Revit Clinic Post - 3 Levels of Masking

Great post I have to share, this is especially helpful to me right now, understanding how masking works.  


Level 2 caught my attention:
Level 2 – View, Model & Annotation Elements
If you would like to mask model and annotation elements in the view, instead create a new generic annotation family.  Add a masking region inside the family.  Add any desired dimensional instance parameters [such as a width and length instance parameter] so you can easily adjust each family size in the project.

Check out the rest of the article  3 Levels of Masking

AU - 2010 - Day One

Today I attended two sessions, the last one I was kind of lost because I really should have been a part of the whole day but it was informative anyway.


I then attended the Media and Blogger Social and the AEC Mixer (originally the Revit Mixer) they were both great!  I talked with Steve Bennet from 2D or not to 2D (check out his blog, for more up to date info) and Greg Arkin from Revit 3D, he's always fun to talk to, even if it is once a year for me, but it's great conversation, you have to check out his blog, very informative on anything BIM... plus all sorts of other people.  I did meet someone from the actual media from Mexico, it was nice to talk to someone about Autodesk that isn't from the states and get to know their perspective.  Being Mexican by culture I want to know more of how the Latin community uses Autodesk products and how they learn how to use them.
Oh and I almost forgot Melanie, Mistress of the Dorkness, I follow her blog and Tweets and I met her last year, it was great to get a moment to chat with her again this year.  I did have a few questions but she's too many people to fight with for her attention!  I'll track her down, I have a few days  :-)


Tomorrow is the start of full days of the conference, and I hope to soak in a lot. I'll try and post as often as possible and let you know what sessions to look out for to download,  Remember sign up at Autodesk University website!


Ciao!

AU2010 - Design Technology Managment

Today was my first day at AU (Autodesk University)  I'm disappointed I wasn't able to participate more in the sessions offered today, Digital Technology Conference... Sessions were full, but the one session I attended was great.   Had me thinking out of the box, and got my mind working with new ideas, well new to me and our office.  You should sign up at Autodesk University website to see recorded sessions, of past years, and this years once they are available.

View Templates Dialog

Something simple I found today. I have to share because I think it's very cool and useful, I have no idea how I didn't notice this before! 
When applying a view template, I can chose a view, instead of a template, or creating a new one.



I feel silly pointing it out, but I just noticed it now and I know I will be using this often!

Blogger Day at Autodesk

If you don’t already know today is Blogger Day at Autodesk AEC Headquarters, and the tweets have been many and very exicitng.

I’m looking forward to reading about it from the bloggers that I follow that are there now. I wanted to share with everyone who I’ll be reading updates from and hopefully you can too.

Steve at Revit OpEd

David at Revit

David at Do U Revit?

Gregory Arkin at Revit 3D

Richard at beside the cursor

I'm excited I hope you are too!

Standards

Lately, more clients are seeing the benefits of BIM. So I get to ramp up our standards for 2011.  Meaning I want to change a few things to use the 2011 new features.

I finished our template a couple of weeks ago.  The few things I added/changed:

Sheet Index – With our typical sheets to choose from when creating a new sheet, this helps with our standards, I can keep people to follow our naming convention. I added a sorting parameter so the sheets are set listed in the typical set up.

View browser organization by type/category – I added a parameter so we can group our plot views, working views, and presentation views, etc. In showing staff how to use that parameter, I’m telling people they can add their name as a type so they can group all of their views.  It helps with efficiency and clean up. When I open projects to check things or help out, I can clean them up a little easier. I can easily see what views can go, without guessing anymore. Deleting views “not on sheets” is easy, but sometimes they are actually named to something that looks like it will be on a sheet, but I’m not sure so I don’t delete it or I open to see it. That takes a lot of time.

I’m working on combining our CAD and BIM standards manual so it is one, probably be named our Digital Standards Manual, so I can include some information for using 3D Studio, formZ and other programs we use in the Design Department.

I’m excited to get back on this track, after a year of not being able to do much.  Things are looking up!

In-House Training - Revit Review

I started 2010, (the year not the Revit version) with changing what I call my Revit Review's.  A weekly Tips & Tricks session I do for in-house staff.  I was hoping to blog about it often but I obviously didn't.  Now I'd like to catch you up.
This is the format.  Once a week for 30 minutes, I show how to use one tool, in about 15 minutes, and questions and closing comments the last 15 minutes.  The reason for that format, is I hoped people would go back and try what we discussed, they have a week to play with it and come back with questions.  The response wasn't as enthusiastic, but I can't expect everyone to like Revit as much as I do.

January:  I started from the beginning.  Placing Walls, Doors and Windows.  I know more than one tool, but I think these can all go together.  Nothing complicated, just how to place a wall, change the type, and important to me, location line.  Based on the questions asked, I did learn something new, a window placed next to a door going through it will generate a warning, keyword phrase here "next to" but doing the same above a door, no warning; I found that intersting. I still haven't asked Revit Guru's why this is, but I will!

Until next time!

Revit 2011 is here

We're four months into the year, I can't believe it!  This year is going by fast.  Revit 2011 is already out (for subscription customers) very exciting, I hope you've been reading like I have all the different blogs out there talking about it. David Light has some a great overview.
I hope everyone is as excited as I am about getting started with 2011, let the fun begin!

Fin de Año / End of the Year

As 2009 ends, I realize it's been a difficult year; my duties have changed as CAD Manager, I was nervous to take on a few things, but luckily I was able to handle things successfully. Beginning in 2010, I will be doing basic Revit lessons for staff that are not currently using the program but need to keep up to date. I will be sharing in posts what I show and discussing lessons I learn as I go along. Wish me luck and I hope I can teach you a few things also!

Happy New Year!

Al fin se acaba el 2009, este ano fue dificil y tuve muchos cambios en mi posicion de CAD Manager. He agregado deberes que estaba nervioso tomar, pero afortunadamente pude manejarlo con éxito. Comenzando 2010, intentaré hacer lecciones básicas en Revit para mantener el personal que no lo utiliza actualmente hasta fecha. Estaré compartiendo en postes lo que he mostrado y he aprendido haciendo las lecciones. ¡Deséeme suerte! Y espero que les pueda enseñar unas pocas cosas también.

Prospero Año Neuvo!

Blog de Revit en Espanol

Ahora encontre un blog interesante con mucha informacion, tiene 3 blogs! Es del autor Luciano Gorosito de Argentina.

VenadoRevit es el blog que encontre, pero al navegar veo Clases de Revit, y Familias de Revit.

Espero los guste y ayude, a mi me gusto, y espero poder leer mas y aprender algo nuevo!

Y muchas gracias a Luciano por tanta informacion.

Ciao!

New Web Communities

I've found a couple of web communities that have been growing fast and have been a good source for interaction and learning.


Revit Society was started by Daniel P, to focus on Revit and learn from others. Daniel being in the structural world, there may be less people to tap into than there are in the architectural world.  The website has grown and has many many members. What I've liked is the international community joining in and connecting with each other.  So far there are people asking questions, posting video tutorials to help each other out, there's even an area set up for students. Daniel started the website, with blank forum page, magazine page, groups page, but members have started creating in each area and it's been a great source for me to see what else is out there. I hope you visit and join.


BIM Fusion is not Revit specific but all about BIM.  Their forums area does break things down by industry and program, it's a great setup.  There are also areas for videos, blogs, events and groups to setup.


Both websites provide a chat area for members.


BIMable.com is a neat website also; this one is all about providing information about BIM.  I like to check it out once in a while to see what news there is related to BIM and my industry. It's nice to have it all in one place!


I wanted to share these web sites I've found as they have been a great find.  I hope you find them useful also.

AUGI - Career Center

Not only does AUGI have a program to teach us, the forums help us learn from each other, there are publications that keep us updated on the products and technology we use, but now they are also going to help us find a job! Isn't that awesome! AUGI has created a Career Center.


AUGI's Career Center has an area for Job Seekers, for Employers and Recruiters.
For Job Seekers: You can post your resume, create an account to receive alerts on job postings, etc.
For Employers/Recruiters: View posted resumes, post a job, create an account etc.


Another reason to join AUGI, please pass on this information to anyone you know that needs it!

2 months later - AU 2009

So I've not posted in a while, this has been harder that I thought, I have lots of topics but I'm not a good communicator, but I've made a promise to post even if I sound like a fool (I don't embarrass too easily). 

AU is coming soon less than 100 days now, and this year I hope to make lots of connections, our office has some exciting projects where I need to be an expert at Revit soon, well I don't have to be but I really want to be, so I will be picking a lot of brains at AU2009!!

To start - I'm studying up on how large projects are put together and I found a great post today on AUGI I'll be trying out some of what I read and I'll post my results soon, for sure this time!

No e publicado en dos meses, esta aventura ha sido más difícil de lo que yo pensaba, tengo un montón de temas, pero no soy buena en la area de comunicación así que he hecho una promesa a mi misma, que publicare aunque suene un poco absurdo (no me avergüenzo fácilmente).

La conferencia de Autodesk, AU empieza pronto, faltan menos de 100 dias, y este año espero conocer y conectarme con muchas personas.  Nuestra oficina tiene algunos proyectos interestantes donde tengo que ser un experto en Revit pronto, bueno no es necesario pero si quiero serlo.  Estare   hacienda muchas preguntas y molestando a much gente en AU2009!!

Para comenzar,  estoy estudiando cómo los proyectos grandes son arreglados en Revit. Y encontré un poste hoy en AUGI que estaré probando en estos dias, y esta ves de seguro publicare mis resultados!

Revit 2010 Conceptual Design White Paper

On the design reform webiste you can find the white paper that Autodesk will be or should have already released, sorry I don't have the link to the Autodesk page.

Check out the Revit tutorials they have on their website, they are pretty good and very helpful.  When Revit 2010 was freshly out, I used David's tutorials to get my head around the new conceptual massing family.  I prefer it over the old way of creating masses, hopefully those tools will end up in the Family editor next version :o)

Enjoy!

Revit tools and Add-Ons

RT?  Sorry my Twitter "language" is taking over.

I wanted to share a post from the CAD vs BIM blog. 

Jay has listed the "current" available tools we can use with Revit, from various sources, really good information!

With the API open and people getting programmers to help out, (if they are not programmers already)  we should see this part of the Revit "market" grow.

Enjoy!

Revit OpEd: Central File Naming

Revit OpEd: Central File Naming

This is a great post.  Regarding the "traditional" way of naming a central file.  A key new feature in Revit 2010 is change our ways.

New things to come with this version of Revit, I hope to make the time to post about it all, but with many others already posting, I thought I'd start by linking to one I thought was good.

Este es un buen post, por Steve Stafford, y esta en Ingles.  Es con respecto a la manera tradicional de denominar un "central file."  Una nueva caracteristica en Revit 2010 que va a cambiar nuestra manera de guardar un archivo.

Algunas cosas buenas del nuevo Revit, me voy a dar el tiempo de empezar a explicar un poco mas para todos!

Ciao!

Revit 2010 - Create New Local

With the new version out (over a month now). I had to revamp my training handout.  I've already trained 6 new users!   I will now be having Friday sessions, which I'm calling Revit Review, to get our existing users up to speed, we'll see how that goes.

The ribbon has been good I think.  It is a little frustrating to jump aroudn between tools, but I like the icons and the tooltips, I tell all users to pay attention and use them as reminders of how to use tools they don't use often, hopefully I'm right and it's a good idea.

In looking at our settings and way of work, not much has changed, but there are a few new little features thrown in that help those of us that "cad/bim manage" get to look into.   Like the new option  "Create New Local."   Read this post in The Revit Clinic blog.   It is a good idea, but most users don't use the Open dialog to open any files, most prefer to find the file in windows explorer then they double click, something I don't approve or prefer but it happens.

As I find more "little features" I'll pass them on.  Oh yea, one I learned this week - Move the Options Bar  below the drawing window.  Just a right click over the area, doesn't make sense to do it but you can!

Autodesk Assistance Program - Programa de Asistencia de Autodesk

I wanted to share a press release by Autodesk:  Autodesk Assistance Program Offers Help to Displaced Workers

This is great help for those that are wanting to keep up to date with the software they are used to using.  I've had people ask me where can they learn Revit, close to home, not too costly, and here Autodesk comes to the rescue.

I hope many take advantage of this help.

Quiero compartir un comunicado de prensa de Autodesk:  Autodesk Assistance Program Offers Help to Displaced Workers

En los Estados Unidos hemos tenido mucha perdida de trabajo, pienso que tambien otros paises estan pasando lo mismo.  Esta es una ayuda para aquellos que quieren mantnerse al corriente con el software que utilizan. Gente me han preguntado donde pueden aprender Revit, y aqui Autodesk viene al rescate.

Espero que muchos aprovechen de esta ayuda.

Ciao

AUGI

Their forums are a great resource!  If you don't know what AUGI is and you've been using Revit for over a year, then you're missing out.  You should sign up and check it out.  Browse the forums once a week if you can't do it more often. You'll be surprised how much you will learn.  You'll start by learning about tools you didn't know existed, then by learning how to use some you thought were difficult, and finally when you're very comfortable with them how to use them differently.  That's always fun, to learn the different ways to use Revit, I've enjoyed that, maybe I should post on that kind of thing. . . we'll see.   Well don't forget to check it out!  www.augi.com

On another note, for those of us who are active memebers of AUGI, check out this blog post from Steve B 2D OR NOT 2D  AUGI needs our support, please check it out.

Graphics Settings (Otra vez)

It's been a while! But luckily because I've been so, so busy.

Back to my dilemma of which way to go, edit Lineweights or change Objects Styles.  I had to do both, in this case.  I was hoping to only have to change Object Styles, since most were set to the same lineweight, it was obvious change would be needed.  But then I noticed at some scales the lineweights had to change a bit, to differentiate a little more.

In the object styles, most of the default lineweights had to be bumped up.  Most of the settings were bumped up by one typically. Annotation is where most lineweights changed.  This applied to both my templates, which is a good start.

For lineweights, I didn't have to make too many adjustments, but added some scales that aren't set up, like 3/16" and change about four of those settings, which isn't too bad.  I didn't touch the Annotation lineweights, that would be counterproductive, there is no need to make things more complicated and add to the list of what is being managed by me and not Revit. 

I was hoping making changes to Object Styles would be enough but not so.  For one of my templates it didn't work because there are many smaller scale plan views that needed to not look so bland.  I'm only using about 6 lineweights but there is somewhat of a significant difference between them. For my other template details and section views are more important and those settings in Revit work fine.

My next task has been annotation symbols.  I hope to give a brief description of what I have so far, and how every changing it is, as I learn more cool tricks and tips.

Ciao