Aubin Academy Master Series: Revit Architecture 2011

The 2011 edition of Paul F. Aubin's Mastering Revit Architecture is almost here. The book is being re-branded this year as part of the Aubin Academy Master Series. As we do every year, the entire book has been revised, new material added for 2011, existing content enhanced to reflect current best-practices and techniques and where found, errors and omissions fixed. This year's edition will be a little larger than last years reflecting new features for 2011.

To give you an example, I would like to share an extract of the text with you here. An exciting new feature in 2011 is the long requested ability to customize elevation tags. The 2011 edition of the book includes two tutorials, one detailing how to load and apply a custom elevation tag (in Chapter 4) and another detailing how to build the custom tag from scratch in the Family Editor (this is in Chapter 10). I have extracted the text of the tutorial from Chapter 10 and posted it here. Enjoy! I will post the steps from Chapter 4 in a future post, so stay tuned.

Excerpt from Chapter 10 of Aubin Academy Master Series: Revit Architecture 2011:

Creating Custom Elevation Tags (download PDF).

Master the Family Editor Series available on DVD

Upon my return from AU, I was very pleased to find the proofs for the Mastering the Family Editor Series DVDs sitting on my desk.

Earlier this summer I conducted this five-part course online using GoToMeeting and presenting to a live audience. I have since used the recordings of those sessions to produce a high-quality five DVD series. You can buy each individually if there are only certain topics you wish to see, or buy all five to view the entire course. A download link to a PDF course handout and a collection of Revit files is included with the purchase of the DVDs and includes complete step-by-step instructions accompanying the video lessons.

The videos are distributed via Amazon CreateSpace and will also be available on Amazon's Video On Demand service as well. Stay tuned for further details on availability. I have other courses in production and hope to have them ready soon. Please be sure to let me know how you like the Family Editor Series and post any questions or requests for future sessions.

You can learn more about the titles and find links to order here.

Course|Notes X 3

Pick your flavor! Course|Notes for AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP are now available! These are six page reference cards packed with tips and tricks for using each application. I now have them for Revit, AutoCAD Arch and MEP. Please contact me for details and if you would like to get a copy.

Video - Revit 2010 Quick Start online class

Here is the video from yesterday's online class. Enjoy. Please follow the link below to fill out an evaluation after you view the video. Thank you.



For a high resolution version of this video, look here:
2009-04-21 13.12 Paul Aubin Revit Presentation

Evaluation:
http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?C7E38F92C78C9395

Online Training Delivered Yesterday

Yesterday I conducted an online training session giving an overview of Revit 2010 basic functionality and a look at what has changed in the User Interface. The class was conducted to an invited group of attendees from my client list and was overall well received. I am compiling the recorded session and assuming I can overcome a few CODEC issues I seem to be having, I intend to post the recorded file here.

Meanwhile, let me share some of the questions, comments and other tidbits from the session. First, I showed the "Where is my command" feature at the start of the session. This is a help file provided by Autodesk in all 2010 products to help you find your commands when you upgrade. The new ribbon interface can make it difficult at first to get acclimated, so this tool will help. Simply choose Where is my command from the help menu on the application frame (top right corner) and then choose the menu where it used to be and then select the command. You will be directed to the new location. After sharing this tip, one of the attendees: Sean Walton from OWP/P (who also hosted the session - thank you to them) sent me this link:

http://www.nichitecture.com/downloads/Revit%20Architecture%202010%20User%20Interface%20Help.html

This link takes you to a webpage using a flash application that allows you to click where your command was in the 2009 screen and it will show you the new 2010 location. It is not complete yet, but still very nicely done.

Some of the other questions asked by attendees:
Can you bring existing AutoCAD drawings into Revit?

Yes you can. click on the Insert tab of the ribbon and then click the Link CAD button.

I showed customizing the Quick Access Toolbar and ribbons to which an attendee asked:
Can you customize the icons?

To this I answered that I was nearly certain that you could not. This was confirmed by another attendee. If anyone knows differently, please let me know.

I showed the new Project Base Point and Survey Point feature. The question was asked:
Do the Shared Coordinates come across to Navis Works?

I was not certain the answer as I have not had time to review the new Navis Works 2010 yet, but another attendee said that it did work. I would like to learn more on this to confirm so if anyone has information to share, please do.

Finally a pretty standard question:
Can you save 2010 back to 2009?

Sadly no you can't this has never been possible in Revit. Once you go forward you cannot go back except through exporting to DWG or IFC neither of which is an ideal (or even acceptable) alternative. So, stay on your current version for projects that are underway and switch to 2010 for new projects.

Next post, I will try to get the video posted. Until then thanks to all who attended!