Dynamo Tutorial - Rotate Multiple Elements on Their Own Axis

A reader (sorry, I lost your email and name!) emailed in and asked about rotating a series of elements by something other than 90 degrees.  She referenced an OLD post I published (circa 2011) about selecting columns and rotating them all 90 degrees using the space bar.   This was an interesting little task to think about.  When you select more than one element and use the "rotate" command they rotate about one axis:

After attempting to place some reference planes and use the space bar method without success I decided to fire up Dynamo... Here is the simple script...

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5 Days ON the Sun: #RTCNA Recap

"It's a dry heat", they say... I don't care what they say... 120 degrees feels HOT with or without humidity. 

Two weeks ago I attended my fifth Revit Technology Conference North America (RTCNA).  I can't believe it has already been five!  For a look at my recaps and posts from the last 4 years of RTCNA's click here... 

This year the conference was held in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Kierland Westin Resort and Spa. The venue was fantastic with lots of great amenities including a beautiful golf course.  In fact, my buddy Steve and I decided to get up early Saturday morning and play a round before the conference started....  After all, the hotel does a great job at supplying amazing views of the course everywhere you turn... It makes you want to play...


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Are You Going to be at #RTCNA this Year?!

Revit Technology Conference North America 2016 begins this week!  Will you be there?

If you are attending the conference make sure you sign up for my session on Friday afternoon: Session 2.5 - How are Contractors Using My Model?  

Snippet of my slides for Session 2.5...

During the class, not only will I be running through real-world examples of how contractors are using Revit models after you (architects and engineers) hand them off but there will be some free giveaways!  That's right... Can you say free BIM After Dark t-shirts?!


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The Revit Kid Featured on BIM Thoughts Podcast

After a year or so of "Yeah, we have to do an episode together", Bill, Carla, and I got on a call and chatted a bit!  If you have not listened to the BIM Thoughts podcast yet, what are you waiting for?  Bill interviews all of the "Revit-Stars" you can think of on an array of different topics.   

I remember thinking about podcasting years ago and I told myself "You can't talk about BIM without video!"  Well, 40 episodes later, Bill has proven me wrong.  In fact, Marcello and Steve are also creating information packed podcasts of their own!

So, if you want to hear what Bill, Carla, and I talked about be sure to check out episode 40 here...  (Hint, I talk a bit about my upcoming presentation at RTCNA 2016!).

Bill and Carla, thanks for having me on!  I hope we can make this a more regular event!

Revit Tutorial - Shed Roof High Eave Detail

Shed roofs are simple to create in Revit but lack a very important ability: creating a square cut perpendicular to your roof at the top of the shed slope.  Previously, I illustrated the options that Revit gives you when it comes to a roof's eave.  Unfortunately, the same options don't exist for the high side of a shed roof...

Continue reading to view a video tutorial demonstrating how I work around this issue...

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Photoshop for Architects... What do you think?

I’ve been in the process of examining BIM After Dark - Volume 1 and looking for areas where content could be updated or enhanced (if you haven’t checked out Volume 1 yet, check it out today!  It really is packed full of incredible presentation tips and tricks I promise you have not seen before).  Anyways, as I run and re-run through the content I realized there is a bit of information that can be applied to any architect and not just one using Revit.

I thought to myself, “Jeff, what if you made a ‘mini-course’ that doesn’t discriminate the non-Revit users?”  Well, I am posting today to see what you all think about the idea.  Photoshop for Architects would be a mini-course teaching you everything from working with scanned sketches to annotation techniques and processing renderings (regardless of what program they were rendered in). 

Most Photoshop courses start by teaching you how to remove red-eye, crop a photo, or remove unwanted background elements. Skills used by photographers, not architects.

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Revit Tutorial - Understanding Your Roof Eaves / Soffits

In my experience, the roof tool is still a mystery to many Revit users. Either they have only had to create flat roofs, they have been using extrusions, or they just haven't been using it correctly.  If you are one of these people, it's okay... You are not alone!

For the reasons mentioned above, roof tutorials are always the most searched on this blog.  I was demonstrating an eave detail to a colleague of mine when it was apparent that he had NO IDEA you could do what I was doing... That led me to this post.  A simple run down of the different eave (or soffit ) settings effect your roofs...

Continue reading to view the tutorial....

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V-Ray for Revit : A Case Study

I have been publishing content on this blog for over seven years.  Until now, I have never featured a "guest" or "guest post".  Sure, there may have been links to other awesome content people have created, but nothing like this.  It's that good.  The author of this case study is my good buddy (and previous cubicle neighbor), Sam Davis.  Sam now works for JCJ Architecture. 

When I got back from RTCNA last year, Sam and I had some lengthy discussions about the announcement of "V-Ray for Revit".  He mentioned that he planned on trying it out when he got the link from Chaos Group (getting the download link took forever...).  A few weeks had gone by and we didn't discuss it again.  Then, out of nowhere, Sam sends me the first draft of his case study on V-Ray for Revit (Beta).  Sam did an excellent job evaluating the beta release, comparing it to current standards, and communicating his findings...  Well done, Sam, and thanks for letting me share it with my audience, exclusively.

Continue reading to view Sam's incredibly in-depth case study on the V-Ray to Revit Beta release...

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My $300 "Revit Server"

I have been looking for a solid solution for small firms to host workshared Revit files for a long time.  I experimented with Dropbox, Jungledisk, OneDrive, and so on... The problem with all of these services is they duplicate your data.  They "cache" information and upload/download in the background (so it seems much faster for you when you work).  When it comes to workshared Revit files, this caching will corrupt your file.   Notice, I said it WILL, not it might... 

If you are a company of around 1 to 10 employees I have finally created a cost-effective and simple setup that will allow you to work with a Revit Central file from your local area network and as far as anywhere in the world!  Oh, did I mention it only costs around $300?!

Keep reading to find out more...

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Revit 2017 - My 3 Favorite new Features

As I have stated in the last few releases Autodesk's move to a subscription model makes the "release" of the latest version of Revit less of an event.  For those of you who aren't updating your Revit software throughout the year there have been two releases of Revit 2016 since it launched.  Each release added new features.  So, always make sure you are up to date!

That being said, Revit 2017 is here and comes equipped with some welcomed new features!  Before I talk about all the good stuff the designer in me has to talk about the new "R" logo... I don't get it?  I know Auotdesk updates their product line logos every so often and makes it a uniform design (ie, Autocad's "A", 3DS Max's "M") but this go around is even stranger than the last for me.  What do you think?

Okay, enough on the logo... Now, onto the new features!!  Continue reading to see my top three new features and entire feature lists....


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Revit Pattern (.pat) Source File - Version 2!

Believe it or not, pattern files are popular.  As in, some of the most visited pages on this blog have to do with Revit pattern files.  You know, those files with ".pat" extensions that look like jargon when you open them?  Well, if you want to learn how to customize them yourself (or make your own from scratch) here is the tutorial from way back in 2011!  The other extremely popular post on patterns was a simple free download created by a former colleague of mine, Doug Campbell.  Doug and I were partners in crime at our previous place of employment but now he is running the software ship at BL Companies.

You may recognize Doug's name from that very pattern post.  If not, then you may also remember him from the much loved "understanding view ranges" handout...  Either way, you will definitely know Doug now as he has recreated his pattern files library AND the PDF handout.  Doug added over 80 pattern files!  Plus, he was nice enough to offer them to the Revit Kid community free of charge!

Continue reading to download the pattern files for FREE today...

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#RTCNA 2016 - Will You Be There?

Phot of a bunch of Revit Bloggers from last years RTCNA...

It's that time of the year again!  Registration for Revit Technology Conference North America 2016 (RTCNA) is open!  Will you be attending?

I thought about going through the motions and telling you why you SHOULD attend RTCNA... But then I remembered I have a bunch of posts from the last four years about WHY you should attend.  If you are trying to decide whether RTCNA is right for you (and the photo above wasn't enough of a convincing factor) click here to view my reviews and recaps from previous years. 

Oh, and if you are attending make sure you sign up for my session (Session 2.5 on Friday at 5:15PM).  The session is titled "How are Contractors Using My Models?"... I plan on taking my experience at Turner Construction and sharing with attendees how your architectural and engineering models are used down stream... Using real-world examples and demonstrations, I plan on demystifying the scary abyss that architects call "handing over your model".

So, will I see you there?!  Click here to register for RTCNA 2016 today!

Revit Tutorial - Calculating Cut / Fills Using Building Pads

Pablo, my colleague and friend from sunny San Diego, emailed me one day asking about cuts and fills in Revit. This was his email:

"Hey I got a question for you. I have placed a few building pads on our site and I am trying to find out if there is any easy way to get the excavation volume of the void left behind from the building pad? I have scoured the internet but all references to volumes of excavation refer more to the cut/fill tools in Revit (which I can do but am too lazy). I just thought that there might be some property related to the building pad that would tell me how much topography is being imprinted with the building pad..."

Continue reading to view my response and discover how to calculate cuts and fills in Revit...
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Customer Case Study - BIM After Dark: Volume 3

One of the things I actively pursue when developing the BIM After Dark video series is gathering customer feedback.  Many of you are happy to take quick surveys or have blunt conversations about any of the Volumes and I love it!  For this Volume 3 launch week I thought it would be fun to publish a "customer spotlight" style post.  Today, I would like to share an interview I had with Jeffery Harwood.

Besides being a longtime customer of BIM After Dark and reader of this blog, Jeffery has a Master in Architecture from Tulane University and is an architect at John Williams Architects. In Jeff's own words:

" I love being an architect and love working with Revit and other 3D programs. I consider myself very lucky to do what I do. I have a wonderful wife and two beautiful little girls. I am an architect at John Williams Architects in New Orleans. We do a wide array of projects from historical projects in the historical French Quarter to newer commercial projects..."

Continue reading Jeff's experience with BIM After Dark, family creation, and Revit... Oh, and a special Volume 3 offer...


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BIM After Dark - Volume 3 : We are family!

BIM After Dark - Volume 3 is now available!  

Now you can finally scrap all of the bad models you’ve downloaded, stop letting what’s available dictate your designs, make time for custom content, stop drafting over elevations, and begin creating your own parametric Revit content.

Volume 3 is focused 100% on custom family creation while stressing the use of real-world situations and examples. In addition to over six hours of non-stop, easy-to-follow, and information packed tutorials you have the option of some great bonuses in the complete package…  

Continue reading to find out more about what’s inside and a special launch discount…

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Revit Tutorial - Custom Shaker Cabinet Family

I recently wrote about the dangers of not creating your own custom Revit families.  More specifically, I used the example of modifying the out of the box Revit casework families.  In this post, I wrote about how representing your model incorrectly due to “lack of time” could kill a project's budget.  In this post, I wrote about how drafting in details over your families to make them look correct could add hundreds of hours of re-work when changes occur (and they always occur).

Now, to demonstrate just how simple it would have been for you to make a custom shaker door and modify the existing casework families I created a tutorial.  Continue reading to view the tutorial and to fully comprehend the power of custom family creation in Revit….


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The Drafting Workaround...

Yesterday, I published a post that explored the dangers of NOT building custom Revit families.  I used the example of out of the box casework families. Today, I want to expand on this idea and present a common work around I see every day.  In fact, you or your company may use this workaround too!  What is the workaround I am talking about?  Let’s call it “drafting”...  For example, when you create an interior elevation and you use drafting lines and filled regions to show details, patterns, and information.  Let’s talk about how dangerous “drafting” in Revit can be...

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I Don’t Have Time to Create Custom Families...

When I think about the least customized elements in a typical Revit project casework, or “millwork”, always comes to mind.  It’s true, the out of the box (OOTB) casework families are well-made and fully parametric.  But, when you have something other than flush solid door cabinets, as you would in many residential applications, the out of the box cabinets are lacking...


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