ASCENT Blog

What’s New in Autodesk Revit 2014? – User Interface and Selection Updates

By Martha Hollowell

It is that time of year again… Spring is here (at least in my part of the world) and so is the latest version of the Autodesk Revit software. Each year Autodesk smooths out any kinks in the software, improves existing tools and adds new tools that improve productivity and accuracy. This year is no different, with several user interface and selection upgrades, significant changes to modifying schedules, a new exploded view tool, and discipline specific enhancements to architectural stairs and railings, MEP systems, and structural reinforcement. This article looks at several of the user interface and selection updates that impact all flavors of the Revit platform. We have included these updates and many more in each of our Revit training guides that are out now.

Docking Palettes

To save screen space, you can now dock the Properties and Project Browser palettes on top of each other, as shown in Figure 1, and then use the tabs at the bottom to switch between the two. If you are using the Autodesk Revit MEP software, you can also add the System Browser to this group.

Figure 1

Material Browser Updates

The Material Browser and Material Editor are combined in one dialog box with tabs identifying the various options. You can sort the materials by class as shown in Figure 2. The dialog box has also been simplified with options to show or hide the Library list and collapse the Material Editor panel.

Figure 2

Non-Rectangular Crop Regions

Non-Rectangular Crop Regions answer a request that has been made by numerous users. Instead of having to work with complex masking regions on top of a rectangular callout you can now sketch a callout or modify plan, elevation, and section crop regions so they follow the contours of the portion of the building that you want to display, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Selecting Elements

Another update that makes it easier to work in the Autodesk Revit software is the ability to modify how elements are selected. You can now specify whether or not you can select linked files, underlay elements, and pinned elements. You can also set the option to select elements, such as walls, floors, and roofs by face, rather than just by the edge. The Drag elements on selection option can also be toggled on and off using this interface. These tools are available in both the Select panel under the Modify command or on the lower right of the Status Bar as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4

Conclusion

While at first glance none of these enhancements look like big changes, they add up to a more functional and adaptable way of working with software that is already a pleasure to work with.

What’s New in the Autodesk® Inventor® 2014 Training Guides - Part 1?

By Jennifer MacMillan

Happy 2014! Yesterday was release day for the latest version of the Autodesk® Inventor® software. ASCENT has been busy over the last couple months updating our curriculum getting ready for launch day. We are pleased that this year we have updated three of our Autodesk Official
Training Guides (Autodesk Inventor 2014 Introduction to Solid Modeling, Autodesk Inventor 2014 iLogic, and Autodesk Inventor 2014 Sheet Metal Design) and they are now available.

Instead of getting into what functionality is new in the software, I wanted to explain what has been changed in these three training guides. The aim is to help those instructors that use our content get ready for their 2014 classes. The following is a summary of the major changes.

Autodesk Inventor 2014 Introduction to Solid Modeling

• The and   icons are used in the training guides to help identify functionality changes.
• All images that show the Application menu have been updated to reflect Inventor’s new Application Menu branding.
• The sketching content in Chapters 2 and 3 now explains the new sketching tool for slots.
• In Chapter 5, the discussion about Using Existing Geometry was moved until after extruded secondary features. This new location makes more sense in terms of students understanding how to create a secondary feature first and then learning how to reuse geometry as part of those features. Additionally, improved models and images have been included to help explain the Minimum Solution and Taper options that can be used when creating an Extrude.
• In Chapter 6 an explanation has been provided about how you can now create fillets on some edges even if other fillets within the set fail.  This is a nice enhancement!
• In Chapter 7 the new work point creation option for Center of Sphere has been included.
• In Chapter 10 the workflow for creating a section view in parts and assemblies has been updated to reflect the changes in the software.
• The majority of the changes in the training guide occurred in the assembly environment. In Chapter 16, the new workflow for assembling the first component is explained along with the new Symmetry constraint. With the addition of Joint connections to the software, a new chapter (17) was added to cover all of new connection types that can be used to constrain components. Included in this chapter is a new practice to support learning this functionality. The model is of a propeller with engine and in my opinion, looks great and should be fun to work with. This is definitely a larger chapter that will take some time to teach. You might want to evaluate whether you have time for the practices that are marked Optional.

• In Chapter 18, the Free Move enhancements for assemblies have been incorporated into the training guide.
• It is now possible to create and maintain a Raster View in the drawing environment until you explicitly set it as Precise. This reduces view regeneration time when working with large assembly models. This is covered in Chapter 25.
• In Chapter 26, the new functionality to split drawing tables into multiple individual tables is discussed.
• In addition to all of these, small wording changes were made throughout.

 Autodesk Inventor 2014 iLogic

• Other than small wording changes, the only change that occurred in this book was that the Constraints Snippet category is now called Relationships. Additionally, two new functions have been included in this category to create iLogic rules that deal with the new joint connections. All screen captures and references to this newly named category and details on the new functions have been updated in this training guide.

Autodesk Inventor 2014 Sheet Metal Design

• The sheet metal design functionality did not change with the release of the Autodesk Inventor 2014 software. Therefore, no major changes were made to this training guide. 

As always, ASCENT welcomes any comments you might have regarding these or any of our training guides. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments (education@ASCENTed.com).

We still have a few more Autodesk Official Training Guides to release for the Autodesk Inventor 2014 software, as well as guides for other 2014 software products. If you aren’t aware, ASCENT publishes a roadmap with their estimated release dates. Please visit www.ascented.com (under Featured Items) for the latest roadmap.

Jennifer

Top Ten eBook Benefits

By Michelle Rasmussen

  

The first time I heard that ASCENT would be offering eBooks, I thought to myself, “How will eBooks work in a classroom environment?  I was so used to handing students a book and asking them to open up to a specific page in order to complete an exercise that I could not imagine how they would take to this new technology.  Would they accept it? Would they like it? Or would it be just one more thing to learn in an already intense learning environment?  Now that we have eBooks, I LOVE them!  I cannot imagine life without them.  They have so many benefits above and beyond hard copy books so I decided to share with you my opinion on their benefits today.

eBook Benefits:

1. Carry as many books as I own in my iPhone, iPad, iPod, Kindle Fire, Laptop, or PC. (Saves baggage fees at the airport)
2. I can load each book up to four times.  Once each on two mobile devises. Once each on two computers.
3. I can disassociate my books from a PC, Laptop, iPad, iPod, or iPhone that died and associate them to a new device without losing my notes and highlights.
4. I can highlight anything I want using the highlight tool.
5. I can remove unwanted or no longer needed highlights from my books. (You can’t do that with a hard copy unless you use a pencil.)
6. I can add clearly written notes anywhere I want.
7. I can quickly find my highlights and notes.
8. I can sync my highlights, notes, and last page read to any device.
9. I can share my highlights and notes with others of my choosing.
10. I can get immediate feedback from other instructors on how to improve the books I write.

Are you using eBooks? Share your notes with courseware@ASCENTed.com and let us know what improvements you would like to see in the courses you teach.

Improved Instruction using Interactive Simulation

Improved Instruction using Interactive Simulation

By Lisa Kemp

Have you ever wondered whether there was another way of helping students to practice what they've learned through training material? Standard practice is to provide exercises in a printed format and have the students try them while they are in class and you are available to answer their questions. However, what happens if they're doing the exercises outside the class time? They might become frustrated if they get stuck, can't get the correct answers, or have questions and don't have quick access to an instructor to get the answers. A good alternative is to use interactive simulations of the exercises. These enable the student to try the exercises on their own and then follow the same steps in interactive simulations, which help them to understand where they went wrong if they had problems and to increase their understanding of the training.

The interactive simulations guide the students through the steps in the exercise by prompting them to click various buttons and icons, enter text, and otherwise simulate the steps they would follow when doing the exercise using the actual software and printed material. In addition, prompts display feedback and suggestions if the student makes a mistake.

The steps followed by the student are displayed throughout the interactive simulation, enabling them to follow their progress throughout the exercise without needing to refer to the printed material. Tips and best practice recommendations can also be displayed, providing additional instructional information. You can also add quizzes to help the student confirm whether they've clearly understood the material.

Another good thing about the interactive simulations is that they do not require the student to download specific software files or indeed to have access to the software. This can be useful if they are working on a computer on which the software has not been installed, or on a tablet or other mobile device. This provides the student with a great deal of flexibility when learning.

To create an interactive simulation, you can take a printed exercise as shown in the following example...

 

Example of printed exercise pages

...and convert it into an interactive simulation as shown in the following example:

 

Example of interactive simulation

Click here for an example of an interactive simulation.

This conversion process can be done for many different types of training materials, from software training guides through to training in corporate procedures. It can take the dry, printed version of the documents and create lively, interactive training, greatly improving the learning experience. If you want to introduce your students to a different way of accessing your training material, contact us to request the creation of a custom interactive simulation.

A logical addition to the ASCENT Inventor lineup!

By Jennifer MacMillan

Drum Roll Please…. ASCENT’s newest title, Autodesk Inventor 2013 iLogic, is now available! I hope that this helps you to learn and teach your iLogic classes. I wanted to share the following few comments about the class:  

• From the opening chapter, the use of iLogic is presented as a progression through a workflow, and to do so I have included flowcharts. In chapters that cover concepts in the workflow, the flowchart is at the beginning of the chapter. This is to help learners see what they are going to be learning.

• The first chapter is an overview with the goal of giving students an understanding of the power of iLogic. When teaching, I always like to get students into the software as soon as possible. The challenge with iLogic is that students really need to know a lot before they can create a rule to drive change in the model. To allow for this, a part and assembly model that already has Rules and Forms has been provided. Using a Form, students drive change in the model. The aim is to have students say “Wow! That’s cool. How do I do that? ”. This exercise can also be shown as a demo, or you can do both.

• The Getting Started with iLogic chapter covers the interface, an introduction to functions, and the entire rule creation workflow. The exercise for this chapter enables students to review rules, run them, and  start creating new rules. The challenge with this exercise was that specific functions have not yet been covered in enough detail. Therefore, I used a simple iProperty function to change the material in the model. More information on iProperty functions is covered in Chapter 4.     
• Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are focused on part, assembly, and drawing functions. Exercises are provided in these chapters to practice using these functions. Chapter 8 also covers miscellaneous functions that did not fit with the flow of the earlier chapters.

• An entire chapter and exercise is dedicated to triggers and forms to teach students how to efficiently execute the rules and make parameter changes in the model.

• The final chapter in the training guide is a Project exercise. It contains three projects to provide extra practice with incorporating iLogic into part, assembly, and drawing documents. Each project provides background on what is required as well as limited instruction. Students are required to use the knowledge that they have obtained in the class to meet all of the specified design intent. Completed models are included with the Class Files. You will definetly want to become familiar with this before heading into a class because there is little to no hand-holding in the instructions.

• The iLogic Design Copy tool is covered in an appendix. There is no exercise, but you can use any of the completed class files to demonstrate this functionality.

• This course is meant to be an introductory iLogic training guide. External rules and VB.net training are not covered.  

As always, ASCENT welcomes any comments you might have regarding this or any of our training guides. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments (education@ASCENTed.com).

I hope that you like the course and have fun learning iLogic. It really is a logical choice for design automation. (Yes.. I had to say it!)

Jennifer

What’s new in Autodesk Revit 2013? Onebox...

By Martha Hollowell

Every year Autodesk rolls out a huge number of updated programs. It is getting harder to keep up with what it coming out. But there are always “flagship” products, such as AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, and my favorite, Autodesk Revit.

I used the name Autodesk Revit without any of the discipline specific endings on purpose. If you are using the Autodesk® Building Design Suite, you will find the new Autodesk Revit “Onebox” option. This is Architecture, Structure, and MEP rolled into one program. Any company, especially those with all three disciplines working together, can benefit from this. Training centers can also benefit from this by having to load only one version of Revit even if they are teaching different disciplines.

The naming structure for the tabs and buttons has been streamlined to suit this option. For example, the Home tab (shown in Autodesk Revit Architecture 2012 in Figure 1) has been exchanged for discipline-specific tabs of Architecture, Structure, and Systems (shown in Autodesk Revit 2013 in Figure 2).

 

Figure 1

Figure 2

You can set up the interface of the Autodesk Building Design Suite version of Autodesk Revit for your specific discipline. Since all of the tools for these disciplines are installed in one copy of the software, by default, all of the tools, templates, and sample files are available as shown in Figure 3. Most users only need their specific set of tools and the interface can be tailored to meet those needs.

 

Figure 3

The ASCENT training guides are designed to be discipline-specific and therefore the graphics match the discipline of the course. For example, for Autodesk Revit Architecture classes the tabs and default templates are setup for architectural projects while the Structure and MEP courses show their tabs and templates.

If you are teaching a discipline-specific class and want to match the “OneBox” interface to the discipline we include a document at the beginning of each book called “Setting Up the Interface”. This outlines the changes you need to make to the interface so it matches up with the graphics in the book.

How to Set Up the Autodesk Revit Interface to suit your needs.

1. In the upper left corner of the screen, expand   (Application Menu) and click   .
2. In the Options dialog box on the left pane select User Interface.
3. In the Configure area, under Tools and analyses (as shown in Figure 4), clear all of options that you do not want.

 

Figure 4

• When you clear a selection you are not deleting these tools, just removing them from the current user interface.

4. You can also specify the templates that display when starting a new project. In the left pane select File Locations.

5. In the right pane (as shown in Figure 5), select and order the templates you want to show. Typically, these are set up by the company.

 

Figure 5

6. Click   . The interface and template locations update for this installation of the software.

• You might also want to move the tabs to a different order. To do so, select the tab, hold down <Ctrl> and drag the tab to the new locations.

Check back later and we will post information on the new assembly stair feature in Autodesk Revit Architecture, enhanced rebar in Autodesk Revit Structure, and some advanced pipe routing preferences in Autodesk Revit MEP. Have fun using the new tools.

Martha Hollowell

What’s new with the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Fundamentals Book?

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 was released on April 4, 2012. With it came a few new features like rail alignments, pressure pipes, and survey queries just to name a few. Of course, these features have been added to the AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 Fundamentals course but the biggest changes to the book are items that will make it more teachable.

The first big change is that Civil 3D Fundamentals will be available in both a metric version and an imperial version this year. In separating the units into two separate books, students will have a much easier time following the exercises without getting confused on which numbers they should be typing into the software. The second big change, and the biggest in my opinion, is that it now follows ACI standards much better. Many of you may be familiar with the Autodesk Certified Instructor program and may be working toward getting certified yourself. A very important part of becoming an ACI is being able to define the objectives you will be covering in each lesson and making sure that you break lessons up into short, highly engaging, and understandable learning cycles. ASCENT has added learning objectives to both the lecture material and the exercises to help you in this area (as shown below).

For years AutoCAD Civil 3D software has been taught in large chunks of content at a time. In fact, before I went through the ACI program myself, I used to teach the interface components found in the first chapter all in one big lecture as many do. Then students would spend 50 minutes finishing the exercise in the book. Teaching in this way tends to leave students feeling overwhelmed and confused about what they just learned. If they don’t understand everything in the first chapter, then it creates problems throughout the course because something important like the user interface will be used throughout the course and slows everyone down as you try to help people understand things you have already covered.

In the 2013 book, I have broken up the content into much more manageable exercises. For example, a good instructor should be able to introduce the overall user interface in 5 to 10 minutes of lecture. Then they should be able to spend another 5 minutes demonstrating what was just discussed so that when the students try the 5 minute exercise they have no problem remembering and understanding what they just learned and are able to complete the exercise without any trouble.

The bonus for those wanting to go through the ACI program is that you are able to use ASCENT content during the ACI workshop while getting certified. Each exercise outlines how long it should take a student to complete (as shown in the image above) which will help you properly set up a good learning cycle. All that is left for you to do is practice demonstrating the topic in the software and keeping students engaged.

Speaking of certification, if you or your students are looking to become professionally certified by taking the Autodesk Certification exams, another thing we have added to all our books is an indicator that shows which certification objectives are covered in each section (as shown below).

I would love to hear how it works for you in the classroom so please leave your questions and comments and I will get back to you.

What’s New in ASCENT’s AutoCAD 2013 Fundamentals Training Guide and in the AutoCAD 2013 Software

By Lisa Kemp

We have all been working hard here, aiming to get the updated versions of our training guides to you as quickly as possible. My focus has been on the AutoCAD 2013 Fundamentals book. With this blog I wanted to highlight some of the new things that you will see in the training guide as it pertains to both the 2013 software and the changes we have made to improve the books.

In terms of general improvements this year, we have added Learning Objectives to the Chapters. The goal of these is to provide you with a high level list of the items covered in the training guide. Another exciting addition is of an Appendix containing the Professional Exam Certification Objectives. These objectives are also identified at the beginning of the corresponding sections in the book, enabling you to find the topics that you should be reviewing. As always we have continued to use the and images, we just made them a little more engaging to help them stand out on the page

 

The following are highlights of the new or enhanced software items in the training guide:

• Welcome Window: This window opens when the AutoCAD software is launched and is divided into three areas: Work, Learn, and Extend. These three areas are described in the training guide to provide new AutoCAD users with information on how they can get additional help.
• Command Line: You can now scroll through a list of commands to select the one that you want to use. The command list can be filtered by starting to type the command name. It changes to only display commands starting with the letters that you have typed.

When in a command, all of its options display in the Command Line and are highlighted in blue. This is an improvement that I use a lot, because I can now select the options directly in the Command Line by selecting the highlighted text. This is much faster than typing the option’s shortcut keys. This is taught at the beginning of the training guide and used in the practices throughout the Chapters.

• File Format: The drawing file format has been changed and drawings that are used in the training guide are saved in the 2013 version of the AutoCAD software.
• Object Properties: When I select an object and then hover the cursor over options in the Color or Linetype drop-down list in Object Properties, the selected objects display a preview of how they would look if the highlighted option were to be selected. This is covered in the lecture material in the training guide.
• Fillets, Chamfers, and Offsets: I find the preview that displays during the Fillet, Chamfer, and Offset commands to be very useful as it enables me to determine whether I need to make any changes before completing the command. This is covered in the lecture material and practices in the training guide.
• Arrays: The way the Array command is used has changed significantly. A default array now displays when you are creating a Rectangular, Polar, or Path array and you then modify it as needed before completing the command. You can also modify it once the command is finished. The practices related to working with Rectangular and Polar arrays have been updated to reflect the changes to the command and a new Path array practice has been added to the book.

• Quick View Drawings and Quick View Layouts: In Quick View Layouts and Quick View Drawings, the current layout or drawing displays a green border around the thumbnail and uses bold text in the title. All of the images in the training guide that relate to this have been updated.

• Viewports: There are now two ways to create viewports, depending on whether you are creating them in Model Space or in a Layout. For Model Space, there is a new Model Viewports panel in the View tab. For Layouts, there is a new Layout tab>Layout Viewports panel. This is covered in both the lecture material and practices in the training guide.

I hope this has helped give you an overview of the changes and improvements to the AutoCAD 2013 software and to ASCENT’s supporting training guide. I also just finished another exciting project that I know many of you will be excited about. I have created a metric only AutoCAD 2013 Fundamentals training guide. It is available now!

Inventor Patterns - Why use the expanded pattern options?

By Jennifer MacMillan

I recently was working on incorporating a little more complexity into the Autodesk Inventor 2013 Introduction to Solid Modeling training guide for Rectangular and Circular patterns and thought I would share what I came up with.

The standard options for Rectangular and Circular patterns generally provide you with the required patterned results; however, the following situation is one that I came across lately that required using the expanded additional options hidden at the bottom of the pattern dialog box. Previously we only covered this lightly in our advanced level class and I decided to move it into the introductory level training guide and I incorporated the use of this model as an exercise in the training guide.

 

 

1. Create a sketch that will be used as the curve that the pattern will follow.
   
   
   
2. Create a sketch to represent the circular extrude.
   
3. Create an Extrude feature using the circular sketch to remove material from the model.
4. Create a Work Point on the point that was created in Step 2.
5. In the Pattern panel, click .
6. Click and . Select the circular extrude.
7. Click and select the curve created in Step 1. Ensure the entire curve is selected, not just a single entity.
8. Enter 20 next to for Direction 1.
9. For Direction 1, expand the Spacing drop-down list and select Curve Length. The preview reveals an incorrect pattern.
10. Click to expand dialog box options.
11. Click  in the Direction 1 area.
12. Select the Work Point created in Step 4 as the reference for the Start Direction. This sets the start point for the first patterned occurrence.
13. In the Orientation area, select Direction1 to ensure that the orientation of the patterned holes follows the tangent vector of the curve that was selected as the Direction1 reference.
14. Complete the pattern.
    

As you can see by using the additional options I was able to create the pattern that I needed. Without setting these options the extrude feature would not have followed the tangent vector of the curve at the work point. These options are great to use when the surface that is being patterned on is not planar. Have Fun experimenting with these options! Hope that you like the addition to the Autodesk Inventor 2013 Introduction to Solid Modeling training guide. Be sure and come back and read my next Blog that will provide a high-level summary on the other new things that we introduced into the 2013 Inventor training guides.

2013 Updates from ASCENT

Last year was very busy for the ASCENT team, and 2012 is proving to be no exception.  We are pleased to have once again received the Autodesk Official Training Guide designation from Autodesk for our training materials.  In preparation for the 2013 releases, our developers have been working on enhancements to the titles.

Autodesk's certification objectives will now be incorporated into our related Student Guides.  Icons throughout the text will point out certification topics.  Additionally, users will find a concise mapping document in the appendix which highlights the exam objectives and where to locate those topics within our titles.

In other news, the American Institute for Architects (AIA) recently approved 13 ASCENT training guides for use with the AIA Passport Provider program.  Students who take classes through authorized AIA Continuing Education Systems (CES) programs are eligible to receive CES credits from the AIA.  These titles will now carry the AIA-CES logo.

Thank you to everyone who took time to provide feedback on our content over the last year.  Your insights are appreciated as we work to serve a wide range of customers.  Please feel free to contact us with your comments at http://www.ascented.com/about-us/overview/contact-us.aspx.