Sunday, 31 July 2011

Revit System Wall Families - UK Localisation


Ralph Pullinger and I are looking at developing a UK Based System Wall Family Template, and we require your help. But in order to do so you will need a little background information and briefing on the kind of information we need to know.

During the composition of a presentation entitled “Family Planning ~ First Encounters” for the ninth meeting of LRUG the London Revit User Group, I contacted Ralph Pullinger Autodesks’ Structural Technical Specialist, Northern Europe about the disappearance of the GRBENU_Walls.rvt system file from the Autodesk Web site and a long discussion about the need for Autodesk Revit localised family content took place.

For those of you that are not aware of what the GRBENU_Walls.rvt was, I blogged about it way back in January 2008. The naming convention for this system had problems in that it was not documented and was not  consistent in the use of upper and lower case, spelling and use. However it was a good first attempt at creating a UK and Europe Wall System Family.

So our mission is to create a new UK Wall System Family and here is the brief and pre-requisites, it:-
·         Must satisfy historical, current and future needs
·         Be flexible
·         Have a naming convention that is clear and easy to understand
·         Be consistent
·         Include material properties (the I in BIM) weight, thermal, strength etc.
·         Be properly documented for the end user.

The manufactures literature from both block and insulation manufacturers have provided many forms of wall make ups that will achieve or exceed the Building Regulations Part L U-values of the day, however we would like you to contribute by providing information about what forms of walls constructions have been and are currently actually being specified and used on real live schemes.

Thus we will be able to construct a UK Wall System family that is true representation of UK building practice.

This ties in quite nicely with the fact that AUGIuk working in conjunction with AUGI have arranged for Revit Localisation (OK they used the “z” instead of the s) UK Forums, which have just been set up under the AUGI Revit Forums.

Localisation Discussions related to localisation or regional issues of Revit Architecture.
Localisation Discussions related to localisation or regional issues of Revit Structure.
Localisation Discussions related to localisation or regional issues of Revit MEP.

Architecture Thread on this subject see http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=132040
Structure Thread on this subject see http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=132039











Friday, 29 July 2011

The Building Coder - Revit API Training Material

Jeremy Tammik over at The Building Coder has just posted that:-

"The Revit 2012 API training material that we use for our ADN trainings is now available online to the general public from the Revit Developer Center. Here is a direct link to it, with no guarantee that it will remain valid in future.
It includes three subfolders:
  • Labs
  • Presentation
  • Sample Drawing
These are the Powerpoint presentations used for the training:
  • 0_Revit_Programming_Training_Class.pptx – Overview
  • 1_Revit_API_Intro.pptx – Basics
  • 2_Revit_UI_API.pptx – User Interface and Events
  • 3_Revit_Family_API.pptx – Family API
The labs parallel the three main presentations:
  • 1_Revit_API_Intro – Basics
  • 2_Revit_UI_API – User Interface and Events
  • 3_Revit_Family_API – Family API "
To read more Click Here to get to the original posting.

The London Revit User Group ran an evening about Revit API's a few months ago, so this may be of interest to those members that attended the evening.
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Thursday, 28 July 2011

AUGIuk Revit Camp - Call for Speakers



Call for Speakers

Wednesday 1st February 2012 – London Venue
AUGIuk are hosting a one Day Revit Camp comprising 75 min classes covering Revit Core, Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and Revit MEP. The format of classes will be that similar to Autodesk University and also used in the AUGIuk Design Academy.

If you are interested in speaking at the AUGIuk Revit Camp, you're invited to submit a proposal by 30th October 2011. We welcome submissions from experienced presenters or those with industry knowledge in either the Core Revit product or one of the Revit Vertical products.

Please submit a proposal to the Chairman of AUGIuk Paul Oakley via email at:- Paul.Oakley@AUGI.com

Click Here to read the rest of the posting on the AUGIuk web site

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

I Am Proud to be an IEng-ineer

Engineering Council launches 'proud to be IEng' signature

You may have seen in The Structural Engineer and the IStructE monthly newsletter that the IStructE are supporting the Engineering Council in their campaign to raise the profile of Incorporated Engineer (IEng) registration.

The Engineering Council has now launched a series of IEng logos and an email signature to be used by Incorporated Engineers. The email signature is designed to promote your professional status while also raise awareness of IEng.

While the signature is designed to be used on email the Engineering Council are also happy for you to use it elsewhere such as business cards, letters and online profiles.

Please visit the Engineering Councils news section to find out more information about the Engineering Council campaign.  Engineering Council launches initiative to up IEng registration.
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Saturday, 16 July 2011

Autodesk_Revit_Structure_2012Update_1_Content


As has been documented on my blog the UK install did not give you everything it should have. Autodesks’ immediate fix, was to recommend installing the USA metric families. This does not provide everything.

Previously I reviewed what you should get and what’s missing once you have downloaded the USA Metric and created what should have been installed in the first place.

Autodesk have now release Autodesk_Revit_Structure_2012Update_1_Content (zip-33.4MB) which is strangely available from the Autodesk Revit Structure Services & Support Page – Product Download page and not Updates page, where one would logically expect an Update to be?



The structure within this Guide has been based upon :-

What installed in UK RST2012
What installed as a US Metric Library
Cross referenced with what was in RST 2011 UK Install

Material within the Content Update 1 released on the 10th July 2011 is shown as ü
Content not included in Update 1 released on the 10th July 2011 is shown as û



Click Here to download this Guide in Adobe pdf format.

Whilst I applaud Autodesk for actually providing a list of content within the RST2012 Update 1 Content  package they still have not explained why this content is included in the Update etc. In the main it appears to be an attempt to provide the missing templates that did not install for the UK and other countries

There is one family that is not template related i.e. the Rebar Shape 33 – that is contained within Update 1, however none of the material removed or missing from the rest of the library that is documented in my library guide to 2012 posted on my blog on the 15th April is included within Update 1

My constant request to Autodesk over the last five years has been:-

Each folder should have a basic *.txt file that should contain the following:-

Number of files in the folder
Number and Names of Files Deleted ~ (with some explanation of why they have been removed)
Number and Names of New Files Added~ (with some explanation of why they have been added)
Number and Names of Files Modified ~ ( or updated and why?)

Where Manufactures specific content is supplied it would be useful to have a hyperlink to their web site or information within the familiy, that is after all what the I in BIM is all about! 

Revit is about BIM
BIM is about Information
Information is about good communications
Autodesk you are poor communicators
Your User Base expects and deserves better


6/10 Do Better
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Monday, 11 July 2011

Announcement from MRUG - Manchester Revit User Group

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MRUG - Manchester Revit User Group
Subject: Announcement from MRUG - Manchester Revit User Group

We just wanted to make you all aware of the progress Manchester Revit User Group is making;

Dan and Gavin of Cundall have done an excellent job of setting up the group, and have been kind enough to ask Peter Taylor of BDP, Gary Royle of AECOM and Rob Clark of Cadassist onto the committee (or managers as LinkedIn calls it).

So the MRUG committee are currently as follows;

Dan Woodman, Senior Structural Technician at Cundall
Gavin Bonner, Principal Structural Technician / BIM Coordinator at Cundall
Peter Taylor, Technology Support Manager, BDP
Gary Royle, Associate Partner, CAD Manager, AECOM
Rob Clark, Revit / BIM Specialist and Senior Structural Technician, Cadassist

I'm sure you will agree that this is a very strong committee in terms of resource and knowledge which has representation in all the disciplines. We are understandably excited about getting started! If you would like to get involved in a more "hands on" manner, please do let us know!

The committee are trying to get together over the coming weeks to arrange our first MRUG meeting. We will keep you up to date with progress.

In the mean time, please do invite your colleagues, contacts and friends onto the group. Further, please do make any suggestions, this group is all about participation.

All the best

MRUG

Posted By Rob Clark.

Friday, 8 July 2011

Out of the Box UK Templates ~ Guide to What's Missing

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I reported about the problems with Revit Structure not installing and missing content back on the 15th April - What can best be called a work-a-round from Autodesk was to suggest that UK users install the USA Metric Library and harvest what was missing see my post on the 17th may about Loading Missing Content

This process  does not provide everything, below is a review guide of what you should get and what’s missing once you have downloaded the USA Metric and created what should have been installed in the first place.

The structure below has been based upon :-

What installed in UK RST2012
What installed as a US Metric Library
Cross referenced with what was in RST 2011 UK Install


Click Here if you would like this document as an Adobe pdf

I have fed this information back to Autodesk.



Because of the suites becoming available they are now also looking at the way they install and provide the library when you are installing all three Revits side by side. If you are a regular visitor you would have seen my posting on the 4th June about a Short Family Content Survey this was not open and available for very long.

For those that want a glimpse of the possible futures for Revit families below are some screen shots from the survey





Thursday, 7 July 2011

Victor Meldrew Moment - Fixing England 's Economy

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Saw this, loved it had to share it:-

Dear Mr. Cameron,

Please find below our suggestion for fixing England 's economy.

Instead of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan..

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 10 million people over 50 in the work force.
Pay them £1 million each severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:


1) They MUST retire. ~ Ten million job openings - Unemployment fixed

2) They MUST buy a new British car. ~ Ten million cars ordered - Car Industry fixed

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage. ~ Housing Crisis fixed

4) They MUST send their kids to school/college/university. ~ Crime rate fixed

5) They MUST buy £100 WORTH of alcohol/tobacco a week ~ and there's your money back in duty/tax etc.

6) Instead of stuffing around with the carbon emissions trading scheme that makes us pay for the major polluters, tell the greedy bastards to reduce their pollution emissions by 75% within 5 years or we shut them down.

It can't get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances

Saturday, 2 July 2011

ReVVed - Revit Extensions

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My Padawan (Rikki) who has now left me and is now in training with a much larger multi-national company pointed me in the direction of this nice little collection of FREE extensions.

ReVVed is a collection of Revit extensions that have been designed with the draftsperson in mind. ReVVed turns repetitive tasks into one click commands. These commands work with architecture, structure and MEP flavors of Revit. Commands like:

Merge Text - merge multiple text notes into a single note.

Change Case - changes the case of selected text notes to a user specified case. (Upper, lower, mixed)

Web Link - opens a web browser to the URL stored in Revit components.


Polyline - adjust the total length of end-to-end lines. (Like travel distances, great for checking out exit routes for Fire Escapes)

Open Folder - opens Windows Explorer to the folder where the project file is located.


Project Commander - store critical information about the currently open project in a handy place.

You can  download ReVVed 2011 or ReVVed 2012 for FREE over at the PKH Lineworks Web Site .
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Thursday, 30 June 2011

Time Travel Again - Back to the 80's


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I've just lost 31 years and I'm 22 again.......

A quick trip down to the local supermarket to pick up a new windscreen wiper and as always I look at the Budget CD's and there it was.

A mixture of Solo in Soho and Philip Lynott Album plus some rare tracks ....20 Tracks for £3

As it says on the back cover of this cracking collection Phil Lynott was the leader of Thin Lizzy he was a musical hero, master songwriter and majestic singer, yet as this collection of solo hits, album tracks and rare b-sides proves he was much more.

And yes I am enjoying the magic it's like having my original record collection back
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Monday, 27 June 2011

Government thinks there are Too Many Architects

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"RIBA president Ruth Reed says she has been told the government thinks there are too many architects in the profession."

OK I've always said this myself, we could get all the bad ones, line up 5 against a wall and shoot them daily until the number of good ones increases ;0)

Joking aside this is serious stuff for Architectural students to read more CLICK HERE
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Thursday, 23 June 2011

Autodesk University AU2011 - Newsletter

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AU 2011: Hot Topics, Expanded Curriculum, Innovative Technologies, New Business Strategies


I’m very pro Autodesk University (AU) as a powerful resource for information, in a presentation I’m drafting for the next LRUG meeting I point to various classes & labs that can be downloaded in a variety of formats.

Last year there were serious problems with attending virtually, and I’m really hoping that lesson have been learnt and that measures are in place to ensure everything actually works this year. I’ve submitted this as feedback to AU and I hope to get some kind of reply and assurance, as it’s nice to know that as a customer you are being listened too.

For those of you that are new to Autodesk and perhaps Autodesk University, below is repost of the current newsletter details.

Click Here to visit the AU web site and register as a member
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Autodesk University (AU) is where architects, engineers, and designers come together annually with industry and technology leaders to better understand new technologies, exchange best practices, and form new business strategies— and this year is no exception.

Expanded Curriculum

http://au.autodesk.com/ama/orig/au_quarterly/2011-jun/whats-new/moldflow.pngTechnical product training remains a key focus, but AU 2011 is moving well beyond tips and tricks to offer more for advanced users, senior designers, business leaders, and workflow and process strategists.

“This year we asked for very specific types of classes, and our speakers responded,” said Joseph Wurcher, AU program manager. "So, for example, we are emphasizing classes that show you how to combine Autodesk products to streamline your workflows and processes, using the right tool for the right job."

The expanded curriculum of more than 800 classes and hands-on labs includes new classes on:
  • Design leadership
  • Innovation strategies
  • Web, cloud, and mobile technologies
  • Workflows and process
  • Visualization
  • Sustainability
  • Change management
Whether you are interested in lean manufacturing, automotive design, or building information modeling, you will find a great selection of tightly focused classes this year.

 

Leveraging Film Industry Techniques to Tell a Story

A schematic or drawing just isn’t enough anymore. Your clients want to see and experience a design before they pour an ounce of concrete. AU 2011 features two tracks focused on design visualization and storytelling. Learn how to leverage digital entertainment techniques for use in conventional AEC and manufacturing designs.

"We will be highlighting new supercool game development technology," said Wurcher, "to show how this technology can be used to develop more realistic walkthroughs and product demonstrations. For example, Autodesk® Mudbox™ is an excellent tool for creating human figures to populate visualizations."

 

Processes, People, Workflows, Business Strategies

"This year, we have even more content for senior designers, design technology managers, business leaders, and workflow and process strategists,” Wurcher noted. "It can make it easier to get approval if you bring management along."

AU 2011 will feature classes to help leaders manage change and bring in more business. How do you encourage innovation among your staff? What strategies can help you be successful in today's market? How do you manage a transition to Autodesk® Revit®? How will mobile products and cloud computing affect your company?

We are also expanding the Design Technology Management Conference, which will be held immediately prior to the AU conference in Las Vegas. This year's event includes a Sunday night keynote and networking session, followed Monday by a full day of classes and unconference sessions designed to help you manage technology and the people who use it.

 

AU 2011 Registration Opens in Late August

Early Bird registration opens August 30. You can save you and your boss up to US$500 by registering early. You also get first pick from the AU 2011 class catalog.
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Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Manchester Revit User Group is Forming

MRUG - Manchester Revit User Group

Are a free Autodesk Revit user group that meets to share tips and tricks, best practices and discuss the Autodesk Revit software and its impact on the AEC community.

Join them on Linked-In
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Monday, 20 June 2011

Revit Users Ireland Group - Meeting No.1

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Revit Users Ireland Group are pleased to announce thier first group meeting (see details below). Please try to attend, and share this with any of your colleagues.

Below is a LinkedIn “event link”, to register your interest:
http://events.linkedin.com/Revit-User-Ireland-Group-Meeting-No-1/pub/698427

Date: 29th June 2011

Time: 6.30-8.30pm (registration, coffee/tea at 6pm)

Venue: The Maxwell Theatre, Hamilton Building, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2
(entrance off Westland Row, opposite Pearse Street Station)

Getting There:

Dart/Rail – Pearse Street Station
1.2km from Green Line Luas (St. Stephens’s Green Stop) - 15 minute walk
1.2km from Red Line Luas (BusAras Stop/Connolly Station) - 15 minute walk

They will gathering in the Gingerman Pub (Fenian Street) afterwards, for some networking/socializing.

Good Luck with your first meeting Guys!
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Thursday, 16 June 2011

Government Construction Strategy Report Published

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Building Information Modelling (BIM) is now emerging as a common requirement on both public and private sector projects alike. Only recently, the government has reaffirmed its commitment to make savings of at least 20% across all public sector construction projects and that BIM is to be mandated to help drive more efficient cost benchmarking.

Standards are currently being drawn up with a view to roll out BIM on public projects in 2012.

Please  Click Here to access the full government report dated May 2011, and just released.

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

STL Exporter for Revit 2012 is Released as Open Source

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I've just found this and need to share....

From the company that spend so much time in court righting for the rights and the ownership to the dwg and dxf format, Autodesk has donated the STL Exporter for Revit to Open Source under the LGPL 2.1 license. The source code, latest builds and user/technical documentation will be available at the following site. You will be able to view and edit the source code to suit your needs.

This is something Autodesk has never done before with an add-in/plug-in/app for Autodesk Revit or any other Autodesk product. (See MapGuide for the first Autodesk contributed open source project.)

The code hackers and tinkerers among you are probably saying “cool! – now I can play with it and make it suit my needs”.

The skeptics among you are probably saying “Autodesk is trying to dump responsibility for this thing on the user so they don’t have to support it”. To the skeptics I would recommend you read on. ...... Click Here to visit the whole posting over at BIM Apps.
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Wednesday, 8 June 2011

File Upgrader for Revit Vs the Content Batch Upgrade Utility


I read the posting over at Autodesk //Labs_ It’s Alive in the Lab about the File Upgrader for Revit June ADN Plugin of the Month and wondered why they had released this when there is already the Content Batch Upgrade Utility and what the actual difference is between the two.
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So I emailed Scott Sheppard who passed it on to Saikat Bhattacharya, who is a Senior Developer Consultant in the Autodesk Developer Technical Services team, and happens to be the one who developed the File Upgrader for Revit

Saikat kindly took time out to explain to me in detail about the differences, knowing I can’t be the only one out their asking this question I asked if he would grant me permission to post his email here for other interested parties, you can guess the answer as the email is below:-

"The Content Batch Upgrade Utility is quite similar to the Revit File Upgrader utility since both of them are aimed to help migrate/upgrade existing content from previous versions of Revit to work with Revit 2012. However there are some differences in both the tools in the way they so the upgrade and what they do. Following is a brief list of differences between the two tools  –

1)     The File Upgrader utilty also upgrades the RVT, RTE and RFA files where as the Content Batch Upgrade utility helps mostly in upgrading in RFA (family) files.

2)     The File Upgrader has a user interface which allows you to select the folders from where files are to be upgraded (called source) and a destination folder outside of source folder, where you would have the latest set of Revit files for Revit 2012. The Content Batch Upgrade Utility  differs since it upgrades an existing folder of RFA files there itself (without creating another copy of it).

3)     The File Upgrader works with files that are marked as read-only too whereas the batch content upgrade tool does not.

4)     In case of any errors, the File Upgrader makes a note of it in the log file and the user interface dialog and completes upgrading the entire set of files. At the end, the user is expected to go back to the list of failed files and manually open the files to determine what might have gone wrong. In case of Content Batch Upgrade Utility , it stops the upgrade if any of the files are not upgraded due to any error or if they are marked read-only. So the users in this case might have to check the list of files that have been successfully upgraded and delete them from the list and then start the process again for the remaining files.

5)     The File Upgrader uses Revit .NET API and thus can be used as reference by other developers who want to use Revit API to enhance Revit’s functionality. Or even if they want to include some of the code from this utility in their applications.

6)     The File Upgrader currently cannot close the last open file and this has to be manually closed by the user after the upgrade, whereas the batch upgrade tool has no such limitation.
. . .

The users now have both the options to achieve the end goal  - which is to provide some bit of automation in upgrading old Revit files to work with Revit 2012 faster (without the initial upgrade that Revit does each time it opens an older version file). And so users are free to use any of the tools which they feel best fulfills their requirement or the one that they are most comfortable working with."

So now we all know ;0)


Saturday, 4 June 2011

Short Family Content Survey

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Erik over at Inside the Factory is asking for your involvement in making Revit better fit your needs, so don't delay take the survey and help Autodesk help us, if you don't contribute you can't really complain if you don't end up with the option you would have preferred!

Autodesk is working to improve the organization of Revit family content and looking for Revit customers to participate in a short online survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/revitcontent

The survey has two parts:

In Part I, you will be asked to review three proposed options for organizing Revit family content, select the option you like the most, and tell Autodesk why you chose that option.

Option 1 by Category
Option 2 by Object Type
Option 3 by Discipline

In Part II, you will be asked to try a few tasks using the best option you chose.
The two-part survey will take about 20 minutes to complete and will only be used by the Revit product team. 
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Thursday, 2 June 2011

Typical Engineering Question or Bridge Bashing!

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A JCB weighing 22 tons is on top of a lowboy trailer and heading east on Interstate 70 near Hays, Kansas ..

The extended shovel arm is made of hardened refined steel and the approaching overpass is made of commercial-grade concrete, re-inforced with 1 1/2 inch steel rebar spaced at 6 inch intervals in a criss-cross pattern layered at 1 foot vertical spacing.

Question:


When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be going to slice the bridge in half ?

(Assume no effect for headwind and no braking by the driver...)

Extra Credit:

What is the time and distance required for the entire rig to come to a complete stop after hitting the overpass at the speed calculated above.

Yes, you can neglect friction.

No, I couldn't solve it either......but who cares;

The pictures are great! 







Apparently the driver was on his cell phone..................
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Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Early Fathers Day trip to the Dr Who Experience

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Thanks Girls for my early Fathers Day Gift......

What more could a Dad ask for, his two Daughters and the Dr Who Experience!!!!

Saturday, 28 May 2011

Revit Structure 2012 UK Terminology Hotfix



A big THANK YOU to all of you that emailed Ralph Pullinger about the missing UK Terminology in Revit 2012 as a resuilt of my previous posting we now have a HOTFIX from Autodesk available.

Click Here to download the Hot Fix.
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There have been historical problems with UK installs of Revit and Service Packs in the past and lets hope that the Autodesk Development and Quality Assurance teams do finally learn from their mistakes and don’t persist in repeating the time after time like groundhog day and take time to use willinig members of the ever increasing UK Users Groups to test out final installs for them before they go live.

It’s going to save them so much aggravation and egg on the face if they do.

That said, all in all an excellent result from them in resolving the problem and providing the HOTFIX within 10 days of my original posting..
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Friday, 27 May 2011

Version 10.1 of Keynote Manager


As a subscriber I have been informed that version 10.1 of Keynote Manager is available.
Version 10.1 addresses some concerns expressed and adds some new flexibility to the program. A full list of updates can be found at http://keynotemanager.revolutiondesign.biz/History.html, but the most significant changes are as follows:
·        
  Flexibility – Version 10.1 splits the program into an ad-supported free version and a paid ‘Pro’ version.  This allows the program to be used functionally for free, but adds extra features and flexibility for users who need more features.

      Banners – This system can be turned on or off in the pro version but is required for the free version.  Additionally, the pro version can be fully customized to point to a location on a local server for companies to display banners and links to their users in-house.
      
       Manufacturer Link – This system can be turned on or off in the pro version, but is required for the free version.

      Info Link – This system uses the same external xml file as the comment system to allow you to link keynotes to external files or web locations and open those files from the Keynote Manager interface.  Files on local or network drives are opened in their default editor and web locations are opened in the default browser.

      Help – The help system has been changed to an html system which should be much easier to use and update.

      The links regarding this version are the same as previous versions, but in case you don’t have them:

Feature Overview:              http://keynotemanager.revolutiondesign.biz/Features.html
Update History:                   http://keynotemanager.revolutiondesign.biz/History.html

Thursday, 26 May 2011

DWF File Viewing Comes to the iPad

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Here is a repost from over at Beyond the Paper (Why repost?, because I know I'm gonna need to find this again soon!)

"Judging from the amount of email we receive requesting the ability to view DWF files on your mobile devices, we think you'll be interested in learning about an iPad® app called McDwiff, by third-party developer Austin Silver Software.

Using the Autodesk Freewheel Web service, which requires an Internet connection, McDwiff enables you to open, view, convert, and print 2D and 3D DWF files on your iPad. (Of particular interest to some may be the app's Dropbox integration.)

For more information about the app, visit the McDwiff website. And if you try the app, be sure to leave a comment on the original post over at Beyond the Paper, and let them know how viewing DWF files on your iPad works for you.

McDwiff (and the Autodesk Freewheel Web service). Just another way Autodesk enables our customers to go beyond the paper!"
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Monday, 23 May 2011

Update on the KIP Printer Problem


Time travel has featured quite a lot in the last few post on this blog

The concept of Past Present and Future got into a mucking fuddle when for some unknown reason the company that supplies the beast to us upgraded her driver software beyond the point that she should be upgraded too.

Thus It transpires that the imminently available driver (The Future) for our KIP 3000 was actually already available (The Past)

There are two IT support companies between us and the manufacturer, so to find this out I went straight back to KIPUK the manufacturer and their Customer Support Manager Greg Jackson who was great. He even downloaded Revit 2012 and checked it all out.

If you look at or print the build sheet and your restore version on your KIP is greater than or equal to 7.0 xxx then you can utilise driver 3.165 or above but KIP are still waiting for Microsoft Certification of the current drivers. Which is why no one knows when they will come out of the Bermuda Triangle, that is Microsoft, and that is why the term imminently is being used!

If however you are below 7.0 then you cannot update the driver beyond 3.165. (Which is what some silly billy had done with our KIP) 

KIP may release additional drivers in the future which can be used across all restore versions.

Products which are able to utilise IPS restore version 6.5 and greater are KIP 3100, KIP 7100, KIP 7700, KIP 7900, KIP 9900.

Greg communicated with both IT companies between us and them, we tested the downgrade two Wednesdays ago and last Wednesday the servers were downgraded back to driver 3,165 and in the Present everything appears to now work OK.
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