Help improve AEC Products at Autodesk University by participating in User Research!

Want to help improve the Autodesk AEC products you use every day and get an early opportunity to try out future releases?

This is your chance to participate in user research sessions at AU (or in the future) that will give us a deeper understanding of how you use our products and what we can do to improve them.

We conduct user research throughout the year, so we’re interested in hearing from you even if you can’t participate at AU.

To learn more, you can either:

Visit us Online:
http://www.autodesk.com/aecusability

Visit us in person:

AEC Usability Center (Zeno room 4601 in the AEC Campus on the 4th floor) for AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD MEP, Civil 3D, Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, and Revit Structure
Exhibit Hall Collaborative Project Management Usability Booth (#354) for Autodesk Buzzsaw and Autodesk Constructware.
Thanks for your support. We look forward to seeing you there!

James McElroy, on behalf of the AEC User Experience Team

AU 2008 Sessions

For those attending AU 2008 and are interested in Buzzsaw, I thought you might find this interesting.

Tuesday, December 2

10:15-11:45 AM: Effective Communication with Autodesk® Buzzsaw® Business Processes

Wednesday, December 3

1:00-2:45 PM: Autodesk Buzzsaw User Forum - meet with Product Management to learn about recent and upcoming product advancements (NDA required). Please RSVP here (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=tGBoWmND09u9BozSTwO_2bBg_3d_3d), as seating is limited. This meeting is for Buzzsaw customers only, and will be held 1-5 PM in Galileo 906 in the Venetian.

Thursday, December 4

8:00-9:30 AM: Reduce your Carbon Footprint using Autodesk® Buzzsaw®

3:00-4:30 PM: Using Autodesk® Collaborative Project Management Products—Buzzsaw® and Constructware® as Virtual Glue for your BIM Teams

Help make our products even better - participate in usability research at AU

Get involved and help improve Autodesk Collaborative Project Management products. To participate in usability research, you can:
- Stop by the CPM Usability Booth (#354 in the Exhibit Hall) or
- Sign up for an AU usability session now at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=teWYXXqzH9GSYoBYpL2K9w_3d_3d

If you aren’t available at AU, you can join the CPM User Experience program to participate in future research: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=G9E0SjGILUt7s7zSx0DrCA_3d_3d

In addition to the above content, there are more than a dozen Construction & Real Estate-related sessions, as well as hundreds of other sessions available to you.

I look forward to seeing you at AU.

-Matt

Matthew E. Wheelis
Senior Product Manager
Construction and Real Estate Industry Solutions

Autodesk, Inc.
3780 Mansell Road, Suite 200
Alpharetta, GA 30022

AU 2008 Show Guide

For those attending AU, you might want to check out the link to the AU 2008 Show Guide that details the entire event

Subscription Updates

From Shaan Hurley

14 November 2008 New Feature Releases for Autodesk Subscription Customers

On November 14th 2008, Autodesk Subscription members, as part of their benefits, can download the following new feature releases:

Listed in alphabetical order by product

Autodesk NavisWorks 2009

2004 DWG Object Enabler Extension for Autodesk NavisWorks 2009.1 software – English
Autodesk NavisWorks 2009 Review: Project Review e-learning – English
Autodesk NavisWorks 2009 Simulate: Animate, 4D Simulations and Project Presentations e-Learning - English
Autodesk NavisWorks 2009 Manage: Effective Project 3D Coordination and Analysis e-Learning - English

Autodesk® Robot™ Structural Analysis 2009

Robot Extensions for Autodesk® Robot™ Structural Analysis 2009 software – French, Spanish, Russian, Polish

Revit 2009

Revit Extensions for Revit Architecture 2009 64-bit – French, Italian, German, Simplified Chinese, Polish
Revit Extensions for Revit MEP 2009 – Simplified Chinese
Revit Extensions for Revit Structure 2009 64-bit – French, Italian, German, Simplified Chinese, Polish
Revit Architecture 2009 64-bit – Traditional Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish
Revit MEP 2009 64-bit - Japanese, Simplified Chinese
Revit Structure 2009 64-bit – Russian, Polish
Batch Print Utility for Revit 2009 - Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish
Worksharing Monitor for Revit 2009 - Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish
German Content Library for Revit Architecture 2009 – (Available in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland only) – German
Austrian Content Library for Revit Architecture 2009 – (Available in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland only) – German

Cheers,
Shaan (experiencing bad jetlag)

New Survey on AutoCAD MEP Satisfaction from Autodesk® AutoCAD MEP Customer Council!

Greetings from AutoCAD MEP Product Team,

Please click on the link below to take a new survey on AutoCAD MEP Satisfaction.

This survey should take approximately 10 minutes of your time.

Please note if you are unable to complete the survey in one sitting, please close your browser. You may return at a later time and start the survey where you left off. The survey will be open for approximately 2 weeks.

http://adskmepcc.com/7CYUFJCYP-HAXVI9JVS6

If you are having any challenges accessing this survey, please forward this email to councilmanager@adskmepcc.com.

Thank you!

AutoCAD MEP Team
Autodesk, Inc.
111 McInnis Parkway
San Rafael, CA 94903
www.adskmepcc.com

AU 2008 - HNTB Sessions

Another class that HNTB Architecture was asked to present (two weeks ago I believe) is:

AB314-3 Custom Stairs and Railings in Revit Architecture

In this session, students will learn how to create families for posts, balusters, panels, railings, and stair nosing. Focusing on design for high-end commercial and residential projects, this class will dive directly into the use of the Family Editor to physically build the components needed. Once the families are established, the class will move to Assembly in the project to expose the difficulties designers face. The commercial portion of the class will cover extruded steel with glass panels; the residential portion will cover custom handrails and raised panels. You’ll also learn how to design winding and spiral staircases, as well as how to create custom materials with wood hatching that you can apply to the stair components to give the stairs and railings your personal touch.

Since we did not originally propose this class, Phil Read, Todd Williams and I have taken a little creative liberty to change the ciriculum a little. We will be focusing on:

Introduction

UI / Understanding the Dialog Boxes (what they do)
Images and Notes
General Best Practices
Maintain Detail Level
Start Generic>Move to Specific
Copy Paste
Stair / Railing Template
Leverage Other Projects

Conventional Custom Stairs with the Stair Tool
Core Functionality
UI / Dialog Boxes
Best Practices
Tips / Tricks
Conventional Examples

Unconventional Custom Stairs without the Stair Tool
Specialty Equipment / Casework
Pros: Very Detailed / Control / Kit of Parts
Cons: Scheduling / Graphic Standards

Conventional Custom Railings
Core Functionality
UI / Dialog Boxes
Best Practices
Tips / Tricks
Conventional Examples

Unconventional Custom Railings
Advantages / Disadvantages
Repetitive Elements: Planting / Outdoor Lighting / Train Tracks?
Pros:
Cons:
Curtain Wall Tool
Pros: Contain Space / Baluster Unlock and Move
Cons: Scheduling
Unconventional Examples

Best Practices
Examples

Conclusion

So, if you have any have any comments or suggestions, please let me know.

AU 2008 Class Highlights

For those attending AU 2008, I thought I would post some classes that I think are interesting. Horrible Hacks is going to be a very interesting classes with Steve Mintz, Sean Burke and Bob DeFeo. I have promised not to release any advanced information or tips from the class, but I will throw this out (sorry Steve). If you are working on projects that routinely require you to create multi-segmented grids, you want to attend this class. Steve is going to demonstrate a very elegant solution to a problem that Autodesk should have fixed many releases ago.

“Horrible Hacks™” 

(and Other Tips & Tricks for Revit® Power Users) 

Steve Mintz, P.E.  – Revit Structure Technical Consultant 

Sean Burke, Assoc. AIA  – Revit Architecture Technical Consultant 

Bob DeFeo  – Revit MEP Technical Consultant 

 

SE404-1P Have you ever seen a stunt demonstration with the tagline:  "Warning! Do not 

attempt at home!”? This class presents the latest tips, tricks, and hacks developed by the Revit 

Experts of the Autodesk Consulting Team. Years on the front lines of the most complicated 

projects have fostered out-of-the-box thinking to create solutions in ways you would never 

imagine. Advanced problems require advanced solutions; we present to you our latest and most 

innovative solutions for Revit Architecture, Revit Structure, and Revit MEP. 

 

Revit® Platform 

Looped and Offset Grids 

Dimensionless Dimensions 

Quickly Rename Levels 

Layered and Graded Site 

Phased and Packaged Submittals 

Oops, I Forgot to Uncheck “Visible by Default” for my Workset 

 

Revit® Architecture 

Curved and Complex Ceilings 

When is a Floor not a Floor? 

Museum Board Renderings for Revit® 2009 

 

Revit® Structure 

Scheduling Wide Flange Area and Weight 

Steel Take-offs in PSF using Global Parameters 

Parking Garage Floors 

 

 

Revit® MEP 

Create Conduit 

Cable Trays

AU 2008 - HNTB Sessions

I am not sure what it is at HNTB Architecture and Autodesk University, but we seem to get asked to do classes at the last minute. One of the classes will be on "Autodesk and Virtualization: A Discussion of Best Practices and First Hand User Experiences".

If you are interested, here is some additional information.

5:00 PM - 6:00 PM December 4, 2008
Location: Casanova 604

Hi All -

FYI - this was posted in the AUGI forums as well in order to raise awareness
and generate interest at AU2008. Hope to see you there. - Phil

---------------------

If you're experienced (or just really interested) in virtualized solutions
for Autodesk's suite of design tools:

AU Unplugged - The AU Unconference:
Topic: "Autodesk and Virtualization: A Discussion of Best Practices and
First Hand User Experiences"
Hosted by: Phil Read, Vice President | Director of Technology
HNTB Architecture
When:2pm-2.50pm, Thursday December, 4th
Where: Casanova 604

Details:
Recent advances in virtualization has legitimized our ability to run
Autodesk’s suite of design applications in virtual environments. And in
addition to Parallels and VM Ware, Sun has recently introduced their
VirtualBox solution!

AU2007 introduced “Running Revit in Virtualization.” But it’s not just about
Revit anymore. If you look at the AUGI forums it becomes obvious that many
of Autodesk's solutions are being run in virtualization. So I’m suggesting
that we put our heads together and figure it out for the benefit of each
other and Autodesk:

* What industries are running Autodesk’s solutions in virtualization? AEC?
Automotive? Manufacturing?
* Revit? Inventor? Max? AutoCAD?
* What are the Host OS's? Apple / Linux / Windows?
* VM Solutions? VMWare / Parallels / Sun
* Overall Pros and Cons?
* Settings / Hardware / Connectivity / Configurations
* Finally: Best Practices and real-world production experience from real end
users.

Hope to see you all there!

Phil

Save to Central

Because of my post on Large Project Management, I received some emails about creating a Central file, what is the difference between the Save to Central options and how to determine if you are in the Central file. Rather than recreating the wheel, I thought I would point you to some good blogs on the subject.

Save to Central:

In Steve Stafford's RevitOpEd he has a brief but easy to follow explanation of what need to be done to create a Central File. The article is called Central File in "Four Easy Steps".

Save to Central options:

Nicholas lyadurai has a blog called Revitize - Another Revit Blog and one of his posts entitled "Save to Central differences" 

Working in the Central file:

As we have all come to expect, Steve Stafford's RevitOpEd has an excellent article on when it is ok to work in the Central file. It's called, Working in the Central File - Breaking the Rule.

Central or Local File:

The last topic that I want to cover is a very good article again by Steve Stafford on determining whether a file is either a Central file or Local file. The article is called "Stand Alone? Central File? How can I tell?"

Steve has been blogging for awhile. He does a very good job and has numerous articles on the subject of the Central file.

AIA Integrated Project Delivery Guilde

The AIA recently published a document on Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). It's an interesting document worth reading.

Integrated Project Delivery leverages early contributions of knowledge and expertise through the utilization of new technologies, allowing all team members to better realize their highest potentials while expanding the value they provide throughout the project lifecycle.

This Integrated Project Delivery Guide (jointly developed by AIA’s Contract Documents Committee and the AIA California Council) is offered as a tool to assist owners, designers and builders to move toward integrated models and improved design, construction and operations processes. The goal of the Guide is to identify the characteristics of IPD and to provide specific information and guidance on how to utilize IPD methods to achieve enhanced design, construction and operations processes.

The Guide begins with introductory material about the principles of IPD and points of consideration in a generic sense, moves through a study of implementation of IPD and culminates with discussion of application of general IPD principles within the specific framework of common delivery models used in the marketplace today. When thoughtfully considered, absorbed, and then applied, the principles and techniques outlined in this guide should allow readers to be able to:

Understand principles of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD);
Understand the value propositions of IPD from the perspective of various stakeholders;
Organize non-traditional delivery methods and alternative team relationships for improved project performance, understanding the necessary qualifications / attributes of team members;
Assess interest and adequate knowledge resources within ones team;
Discern subtle difference between possible models for IPD;
Advocate the benefit of an integrated delivery model;
Understand the issues that must be addressed in an integrated project delivery document;
With the appropriate resources, write an agreement based on integrated project delivery principles;
Implement IPD principles to proceed with confidence during this time of change.

Integrated Project Delivery and BIM

I am a big advocate of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and as I was going thru my desktop and My Documents folder and I ran across this graphic from Autodesk on IPD. I think it does a great job providing a very general overview of the IPD process. Just wish implementing IPD was as simple as the graphic makes it look.