Free chapter of Interior Design using Revit book – Materials

Luke Johnson

The overall premise of the book is to learn Revit Architecture while developing the interior of a two story law office. The reader is provided an architectural model with established columns, beams, exterior walls, minimal interior walls and roofs in which to work. This allows more emphasis to be placed on interior design rather than primary architectural elements. The chapters chronology generally follows the typical design process.

Download sample chapter (the sample chapter is chapter 4 – Revit Materials):
978-1-58503-664-6-4.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Link to main book webpage

Heads-up via http://bim.sandvik.bz/2011/11/12/ny-revitartikkel-new-book-for-revit-and-interior-design/

BIM-cronyms are really starting to annoy me

Luke Johnson

I’m kind of getting sick of the Building Information Intelligence Modelling Management Model debate.

I also wonder why Bloggers the world over think that blogs are an AIP (acronym invention platform).

Does anyone really think that the blogger who first used a particular collection of letters that apply to a particular phrase will ever receive true recognition or remuneration for it?

What do you think?  Are you annoyed by the intense proliferation of collections of letters that are more painful than they are useful?

Here is a few more to add to the mix.  I’m not sure whether these have been invented before or not – actually I’m pretty sure that some of them have.  However, I think that ‘BIM’ could be divided up into a plethora of sub-categories, each with their own annoying acronym.  Is this a good idea?  You be the judge.

I think the answer is No.

PSM Photographic Survey Model
LSM Laser Survey Model
CBM Client Brief Model
S3M Schematic 3-D Model
BDM Building Design Model
BAM Building Analysis Model
CCAM Cost Calculation and Analysis Model
DCM Document Coordination Model
BCM Building Coordination Model
FMM Facility Management Model
From http://bim.arch.gatech.edu/?id=402

What is a View Reference in Revit?

Luke Johnson

The term ‘View Reference’ refers to a automatically updating link symbol that can be added to a Primary or Dependent View if the Primary-Dependent Floor Plan situation exists.  That is pretty much its only purpose.  Here is some more info from Wikihelp:

A view reference is a symbol. You can create a view reference family in the Family Editor. View reference families can contain lines, filled regions, text and labels for the view number and sheet number parameter values.

View references display in the primary view and all related dependent views (except for the view that it is referencing). For example, if you have a view split into 2 dependent views (left and right), and you add a view reference to the right view to reference the left, the view reference appears in the primary view and in the right view, but not in the left view.

Info via
Navigating Primary and Dependent Views – WikiHelp

 

Also check out:
View References (excerpt below)
 Now what would be REALLY useful (to anyone trying to read our drawing set) would be a reference near the matchline to tell you what sheet to find the other part of the plan. This is where “View References” come into play….

Downgrade Revit projects and families to previous version

Luke Johnson

OK, the title may be a bit misleading.  But this is how you can try to do it:

For Project RVT files:

  1. Export from higher version of Revit to IFC
  2. Import the IFC file into the lower version of Revit

Tip – use the best available IFC format that both versions of Revit understand

For Family RFA files:
 Either:

  1. Load the family into a project in the higher version
  2. Follow the above steps for Project files
  3. Once you have the project in the lower version of Revit, open the downgraded family from the Project (select in Project Browser – Edit)

or //

  1. Export to DWG or SAT from the higher version
  2. Import the file into the lower version

Tip – you probably can’t explode the resulting import, or everything will disappear.

Basic tip via CAD Forum – How to save Revit project to an older version?

Also check out Sharing a Revit File with a Previous Release

Combine your skills and become a Revit professional

Luke Johnson

To become a true master of Revit is to know What Revit Wants.  You need to have the right Revitude.

When you know what Revit wants, you can combine your skills and work effectively.  You can use the software to create something both functional and beautiful.

In every field, knowing just one specialty or having just one good workflow is usually not enough.  You must apply the knowledge and experience you have gained after years of trial-and-error, peer assistance, reading, and doing.

For example:

I recently put together a large rendered walkthrough.  I had to combine a number of skills and workflows to make this happen:

  • I had to accurately apply materials to objects in the model.  Using physical paint samples, I had to generate accurate Revit colours – and this technique helped me.
  • When I wanted to quickly duplicate materials between different objects, I used this technique.
  • Because the walkthrough rendering was going to be very resource heavy, I used this method to distribute the rendering between different PCs in the office (without having to use Max)
  • Once I had a bunch of BMP files, I used this tool to rename them appropriately, then
  • This method to join the BMP files into an AVI file
  • Because I wanted to make the most of this walkthrough, I opted to extend it by introducing extra ‘computed’ frames.  I used this method.  Doing this meant less rendering time for more overall impact.
  • To compress the AVI sufficiently to upload to Youtube, I could have use this method, but I used a 3rd party tool instead.

The result of combining all these skills?  See below:

To find out more about this project, check out the link below:
Dimond Architects – Theatre and Performance Centre

Free and easy bootloader editing for running multiple OS

Luke Johnson

“EasyBCD extends and revamps the Windows Vista/Windows 7 BCD bootloader, and with EasyBCD, almost anything is possible. Setting up and configuring a dual-boot between Windows 7, Windows Vista, older versions of Windows such as XP & 2003, Linux, Ubuntu, BSD, and Mac OS X is a breeze. You just point & click and EasyBCD does the rest. EasyBCD is free for all private, non-commercial use.”

Insert a non-breaking space in Revit

Luke Johnson

A non-breaking space forces Revit to keep two words together, but there is still a visible white space between them.

To do this, just hold down Ctrl and Shift, and press Spacebar.

EDIT:  If you are having troubles with this method in a Tag, use Alt+0160 to insert a No-Break Space. This effectively ignores any “width” of the Label and just keeps text flowing along the same line:

Video demo below: