NWC Export Utility

Autodesk have released a separate install for Navisworks exports, which means you no longer need to install Navisworks in order to export to NWC. However, as a growing number of Autodesk utilities, it is only available through Subscription Center (requires subscription login). In any case, direct link here.

PS Thanks to Håvard Dagsvik for this info! It seems he has other qualities than a truly remarkable name.

Windows 7, Revit and corrupt files

Since I installed Windows 7 last summer I've had growing problems with corrupt Revit files. These files cannot be renamed, moved or deleted, and hence the problem grows when the amount of these increases. I've tried 5 or 6 different programs for deleting corrupt files but only yesterday found one that worked for me: the latest version of EMCO's MoveOnBoot. It's free and you can find it here.

Drag and drop

Did you know you can import dwg files into Revit using drag and drop from Windows Explorer? After some questions from Revit Landscape Maestro Åge Langedrag I had to go on and read the Revit Architecture User's Guide, and there on page 1387 it says:

"In addition to using the Import CAD and Link CAD tools, you can import CAD files using drag-and-drop from Windows® Explorer onto a model, drafting, or sheet view of Revit Architecture."

Mastering Revit Architecture 2010

In case you didn't know, Mastering Revit Architecture 2010 by Greg Demchak, Tatjana Dzambazova and Eddy Krygiel was released a while ago. 744 delicious Revit-filled pages with an impressive photo gallery with many Norwegian contributors should make most of my readers "run and buy", as we say in Norway.

The creation can be obtained from amazon.com for the symbolic prize of $37.79.

Revit Inside

I browsed through Steve Staffords blogs today and discovered to my horror that the list of Norwegian companies using Revit still is limited to the one (DARK Arkitekter) I tipped Steve about two years ago. I understand that this blog has more value for US companies, but still encourage my fellow Norwegians to spend the two minutes emailing the author and getting the free, if little, attention. Link!

Update 2

Last night Autodesk posted Update 2 for Revit Architecture, Structure and MEP. Reading the Web Update Enhancement List I realize most updates are related to performance and stability. Which is good. I guess. Download:

Revit Architecture Update 2

Revit Structure Update 2

Revit MEP Update 2

Hollow Core Slabs modeled as beams II

After some further testing on the subject in my previous post, I have decided to go back to using regular beams when modelling hollow core slabs. Seems "Complex and Trusses" were quite unflexible when it came to a lot of things, like openings. Besides, a line in the Update Enhancement List of the recently added Update 2 reads "Improves model performance when dragging a beam end".

Hollow Core Slabs modeled as beams

Ever had difficulties with joining and cut back of hollow core slabs modeled as beams? I read through a couple of forum- and blog posts today, and decided to try out the family template Metric Structural Framing - Complex and Trusses.rft. instead of the classic Metric Structural Framing - Beams and Braces.rft. And it works great! Read the posts and try it out: http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=107767 http://bimandbeam.typepad.com/bim_beam/2009/07/framing-templatehow-to-disable-auto-setback.html http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=66779

The Building Coder

Because my colleague Håvard Dagsvik has asked a super-smart question to Mr. Jeremy Tammik, creator of the blog The Building Coder, I'm forced to write a post about it. The blog seems to be dedicated to making add.ins in Revit, and I suppose you can pick up hints and tips about development there. Mr. Tammik works for Autodesk and according to legend speaks Swedish.

Oh, the link.

Shift+Arrows for Move

During a recent webinar I came to mention my newly favoured way of moving rebar symbols and tags, by using the keyboard arrow keys. I said to my dear listeners that the keyboard arrow move is zoom sensitive, that is the move distance for each key press increases when you zoom out.

After the webinar a colleague told me that you can hold Shift while pressing the arrow keys, and thus increase the move distance.

I've been using Revit for three years know. How embarrassing.

3dsmax-models in Revit

A very good friend sent this link to me yesterday. According to David Light a new Connection Extension for 3dsmax 2010 and 3dsmax Design 2010 subscription customers now enables the user to export models to SAT, a format both Revit and Inventor imports. Download it from subscription.autodesk.com. Thanks Tanja!

Summers gone

After my longest vacation ever, I'm back and have plenty of updating to do. This is what has happened over the last months:

First and foremost, Autodesk have released Update 1 for all their Revit 2010 products: RAC, RST and MEP.

RevPac 1.0 (Beta) has been introduced by CADWERX on this website. It's a set of productivity tools for Revit (all 2010 platforms).

A hotfix for NavisWorks, resolving issues with openings after Revit export, can be downloaded from here.

Norwegian structural engineers Rambøll are one of Norways most experienced Revit-using companies, and here's a (norwegian) article about them. Also, one of them, Magne, has started his own blog. I fear it will be me reading his blog, rather than the opposite way ;)

Tip on looking for missing items in Revit, from always present AECbytes. Written by Dan Stine.

Download and try (until January 13th) a Solar Radiation Technology Preview for Revit and Ecotect from Autodesk Labs here...

Watch Guillermo Melantoni playing with meshing in AutoCAD and Revit here!

Can you run Revit on Mac? Answer.

A movie clip, describing how to achieve clay renderings, is available here.

Tips on reducing file size of FBX files exported by Revit.

Impressive Revit project using 2010. Unknown language :)

HOK (David Light) explains Hosted Points in Revit Architecture 2010 here.

An Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 Conceptual Design white paper can be downloaded from here. (Recommended).

AEC-Area have some interesing tips&tricks on Revit.

Strusoft finally made a plug-in for Revit in their FEM Design (widely used in Norway). Try it here, and finally..

...Simon Gillis has started a Revit blog focused on Autodesk's sustainable design toolbox.

I'm sorry for the poor update post, but it was the only way I could ever start again!

Rotate Tag

I've never been able to rotate a tag using the Rotate command. It's eighter horizontal or vertical, nothing in between. Today I discovered that using Span Direction Symbols solves the problem for Slab Tags. I posted a reply to an AUGI Thread here, but later found that you don't need to use Align Perpendicular and RefPlanes, just use the regular Align command.

PS. Does, for some weird reason, not work when the aligning line is perpendicular to the Symbol.

IE8 and Revit x64

There seems to be a problem with installing Revit 2009 and/or 2010 x64 and Internet Explorer 8 on the same OS. Please read more on David Baldacchino's blog.

Questionmark?

Reading my last posts over again, I realize I've grown too much affection to using questions in the blog post headers. I will stop this at once. Maybe.

Two links today:

AUGI World Issue 2/2009 has a lot of both interesting and dead boring articles to offer for Revit users, mainly on the 2010 releases. I am a structural engineer myself, mainly occupied with Revit Structure, but found the article on MEP more interesting than that os RST. Perhaps you'll have a different experience. Find out here.

I have mentioned Autodesk Ecotect Analysis before, and today I was informed of these training packages for download.

Revit job?

My company Cad-Q apparently think I'm too lacy, because we now seem to be looking for a new Revit consultant. If my boss is looking for my colleague or replacement, I don't know, but I nevertheless encourage you to take a look, and apply if you feel you could share an office with me (I'm quite noisy).

Revit on facebook?

If any of you, my dear few readers, are on facebook, you should check out both the Autodesk Revit group, and the videos posted there. I myself had a look at this interview just now, and find great inspiration in watching other people test the limits of Revit, integrated design and BIM.

PS: Autodesk Ecotect is available for download! Learn more about sustainable design here.

Ribbon?

As a follow-up to Magnes comment to my last post, here's the final blow to those hoping for a Classic UI-button in Revit 2010.

Help for those struggeling with the Ribbon Interface here and here.

My fellow Reviteer, Lars Ribbum at DARK, says he likes the new interface. I consider calling him Lars Ribbon from now on. Come to think of it, I remember back in December 2008 when I and Mr. Ribbum were at AU in Vegas, Autodesk invited my companion to participate in some kind of 2010 lavel of stress test. They wanted to see how his physical reaction to a new interface was, and they must have misspelled when they failed to call it the Ribbum Interface.

2010

First of all, sorry for the long scilence. On April 2nd I became father to my first son, and he does not seem to care very much that Revit 2010 is in the stores. Ah well, hopefully he'll learn... (I have a strange feeling I'll say this many times over the coming years).

In any case, yes Revit 2010 is available. Download, install and try out new features:

www.autodesk.com/revitarchitecture

www.autodesk.com/revitstructure

www.autodesk.com/revitmep

There are many exciting new features in this release, especially on data exchange (.adsk for instance), but what everyone will notice first is the ribbon UI. Loved by some, hated by many, I predict that it will indeed grow on you as time goes by. It better will, beacuse efforts to find a command called "Bring back my old UI", or something similar, have beared no fruits at all...

Guide to sustainable design

In his blog BIM and Beam, Nicolas Mangon yesterday posted a link to a new Autodesk site - a guide to sustainable design.

Read his blog post here, and visit the site here.

What has this got to do with Revit? Architects and engineers using Revit will very soon be able to utilize different external tools for making their projects sustainable. For instance, this spring/summer Ecotect will be available in the Norwegain market.

For more information on sustainable design using Revit, I suggest the latest issue of AUGIWorld.

Revit 2010!

Revit 2010 is around the corner, and I predict many will struggle the first days of using it because of the brand new user interface. My only advice is to give it a chance, and be patient. The ribbon is growing on me!

Here are some highlights from Revit Architecture 2010:

Conceptual Design Enhancements

·         New and innovative conceptual design features provide easier-to-use tools for freeform modelling and parametric design, and the ability to support the earliest design analyses.

·         Sketch freely, create 3D forms more quickly and manipulate forms interactively.

·         Prepare models for fabrication and construction with built-in tools for conception and clarification of complex forms. New tools to divide, pattern and panelise designs make forms more buildable.

Improved User Interface

·         New streamlined user interface helps users find favourite tools and commands faster, locate lesser-used tools more efficiently and discover new features more easily.

·         Customisable Quick Access Toolbar allows one-click access to a user’s favourite and most frequently used tools.

·         The ribbon feature is organised around the way designers work, enabling users to find the tools to accomplish tasks without searching all over the user interface.

·         Consistent user interfaces between most Autodesk software applications allows users to move between programs more smoothly.

Performance and Interoperability

·         New native 64-bit support enhances the software’s ability to handle large projects and improve performance and stability for memory-intensive tasks such as rendering, printing, model upgrading and file importing and exporting.

·         Expanded API (application programming interface) support.

·         Export to AutoCAD® Civil 3D® software and import from Autodesk® Inventor® , while preserving parametric data.

·         gbXML (green building XML) improvements allow users to help streamline the collaboration process with external analysis applications.

Elsewere, Lachmi Khemlani has written a long (suprise) report on the entire Autodesk 2010 portfolio here. Extremely interesting and well written, but pick up a cup of coffee before you start reading.

Last, Autodesk's own press room have released som material a while ago here.

Reinforcement in Revit Structure

Kent W. O. Schmidt has taken matters into his own hands, and started working with reinforcement in Revit Structure. I must say, I'm quite impressed!

New posts on Revit Landskap

Åge Langedrag has posted some illustrations of his quite impressive landscape projects. All modeled and rendered in Revit Architecture. Check them out here, and tell him he's talented!

3ds Max Design 2010: improved DWG interop

A friend a while ago sent me a link to this blog post, showing AutoCAD 2010, 3ds Max Design 2010 and Revit 2010 interoperability. Maybe a bit off topic for users of only Revit, but surely of great interest of those obtaining the new AutoCAD Revit Architecture Visualization Suite (puh, what a name). Also, just looking into 2010 must be of interest for everyone!

Hovedprosjekt TFB06

My fellow Revit-enthusiast Lars Tore Johnsen sent me this link tonight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKmhXdBj1tU

Congratulations on your project, Lars Tore!

Revit thumbnails on Vista

Many users of Revit on Windows Vista have had issues related to thumbnail views of families in Windows Explorer. For some, like me, this issue solved itself at some point of time. For others, like Kjell Guttulsrød at boligPortalen, who asked me about this, salvation is close at hand:

Click Vista's Start button In the Search box, type Cmd Right-click on Command Prompt in the search result listing Click “Run as Administrator" Type regsvr32 "c:\program files\revit architecture2009\program\revitpreview.dll" The above "correctly" registers revitpreview dll.

Thanks to Mark Brandstatter for posting this at AUGI.

Please note that the path can differ from installation to installation.

A quick family tip

When adding Length parameters between Reference Planes in the Family Editor, it sometimes can be hard to make Revit understand which Ref.Plane to move when the parameter is changed. I tried adding Witness Lines in different order, Ref.Planes in different order, changing Ref.Plane Is Reference, adding name, and even setting Origin, but nothing seemed to give good and consistent results. Until I tried the easiest (and perhaps less intuitive) of them all: Pin and Unpin the Ref.Plane.

AutoCAD Revit Architecture Visualization Suite

On Sunday Autodesk announced they now have bundled several programs into one "AutoCAD Revit Architecture Visualization Suite", containing Revit Architecture, AutoCAD Architecture, 3ds Max Design and Navisworks Review. Read more here.

The simplest of all tricks

You know when you accidentally pull one of you toolbars in Revit, and all commands move around in a bizzare fashion? Like this:

Now, instead of dragging all tollbars back in place, you can right click and turn off/on Text Labels, and all toolbars will fall back into place.

Design Visualization - White Papers

For white papers on design visualization, click on www.autodesk.com/3dsmaxdesign and the on White Papers. Two Revit-related pdf's and lots of good stuff for Max!

Revit Structure External Tools Updates

Yesterday a new update of Extensions4Revit was published to the Subscription Center. It seems to me that there are no real feature updates to the existing extensions, except to the Compare Models command, which now includes more detailed information about the models it compares. This I must admit is a real blow to us waiting for Slab Reinforcement and an improved Analysis Integration Enabler, but I both hope and think we'll see new updates in the not so distant future. You'll might be able to see the Feature Summary here. Please let me know if the link doesn't work.

Oh yeah, and the new release includes russian and japanese languages (finally!).

Better news to those not doing reinforcement and Robot integration (who might that be?), come in the form of the brand new Bridge Modeling Toolkit, this also available through the Subscription Center. This is the first in a series of bridge modeling extensions, and I belive we'll see regular updates over the next year. It's worth mentioning that this is not just a new command in External Tools. From the download page:

The Bridge Toolkit for Revit® Structure 2009 software provides information, tools, content, and datasets that will better enable structural engineers and drafters to address infrastructure build-out as it relates to bridges. Specific components include:

Box Girder Methodology and Datasets

Precast Girder Methodology and Datasets

Bridge Components .rfa Content

Bridge Modeling Using Revit Structure 2009 Software (Tips and Tricks)

All todays news came to me from Autodesk employee Ralph Pullinger, who also provided me with a fix to the problem I've had with Revit Structure x84 WU3 and RPC content. Read about both the problem and corresponding solution here. Thank you Ralph!

Mondays updates

Check out this site for Revit Architecture tips & tricks: http://www.cadplan.co.za/revit_tips_tricks.html

During AU I got a chance to see Project Newport, a product David Light describes as a gaming engine for architects, while my colleague Paal Vonka sees it as NavisWorks for architects. It's sort of a project viewer that shows rendered architectural models. In any case, here's the link: http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/newport/

Look out for updates!

Got this link from a friend today. Apparently a friend who speaks spanish (I don't!). Nevertheless, the images are cool!

Revit Market

This AUGI publication ticked in today:

http://www.augi.com/publications/hotnews.asp?id=1896

It's about Revit Market, a newly started marketplace for quality Revit content, mainly for architects at this time. Hence the full name Revit Architecture Market. There are about 200 Revit families available for (chargeable) download today. I guess we'll see if this turns into a success, like Ms. Bousquet predicts. I will certainly be keeping an eye on this site.

The company behind this is Turbosquid, well known for their 3D-content for visualization.

Autodesk University 2008 at AECbytes

For those missing updates from yours truly on AU2008, I'll provide you with far better input. The allways trustworthy AECbytes have provided an article on AU in general. David Baldacchino's blog "Do U Revit?" also provided us with daily updates which can be interesting, even two months after. Here's Day 1!

AEC Advantage, Inc.

Steve Stafford writes the blog I read most often, by far: RevitOdEd, but his contribution to the Revit community goes further. From his site aecadvantage.com we can download Revit-files and documents that should be interesting for anyone working with Revit.

Autodesk structural multimedia presentations

Some time ago I came across these videos, showing how the previous Robobat products work. Both Robot Structural Analysis 2009 and AutoCAD Structural Detailing 2009 integrate information with the Revit Platform.

Video tutorials and webcasts are perfect for monday mornings, so please excuse me for bad timing.

CADUzer

Found a new Revit-blog with lots of useful tips and tricks, actually through LinkedIn, some days ago: Scott Rosenbloom's CADUzer. Allthough the latest blog entry is way off-topic, you'll find lots of useful stuff after a short scroll. Unless you're still thirsty for more Obama-hails of course.

Robot Structural Analysis 2009 SP1

Autodesk have released Service Pack 1 for Robot Structural Analysis 2009, and allthough the service pack will install automatically if you have Robot, it can be worthwhile to check out the Web Update Enhancement List.

Autodesk Seek & BIMWorld

Finally back from Christmas-mode! Blog-updates will come more rapidly from now on, starting with the "news" that Autodesk will aquire BIMWorld.

On December 15th, Autodesk anounced that they will buy BIMWorld, and merge it with Autodesk Seek, to improve this site's position as a marketing solution for building product manufacturers and as a source of content for designers.

Check out Seek for new content!

Revit 2009 Benchmark for performance

This benchmark test I find useful for selecting hardware for my Revit.

Notice the difference in rendering time between 2 and 4 processor cores?