Virtual AU

Don't Miss AU Virtual—It's Free

AU Virtual will deliver live streaming sessions from AU 2012 in Las Vegas, plus more than 250 on-demand technical classes on the newest releases of Autodesk products and classes on the latest trends and challenges facing the design industry—right to your desktop.
View the AU Virtual class catalog starting November 15, and then join your peers for this free online event, November 27-29, 2012. AU Virtual

Autodesk University 2012

Autodesk University is right around the corner.Traditionally it has been the week after Thanksgiving in Las Vegas. There is still time to register and be a part of the action! Autodesk University 2012

Special Characters in Revit Schedules

Is this a standard Revit schedule?

Revit does not allow for graphics to be included in a schedule.  This has been on the wish list but has not been included as of yet.  Revit does allow for special characters to be used.  Special characters can be used as long as the character is of the same font style as the font defined in the body font style of the schedule.  One example of the use of special characters would be to create a ‘dot matrix’ type of schedule where you want to show a special character as the dot.  

Learn how to create this type of schedule plus many other scheduling tips in my AU session.  

AB1712 - Schedules: Beyond the Basics

Wednesday 8:00-9:30

See you in Vegas!

Revit Sheet List - Linked Files

Client asked this question today. Can I link a file and see the sheets in the link file? The answer is no. But wait there's more.

A nice feature out of the box with Revit is the ability to create a Sheet List. What is a sheet list? A sheet list is a schedule of sheets in a project. It is also known as a drawing index or a sheet index.

Did you know you can include in your current file’s sheet list a list of sheets in any linked files? For example, while in your architectural model, you can include sheets from your linked structural model.

While you cannot see linked sheets, you can include them in your sheet list. Go to View Tab -> Create Panel -> Schedules button -> Sheet List. Make sure to place a check in the “Include elements in the linked file” check box. That’s it!

Revit Stair By Component (and Sketch too?)

Have you tried Revit 2013 Stair by Component yet? If you haven’t, you don’t know what you are missing! So you can either model stairs by component or you can model stairs by sketch. Right? Actually, you can do both with the same stair! If you need to model stairs, start with Revit 2013 new Stair by Component. But what if you need a custom landing? Easy, let Revit create the landing and then modify it. Select the landing and go to the ribbon. Select Convert tool in the “Create Stair” tab and “Tools” panel. A message will notify you converting the landing to sketch-based is irreversible. No worries, select the Close button and keep moving forward. Next, select the “Edit Sketch” tool in the ribbon and you can modify the landing boundary. Select the green check mark to finish edit mode for the landing. Select the green check mark again to finish creating the stair. There are many other reasons for using Stairs by Components.  This is just one small tip.

Revit LT is not AutoCAD LT

Those of us who remember when AutoCAD LT was first released remember our initial reaction. It was cheap and it did almost everything AutoCAD did. Right? Well, we soon discovered that AutoCAD LT was lacking more than we wanted. It was still a great product but power users were missing the power of AutoCAD.
Revit LT on the other hand is a very powerful version of Revit. Yes it does have limitations but it's limitation do not hamper small companies. The biggest difference with Revit LT is that it does not allow you to do worksharing; that means multiple people can not work on one project at the same time. If you are a small firm and designers do not need work sharing, then Revit LT will do everything you need Revit to do.
If you have not made the switch to Revit and you are a small firm, you should consider Revit LT. Speak with a Sales Account Manager and Senior Application Specialist to see if Revit LT is for you.  Check out this link, http://usa.autodesk.com/revitlt/.

Navisworks 2013 Update 2 is now available.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=20458011&linkID=10382102

The Navisworks 2013 Update 2 readme cites several buggy features being fixed, primarily around crashing issues.  Alas though, still no fix for the READER portion of RMEP files where it brings in the pipe fittings as single-line.

I discovered something great!  SP2 must of fixed one major issue with the Clash Detective.  Now, when you write the Report = Viewpoints, the Viewpoints created 'remember' how you viewed it in the Results Tab, what is on, what is off, Dim settings, etc...wonderful.

Important HotFix to preserve Markups on the Results Viewpoints:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?id=20626807&siteID=123112&linkID=10382102