Novedge Pulse™ of Jeff Pinheiro

When creating reflected ceiling plans or spot elevations... pay attention to your relative base... especially if you have a floor that changes in elevation... Make sure you and your users understand and denote what and where those elevations are coming from. If you don't know what I am talking about click here and read.. Holy change-order Batman!Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

This is an awesome tip and video that you have to watch. It opens the door for an entire new set of geometry, content, and possibilities for Revit. (Thanks to Luke for the first post of it).Click here to view the entire post and more information on Revit Forum... Also, check out the video creator's (Eron) YouTube channel for more videos about Revit, 3DS Max, and VRay.Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

For those of you who regularly follow my blog you may have noticed in the past couple months a decline in new posts. First, I want to thank you for continuing to follow the blog and checking back daily. Second, I promise that the posting will be back sooner rather than later. I have been completing my Master of Architecture thesis project over the past 6 months and it has taken up lots of time. The good news is that my final presentation will be this Monday! So, if you continue being so patient for just one more week I promise to return to my regular posting schedule! Additionally, with my schooling finally coming to an end I can focus much more time and energy on this blog and what it contains. I am also planning on a possible overhaul of the template of the blog and hope to add features that will make it easier to find the hundreds (700+) tutorials and tips that have posted over the past 4 years. Hold tight young Revit Kids... I'll be back!Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

........ In French .......Go over to the Student Community and see if you have your language.... Oh, and don't forget... If you have issues with the activation screen to check out my post for a solution... I had to update the HTML files again (every install seems to need it)....Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

The pace at which the integration of energy analysis and Revit has grown is fantastic. With the release of Revit 2014 all of the little aspects that have been slowly making their way into the software are really starting to combine and become a powerful asset. Exhibit A, the video below (produced by Emile over at BPA) illustrates the use of the thermal massing properties of a material and Revit's built-in energy analysis...Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

You may have seen my posts in the past couple of days about the release date of Revit 2014 being a tad bit later than previous years... Well, it's finally here!! You can download the 2014 suites on your subscription login pages (for subscription users). If you are a student then you will have to wait a little longer for an activated version but you can download the trial version from Autodesk here and use it for 30 days (you will most likely be getting the student version before those 30 days are up). Now... here's to waiting for the first web update!Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Am I the only one who feels like the wait for 2014 is much longer than other releases? Do you find it strange that the free trial link on Autodesk's website is still for Revit 2013?? Hmm......Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

I just posted about an email by Autodesk informing subscription users about the new implementation of cloud units and their cost. Well, the FAQ document linked in the email was not clear on the amount of units a Cloud Rendering would use. So I decided to break it down for you... The Crop Region size in the Revit view used was set to 11"x7". The only factors that seem to effect the "price" of a rendering were the "Render Quality" and "Image Size". I told you the size of the crop region because the larger the crop region the more cloud units it would require to render at the same settings as a smaller crop region view. Below are a series of screen shots with different settings and their respective cloud "costs". (If you click one image you should be able to scroll through them). One thing I noticed is that the "Maximum" image size setting is much higher than it was before (it was capped at 2000 pixels). But, it is the most expensive at 10 cloud credits (which would equate to $10.00). Therefore, with your 100 cloud units you can get a total of 10 Maximum, Final quality renderings....Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

For those of you following my blog over the past year or so you will remember all the posts about access to the cloud services, options for students, and possibilities for payment plans... Well, the time has come. It took a while but Autodesk finally figured out how they wanted to charge for the cloud.Subscription UpdateDear Autodesk Subscription Customer,As of April 12, 2013, you will receive 100 cloud credits annually for each software license on Subscription. Cloud credits provide you a better way to measure the costs required to use select cloud services.Cloud credits will be needed for the following Autodesk® 360 Services available to you as Subscription entitlements:Autodesk 360 Cloud Services?Rendering?Autodesk Infraworks 360The amount of cloud credits required for these services fluctuates depending on the variables you choose – thus offering you a more flexible and accurate way pay just for the amount of cloud computing that you need.To help you monitor usage of cloud credits we recently released the Autodesk 360 Usage Report which provides Contract Managers the ability to track how many cloud credits have been used and how many credits are left—by the contract or by the user.If you need to purchase additional cloud credits, you’ll be able to do so from:?Subscription Center?My Account?Autodesk, Inc. (Direct Accounts)?An Autodesk ResellerFor more detailed information on cloud credits please see the Autodesk Cloud Credits FAQ. Okay, so each subscription license gets 100 cloud credits. If you want more cloud credits it will cost $100 per 100 credits... Meaning each credit costs $1.00. So... how much will it cost to render. Previously, it was something like 5 credits to render with the cloud and Revit. If this were still true, then it will cost roughly $5.00 per rendering (or 20 renderings per $100.00). Not to mention you HAVE to be a subscription user. How many million cloud renderings did Autodesk say were completed last year? Talk about a nice revenue stream. Currently, students still get cloud services for free (Thanks Autodesk!). Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

By this time last year Autodesk had already released the latest version of Revit (2013). My prediction last year was that the student release would have been around April 18th. I am wondering when it will be released to students this year. Looks like AutoCAD 2014 and some other software suites are good to go for students... Hmmm... Additionally, the 30-day free trial download for Revit on Autodesk's website is still setup for 2013... Navisworks 2014 is also available for students to download.... What about Revit?!Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

David Light posted some information on the new release of FormIT. ... That's right folks... FormIT has a "sketchy lines" visual style! If I had a dollar for each time someone told me "well, I don't use Revit because Sketch-Up has a sketchy line style" I would be a very rich man. Granted, FormIT is a separate program and probably an entirely separate group inside of Autodesk but if they can figure out how to get sketchy lines on iOS then surely Autodesk can figure out how to get it in Revit... I mean, it would probably be used more than the silly Ray Trace visual style. Additionally, follow this link for a series of Autodesk Videos (some created by David if I am recognizing the voice correctly) that talk about using formIT, tutorials, and new releases.Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

To me, 3D Printing and Revit are a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as simply pressing "print". Dave posted a little video on how to get started with 3D Printing and Revit. "This is the first of two videos that will cover 3d printing. In particular, this tutorial will cover exporting a video from Revit, scaling the object in Max, and basic modifications to prepare for printing in ReplicatorG."Click here to view his post and the video...Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Every time I show someone the panoramic rendering feature of Autodesk's cloud rendering service the first question I get is "how can I show people these?" I would normally answer with "Try KubeGL" or "log into your account. Well, thanks to Steve over at Revit OpEd for the find, there is now a fairly simple workflow for getting these panoramic rendering to view on your iOS devices. Ultimately, with a video adapter for your iPhone or iPad you can project and present the panoramic renderings... Sweet.Click here to view Steve's post and download a PDF of the steps to follow...Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

This is a very simple tip but it may help some of you. A classmate of mine created a bunch of little box shaped building with the In-Place Massing tool. Unfortunately, she finished the mass family prior to copying them all over the place. She then wanted to change the material from the default mass material (which is transparent) to something opaque. After realizing that she had to click edit in-place to every single family instance to change it's material she decided to just leave them transparent. Finally, she asked me about it the other day and I pointed her to the material editor. When you do not apply a material to specific objects Revit uses that categories default material. Therefore, all she had to do was change the "Default Form" material to her desired graphic results. TAH DAH! Take some time and learn the default materials within Revit. They will help you one day. I promise.Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

An interesting article discussion Autodesk's new logo and branding... The only explanation I have heard so far for the crazy folded letters and the 2014 software:"...A talented team of Autodesk designers created the new branding and found their inspiration in origami. The style beautifully shows the convergence of art and science, form and function, aptly representing the Autodesk software portfolio..."Click here to continue reading.... At first I am thinking to myself "why use an ancient art form to represent the new digital future?"... But then I remember an article I read sometime last year... Interesting... I guess I will have to launch that folded "R" software for a few months and see how much it grows on me.Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Not sure when this one was fully released but Autodesk Student accounts can download all of the Revit 2013 extensions free!Autodesk Revit 2013 ExtensionsRevit® Extensions for Autodesk® Revit® 2013 extend the capabilities of Autodesk® Revit® 2013, Autodesk® Revit® Architecture 2013, Autodesk® Revit® MEP 2013, and Autodesk® Revit® Structure 2013 software in key areas, including structural analysis, modeling, reinforcement, interoperability and construction documentation. This download contains all previously released Revit Extensions and updates. The Q3 Update includes enhancements to bridge modeling, integration with Autodesk® Robot™ Structural Analysis Professional 2013, and improvements to the reinforcement extensions. Refer to the “Feature Summary” for details.Please note that the multi-language executable file contains the following language versions: English, French, German, Japanese, Polish, Russian and Simplified Chinese.Revit Extensions for Autodesk Revit 2013 are compatible with the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Revit 2013 software products.Download Revit 2013 ExtensionsPosted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Some other posts by great bloggers about new features in Revit and BIM related 2014 software:Boost Your BIM: Revit 2014 API UpdatesBPA Blog: New Revit 2014 Building Performance Analysis FeaturesBeyond Design: What's New in Navisworks 2014Autodesk Recap: Taking Advantage of Laser Scanning! (with video)...Autodesk Revit 2014 Wiki : The wiki has been updated. (Thanks to Steve for the heads up). Is this the year of BIM??Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Well, it is that time of the year again. Get ready for the social media storm everyone! Autodesk has lifted the NDA on Revit 2014 and you all get to find out about it! For the first time that I an remember Autodesk has taken it upon themselves to beat the bloggers! Click here to view Autodesk's Revit 2014 new features (and old features) website... Autodesk may have released the features before most of us bloggers but David Light still wins for the most comprehensive post about the new features... Click here to read David's post about Revit 2014... What am I most excited about in 2014? Well, the displaced views function will be a lot of fun to play with (especially for presentations). The new (well old) material editor makes me happy. I learned to live with 2013's but my goodness did it suck! Non-rectangular view-ports will help me greatly in the office (no more hidden elements and masking regions!). Lastly, the new scheduling functions will be pretty useful. What do you guys think?! Oh... And how about that new "R" logo.... At least I think it is an "R"....Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

As Steve noted on his blog Autodesk will be holding a webcast event tomorrow where many of the new features of their 2014 line of products will be announced. If you are not a Beta tester or are interested in seeing the presentation then follow this link. And no, that is not the Google Drive logo it is Autodesk's new logo...Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

The National BIM Library released a promotional video about BIM and objects with information... and it is AWESOME! Click here to Stephen's post and view the video.... This video needs to get on YouTube and go viral....Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Yesterday, a colleague of mine was attempting to create a presentation style title block in Revit. Well, the bottom of the title block has a large black bar. When she tried to make the text show she ran into some funky issues. Well, another colleague reminded me of the lovely "almost white" workaround. I wont try to explain it here because there is a nice blog post by PKH Lineworks out there already...The colour of textI was approached by an architect a few months ago to produce presentation drawings for an auto dealership he had designed. On the presentation drawings he wanted a red bar across the bottom of the page with white text declaring the name of the sheet. It sounds simple but turned out to be a problem....Click here to continue reading the post....Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

If you haven't checked out John and Emile's blog about Building Performance Analysis (BPA) check it out now! To start you off with some goodies here are two great posts about Revit, Green Building Studio, eQuest, and beyond....Advanced Energy Analysis with Green Building Studio DOE2 and EnergyPlus supportPosted by: David Scheer - Green Building Studio Product OwnerWho is this for:Engineers and energy analysts who want to do more detailed work on their analysis model than the tools in Autodesk®Revit®, Vasari® or Green Building Studio® allow.Continue reading the post here... Tutorial – Green Button XML file By Peter Shi with Barry TsaiWho is this for: Energy Analyst, Building Scientists, Energy Modeling Engineers and GBS users.Takeaway: If you have experience in any real world building energy simulation, you would know synchronization of utility data and historical weather data is a very manual and labor extensive process. Green Button feature is designed to help user to automate and streamline this process.Continue reading the post here...Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

This has always bothered me later on in projects. Dimensions constantly get deleted. There is usually a warning letting the user know they are getting deleted (which most people will simply click "OK" and move on). For some reason when you move an object with the move command it will delete the dimensions associated to that object. Yet, if you move the object using the Align command... The dimensions will stay. I have never found any consistency as to when and why this happens but it can definitely be frustrating when you open a model up to find someone has deleted half the dimensions. If you find yourself getting a warning or dialogue that asks or tells you dimensions will be deleted... Think twice about it, try and align instead of move (or move instead of align), and replace the dimensions if they get deleted...Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Log in an check Brian Mackey and I answering questions live now....What: Ides of March EditionWhere: Revit Radio!When: Mar 14, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (MST)Description:REGISTER: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/764271176Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

I will be on Revit Radio live this week with Brian Mackey and Stan Hennigh. For those of you not familiar with Revit Radio, well, get familiar with it!What: Ides of March EditionWhere: Revit Radio!When: Mar 14, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (MST)Description:REGISTER: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/764271176Click here for more information and to listen in!Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

I am officially registered for RTC North America 2013! Are you?? Unfortunately, due to school commitments I was unable to submit the abstracts I wanted to but I will still be there!! Last year was an awesome time. I met tons of people and learned lots of new things...Click here to check out RTC and register!! Also, here is a list of posts from my first RTC even last year:Day 1 & 2Day 3Day 4Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

I have been using 3DS Max much more the past few months.... And with the easy connections to Revit in 2013 you should be too! Not convinced...? Take a look at the "Populate" plugin (formally Geppetto).... Convinced now?? Placing active people in my Revit model sounds like fun to me!!! Source..http://digitaldesignguide.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/the-one-about-what-used-to-be-geppetto/Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Wow... what a fantastic post. I am sure many of you have heard the term "LOD" in some fashion if you are using Revit professionally. Antony McPhee, over at practical BIM, published a brilliant article about the acronym that is LOD ("Level of Detail" or "Development"). Do yourselves a favor and READ IT. What is this thing called LODThere still seems to be some confusion about what LOD levels mean, and how they should be used. I must say I have difficulty relating what I do and what I need whenever confronted with filling in an LOD table. If they are this difficult why are we using them? Are they really useful, or just a waste of our time?HISTORY OF LODFrom what I can gather LOD was developed by Vicosoftware, a software company that produces construction costing software. They saw the advantages of costing straight from a BIM model, but had a problem. How do you tell how accurate, or how definitive, the model elements you are connecting to in the model are? Traditional methods of costing have a human between what was being measured and the way it was being measured. But automatic take off from the BIM model doesn't.... continue reading...Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

So you have a nice still rendering on the cloud that was rendered with all the highest settings... And you would like to turn the view and look at the wall behind you... Well, this awesome new feature within the cloud rendering UI will come in handy!!! Via Luke and Village BIMPosted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Because all of us BIM nerds can never get enough of hearing people talking about BIM at a BIM conference....Source: www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=452932&id=20455389PresentationsPrabhat ShikotraBAMJeremy GloverFenwick ElliotJohn MessnerPenn StateLaura HandlerTocci Building CompaniesMark StodgellPozzoniPosted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

I noticed something interesting today. In the office we are working with virtual Citrix machines for production. We have numerous project in Revit 2012 and some in Revit 2013. In both versions of Revit I can not turn on Hardware Acceleration (we do not have hardware or software emulators on our Citrix machines yet...). Well, for as long as I could remember when you did not have Hardware Acceleration on you could not use ambient shadows (or "occlusion" in other versions). Today, I noticed that in Revit 2013... without hardware acceleration... I was able to turn on and off Ambient Shadows... and they look correct...Revit 2012 - Virtual MachineRevit 2013 - Virtual MachineMaybe someone in the labs can explain??Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

Great article about cloud rendering, using lighting, and other features. It is in German so you may need to have the browser translate it. Some awesome images and explanations that will help you with your renderings for sure. Click here to view the tutorial and write-up...Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

I cannot believe that FormIt is going to get a sketchy visual style before Revit! Are you kidding me?! Source : autodeskformit.com/2013/02/15/things-are-getting-sketchyPosted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]

For me, this is huge! I remember when Revit first integrated the Mental Ray rendering engine and how huge that was... but linking the power of Maxwell Render directly with Revit is a major step for Revit presentation graphics.... Now, I hope this will open the door for other rendering engines :: cough cough :: VRay :: cough ::....Revit users can now enjoy this new comfortable and timesaving workflow for editing and rendering scenes, using Maxwell Render directly from the Revit interface. Here are a few of the highlights:Compatibility with Revit 2012 and 2013 - any editionSupport for Revit lights including IESSupport for many built-in Revit materialsAbility to override scene materials with MXM filesMaxwell GrassMultilight read-back: changes made to lights in Multilight can be imported back into the Revit sceneEasy access to the Maxwell material gallery directly from inside the Revit UI For full release notes and plugin user guide please refer to our support center here The Revit plugin is free to all of our customers and is available for download now from the customer gateway. If you cannot log-in or do not know your password please contact us here.Thanks to Luke for the first post about it...Posted by: Jeffrey A. Pinheiro, LEED AP at The Revit Kid.com [more...]