Recap - Chaos Connect Day '24

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the Chaos office in Sofia, Bulgaria, to attend #ChaosConnectDay 2024.

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Limited Time Promo Alert - NicheBIM 2024 - 25% off!

Are you considering joining us for NicheBIM 2024 in Connecticut this September? Maybe a 25% off incentive will help:)

Plus, I will be giving away a copy of my new Residential Revit 2025 textbook.

See below for my discount code and details on the event, including my presentation on how Lake|Flato uses Revit on residential projects.

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Zoom Customer Story Featuring Lake|Flato

Lake|Flato has been all-in on Zoom for a while now. It is an important part of the robust design technology layer integrated throughout our office remodel, completed last year. 

Zoom noticed this and created a customer story featuring some of the unique things we are doing to support hybrid work as well as creativity, inclusivity, and efficiency in the office of the future:)

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3Dconnexion SpaceMouse - Bluetooth Edition!

I recently got my hands on a new 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse Bluetooth Edition 3D mouse! Today's post is a quick share out on it.

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NicheBIM 2024 one-day conference - Join Us!

I am SUPER excited to be participating in this small laser-focused event in September. If you work on custom single-family homes, you must come!

Learn more about this unique, affordable event, five expert speakers, and the unparalleled networking opportunities in today's post!

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I'm Presenting at Autodesk University 2024

This October, I will present two sessions on Autodesk Forma at Autodesk University! One is a case study on Lake|Flato's office remodel, and the other is focused on its use in academia.

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Creating Accurate Toposolids in Revit 2025 - My New Enscape Blog Post

My latest Enscape blog post is live... this topic will be interesting to anyone who creates toposolids or work with surfaces within Revit. I cover how to create them accurately in this post, including getting the elevation and contours correct in Revit based on the Civil CAD file.

I also created a video detailing the process of creating a toposolid from an AutoCAD Civil 3D surface.

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IIDA Texas Oklahoma Chapter Reception and Tour of Lake Flato - Last Night

Last evening, Jamie Sartory, AIA, LEED AP BD+C and I hosted the IIDA Texas Oklahoma chapter at our office for a reception, office presentation, and tour.

It was a lot of fun showing off Lake|Flato's office to interior designers and hearing their thoughts on the spaces. In today's post, I wanted to share a few photos.

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AIA24 Recap - National AIA Conference on Architecture

Last week, I attended and presented at the national American Institute of Architects 2024 Conference on Architecture in Washington DC. It was a whirlwind event ranging from Lake|Flato's founding partners receiving the 2024 AIA Gold Medal award, three project awards, my three presentations, and many evening events.

Today's post will recap the experience from my perspective!

Photo: Lake Flato evening reception celebrating the 2024 AIA Gold Medal Award

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My Free YouTube Playlists - 70+ Professional Development Revit Videos

I have shared 70+ videos covering various topics, from MEP and Civil coordination to visualization and design performance, in five YouTube playlists. Today's post highlights these all in one place.

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Autodesk Forma Boards

A quick post sharing a newer feature in Autodesk Forma called Boards!

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Autodesk Forma Series Recap

While I will surely share more on this topic, the sponsored part of my Autodesk Forma series has concluded. In this post, I will recap and share all the links in one place!

This post also includes the recently created Autodesk Customer Storey featuring Lake|Flato and our use of Forma.

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Revit Face Based Families and Reference Planes

Sharing a short video on how Revit face-based families can host to reference planes and a few related tips and tricks.

For example, do you know why these two lighting fixtures point in different directions?

Or, do you know how to move a face-based family between two reference planes that are vertically offset without moving the fixture in plan?

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Hempcrete Presentation by BIOBUILD Last Week at Lake|Flato!

Last week, guest speaker Caroline Dunn from BIOBUILD in Austin, Texas, led our monthly Lake|Flato Sustainability Champions meeting. She presented on hempcrete and highlighted a new Hemp Lime Illustrated detail booklet she co-authored.

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AIA Public Policy & Position Statements Update - Architects Are Environmentally Responsible

The sustainability section of the AIA Public Policy & Position Statements was recently updated. I was on the team that crafted these updates, participated in listening sessions, and presented the proposed changes to various groups.

I am grateful for Lake|Flato's support of my position on the AIA National Committee on the Environment (COTE) Leadership, where my participation leads to opportunities like this.

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AIA Architect: Return to office: How it started and how it's going

I was recently interviewed by Wanda Lau for AIA Architect, along with a few other firms, to share how Lake|Flato's return to the office has evolved post-pandemic. Sharing that and a little more about our desk checkout system in today's post.

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Design for Deconstruction Presentation - Northeastern University - Integrated Building Systems

Last week I had to opportunity to present (remotely) to architecture students at Northeastern University taught by my friend Lori Ferriss!

I presented some of the work Lake|Flato is doing related to Design for Deconstruction. 

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BIM Pure - Autodesk Forma Bootcamp - Follow Up Post

I enjoyed hanging out with Nicolas Catellier on his BIM Pure YouTube channel today. We covered many of the Autodesk Forma tools and workflows... including the new Board beature, which is like Miro/Mural/Zoom Whiteboards... and the generative AI Explore tool that auto-magically creates several design options based on the selected site extents (as shown in the image below).

In this post, you can access the recording and get links to a few items I shared.

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BIM Pure Live Tomorrow - Forma Bootcamp with Giveaways

Tomorrow I am live with Nicolas Catellier on his BIM Pure YouTube channel. We will cover many of the Autodesk Forma tools and workflows... including yet another new feature that has not been announced yet!

Plus... we have a few AEC-focused giveaways live during the show (more details below)!

• Veras by EvolveLabs - 1 winner
• Keyboard by 3DCONNEXION - 5 winners

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Revit 2025 Updates Enscape Users Should Know About

My latest Escape blog post is live... which covers Autodesk Revit 2025 updates that Enscape users will want to know about. Plus, I touched on an Enscape 4.0 enhancement related to multiple users working on the same workshared Revit project.

I also mentioned something super important to watch out for in Revit 2024 related to project files becoming corrupted.

Check out the post here on Enscape's official blog:

https://blog.enscape3d.com/enscape-for-revit-2025

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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

3Dconnexion Input Devices for AEC - Plus a Keyboard Giveaway

If you are in architecture, engineering, or construction (AEC), you may be interested in 3Dconnexion input devices. They have a Keyboard, CadMouse, and SpaceMouse (3D mouse) with special AEC app-aware buttons, tools, and workflows.

Plus... we will be giving away FIVE keyboards on an upcoming episode of BIM Pure I will be a guest on (shipping restricted to North America).

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AI-Generated 2025 Revit Book Covers using Veras by EvolveLab

This year I used Veras by EvolveLab to generate the covers of my Autodesk Revit 2025 textbooks by SDC Publications. These generative AI-created images are based on the Revit model created in the books and contain no post-processing.

Plus... win a free one-year license of Veras on an upcoming episode of BIM Pure I will be a guest on.

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AIA24 National Conference Presentation - Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast

The National American Institute of Architects Conference on Architecture (AIA24) will happen this June in Washington, DC. In addition to being involved in some activities related to my involvement with the AIA National COTE Leadership, I will also be presenting!

The line-up of firms for my presentation: Lake|Flato, Orcutt|Winslow, and LPA.

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Lake|Flato Investigations - The Future Ain't What It Used To Be

I am excited to share the latest Lake|Flato white paper, The Future Ain't What It Used To Be - Designing for a Changed Climate... a result of our self-funded research program called Investigations.

We hope this resource will benefit architects in designing a more resilient world.

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Autodesk Forma Series - Episode 04 - Embodied Carbon (New Feature)

Here is the fourth episode of my Autodesk Forma video series, sponsored by Autodesk.

In this episode, I share the steps required to perform an early embodied carbon analysis using a new Forma extension developed by Autodesk in collaboration with EHDD based in San Francisco, California. Also included is a 3-minute excerpt of my interview with Jack Rusk, Director of Climate Strategy at EHDD, in their offices this past February 2024. Watch for a link to the full 30-minute interview in the near future.

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What's New in Revit 2025 - My Annual AECbytes article is live!

For the ninth year in a row, I have written a "What's New in Revit" article for AECbytes covering the latest release of Autodesk Revit 2025.

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Circular San Antonio - April Circular Chat at Lake Flato

If you are local to San Antonio and free on April 11, 2024, at 5:30 pm you should stop by Lake|Flato Architects and join the Circular San Antonio Circular Chat. I will be presenting design for disassembly and material reuse. Registration is required.

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Morgan State University Lecture on Firm Culture and Design Technology

I had the opportunity to present (remotely) to architecture students at Morgan State University earlier this week. I shared the role of firm culture and design technology at Lake|Flato.

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Managing Custom Materials for Enscape

My latest post is live over on the Ensacpe blog!

It highlights the steps to transfer materials between Enscape-supported modeling platforms like Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, and more. It also provides some deployment and management tips for multi-user firms.

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BloxHub Visits Texas - Nordic Hub for Sustainable Urbanization

Yesterday, AIA San Antonio and Circular San Antonio hosted Martine R. Kildeby from BloxHub... the Nordic Hub for Sustainable Urbanization. I wanted to share the highlights in this post.

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IES - Newsletter signup & BIM Standards Committee

I am the chair of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) BIM Standards Committee. In today's post I will share a link to sign up for the IES newsletter and touch on what we have been working on. 

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AIA San Antonio COTE Early Energy Modeling Workshop - March 21, 2024

Interested in learning to use Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Insight to perform early energy modeling on your projects? If so, this three-hour in-person workshop is for you!

Serving on the AIA national Committee on the Environment (COTE) leadership, I love supporting local COTE events and sharing knowledge!

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New Enscape Blog Post - Leveraging Custom Assets in Enscape

I recently wrote a post for Ensacpe on managing custom assets. We have a lot of them at Lake|Flato!

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Recap - AIA San Francisco Design Technology Symposium

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend and present at the AIA San Francisco Design Technology Symposium in California.

As the Director of Design Technology at Lake Flato, Author, Educator at NDSU, and AIA national COTE Leadership, I was excited to share my experiences related to practice, education, technology, and equity.

Today's post is a recap of the wonderful event.

Photo: Event organizers, moderators, and panelists

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University of Minnesota Lecture to Lighting Design Minor Students

Last month, I had the opportunity to present on lighting design at the University of Minnesota. I enjoy presenting what Lake|Flato is doing in design performance to our future architects and interior designers.

Today's post will highlight my presentation, where I discussed:

• Workflow (electric lighting): Lighting design using Revit + Elumtools
• Workflow (daylighting): Access and glare using Rhino + Climate Studio

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Google Bard Updated to Create Images

Just yesterday I participated in a webinar talking about all the fast moving and exciting things happening in the world of AI within AEC... and to shore up that notion, I received an email later the same day that announced Google Bard can now generate images.

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Recap of Zweig Group's AI in AEC Symposium - Houston 2024

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Zweig Group's 1.5-day Symposium on AI in AEC. Today's post offers a brief recap of the event.

Minds & Machines: Dominating the Convergence of AI & Strategy in AEC

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Elevating Workplace Intelligence: Leveraging AI for Enhanced Experience and Building Performance

I am excited to participate in this webinar hosted by Plastarc on leveraging AI for enhanced experience & workplace performance.

I will share a few ways in which we are using AI at Lake|Flato, highlights from our recently completed internal research project on AI in architecture, takeaways from two recent AI events I attended, and more.

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Autodesk Forma Series - Episode 03 - CFD Wind Analysis + Proposals & Comparisons

Here is the third episode of my Autodesk Forma video series, sponsored by Autodesk.

In this latest episode, hosted on YouTube, I cover computational fluid dynamics (CFD) wind analysis, including how to run the analysis and interpret the results. Part of the analysis review involves studying design options, including the existing conditions, and comparing them.

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Autodesk Forma Noise Analysis for average daily traffic

I recently wrote a post for the Autodesk Community Blog about Autodesk's Forma's Noise Analysis feature. In this post, I dig into the average daily traffic (ADT) data point required for accurate results.

This post is an excerpt from my Autodesk Forma Series on YouTube, sponsored by Autodesk.

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2024 AIASF Design Technology Symposium

I will be attending and presenting at the 2024 AIASF Design Technology Symposium next month! Hopefully you can attend if you are in the San Francisco, California area.

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