I attended RTCAUS (the Revit Technology Conference Australasia) about 3 weeks ago, so I can write with a certain level of confidence in regard to the RTC 2011 team and the general level of quality of RTC speakers.

Personally, I really enjoyed the experience.  I found that it was inspiring, challenging, and a great opportunity to connect with the real professionals in our field.

However, let’s say you are sitting there, somewhere in the USA (or the world), wondering if you should devote the time and money needed to attend RTCUSA 2011.  Here are my top 4 reasons that you should attend:

  1. To be inspired
    A number of the sessions will really encourage you to think outside the box, and will show what Revit is truly capable of.  Perhaps you won’t instantly begin using all of these techniques, but that moment where you go “I didn’t know Revit could do that” or “I never thought of doing things that way” is something truly valuable.  It will help to open your mind to future possibilities for you and your firm.  For example, I really enjoyed the sessions Designing in Revit Using Parametric Formulas and Revit’s Top Model: Conceptual Massing World – and both of these sessions are also being presented at RTCUSA.
  2. To gain Practical Knowledge and learn Best Practices
    Some of the sessions will be geared towards helping you solve some of the technical issues you have been facing with Revit implementation and Revit use generally.  What I really mean is that you will learn methods that you will be able to implement quite quickly, and thus you will begin to see a direct return on the investment of attending the Conference.  Things like Labs sessions, Case Studies, and other sessions with a very practical focus should provide you with tips, workflows and guidance that you may have been seeking for some time.
  3. To meet The People
    By ‘The People’ I mean persons from all of the key areas in our industry – including professionals who are using RAC, RST and RMEP on large and interesting projects.  You will be able to meet key Autodesk personnel, resellers, and other people who are probably in the same boat that you are in.  The benefits of such networking should not be minimized.  Could it lead to a partnership that will give your firm a real edge?  Will you connect with someone who will inspire you?  Will it lead to a new and exciting opportunity for you and / or your firm?
  4. For the Free Stuff
    What kind of free stuff?  Well, there are handouts galore, which you will be able to access electronically and ultimately add to your company library.  There is the ‘goodie bag’ that you will receive when you first arrive – but I won’t tell you what you might expect to find in there 🙂  There is the food, coffee, drink, cakes and all of that stuff.  And depending on how generous the speakers are…there might even be more…

Don’t just say ‘No’.  Give it some serious thought.  Have a look at the Schedule.  Go on, have a look…

 To Register and find out more information, click here

It looks like uTorrent is really coming of age. You can now easily create a torrent to Share large files with other people very quickly and easily – just drag and drop files into the ‘Drop files to send’ area.

Just make sure you give some consideration to the privacy, copyright and intellectual property implications of doing this (depending on the content you intend to share).

Download link to the current Beta (Release Candidate 5):
http://download.utorrent.com/beta/utorrent-3.0-latest.exe

Release notes:
uTorrent 3.0 (32-bit) Release Candidate 4 (Page 1) / Announcements / uTorrent Community Forums

I am currently installing Building Design Suite Premium 2012 from the shiny USB stick we received yesterday.  There are just two quick tips that I wanted to share with you:

  1. If your packaging does not have a Serial Number printed on it, you will need to log in to Subscription Center, go to Contract Administration and then click Coverage Report.  From here you should be able to find your Serial Number.
  2. If you want to use the ‘UK Terminology’ in Revit Structure (as previously posted about on various blogs), there is an option in the installation – see image below:

My installation took about 50 mins – and I installed every product.  Enjoy!

      Two tips that I found of particular value:

      “…click on Graded Surface… If you don’t do this first step, you will not get Cut and Fill counts when you create Building Pads.”

      and

      “Be sure that first you select the Topography, then click on the Building Pad Button on the Massing & Site Tab. Otherwise, the Pad will be created, but sometimes (I haven’t figured out why and how this happens) the Cut and Fill will not be reported on the Topography Schedule.”

      Read the whole post:
      CAD addict: Revit: Using Building Pads Properly – Part II

      I previously posted about a minor error in the Options dialog box (link at end of post).

      After starting a case with Autodesk on this subject, I received a reply that included this statement:

      “The development teams have confirmed this issue and have fixed this in the latest service pack which will be out soon.

      So there you have it…more breaking news from What Revit Wants 🙂

      What Revit Wants: Search results for broken link

      @davewlight David Light

      Wow, didn’t catch this, but don’t put #vasari exe in program folders or program data.

      jadamthomas J. Adam Thomas

      @davewlight what happened?

      @davewlight David Light

      RT @jadamthomas @davewlight what happened? I have been getting data corruption & install says not 2 do

      jadamthomas J. Adam Thomas

      @davewlight oh wow! Well thanks for the heads up