KnowledgeSmart

I often joke with my editors that I could pepper the final chapters of my books with profanity and we would never hear anything about it. This because the evidence points to their being high readership of the early chapters and a precipitous drop off from there. Of course whenever I make the above suggestion, the editor usually has a minor panic attack hoping that I am just kidding. (By now I think they know that I am... or am I... Have you read what's on page 716? hmmm? Well there is nothing terribly provocative on page 716 (but it made you look didn't it?).

Now, high-numbered pages may suffer from low readership, but they are not the lowest. No that honor would have to go to the pages of the preface. I think most of us are guilty of this one. You get a new book and after a quick leafing through (and after catching a whiff of that "new book smell") you just want to dive right in. So I am sure that most of would have to admit that Prefaces, Tables of Contents, and Introductions usually command a skim at best. Well, that brings me to the point of today's post. I got an email today indicating that evaluation results were available for one of my readers. Did you know that if you own a copy of Paul F. Aubin's Mastering Revit Architecture 2010 that you were entitled to not one, but TWO free KnowledgeSmart evaluations? Hmmm? Well, you might want to just flip to page xiii to learn more. (Yup, those are Roman numerals, I am pretty sure next to NO ONE reads those...)

Well, for those that have, you got yourself a little freebie. Enjoy.

A little about KnowledgeSmart
KnowledgeSmart (formally CADSmart) provides online knowledge assessment exams. From their home page: "Our web based testing tools help AEC businesses to capture and share knowledge. It is important for firms to know if skills gaps exist and where to focus learning to show significant productivity and efficiency improvements." Their latest assessment exam uses a combination of "knowledge based" and "skill based" questions to test your knowledge of the topic. You download a ZIP package and when instructed, open one of the included files, perform some task in the software and then answer the accompanying question(s). Other questions simply query your existing knowledge. The exam is scored automatically by the software and instant results are displayed and emailed to you. Some exams even include "coaching content" which will give you guidance on how to improve your skills. I have been working with the folks at KnowledgeSmart for a few years now. They are a very professional outfit and their tools are well designed and high quality. (Full disclosure: I was paid a consulting fee to create exam questions for the Revit Assessment).

They offer plans for firms wanting to test their employees or assess new hires. Exams can be used "off the shelf" or customized to include questions on office standards or procedures. If you are in need of such a tool, give them a try. I can guarantee that they will work hard to earn your business and continue to work with you over the long term to ensure that your needs are continually met.

Once again, if you have a copy of Paul F. Aubin's Mastering Revit Architecture 2010, you get two Revit Assessments for free! What better way to try their service out? 

Update to Mastering Revit Architecture Metric Dataset

A reader pointed out to me that the metric files for Chapter 10 in Mastering Revit Architecture 2010 were incorrect. Many apologies for the confusion. I have posted a new version of the 10 Commercial-Metric.rvt file online. If you are using metric units in Mastering Revit Architecture, please download and unzip it to your Chapter10 folder. Thank you very much.

Also, related to Chapter 10 and the Family Editor, be sure to check out the Mastering the Family Editor series on DVD. You can find more about them at www.paulaubin.com/lrt (Enter coupon code: EYFEBJ7Q at checkout for 10% off of all DVDs).

Minor Corrections for Mastering Revit Architecture

One of my readers emailed me with a few minor errors in the metric dimensions in Chapter 3 or Paul F. Aubin's Mastering Revit Architecture. David Philips writes:

"on page 147, step 38.  2'4" wide door would be 710mm not 762mm page 158, step 11.  9'-0" would be 2740mm not 1800mm."


I have verified both of these errors. If you are following the tutorials in Mastering Revit, please use the value of 710mm for step 38 on page 147. And also on page 158, please use the value of 2700mm for step 11, second bullet item. 


Thanks David for pointing these out to me. 

Errors and omissions

My least favorite part of the writing process. When someone sends me an email with an error they found and it turns out to be an actual error on my part... I hate those.

Got this email today:

Page 135: Toward the bottom of the page, there is a reference to Appendix X, but I can't find Appendix X in the book or on the DVD.
Page 136: I can\'t find the file "03 Residential - Walls.rvt" on the DVD.

That's because I goofed on both of those. Here was my reply to the email:

Thanks for the email. Boy do I hate when people find errors that were my fault... :-)


I am grateful when they alert me however. Thank you. I have posted the missing Chapter 3 files here:

As for the appendix, my apologies. That Appendix did not make the cut and the reference should have been eliminated. What I can offer you instead is this. I was planning to rework my paper from Autodesk University 2007 where I gave a class on Design Options and Phasing and make that the appendix. You can visit that class here:

You can download the paper that I wrote then. It is not up to date for 2010, but phasing has not changed at all, so the information should still be useful. Again, my apologies for the mistake in the book.

So, if anyone else reading this has found these errors, I hope that the above helps. As always thank you all for buying and reading my books and please keep the comments coming!