End of the Year

It's that time to close the office.  I will be off until next year, I won't be posting but I hope to have a few drafts set up and ready to go when I do come back to the working world.  I hope to spend the time off with famly and not thinking of work, just a little break.

I hope everyone has a nice holiday and cheers to a happy new year!!

Ya es el tiempo de cerrar la oficina para descansar y pasar los dias con la familia.  Espero tener temas listos para nuevos posts entrando el año. 

Les deseo a todos unos felices dias navideños, y un feliz año nuevo!

Apology

I've had a few issues with my blog.  I've changed the blogspot location, I added many links but they disappeared, I fixed (tried) my feedburner url.  I've had a few issues.

Since I'm new at this, it's been a little difficult to fix the mess I made by changing the blogspot address. I didn't think it was a big deal since it's a new blog not many readers, well I found out I did have a few and I messed them up!  Thank you for those reading and checking! I appreciate the comments and help.

Spanish language Revit blogs

In looking for information on how Revit is used and managed, I find myself reading a few Spanish language blogs.  If I spoke other languages I'd be searching those also!

So for those of you than can read and understand Spanish here's a few I've liked to read:

Revit Español on AUGI is the first place I looked at and realized there are many questions out there in the Spanish speaking world.  This got me looking for other areas on the internet for help. 

Revit Argentina  is a introduction to South Americans as they are using it more and more. The author Leonardo Aita is a professor at University of Buenos Aires, he's passionate about sharing Revit knowledge.

Revit-MBA is Montealegre Beach Arquitectos, based in Chile.  They share tricks and tips on different findings they've come accross. I've enjoyed this website as they explain different things they've found to work or not and how they've learned to understand Revit and make it work. It's been helpful.

ACERCAS.COM from Spain, is a Revit consultant with an architectural background in the BIM world.  His tool of choice has been Revit and his website shares information about the product, how to use it, what goes on in the industry (in his area).  A good resource.

Revitips. Tips4Revit  new one I found recently, dedicated to Revit Structure based in Chile the civil engineer Enzo Fighetti started the blog to share tips and comments on how they've learned and are learning to use Revit Structure.

I hope to see more blogs or websites dediacted to Revit and BIM using Revit. I'll keep my list up to date!

CAD Management - Revit and AutoCAD

To start off with Revit, we used it out of the box (OOTB) and as the projects have been progressing I've been working on our template based on one specific project.  In our transition plan, how I've set things up, is to make our output of both AutoCAD and Revit look very similar if not the same.  We use AutoCAD 2008 and Revit 2009. 

The main change I made was chosing to use the Arial font.  Because I've been told over and over by resselles I've worked with to not change Revit, to use it OOTB, as is because it's great!  So Arial font it is!   But now, as I'm getting deeper into setting up our template and searching and dialoguing with others, I don't see why we should keep it looking so plain - OOTB.   We have a look that we'd like to achieve for presentation and legibility, and we can achieve it with Revit, so why not?

I've been editing the Object styles, but also the Lineweights settings. By default the majority of Revit objects use lineweight 1, we like 3 to be the default so where would it be best to change it? Change most object styles to lineweight 1?  Or bump up the actual weight (setting) of lineweight 1?  In my apporoach, I will change the setting of lineweight 1, and of course the rest 2 through 5, (we won't use 6 and on). Of course don't think it's that simple, the setting needs to change per scale, that's a lot of changes!  But in my thought process it makes more sense to make that change, versus changing all object styles.  in this way we can keep the majority of the objects styles at the default weight, and we will change a few here and there that we would like to be different. 

All of this can be saved in our template, and when Revit 2010 comes around we upgrade our template so there is no need to redo all the settings changes; we work on new ones!

AU Show Guide

You have to check this out!   Thanks to Mr. AU's Twitter update.

Check out the show guide for this years AU, everything that will be happening is listed, if you haven't been before, if you want to see more details check it out.

AU 2008 Show Guide

There's still time to sign up.  See you there!

AU Update: AEC BIM Mixer

When I first went to AU in 2004, they had their first (I think) Revit Mixer, there were about 150-200 people, it was really cool to learn new things about Revit. I didn't know they continuted it after that and now I'm in the know again!

This year it's the AEC BIM Mixer and it will be open to 1200 people!!  How exciting!  I will definitley be there!

Here's the information I saw on AUGI posted by Jeff Hanson, Revit Architecture SME/Technical Writer, Autodesk:

AEC BIM Mixer: Open to All AEC Campus Badge Holders
Date/Time: Monday, December 1/7:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
Location: Palazzo M, Level 5

It’s back... and bigger and better than ever! Join AEC customers and Autodesk employees for a great evening that includes a light dinner, drinks, and plenty of networking. Don’t miss this excellent kickoff to a great week at AU!

Want to meet fellow AEC software users? Discuss issues with development, product support, and other staff for all AEC disciplines? Talk one-on-one with our AEC technical experts including Armundo Darling, Lucy Kuhns, Amy Fietkau, Scott Hammond, and Eddie Perlberg (in a roped-off area so you can’t miss them)? Then come!

This event is open to AU 2008 AEC Campus registrants only—your AU name badge must show you are part of the AEC Campus—and is limited to the first 1,200 people through the door. If you are number 1,201, we will ask that you wait for someone to leave before we admit you.

Invitations will be sent prior to the conference so be on the lookout.

You can find it on the AU website also

If you're registered, look out for the invite!  Hope to see you there!

Standards

I like being a CAD Manager, I don't love it.  I love doing architecture and working on projects, but I like organization that's how I got involved in being a CAD Manager.

I've been working on our template, I've realized I'll need more than one and I do and don't like that.  More for me to manage, and I'm not a control freak so I'd rather have less to manage.  I've started a Basic Practices document to give to all my users, and I'm starting to create a Standards Manual, which isn't very long  and for now it's more of a "what not to do" document.

I thought I'd list some of the few things I've found to be important: (in no particular order)

• Purge the model, often
• Review warnings (often!)
  
• Close hidden windows (we have a shortcut for that=XX)
  
• Create a workset for each linked file
• Create working views (one for each user)
• Recreate the local file weekly
• Local files should be created by copy/paste in windows explorer not by opening the central file and doing a save-as
  

There's more, especially with families.  Fun part is I'm learning so much as I go along, as far as setting standards that my list is 3 pages now!  I don't like it's length but I like that I'm learning and especially understanding!

New toy - ILoveSketch

This link was forwarded to me by a fellow co-worker, a designer of course.

This is really neat, it would be great to use something like this with Revit, I could convince more designers that Revit can be a tool used for schematic design!

If anyone knows more about this tool, please let me know, this is the first I've seen of it.

http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~shbae/ilovesketch.htm

Thanks for reading!

AU Updates

From Shaan Hurley:

·         AU is going to be bigger and better than ever! We have already exceeded 7000 registrations and I project we will see over 10,000 attendees this year.

·         We have a record number of exhibitors in the exhibition hall at over 650.

·         Design Leadership including Gensler Program http://au.autodesk.com/event/campusclass/leadership/

·         Keynotes, Carl Bass, Eddie Paul , Burt Rutan and more http://au.autodesk.com/event/campusclass/keynotes/

·         AU Unplugged  http://au.autodesk.com/event/campusclass/unplugged/

·         Free Autodesk product certification offered on limited basis http://au.autodesk.com/event/campusclass/certification/

·         AU Design Slam - http://au.autodesk.com/event/campusclass-event/AU_Design_Slam/

·         Community Leadership Conference http://au.autodesk.com/event/campusclass-event/

My First Post

I started my blog because I signed up as a Blogger at AU, I was curious about what that was about because I have been keeping up with many many blogs now, so I wanted to be included with them :o)  So my first post will be about AU.

For those of you who haven't attended before, you're missing out. I've attended 4 times now, because of Revit, once it was purchased by Autodesk it was a must to attend at least that year.  But once I was there, amongst other fellow coworkers it was obvious it was a necessity to attend every year!  There is so much to learn, not just from the sessions and lunches and dinners but from other attendees.  I didn't get to know very many people, or keep in touch with anyone I did meet but I did learn something from most of the people I came in contact with.   The last couple of years I've attended I've been able to gauge how well I know Revit, because I can help others and answer their questions! That's been a great feeling, to know I can help others as I was helped when I first started.

Reading and subscribing to many blogs about Revit, this year I hope to meet some of the authors I've learned from.   AU is a great event to attend, no matter how well you know any of the Autodesk software.  I think it's a must especially for CAD/BIM/IT managers to attend.