Mastering Revit Architecture: To the press!

The newest edition of Paul F. Aubin's Mastering Revit Architecture goes to press in a couple days. So begins officially the longest period of time in my personal calendar: The time between when i deliver the last of the final manuscript to the time it takes to get a printed book. Truth be told I am posting this a little early. There are still a few more proofs to finalize but we are REALLY close now. The files shoudl deliver to printer in about two weeks. Unfortunatley it then takes them a few weeks to print, package and ship the books to warehouses, soooo, this is why this is officially the longest period of time in my personal calendar. At this point, I have done all I can, and now like my readers, I have to just wait for the new book to arrive in the mail.

There are several new enhancements to this edition that I would like to share with you. This year, we go to a new trim size for the book. It is now larger using the 8 1/2" x 11" size. The page layout has been freshened up a little too which should make pages easier to read. Obviously, the new interface in Autodesk products dictated a major re-write of nearly every tutorial step in the book. Also, just about every screen capture is new. (Let me know if you find any lingering references to "Design Bar" lurking in the text... we tried to catch them all, but you never know...)

In this edition I have completely revised the previous coverage of shared coordinates. I moved the topics around and refined the workflow to better suit actual best-practice usage in most of the client firms I have visited. I also incorporated the new Project Base Point and Survey Point features in this discussion. You will find these topics now in Chapter 6.



We are including a video lesson for the first time on the CD ROM. This lesson is a quick start overview. It covers materials from the Quick Start and the User Interface chapter.

CourseNotes - Brand new with this edition we are including a CourseNotes reference card. You will be able to buy this bundled with the book or separately. (I don't know all the details on packaging and pricing yet, so stay tuned). The CourseNotes is a fold out reference card that includes quick reference material to help you get started with Revit. The card includes an overview of the interface, steps to use the most common features, zoom, pan, modeling tools and a complete list of keyboard shortcuts. You can keep this card handy as a reference as you work in Revit. A bonus page in printable PDF format on Worksharing is also provided on the book CD!

New Chapter - The Conceptual Modeling Environement is new in Revit 2010 and in the new edition of Mastering, it scores its own chapter. While comprehensive coverage coould fill an entire book on its own, look to Chapter 15 for an extensive overview of the new conceptual modeling environment.




New Appendix - Rendering! Many of you requested coverage of Rendering in Mastering. In the 2010 edition it is here! Look to Appendix C for a handy reference and overview of rendering features in Revit 2010.

Families - Chapter 10 has always been a detailed exploration of Families and Family editing. But did you realize that it is nearly 100 pages of tutorial coverage? You will learn how to use existing Families and create your own in this detailed resource.

Expanded Appedices - Many chapters begin with a dataset that varies sometime considerably from the end point of the previous chapter. To bridge this gap, I have expanded Appendix A - Additional Exercises to include more exercises to fill in these gaps on your own. Of course Appendix A remains totally optional and you can still open the dataset at the start of each chapter with all edits and features ready for the current lesson. But if you are wondering what was added, or prefer to add it yourself, you can do the lessons in Appendix A in between each chapter.

I am looking forward to getting this book out and available. I truly think this is the best edition yet. I had a lot of help getting it to this point and I thank everyone involved (you know who you are, but if you want to see your name in print, read the Preface ;-)

Thanks everyone. You can visit the "official" book page on my site for more info and to order from Amazon here.