Revit Architecture 2011: Mass Floors – Floor Area and Volume Calculations – Place Floor, Wall, Curtain System and Roof by Face

A tutorial on using Divide Surface, Surface Patterns and Adaptive Elements on Revit Architecture 2011.
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Fifth of the series of videos from Autodesk Student Expert group from TU Graz about Revit Architecture 2011.

This one is about using Mass Floors – Floor Area and Volume Calculations – Place Floor, Wall, Curtain System and Roof by Face. See below.


This is the last video on this series about massing from TU Graz. There are some more videos on creating walkthroughs and renderings. I'll post them here too.

via j.a.va.ro


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Revit Architecture 2011: Creating Curtain Panels from Patterns

A tutorial on creating curtain wall panels from patterns.
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Number 6 and 7 of the series of videos from Autodesk Student Expert group from TU Graz about Revit Architecture 2011.

These ones are about creating curtain wall panels from patterns. See the first video below.


And the next one here


One last video to come about massing, I will soon post also the videos about rendering, stay tunned!

via j.a.va.ro


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Revit Architecture 2011: Divide Surface, Surface Patterns and Adaptive Elements

A tutorial on using Divide Surface, Surface Patterns and Adaptive Elements on Revit Architecture 2011.
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Fifth of the series of videos from Autodesk Student Expert group from TU Graz about Revit Architecture 2011.

This one is about using Divide Surface, Surface Patterns and Adaptive Elements. See below.


More to come, stay tunned!

BTW! Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas or whatever you prefer.

via j.a.va.ro


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Happy Holidays!

Or as we say at home...
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Bon Nadal


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Revit Architecture 2011: Swept Blend Mass – Dissolve Mass – Spline Through Points

A tutorial on using wept Blend Mass,Dissolve Mass and Spline Through Points on Revit Architecture 2011.
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Fourth of the series of videos from Autodesk Student Expert group from TU Graz about Revit Architecture 2011.

This one is about creating Swept Blend Mass, Dissolve Mass and Spline Through Points. See below.


More to come, stay tunned!

via j.a.va.ro


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Revit Architecture: Louvers in Curtain Walls

How do you create Louvers in Curtain Walls
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A nice video on how to create Louvers on courtain walls. I am not sure if this is the optimal method, but it seems to work like a charm. It basically creates the louvers by creating a panel with a curtain wall pattern. See below.



I am trying to figure out if something similar can be done to create metal doors with louvers, will post about it.

Is this the best way to do it? Would you do it differently? Comment below, we will all benefit.

Via RevitOpEd


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Revit Architecture 2011: Reference Lines, Freeform Surface and Revolve Mass Tutorial

A tutorial on Reference Lines , freeform suraces and revolve mass on Revit.
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Third of the series of videos from Autodesk Student Expert group from TU Graz about Revit Architecture 2011.

This one is about creating Reference Lines , freeform suraces and revolve mass. See below.


More to come, stay tunned!

via j.a.va.ro


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Revit Architecture: How to Create Custom Stairs

A Tutorial Video from Autodesk University about creating custom stairs
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Was trying to create a custom stair for the prject I am working on with Revit and needed some help. I found this Lecture from Autodesk university 2009; it explains quite well all you need to know about the different elements and parameters to deal with when modeling stairs. Below is a screenshot of the presentation, click on it to access the video tutorial.


Cheers

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Revit Architecture 2011: Conceptual Mass and Blend Mass Tutorial

A tutorial on using massing tools and voids for creating quick site content and more.
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Second of the series of videos from Autodesk Student Expert about Revit Architecture 2011.

This one is about creating Conceptual Mass and how to add it to the model . See below.


More to come, stay tunned!

via j.a.va.ro


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Off Topic: New York Times interactive USA Map

See the population distribution in USA in an amazing map by hte NY Times.
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Just got this from someone on twitter and I thought I'd share. Maybe not directly related to construction, Architecture and Design, but since I guess there will be some urban planners out there reading this blog once in a while this might be interesting for them.


The image above is from Downtown Manhattan. Wondering where China Town is? Red dots show you the way!. It is pretty amazing to see how despite the great variety of peoples that USA has, the different ethnicities tend to be quite segregated and clustered.

The image below is from Baltimore, where I used to live. Being there it always surprised me how the city changed radically from one block to the next one. On the image below, see the change from green to blue along Greenmount Ave. and York Road.


Probably there are some issues created by this segregation that the local governments should try to avoid. one of my guesses in the case of Baltimore is that creating the huge areas of projects (public housing) tends to limit the possibility of mixing peoples in the city and increases segregation. But I am no specialist, let those who know more talk about it.

The two snapshots are taken form the NY Times US Census Map. It has many more options like Hosuehold income, education, etc. A pretty interesting tool.

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Revit Architecture 2011: Using Extrusion, Workplane and Voids

A Video Tutorial on how to creat mass elements in Revit for conceptual studies.A tutorial on using massing tools and voids for creating quick site content and more.
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This is the first of a series of videos from Autodesk Student Expert about Revit Architecture 2011. They are about massing tools

This one is about creating a mass element and using the extrusion tools and how to add it to the model and place it using the work plane . See below.


More to come, stay tunned!

via j.a.va.ro


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Location Based Management System (LBMS) and the Last Planner System (LPS)

Learn about LBMS and LPS with a free webinar by Vico
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Just got this on my mail and I actually joined the webinar. Next Friday December 17th Vico Software is hosting a free online webinar about the basics of LBMS and LPS. This seems to be just an introduction to both systems and their relationship.

LBMS is a system for planning and controling the project, using the technique that long ago helped build the Empire Estate Building in just 11 months. Vico Software has incorporated this system in their planning an control software package called Vico Control. If you want to learn more about LBMS, besides joining the webinar, you can check this link, and if you really want to get serious about it you can get this book.

The Last Planner System was developed by the Lean Construction Institute to help control building production. There are a couple of good papers available out there too. This one by Gregory Neil Associates and the Doctoral Thesis of Herman Glenn Ballard.

Both systems are worth learning if you are in the Project or Construction Management fields.

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Photoshop: Cropped Image Disappears

What to do if your crop tool makes the image disappear? Easy, easy...
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Was trying to crop one of the images for one of my posts here and I encountered the problem that when I used the Crop tool, instead of doing the crop operation, photoshop was turning my image into 1 single pixel. I had no clue what was wrong, tried to restart the program but the problem persisted. Finnally I realised that the problem was that for some reason, on the Crop Bar, on the width box it said "1 px". Well, simply removing that and leaving all boxes blank solved the problem.


An easy solution, but took me a while to find out.

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Revit Architecture: I-Beam Framing Joins

Creating clean Joins for welded I-Beam framing is relatively easy using Revit, you just need to know the right tools to use.
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I have been working on a Building with metal structure basically made of Metal I-Beam and I-Columns and some diagonal framing with the same I-Beam shape. I-Beam and I-Columns were no problem, but having the Framing look properly didn't seem that easy. After I modeled it using Structure-->Framing I got this.


This was of course not what I wanted, I wanted the I-beam framing to reach teh columns and the beams and to be cut to fit on each corner. I thought there was some automatic tool to clean up the join, but I couldn't find it (maybe there is, I am a bit new into this still...). I found a work around using the Opening by Face option found in the Home tab of the ribbon (Revit 2011 Architecture). To use this option we must firs extend the I-beam fare to pass through the corners, like this.



After we extended the element using the Shape Handles (the two arrows looking away from each other) we must use the Opening by Face tool. With this tool, we select the I-Beam, and then we draw the opeing (the part we want to erase. We do it twice, once for each corner, like in the image below.


At the end, we will get the desired result.


Not sure yet if this is the best option to do this operation, but it certainly works.

UPDATE: I just learned that there is a better way to do this. If you use the Cope Tool in the Modify Tab, this process is quite automatic, and it actually tends to give better results. See the image below.



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AutoCAD: Problems with LMAN Command. The solution is CMDDIA

Having problems when running the LMAN command? Maybe this helps
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Joe asked me ercently about a problem he was having with the LMAN Command.

"When I enter LMAN at the command prompt the following happens:
Command: LMAN
Initializing...
Current layer state: *UNNAMED*
Enter an option for layer states [?/Import/Export/Save/Restore/Delete/reName]:
It will not bring up a dialogue box. I tried filedia,that doesn't fix it"
.

He found himself the answer and told me the problem was the settings of the CMDDIA system variable. This SV has a similar use to FILEDIA about which we already talked about before.

According to Dailyautocad "CMDDIA system variable determines whether dialog boxes open or not, during the commands that which use file dialog boxes. If its value is 1, then dialog boxes open while the commands work. If its value is 0, then dialog boxes do not appear and the required parameters are entered from command line"


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Most Commonly used Design Software

See which software packages are being used by more people
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After analyzing part of the questionnaires of my master thesis I created this table showing the answers to the question "Which software package do you or your colleagues use regularly?" There where a total of 93 completed questionnaires from several locations and from a varied type of stakeholders, so the sample can be considered quite representative. I was surprised though by the high percentage of respondents who answered that they or their colleagues used Revit regularly. Here maybe is where the sample has some flaws, and people applying BIM concepts were more prone to answer the questionnaires than those who don't. Hard to guess. In any case, here is the table, take your own conclusions.




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SketchUp Plugins: Instant Road

A great plugin for creating roads extremely quick
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We saw last week a post by Vali Architects to create roofs very quick. They have a couple more interesting plugins. One of these is called Instant Road and seems to be a great tool to create Roads adapted to a Terrain. The video below shows part of its features.




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New Google Earth 6

New GEarth 6 with new features is out for download
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The Official Google Blog has recently announced the launching of the new version of google earth. 3D trees and integration with Google street view are some of the main added features. See the intro below.



You can download the new version here.

via Oriol Llevat.

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Free Unit Converter

How many square meters are there in a square foot? Need a unit converter? Here you'll find a good one.
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When working or gathering information on projects in countries the use different units, we sometimes need to convert the units to get an idea of the dimensions of that project, or simply to compare that project with others that use another system.

I am not going to enter into the discussion of why US has not yet adopted the metric system, so take this simply as a post to get a converter for as long as this is needed.

The one I am relying on for a long time is called "Covert for Windows" got it from my last job and it is actually freeware. below you can see the interface with all its different possibilities. Pretty light weight and easy to use.


You can get Convert at the author's page or download it directly here.


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SketchUp Plugins: Instant Roof

A great plugin for creating pitched roofs extremely quick
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I haven't posted much about SketchUp lately, but I just saw this Plugin and though it was worth posting about it. The video says it all. Easy roof creation. Pretty amazing the level of detailed reached with just a few steps.


You can download the Instant Roof Plugin directly at ValiArchitects website. They have some otehr pretty cool plugins, I'll post about them on the next few days.

Via the official Google Sketchup blog.

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The evolution of Scholar research on BIM

More and more scholars are lately doing, and publishing research about BIM. See the evolution.
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Based on on my previous post where I published a table with the Journals that have published articles about BIM and that showed an increase in scholarly research in recent years on the topic, I created a chart to better show this. Because the table was quite dense, I decided to simplify it to better show the evolution of this research with easy numbers. Here it comes.


This is part of my Master Thesis, so I'd appreciate if anyone who wants to use this can reference to it as it is shown below, or at least link to this page so people can find the updated Reference.

Broquetas, M (2011) 'Using BIM as a Project Management Tool.
How can BIM improve the delivery of Complex Construction Projects?', Master thesis, Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences.

This is still a working title, if I finnally change it, I'll let you know

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Autodesk Project Butterfly is now AutoCAD WS

Project Butterfly from Autodesk has been officially released as AutoCAD WS.
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Not so long ago, I posted about the Autodesk project to run AutoCAD on the Cloud. Now the project has been officially released and the new name is AutoCAD WS. If you had an account on project Butterfly ur files will still be there, but you will need to log in directly from www.autocadws.com.

The cloud application is free and it is intended for dwg file sharing. As I mentioned in another post, it can also be used to convert files from the latest versions of Autocad to the older one you might have installed in your computer.

A Great initiative by Autodesk. For more information check this great post on the topic.

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How to find a Job with the current market situation

The AUGI salary survey comes with some podcasts with advice on how to find a job.
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If you are in the process of finding a new job, you might be interested on this post. The September / October 2010 Issue of the AUGI World Publication, comes with several podcasts with advice on how to find a job. You can access the full publication clicking on the image below, or you can access the podcasts directly on the links at the bottom of the post. AUGI stands for Autodesk Users Group International and is the official Autodesk Users Group.


The above mentioned podcasts can be accessed directly from the links on page 5 of the Publication or for ease of use I am copying them here.
  1. Where to look for job postings
  2. Salary survey and how to use information from many sources to get the best overall picture
  3. The importance and benefits of giving as well as receiving (networking)
  4. Good practices with resumes and cover letters
  5. Interviewing skills
  6. Presentation, public speaking, your internet presence

The titles I used here are taken from the Mistress of the Dorkness post by Melanie (Stone) Perry about the topic because the original ones (part 1 , part 2, etc) where not very descriptive.

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Definition of BIM

My own definition of BIM. What do you think?
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I need to come with my own definition of BIM for my master thesis. For now this is the one I am using for I think it explains in a general way all the aspects that BIM (as a process not only as software tools) embrace.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the set of tools and processes for the creation and maintenance of an integrated collaborative database of information regarding the design, construction and/or operations of a building, with the purpose of improving collaboration between stakeholders, reducing the time needed for documentation of the project and producing more predictable project outcomes.

What do you think? How would you define the term?


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Revit Architecture: Set Up Project Units

When you start a project you might want to set up the Project Units the way you want. This is how to do it.
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Starting a project is important to set up the units to display the way you want. to do so, it is pretty simple. Simply go to the Manage tab on the ribbon and select Project Units (see the image below).


After clicking here, you will get a dialog box, where you can modify the number of decimals, unit type, currency, display of symbols, etc. One of the basic things to set up when starting a project, pretty easy to do though.



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AUGI AEC Edge available online

The AUGI AEC Edge publication about BIM is available online
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Quoting from the AUGIAECEdge website: "AUGI | AEC EDGE is an exciting new print and digital publication designed to enable architects, engineers, designers, and builders using Autodesk AEC products to be more productive, better informed and help keep them at the top of their game".

It has content related to Autodesk AEC products, specially (at least this issue) about BIM and Integrated Design. Worth taking a look at it. I guess this simply means more reading to do for my master thesis...

You can access the online version or download the full resolution PDF or a lower resolution version.

via (BIM)x

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Project Vasari: Free Lite Version of Revit?

A new project from autodesk labs has gone live. A free lite version of Revit? Let's take a look at it!
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During the last weeks there has been a lot of noise on the Revit / BIM blogging community about one of the latest Autodesk Labs Projects. The project is called Vasari. Some bloggers see it as a sort of Revit LT, more oriented for the initial phas eof design. I am still downloading the sowftware from the Project Vasari autodesk labs website so I have no opinion myself yet. So for now, i'll leave you with this preview video and a link to a great article by David Light describing the technology.


Looks promising, soon more.

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New BIMStorm Washington DC-13514

New BIMStorm coming up.
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BIMStorm is an initiative sponsored by Onuma, Inc. As the name hints, it wants to be like brain storming sessions based on BIM. It basically tries through case studies to have teams from all over the world collaborate and find solutions for a specific case study using BIM, open standards and collaboration. From the BIM Storm Website:
BIMStorms have been the perfect environment to learn how to BIM in a big way. You do not have to be a techie to participate, but we certainly welcome everyone. You will learn how collaboration on projects at an unprecedented way will make you more relevant in the 21st century. Best of all this is all free or close to free. Many owners and agencies have watched what happens in BIMStorms.

This time, the BIMStorm also focuses on the sustainable challenges that the Executive Order 13514 of the White house wants to face. So if you think this is for you and want to give it a try, go to the BIMStorm DC page and read more or sign up. Below, you can see a video were Kimon Onuma presents what BIMStorm is at GeoWeb 2008.




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CAD Addict at The Daily CatchUp

CAD Addict has been featured at The Daily CatchUp. Thank you guys!
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The Daily CatchUp is a reference blog for all news related to SketchUp. I've been following them for a long time and of course linking back to some of their great resources posted there.
I just saw that they had featured CAD Addict on one of their posts. I was wondering were did all those new visitors come from, and now I know.
This post is just to thank the friends at The Daily CatchUp for the post and to welcome all those visitors who might have stoped by CAD Addict coming from there.
To everyone else, I am back, i've been some weeks off on a trip, but soon more content will pop up here.
Cheers!


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Just a few more answers please

Those who haven't filled the form, it would help me a lot if you do!
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I just need a few more answers to complete my survey on BIM and Project Management. Please if you haven't filled the form, please do it, it will take less than 10 minutes.

Click on the image below.




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The Business Value of BIM in Europe. SmartMarket Report

McGraw-Hill Construction has published the SmartMArket Report about BIM in Europe.
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McGraw-Hill construction has been researching the adoption rates and business value of BIM. On previous editions, the BIM Smart Market report covered the adoption and business value of BIM in North-America.

I just read that there is also a SmartMarket report on BIM based on analysis, surveys and key studies from Western Europe (UK, France and Germany). I had been looking for something like this for a long time for my master thesis. I am on the precess of reading it so I'll just share the link to it and main chapters. I think it is a vey interesting read for those thinking to transition to BIM or to understand better the ROI of the investment they have already made.



The main chapters of the report are:
  • Adoption
  • Overall Value of BIM
  • Internal Business Value of BIM
  • Project value of BIM
  • Player value of BIM
  • Case Studies
  • Industry and Technology Perspectives
  • Thought Leader Perspective


Click on the image above to access the Report.

via Autodesk-Revit Blog.

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BIM in Spain

A group for BIM professionals in Spain.Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Just discovered the LinkedIn Group Colectivo BIM España. I am researching on the implementation rates of BIM in Spain and came accross this group. It is good that despite the low penetration of BIM in Spain, there is people trying to push for it.



They also have a website where they share news about BIM in Spain. I added them to my BlogRoll so I can keep an eye on what is going on in Spain related to BIM.

Good work!




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