"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that, but the really great make you
feel that you, too, can become great. "
--Mark Twain
# posted by Richard Binning : Sunday, January 04, 2009
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Save yourself a click or two in Revit when you are using the tab key to align text. Think about which line is the top line of the section and align from the bottom up using tabs on subsequent lines to align the edges. Look at the example below:
As the image shows, only tab twice to align with the word above (step 1.), then move up a line and tab to move both into place (step 2.) Finish the alignment by tabbing the top line into place (step 3.).If you follow the pattern shown above, you will find adjusting and aligning text to go much smoother. If you try to work top down, you'll soon find that you end up doing a lot more back spacing as you work through your notes.
Remember too, that Revit will cruelly "adjust" your text when it goes into edit text mode, meaning that the justification will be different than when you first clicked on it. But it will remember when you exit. So as long as you like what you see on screen when you are done editing, that is what you will see when you exit the edit mode.
# posted by Richard Binning : Wednesday, December 24, 2008
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For all of you manager-tools followers, (I'm one too!) I thought I'd post a quick note about twitter. I use it to keep a loose connection to my friends and acquaintences and hopefully to move some of the information firehose known as "email" into a more appropriate tool. Twitter can help to get your inbox to zero too! Now you know too! But hurry, like the posting box on twitter - the window is small
But it is not all noise, today I found out:
# posted by Richard Binning : Wednesday, November 19, 2008
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Want to get Autodesk certified? Are you certifiable? Find out by attending AU 2008 in Vegas. According to the special offers page, you can get a free voucher that waives the exam fee (up to $125 value) and it will be good for up to 6 months.
Just follow these steps:
1. Upon arriving and registering at AU you’ll receive a voucher.
2. Go to booth #120 for more information or go directly to Zeno 4710, present the voucher, and take the exam. Exams held during AU are organized by Autodesk (but please note, that exam spaces are limited during AU).
3. Your voucher is valid for six months. So even if you don’t take the exam during AU, you may still use the voucher to get certified for free at participating Autodesk Authorized Training Centers.
# posted by Richard Binning : Monday, November 17, 2008
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Got email turned off so you can be productive? So do I! But it is AU time and the party invitations are imminent. The AEC BIM Mixer, formerly the Revit Mixer, invitations are arriving! Did you get yours? I'll see you there. 
Remember to arrive early as #1201 gets to wait until one of us leaves!
# posted by Richard Binning : Thursday, November 13, 2008
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Woke up this morning and saw the carnage from the night before first hand.
Get ready Georgia, you're in Gator Country today!
# posted by Richard Binning : Saturday, November 01, 2008
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I got a chance to IM with Scott and got the skinny on future plans with regard to the Revit Implementation boot camp.
The Good news first:
Here is the bad news:
All for now...
Hopefully, Scott's idea of a tour pans out!
# posted by Richard Binning : Friday, October 10, 2008
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You heard it here first, Autodesk will be holding a single day Revit Implementation Boot Camp during the week of Autodesk University in Las Vegas.
Date: Monday, December 1, 2008
Time: 8:30am Registration; Continental Breakfast
9:00am — 5:00pm Presentation & Workshop Sessions
Where: Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas — Lando 4301, Level 4
I hope you received an invitation and got registered. It looks like the room is all filled up. Let's hope they receive an overwhelming number of attendees and expand the program or repeat it on a different day.
# posted by Richard Binning : Thursday, October 09, 2008
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Problem: Schedule Formula (simple area addition) does not display as intended. Labels: ACA, ADT, Architecture, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture, VBScript
Solution: Check your format for the underlying property set variables.
As you can see from the image above, the combined area of two properties is not displaying as intended. What can I do to get a simple sum that displays in square feet? Here is the executive summary.
1.) Verify that your Schedule Cell format is set to Area.
2.) Now check each variable in the formula and scroll to the right setting their format to "standard" instead of area as shown in the following image.
That's it! Your Problem is solved!
Continue reading below for the step by step version.
Step by Step:
Step 1: Select your schedule table, right click your mouse and choose "Edit Schedule Table Style..." from the pop up menu.
Step Two: When the Style Editor dialog box appears, navigate to the offending column and select it by left clicking with your mouse. Now move your mouse to the "Modify..." button at the bottom of the dialog box and left click it with your mouse. Now find the sample values list area indicated by #3 in the image below and left click and hold your mouse button down while sliding your mouse to the right. When you can see the format column you can let go of the mouse and continue to the next step.
Step Three: Double check that your chosen data format is "Area" for the Column Properties as shown in #1 in the image below. Next move your mouse back to the sample values list and change the format value for your variables to "standard" from "Area" as shown in the image below next to #2 and #3 in the image.
Step Four: Left Click the "OK" button and verify that your schedule updates to display as shown below. You did it! Congratulations!
# posted by Richard Binning : Wednesday, October 08, 2008
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I found my dream workstation in a laptop form today and just had to tell you about it. It is a 17" desknote with a fast desktop processor, 8 GB of hi-speed (800) RAM, a solid state hard drive (SSD), and a workstation class video card (Quadro). Want to know where to get it?
Visit Eurocom and look for the EUROCOM D90xC PHANTOM-X.
You'll find an article about it in the latest desktop engineering headlines. Look for "Server-caliber Computer doubles as a mobile workstation" or just click this link.
I clicked over to Eurocom's site and configured a machine for Revit. Since it is a dream machine, I spec'd it for my dreams with the following items for only $4,177 USD:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo® Processor E8400; 3.0GHz; 1333 FSB
Video: 512MB GDDR3; nVidia Quadro FX 1600
RAM: 8GB; 2x 4GB; DDR2-800
Harddrive: 250GB Solid State Drive SSD; Read>140MB/sec Write>90MB/sec; Seek<0.35ms
It would be interesting to compare this setup against a similarly configured laptop with a conventional 7200 rpm laptop drive. Eurocom? I'm ready to test it whenever you wish to send them over!
Want to learn more about SSD drives? Checkout the Solid_state_disk article at wikipedia.
# posted by Richard Binning : Thursday, October 02, 2008
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Someone asked this question today.
How do I get the dwg setup menu and display manager/viewport scale menus to display at the bottom of the AutoCAD Architecture or Architectural Desktop interface?
Apparently, these items had disappeared from someone's profile - see image below:
These interface components are part of the main customization file...when these items disappear, the chances are real good that the main cui file is no longer an ADT or ACA file. I suggested reloading the profile.
Problem solved.
# posted by Richard Binning : Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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An all day session on Revit Implementation done Boot Camp Style will be held at AU 2008. Information is not yet available on AU website, but I understand it is coming. This could be really good for those ready to make the plunge....stay tuned for more info as it breaks! Labels: AEC, Architecture, Revit
# posted by Richard Binning : Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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The recent LT Unlimited blog article by Kate Morrical titled: "Customize the Status Bar with MODEMACRO" reminded me of some customization I recently wrote. I received a call from a remote architect who needed some assistance with Linetypes. She was concerned that when switching from model to paperspace her linetypes weren't always displaying correctly. I explained that she should be adjusting her ltscale variables in order to see the linetypes when in modelspace. She wished for an "automatic solution". So I wrote a quick macro, using VBA, to automatically set the correct lt and psltscale values based on the current value of dimscale. I tied the macro to the AcadDocument_LayoutSwitched event so that whenever she switched layouts, the macro would update the values.To provide graphic feedback that this system was working I chose to use the MODEMACRO system variable. Here is the macro in action with visual feedback occuring on the status bar. 
Here is the code from the vba macro that sets the MODEMACRO variable. You can see from the code snippet below, that I am displaying the current value of the MEASUREMENT, DIMSCALE, LTSCALE, and PSLTSCALE variables.
ThisDrawing.SetVariable "modemacro", "WB_STATUS- UNITS: $(IF, $(=,
$(getvar,MEASUREMENT),0),IMPERIAL,METRIC) SCALE=$(GETVAR,DIMSCALE)
LTS=$(GETVAR,LTSCALE) PSLTS=$(GETVAR,PSLTSCALE)"
Labels: AutoCAD, Customization, Diesel, MODEMACRO
# posted by Richard Binning : Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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I received the following survey notice recently from Markku Allison, AIA the resource architect for the American Institute of Architects. Feel free to post, retweet, rejaw, and plurk this along to any designer, constructor, or owner you think might wish to weigh in on this survey. The AIA is conducting an initiative regarding current compensation practices in the industry, which involves comparing various compensation models to project type, size, and delivery methods. The AIA has hired The Rickinson Group, an independent third party market research firm to assist with this effort. If you are a designer, constructor, or owner with recent built project experience we would like to request your participation in an online market research survey. Please follow the link at the bottom of the page to be taken to the survey. We ask that you complete the survey by September 12th, 2008. Because this survey is being conducted by an independent third party, you can be assured that your responses are strictly confidential and will only be reported in aggregate form only. Note that this project is being conducted under the guidance of the AIA’s counsel to ensure compliance with antitrust issues. Survey results will be used to inform a guide to compensation models for teams in a transformed industry, which will be publicly available from the AIA at no cost by year end 2008. please feel free to post my invitation or forward it to anyone you think will
To complete the survey,
please click on the link below, or paste the link into your web browser. In appreciation for your participation, you will be entered into a drawing to win one of five $100 American Express Gift Checks. You will be asked near the end of the survey for your email address in order to be entered into the drawing for the gift checks. Winners will be notified via email. The drawing is managed by The Rickinson Group; your identity will be kept confidential and will not be revealed to the survey sponsor.
survey: http://deploy.ztelligence.com/start/index.jsp?PIN=13AHFWYNMPPHV
find it of interest! please send me the link if you do post—
best—
markku
Markku Allison, AIA
Resource Architect
The American Institute of Architects
1735 New York Ave NW
Washington, DC 20006-5292
# posted by Richard Binning : Friday, September 05, 2008
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Okay, I've reviewed the videos (nicely done by the way) and have requested a trial. I am looking forward to testing this out. I am curious how the present workflow may need to be adjusted to integrate this tool into our work flow.
more to follow...
# posted by Richard Binning : Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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Wow, this is really interesting. Apparently Integrated Energy Solutions, IES, now has included Sketchup in the list of tools that can integrate with its building performance analysis tools to indicate yearly average energy consumption and carbon emissions. It remains to be seen whether the typical sketchup model used for visualization can be adjusted to work with IES. According to IES, it is a simple 5 step system. It is a great time to be involved in BIM
I haven't worked with this latest plugin, but according to IES, there is now a seemless path for energy analysis that includes Sketchup and Revit.
more info...
# posted by Richard Binning : Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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Autodesk MEP Customer Council has released the results of their most recent survey on MEP Analysis. Over 190 members responded. Want to know more? Join the customer council or ask questions by sending an email to the councilmanager.
# posted by Richard Binning : Thursday, August 21, 2008
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Tired of inserting a line or stamp or an arrow head in your snagit screen capture only to have to go back and move the endpoints? This typically happens when you've already got some vector based artwork on the capture. Try this:
Instead of inserting and then moving or stretching, try holding the ALT key down while placing your annotation. Now you can insert it anywhere, even on top of existing annotation.
Works for me! See this in Action below.
# posted by Richard Binning : Monday, August 18, 2008
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What are you doing?
This year it will be easier than ever to find out about Autodesk University happenings by using Twitter. If you are already using twitter then click this link or the image shown on the left and hit the "follow" button to subscribe.
Not sure what Twitter is? Visit the twitter site and read up or get the cliff's note version by watching the following video created by the talented folk at common craft (See video below).
I'm following AUGIatAU. Are you?
# posted by Richard Binning : Monday, August 18, 2008
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Here's a tip for all you snagit users. Next time you create a screen capture. Save the file as a "SNAG" format file. My opinion: Snagit is the premier screencapture utility. I use it daily!
This maintains all your annotation objects (text, arrow heads, stamps, etc.) as live editable objects instead of flattening them down to the background. Then when you realize that you want to edit that screencap again, you can simply double click on any of the intelligent objects to move them, change them, correct the spelling, etc.
# posted by Richard Binning : Friday, August 15, 2008
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Just finished signing up for AU 2008. It took quite a bit of time. More time than I planned to devote to scheduling, but it is done and now I can just wait til it comes around. I was issued number 3601. Sounds like we are well on the way to 11k or more!
# posted by Richard Binning : Friday, August 08, 2008
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Want some free training in Autodesk products? You can always go to AUGI.com and participate in one of their ATP programs or download Autodesk University handouts. You can also take advantage of the Video E-Learning available courtesy of CADLearning.com also available at the AUGI education area.
A new option is the Autodesk Open Doors program coming to an ATC , hopefully, near you. Click this link to see if there are any classes available in your area.
Fellow Georgians, you'll have to travel as I couldn't find any free training within the state of Georgia, USA.
# posted by Richard Binning : Thursday, July 31, 2008
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I ran into Error Code 800a0011 this morning when adding a list box control to a form in VBA. No matter what control I added, it gave this error:
could not complete the operation due to error 800a0011
Although annoying, there is a quick fix. Switch to the other VBA project that is loaded and ensure that you are not in debug mode. It seems I had an empty project (global 1) that had no code save for the "option explicit" option. I unloaded that project and the problem went away.
# posted by Richard Binning : Thursday, July 31, 2008
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Here is the updated version of my layerkey tool now updated for ACA2008. I'll update for 2009 soon...those DIYers can simply change the libraries to the ACA2009 version by pointing to the same libaries but in the Autodesk shared folder.
download here: LayerKeyCompare08.dvb
# posted by Richard Binning : Sunday, June 01, 2008
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