Paradigm Shift

Subscription Payback

Sean — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:45:25 +0000

Today certainly proved that being a subscription customer can get you some nice perks.Two new additions were added for Revit Architecture 2009 customers on subscription:

Revit Extensions for Revit Architecture, giving architects and designers some of the functionality previously only available to Revit Structure such as: Grid Generator, Text Generator, Model Freeze and Microsoft Excel-based Model Generation.
The ”Revit® Platform 2009 - Model Performance Technical Note”

This document is chock-full of lots of information on setup, configuration and best practices using Revit platform software, with specific sections on each discipline’s vertical product. Whether you use the “Architect”, “Structure”, or “MEP” flavors, there’s something for everyone. (more…)

Phil Read has a blog?

Sean — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:05:13 +0000

Yup… and there it is: http://architechure.blogspot.com

We didn’t think Phil would ever find the time to join the rest of us down here. Good luck in your new venture(s) Phil. We’ll be watching.

Taking the plunge

Sean — Thu, 29 May 2008 05:35:05 +0000

I, like some others out there have decided to join the Apple Mac community. I’m testing out my new MacBook Pro with VmWare Fusion running Windows XP Pro and Revit 2009. The key to running any OS in virtualization is to dedicate the right amount of RAM. Based on many recommendations, I’ve decided that the RAM and hard-drive speed were the two areas worthy of spending my dough. This arrangement runs so much faster than all previous workstation-quality laptops I’ve used. The beta version of Fusion 2 looks promising in that there will be more sophisticated (but still experimental according to the documentation) video drivers. I will post the results from my benchmarking tests in a future post.

Revit 2009 - more info

Sean — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:44:51 +0000

The website refresh happened recently, and you can now read up more on the new versions of Revit and all the Autodesk software that you use, and sign up for the new travelling roadshow - The Autodesk Experience Tour. In not too long you’ll be able to download a trial, for those not in the MyFeedback beta community - or if you’re on subscription it will be on it’s way to your door soon (exact dates for each product not confirmed yet):

http://www.autodesk.com/revit

http://experience.autodesk.com

Impression 2 available

Sean — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:35:20 +0000

If you are a customer on subscription for AutoCAD or Revit products (including all vertical applications aimed at the AEC markets), you will have access to the new Impression 2 available at no additional fee. This much anticipated second version has so many improvements, they can’t all be mentioned here but here are some of my favorites:

New pencil lineweights that mimic the real thing with hardness values like H, HB, and 2B, etc…
Import wizards for making the your works of art perform much faster
Block editor and a more comprehensive library of images for swapping out CAD symbols

Read Lisa’s final post, to find out exactly how to download your copy today.

Announcement of Revit and 3DS Max 2009

Sean — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 05:17:02 +0000

On the topic of rendering, as many folks asked (but I could not speak about) at AU… I can now say Yes; Revit Architecture 2009, and the other discipline-specific flavors, will have the mental ray rendering engine embedded. This is going to really enhance the workflow of the designer. And… as if that was not enough, the new 3ds Max Design 2009, which appears to be taking the place of VIZ has an excellent workflow taking models from Revit and adding that extra zing. With the ability to export to FBX file format, and having mental ray ProMaterials in Autodesk 3ds Max Design, importing the model geometry with lights, materials, and cameras will be more fluid and much more accurate. I wish I could show you some sample renderings, but that will have to wait a bit longer. For now, enjoy the press announcements and some of the other blogs mentioning the new products.

Visit the Autodesk World Press day website for more information on the latest product announcements: http://www.worldpressdays08.com

Other blogs talking about 2009 products:

http://pressreleases.autodesk.com
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines
http://bimandbeam.typepad.com/bim_beam
http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/blogs_ken/blog_list
http://rcd.typepad.com/rcd
http://autodesk-revit.blogspot.com
http://revitoped.blogspot.com

HOK GREEN BIM: Quick to the draw….

Sean — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:16:01 +0000

Well, looks like I was beat to the punch. I did intend to write up this workflow as described in my previous post and I should have had that one near complete, when I noticed THIS on the HOK Green BIM blog. This is a great primer on how to understand the concepts of moving from Revit Architecture to IES for analysis.

There’s plenty of other wonderful topics covered on this sustainable design dedicated site:

HOK GREEN BIM

CNET News.com: Sustainable Vision for Bay Area in 100 years

Sean — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:28:39 +0000

Here’s a very interesting video showing firms competing to envision what cramped cities may look like in 100 years. Hurray, flying cars at last! I wonder what will be powering everything though.

As part of the History Channel’s Future Cities Competition, here’s a sneak peak at the participants in San Francisco.

Video: Bay Area architecture firms compete for most realistic and sustainable vision - CNET News.com

It makes one wonder how we quantify all the claims of sustainability in design. I’ll explore a new toolkit by IES, released for Revit Architecture in a later post that may help.

Where did those tutorials go?

Sean — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:55:19 +0000

If you’ve loaded up Revit and were looking for the help-based tutorials and the associated training files to go along with them, never fear. Go to the menu bar and click Help > Tutorials, and there will be a link that takes you directly to the content downloads. The instructions are simple to download and replace your current help file, and choose Imperial or Metric content for the training files.

Where do I find the archive of Webcasts, presented by Autodesk?

Resource Centers to the rescue.
If you’d seen some of the web tutorials presented by Autodesk, but have lost the various URLs, this site that collects them all: www.autodesk.com/get2bim. Choose your discipline and click the “Learn More” button. You’ll have access to the full archive of all webcasts, and links to sign up for any upcoming events. This is a great way to find out about new versions of the Revit applications, and is full of time-saving tips and tricks.

Revit and Vista

Sean — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:44:47 +0000

Rumors abound about the compatibility of Autodesk software with Microsoft Vista 32-bit and 64-bit versions. A new paper documenting compatibility ~~will soon be~~ is now available to allow you to get the details, and make informed decisions for your firm’s needs. ~~An update to this post will reflect where~~ Here, you can download information from Autodesk Labs.

Revit Architecture 2008, for instance, is compatible with Windows Vista. Revit Architecture 2008 will run on 32-bit systems or as a 32-bit application on a 64-bit Windows Vista system. Currently there is no native 64-bit Revit Architecture application. Previous versions of Revit Architecture are not Windows Vista compatible. There has not been found any significant difference in performance between Windows XP and Vista when running benchmarking software.

At this time, I’ve been telling the customers I work with that if they want better memory management for applications, then go ahead and plan for Vista in you next round of upgrades. If you are finding that for very large projects, you need more than the 4GB limit of addressable RAM, try using Vista 64-bit, as this can dramatically affect printing and rendering times.