Callout Views in Revit 2014

I love the new Callout tool in Revit 2014.

Now being able to sketch the Callout view is great.

Use the typical sketch tools to draw the outline of the Callout.

And you can still manipulate the crop region which in turn will adjust the Callout in the plan view.

I love it!!

Sc

Revit Central States Workshop

Registration for the Revit Central States Workshop is now open.

The conference is to be held at the Scott Conference Center in Omaha from August 15th and 16th. 
Sessions include:

• Architecture
• Interiors
• Mechanical/ Plumbing/ Electrical
• Structural
• Construction (for Contractors/Sub-Contractors)
• BIM

The line up of speakers and sessions looks awesome.

Guest speakers include people like Paul Aubin and Steve Stafford to name but a few.

Definitely a conference worth checking out, and its very affordable!

Check out the list of sessions Here.

Under BIM - Construction Descriptions there is a real interesting session called "BIM Management - More than Just Managing the BIM Model" 

I'm definitely signing up for that one! ;-)

Hope to see you there!

Sc

Interference Checking in Revit

The Interference checking tool in Revit allows you to find where selected elements or all elements in a model interfere or Clash with one another. You can run an interference check any time from the Coordinate Panel on the Collaboration tab.

Here you can select categories within the current project or items from linked files.

Unfortunately you cannot compare categories between linked files. But you can select multiple categories.

For example… you can select structural columns in the project and run check against multiple categories such as Mechanical Ducts, Plumbing fixtures and Casework.

A report will be generated listing any “ Interference's”.

  

You can use the show button to “show” you where the interference is by selecting the item in the report.

You can export this as a html file to share with your consultants and you can also refer back and see the last report anytime.

This is an easy to use tool on simpler projects, if your working on a more complicated project your probably going to want to look into something like Navisworks Manage which has more in depth capabilities for doing Clash Detection.

A great tool...

Sc

LDHHC Ground Breaking

Here is a u-tube link to the ground breaking of the Lakes District Hospital and Health Centre in Burns Lake British Columbia.

A much needed Regional Hospital and Health Centre project.

Working with a great team and Construction company on board using BIM!

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Yeah! Revit 2014 Finally Available !!

Yeah! The Revit 2014 download is finally available from Subscription Center!

Finally!!! Took long enough.. and just in time too... I'm presenting the new features of Revit 2014 tonight at the Okanagan BIM User Group meeting!!

Yeah!

Sc

AutoCAD Sucks ii

Here is a link to a colleagues recent Blog post about her troubles with AutoBad.

http://cafejabbaccino.blogspot.ca/2013/04/autocad-sucks-ii.html

Check it out!

Sc

Totally off topic

• I drive 56 klm to work (one way)
• The space station is 370 klm from earth
• It is 6,371 klm to the center of the earth
• GPS satellites typically orbit at around 20,230 klm 
• The moon is 3,474 klm from the earth (at it’s closest)
• Mars is 6,778 klm from the earth
• The sun is on average 150 million klm from earth

This is cool.

http://www.distancetomars.com/

I'm less than 18" from my computer screen connecting me to the World Wide Web!

Sc

;-)

Oops! Apparently I had the Moon too far out... I have since corrected that!
Thanks Doug for pointing that out... at least I know someone reads my blogs! ;-)
Sc

Updated with images.

Solar Study - Floor plan doesn't show correctly...

Just came across this issue in one of our offices.

Were trying to show how shadows are cast in a public space of one of our buildings were working on.
what we found was that the shadows on the floor plan don't exactly match the shadows that we see cast in the camera view.

Shadow Plan View

Shadow Camera View

Seemed like the right thing to do, show the floor plan shadows and the camera view shadows together to clearly indicate the impact of day-lighting for the space.

Well the floor plan will never show the correct shadows.. I believe Revit is treating anything above the "view cut plane" as not existing, hence letting the daylight in as if the walls stop 3' off the ground. Not a true representation of a plan view of the day-lighting condition in that place.

To truly represent the shadow study I recommended that we use a 3D view showing the position/path of the sun, turn off the shadows in the plan view and only use the plan view as a indication of where the camera views are located then use the camera view to show the actual shadows within the room.

Anyone else got any ideas??

How have you done shadow studies?

Sc

Romo and BIM... Whoda thunk it?

Check this out...its awesome...

I watched the TED Talk video earlier today and then checked out their web site.

Romo is a "Robot" that uses your I-phone as it's brain!

You can control the Romo from any other IOS devise to move, program as well as stream video and take photos.... sounds like a lot of fun. Their Web site talks about how it can be used remotely over the web, for example interacting with your kids when your away from home on a business trip or to interact with family members overseas (they call it telepresence).

Romo was developed by a start up company called Romotive. 
Romotive was a Kickstarter company with a great idea, an affordable personal robot.

What first came to mind for me was using Romo to inspect buildings, crawl spaces, elevator pits, mechanical rooms etc. Basically any confined space you don't want to go... You could take video as well as photos.
How about video conferencing? Have this thing zipping around on the conference table getting in your face!!

Cool.... Anyway.... I thought it was very Innovative and it's always interesting how we can see how gadgets like this can work with our industry!

Check it out...
Romo Web Site
Romo on TED Talks

Now if I can convince the company that I can use this to teach....or my wife that we can use this when I'm off on business trips?

Robotic Jedi?
Sc

Challenging BIM

You know sometimes BIM is challenging.. it can be challenging trying to implement full BIM on a project, or trying to convince consultants that using BIM shouldn't mean a increase in their fee.

But, occasionally things come together and those consultants you thought your going to butt heads with come through and surprise you by being fully on board. I believe this is due to them seeing the pitfalls of not participating in a BIM project and the coordination issues that typically arise with non-BIM collaborative projects. It's nice to all play together in the one sandbox :-) 

We (CEI) are have a lot of success when all consultants are using Revit and sharing models. Were now looking into facilitating the sharing of the models easier which that can be tough for a firm our size (were not huge) and out limited budget.

Often we'll hold our consultants hand while they are going through the BIM process for the first time, unless you have a Revit Guru or experienced Revit person on staff it can be quite the challenge to jump into the BIM pool... only to turn around before you leap to realize it's the Architect who has pushed you in. ;-)

Quite often if you try to do part of the project in BIM and part in CAD it can lead to disaster! Jump in with both feet, it's the only way you'll learn how to "swim in the BIM pool".

Occasionally you'll fall down... and that's okay... it means your moving forward.

BIM Zen Wisdom!

Sc

Revit 2014 - Double Click Options

Yeah.... after the 2013 debacle of the double click in Revit 2013 you now have double click options.

For those of you who haven't yet used 2013, if you double click on a family element in your project it will activate the family editor.. seemed good in theory but how many times do you accidentally or inadvertently double click on objects... it would drive people nuts having to close a family after opening it by mistake.

So I guess the Revit developers were inundated with requests to fix this so in Revit 2014 we now have the option (under Options) to now select what happens when you double click...

Options are:

• Edit elements by double-clicking
• Edit assembly mode, open schedule view, activate view, edit profile, boundaries, sketches, and more.
• Options dialogue to control double-click features

Revit 2014 - Displaced Elements

This is going to be cool to use...

The ability in Revit 2014 to "Displace Elements"  allowing us to create "Exploded" 3D views is going to be great to show assembly of detail elements as well as design intent...

Looking forward to exploring this tool in more depth.

Sc

Building design choices impact building ecology

I recently watched this great TED Talk titled: Were covered in Germs, How to make them happy.

The presenter, Jessica Green, talks about how building design choices impact building ecology….and she uses Autodesk software as part of her presentation!!

"Jessica Green wants people to understand the important role microbes play in every facet of our lives: climate change, building ecosystems, human health, even roller derby -- using nontraditional tools like art, animation and film to help people visualize the invisible world."

It’s very interesting, a 8 minute video.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jessica_green_good_germs_make_healthy_buildings.html

Well worth taking a look...

If anyone else knows of some good TED Talk videos about Building send me a link and I'll post them.

Sc