Month: December 2011

Rhino and Grasshopper – Engaging Generative BIM Workflows PDF download

Luke Johnson

Click here to download a technical paper on Engaging Generative BIM Workflows.

From the Conclusion:
The emergence and rapid development of generative tools to aid architectural design development including analysis and simulation is benefiting many inspiring projects and proposals. Emergence of many new projects and tools are imminent, and the common belief that this is just the beginning makes for exciting times in architecture design.
via Twitter and
Rhino News, etc.: Engaging Generative BIM Workflows

3D PDF Converter for Revit Pre-Release Program

Luke Johnson

Tetra 4D is releasing a Revit 3D PDF Converter plugin. This will be a paid release (it won’t be free), so I personally am not too excited about it.

If you are looking for a Free way to create 3D PDFs from Revit, check out:
Create 3D PDF files from Autodesk Revit for free

and
Create Adobe 3D PDF directly from Autodesk 3D DWF

Here is the info on the ‘pre-release’.  Tetra claim that participants will be entitled to purchase the plug-in at a discounted price – I think the truthfulness of that statement remains to be seen.  From the Tetra 4D website:

Tetra 4D is pleased to announce the upcoming PRE-RELEASE of 3D PDF Converter™ for Revit®. Running as an integrated plug-in to Revit, 3D PDF Converter for Revit will enable users to directly publish interactive, 3D PDF files directly from Revit 3D models, which can then be distributed to and viewed by anyone who has the free Adobe® Reader®. This pre-release will be made available to a limited number of participants willing to participate in evaluation of the software and feedback on the product to our product development team. All participants will be entitled to purchase the software at deeply discounted price! Terms will be made available to selected participants upon selection notification.

To be considered for participation, please click here: 3D PDF Converter™ for Revit® PRE-RELEASE Registration Form
via
Announcing the 3D PDF Converter for Revit Pre-Release Program

Ctrl Shift Trick to elevate privileges and Run as Administrator

Luke Johnson

I came across a handy trick that makes it quick and easy to run programs as an Administrator in Windows 7:

The easiest way that I found out on how run a program as administrator is by hitting the WIN key on your keyboard, type the program that you want to run, for example cmd, and simultaneously press Ctrl + Shift + Enter which will prompt if I want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer. In fact, it is also possible to press Ctrl + Shift and use your mouse to left click on the program.

Unfortunately the Ctrl + Shift trick doesn’t work at all areas in Windows. It will only work on programs or shortcuts pinned to Taskbar or Start Menu, the recently opened programs in the Start Menu and the Search programs and files bar. This will not work in Run dialogue (Win+R), Explorer or the shortcut icons in Start Menu (Win > All Programs > Shortcuts).

via
Easily Run Programs as Administrator with Ctrl Shift Trick | Raymond.CC Blog

Revit Presentation Graphics That "POP" – DOWNLOADS via Jason Grant's Blog

Luke Johnson
While you wait for the recording to be published by Autodesk University, grab our presentation, handout and the dataset which includes numerous examples of entourage, analysis, annotation, site and other content as well as hours of fun deconstructing the settings to work them into your office’s best practices. Enjoy and let me know what you think…

Read more / via
Revit Presentation Graphics That�”POP” – Jason Grant’s Blog – Adaptive Practice by Jason Grant

Use a CMD script to create a Hyperlink index to all your Family RFA files

Luke Johnson

Lets say you want to create a HTML file that has a linked list of all of the RFA Family files in your company directory.  You can then click on each hyperlink to open the family in Revit.

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Open Notepad
  2. Download the file at this link
  3. Rename the file with a CMD extension.
  4. Now, right-click on the CMD file, and click ‘Edit’ to open it in Notepad. 
  5. Change the text to the right of  set target= to suit the top-level directory of your family file library.
  6. If you want to get links for all subdirectories, retain the /S switch (its already there), otherwise remove it.
  7. Now, just run the CMD.  It will create a file called LinkList.html in the target directory, and it should automatically open it in Internet Explorer.  Just click on a link and away you go!  You should be able to open the rfa files directly from these hyperlinks.


I have set this CMD script to sort results alphabetically (that is the /O:n part of the DIR command).  However, you may find the sorting a little unusual, because I think it respects the directory as well as the name.


You can now use the Find feature in Internet Explorer to quickly search for parts of filenames / family names.


You could also point this at a top-level project directory to extract links to all the RFA files in that ‘job’.

If you want to know more about the DIR command, check out this link.

EDIT – if you want a GUI option, check out:

Snap2HTML – Create fancy dir listings

Tricks from the 45 Tips

Luke Johnson

I recently viewed the class 45 Autodesk® Revit® Tips in 45 Minutes (Smith, Chad) on AU Virtual.  It was an excellent class.  Here are two things that I learnt:

You can Tab BETWEEN elements – in other words, select one wall in a chain of walls, then highlight another wall in the chain and press Tab.  Only those walls in-between the two will be selected!

Pre-select when Filtering – before making a Filter, select an element first.  Then go View – Filters – click on the ‘New Filter’ icon.  The Category of the element that you select is automatically pre-selected for the new Filter!

Thought-provoking excerpts on form derivation and design analysis

Luke Johnson

Here are a few quotes from a recent review of a symposium at the Design the Dynamic conference by Generative Design (Bold emphasis added by me.)

” Design is described as a process that stretches between the implicit and the explicit. While a sketch is an implicit design model, BIM is an explicit construction model. “

” While some CAD companies rely on strategies that depend on the capabilities that they have developed or acquired, some rely more on the energies and abilities the vibrant communities that they have nurtured around their offerings. “

” Whiles the tools like Vasari reduced the complexity, they were discovered to be less accurate than more advanced analytical tools such as ANSYS that are usually operated by experts.  However, tools like Vasari were found to be useful despite their limitations and misuse by the “Jonny English of CFD” as a presenter described himself, because they can be fixed quickly with a bit of timely expert input. “

” Scripting seemed to have entered the center stage. Unnoticed by academics, it entered academia through the back doors for student usage, thanks to tools such as Grasshopper. Perhaps because it had no known association to any ancient ideas of orders, it remained unnoticed by academics though now some may wish to authenticate it belatedly, given its current dominance…
Architects are now increasingly addicted to the richness of form authored by code. Scripting is most definitely here to stay. “

Quotes via, and Read More at:
What is missing ? � Generative Design

Image from http://generativedesign.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/whats-missing/

Anti Revit Twitter feed ?

Luke Johnson

Just as being overly positive about Revit leads to inflated expectations, if you are overly negative about it eventually people will realize you were wrong – and then your credibility will be in question.  Here are a few tweets from @RevitFacts – can you tell me if this is a good tweeter to follow, or perhaps someone with a particular bias?

FACT: #Revit has no Drag & Drop capability for external content like #ArchiCAD

Did you know RAM requirements are still 20 times model file size!

Did you know there is A LOT of customizing required (e.g Tags for Walls, Doors, Windows) compare to other #CAD softwares.

Revit is not compatable with #MAC :(.

via
Revit Facts (revitfacts) on Twitter

I guess these statements are true, in some ways – but I think RevitFacts may perhaps be trying to make us switch to ArchiCAD 🙂