Topics Covered in the RTC AUS CLASS: "Family Modeling Secrets Revealed"

Below are some of the topics I will be covering in a class I will be teaching at RTC AUS 2013. 

 "Family Modeling Secrets Revealed"  

The following topics will be discussed among others.....

• How to Model a Jet Airplane Engine

• How to Model a spline so its length is re-portable and how to apply to a curved wall

• How to model helical Site Topography

• How to Model the motion of construction equipment using inverse kinematic principles

• How to Model the Revit Pumpkin 

• How to model the Revit Cow

There was no way I have time to show the secrets for every family I ever built within the 75 minute time constraint of the class. However the examples I will be showing in class will highlight a large number of modeling techniques that could be applied to other families.

Note: This class will only be taught at RTC AUS so please try to sign up for the RTC AUS if you have not done so already.

See you all at the Revit Technology Conference! 

Topics Covered in the RTC AUS and RTC NA 2013 Site Topography Lab Titled: "A Match Made in Revit : Hardscape Meets Landscape"

Below are some of the topics I will be covering in a lab I will be teaching at both the RTC AUS and RTC NA 2013 events. The lab is titled:

 "A Match Made in Revit : Hardscape Meets Landscape"  

The lab will cover how to place elements in Revit to create walls, fences, roads, curbs, planters, walking paths and other hardscape elements that follow the exact shape of the site topography. This lab only uses Revit. Therefore, no other program or 3rd party add in for Revit is used in this lab.

The following topics will be discussed among others.....

• Walls that follow the shape of complex site topography elements

• Straight Roads and curbs (in plan) that follow the shape of site topography elements 

• Helical Shaped Walking Paths and Fencing that follow the shape of site topography elements

• Planters and Planter walls shaped like the RTC logo that follow the shape of site topography elements

 

• Some of the elements shown above are roof and floor elements shaped to match the site topography.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MTXv8xIO5JY

Note: I recently found out how to make hardscape elements follow site topography even if they move. It involved one extra step. Want to learn more? Attend my lab at RTC.

I would like to give a special thanks to Jay Zallan for letting me know that some elements "do" follow site topo. Thanks Jay!
See the video below and try to make plans to attend The Revit Technology Conference this year. 

 Also, be sure to sign up for this hardscape lab, space is limited. If the lab is full, don't worry, you may still be able to see the session. Get on the waiting list to get a seat with a computer, ask to be placed in a seat without a computer and bring your own labtop, or just listen to the session as a lecture. See you all there!

Revit Site Topography Modeling Class Planned for 2014

I always get asked after I present at a local user group such as LARUG or BUGIE or PDXRUG or at a conference such as the Revit Technology Conference or Autodesk University what I am up to. I have been asked this question so many times that I feel it is important to let all the blog readers know one of the subjects I have planned for the year 2014.

SITE TOPOGRAPHY MODELING!!!
Site Topography Modeling in Revit! Up until the middle of 2012 I never really modeled using the site topography tools in Revit. It was not until I used the "Intersection Method" to determine how to make Hardscape elements, such as walls and sidewalks, follow the contours of site topography was I approached countless times with questions on "how to" model topography using the site topo tools. See the RTC 2013 schedule, I will be teaching a double lab on modeling Hardscape elements, you dont want to miss it!

Anyways, I immediately tried to model in the site topo tools and before I began I thought to myself "how hard could it be?" Well, I have to admit it was difficult at first to model in the site topo tools but now I realized that "any" form is possible there are just different rules that must be followed when modeling.
Therefore I plan to bring my pain and suffering from this experience to the Revit community so we all may learn and share our site topo modeling stories.

 Below is a human head that was modeled using only the site topo tools. This was briefly shown in the "complex" class I taught at AU2012. .

The Revit Site Topography Head

Also, I am working on a dolphin in the site topo tools, Its still a work in progress but it is showing the limits of what the program is capable of. These site topo modeling procedures I plan to teach in 2014 also apply to all the Revit LT users and all the Civil 3D users because the governing principles are the same as in Revit. So stay tuned all you Revit, Revit LT and Civil 3D site topo modelers... help is on the way in 2014. Perhaps even as soon as AU2013....

The Revit Site Topography Dolphin

RTC NA 2012 Game Engine Class Revisited in 2013

In 2012 I taught a class at the Revit Technology Conference North America titled

"Visualizations to the Max Taking Revit into Game Engine Environments for Real‐Time Rendering, Physics, and Animation"

In the class, I basically showed how to take a Revit project and import it into a game engine.Then I showed how attendees could use the game engine environment to perform real time renders, animations, walkthroughs, etc... well... how to blow things up along the way.

I have received a lot of questions recently about how to perform tasks using a game engine and Revit. It reminded me that not everyone was able to attend RTC NA 2012 and since RTC classes are not available to be viewed online it made sense that I show what little footage of the actual class that I have to all of you.. 

 Mr. James Vandezande was able to film the first 4 minutes of the class. (Thank you James!)

FYI  I plan never ever teach this class again so soak up what you can now!

Enjoy and don't forget to sign up for RTC 2013! 

Scaling the Classical Order of Columns in Revit

Over the last couple of months I have been  trying to get families to scale in Revit. I found that this was not an easy task. To demonstrate one of the four scaling methods that I developed "The Scale By Host" method I scaled the Revit Cow 10 times its original size in the class I taught at AU 2012 titled "Complex Geometry"

It was a fun exercise to place doors, windows and floors into the Revit Cow using the Intersection Method. I even found a bug in the program that Autodesk is going to fix!  

Scaling the Revit Cow and Adding Windows and Doors

However, from a practical stand point the cow will probably not be used on many projects in the future. I therefore decided to create a series of families that were more recognizable by the AECO industry and ones that would require scaling..."The Classical Order of Columns" 

The first one I have modeled in Revit is the Corinthian Column since it was the most complex and I am excited to announce that I will be teaching a class on "Scaling Families" in Revit at RTC 2013 Australiasia as well as RTC North America. In those classes I will be showing the entire class how to scale this Family!...and by using just one parameter! Note: no parameters will be nested either. So make plans to attend RTC this year!

Scaling the Classic Corinthian Column in Revit

As a side note, I have big big plans for the all the classical order of columns in Revit, once I finish them. So stay tuned readers, I may just be teaching a class or two on how to model these classical columns in the future. The Corinthian Column shown in the images below are considered "basic or low detail" if there is an interest I may model some with higher detail or different motifs. Did someone say...motif type selection?

Thank you and stay tuned dont forget to sign up for RTC 

The Corinthian Column in Revit "low detail"

Bug Found When Scaling the Revit Cow

Anyone who attended my class at Autodesk University 2012  "AB3741 Advanced Autodesk Revit Modeling Techniques" remembers that we were able to scale the Revit Cow 10 times its original size in under 5 minutes using the "Scale by Host" method. We even were able to place a floor, a door and windows in the Revit Cow. 

I decided, on the spot and in front of all 300 or more attendees, to create a window that followed the contour of the Revit Cow since all the OOTB window families did not look correct as shown below. This was probably not a good idea to try something like this without practicing it first because I knew something would go wrong and it did!

I started by creating an in-place mass so I could create my curved window. I then created 4 model lines that where HOSTED to the window opening's edges. These model lines were comprised of 2 point splines that used the "follow surface" option. Once created, I selected all 4 model lines and clicked create form.... and POOF the top and bottom lines straightened and the form just simplified itself before my very eyes...and the eyes of all the attendees as shown in the image below.

I said in front of the class that I would look into what went wrong.

Well, now that AU2012 is over I had time to investigate the problem and report to everyone what I have found. 

Its a bug... yes I said it... a bug. Model lines are not supposed to simply change shape such that the resulting form is simplified. At least I am guessing that was not the developers intention. 

If its a bug then the next question is, what should have happened? Well, if I would have changed those 4 model lines into REFERENCE LINES in the class then the lines at the top and bottom would not have straightened and the form would have tessellated itself as shown. 

The model lines and the reference lines create two VERY difference results and from my experience there should never be any difference in form creation when using a model line or a reference line that are geometrically identical. I tried another experiment. When the model lines and reference lines are NOT HOSTED then it yields the following results. 

As the above results show when model lines are NOT HOSTED then it yields the same results as the reference lines. After this last experiment,  I was finally convinced that this was a bug and that the developers need to fix it.

So, my fellow blog readers, if you see a Revit developer out there, run them down and tell them to fix this bug in Revit so that you could use model lines when you are creating complex glazing on the 40 foot tall Revit Cow that you downloaded from Marcello's AU2012 dataset or on your own complex family.

Even after you find a developer, don't hold your breath and wait for them to fix the bug. Take matters into your own hands and use the workaround....change those hosted model lines into reference lines and then "click" create form. Good Luck!

If you missed the AU2012 class or you want to see me create this again, you will be able to watch it on AU Virtual in early 2013.

Top Speaker Award for a Lecture Class at AU 2012

I am pleased to announce that the class that I taught at AU 2012 

 "AB3741 Advanced Autodesk Revit Modeling Techniques"  

has been rated the top lecture class at AU2012!

Yesterday I received the following email from Autodesk:

I want to thank everyone who has followed and supported me throughout the years. Without all your support, feedback, and collaboration this would not have been possible.

If you missed the class, you could watch it on AU virtual. It should be available by Dec. 21 2012.  

So make sure you sign up and follow my blog because I have even more exciting content to show in 2013