IMAGINiT Building Solutions Blog

Sit Revit, Sit!

We sometimes hear that Revit doesn’t perform to the expectations of a user or organization. The truth is that no one software is going to fix every ill, even a program as powerful as Revit.

We recently put together a post comparing technology and pet adoption. The two are more similar than one might think. It’s a good reminder that adopting new technologies is a process, and that, while Revit may lose its showroom shine to some, patience and persistence will enable us to successfully adopt the software.

Yee-haw Scottsdale here we come – IMAGINiT at RTC 2016 NA (Part 3 of 4)

By Carl Storms, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

Welcome back for Part 3 of this 4-part post on RTC 2016 NA and the IMAGINiT Speakers, and their sessions. Before we learn about our second, I also wanted to let you all know that IMAGINiT will be at Booth #10 in the Exhibition Hall this year, so be sure to stop by and say hi, or should I say Howdy!

Check out the second IMAGINiT RTC Session info below:

This next session is all about the Add-ons!

• Session: 2.3
• Date: Friday, July 15th
• Time: 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm
• Class Length: 75 Minutes
• Class Type: Lecture
• Instructor: Tim Grimm – Applications Expert, IMAGINiT Technologies

• Topic: Essential Revit Add-ons
• Class Summary: So you want to increase productivity with Revit add-on applications? You have a limited budget and want to get the best bang for your buck. You’ve done some research, but are overwhelmed by the choices. Which add-ons are essential, and why? This presentation is intended to help you narrow the field of Revit add-on applications to those that deliver the best value. The categories of add-ons we will focus on will be:
  • Family content management
  • Excel interoperability
  • Project management/maintenance
  • Transmittal automation
  • Productivity suites
  • Annotating
  • Viewing
  • Human interface devices
  • And more!

This lecture will be designed for Revit users from all disciplines and at all experience levels.

Next week is our final post, and we talk about apps and more add-ins for your Revit Workflow with my second session for this RTC.

Before we leave a quick recap on where RTC is this year, and how to get your boss to say yes to you going.

This year RTC 2016 NA is on July 14th – 16th and will be held at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale Arizona. If you still haven’t got approval to go just head over to this blog post from the RTC New Blog for all the info you will need: “Need Help Gaining Approval to Attend RTC?”

Carl

P.S. Check out Tim’s awesome Revit Add-ons blog for everything you need to know about Revit add-in applications!

 

Yee-haw Scottsdale here we come – IMAGINiT at RTC 2016 NA (Part 2 of 4)

By Carl Storms, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

Welcome back for Part 2 of this 4-part post on RTC 2016 NA and the IMAGINiT Speakers, and their sessions. Before we learn about our first session a quick recap of how to get to RTC NA and where and when it is.

This year RTC 2016 NA is on July 14th – 16th and will be held at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale Arizona. If you still haven’t got approval to go just head over to this blog post from the RTC Blog for all the info you will need: “Need Help Gaining Approval to Attend RTC?”

Now for our main attraction of this post our first IMAGINiT RTC Session info:

I will begin with a Lab session about Dynamo on Saturday morning

• Session: 3.2
• Date: Saturday, July 16th
• Time: 10:45am – 12:00 pm
• Class Length: 75 Minutes
• Class Type: Hands-on Lab
• Instructor: Carl Storms – Senior Applications Expert, IMAGINiT Technologies (yup it’s me!)

• Topic: Dynamo – Everyone’s doing it
• Class Summary: This Lab is NOT for people that are heavy Dynamo users

This Lab IS for the people that aren’t programmers (visual or other) but from time to time may need to use Dynamo as part of their workflow. It’s also for people that have heard of Dynamo or visual programming but never thought it was something they could do (but it totally is!). It’s also for those that just don’t think Dynamo can help them in their everyday workflow (don’t be so sure).

By the end of this session you will have an introductory understanding of what Dynamo is. You will also learn that Dynamo can be used to create geometry with parametric relationships, and that this geometry can then be pushed into a Revit project or family using the Revit database.

And that’s not all!

You will learn that it’s not just geometry Dynamo can do. It can also help with everyday tasks like creating grids and levels, add some trees to your site, preform an energy analysis, or even change your text from sentence case to ALL CAPS. The list goes on and on…

But wait there’s more!

Dynamo is open source, FREE, and works on more than just Revit!

Everyone is doing it; you know you want to do it to!!

Next week we talk Revit Add-ons and learn about Tim Grimm’s Session

Also don’t forget to come visit us at the IMAGINiT booth #10 in the exhibition hall.

Carl

Working on a Revit Project with Autodesk Vault

By Nicholas Bowley, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

When opening and working with a project, the project will remain on the server outside of the Vault and you'll open it like any other Revit project. Do not use “Open from Vault” to open your project. Each time you Sync to Central, the project will be “Vaulted” which means a new version will be posted to the Vault. Alternatively, the model can be posted to the Vault on a timed schedule.

The mechanism that allows the “Vaulting” of the Revit model is the folder mapping which is accessed with the Options button on the Vault ribbon.

This opens the Vault Options dialog.



The Mapping tab shall be setup to match the folder structure on the Vault. This will eliminate the need to setup mapping for each individual project.

Example:
Folder Location       Vault Location
P:\Projects              Vault\Projects

Then if I start a new project in P:\Projects\1234.56\*****.rvt
Vault will automatically create a matching folder, if one doesn’t already exist, and “Vault” the Revit project in Vault\Projects\1234.56\*****.rvt

Yee-haw Scottsdale here we come – IMAGINiT at RTC 2016 NA (Part 1 of 4)

By Carl Storms, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

It’s that time of year again, school is just about done, graduations are on the horizon, summer is just around the corner, and everyone’s thoughts turn to RTC North America.

RTC is that magical time of year when you meet up with old and new BIM friends for 3 days and nights of non-stop fun. Okay so it’s not all fun, there is some serious learning that goes on too, with a ton of great sessions to learn about all things Revit and BIM from some of the brightest minds in their fields. Of course before you can partake in all the learning and fun you need to first get to RTC. Well don’t worry the RTC North American Committee has you covered with all the info you will need to show your boss all of the value of going to RTC. Just head over to this blog post from the new RTC blog for all the info you will need: “Need Help Gaining Approval to Attend RTC?”

Now that you have got the okay to attend RTC 2016 NA on July. 14th – 16th at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale Arizona, you will need to select classes. There are always so many choices, of course the longer you wait the less choices (but even then still lots of great options). This is where I’m going to help you out over the next few weeks in this 4-part post as I introduce you to the IMAGINiT speakers that will be giving sessions this year, and what they are about.

So tune in next week for when we learn about a Dynamo Lab Session from Carl Storms (Yup me)

Carl

Simplified Input for Feet and Inches in Revit

By Tim Grimm, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

Users who work on projects with imperial units are probably quite familiar with the traditional way to input feet and inches in Revit. For example, 5'-10 1/4" would usually be typed pretty much as one reads it:

5 ' - 1 0 <Space> 1 / 4 <Shift> + " <Enter>

One of the rewarding things about teaching others is learning unexpected things from them. During a recent Revit Architecture Fundamentals class, I was standing next to a student, a student from Ukraine, providing a little over-the-shoulder coaching. I noticed that when he went to type the inch mark, rather than typing it as <Shift> + < " >, he was attempting to type it as < ' > < ' >.

"Oh," I said, "I understand why you would want to type it that way, because that's what it looks like, but that's not going to work." To my surprise though, it did!

Using the 5'-10 1/4" example again, it can be typed as:

5 ' - 1 0 <Space> 1 / 4 ' ' <Enter>

That's better, but this input can be further simplified by substituting a space for the dash, and by not typing the units at all, as follows:

5 <Space> 1 0 <Space> 1 / 4 <Enter>

Yes, that's better still.

Even more efficient might be substituting the decimal value for 1/4", as follows:

5 <Space> 1 0 . 2 5 <Enter>

All these input values yield the same result in Revit:

Getting Efficient and Growing with Revit

Martin Gardner Architecture is an Iowa firm that has created some wonderful and important landmarks in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Dubuque (to name a few). Due to their ability to design sustainable buildings that meet clients' budgets and add value to local communities, Martin Gardner Architecture recently experienced significant growth. 

Realizing that as they brought on new people, it was a good time to review their technology and processes, Martin Gardner Architecture made the decision to implement Autodesk Revit and Collaboration for Revit. Turning to IMAGINiT for assistance, Martin Gardner Architecture was able to understand not just the differences in the way the programs worked, but how that would affect their workflow.

Read the full case study here and see how Martin Gardner Architecture is doing now.