Revit Electrical Feature - Load Sub-Classification Motor

Revit has an electrical feature that is pretty much undocumented. And I do not claim to be an expert on this topic, but wanted to share what I do know and hear how/if others use this feature. I am talking about an electrical connector's ability to have a Load Sub-Classification Motor enabled as shown in this first image.

Before talking about how this appears to work, I will mention that the biggest problem we have is...

Electrical Calculations in Revit - Why kVA Totals Can Vary from Feeder to Panel

Because my firm created the electrical portion of the MEP Productivity Pack (MEPPP,) which CTC sells to the world, we have seen a number of problems and fielded many questions from customers over the past eight years (with CTC providing the lead on all support). This has helped to expand our knowledge of Revit and improve the MEPPP product.

One question that comes up from time to time is why the kVA Totals for Panels are sometimes different than the kVA Loads on Feeders. An example of this can be seen  in the following image.

What is happening is Revit is inconsistent with how it tabulates the loads.  Both are...

Local File - Overwrite or Timestamp?

When creating a new local file, the file is saved in the folder highlighted in the Revit’s Options dialog as shown below.

Best practice is to create a new local file each day, as I elaborate on in this post: Create a New Local File Daily. When doing so, you are prompted to...

Interior Design Preface by Pieter Schiettecatte from A+I

My new Revit book for interior design has a preface written by the talented Pieter Schiettecatte. I have gotten to know Pieter through a couple of on-going Autodesk beta focus-groups and though online forums. We both have attended Autodesk's Revit Live: Inside the Factory (formerly, Revit Gunslinger Event) in Shanghai China - but not at the same time.

Read about Pieter and then his engaging comments which constitute the introduction to my updated version of Interior Design Using Autodesk Revit 2019.

Pieter Schiettecatte is a leading expert on BIM and the Director of Design Technology at A+I, one of New York City’s leading design firms. A+I was introduced in the...

Product Review: Dell Precision 5820 Tower - Superior Performance for the AEC Market

I got my hands on a Precision 5820 Tower from Dell recently and have been running a bunch of tests - from benchmarks to trying massive models in VR. It ranked near the top for various benchmarks, including the RFO Revit Benchmark.

Disclaimer: This computer was provided by Dell for testing through their "Try and Buy" program with no strings attached. I was not obligated to write this post nor did I get paid anything:)

First things first, the computer specs:

Precision 5820 Tower
Here are the specs for the computer as tested:

• Processor: Intel Xeon W-2125 4.0GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo, 4C, 8.25M
  Cache, HT, (120W) DDR4-2666
• Memory: 128GB (8x16GB) 2666MHz DDR4 RDIMM ECC
• Storage: M.2 512GB PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
• Graphics: NVIDIA, various units tested (see list below)

Photos
The exterior of the unit looks like the typical Precision tower. I love the built-in handles...

Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Calculation Error

I was having a discussion the other day about Bentley software we use and asked why we use a particular program when we have access to as similar software within our Autodesk subscription. I was reminded that the "included" Autodesk software, Autodesk Storm and Sanitary, has calculation errors.

What Is Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis?

I then remembered submitting a support ticket directly to Autodesk Support about two years ago. Unfortunately this serious design flaw has yet to be rectified and thus we are using, and paying for, competing software. I thought I would share this so anyone who uses this software would be aware of the issue if depending on it as a design tool.

Here is what I submitted in March of 2016:

"The spread calculation for Storm and Sanitary Analysis is not calculating property. As you can see from the attached SPF file, the calculation works for gutter slopes of 2%, however for slopes greater than 2% the program calculates a number under the actual value and for slopes under 2% it calculates a value over the actual value."

The two images below where submitted with the support ticket to depict how we did a manual...

My Article About Enscape on ArchDaily

I wrote an article for Enscape that was published today at the popular architecture-focused ArchDaily website.

ArchDaily has a significant following so it is quite an honor to have an article published there. As...