Friday, July 24, 2009

Revit Support for the Mac

Autodesk Expands Support for Mac Users

Autodesk is expanding assistance for Macintosh® users by adding support for Boot Camp for select products in addition to offering native Mac OS products.

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The good news to Mac users is that you can now get official support if you are running certain Autodesk products like Revit via Bootcamp on a Mac.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

RAC 2010 WU1

Have you installed wed update 1 yet?



I haven't had time to install it on any of my test boxes. However, a collegue, friend and mentor (I think reluctantly) has installed the updated and made some interesting comments.




  • Fixed the Course / Medium / Fine detail icons in the view control bar by putting back the old ones.

  • The ribbon is still there and refreshes slower.

  • If you made any changes to your QAT bar, they’re gone – the QAT gets reset to add a Sync To Central button.

  • Some of the commands that are layered save the last command run, but some don’t.

He summed things up by indicating that there is actually less clarity now than before.


I would be interested in hearing what others think about the changes in WU1.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Changing the File Association of Revit files

From The Revit Clinic

If you have multiple versions of Revit on your system and you open files by double-clicking on them in Windows Explorer, you may find that Revit doesn't launch the version you want it to. If you have trouble with this, please try the following:

This example will set .RVT files to open with Revit Structure 2010.

Go to the Control Panel > Folder Options.
In the Folder Options dialog, click the File Types tab.
Scroll down to the RVT file type. In the bottom pane, click the Advanced button (if you've already made changes, click Restore, then the Advanced button will appear).
In the Edit File Type dialog, click New.
Under Action, type Open with Revit Structure 2010.
In the Application used to perform action field, type "C:\Program Files\Autodesk Revit Structure 2010\Program\Revit.exe" "%1".
Click OK to exit the dialogs.

Revit Architecture 2010

Web update 1 has been released.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Building Skills with Skill Builders

This post is from The Revit Clinic

A friend of mine responsible for coming up with Revit Architecture tutorials asked me to announce some new tutorials that are available for everyone to download.

The User Assistance team for Revit Architecture has recently released the first of the Skill Builders for Revit Architecture 2010. The first skill builder is a tutorial covering the Conceptual Design Environment (new massing) in Revit 2010. The tutorial is a series of 6 short animations covering topics of making forms and applying parameters to them and creating panels which can be applied to your conceptual forms. The Conceptual Design Skill Builder can be downloaded from the flowing location, or accessed from inside of Revit Architecture via the InfoCenter.

Skill Builders: Conceptual Design

The Skill Builders give the User Assistance team the opportunity to deliver updated content on a regular basis. The traditional tutorials shipped with Revit give users a great foundation to start using Revit as soon as possible while the Skill Builders will expand on that base of knowledge and explore more specific topics in depth.

The User Assistance team is always looking for user feedback so let us know what you think of our first Skill Builder and what topics you might like to see covered in future Skill Builders. So please comment with your feedback and thoughts about other tutorials you would like to see.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Library Viewer for Revit - Thumbnail Explorer

I thought I would pass along a very inexpensive utility that allows users to quickly locate content in your Revit library. One of my favorite tools like I like is the Thumbnail Explorer from Raiz Labs.

Thumbnail Explorer is an easy to use tool for anyone who deals with graphics, and CAD files. The software indexes your library of Revit files and allows you to quickly and visually find any file across multiple folders without browsing or using Windows search. As you type a part of the file name Thumbnail Explorer will show a list of thumbnails and will enable you to work with corresponding files without resorting to Windows Explorer. You can then drag and drop from Thumbnail Explorer into Revit.

We have a fairly extensive library and unfortunately we have some duplicate families in there. While I have two other tools to manage our library, Thumbnail Explorer can also be used to do some very rudimentary management of our your library. For example, if you search for Windows, Thumbnail Explorer will list all families with the name Window in it. You can then delete the duplicates.

A free trial of the software is available and per user copies are just $10. The program was developed by Leonid Raiz one of the founders of Revit and is available for download at:http://www.raizlabs.com/software/thumbnailexplorer/

Friday, June 5, 2009

IE 8 and Revit Architecture 2009 problem

I just ran across a problem on workstations with Internet Explorer 8 and Revit Architecture 2009. After an update to WSE 3 SP3 (Web Service Enhancements) was applied during the installation of another application and impacts Internet Explorer 8, Revit Architecture would crash when you try to start a new project with a template or open an existing project. This would result in a fatal error.

Autodesk support could not narrow down which Interner Explorer 8 component was causing the problem, but uninstall IE 8 and going back to IE 7 allowed RAC 2009 to function. None of the workstations with the error have RAC 2010 installed, so I am not aware if this impacts RAC 2010.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Discover 2010 Autodesk Event- Mission Kansas

Discover 2010 Autodesk Event- Mission Kansas

Where:Sylvester Powell Community Center
6200 Martway
Mission, KS 66202
When:June 9th, 2009
Please Note: Revised Scheduled Session Times below
Time(s):Morning Session - Civil 3D 2010
8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. 

Afternoon Session - Revit Architecture 2010
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.


RESERVE A SPACE AT OUR AUTODESK® 2010 SOFTWARE EVENT.

Whether you’re an architect, designer or civil engineer, Autodesk® 2010 software gives you the power to create, document, and communicate groundbreaking ideas — before they’re real.

Seiler Instrument is pleased to introduce you to AutoCAD® 2010 at our upcoming event, where you can see for yourself how Civil 3D® and Revit® Architecture delivers groundbreaking new capabilities to help you tackle the most challenging design problems with ease.

The morning session will cover Civil 3D 2010 highlights and new features such as, production drafting, usability, and survey tools and much more!

The afternoon session will cover Revit Architecture 2010 highlights and new features such as easy-to-use tools for free-form modeling and parametric design along with much more!

Note: Seiler will also include a special training segment for each product that focuses on one aspect of the application's specific tools.

  • Free coffee soda and snacks provided for each session (lunch is not provided)
  • Please register today- Registered attendees will be entered to win a random drawing for a $25.00 QT Gift Card held each session.
  • Please call with any questions 888-263-8918 or email solutions@seilerinst.com.

Monday, April 20, 2009

April 2009 User Group Meeting

I want to thank everyone that attended the user group meeting on the 2010 product line, including Scott Davis of Autodesk and Stephanie Murrell and her colleagues at Seiler Instrument.

Keep an eye on this site as we are working on two upcoming events. The first will be an overview of EcoTect 2010 and Green Building Studio 2010, followed by a presentation on Revit Structure 2010.

Thanks again and at our next meeting Beau Turner of Avatec will be giving away a copy of Avatec's BIM Review software.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Parking for friday's User Group Meeting

If you are going to be attending the User Group meeting, we recommend that you park in the parking lot on the corner of 12th and Pennsylvania Ave. (See image below) Parking in that lot will be free if you are attending the User Group meeting. The entrance to our building is located on Kirk Dr.

Is anyone using Deep Space for analytics? https://www.deepspacesync.com/