All Things BIM / DC

From Between the Lines We are rapidly approaching the big pre-release alpha and beta season for Autodesk . There are already a couple Autodesk products in testing now and you can sign up to participate by registering at http://beta.autodesk.com . By joining almost 70,000 Autodesk customer that participate in hundreds of pre-release feedback projects every year you will improve the quality of the products and you become a vital extended member of the product teams and help us shape the direction of the products you use, or future products and solutions you may need.  The Autodesk SketchBook Pro team has a beta in progress and you apply and can get more details from the ONLINE APPLICATION

From BIM & BEAM If you are an Autodesk Subscription customer with a seat of either the Premium or Ultimate edition of Building Design Suite, Plant Design Suite, or Infrastructure Design Suite, or a seat of Revit Structure, you get the benefit of using the Structural Analysis for Revit cloud service. Structural Analysis for Revit uses the power of Autodesk 360 to conduct the computationally-heavy task of structural analysis directly from your Revit software but without locking out your system while it processes. The service consumes two cloud credits each time you use it. In case you are still learning about Autodesk’s cloud credits, each seat of Subscription on one of the software packages outlined above gets 100 cloud credits per year and if you run out of allocated cloud credits they are available for purchase for 100USD for 100. You can find out more about cloud credits and metered usage here . The service is powered by the industry leading Autodesk Robot Structura

BIM Aficionado: Revit to CAD - Nothing to Fear : We are well on our way to our goal of 50% DD on our new 'GA Apartment' BIM project, with a well developed model, fifty sheets set u...

This hotfix improves product stability when placing Spot Elevations within Section Views. Make sure that Update Release 3 has been applied prior to adding the hotfix. Verify that the build number of Revit 2013 is 20130531_2115. The Readme contains the latest information regarding the installation and use of this update. It is strongly recommended that you read the entire document before you apply the update to your product. For your reference, you should save the Readme to your hard drive or print a copy. Revit2013_SpotElev_Hotfix.zip (zip - 14553Kb) Readme (htm - 81Kb)

Repost from The Revit Blog Can't see it in the view? Here's 33 reasons *maybe* why Seems like finding missing items in Revit is a day to day condundrum. I have a routine of things to run through but I had never made a list before. This one was sent over to me by a colleage the other day and is Courtesy of Dave Jones' post over at www.revitforum.org   Highly recommend printing it out or sending it to everyone in your company. Can't see it in the view? Here's 33  36 reasons maybe why I found this somewhere online back when I started using Revit and still find it useful. Hope someone else can use it also. Checklist: 33 steps to being able to 'find stuff' The object or category is temporarily hidden The object or category is hidden in the view The object is being obscured by another element The object's category or subcategory is hidden in the view The object is outside the view's view range The view's far clip depth is not sufficient to show th

Repost from Inside the System We’re excited to announce that Autodesk has launched the Building Performance Analysis (BPA) Certificate Program. This free online course for architecture and engineering students teaches the building science fundamentals for designing high-performance buildings. Through self-paced online tutorials, quizzes and Autodesk software exercises, the BPA Certificate Program gives students the skills to help drive an industry-wide transition to performance-based sustainable design.   What’s in the BPA Certificate program? Seven modules that include climate analysis, sun path studies, building massing and orientation, solar radiation analysis, wind analysis, and more. Clear “introduction to software” section within each of the seven modules Small clusters of content and quizzes that students can complete in short amounts at a time Case-based examples and questions Content focused on energy fundamentals and modeling with detailed Revit models Application of

BIMForum / McGraw Hill Prefabrication Survey

Pullman Melbourne Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia Thursday 29 - Saturday 31 May 2014 We are now seeking abstracts from individuals interested in speaking at the event. Note that this current call for abstracts is for the Australasian event only, and separate calls for abstracts will be made in relation to other events. You are free to submit abstracts for a single event, or for all, once the North American & European abstract sites have opened... Increase your profile in the industry - speak at RTC Australasia 2014. This is your opportunity to share your knowledge and expertise. Online abstract submissions close on Monday 14 October 2013. Click here for further information relating to the call for abstracts.

From Beyond Design You've heard my friend, Pete Billante talk about the cool features in Autodesk® BIM 360™ Field for the iPAD and how they've helped thousands of construction project managers, superintendents, and field engineers to manage quality, safety, and commissioning processes. Now, it is time for you to see the power of BIM 360 Field first-hand. I'm excited to announce that Autodesk is kicking off a five-city roadshow (in the United States) on BIM 360 Field! The roadshow runs from September 17 to October 17. The first event is in my city (San Francisco) and is taking place in the Autodesk Gallery . By attending one of the events, you will gain a better understanding of how BIM 360   Field enables you to combine mobile technologies at the point of construction while supporting 2D and 3D workflows . During the three hour event, you will learn how mobile devices and cloud-based services are transforming the construction industry and how you work every

​When working in Revit, real world objects are broken up into several different object categories. For the most part, these make sense. But we can get into trouble when you use a Roof or a Wall object to model something other than its intended purpose. For example, it is not uncommon for us to want to use a Wall object to create bathroom our module office furniture partitions. Bathroom and module office furniture partitions are walls so why not use a wall? The main reason is related to material and element quantities. If the Revit model is being used for estimating takeoffs, then the estimator without knowing could count the bathroom or module furniture walls as real walls in this takeoff. The best practice is to create a Revit family for these types of real world objects. Initially it might take a little longer to create, but in the long run, it will provide easier editing and flexibility.

Revit OpEd: Paul Aubin Book Survey Seeks Input : Paul Aubin recently mentioned that he's working on a new book, title TBA . The title is one of the things he's asking about in the s...

When is the last time you thought about the Press & Drag function? If you are like me, it was probably when I read Steve Stafford's Revit OpEd blog when he discussed Revit 2014's selection features For Revit 2013 and previous, the Press & Drag (Figure 1) button is located at the bottom left corner of the Revit User Interface. It can be enabled and disabled by clicking the checkbox. Figure 1 - Press & Drag (Revit 2013 and earlier) In Revit 2014, Press & Drag has been renamed Drag Elements on Selection (Figure 2). It can be enabled and disabled by clicking on the icon (Figure 2) or by clicking on the Modify dropdown button and checking or unchecking Drag Elements on Selection (Figure 3). Figure 2 - Drag Elements on Selection Figure 3 - Turning on and off Drag elements on selection By default, Press & Drag is checked (enabled). When checked it will allow you to Press and Drag any object with one click. In short, it is a shortcut to moving an object.

​In my last post, I discussed the "process" I use to for creating Electrical models in Revit MEP. That in turn resulted in a lot of emails about HVAC, Piping and more Electrical questions. So I will start with defining the HVAC process I utilize. Keep in mind, every project is different and project deliverables and staffing requirements need to be accounted for when establishing a workplan for specific projects. This is a general process overview. These are my process steps for getting started using Revit MEP for Electrical: Develop a communication plan with the other design disciplines, especially the Architects. There needs to be solid and consistent communication about what is going on with the design and the model. You don't want to be spending time designing if the Architect plans on changing things. This is the most important item on the list! Add Mechanical equipment and air terminals to the model. Create the air systems (supply / return / exhaust). Cre

--> Accessing the Autodesk Database Link *Update 09/03/2013 If you use the Revit DB Link, you might notices that in the Rooms table of Access, the value for Level is not reporting the Level Name. Rather it is reporting the the element id of the level, not the name. if you select level 1 in the model and go to Manage > Inquiry > Id of selection, you will see the ID for Level 1 is 311. You can verify this by opening the Levels table in Access. Thanks goes out to Chris Aquino of Autodesk Support Team for determining the issue. *Original Post If you have ever spent time trying to populate a schedule in Revit, you quickly realized that Revit is a horrible data entry tool. Bad news for us those, our projects require us to present a great deal of information, and sometimes that information is in the form of schedules or we may want to populate the model database with additional information for a COBie or similar deliverable that provides data that can be useful for the operatio

An interesting question came to me this morning from a using that is transitioning from AutoCAD to Revit MEP. He wanted to know where to begin and how to create an Electrical system. When I training, I like to focus on the Process, how Revit works rather than just teaching what the buttons do ( Buttonology ). You can know what all the buttons do, but if you don't understand the Revit MEP BIM process and you continue to work like you would using AutoCAD, it is going to be difficult at best to be successful. These are my process steps for getting started using Revit MEP for Electrical: Develop a communication plan with the other design disciplines, especially the Architects. There needs to be solid and consistent communication about what is going on with the design and the model. You don't want to be spending time designing if the Architect plans on changing things. This is the most important item on the list! Place your electrical equipment in the model. Define the Distr