Archive for the ‘Support’ Category

A Product Review by Michael Anonuevo

Introduction

In preparing to writing an instructional eBook on how to produce Autodesk Revit renderings and walkthroughs, one of the things I did a few months back was conduct a research on computer systems optimized for these types of Revit tasks. It is a subject matter that I know will occupy a chapter on its own in the eBook. I’ve looked at brand names such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Asus. However, I could not find any computer system specifically targeted for Revit modeling. By chance, I ran into a colleague who suggested that I look into BOXX computer workstations (www.boxxtech.com). I had never heard of the company, although I found out later that they had been around for the last 15 years! As a  full time Revit modeler who is always busy creating complex families or writing about them, I never really got into the details of a good Revit computer workstation. And so with this new eBook project, I had a chance to look at a workstation made for Revit. After emailing my credentials and review proposal to a BOXX specialist, I was connected to the right channels and eventually was sent a unit for evaluation.

This article is about the 3DBOXX 4920 XTREME workstation. At the BOXX website, this model is referred to as The World’s Fastest Workstation for Autodesk Revit. On the internet, you’ll find great reviews about this workstation, including its technical details and specifications. To avoid being redundant, the main focus of this review is how effective this workstation is for Revit Architecture users. I will, however, highlight certain features worth taking a look at.

Is this really the fastest workstation for Revit? How can we users benefit from this system? What makes this workstation special from the rest of the pack? How does this computer compare to yours or other workstations? These questions (and many more) are tackled in this review. If you are in the process of upgrading your Revit workstations or want to add a dedicated power workstation for generating renderings and walkthroughs, this article will help you decide which system to purchase.
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In response to Revit users from Australia, UK, Europe and other countries, I’m happy to announce the release of the Metric Editions of my eBooks:

• Creating Custom Revit Architecture 2012 Families, Metric Edition
• Creating Custom Revit Architecture 2013 Families, Metric Edition

They are free with the purchase of the 2012/2013 US Editions. Please click this link to get a PDF sampler containing sample images and Forewords written by Jeff Pinheiro (theRevitKid.com) and Jay Zallan (Perkowitz+Ruth Architects).

by:

Michael Anonuevo
Revit Architecture Certified Professional
www.littledetailscount.com

Paul Aubin is the well known  Revit guru and author who has written several bestselling  books on Revit Architecture, AutoCAD MEP and AutoCAD Architecture. In 2006, his book (Mastering Autodesk Revit Building) is what got me started on Revit.  This is what he has to say regarding the Revit families on my website:

“There are many ways to approach the task of building Revit content. And sometimes, the little details count! I cannot think of a more aptly named website for the excellent content produced by its founder Mr. Anonuevo. Great care is taken in crafting the three-dimensional details and applying very realistic and believable materials. Furthermore, Mr. Anonuevo clearly understands that good Revit content is not just about 3D. He includes 2D symbolic line representations for the plan views to simplify and help with performance. I got a direct look at his drum set. Now I grant you, this is a big Family file weighing in at 12M. But doing a quick test with about 25 copies, the file only grew to 18M. This is because there are few parameters and formulas in the file. So in 2D views, it performs quite well. And really, when would you need 25 drum sets in a single file anyhow… Now your results might vary if using his casino furniture. There it would be more likely to have many copies, but again Mr. Anonuevo takes advantage of symbolic lines in 2D views and keeps parameters to a minimum. What I like most about his efforts is the amazingly high quality renderings he has been able to achieve. There is a degree of realism here that I have not seen in other Revit content and projects. Well done! Overall I would say that you are in the market for casino gaming content or musical instruments, begin your search with www.littledetailscount.com.”  Paul Aubin_January 21, 2011

When you get the chance, please visit his website at: http://paulaubin.com/

Michael Anonuevo
Autodesk^® Revit^® Architecture 2011 Certified Professional

When you are placing spot elevations sometimes you will get the no go simple on all your flat surfaces and it will only work on the edges of the object. This is a simple fix but is very frustrating when it happens. All you need to do is change “Visual Style” from “Wireframe” to any of the other options. Basically the spot elevation tool does not work unless the surface is visible. In Wireframe model the surface it not visible so the spot elevation only works on the edges.

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I received an email from a reader (thanks, Anthony) asking for clarification on a previous blog post about Automatic Sketch Dimensions here:

http://clubrevit.com/?p=583

He was trying to recreate the situation I had described and was unable to get the automatic sketch dimensions to show up.

In order for automatic sketch dimensions to work, you need to have a labeled dimension in the family. The family I was working on already had multiple labeled dimensions and I neglected to mention this in my previous post.

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This post was origanally posted by Chris Senior at Revit Elemental

The first service pack has been released for Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011, Structure 2011 and MEP 2011.

Revit 2011 Service Pack 1 can be downloaded by visiting the downloads section here:

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You may get the “Revit License Unavaliable” error from time to time when working in Revit. This happens when Revit loses connection to the license server. It is suppoesd to reconnect to the server when the interuption is over but as many of you know that does not always work. the following process is something you can do if you have un saved work and Revit will not let you save showing you the Revit License Unavaliable when you try and save. This is not a documented process and I am not sure it will work in all situations but when it comes to the being able to save it is worth a try.

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