Structural Integrators is seeking beta testers.

From our friends over at BIM and BEAM

Interface between Revit® Structure and STAAD.Pro

Structural Integrators is currently developing an interface between Revit® Structure, and STAAD.Pro. The initial version of the link will be free to registered users of Structural Integrators, and will be a one-way link from Revit Structure to STAAD.Pro. Future releases will provide full bi-directional integration between these two products.

In anticipation of the 2008 Q1 release of the link, Structural Integrators is seeking beta testers. If you already own Revit® Structure and STAAD.Pro and would like to be a beta tester for this interface, please go to http://structuralintegrators.com/staad.php

New Revit Subscription Tools - Part 2

For those Revit users that are also subscription customers, Autodesk has released several new tools that can be downloaded at the subscription site. The second of these tools is the Batch Print Utility for the Revit 2008 product line. The tool can be downloaded after logging into the subscription site and then go down to "Product Information & Downloads" section. There is a link for "AEC Product Modules & Add-Ons". This link will bring you to the download page.

The new Batch Print Utility for Revit 2008 subscription customers allows you to print a large number of drawings from you Revit project unattended.

For more information, David Light has done a great job documenting the Batch Print and Worksharing monitor and you can find that information on his Revit blog.

New Revit Subscription Tools - Part 1

For those Revit users that are also subscription customers, Autodesk has released several new tools that can be downloaded at the subscription site. The first of these tools is the Worksharing Monitor for the Revit 2008 product line. The tool can be downloaded after logging into the subscription site and then go down to "Product Information & Downloads" section. There is a link for "AEC Product Modules & Add-Ons". This link will bring you to the download page.

From the Revit Worksharing Monitor help file.

The Worksharing Monitor for Revit 2008 facilitates the use of Revit software in a worksharing environment, in which multiple people work on one project. For workshared projects, the Worksharing Monitor answers questions like the following:

Who is currently working on this project?
Is my local copy of the project up to date?
When will my Save to Central operation finish?
Has my request to borrow elements been granted?
Are any issues interfering with my work on a Revit project?

Note: The Worksharing Monitor is not useful for standalone Revit projects, which do not use worksharing to divide the work for a project among several people. The Worksharing Monitor works with all Revit products, including Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, and Revit Structure. If you are working on one or more workshared Revit projects, install the Worksharing Monitor on your computer. When you open a workshared project in the Revit software, also start the Worksharing Monitor. (Using the Worksharing Monitor with worksharing projects is not required, but it is strongly recommended.)

For information about setting up, using, and managing workshared projects, as well as terminology and concepts related to worksharing, see “Working in a Team” in the Revit help.

New RISA/Revit Structure Link Now Available

RISA Tech has released version 6 of the RISA-3D & RISAFloor link with Revit Structure. This new version now supports a full two-way link which RISA Tech is reporting that you can start modeling in RISA-3D or RISAFloor and then push the model to Revit Structure. Modeling in Revit Structure first is still supported.

For more information visit RISA Tech for the link to download the new Revit Structure link.

Revit Warnings - What's the Big Deal

With the help of a formal colleague and friend Daniel Hurtubise (see his French RevitIt blog) we are documenting a number of Revit Warnings. But the question I get both at work and via this blog is, "What's the Big Deal with Warnings". Which is usually followed by, "They don't prevent me from doing something and my sheets still print". So, I think it is important to discuss how important it is to address warnings sooner than later (or not at all).

I think the first and foremost reason to address warnings is that they can have a huge impact on the file size and performance of a project. This is especially true with warnings that have to do with overlapping items such as walls, room separations lines and duplicated instances.

The first time you encounter a warning is really the best time to address it. So if Revit thinks you are doing something it does not like, Revit will throw up an alert explaining what it thinks you have done wrong. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes when that dialog appears, I just hit the "OK" button and pretend like I saw nothing and this is the case when helping with a deadline. Daniel on the other-hand is what I refer to as a Warnings Nazi wanting to address every warning as they appear. That's probably the best way to handle them, but sometimes whether we like it or not, we take shortcuts to meet a deadline.

There will be times when you are under pressure for a deadline and taking the time to address all the warnings that are coming up is just not feasible. After all, most Project Managers will not understand why it is important to fix something that they do not see on their printed sheets. But at some point it is absolutely necessary to come back and review all your warnings.

The next question is what type of warnings need to be immediately addressed, what can wait and what can be ignored. Every project is different, so your results will vary, but here are a couple of guidelines which should be helpful. Any warnings relating to Rooms, Joins, Overlapping Lines and area warnings should be a priority. This is by no means an exclusive list, just something to get you started if you have been ignoring the warnings.

To review past warnings, simply go to the Tools pull-down menu and select Review Warnings near the bottom of the screen. If Review Warnings is not greyed out, then you have warnings. If you want to see how many unresolved errors there are, you can do this by scrolling down to the last displayed category, expanding that and scrolling down again. That will give you the total number. I've seen as many as 1200 or more in a single file. Each one of them is a potentially serious problem in your model somewhere that needs to be resolved.

Resolving some Revit Warnings can take a lot of investgation to track them down. As you first begin to do this, it can seem a little overwhelming. But as you track down these Warnings, you will find that it is usually (emphasis on usually) not to difficult to track down the problem.

The first thing that you should do when select a warning and click on the "Show" button. Revit will then try to find a view that shows the problem elements and highlight them for you. Keep in mind that the first view that Revit provides you, may not be the best view. If this first go-around does not help you find the issue, then select one of the elements that are listed in the Warning and click the "Show" button again. This will usually help you locate the problem, but not always. If this doesn't, then you need to use the element ID and use the "Select by ID" tool to locate that element that is causing or part of a warning.

Once you start working on resolving Warnings, you will find that the performance of your projects will be much better.

One thing that I would be nice is if Autodesk would provide some kind of mechanism to schedule Warnings. Unfortunetly, the only way to do that now is to use a screen capture utility.

This has just been a 20,000 feet overview of how to address Revit Warnings. In a following Blog, I hope to have Daniel Hurtubise write a more detailed document on addressing Warnings.

Best Practices for Content Creation and Management - Part 2

In a previous post on Best Practices for Content Creation and Management, we discuss the definition of a family and how important it is to do some planning before you dive into creating or modifying a family. Now that we have the basic understanding, we can start the process of actually creating a family.

Rule #1 is to use the correct template. For example, a curtain wall is not a window. This can cause issues with scheduling.

Rule #2: What to modify in the Out-of-the-Box templates

* Host and Face based family templates should be modified by adding hosts and dimensions

* All the family templates should be modified to add company specific parameters (which will be discussed further in Management)

As before, I want to make sure I give credit to Daniel Hurtubise of Revit It! and Katherine Meeder, BIM Specialist at HNTB Architecture for all their work in putting together this document.

Revit Warnings - Wall is slightly off axis and may cause inaccuracies.

This can usually happen when are are picking geometry from an AutoCAD file. Revit will report this error when a wall is drawn at an angle at a with a fractional degree, such as 95.1 degrees. To correct the problem, either redraw the wall or change the angle. You can sometimes verify the angle by creating a 3-4 decimal point dimension style.

Special thanks to Daniel Hurtubise, aka the Revit Warnings Nazi for his help on documenting Revit warnings. Check out his RevitIt blog. (in French)

Revit Warnings - Highlighted walls are attached to, but miss, the highlighted targets

This means that you have a wall that is attached to a floor, roof etc. but the wall does not physically attach or touch the roof or floor. This warning can generally be corrected by “detaching” the wall from the floor or roof.

Special thanks to Daniel Hurtubise, aka the Revit Warnings Nazi for his help on documenting Revit warnings. Cehck out his RevitIt blog. (in French)

New Structural Content at Subscription Center

If you are a Revit subscription customer, then the Revit Structure team has uploaded some new structural .rfa content in the Subscription Center for download. The new content includes some AISC 13th Editions steel sections, Joist Girders, many UK Metric families and Finland ones, etc.

To access the new content, log into the Subscription Center, scroll down to "Product Information & Downloads" section and click on "Building Solutions: Product Modules & Add-Ons". Under "Structural Engineering Solutions" click on "Subscription Structural Library".

For more information, check-out the BIM and Beam blog.

Network Deployment Failure

If you are attempting to create a network deployment and it fails this LINK at Microsoft seems to correct the problem in most cases.

This problem popped up with the last build and has been discussed on AUGI and Steve Stafford's Revit OpEd.

Professional Development Podcasts

If you are reading this blog, then chances are you also own either a MP3 player or iPod. And if you do, then you might want to consider looking at an alternate form of professional development, the Podcasts. Podcasts are either audio or audio-video files that are typically free, portable and can provide and alternate form of professional development. There are Podcasts for every subject under-the sun. Some good, some not-so-much. I have listed a few that I think are worth looking at for the AEC community. If I left one out you think should be mentioned, drop me an email at pdavis at hntb dot com

American Institute of Architects (AIA) AIA PodNet and AIA-COTE Podcasts

McGraw Hill Construction Podcasts

Building+Design Construction (bdcnetwork.com) Podcasts

AdditionalPodcast Resources

Apple-iTunes Podcast Library

podcast.com

freshpodcasts.com

The Midwest Revit / BIM Collaborative Meting

FMDesktop Blog

For all those FMDesktop users hungry for additional learning or information resources, you will be glad to know that there is a Blog dedicated to FMDesktop. As a casual FMDesktop user, I will be honest and say that this Blog by no means satisfies my thirst for information, but it is a start.

So, if you are a FMDesktop user or investigating the product, then take a minute to view "FMDesktop & Beyond!" by Shaun Bryant

Local Files - By Steve Stafford

For those not familiar with Steve Stafford he is definitely one of the Revit rock stars and he has a very informative Blog called Revit OpEd which I am sure most of you are aware of.

One of Steve's recent postings was on "Local Files - How, How Often and Where?" is a really good document worth adding to your personal or firms documentation.

The firm I work for follows are very similar process that Steve outlines though we have a few twists on his guidelines.

I also recommend bookmarking Steve's Blog, he provides some really good information.

Best Practices for Content Creation and Management - Part 1

Before we get into this, I want to make sure I give credit to Daniel Hurtubise of Revit It! and Katherine Meeder, BIM Specialist at HNTB Architecture for all their work in putting together this document.

What is a Family?

A Revit Family is the most basic building block or component in a Revit Architecture model. Families are reusable and can be transferred from project to project. You can use System Families from existing Revit projects or templates by using the File > Transfer Project Standards. Component Families can be loaded from family libraries using the File > Load from Library > Load Family.

Families can be either 2D or 3D. Families are easily swappable as the project progresses from schematic design quality into the construction document phase. Properly created Revit families can minimize the size of the BIM model file while providing a high level of detail that can be viewed in the schedules, tags and labels.

Revit uses 4 types of families:

Systems Families (walls, text, ceilings, etc.)
Component Families (doors, windows, plumbing fixture, equipment, furniture, etc.)
Mixed-Use Families (grids, levels and stairs)
In-Place Families (Families that are created within the context of the project. The family exists only in the project and cannot be loaded into other projects easily) They have limited categories. They add a lot of geometry.

Where to Start?

Planning

Before creating a family in Revit, users should consider the following questions regarding their intended use of a family. A properly created family can provide a wealth of data and graphical benefits with minimal impact on performance, but it all starts with planning.

1. Sketch the Family’s end result.
This helps you gather your thoughts and every view and level of detail that you will require.

2. Does this family require a host (or does it attach to another object)?
Is this family typically attached to another design element - a wall, or maybe a ceiling? Possibly it is a roof mounted mechanical unit or skylight. How this family is hosted (or what it does or does not attach to) will determine which template file should be used to start the family. If it is hosted, is it face based?

Building Performance Analysis Tools

Integrated Environmental Solutions Ltd (IES) offers a number of building performance analysis tools that have been integrated with Revit. IES’s plugin for Revit Architecture 2008 is a free Plugin that provides the linkage between Revit Architecture and both the IES Sustainability Toolkits and the IES .

Sustainability Toolkit Features: Sustainability Toolkit enables designers to perform common sustainable design analysis with a single button click. Perform quick ‘what-if’ scenarios to establish the most appropriate sustainable and energy efficient approach. The Toolkits are exclusive to Autodesk Revit projects uniquely leveraging sustainability into your BIM project.

 

You can download the free trial at http://www.iesve.com/content/default.asp

Job Postings

If you are a BIM or CADD users, then you want to bookmark Steve Stafford's Revit Jobs blog.

If you are looking for a position in Kansas City and want to work for a great firm (I have never worked there, but I have friends there), then check out 360 Architecture.

BIM Facilitator - 360 ARCHITECTURE

BIM Facilitator

360 ARCHITECTURE is a design-centered, client-focused and solution-oriented firm providing full-scope services to corporate, institutional and public sector clients, and private individuals across the United States. We’ve developed integrated expertise in strategic planning, architecture, interiors and graphics to deliver the best overall solutions to our clients and community. We are creative, business-minded professionals devoted to superior project design and delivery.

At THREESIXTY ARCHITECTURE, our ability to deliver excellence in design is based on our ability to attract and retain creative people committed to quality design, innovation and professional growth within a collaborative team environment.

We are committed to the promotion and implementation of BIM as a means to further design, sustainability and project efficiency. With over five years of Revit project experience, 360 has completed more than a dozen projects totaling approximately 2 million sf, in commercial, sports, interiors and institutional projects.

We are looking for a BIM Facilitator to continue the advancement of Revit, and other software applications, within our practice. Architectural professionals who are experienced in managing large, multiphase, complex projects in Revit are of particular interest.

Responsibilities will include:

Revit support and trouble-shooting for project teams.

Project template development, maintenance and content creation.

Research of current and developing software applications.

Liaison with contractors/consultants.

Participate and promote at a local and national level the advancement of BIM initiatives.

Develop and coordinate training strategies.

Familiarity with other software applications such as sketch-up and 3D Studio would be an advantage.

This position will not be responsible for purchasing and installation of software, workstation support or network maintenance. Successful candidates will possess an architectural degree and a minimum of 5 years of demonstrated Revit experience on large-scale project types. Interested in joining our team? Check out our WEBSITE at Please contact us and/or send resume to: hroffice at 360architects dot com

THREESIXTY ARCHITECTURE provides a professional, creative, and supportive team environment. Equal Opportunity Employer.

HNTB Architecture is Looking for YOU!

HNTB Architecture is looking for you

BIM Specialist - HNTB Architecture - DC

Job Summary

Intermediate proficiency level and expertise with BIM (Revit Architecture). This position level may include supervisory responsibilities. Work duties may be narrowly focuses or diverse. Examples of focus may include areas such as CADD management, 3D specialist, BIM Specialist and other areas of specialization. Will be knowledgeable in methods, techniques, and practices of the appropriate specialty. Will help establish, guide and direct BIM systems and processes. Provide leadership and vision to the firm in the area of CADD and BIM.

Essential Functions

Responsibility for planning and implementation of BIM firm wide. Overseeing, developing and organizing support and training materials for CADD and BIM applications. BIM contact for local Arch Inc offices. Develop and foster relationships with sub-consultants, and user groups. Participate in the development of CADD and BIM standards. Conduct project related model reviews.

Responsibilities

Software Support

Provide production BIM support

Troubleshoot problems

Finding workarounds

Fixing problems

Working with software vendors and consultants

Supply technical support for all BIM software

Demonstrate BIM tools and routines to insure understanding

Provide training to BIM users

Project Support

Coordinate the Project Setup (aka SWAT) Team

Project Setup

Project file loading

Defining project CADD workflow

Interact on project standards coordination with clients

Review incoming CADD files for use on projects (if no project CADD coord)

Obtain any special fonts, plot or color styles

Assist in Publish, PDF or DWF support

Develop, implement and enforce project (& firm) BIM standards

Assist users in understanding the existing standards

Gather comments in existing BIM standards for review

Review BIM files for compliance with standards

Setup project files prior to Project Setup Team startup

Conduct Project related BIM reviews

Perform random scan of BIM files for problems

Perform scan of BIM files for problems as requested

Perform model reviews

Contact Pat Davis via email: pdavis at hntb dot com

The HNTB Companies

Engineers Architects Planners

With more than 93 years of profitable growth, HNTB is one of the most prominent engineering, architecture and planning firms in the nation. Employee-owned, with more than 3,400 employees and 62 offices nationwide, HNTB serves clients in the transportation, architecture and federal markets with integrity, technical excellence and a commitment to performance providing quality work, on time, on budget and to the client's satisfaction. At HNTB, we're committed to making success happen for our clients, our employees and our firm.

Regional BIM Manager - HNTB Architecture - DC

Job Summary

Senior proficiency level and expertise with BIM (Revit Architecture). This position level may include supervisory responsibilities. Work duties may be narrowly focuses or diverse. Examples of focus may include areas such as CADD management, 3D specialist, BIM Specialist and other areas of specialization. Will be knowledgeable in methods, techniques, and practices of the appropriate specialty. Will help establish, guide and direct BIM systems and processes. Provide leadership and vision to the firm in the area of CADD and BIM.

Essential Functions

Responsibility for planning and implementation of BIM firm wide. Overseeing, developing and organizing support and training materials for CADD and BIM applications. Monitor performance of subordinates, if any. Interface with CBS for firm wide support as needed. Firm wide BIM contact for all Arch Inc offices. Develop and foster relationships with sub-consultants, and user groups. Participate in the development of CADD and BIM standards. Oversight of the BIM Process. Assisting and coordinating with Office Leaders and PMs on selection of BIM software for individual projects. Conduct project related model reviews.

Responsibilities

Firm-Wide Support

Organize the BIM environment

Develop, implement and enforce BIM Standards

Provide training and supervision of in-house BIM users

Provide leadership and vision to the firm in the area of BIM

Software Support

Provide production BIM support

Troubleshoot for, find, fix or report problems

Working with software vendors and consultants

Supply technical support for all BIM software

Demonstrate BIM tools and routines to insure understanding

Provide training to BIM users

Project Support

Coordinate the Project Setup (aka SWAT) Team

Project Setup

Project file loading

Defining project CADD workflow

Interact on project standards coordination with clients

Review incoming CADD files for use on projects (if no project CADD coord)

Obtain any special fonts, plot or color styles

Assist in Publish, PDF or DWF support

Develop, implement and enforce project (& firm) BIM standards

Assist users in understanding the existing standards

Gather comments in existing BIM standards for review

Review BIM files for compliance with standards

Setup project files prior to Project Setup Team startup

Conduct Project related BIM reviews

Perform random scan of BIM files for problems

Perform scan of BIM files for problems as requested

Perform model reviews

Contact Pat Davis via email: pdavis at hntb dot com

The HNTB Companies

Engineers Architects Planners

With more than 93 years of profitable growth, HNTB is one of the most prominent engineering, architecture and planning firms in the nation. Employee-owned, with more than 3,400 employees and 62 offices nationwide, HNTB serves clients in the transportation, architecture and federal markets with integrity, technical excellence and a commitment to performance providing quality work, on time, on budget and to the client's satisfaction. At HNTB, we're committed to making success happen for our clients, our employees and our firm.