All Things BIM / DC

Revit OpEd: Room Renumbering - Autodesk Labs Plug-in of the Mo... : "For those of you that have downloaded this plug-in and starting to use 2012 in production, there is now a version for 2012 too. Poking a..."

Noce post from Revitit.com You are doing an install and you want to convert the .exe SP into a .mps. See the video here

In The Know: Should The Nation's Unemployed Be Buying New Apple Computers?

When Does Design End and Construction Begin? New Dates: July 19-21, 2011   |   Chicago, IL A consensus is emerging about the benefits of tapping the expertise of consultants, contractors, and facility managers during the early phases of a BIM-enabled project. The intent is to achieve design decisions that are both early and well informed to avoid costly later revisions. But does this necessarily imply that all design effort should be concentrated exclusively at the start of a project? Are late design decisions necessarily detrimental to budget, schedule, and quality? Are changing client requirements and construction volatility such that early decisions are not only impractical but also to be avoided? If you have direct experience related to the impact of early or late design decisions, we are very much interested in hearing from you. To provide additional clarity, submitted presentations should consider addressing some of the following design related topics: Is the idea of good early d

We are looking for Architects, Drafters, Designers and CAD Managers who use Revit Architecture or other products to design stairs or railings, to participate in a usability study of some Autodesk software concepts. The sessions are approximately 90 minutes long. If you are interested in participating, please take a few minutes to fill in this short questionnaire. Participants who are a good match for our study will be contacted within a few days. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/stairs_railings Your involvement helps make our products better. Thanks, The Autodesk User Experience Team Howayda Affan UX Recruiter User Research AEC Industry Group             

Ran across this post on the blog BIM Apps that as the name suggests details BIM Apps and related topics. Ashrae Viewer - Plugin of the Month on Labs Hi folks, I was just notified of a new Revit MEP add-in that works with both Revit 2011 and the upcoming Revit 2012. You can find details on Scott's blog and you can download it from the bottom of this page . Take a stab at it and tell us what you think. Also what are your thoughts on other Plugin of the Month that we should look into for Revit, Navisworks or any other BIM products?

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Subtle - Illegal Characters : "I'm not referring to characters in a play, novel or movie but the characters we use in filenames. Revit will complain if you attempt to use ..."

Have not used the product, but I received a call from a colleague mentioning the RevUp Rendering application.

Revit OpEd: Tip - List of All Levels via Grid Generator Extens... : "This tip is courtesy of Daniel Stine, author of several Revit books (listed in previous post). If you are familiar with the Grid Generator e..."

MEP-BIM-Guru: Pipe Volume Schedule : "I will go over how I set up a pipe volume schedule in Revit MEP. Pipe Types: For this example I have the pipe types set up with one pipe ..."

With the release of the Revit 2012 platform, the first issue I found was with network deployments. The issues I found were that there is no method to define the Default Project Template. After installing the Deploy, the New Project Template it points to is 'Default.rte'. There is also not a method for altering the various library locations. A few emails to the factory and I was provided with the following information. This is procedure is definitely a work-around and hopefully the actual network deployment is corrected soon. Customizing Revit.ini Rick Foster 4.22.2011 The Document Revit.ini is created at install time using data from an xml document. By modifying that document you can distribute customizations with your deployment. Identical copies of this document are potentially located in four places in your admin image: \x86\RAC2013\inifile.xml \x86\RAC2013\Program Files\Autodesk\Root\Program\Setup\Cache\inifile.xml \x64\RAC2013\inifile.xml \x64\RAC2013\

Revit OpEd: Tip - Control Visibility of Image via Size Paramet... : "You can't control the visibility of an image file like you can other elements in a Revit family, such as mapping a parameter to the 'Visible..."

Teresa Martin of a [BIM] New World blog has a good post on Search and Selection sets for Navisworks.  Thursday, April 14, 2011 Search and Selection Sets Part II Alas! It has been a month or two since Part I. Here is part II, of the long awaited sequel! As I mentioned in Search and Selection Sets Part I ( Post Dated 1-31-2011 ), Search Sets are the gold in Navisworks. This is where you get to drive. This is where you have all the control. Search Sets , as mentioned are based upon common data properties such as size, name, type, file, units, etc. This is why they are so powerful! If you know the common property to search for, you work here is done! And most importantly, you can re-use searches in different projects if they search for similar properties. As an example, imagine a file imported from Revit (via *NWC Export). Revit, being the wonderful property based BIM format that it is, contains loads of property data (both instance and type). Now, envision some o

Apr 14 - Autodesk Offers Europe BIM Survey Report

If you use Revit, there are are probably a few names that come to mind like Steve Stafford of RevitOpEd . Well, today is his Birthday! Happy Birthday. Help Steve celebrate by attending the Revit Technology Conference and making him buy you a drink.

Revit OpEd: Keynote Application Update : "Steve Faust is getting the word out that he has updated the application he created to improve our interaction with Revit Keynoting feature. ..."

Publisher Add-on - Automated publishing of NavisWorks project files DatalinkTools - Interface between NavisWorks models and the design data and documentation Reporter Add-on - Report generating functionality for Navisworks models Surveyor can be used with or without DataTools to view Property Value attrributes associated with objects in Search and Selection sets and then to report on any of these Property values in Excel. So anyone using Excel can view project data for MTO and analysis. DocuLink+ enables any external document to be viewed simply by linking it to a Property value attribute associated with one or several objects. This broadens the value of NavisWorks® by making available a much wider range of data which is of interest to many more people than just design engineers or project managers. Navistools DataManager - unique interface between Navisworks models and the design data Navistools Reporter – generate material take-off / components reports directly from Navisworks

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Echo - Installing 2012 Products : "David Harrington mentions this morning that it is easy to overlook the option to customize your installation. See that little 'down-arrow'..."

2012: Where to find your Autodesk Revit 2012 Product key You want to know the product key for your Autodesk® Revit® 2012-based product.  Autodesk's 2012-based software requires both a serial number and product key to successfully activate. Product keys are used to differentiate software sold on its own from those sold as part of a suite. Ensure that you select the correct product key in order to successfully activate your software. The product key is provided along with your serial number in the following places: If you received physical media, the product key is on the reverse of the package along with the serial number. Emails from Electronic Fulfillment notifying you of your new serial number also include the product key. Contract administrators can log on to Subscription Center to check for their serial number and product key. The Autodesk Business Center (ABC) can provide this information. Their toll-free number is 800-538-6401. Revit 2012 - based product keys: 240D1 - Rev

Revit OpEd: KarelCAD Revit Release Comparison via PDF : "The gang at KarelCAD have shared some pdf documents that provide an overview of what features set each release apart, for Revit 2010, 2011 &..."

Since the original posts, Limitless Computing has released the add-on for Revit 2012.  Add-in Enables One-Click Rendering to the Cloud While Simultaneously Modeling in Revit Boulder, CO – Feb. 24, 2011 – Limitless Computing, Inc., a leader in providing rendering cloud services, today announced the release of CloudRender for Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011. The CloudRender add-in enables faster Revit rendering by off-loading the computer intensive process to LCI’s high performance systems. Instead of tying up local computers, users continue to work in Revit Architecture while the cloud renders their selected views. “CloudRender is a timesaving tool,” said Dr. Errin Weller, Principal of LCI. “Now Revit users can utilize the power of the cloud as easily as using their local machine and continue working without being interrupted by the rendering process.” As a member of the Autodesk Developer Network, LCI helps AEC firms increase efficiency and productivity by harnessing innovative and p

Received this email from Autodesk We would like to thank you for your interest in Project Newport, and we are thrilled to announce that Project Newport efforts have been factored into Autodesk® Showcase® 2012 real-time 3D presentation and rendering software, which is now available! Try it now and see how quickly and easily you can turn your Autodesk® Revit® Architecture and AutoCAD® designs into compelling imagery, movies, and immersive presentations for interactive design reviews, stunning marketing materials, and convincing sales pitches. Watch our demo video . Try it now for free! "Showcase is a true game-changer when we present architecture designs to our clients. It brings 3D rendering to a higher level of interactivity, and provides the ability to explore materials and environments on-the-fly. I don’t have to come back to the office and press ’render’ every time I want to show my client another material alternative. With Showcase, the time savings are incredible." - Ged

The RevitClinic has a great post on changing Revit 2012 to use either offline or online help. Wax On / Wax Off: Changing Revit 2012 to use offline or online help You may have noticed the new wiki help for Revit 2012.   http:\\wikihelp.autodesk.com\revit  Just in case you don't have a internet connection, or simply want to use a local copy of help instead, a few changes to the Revit.ini can help. Check out our previous post on the Revit.ini for more information about the 2012 ini file. In the Revit 2012 ini there are two lines about help in the [Documentation] section: [Documentation] UseHelpServer=1 HelpBrowser=0 If UseHelpServer is set to 1 Revit will first look to the online wikihelp, if it cannot find a internet connection, it will pull up the local help instead.  If you set UseHelpServer to 0 the local help will always be used. If HelpBrowser is set to 0 Revit will use your systems default internet browser (whatever that may be).  If you set it to 1, Revit will use

Revit OpEd: Help? Helped! : "I got an email this morning alerting me to the fact that my post yesterday was a 'perfect storm' of sorts. My post came on the heels of othe..."

Autodesk has opened a survey about the Revit Surver. The survey is intended for BIM Managers, Project Managers, IT staff, and other individuals that would primarily setup the Revit Server network in a firm.  It is NOT intended for end-users of Revit Server.   Please take 10-15 minutes to fill out the questionnaire and give us your thoughts.   In addition, please feel free to forward the link to other firms or staff that have implemented or are considering implementing Revit Server.  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RevitServerSurvey

 Work is almost complete all the Introducing Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 book. You can pre-order on Amzaon.com now.

Revit OpEd: Help? : "Observations about the new Wiki Help for Revit and other Autodesk products: Internet Explorer 8 - some things just don't work. The controls..."

Revit OpEd: Autodesk University 2011 - Call for Proposals is O... : "Dept. of Echo - Autodesk University - stole their post entirely... ...snip The 19th annual Autodesk University is coming up at the end of N..."