Rejection Hurts

Dear [BIM Troublemaker],

Thank you for your proposal to speak at Autodesk University 2010.

We received an overwhelming response from potential speakers—more than 2000 proposals from over 830 professionals. With only about 600 class slots available, we could not accept everyone’s good ideas. We regret to inform you that your proposal was not chosen for one of this year’s classes.

We used several criteria when choosing speakers and topics. Conference experience, evaluations of presenters from past Autodesk University conferences, and proposed topics were all primary factors. Due to the large number and high quality of proposals we received, we even had to disappoint some speakers with excellent scores from previous AU conferences.

Again, thank you for submitting a proposal. We hope to see you at Autodesk University in Las Vegas this fall.

Sincerely,

AU Speaker Management Team

Oh well...the AFTER DARK CALENDAR Giveaway will have to wait until next year.

But there are 2 upsides to this.

First, I get to go to AU and make trouble in other people's classes...(i wonder how Matt Dillon deals with hecklers?)...seriously though, I can go and learn, learn, learn.  I take the event really seriously and when i went in 2008, I didn't step outside the hotel until it was time to go to the airport.

Second, I was saving up a bunch of material for the classes i was going to teach which i can now use on the blog.

So thanks AU Speaker Management Team for taking a little bit of work off my shoulders during my next trip to America.  Just another reason why Autodesk rules.

The Lost Art of Lunch & The Imperial Samurai Boba-Fett

Howard Stern went to Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago.

(...any BIM-Blog post that starts off like this is bound to be interesting so bear with me)

As he was discussing the trip, Howard talked about how Jimmy Kimmel has a vintage WELCOME BACK KOTTER lunch box on the shelf in his office.

Which really got me thinking about my childhood lunch boxes.  And I'll tell the truth here and say that i can't remember a single one of them.  But there is something about this genre of art that, in adulthood, i find quite compelling.  So i started looking around and i found this joker, whose collection is significantly larger than Jimmy Kimmel's:

A Man Amongst his Boxes

But here is where it gets juicy...with a little more searching i found this blog post...and links to any blog featuring STAR WARS kitsch absolutely belong on my BIM site:

Vintage STAR WARS Lunch Box Art

I don't think i actually had a STAR WARS box, but i am sure that if i saw one, i envied the owner.  And by clicking through a link on that page, i found what is probably the geek-iest damn thing i have ever seen.


But it is sooooo cool....


I am confident that anyone who makes their living off BIM and actually reads Revit oriented blogs, will think so as well...The Imperial Samurai Boba-Fett:

I will never need another desktop wallpaper.....

Large Projects in REVIT - Information Compilation

I am getting ready to do a pretty large project using Revit.  Since i generally spend more time engaged in 3d monkey-business, rather than setting up projects, I knew i needed to do some research.

As I poked around on the web, I saw the same 2 questions over and over:

The Pessimists: "Can REVIT do large projects?"

or

The Optimists: "What are the setup techniques for a large project in Revit"

I gathered alot of very helpful data and i think i am off to a pretty good start.  In the spirit of peace and love, I wanted to post links to all the document's i found because it might be helpful to others.

AU 2006 - Techniques for Managing Large Projects in Autodesk® Revit®.pdf - Handout for AU Presentation by James Vandezande - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

AU 2008 - Managing Large Projects in Revit® Architecture.pdf - Handout for AU Presentation by Lonnie Cumpton - BIM Traininer, Friedmutter Group

AU 2008 - Managing Large and Complex Revit® Models.pdf - Handout for AU Presentation by Erleen Hatfield – Thornton-Tomasetti

AU 2008 - Collaboration and Large Project BIM.pdf - Handout for AU Presentation by Elizabeth A Chodosh & Gary T McLeod – Cannon Design

AU 2009 - Chaos__Multidiscipline, Multi-Firm, Multi-Location.pdf - Handout for AU Presentation by Eric Kuszewski + Eric Mitchell + Liz Raycroft - KlingStubbins

Sharing the Work in Revit - AECbytes Tips and Tricks by Bill Knittle - Synergis Design Applications Engineer, Building Solutions  This is a really thorough explanation of worksets.  Its a little old but the fundamental concept is explained quite well.

36 Best Practices for Large Projects in Revit  - Concise and to the point blog post from Revitize

And last, a paper from the Mothership about getting Revit to work real good:

Autodesk Revit 2010 - Model Performance Technical.pdf - Starts with a section on system and network setup but then gets into some very good guidelines for model setup and modeling techniques for better performance

To those who actually did this work, i offer my thanks.  It has helped me alot and i hope others will find this compilation helpful as well.

And finally, some ridiculous pictures:

The Wackiest Olympics Ever

Have you guys seen this monkey business? The 2012 London Olympic Mascot's will be....these guys!

Full story is here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/19/london-olympics-2012-mascot

London Olympics 2012: Meet Wenlock and Mandeville, drips off the old block

Organisers have unveiled their mascots – creatures supposedly fashioned from droplets of steel used to build the stadium

...With a metallic finish, a single large eye made out of a camera lens, a London taxi light on their heads and the Olympic rings represented as friendship bracelets on their wrists, they resemble characters dreamed up for a Pixar animation....

As if the logo design of Lisa blowing Bart wasn't bad enough...

 

VOTE FOR TROUBLE!

I AM NOT ABOVE SHAMELESS SELFPROMOTION!!!
and with that in mind...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

VOTE TO GET MY CLASSES INCLUDED AT AU NEXT YEAR!

Go here:

http://www.autodeskevents.com/au2010/index.cfm?event=voting.searchForm

Search for speaker Lazarus, Philip (because that's what it sez on the troublemaker's driver's license)

Pick my classes and  

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

VOTE EARLY! VOTE OFTEN!

 

VOTE FOR ME IF YOU LOVE BACON!  AND WHO DOESN'T LOOOOOVE BACON?!?!

I am flying all the way to Vegas from the war-torn streets of Bangkok, but i need YOUR help to make the trip really worth while!

I am not above bribery either so, 

If elected, i promise to bring great, exotic prizes to give away!

So please,  

A VOTE FOR ME IS A VOTE FOR TROUBLE...

...AND THE WORLD NEEDS MORE TROUBLE!!!

PLEASE HELP!

Can I go blind from using WORKSETS by myself?

I work solo alot and i don't mind a bit. I get to do alot of interesting work that i am quite passionate about it. I get to explore many different avenues and abilities of REVIT that would be difficult if i was tied to the monogamy of a single project. I get to spend big chunks of time, looking at BIM-Porn on the internet and getting paid for it (BUILDZ is always soooooo sexy...I love Zach's deep voice in his videos..)

One of the consequences of pounding it out alone though is that i have never really had reason to play with 'worksets'...until I got this wacky model come across my desk the other day:

My job was to extract the grids from all the orange panels in the interest of structural analysis and downstream manufacturing. The model had come from the architcet with a whole bunch of worksets and all the facade panels were grouped together....easy enough to isolate, but still too damn many to work on all at once. So here is what i did.

First i picked the Panels i wanted to keep together and i put them in distinct worksets.

After the the worksets were created and the panels isolated, I turned the panels into a group and then exported them by right-clicking over the name in the GROUPS area of the project browser (process shown shown in the next 3 images).

and then BANG! I have an exported model of just the pieces I want.  INDO-BOY The API-Genius wrote me an add-in to pull the model lines out of the curtain grid.  Add some dimensions to check the modulation against the Archi-documents, export to DXF so my engineers can do the analysis in their software, and i am on the plane to Phuket by 6pm...

I am not afraid to admit that i use worksets all alone...by myself....and still haven't found any hair on my palms!

Out of curiosity, do i have ANY female readers (other than Lira)?  Somehow i doubt it.....I have been wondering if we could put together a Ladies of AU Calender this year....but somehow i think that would be a long shot...

Twisty Curvy Curtain Panel Fun

I am sure that many of us are familiar with the Phil Read Twisting Tower (PRTT) idea.  Simple mass family, top surface rotates according to an angle determined by the level/elevation of the piece...looks a bit like this:

 

I remember the first time i saw it, my opinion of Revit changed dramatically for the better.  When i learned how to build it myself, my opinion became even more positive! (Links to tutorials here) 

Good feelings aside, the dynamic form is so very sexy but i always felt limited by its inherently vertical nature.  I understand the relationship to constructability and all that, but i really wanted to push the form to the next level.  Curtain Panel Patterns give me the power.

First, i built a simple mass unit using the same principles as the PRTT, but i used the Curtain Panel By Pattern: RECTANGULAR SURFACE template, building the top and bottom rectangles on the edges of the panel.

Now i can apply these masses as a pattern on a surface.  I created a 4 point curve, attaching parameters to control the curvature, and then extruded a simple surface, dividing it appropriately:

   Then i applied the Rectangular Surface Pattern i had made:

After going through and numbering each individual panel to activate the 'twistyness', I was VERY pleased with the results.  Some of the engineers around me in the office looked at this and shuddered...but i don't care, I am in it for the monkey business!  Maybe i should change my name to CURTAIN PANEL BY PATTERN-TROUBLEMAKER!

With much respect, admiration and thanks to those who have come before me in this work, here is a link to Phil Read's presentation from AU2006 for the basic PRTT technique:
Advanced Autodesk Revit Building Techniques - Phil Read - BD41-3_AU2006.zip

And this link goes to the model of my Curtain Panel by Pattern monkey business:
twisty 3.rfa