Recap of Minnesota AIA Convention 2022

The annual Minnesota Conference on Architecture 2022, hosted by the Minnesota chapter of the American Institute of Architects, is now behind us. I was honored to present for the fifth year in a row (for in-person events) on the exciting work we are doing here at Lake|Flato.

Today I will share a recap of this event, including a session I was involved in with Simona Fischer (MSR Design) and Alissa Kingsley (HGA)!

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Recap of Greenbuild 2022 in San Francisco

I had the opportunity to attend Greenbuild in San Fransisco last month. Like most conferences I attend, I like to post a recap here. Of course, this blog also helps me keep track of what, when, and where over time:)

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Penn State - Department of Architecture - Student Design Review 2022

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in Associate Professor Rahman Azari's Arch 431/491 end-of-semester design review at Penn State. This is the topic of today's post.

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Autodesk Community Voices Blog Post - Tracking Room Areas in AutoCAD

I wrote a new post for the Autodesk Community Voices Blog... this time, I covered an AutoCAD tip derived from one of my AutoCAD books:)

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University of Minnesota Presentation on Lighting Design and Enscape

For several years I have been presenting to Professor Abimbola O. Asojo's interior design students at the University of Minnesota.

Today I covered lighting analysis using the Autodesk Revit add-in ElumTools by Lighting Analysts, Inc. and Enscape for real-time rendering.

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Recap of the Texas Society of Architects (TxA) 2022 Conference in El Paso

Last month I had the opportunity to attend and present at the annual Texas Society of Architects conference, hosted in El Paso.

I had a great time co-presenting a session titled Integrating Research into Architectural Practice with three Lake|Flato colleagues.

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Prairie View AM University Visit Last Week

We had a great time presenting to future architects at Prairie View A&M University last week!

Heather Holdridge (Director of Building Performance) and I (Director of Design Technology) presented our work at Lake|Flato.

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Never Use These 5 Revit Commands

I just wrote a new post on the Autodesk Community Voices Blog. The title says it all... well, mostly. The list is not really all "commands" per se, and there are always exceptions to the rule.

In any case, these are good-to-know items for those new to Revit.

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AIA Climate Action Business Playbook - Introduction

I am excited to announce the release of the AIA Climate Action Business Playbook. This resource was created by Lake|Flato, Buro Happold, Sustainable Performance Institute, unabridged Architecture.

I was one of the six authors of this 20k-word resource.

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AIA Minnesota Conference on Architecture 2022

I am excited to share details about a presentation I will be participating in at the annual AIA Minnesota 2022 Conference on Architecture, representing Lake|Flato, next month in Minneapolis.

Keep reading to learn more...

I will be a guest on It’s LIVE! later this week - A Dell podcast

I will be a guest on a Dell podcast called It's Live later this week.

Today's post will highlight the topic, the guests, and how to register!

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Virginia Tech Presentation on Early Energy Modeling

Earlier today I had the opportunity to present a small portion of Lake|Flato's early energy modeling workflow to professor Prigmore's architecture students at Virginia Tech. Today's post offers a brief recap of the presentation.

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New Autodesk Community Voices Blog Post - Building Pads and Topography

A quick post to share a new post I wrote for the Autodesk Community Voices Blog...

Revit Material Assignment Series – Part 2, Topography

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

Lighting design professionals: check out my Revit & ElumTools training https://bit.ly/3NJjhCV

TxA Conference on Architecture 2022 - Lake|Flato Session - Integrating Research into Architectural Practice

The Texas Society of Architects (TxA) will host its 83rd conference and design expo in El Paso, Texas next month! I am excited to share I will be presenting with three of my Lake|Flato colleagues. Learn more in today's post.

TxA is a state component of the American Institute of Architects.

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INNOVATE TECH 2022 Symposium and Workshops

Be sure to check out this amazing-looking symposium and workshop coming up in October 2022 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. A great lineup of speakers and workshops for an incredible price!

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ARCAT Podcast interview with Lake|Flato

Last week we had the opportunity to talk about a recent Lake|Flato project, on the ARCAT Details Podcast.

The project: Hotel Magdalena, located in Austin, Texas.

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AIA 2022 Conference on Architecture Recap

Last month I had the opportunity to attend and present at the national American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2022 conference on architecture in Chicago. I wanted to share a recap of my experience of the event in this blog post.

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My Latest Enscape Blog Post - New Site Context Feature

My latest post on the Enscape blog was just published. Interested in learning how to use their new site context tool, then this post is for you!

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Revit Material Assignment Series – Part 1, By Category

This is a quick post to share new content I just added to the Autodesk Community Voices site. Do you know the most fundamental way a Revit material is assigned within a project or family? Keep reading to find out.

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AIA Japan - Biophilic Design and Environmentally-Responsible Behaviors

Next week, Lake|Flato and Texas Tech University will be presenting for AIA Japan on biophilic design and environmentally-responsible behaviors which involves one of our higher-ed projects: Universities at Shady Grove Biomedical Sciences & Engineering Education Facility.

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Enscape blog post on free downloads

Enscape recently published a blog post I think will be helpful to Ensacpe users and wanted to share here. It is an excellent source of free 3d models, textures, and more!

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AIA|LA – DECARBONIZATION TOOLBOX – “WHAT’S IN YOUR TOOLBOX?”

I will be on a panel for the AIA Los Angeles chapter's COTE and Practice committees next month! We will be talking about design tools employed by the entire team (Arch, Interiors, Struct, MEP, LA) to reduce the operational and embodied carbon footprint of the buildings and sites we design.

I look forward to sharing some of what we are doing at Lake|Flato.

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AEC+Tech talk -- follow up -- Design Technology for High Performance Design

I quick share about an AEC+Tech talk I was on recently. I have included a link to the video and a follow up article. I presented alongside Kristen Forward from NBBJ Design on Design Technology for High Performance Design. I spent some time talking about our related process here at Lake|Flato.

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Reference 3D Views in Revit with View Reference - New Autodesk Community Voices Post

A quick post to share a new post I published over at the Autodesk Community Voices blog. This one covers an essential workflow for referencing 3D details and/or interior elevations in formal documentation!

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ClimateStudio Blog Post on Lake|Flato Project

ClimateStudio just published a new blog post about a new middle school project Lake|Flato is designing in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Their post, covering our typical daylighting analysis workflow, is the topic of today's BIM Chapters post.

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ArchDaily Rendering Competition - Next Round - Please Vote!

A quick post to share that one of our Lake|Flato renderings has moved on to the next round... please consider voting for it, or another favorite of yours.

This is a lobby rendering of our own office remodel, currently under construction, here in San Antonio...

https://boty.archdaily.com/ava/2022/candidates/152059/lobby-reimagined

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Climate Studio Revit Plug-in

Lake|Flato's go-to tool for all things daylighting is Climate Studio (CS), by Solemma. CS is an add-in for Rhino. Often, the design we want to study is in Autodesk Revit. This process has been extremely simplified by the Revit add-in Solemma created to streamline the process of getting a Revit model into Rhino for use by CS.

In today's post I will walk you through the entire process!

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Lake|Flato House Zero - 3D-Printed House

Yesterday I had the opportunity to drive 1.5 hours from my house to tour the recently completed 3D printed House Zero, designed by Lake|Flato, in Austin, Texas. In today's post I will share several photos I took, including some shots I have not seen published:)

Several L|F staff gathered for a tour lead by Ashley Heeren

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Troubleshooting Revit EAM Creation + Insight and Systems Analysis Issues

As with any sophisticated program developed for a professional application, there is a learning curve and a number of things that can go wrong. Some of the problems arise from user error while others can be bugs or limitations within the application.

This post is planned to be a living document on things that can go wrong, and what to do about it, when creating the energy analysis model (EAM) within Revit, as well as troubleshooting problems, further downstream, within Autodesk Insight and Revit Systems Analysis tools and workflows.

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ArchDaily Competition - Vote for Our Office Remodel Renderings!

ArchDaily and Enscape are hosting a rendering competition. Up to five submissions are allowed, and Lake|Flato participated with some fun visualizations from our own office remodel currently under construction.

Voting ends May 24th, 2022.

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Lake|Flato 2022 Design Awards

In today's post I will share a round up of awards Lake|Flato has won so far this year. It is amazing to work with such talented designers and clients, and then to see all of this hard work recognized is very exciting!

Today's post highlights recent awards from:

• American Institute of Architects
• Texas Society of Architects
• Society for College and University Planning
• WoodWorks

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Autodesk University Article - Adopting Early Energy Modeling in an Architectural Practice

The handout for my Autodesk University 2021 session, on implementing early energy modeling, was recently turned into an article and published on Autodesk's site.

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COBUG Presents: In Space, No One Can Hear You BIM

Check out this upcoming presentation by Central Ohio BIM User Group (COBUG)... tips and workflows to get extended site context into your Revit project.

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Don’t Mess Up The Revit View Template - Use Temporary View Properties

Check out my latest post over on the Autodesk Community Voices blog... Don’t Mess Up The Revit View Template - Use Temporary View Properties.

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Enscape Blog Post - Revit 2023 Updates Enscape Users Should Know About

My latest Enscape blog* post is live... a timely post on support for Autodesk Revit 2023 and a few of the new features in this version of Revit most Enscape users will want to be aware of. Including linked Autodesk FormIt models (rendering below) to cloud-hosted materials...

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aec+tech talks - Tech For Building Performance

aec+tech is hosting one of their aec+tech talks.... I will be one of the guests talking about building performance tech!

keep reading to learn more...

Penn State Presentation on Early Energy Modeling

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to present a small portion of Lake|Flato's early energy modeling workflow to professor Rahman Azari's architecture students at Penn State. Today's post offers a brief recap of the presentation.

keep reading to learn more...

Enscape Support for Revit 2023 Released Today!

A quick post letting everyone know that Enscape released support for Revit 2023 today!

You can find the download here: https://enscape3d.com/download/

Only two weeks since Revit 2023 was officially released. Although I doubt many firms are using Revit 2023 just yet, having all the essential add-ins is certainly part of the go/no-go discussion!

As it happens, Lake|Flato is already officially using Revit 2023 for one new feature we need... on "copies" of a couple of projects, we are taking advantage of the improvements made to the Energy Analysis Model (EAM) creation!

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

Check out my video-based  courses on ArchSmarter.

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

Autodesk License File Parser

For those still using a network license, did you know there is a License File Parser you can use to get a quick easy to read view of your license file?

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Select a Revit Link - The Easy Way (Autodesk Community Voices)

I published a new post over on the Autodesk Community Voices blog on an efficient way to select a Revit link... especially if it is not visible.

Check it out here...

Select a Revit Link - The Easy Way

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

Check out my video-based  courses on ArchSmarter.

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

BIMxt Network - Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality - April 14, 2022

I will be giving a short presentation on untethered VR at next week's virtual BIMxt Network meeting. The theme is Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality and will have two other presents, including Sam Anderson from Epic Games. Learn more in today's post!

Update: Link to recorded event now available below.

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Vote for Autodesk University 2022 Class Proposals - Help Shape the Conference

Did you know you can upvote proposed sessions for Autodesk University 2022? Today's post shares the new non-Vegas location, a link to site, and the two sessions I proposed;)

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Revit 2023 - Check Out My New AECbytes What's New in Revit Article

My annual "What's New" article for Revit 2023 is out! Head over to the AECbytes site to read about the great new features and enhancements added this year. There is a lot to cover... 3k words, across 30 pages!

This post provides a link to the article and my top 5 new features.

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New ElumTools Training - Professional Lighting Design within Revit

I am excited to announce a new live online training series I will be doing with Lighting Analysts, Inc. (Revalize) on ElumTools... the professional lighting design add-in for Autodesk Revit.

Here are the two sessions:

• Introduction to Revit and ElumTools for Lighting Designers (4 hours)
• Basic ElumTools for Interior and Exterior Lighting (4 hours)

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Converting a Revit Material to Generic

Revit has multiple material types (aka shaders) which have been added over the years. Generally speaking, we have Generic, Physical Based, and most recently Advanced.

Although I like the advanced (PBR) materials, they are not supported in Enscape very well. Plus, there are things you can do with Generic materials you cannot do with the newer ones (tint, cutout). Today's post will show a rather hidden command to convert a material to the Generic shader.

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My latest Autodesk Community Voices blog post - 5 Section Box Tips for Revit

Check out my latest blog post over on the Autodesk Community Voices Blog... 5 Section Box Tips for Revit.

Again, I have many new posts in the works for BIM Chapters, I've just been busy with Revit and AutoCAD book updates:)

keep reading to learn more...

New Enscape Blog Post - Electric Lighting in Revit and Enscape Explained

I recently wrote a blog* post for the Enscape blog that gets into the weeds on electric lighting in Revit and Enscape!

In this post I highlight:

• Lake|Flato lighting design considerations
• The IES committee I chair
• Example of lighting clacs in Revit + ElumTools
• Example of same space in Enscape

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My latest Autodesk Community Voices blog post - Productivity Now: An Efficient Input Option in Revit

Check out my latest blog post over on the Autodesk Community Voices Blog... Productivity Now: An Efficient Input Option in Revit.

By the way, I have many new posts in the works for BIM Chapters, I've just been busy with Revit and AutoCAD book updates:)

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My Latest Autodesk Community Voices Blog Post - Revit Selection Filter (not filter selection)

Check out my latest blog post over on the Autodesk Community Voices Blog... Revit Productivity Tip – Selection Filter (Not Filter Selection).

 

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Lake|Flato Project Featured on ArchDaily and Enscape Blog - Ponte Vista House

I am excited to share another Lake|Flato project we are currently working on, and recently featured on ArchDaily and Ensacpe's blog.

The Ponte Vista House is a lovely design and the renderings are incredible... all done by the design team w/o any post processing.

keep reading to learn more...