sloArch

Category: Revit

  • Comming Soon: Beginner’s Revit Tips!

    I recently started a new project with a bay area Architect helping him complete a transition from an AutoCad work environment to BIM/Revit work flow.  On the many recommendations from another Architect he made the brave leap to a platform that he had zero experience in.  Due to the economic downturn he closed his office and moved his practice to his home, took a Revit class and then…  To help him in the transition he hired a Revit draftsperson.  That draftsman quit and then he hired another.  She left, then me.

    My task is to train, create Revit templates, standards, and generally get things on track.

    This is the first time that I’ve worked with Revit files that I would consider to be done by a “novice,” other than people I’ve trained of course.  I don’t know who the other draftspeople are and I’m sure they are good people, but there are a lot of things that I’m seeing that are common pitfalls of people starting out with Revit.  Over my next posts I’m going to share some Revit tips that will hopefully save you and those that work with you some time and headaches.

  • Batch Rendering in Revit

    One of the newest Revit blogs to hit the Internet is Buildz by Zack Kron.  Zach does a really good job exploring the art of modeling complex parametric shapes in Revit.  I love going to his site to see what interesting things he’s creating.

    A recent surprise on his blog, a few days ago, was the release of a basic script for performing a batch render in Revit 2009 and Revit 2010.  Using the script feels like you’re doing some weird voodoo but it gives me hope that we will soon have this capability available to the masses with an easy interface.  I don’t think Zach is a trained programmer so even though the script is a bit tricky to use I have to applaud his being able to put something like this together.

    If there are any programmer/Revit users out there I would encourage you to take Zach’s script to the next level… or maybe Autodesk can include this function in Revit 2011?  Hint Hint.

    Download Zach’s Revit Batch Render Script and give it a try!

  • Bring Your 3d Models to Life!

    One feature of Autodesk’s Revit Architecture that I really have a lot of fun with is the ability to create fly/walkthrough animations.  Revit’s built in Walkthrough tool allows you to create highly complex animations involving multiple key frames moving the camera path in three dimensions and is an excellent tool for exploring your models with fairly high quality output.

    The downside of Revit’s capabilities is that you are limited to animating your camera position.  This may be okay for most situations, but what if you want a car driving down the road, or the door to open as you walk through the doorway?  Well, luckily you have a lot of options.  If your work flow already includes doing your rendering in 3ds Max, then you can use the powerful tools in it. Of course there are a multitude of software platforms out there, Maya, iClone, etc. and there are also some free alternatives, TrueSpace, Blender, and Anim8or.

    (more…)

  • Help! Where is my RAC 2010 command?

    Have you transitioned to Revit 2010 or are you thinking of transitioning but are worried you are never going to learn the new interface?  Well don’t worry, Nicholas Iyadurai, a Revit blogger from Missouri, has created a great interactive flash tool that shows the coorelation between Revit Architecture 2009 and Revit Architecture 2010 commands.

    You can download the file directly (rac2010-ui.zip) or use it online.

     

    Screensot of RAC2010 Where Is My Command
    Screensot of RAC2010 Where Is My Command