Revitstore

If you are looking for Revit content, especially UK content, its worth visiting Revit Store.

http://www.revitstore.com/

Revit Store has been setup by Ian Howard, who used to work for Revit Technology as their EMEA Trainer before Autodesks acquisition of the company. Ian has worked in the Construction Industry for the past 30 years and 15 of those have been as a professional Trainer and Consultant. He original qualified as a Structural Technician and later moved on as an Architectural Technologist. He had a fundamental role in the early days in the creation of Autodesk Revit content, helping drive the UK market.

Ian's business is now based around Training and Implementation of all Revit platforms. Also he is a Content Developer creating numerous Content Family Libraries for a large international software vender and a number of Architectural and Structural companies.

Take a look at his website, also check out the tricks and tips pages.

Where is my command in Revit 2010?

This was posted last week by Nicholas Iyadurai and is now complete. This is a tool which shows you where your Revit tools have moved in the new Revit 2010 UI; this is excellent and is really worth a look.

http://revitize.blogspot.com/2009/04/where-is-my-command-in-rac2010-update.html

Creating a new local copy

This was posted on Steve Staffords blog, if you haven't already seen this, you should take a look. Paul Kirill, a Revit MEP user with HCYU and Associates have created a application which creates new local copies for you and its very slick. More details can be found here.....

http://tech.kdcad.com/?p=151

Revit 2010 portfolio

Oh yeah...if you haven't already heard...2010 has been released. :-)

Revit Architecture 2010

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=12828862

Revit Structure 2010

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=12856705

Revit MEP 2010

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=12856705

What a mesh!!!!

I don't know how I missed this one! But Guillermo Melantoni, the Senior Product Manager for Autodesk, has started a new blog dedicated to AutoCAD's 3D capabilities. This is a useful read for anybody working with AutoCAD and Revit, especially around the freeform.

http://whatamesh.typepad.com/

In fact it was Guillermo who pointed me in the direction of this article posted on the Autodesk Area website, which shows the workflow improvements between 3dsMAX 2010 to AutoCAD 2010 and finally into Revit.

http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/blogs_ken/blog_detail/3ds_max_design_2010_improved_dwg_interop

Revit 2010 opinion poll

I would like to thank everybody who voted on the recent Revit 2010 opinion poll. As the poll is now closed, these are the results and it makes interesting reading. This is an extremely small snap shot of what is an ever growing Revit community and Autodesk may not be that concerned to be honest, but it does highlight a couple of points.

On the question relating to "What do you think of Revit 2010?", we had a total of 60 votes.

• 42% (23) Thought this was great release.
• 20% (12) Thought this was a awful release.
• 38% (25) Thought this is a good release, but Autodesk missed an opportunity.

On the question relating to "Will your company deploy Revit 2010?", we had a total of 55 votes.

• 55% (30) said "Yes" they would deploy 2010.
• 18% (10) said "No", they would not deploy 2010.
• 27% (15) said "Not Sure" whether they will deploy 2010.

The majority of those that responded, 42%, thought this was a great release. But 38% thought although it was a good release, but once again Autodesk had missed an opportunity. Now my view on this is that some of the on going issues such as text editing, stairs, railings, site etc could have been resolved. However, I guess these are big projects internally to the development team and will take time to address, but to be honest I don't believe a good quality text editor can be that difficult to implement?? I am sure this would have helped many of the user base who just use Revit as it was intended, a BIM documentation tool. 20% thought that 2010 was a awful release!

More worryingly was the answers relating to whether your company will deploy Revit 2010.The majority that responded, 55%, said that they would deploy 2010. But 18% said that they wouldn't. Is this signs of a worrying new trend? My experience over previous releases has been that users can't wait to get their hands on the new release. Are we starting to move into an update every other year mentality which seems to haunt AutoCAD? I hope not, but I do wonder if the interface overhaul has been too much for some to stomach? The new UI will evolve. When the Ribbon UI first appeared in AutoCAD 2009 it received similar complaints by users, some liked it, others hated it. However, in the case of AutoCAD at least you could enable a classic mode. The AutoCAD 2010 releases sees modifications and improvements to the UI which fine tunes it, I'm guessing this will happen with Revit, which is possibly why some are considering waiting until 2011. There is a cost to deploying software and this release will probably be the most costly for firms to deploy. When bottom lines and productivity are being watched so carefully CAD managers / IT directors are probably considering the value of the move to 2010.

I guess its a question of inevitability. Eventually you will have to make the leap to the new UI, if you decide to stay on the Revit platform. I'm sure users will complain and you will be rushed off your feet preparing new training material, deployment plans, resolving support issues etc, but at least by the time 2011 arrives you can focus on new features again, rather than worrying about where your tools have disappeared to.

Free Autodesk software for students and the unemployed

This is odd post, but with the current economic challenges I thought I'd share this with you. Originally posted on the WorldCADaccess blog, it would seem that Autodesk have recognised that these are difficult times for architects and designers. So they have now extended there Autodesk Assist Program to the unemployed. More detail can be found here....

http://students6.autodesk.com/?nd=assistance_home&lbon=1

The following applications are included within the program - Revit Architecture, AutoCAD, Civil 3d and Inventor Professional.If you qualify, you can download and use the software for 13 months, there is also access to online tutorials. Details on whether you qualify can be found on the above link.

Revit 2010 - Concept massing enhancements

With the Autodesk Revit 2010 release due very soon, I thought I'd share these videos with you on the new concept massing features. This only covers fraction of what is now possible. But I put these together quickly the other evening whilst travelling home on the train.The new concept modelling tools are one of the major highlights of this release and as well as being fun to use, they are easy to learn and  provide far more flexibility when designing building forms in the early stages. Gone are the extrude, sweep, resolve and blend tools; instead direct manipulation is the new way to work.I know our designers just can't wait to get there hands on this release!

This first video shows how you can extrude a simple rectangle and then push and pull faces and edges. The the new add edge tool then allows you to split a face.

This second video shows how to use points and reference lines to manipulate and control surfaces.It is particularly important to learn how these work, as it will allow you to develop geometry which is non-destructive.In future posts I will look at other elements of the new concept tools. Enjoy. :-)