Creating Custom Revit® Architecture 2012 Families

Creating Custom Revit® Architecture 2012 Families – A Practical Guide for Beginners & Intermediate Users by Michael Anonuevo

The 2012 edition of the e-Book is 751 pages long, broken up into 16 chapters that contain 2000 images of explanatory graphics and examples. This e-Book makes understanding about Revit Families for Beginners and Intermediate users of Revit (all flavors) a lot easier. The only thing I would change about it is the title, removing the word Architecture as it covers basics that apply to Structure and MEP

Michael took a year to get to the stage where he is comfortable to release it, and this obviously is a living document, with Michael currently working on a 2013 edition

If you are a regular visitor you will know that I have just bought and Android tablet and I have loaded the review copy onto it. I have been scan reading the document and I’m now in the process of working my way slowly through it.

There are many “golden nuggets” of information and things I did know and have forgotten and some I did not know, because I have not been personally building families like I did when I first got my hands on Revit

There will be those that say that the families that Michael produces are over done, and for the general construction industry deliverables you would not go into such detail.  But flip that on its head, this guy can produce what are Works of Art within Revit and he really knows how to build families.

The level of families that you create after you have read his book and have the skills is down to you.

Having produced The Hitch Hikers Guide to BIM, and knowing the time it has taken just to type up, lay out and edit a text document, I have nothing but admiration for the publication that Michael has produced especially with the amount of graphics included.

Click here to download the table of contents & sample images at: http://www.littledetailscount.com/documents/ebookpromo.pdf

Steve Stafford CEO of AEC Advantage and Author of Revit OpEd, Revit Guru and all round nice guy, has written the forward to the book and sums up stating:-

“This Book ought to be part of your library, your arsenal, because you can’t have too much knowledge or ammunition. This book can travel with you more easily than a traditional book too! Take a Chance on it, devote your attention to lt. I’m sure it will serve you well!

I have to agree with Steve; at $19.95 a copy (about £12.75 using current exchange rates) it is not going to break the bank, in addition there is a quantity discount for the larger companies and organizations, that are likely to want to buy more than five copies. Michael has also stated that a free update to the 2013 version of his e-Book will be emailed to all legal owners and purchasers of the 2012 edition as soon as it is available. Now there is value for money and an offer you can’t refuse, especially if you want sound guidance on creating families.

So hop over to http://www.littledetailscount.com/ and add this e-Book to your collection, and don’t forget to tell them where you found out about the publication, as I will receive a few pennies for the referral on each sale, which will go to my local hospice.
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New Penn State BIM Execution Plan Update

BIM Project Execution Planning Guide and Templates - Version 2.1

download from http://bim.psu.edu/

Contained in this folder is the BIM Project Execution Planning Guide and template resources developed to assist in the creation of a BIM Project Execution Plan

Enjoy  ;0)

33 steps to being able to 'find stuff' in Revit

Posted here so that I can easily find the darn thing again when I want it and so that others may also find it when they need it ;0) not sure of it's origin supplied from one of our guys at the Winchester Office.

Revit

Checklist: 33 steps to being able to 'find stuff'
Check to see if:
1. The object or category is temporarily hidden
2. The object or category is hidden in the view
3. The object is being obscured by another element
4. The object's category or subcategory is hidden in the view
5. The object is outside the view's view range
6. The view's far clip depth is not sufficient to show the object
7. The object resides on a work set that is not loaded within the project
8. The object resides on a work set that is not visible in the view
9. The object resides on a work set that is not loaded in a linked file
10. The object resides on a work set that is not visible in a linked file
11. The object resides within a group (detail model) and it has been excluded from the group
12. The object is part of a design option that is not visible in the view
13. The object is part of a linked file that is not visible in the view
14. The object has one or more of its edges overridden to display as '<Invisible lines>'
15. The object is a family and none of its geometry is set to be visible in the view type
16. The object is a family and none of its geometry is set to be visible at the view's detail level
17. The object is set to not be visible at the category's detail level
18. The element has been placed outside the view's crop region (visible extents)
19. The element is an annotation object and does not reside entirely within the annotation crop region
20. The object's phase settings or the view's phase settings prevent the object from displaying in the view
21. The view's discipline is prohibiting the visibility of the object
22. The object is affected by a filter applied to the view
23. The object is subject to an element override, set to background color
24. The object is subject to a category override, set to background color
25. The object style is set to background color
26. The object is constrained to a scope boxes that is not visible in the view
27. The extents of the object itself don't permit it to be seen
28. The object is a mass, and 'Show Mass' is turned off
29. The object's host view has been deleted (area boundaries)
30. The view's scale is prohibiting the object's visibility
31. The object is a linked instance with coordinates too great for Revit to handle
32. The user has incorrectly identified the link instance to which the element belongs
33. The object is in a link that is not in its correct position

Autodesk 360 Coming Soon To Mobile

A couple of weeks ago, before Google announced their forthcoming Tablet  the Nexus 7, a 7-inch Android tablet which will retail in the UK shortly for £159. I purchased a SuperPAD VI Chinese Clone from an ebay distributor in the UK for £105 with free delivery.

Should I have waited, I don’t think so, as soon as you buy any computer or new technology equipment, even if it is top of the range at that moment you know that its out of date as soon as you have paid for it. Next week there will be something faster, better and cheaper.

I recall buying a 24 pin wide carriage dot matrix printer for home use so that I could print out A3 drawings for £525 when that technology was still young (and so was I) and £525 was worth a lot more than it is today. Going back further when I first started work it cost me £17 for a scientific calculator. when I was only earning £15 a week before tax ;0) but I did not have to use 5 or 7 figure logarithms or my slide rule, which is still in with my tool box with drawing equipment that has not been opened for years.

The Nexus 7 will come with 8GB or 16GB of storage (there's a £40 premium for the bigger one),and have a 1280 x 800 IPS display; that's the same type of display as the new iPad, but with a little over half the resolution.

My particular SuperPAD VI came with IGByte Ram – 8GB Storage with Android 4.0 OS Ice cream Sandwich , 4 Way Screen Rotating G-sensor, Micro SD/TF card slot Maximum Capacity 16GB, Dimensions: 270 x 172 x 15mm, 1 x HDMI Port, 1 x TF Card Ports, 2 x USB Ports ,1 x DC Input Port, 1 x Earphone Port, 802.1 B/G Wifi Built-In, 1 x RJ45 Ethernet Port, 2 x 1 Watt Speakers

I wanted a 10” mainly because it felt the better size for me, having a Nokia phone that thinks it is a blackberry and is smart(ish) but not Android, I had seen others using their touch screens phones, including my daughters but had not really played with an Android device for any significant period of time.

So far, I’m reasonably happy with her (my Tablet) and the performance for surfing the net etc., there are some apps that don’t want to download and run on her, but she is a play thing. Would I have liked an ipad (you bet) but could I justify the expense (no). At a little more that the cost of a Kindle and a similar cost to a really basic Android Pay-As-You-Go phone, I’m quite happy. And yes like all my cars and most gadgets I own the SuperPAD VI is female.

There are lots of Android Tablet devices out there and many are being sold for two, three or four times what I paid for the SuperPAD VI and are still being supplied with Android 2.1 and 2.3 or lower.

I can only see these devices becoming cheaper and cheaper over the next couple of years as they become more common and widespread in use. It will not be long until a more robust Husky Hunter type site indestructible version tablet hits the market, or advances n technology produce a flexible sheet of plastic that can be rolled up and stuck in the Carpenters back pocket, or a small device that projects an interactive virtual screen hologram is in common place use on building sites. In real terms it isn’t that long ago that the first Site Agents these days called Site Managers actually started to use computers on building sites. Now desktops, laptops and ipads are common place even on the smallest of project.

Yes I’m old enough to recall the old Compaq and other Lugable computers pre laptops, and still have one arm longer than the other due to humping the old Compaq about, but I can still see what is coming for the construction industry.

Autodesk 360® Mobile App Sign-Up page https://360.autodesk.com/mobilesignup

On page shown above you provide Autodesk with your email address and device information, I'm also guessing that they are also building a list of currently used popular devices so I have submitted my request to be notified and added my device to the list.

Draft COBie Guide for Public Review & Comment

REQUEST FOR PUBLIC REVIEW and COMMENT - July 2, 2012 Release of the COBie Guide

The COBie Guide is a framework for project owners and teams to develop a practical implementation strategy toward COBie. Once the document has been customized for a given owner, that owner's version of the Guide should be directly referenced in design and construction specifications.

The COBie Guide is the result of many-years of effort in the development and pilot testing of COBie within the public-sector. The Guide was released on 02-July-12 for national review by interested AECOO Industry and buildingSMART alliance members. 

Following a three (3) month national review, the COBie Guide will be updated based on consensus feedback and submitted as a "best practice" ballot to NBIMS version 3.

Committee Working on the PAS 1192-2:2012 

Please note the adequate and realistic amount of time allowed to obtain feedback on the draft document 

You may download the June 2012 draft of the COBie Guide here.http://projects.buildingsmartalliance.org/files/?artifact_id=4856

A Starter for 10 from the UK Guys’n’Girls can be found and should be posted here http://forums.buildingsmartalliance.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=609

Extract Below:-

The following comments were provided upon receipt of pre-release copy of the COBie Guide from Nick Nisbet.

(1) The introduction of a naming policies: I think the key idea that we have found needed re-enforcement was similar- the idea of continuity! One of the UK tender deliverables had three sets of names for the same set of spaces.Merged but not really!

(2) In the UK we are going to get uptight on the 'every component should be in at least one system'. This is a simple idea, that ensures for example that cost and carbon have somewhere to be attached, and then each system's impacts can be validated against the system contents. The big aim is comparability of the cost of the Systems, not just of the Facility or Types.

(3) The use of a Placement attribute - is this just 'where to look once you get to the room'?.

------------------
(the following additional comments were submitted after the initial set)
------------------

P1. United States? Can we say “and international” ?

P3 Index/structure. Section 8 and Annex B are similar but separate ? How many paragraphs titled ‘Filters’ do we have ?

P12 Government approval? And Agency (annex A) ? Can we say Client so as to create a generic document. COBie isn’t just for governments, it’s for Customers.

P13 Shouldn’t schematic design have a schedule of systems (without Components yet)? We ask for this in the UK. It answers the ‘completeness’ and ‘cost’ questions.

P17 Site work? “… shall cover the section of the site associated to the building.

P17 Generally, Can we say ‘facility’ not ‘building’ ? I am labouring with “Floor/Sector” !

P18 Space naming policy. To append an ‘A’ are we assuming a numeric space name policy?

P18 Dash? Unique numbers ? Let’s be more explicit. “Names should be alphanumeric, without punctuation .”

P19 Component naming rule . It’s a suggestion in the absence of any other name. . It’s not applicable to Moveable assets, to large assets etc.

P19 Placement: are the options: “in space, on ceiling, on wall (=chase), on floor, behind wall(=shaft),above ceiling, below floor, site, roof, other ?

P19 Site spatial containment. Good! The adjacent site is part of the COBie (see P17) !

P20 Zone names. “In general”… …. “by zone characteristic such as Public circulation, not just type such as Circulation, optionally with floor and/or wing appended”.

P21 sp. Unites

P21 Suggest documenting the buildingSMART RefLatitude, RefLongitude and Elevation parameters. TrueNorth too.

P23 Clarity between Type and Component attributes would, be helpful. Should Type be TypeName?

P24 Does introducing a BOD prefix help with data continuity? Can we not have a separate attribute ‘TypeStatus’ = “generic, basis-of-design, selected, installed”. “Notes” and “ApprovedDeviations” are nice.

P27 Has anyone reviewed section 8 and B1 for compatibility with buildingSMART property sets?

P27 Are you intent on nominating units or can we nominate measures with suggested units?

P72 – P73 Can we be “object”ive and have two properties on a Spare “Cost” and “Quantity”. Unit price is derivative. Other Costs should be independent, so I am dubious about “Sub Cost”. Attribute Descriptions ? “Logistics Category” ? 1
& 2 ? Is Criticality an enumeration ? Spec number and section ? Is this Category (Omniclass table 23) ?. What is Attic ?

P74 Spaces are allowed around the : in a classification. Easier on the eye!

P115 (throughout).

(a) I appreciate the difference between Schedule Headings and COBie Attribute names. I have an un-camel-case function and a to-camel-case function for these situations.

(b) I think we should distinguish between Type (Manufacturer) and Component properties (NorthCoordinate) where we can. Having seen 630,000 rubbish attributes, we don’t want to excuse such stupidity. Only “unique characteristics, location and quantities should be attached to a Component”.