Turning Off 'Double-click Rename' Behavior in Revit's Project Browser

Today's post comes compliments of industry expert Pieter Schiettecatte from A+I in New York City.

Lately, I have found myself accidentally renaming views and sheets in the project browser by slowly double clicking on them.

Keep reading to learn more...

My 'Water in Architectural Design' Enscape article featured on ArchDaily

I wrote an article about developing realistic looking water for architectural renderings using Ensacpe.

That article is featured on ArchDaily this week. Check it out here: https://www.archdaily.com/catalog/us/products/14224/water-in-architectural-design-enscape

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For BIM Chapters updates, follow @DanStine_MN on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn

I also write blog posts for Enscape - a new paradigm in rendering, animation and VR for AEC.

Upgrading Revit Projects and Content with CTC BIM Batch Suite

Its that time of year, when the latest version of Revit has been out long enough to make it viable to deploy firm wide. For some, that also means upgrading content... others leave a single depository of families at the oldest version of Revit still being used internally.

This post will highlight the tool I use for the massive upgrade project... CTC Software's Prog & Fam Upgrader, found in their CTC BIM Batch Suite add-in for Revit.

Keep reading to learn more...

My Enscape gallery Page

Just because, I decided to create a sub-page on my blog to collect and display my favorite images rendered in Enscape.

Previously, to find an image to show someone a result or talk about a technique, I would have to open several blog posts on both my blog and the Enscape blog, where I have written many posts. Some of these images are work related, some are from my blog or Revit books and others are from the Enscape blog.

I plan to add to this page as new images are created or projects become shareable!

That page has a place for comments at the bottom... I would love to hear your feedback.

Keep reading to learn more...

In Memory of César Pelli

Last week, César Pelli, one of my favorite architects passed away at 92. There are many interesting articles that have been published in the last few days, such as this one from The New York Times: Cesar Pelli, Designer of Iconic Buildings Around the World, Dies at 92.

Albeit very small, I have a couple personal connections I would like to share in this post.

All the images in this post are photos I have personally taken. I would like to have included a photo of Mr. Pelli, but the only one I had, which I was in, was taken with a cheap two-megapixel early 2000's era camera in a low light condition!

Keep reading to learn more...

Virtual Project Tours of Real Projects

I have been wanting to use our 360 Photosphere camera to create a virtual tour of a project. We finally did just that last week for a project in construction; Hermantown Essentia YMCA Wellness Center. The  local Chamber of Commerce held an open house last night and attendees got to get in the project and safely view it without actually going to the site. We already did Virtual Reality, and now that the project is under construction, we wanted to present something new.

Another interesting thing about this project is how we used ElumTools to do specialized daylighting calculations to comply with Minnesota's B3 program (similar to LEED). The image below shows the favorable results; solatubes fully lighting the interior space with just daylight!

Continue reading to learn more...

Revit Elevation not Perpendicular to Wall and More

Elevations must be perfectly perpendicular to a wall (as shown in the first image below) otherwise there are issues with being able to dimension, and/or their values. Also, in this case, the 3D object appears rather than the (sometimes) simplified symbolic lines developed in the family.

Keeping reading to learn more...

Extracting Revit's Material Textures

When sharing a Revit model with another firm, contractor or client, it is difficult to know which custom textures (jpg, png) files are used so they can be shared as well. This post will share a tip I received this week from Harlan Brumm at Autodesk!

First, there are two other options that might come to mind if you wanted to do this....

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Revit Advanced Materials - Base Material Templates

The new Revit advanced materials are based on PBR shaders, which is what modern rendering engines utilize. Understanding all the related options in Revit can be a bit challenging, as there is no easy way to switch between appearance assets in Revit (watch the comments below for a link to a Revit Idea on this from my good friend Pieter:)).

In this post I will share a fundamental tip in understanding this newer option in Revit. It has to do with the provided "base material" templates...

keep reading to learn more...

Off Topic: The Creation of a Tooth

I have been pretty busy lately and not able to write many posts here on BIM Chapters.

Today, I have some photos and video to share from almost a year ago... the creation of a tooth:) I had a cracked tooth and needed a crown. My local dentist has the technology and equipment to make a tooth, and all during a single visit!

My dentist, at Kenwood Dental, is great and let me take pictures/videos.

Read on to learn more...

Autodesk University 2019 Las Vegas - Class Selected

I received word yesterday that I will again have the opportunity to present at Autodesk University in Las Vegas.

Course Title:The New Game in Town; Link a Civil 3D Surface in Revit thru BIM 360!

Course Description:Learn about the amazing new feature set and workflow Autodesk unveiled in the 2019.1 update for both AutoCAD Civil 3D and Revit. See how a user, who first saw this feature/workflow at an Inside the Factory - Live in Shanghai, China in 2016, and then implemented this on many large complex projects, including a nearly massive hospital project located on a complex site. This session will cover the feature, the workflow and the challenges encountered. This presentation will also cover working with in-house survey for existing conditions, as well as in-house civil engineers on proposed conditions.

What's going to be fun, is one of the Autodesk product designers will be joining me from Autodesk's Shanghai office.

Of course, this story starts in Civil 3D... using the new workflow to "Publish" a surface to BIM 360.

Keep reading to learn more...

Autodesk Desktop Connector Update Supports Custom Local File Locations!

Update: False alarm... as the dialog clearly states, this only allows you to change the installation path (which is still about 1 GB). But does not change the location of the local cache files. Sorry:(

Breaking news... we can now specify a custom location for BIM 360 Design local files!!! Thanks Autodesk.

Keep reading to learn more...

Enscape Asset Library Update

Enscape continues to add more and more high quality assets to their product, giving AEC professionals unfettered access to awesomeness in the development of architectural visualizations.

Keep reading to learn more...

Travel Distance and Egress Path Options in Revit

I really don't like using Revit in non-standard ways due to the issues caused for other disciplines and  downstream workflows like clash detection, energy modeling, lighting analysis, Enscape, Revizto, VR/AR, etc. But, sometimes the path-of-least-resistance is to do so... today's post talks about using a special railing type to define the egress path, both graphically and for total length, in a Revit project.

Continue reading to learn more...