Revit and 3dsmax workflow document

Anybody who is either considering or even using Revit and 3dsmax together may want to take a look at this whitepaper released by Autodesk. It provides some very useful tips when working with both products.

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/revit_to_max.pdf

New Builds of Revit portfolio released

I am sure many of you will be aware of the Jan 2008 bug that has hit the Revit portfolio. To cure the problem Autodesk have released new builds of Architecture, Structure amd MEP build(20080101_2345). They can be downloaded from:-

Architecture
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=9262388

Structure
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=9339705

MEP
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=9262907

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008!!

I would just like to thank everybody who has read my blog during 2007!!! I hope you have found it useful and I look forward to posting more words of wizdom during 2008!

I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Extension for Revit 2008 - "Static analysis of Slabs".

The guys over at Robobat have released a new Extension called the "Static analysis of Slabs". Anyone who went to AU would have seen this new tool demonstarted at the AEC breakfast briefing. The extension can be downloaded from the following location...

http://www.extensions4revit.com/n/e4r/847/53

You will also notice that you will need the update Extension Engine 1.8 to use this tool, which will also mean you need to reinstall all your existing extension!! Thankfully Robobat have seen sense and released the Extensions as a complete package, thank goodness for that!!!

http://www.extensions4revit.com/n/e4r/0/52

Finally, if you have issues installing the latest engine follow this guidance from the Robobat support teams after I discovered a minor bug in the installer.

"When I try to install the new extension engine, the package discovers the old 1.6 engine and asks if I’d like to uninstall the old version first.
If you say “yes”, nothing happens and the installer drops out in the background without warning. If I then go to add remove/programs to try to uninstall the Extensions for Revit v.1.6, the uninstall button does nothing. " To resolve this.

Open registry editor.

Find: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

Remove {65DC83F9-6B74-4F70-9927-4851AEE116F5} registry

Then run installation of Revit Extensions 1.8.

New Build of Revit Structure has been made avaiable

A new Build of Revit Structure 2008 has been made avaiable for download from the Autodesk website. It has been released to address some issues which 3rd party developer partners had highlighted (beams creation with NewFamilyInstance) in the Revit Structure 2008 previous SP3 build (20071109_2345).

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=9262026

The Beam and Beam website suggest that its not worth downloading unless you are using the API tools.

http://bimandbeam.typepad.com/

However, Steve Stafford has reported that it does resolve an issue he highlighted when when using the copy/paste tools applied to concrete beam families.

http://revitoped.blogspot.com/

AU2007

AU2007 is in full swing, its bigger and better than last year. With over 10000 attendees worldwide descending on Las Vegas this is the biggest AU ever! The opening technology session this morning was introduced by Lynn Allen with a keynote speech by Autodesk CEO Carl Bass, followed by CTO Jeff Kowalski. The renowned designer Yves Béhar presented his vision for value design and showed a number of signature award winning concept design http://www.fuseproject.com/ including the Jawbone headset, xo-1 $100 laptop and LED lamp for Herman Millar. The audience where sat in a circular formation with the central stage with screens position in the middle. The backdrop also consisted of projected screens surrounding the audience. The attendees where teased with possible future Autodesk technologies which where projected onto these screens with high tempo bass driven beats!! It was a visual and audible delight! The audience where also shown a new preview technology product called Newport, which is a rendering and animation tool for the novice user. It was introduced as a tool for the casual user and can be learnt in a lunchtime! It doesn't look like it will replace 3dsmax but it will fill the gap for users who want to do high quality visuals but do not have the time and patients to learn complex products like Viz and Max. This was excellent, but no time frame for this as a usable product was given.

What’s this all to do with Revit you may ask? Well the eagle eyed may have spotted some Revit futures, but it was caveated with the normal Autodesk statement that these are concepts only. :-) Hmmmm lets see what 2009 release has to bring. However, what was shown at the AEC technology breakfast was a new Extension4 Revit Structure which allowed you to do analysis directly within Revit Structure. Time frame was not given and this was the first time it has ever been demonstrated.