Archive for May, 2010

You’ve seen some introductions from people on the Club Revit team.  Hopefully you are getting a better idea of what you’ll be seeing over time from the different team members on this blog.  Let me start off by stating that I’m honored to be a part of a team with such a high level of experience, knowledge, and capabilities. From my end, you’ll be seeing posts coming from all over the place. As manager of a team of trainers and consultants (in addition to teaching and consulting myself), it seems that I’m creating and discovering a wide variety of information every day.  It’s my intent to effectively share that information with you through this site. Tips on software, management, working with people… yes, people too! Working in a Revit-based workflow environment requires more person-to-person communication than ever before, and as soon as you add people to the mix, things get messy.

As you read through all of the various posts over time, please be sure to comment and provide feedback – get your voice heard so that we can not only provide valuable information to our community as a whole, but also things that are important to you as an individual. I’ll do my best to avoid wasting your time, but I’ll always appreciate a little guidance from you to let me know when I’m running astray!

At a session about Microsoft Unified Communications today. Was not sure what I was going to see, but very happy that I made the time to come. If you get an opportunity to see one of these presentations it is amazing. The direction that Microsoft is moving to bring all communications into one unified tool. This is really nothing about BIM but plays into you offices and how your team can communicate. Well worth a few hours of time to see. This session was put on by BrightPlanIT www.brightplanit.com .

The even information can be found at.

http://brightplanit-las-052110.eventbrite.com/

The picture below is of a 360 USB web cam/ conferencing phone. It is amazing

Very cool stuff

Let me begin this post by thanking Lonnie Cumpton for inviting me to Club Revit to establish a blog focusing on Revit families. Most of us Revit users are aware of the numerous and informative sites dealing with this topic. You can pretty much get any information you want pertaining to Revit family creation by visiting these great sites. However, my approach will be a little different.

My contribution to Club Revit will deal on how to create complex shapes on a micro level. Although the use of Revit family tools have been thoroughly explained in websites, books, videos, articles and blogs, my goal is to show you how to use these tools in a different context. The samples I will be using to explain my techniques are common everyday items that can be found in homes, offices and public places. These are accessories similar to the products I offer in my website (kitchen appliances, dining accessories, etc.). While you may or may not have any use for them, the knowledge you will gain by analyzing my methodology will help you later on when you are faced with the task of modeling complex building elements.

Like every Revit user, I’ve learned and followed recommended best Revit family creation practices for controlling file size and how much to detail. But then I look at the families available out there. Some are nice but a lot of them are mediocre or plain ugly! That’s when I decided I’m going to break the rules and model them properly, including modeling little details we tend to ignore. I know that adding more details increases a file’s size which may translate to slower computer response time. But I refuse to be unencumbered by these limitations. Computer technology is progressively getting faster and cheaper. Autodesk has been taking steps to make Revit as fast and efficient as it can be. As a matter of fact, in one of my upcoming post, I will show you one area in family creation that has been improved on in version 2011 that reduces a file size. There are numerous tips and tricks I will share in creating complex shapes. Hopefully, these techniques will improve your modeling skills. And don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten the parametrics! For now, let me conclude this introductory post by sharing you this quote:

“Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly”…Dalai Lama

When I read that Lonnie was looking for Revit experts I sent an e-mail explaining my qualifications and thoughts on Revit and BIM. To which the reply was, well we don’t have any else that knows plumbing so why not. After looking at the BIOs of the other team members I am thankful to be considered a part of such a diverse group of experts. My focus will primarily be on the mechanical and plumbing portions of Revit; real world solutions to problems encountered when submitting design documents. Also like the title indicates, I feel very strongly about BIM and Revit’s role in Building information modeling. I truly believe it can change the industry, but only if ALL phases from concept through facility management learn to work together on the BIM process. I look forward to sharing the things I have learned on past projects and will learn on future projects. I also look forward to learning from the experts on this site, so we can be the fore runners of the BIM revolution.

As most of you know several of your fellow Club Revit members are speakers at AU most years. This year like last year Autodesk has opened up the class selections to public voting. If you plan to attend AU this year this is your opportunity to help select what classes will be available to you. Even if you do not plan to attend AU the classes that make the cut are important to you because they will be recorded and made available to all subscription members after AU. So please take a few minutes to sign up or sign in and make your vote count.

http://www.autodeskevents.com/au2010/index.cfm?event=voting.login

If you have submitted proposal to be considered please send an e-mail to Lonnie@clubrevit.com and I will be happy to add you class to the post.

I have submitted three classes this year, if the topics are something you would like to see please give me your vote.

2280 – Connecting the design team with Revit linking:

As BIM continues to grow into the primary design process, we have to learn how to adopt new ways of working with our design team. Learning how to host BIM projects is the key to getting your consultants to help you deliver on the promises of BIM. Having your consultants work on separate models and then trying to reconcile once a week is just not working. In this session we will learn how to combine Revit linking with IT techniques so that your team is working on up to date information every day. We will explore advanced Revit linking techniques and strategies. Then we will inter the world of advanced networking and scripting to show you how to connect the team. You will leave the session with a fundamental understanding of how to connect the entire team that is using Revit to create a BIM deliverable.

9831 – Hosting a BIM project The next BIM business model

As BIM continues to grow into the primary design process, we have to learn how to adopt new ways of working with our design team. Learning how to host BIM projects is the key to getting your consultants to help you deliver on the promises of BIM. Having your consultant work on separate models and then trying to reconcile once a week is just not working. In the first part of this session we will look at how to link all of the Revit models together, so that each team member can see the changes ever hour. In the second part of this session we will show you how to host a BIM model allowing all consultants to access the model and see changes live (the way a single model environment is supposed to work). This management level overview will show you how to leverage hardware, Software and the internet to turn a BIM problem into a new revenue opportunity.

7799 – There Can Be Only One (Revit Project Hosting)

As BIM continues to grow into the primary design process, we have to learn how to adopt new ways of working with our design team. Learning how to host BIM projects is the key to getting your consultants to help you deliver on the promises of BIM. Having your consultant work on separate models and then trying to reconcile once a week is just not working. In this session we will show you how to host a BIM model allowing all consultants to access the model and see changes live (the way a single model environment is supposed to work). We will look at what it takes to host a BIM project in a single location and allow all consultants to access the project at one time. This session will use virtualization techniques, networking concepts, and workset management to support a hosted environment.

Thanks

I would first like to say that I feel privileged to be a part of this site and having the opportunity to be associated with people I look up to and respect. My focus is going to be on the many different things you can do with a Revit model during design, production and post production. Work-flows, modeling techniques, hardware and software issues will be looked at. Using Autodesk products and some programs by other developers I will detail how to use your Revit model for design visualization, energy analysis, quantifying, cost estimation, collision detection, scheduling and coordination. I look forward to showing you ways to utilize the Revit packages and other products to harness the 5D capabilities of BIM.

Matthew Rodgers

matt@therevitaces.com

When Lonnie asked me to guest blog on ClubRevit.com, I first thought “Wow I have been out of the Revit world for a couple releases now, how could I help?”. Then it came to me, I could relearn Revit. Then share my experiences with you. Not just write about the tutorials but learn the users manual, you know that big 1,800 page monster that is now a PDF file.  What better way to learn everything about Revit than to read the book.   Please join me relearning Revit, hopeful you will learn as much as I do.

Bill Debevc
sshaPhotos.com

Welcome to the new official site for Club Revit. We have some great plans for Club Revit. The first and most important thing is that the site is now a blog. So we will be updating and adding new information almost everyday. We have been gathering some of the top experts in and around the industry. Each one has knowledge of a specific area of Revit or the world of BIM. They are all part of the team here at Club Revit. Each one will be posting to the site. This should lead to lots of information for all Club Revit members. We will be adding to the site as time goes on with product pages, user group pages and much more. Be sure to join the Club Revit group on LinkedIn and Facebook. You will also find Club Revit on Twitter.

Take some time and look at the bio pages for the blog team. It will give you some insight into who is posting information.

If you have any suggestions for the site or would like to join the blogging team, send an e-mail to Lonnie@clubrevit.com

Thanks
Lonnie