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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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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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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