Author Archive
Micro Review: Revit LT 2013, is it right for me?
Autodesk introduced Revit LT 2013 today, I bet you are wondering “Is Revit LT right for me?” Let’s try to answer that with another Micro Review.
First is cost, A new seat of Autodesk Revit LT is$1,200.00 or $1,500.00 for the suite. You can take 50% off if you upgrade from AutoCAD LT to Autodesk Revit LT suite. Autodesk Revit LT Suite includes Revit LT and AutoCAD LT, so if you have AutoCAD LT you may just want to go with the Suite.
The second thing to look at are the features. Here is a link to Autodesk’s feature comparison chartbetween Revit LT and the Full version of Revit Architecture. After I reviewed the chart here are a few missing features that stood out:
- No in-place families, although I disliked in-place families they are one of the necessary evils in Revit.
- No worksharing, this is a HUGH feature in the full version of Revit that I used everyday. Not having worksharing could be a deal breaker for you company.
- No Customizing the visibility of linked models. This could also pose a problem, changing the visibility settings of a linked model is a feature that we all know and love.
- No photorealistic rendering within the product. For me this is not as big of a deal as the lack of worksharing is.
- It also looks like massing is lacking some features as well. I did not use massing so I won’t miss it.
Third thing to look at is the system requirements, in short the system requirements are the same for Revit LT as the are for the full version Revit. If you need 8GB of RAM now for your Revit model, you will need 8GB of RAM with RevitLT.
Revit LT 2013 Conclusion:
. At first glance for the price and if you don’t use worksharing this may be the way to go. If you already have a full seat or three of Revit, for close to the same money you can migrate to the network version of Revit and allow more people in your office to use the full version Revit by taking advantage of the floating license.
Autodesk will have the product trial is available on the 18th of September. I look forward to playing with Revit LT and learn more about it, as I am sure you are.
Bill Debevc
Follow me on Twitter @bim9bill, where I will announce updates to the post as well as new posts on Revit LT.
This was re-posted with permission from CloudsCarsCameras.com
Why I switched from MobileMe to Dropbox.
When Apple introduced iCloud, they decided to kill off MobileMe. I love what iCloud is doing syncing my information on my iDevices, but it is lacking what MobileMe did with file storage. Don’t get me wrong, iCloud is still the king of information sync for me as I have an empty glass of Apple Flavor Aid. When it comes to document storage iCloud falls short. Granted I am late to the Dropbox show and you may already know the goodness that is Dropbox. If you don’t know about Dropbox’s tasty goodness then by all means read on.
Dropbox is a cross platform cloud based storage service. Dropbox gives you 2 GB of free storage to store anything your heart desires. Need more space? You can get 50GB of space starting at $99.99 a year, the same price that MobileMe was. Dropbox works on my iPad, iPhone, Mac OS X, and within Windows. It automatically sync from Dropbox’s cloud to my computers.
What sets Dropbox apart from MobileMe is that my documents are synced, not just accessible from the cloud. This gives me the following advantages:
- Faster access to my documents. Because my documents are synchronized to my computer they are on my computer and in my Dropbox.
- Faster directory browsing. This may seem like a small thing but when you are hunting for something in your documents folder you want it to be fast.
- Local backup. When Dropbox synchronizes your file it places a real copy on your local hard drive, this allow time machine to backup my documents on my backup drive. Having extra backups is a wonderful thing.
- Offline access. Again Dropbox places a real synchronized copy on your local hard drive. So I can access my documents where I don’t have access to the Internet.
- It just works and I know where my files are.
With Private BIM Clouds, or anything remote based computing you need to think about using the right tools for the job. Private BIM Clouds are wonderful things, without Private BIM Clouds running a BIM project remotely is very complicated and difficult. Dropbox provides an easy way to transfer files from my laptop to my Private BIM Cloud. Even though there is a way to connect to my local drive from my Private BIM Cloud, I am finding DropBox easier and one less thing to configure.
Overall I am quite happy with DropBox and would recommend it for my readers that chew gum.
If you would like to give Dropbox a try please use my referral link, this will give me some more space and make my day. Here is the link http://db.tt/HEGegMsj
Re-learning Revit: Creating a title block part 1
The first family that I created in Revit was a title block. I figured that I could not plot any projects without a title block, and sure glad I decided to get this out of the way first. A lot of things are dependent on the title block, like a project or progress plots.
The iPhone 4 Guts Wallpaper
I read a post on engadget that showed a cool idea for wallpaper for an android phone. I then decided I wanted to have wallpaper on my iPhone 4 that show the guts of the phone. I went to the ifixit.com web site and looked for a photo that would do the trick, unfortunately I was unable to locate the file. I then decided to post a question on their form asking if there was such a thing. To my surprise I received this reply:
“Good idea! We thought so too, and put wallpapers up about a week ago. http://meta.ifixit.com/View/502/Cool+idea+for+iPhone+4+wallpaper”
Thanks to the ifixit.com guys I have a very cool wall paper for my phone showing its guts!
Bill Debevc
sshaphotos.com
Re-Learning Revit Step on Screen Layout
When my good friend Lonnie asked if I would help him with ClubRevit.com as a guest blogger, after thinking about it for a half a second I said “heck ya!”. So now here I am wondering what to write, I have been out of the Revit world for a year or two. I have decided to write about how I am going to re-learn Revit. For those of you just beginning to learn Revit or the experienced user I am sure you will pick something along the way..
The first step in our adventure is to take a look at Revit 2011′s new interface. As we know Revit’s interface changed in the 2010 version. Some say for the better, some (and you know who you are) say otherwise. If there is one thing I have learned in this wonderful word of computer software is that there is always change and you must cope with change or get passed up. Of all the things to upgrade this most important is your mind.
Screen Capture from Revit 2011
Above is what Revit’s new interface looks like out of the box. It’s a bit different that what it was when I left Revit. It’s a good idea to keep this screen capture handy as most tutorials you read refer to the parts of the screen by the names above. Let’s talk a little about each part.
- Quick access toolbar is the one customizable place where you can put all the commands that you use most often.
- Application button is where you will find your file commands and where you can set your options.
- Ribbon is where you will find your commands. Ribbons are the new pull down menus and toolbars. The parts of the ribbon are as follows:
- Tabs are logical divisions of commands.
- Panels are where all your commands are placed.
- Tool is the command like wall or copy.
- After selecting a tool the Contextual Tab will show commonly used command for the object you are drawing or editing. This tab is quite handy and keeps you from hunting for commands.
- InfoCenter is there you communicate with Autodesk to get help or product update information.
- Options bar is where all the different setting live for the object your are drawing.
- Type selector has been moved to the properties pallet, this is where you select what type of the object you would like to draw.
- Properties pallet is one of the top new features in 2011, as you draw or modify a object in Revit the properties pallet is there to help with all the setting you can change about the object or selection of objects your are working on.
- Project browser is where Revit organizes your project for you. Here you will find all your views, sheets, families, schedules, groups, just about everything that is in your project can be found here.
- Status bar is where Revit talks to you telling you what you need to do next in the command or tool your are using. Is also has options you can set and gives you status of the current task.
- View control bar contains the tools you need to navigate around the model
- Drawing area is the spot you draw and view your model.
Next we will talk about setting up a title block.
Bill Debevc
sshaphotos.com
Relearning Revit an introduction
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
