Revit: Walkthrough Examples

A video with some sample walkthroughs done in Revit.
Català - Castellano
This is a short promotional video we created to share with clients and partners some of the projects we've been working on in 2011. All are projects were BIM had a role, either as an experimentation exercise or truly as the tool to check for design inconsistencies or even later on as the basis of a quantity take-off and estimation.

I've been managing and modeling all these models, so well, a little self promotion isn't bad once in a while right? In a later post I will explain briefly how to create a walkthrough in Revit and a few tricks that might help on creating a video like the one below. Turn down the speakers bit, I think we got a bit too excited with the Music ;-P. Enjoy!



Show me more...

BIM and Facility Management

Very interesting article on BIM and FM at AECBytes
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Was reading this great article about BIM and Facility Managment at AECBytes and found it very interesting. I never worked in anything related to Facility Management but to me it seems one of the fields in the entire Building Life-cycle that can benefit the most from good BIM implementation.

As a side line I used some of the info there to add some more tools to the BIM list of software and providers.

Cheers

Show me more...

Excel: Grouping Rows or Columns

When Excel Spreadsheets become big you might want to have your cells grouped so you can easily show and hide some of them as you please.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
We use excel sheets for wide variety of uses. When theses spreadsheets become complicated and big or even huge, having ways to show or hide parts of the sheet is critical to be able to work with them without spending half of your time scrolling up and down (or even worse, left and right). On way to do that is to group cells together. And it is very simple to do.


A common layout on spreadsheets is to have a header that precedes some items and even some sub-items. Something like you see on the picture above these lines. If want to be able to hide the items and only see headers and totals, we must do the following.

1. Select the cells you want to group (be able to hide)
2. Go to Data -> Group and select either Rows or Columns and click OK.

The result will be somthing like this, where Minus signs appear to the right to show you that you can hide some cells.


Then if you click on those minus signs, you can get something like this.


To be able to have the + / - signs on the upper part you have to go to the Layout settings and uncheck "summary rows below detail" (see images below)



Hope this helps!


Show me more...

Excel: Creating a Drop Down List with Values on a Different Sheet

Simple step by step guide on how to set up a drop down list in excel
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
In many situations we might want to have a cell in Microsoft Excel where only certain values from a list are allowed. The best way to do this is to create a drop down list with the closeable values. To do that, follow these simple steps.

1. On a separate sheet (you can do it on the same one as well) create the list of values you want to appear in the drop down list. Put one in each cell.
2. Drag select all those cells and enter a Name on the Name box (upper right near the formula bar). For this example we could use Listofvalues01 for example. use no spaces.
3. Then select the cell (or multiple cells) where you want that drop down list to appear.
4. With the cell or cell selected, go to the "Data" tab on the ribbon, and select Data validation -> Data Validation
5. Go to the settings tab
6. On "Allow" select "Lists" and check "ignore blank" and "in-cell drop down".
7. On "Source" type =Listofvalues01 or whatever name you gave to the list of values on step 2.
8. Click OK and go to the cell. An arrow should appear next to it and if you click on it you will see the list of closeable values

See the image below for a graphical explanation of this process.



Alternatively you could have the values on the same sheet where the drop down list appears. If you do so, you can avoid step 2, and on Step 7 instead of entering =Listofvalues01 you could simply select the cells where the list of values is (on the same sheet).

In Excel 2010, you can use this alternative method even on values being on a different sheet, but be aware that the drop down list will not work if the file is opened by a 2007 or previous version of Excel, so this option is not recommended. Either use the Namerange option (the one described in the 8 steps), or have the values in the same spreadsheet.

Show me more...

Revit: Transfer Materials, Families, Symbols from one Project to Another

Revit allows to transfer information from one project to another. No need to copy and paste.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
If you need to use certain information from a project in another (family types, annotation symbols, building types, materials...) you can do so by simply going to the Manage Tab of the Ribbon, and then choosing the "Transfer Project Standards" button (see below).


Once you've clicked this you will get the menu where you can choose which element do you really want to import and from which project (in case you have ore than one project open). you need to have both projects open, the one you want import from and the one you want to import to. The operation must be done being on a view of the project you want to import to.


It is no doubt a much better way than copying and pasting elements. Ideally, you want to have a very thorough template so you don't need to do this, but sometimes, to create this template (at least your first Revit template) you might want to use this process to import families, and other standards to it from projects you worked on to later polish them in the template file.

Hope this helps

Show me more...

Master Thesis Update: Temporary Unavailable Online

I am temporarily removing the posts from my Master Thesis on the blog, let me explain you why very briefly
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
I had been publishing for the past month or so a series of post with the contents of my master thesis. Although I submitted my MT las January, I didn't start publishing it until this last September because I was awaiting the possibility of turning it into a scientific article.

The moment I thought that possibility had passed I decided to share it here. Recently I received a notification from my MT tutor that we will actually proceed on the attempt of creating two scientific articles from it. Since the contents of the article will be very very similar to those of the master thesis, I have decided to temporarily remove the contents from here in case having them here might decrease the chances of the article being accepted.

It is a bit against my preferred way of doing things that I do so. I believe sharing information is the best way that we have to improve, but as you will hopefully understand getting my first scientific paper published is right now very relevant for me professionally. I will in any case republish all those articles (if there is no copyright issues) once and if the article gets published (or rejected). Take it just as a delay in my sharing of the master thesis with all of you.

Of course if anyone needs some information about the topic of BIM as a PM tool, please do contact me and I will be happy to assist you.

Show me more...

Case Study: The use of Revit MEP by JG ingenieros

JG Ingenieros will explain its experience with the implementation and use of Revit MEP on an online webinar organised by A3D consulting.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
JG Engineers is one of the leading engineering companies in the Spanish market and has a strong international presence. In recent months, JG has been implementing Revit MEP.

On Friday October 7, 2011, A3D Consulting has invited them to explain their experiences with this software. An online webinar very interesting for all those interested in Revit, BIM in general and Revit MEP and how and what is being done in Spain on these subjects.

To access the webinar you need to register through A3D Consulting. (The webinar will be held in Spanish).




Show me more...