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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Revit Tutorial - Adaptive Fabric Roof Canopy Introduction

Adaptive components are a topic in high demand by the readers of this blog.  Due to this demand, I knew I had to dedicate a section of BIM After Dark - Volume 3 to adaptive components.  Similar to the rest of the series, I start by teaching you how to make a practical family that introduces the foundations of adaptive components.  Then, we build on these concepts and add some complexities such as parameters and hosting to a divided surface (giving you the ability to make forms similar to "The Web", which is also demonstrated in the series as a case study).

Continue reading to view a tutorial extracted directly from Volume 3 that demonstrates the principles of an adaptive component while building a fabric canopy...



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Revit Tutorial - Parametric Pendant Light (Start to Finish)

To close out the launch of BIM After Dark - Volume 3 a couple weeks ago I held a live webinar (happy hour).  The event was fantastic with well over 150 people attending (live)!  You guys rock!  I wanted to post a recording of the event here on the blog for those of you that missed it.  In the video below you will learn how to create a parametric pendant light fixture (that looks good rendered) in less than one hour!  Continue reading to view the tutorial...


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