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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