Tip - List of All Levels via Grid Generator Extension

This tip is courtesy of Daniel Stine, author of several Revit books (listed in previous post). If you are familiar with the Grid Generator extension for Revit you might have already seen this? If not...have a look!

This extension provides a nice summary of all the levels in your project AND their elevations. Also nice is that you don't really have to do anything, just launch the Grid Generator tool and then make sure the Levels option is selected.

It isn't always easy to see them all when some have been hidden or their extents are affecting what you see in sections and elevations. Thanks Daniel!

AUGIWorld

AUGI | AEC EDGE and AUGIWorld merged and David Harrington has taken the reigns as Editor-in-Chief to get things organized in the new monthly format.

AUGI is interested in hearing from you if you want to write for the eZine. David has organized a team of Content Managers to solicit authors/articles and then manage their submission to the eZine publishing team. If you'd like to write please contact the manager for the product you are focused on.

This is the list of the content managers as it stands now:

Notice there are a couple products still looking for a Content Manager, that could be YOU!

If you didn't read it in the earlier issue of AUGIWorld, I stepped away from the Editor-in-Chief role so I could focus on other things. I was getting stretched too thin and the merging of the eZines gave me the opportunity to "retire" that I really needed. I really appreciate David's willingness to step in so I could do it.

Dept. of Subtle - Illegal Characters

I'm not referring to characters in a play, novel or movie but the characters we use in filenames. Revit will complain if you attempt to use them to name a view, sort of.

If you create a drafting view and use something like "1/2:12" it won't complain. Try to rename it and you'll be in trouble with Revit. An odd quirky item to be sure.

In general you don't want (I think you don't) to use these characters for view names because they get used to export to dwg/ifc/pdf etc. These characters will create errors when Revit tries to create the file using them. Don't use them in your title block drawing titles either for the same reason. I decided to post this after reading a post at RevitForum asking if anyone else had noticed the subtle name>rename peculiarity.

Curiously...no such complaint when you do the same thing with Legend Views, hmmm.

Autodesk University 2011 - Call for Proposals is Open

Dept. of Echo - Autodesk University - stole their post entirely...

...snip
The 19th annual Autodesk University is coming up at the end of November, and if you’d like to teach a course, now is the time to submit your ideas. The high-quality classes and large number of knowledgeable instructors at AU are some of the best to be found anywhere—and this is your opportunity to distinguish yourself and share your expertise as an industry leader with like-minded professionals.

Submit Your Proposal Now

Proposal Deadline: May 6, 2011
For AU 2011, we are looking for proposals that address:

• Design leadership and advanced technology trends
• Workflow and process across multidiscipline project teams
• Techniques and processes that help BIM and CAD Managers improve efficiency
• Practical application of products for beginning and intermediate users
• Advanced product features
• New capabilities and features in the latest Autodesk products and design suites

To learn more about what we want and to get information on speaker benefits and deadlines, please visit the Call for Proposals website (http://autodesk.com/aucfp).

To see some of the classes and content offered at Autodesk University last year, visit the Autodesk University website. You'll find class handouts, datasets, and presentations, including screencasts of about 2000 sessions presented at recent AUs.
And don't forget—the deadline for proposals is May 6, 2011.

The Autodesk University Team
Email: autodeskuniversity@autodeskevents.com
...snip

Revit Structure User Group Meeting - April 6th at LPA

Avan Amalsad with Microdesk is keen to get the word out to every Revit Structure user as well as anyone interested in learning about the new features in Revit Structure 2012.

Date: April 6th, 2011 (Wednesday)
Time: 6:30 PM
Where: LPA - 5161 California Avenue, Suite 100 - Irvine, CA 92617

She writes:
I am honored that Autodesk Revit Structure Product Manager Wai Chu, and Autodesk Revit Platform Product Manager Richard Taylor will be doing a live webcast presentation for Revit 2012 Structure and Platform features. I will do some additional demonstrations using Revit Structure after the webcast. Don't miss this one-of-a-kind meeting.

If you haven't been getting invitations from Avan, EMAIL HER to let her know you want to come. RSVP is important so they get the right amount of food and beverage ordered!

Scale an Image

Responding to a post at RevitForum I created this brief video that shows how I used the Scale tool to change the size of a image file in Revit. The image in the video is based on a sketch that Cyril Verley used in his Revit training curriculum books for several years. I believe it is based on a Richard Meier building.

The video describes:

• Select the image
• Click the Scale tool (I keep calling it Resize, the old name)
• Click the Origin (or first "known" point)
• Click the Second Point (second "known" point)
• Provide the correct dimension for between the known points.
• Et Voila!

Revit User Group - Shout Out

I attended three Revit user group meetings this week, BUGIE (aka RUGIE), LARUG and SCRUG. Each was well attended in light of the new release information and Scott Davis, Autodesk Technical Specialist, doing the presentation. Each evening went longer than usual but Scott could run longer than usual talking about one feature! What can he do? He's passionate! So thanks to Scott for bring the "What's new in 2012" information to a local projection screen!

James Vandezande, part of the author team who brought you Mastering Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011, and 2012 next as well as another book called Revit Essentials, visited both BUGIE and LARUG too. Check the books out at the Wiley site for more details and the author team blog ARCH + TECH. Have a look at the pictures see if you can find "Waldo"??

Here's a shot of the group at BUGIE (BIM User Group Inland Empire)
Thanks to host office: HMC Architects

Here's a shot at LARUG (Los Angeles Revit User Group)
Thanks to host office: Lee, Burkhart, Liu, Inc.

Here's a shot at SCRUG (South Coast Revit User Group)
Thanks to host office: LPA, Inc.

Last item is a quick "Thank You" to 3D Connexion, AEC Factory and Microdesk for donating a cool navigation device to one lucky winner at each group.

At RUGIE Scott had one with him that 3D Connexion had authorized him to give away. In LA Roger with AEC Factory offered one for the give away. At SCRUG Roger with AEC Factory and Andrew with Microdesk both offered one each to give away. The winners at each group are about to create some serious "glorious gadget" envy at their workplace, as soon as they can get their hands on Revit 2012 that is!

Each user group would not have beverages and food if it were not for the ongoing support of Autodesk, USCAD, Kelar Pacific, Microdesk, and AEC Factory. So thanks to each of them for their continued support!!

Thanks again to the vendors and thanks to all who attended!!

InterSpec - e-SPECS 6.0 and Revit Keynotes

Conversation last night reminded me of the news release that I intended to mention here but never did. Do you wrestle with Revit's keynoting features? If so you might consider having a closer look at e-SPECS new Keynote features in the 6.0 release they announced this past January.

...snip
e-SPECS v6.0 includes new Keynoting Management at the master and project levels with intelligent assignment of coordinated keynotes to Revit families and materials directly through the e-SPECS Revit Plug-In Console.
...snip

From their Revit page...
...snip
-SPECS for Revit generates project specific keynotes coordinated with your specifications to ensure accuracy in detailing. Rather than have your detailers select from hundreds to thousands of master keynotes, e-SPECS generates the list of only those used in your BIM project. In addition, e-SPECS for Revit generates automatic Outline Reports and a specification Table of Contents. These facilitate a design process ensuring the highest quality product is produced without the error prone and mundane manual efforts previously required without e-SPECS.

You can WATCH a ONLINE Demo if interested.

API Throw Down - Rod Howarth

Luke who blogs via What Revit Wants put out a challenge for the API and those who speak "it" to provide a tool to inform him about productivity in Revit.

Such as:

• Ensure I (Luke) am using keyboard shortcuts where possible
• Avoid triggering commands unnecessarily, and thus having to abort them and retry

Rod Howarth decided to take him up on the challenge and wrote a post on his own blog that anybody who reads this blog is likely to be interested in seeing too.

Rod writes (partial snippet):
...snip
The result is a utility that I’ve developed that will take a look through your journal files and identify your most commonly used menu items, along with your most commonly used keyboard shortcuts. The idea is that you can run this utility and assess what commands you should add a keyboard shortcut to, in order to make your Revit usage more efficient.
...snip

Check it out!

To get the tool and run it on your own computer, download it from HERE. He writes: "Let me know how it goes for you!".

Also, if you are interested in the source code, it’s available on GitHub. If you don’t have Git (you should check it out!) you can download the source code as a Zip.

[Added March 30, 2011] Jose Guia offers up his own version of a response to the challenge HERE. Luke writes that it is a bit more advanced than Rod's.

Dept. of Spell Chuk - King and Kong

Years ago I was reading a specification for theater rigging equipment. The text describing the necessary chain was written as "proof coil chairs" instead of "proof coil chain".

Another project referred to the Porte Cochere (roof and structure that covers an entrance and driveway in front of a building) as "potty coacher".

Today, reading a BIM modeling guideline, the following line grabbed my "funny bone", regarding modelling primary studs, "All King and Kong studs will be modeled".

Better get busy modelling those Kong Studs!

Methinks "King and Corner studs" is the more likely combo?

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??

KarelCAD Revit Release Comparison via PDF

The gang at KarelCAD have shared some pdf documents that provide an overview of what features set each release apart, for Revit 2010, 2011 & 2012.

Revit Architecture 2012

Revit Structure 2012

Revit MEP 2012

Autodesk Building Design Sweet

This image is part of what appears on the Autodesk web page for this new product bundling configuration

A lot to digest so you'll need to contact your reseller to see how the pricing and crossgrade options will play out for your firm.

New Release Slides - RAC - RST - RME

These are just the appetizer slides for the hour long blogger demo of the new features. They appeared briefly and each presenter chose to work directly in Revit instead of flipping slides. As you can imagine, one hour could not have possibly covered every item in great detail.

They only had time to discuss these items in more detail:

RAC 2012

• Parts/Assemblies and dividing elements (construction features)
• Visualization
• Point Clouds

RST 2012

• Analytical Model and Tools
• Concrete 3D Reinforcement

RME 2012

• System Browser Enhancements
• Duct/Pipe Systems
• Placeholder Ducts/Pipes

These are the slides that list the big items for each release.

RAC 2012

RST 2012

RME 2012

Each version shares platform improvements naturally so there is overlap. Also mentioned in the webcast was substantial improvements to the API which opens the door to further improvements to existing and as yet to be created 3rd party applications. There are also numerous candidates for my Dept. of Subtle posts to deal with later.

Dept. of Echo - Revit 2012 via David Light

David stays up all night working on his "What's New" posts so I don't have to! ;)

Wander over to his blog for a very nice recap of what is going to be "in-the-box" in the next release! Nice job David!

Oh, there is more but these are the biggies...

Revit 2012 - Wish Granted - 3D Connexion

Revit 2012 products will support 3D Connexion devices!! My recent post and my earlier wish come true!

Autodesk 2012 Product Suites

Per the ongoing web preview:

The new Autodesk Building Design Suite is available in three editions:

Standard, Premium and Ultimate

Standard (includes)

• AutoCAD 2012
• AutoCAD Architecture 2012
• AutoCAD MEP 2012
• AutoCAD Structural Detailing 2012
• Autodesk Showcase 2012
• Autodesk SketchBook Designer 2012

Premium (adds to Standard)

• Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012
• Autodesk Revit MEP 2012
• Autodesk Revit Structure 2012
• Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2012

Ultimate (adds to Premium and Standard)

• Autodesk Navisworks Manage 2012
• Autodesk Quantity Takeoff 2012
• Autodesk Inventor 2012

Now I'm curious about delivery...will packages still be separate installations? Still hoping for single installation for a Revit "Sweet" Suite or Complete!

It IS still possible to buy individual versions without the "Suite" options.

RTC USA 2011 Registration is Open

Subject line says it all! You can Register for the event now!

Registering now qualifies for Earlybird pricing (until April 8, 2011)

Visit the Revit Technology Conference site (US Event)
Register to Attend (USA)

RTC is the midyear "fix" for Revit "addicts" between Autodesk University.

It runs just a couple months after Autodesk's new releases appear so you can look forward to seeing all that is new in Revit and related software.

Glorious Gadget - A Better "Mouse...trap"?

Have a look at what a "mouse" might be for you in the near future? Check out the Celluon evoMouse.

Dept. of Echo - Your Office Template

Warning! Before I echo what you should read you need to:

• Wait till tonight/tomorrow night
• Grab a beer (or preferred beverage)
• Chips (or preferred snack)
• Close your office door
• Turn on a little reading music
• Turn off the phone/Facebook/Twitter etc.
• Tell the neighbors you are out
• Tell your wife/spouse/kids that you are not to be disturbed

Then wander over to Aaron Maller's blog Malleristic Revitation. He's never been accused of being brief or a "man-of-few-words" so no worries, it isn't going to happen this time either. He's taken the time to write out his perspective on Creating a Revit Template, based on his experience doing it at four firms (I think that's the count now). He's got an opinion and he's not afraid to use it, and offer it free of charge!

I've got one thing to add to his post, "ditto"! Now get ready!