Web Update for Revit 2011 Posted Tonight

Firing up Revit tonight I received a communication center message that there is an update posted (at 12:01 AM on 6/21/01). I clicked the Update Now button and then fired up Google Reader to catch up with some blogs and Luke posted a note about it tonight as well.

Funny but I was just asking a friend earlier today if he'd heard anything about a new build and tonight there is one!

Revit Architecture 2011 Update (64bit)
Revit Architecture 2011 Update (32bit)

I imagine that there are equivalent updates for Revit Structure and Revit MEP Update but it's late and I'll have to check in the morning. The regular Update website pages for all three haven't been updated yet though. Looks like the communication center is "the way" to get them at the moment.

Edit: Definitely one for RME...tomorrow morning... must sleep!

Revit and FOUS

I wrote a post back on February 1st, 2010 about the Two-Mile-Limit imposed on importing CAD files. I referred to these files as FOUS or Files of Unusual Size paying homage to the movie, "The Princess Bride". It has been mentioned quite a bit already but I wanted to update my own blog to reflect the latest development with the release of 2011.

The limit is now 20 miles, though you can still import the file. A warning is generated but the file will still be permitted, unlike before. You can read the blog post at The Revit Clinic called, "Revit 2011 2 Mile Limit Now 20 Mile Limit".

Revit MEP Now?

In the past I've found that a fair number of engineers considering Revit MEP were able to dismiss it fairly quickly for a several reasons, such as; no conduit, no cable tray, no flat oval duct, panel schedule inflexibility and overly simplistic demand factor concept. That is a fairly long list of things that a given HVAC designer or electrical designer could consider a deal breaker.

I think that the Revit MEP 2011 release represents a tipping point. Enough of the easy obstacles have been removed such that you can't dismiss it as easily. Sure you can still avoid it, dismiss it, disregard or marginalize the software and keep on doing what you've been doing even with the new features they've added. Doing so now though just appears less objective as much as subjective.

In past posts at AUGI, maybe even here, I've commented that Revit MEP is still youthful even though Revit just quietly celebrated its 10th birthday on April 5th. When Revit 5.0 came out I think it reached its own tipping point with architects. Prior to that it was still too strange and weird to go for it. The very idea that someone actually used earlier versions to do real work is nearly shocking to some. I know at least five people, off the top, that used release 1.0 to do jobs. Wow! Nutty eh? Not many considering but still, brave doing real projects with the very first release!

Well for comparison sake Revit MEP is at that same point, counting up the releases since the first one in 2006, the 2011 release is number 6. You can review the Revit Timeline hosted at AUGI but here's the sequence: Revit Systems 1, 2, Revit MEP 2008, 2009, 2010 and now 2011. The first release was in April 2006 (four years ago). Revit 5.0 was the ninth release but only two years young (excluding 1999 before the public release) at the time.

It has taken a little longer to get here with Revit MEP but architecture is just "one" discipline, Revit MEP is focused on three, four if you count Fire Protection as separate. Is it perfect, no. I think for MEP users this is an exceptionally strong release. We'll always want and find more to ask of it but I think we've reached that tipping point where the excuses to pass on it till later are just that now, excuses.

To steal a song lyric/title from Pablo Cruise - "Whatcha Gonna do"?

To focus on one of the new features that knock off an excuse, you can check out this Autodesk video narrated by Armundo Darling - Panel Schedule features.

Revit 2011 - Get Your Software There

If you are a subscription customer and have access to download software and updates from the site then you should find Revit Architecture 2011 is now available for download. Good luck though, the subscription site is down at the moment offering a nice message that it is temporarily unavailable. Something about +2gb downloads simultaneously?

Added: You may not be able to authorize the software until you get product serial number and product code in the email from Autodesk. You'll have a 30 day window to get it authorized so hopefully the licensing information will be forthcoming reasonably quickly.

RAC 2011- Cannon Design and Yazdani Studio

You'll get to see a lot of this project for the next twelve months or so when you fire up Revit.

It is the Ordos Concert Hall in Ordos, Mongolia. It was designed by the Yazdani Studio in Los Angeles. From the Cannon site:

The Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design is a laboratory for exploration and excellence in architecture. Established upon the reputation and leadership of award-winning designer Mehrdad Yazdani, the Yazdani Studio integrates the best attributes of a design studio with the resources and reach of an international practice.

I took the picture above during my visit to the Autodesk office in Waltham last week. It's a 3D print of a cut-away view of the model, if it isn't obvious enough. I couldn't create a link to the description of the project the way the Yazdani Studio has their site configured so here's a screen capture of the information.

I suppose they could take exception to using the image this way but hopefully they won't mind. If they do I'll just end up pulling it. Heres a sneak peak of the new splash screen.

We should see some more images of the concert hall project during the installation, looking forward to it!

Dept. of Subtle - 2011 Feature

One item that won't get a lot of press time:

• Default view naming when using worksharing has changed so that each user gets their own default 3D view. The username is appended to the 3D view name.

Autodesk Blogger Day - Revit 2011

Wow I've got so much to write about! I'm sorry I should have written I COULD have had so much to write about. This morning has been a comedy of errors. First I realized that I deleted my invitation last night when my email provider decided to dump 80 messages on me again along with some I haven't seen. I inadvertently deleted several I shouldn't have and then immediately emptied the the "trash"...gone, poof...see ya...

Today is my daughter's birthday and I took some snacks to school and had some fun. All the while thinking that I had several hours until the meeting took place. I could just send an email and get it all sorted out, no problem. Except when I finally got back to my computer to deal with it I realized that the meeting just ended!! Eastern Standard time is a "bugger" when you live on the "left" coast!!

Suffice it to say I missed the event again. Last year I was working with a client and this year I set aside the date for my daughter's birthday (and sneaking in a Revit Blogger Day). Sigh... I did attend the South Coast Revit User Group meeting last night and got to see Scott Davis present information for all three versions so I can still write something, just not about the blogger day event. A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) reduces me to Sergeant Shultz unfortunately.

Autodesk AEC Marketing - Revit 2011 Customer Examples

I was contacted by Kyle Herring, he is a Solutions Marketing Manager with Autodesk. They have recently initiated a search for customer data sets that can be used to create marketing materials to support the 2011 release of Revit platform. He wanted to assure me, and you, that "we’re not selling anything here, we simply see this as a great opportunity for Revit users to display the work that they do to a large audience in the AEC community."

If you and your firm are interested in being part of this effort you can contact Kyle directly via EMAIL.