cloud
by Chris France, Little

The authors have been blogging about the book for several months now, building expectations, and it certainly has delivered a pretty formidable source of information. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Books - Design Integration

Daniel Stine recently sent me a copy of his most recent book, Design Integration Using Autodesk Revit 2010. He has written other books such as Residential Design using Revit Architecture, Commercial Design using Revit Architecture and Chapter in Architectural Drawing. All of his work is aimed primarily at use in a classroom setting but can be useful regardless.

What makes his newest book unique is that it attempts to address all three versions of Revit within the context of the same building. That's a pretty big undertaking to squeeze into one course book. His foreword contains the following paragraph:

...snip...
This book was designed for the building design industry. all three "flavors" of the Revit platform are introduced in this textbook. This approach gives the reader a broad overview of the Building Information Modeling (BIM) process. The topics cover the design integration of most of the building disciplines: Architectural, Interior Design Structural, Mechanical, Plumbing and Electrical. Civil is not covered but adding topography to your model is.
...snip...

If you choose to become this book's student you'll develop a two story law office and it will take you through fifteen chapters (pages are not numbered in total but the book is pretty thick). A CD is included with additional information for creating Revit families as well as all the resource files required to complete exercises.

The book format is pretty large so there is a lot of room for information and supporting screen captures. I really haven't had time to dig into it deeply yet but the text is large, easy to read, the steps are plainly described, useful tips are provided throughout and the supporting graphics are large and full enough to understand what is intended.

Dan's publisher is Schroff Development Corporation if you are interested in following up this post for more information. Amazon lists the book at $69.95. If you are looking for another weapon in your arsenal of learning tools for Revit you should check it out.

Introducing Revit Architecture 2010 - BIM for Beginners

This book has been updated for 2010 and you can order it now.


If you look closely you'll my find my name listed at the bottom, "Foreword by Stephen Stafford". I was flattered when Tatjana asked if I would do it. I was excited to get my review copy just to see a little bit of "me" in print. Imagine my surprise...no foreword at all, not even in the Table of Contents. Deep sadness sets in...must find will to live...


In my role as editor for the AUGI|AEC EDGE eZine and doing technical editing for the Mastering Revit Structure 2010 book due out soon I'm becoming well aware of publishing trials and tribulations. Suffice it to say that there is no foreword for now. Now that you've decided not to rush out to buy, haha!...don't let that sway you! The book looks as good as ever and the authors remain top notch! You can also check out their other book Mastering Revit Architecture 2010. It is also available now.

[Addendum: February 3, 2010] I added a link to the sidebar at the right side of this blog if you want to read the foreword despite it being missing in the book.

[Addendum: March 27, 2010] A new run including the foreword is out now. A really nice review was posted on Mark Kiker's blog even before he knew that I had the slightest involvement with the book.

Mastering Revit Architecture 2008

I'm so late mentioning this!! Not only do I let my ex-publisher down by not finishing the book but I'm late mentioning that the authors who DID write and actually finish the book have FINISHED the book. It became available during this past November and I saw the book in person finally at Autodesk University 2007.

So as the title of this post implies the title is Mastering Revit Architecture 2008.

Authors Eddie Krygiel, Tatjana Dzambazova and Greg Demchak finished their first book (Introducing Revit Architecture 2008) just before I dropped out of the contract with Sybex. This meant they could jump right in and finish the book nearly on schedule. They were so pleased that I left them lots of time, not likely. In fact when I examined the book at AU I was very impressed by how much they were able to accomplish in such a short time, just AMAZING to me.

It was meant to be I think, they were originally going to write both books but Sybex approached me to try to get the second book sooner. The final result means some continuity between both books, common voice and position as well as style and knowledge.

Thanks to the "three muskateers" as I called them in my earlier post. Job well done!!!

P.S. A little trivia...according to my source the description "Mastering" was first used in conjunction with Autodesk software by Sybex, "Mastering AutoCAD" etc.

Not to mention the competition too loudly but you may be familiar with the other Revit "Mastering" book produced by Thompson/Delmar Learning and authored by Paul Aubin with Robert Mencarini? His book is titled "Mastering Autodesk Revit Building" and he is working on "Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture

Book Update

Back in December I wrote that I was writing a book and now I'm writing to say that I'm no longer writing that book. To those who thought, "Ha! He doesn't have time to do that!" You were correct! I'm grateful that it has been a banner year for me in my day job but because of that I was drifffffting further and further behind.

I apologize sincerely to anyone who was actually looking forward to the book. I think Bruce Gow and I had a good book in the works but regrettably I just couldn't hold up my end of the bargain. Unless the end of the decade was a reasonable time frame?

All is not lost however. As you may or may not know, Eddie Krygiel, Tatjana Dzambazova and Greg Demchak teamed up to write a book that is already available. Eddie works for a forward thinking Revit firm called BNIM. Tatjana and Greg are part of the Autodesk team dedicated to Revit. You can take a look at it on Amazon or at Wiley and it is available NOW.

When Wiley and I decided that I wasn't going to get'r done in a reasonable amount of time the "three muskateers" thankfully agreed to do it instead. They were flush from the recent euphoria of finishing the first and the timing was right. I'm only sorry that it didn't get worked out this way earlier so you could get your hands on the book sooner!

Take a look at the advance info on the book at Amazon or Wiley.

Looking back at this I think that this team was really meant to write these books all along for continuity of material, message and voice. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. Cheers and I wish the team a speedy writing phase and good luck and thanks for bailing me out!!

Write a Book…part deux

In my previous post regarding the book I left out two key pieces of information. First the book will be a comprehensive guide to using Revit. The title remains undefined at this time for a variety of reasons.

Second and most important, I am teaming up with my friend and Revit collegue, Bruce Gow. You may be more familiar with his moniker in the AUGI Revit forums, “BeeGee”. As a Revit trainer, consultant and practicing architect in Australia he will provide technical editing as well as be a contributing author. I'm enjoying working with him on this project.

As soon as Wiley/Sybex is able to prepare some preliminary information for posting at Amazon and on their own site it will be possible to pre-order the book.

There is another book underway now that is already listed on the Amazon site HERE or HERE that you might find interesting as well. Recognize the authors? These books are meant to compliment each other.

For those of you who have commented here and written to me, thank you for the kind words.

"You Should Write a Book"...

Hello and thank you for your patience!!! I've been so busy that this blog has taken a back seat unfortunately. So what has managed to distract me?

First of all I attended the Revit Technology Conference in Sydney Australia the last week of October. I presented two topics, Family Editor and Massing. The trip was too short but a lot of fun and my friend and host Wesley Benn never ceases to amaze me. More info on this event in a future post.

Second, Autodesk University which just wrapped up this past Friday. I presented three sessions as I mentioned in an earlier blog post. More on this in a future post or two.

Third and the point of this post...during the last few years I've been told, "Steve, you should write a book". The folks at Wiley/Sybex thought so too, so I signed on the dotted line. I'll post a link to the pre-order page at Amazon in the near future. I'll post about my progress and sorry, no promises about actual release date, ha ha, just like software!!