The Mad Cadder

Creating a 3D Section in Revit

Here are the easy steps that will allow you to create this view:

1. Have a model created from which you can create a section and 3D view perspective.
2. Using the default 3D view that is in the project browser create a duplicate of this view.  Select the view then use the secondary mouse button to “Duplicate”
3. Select the new Copy of the view created and using the secondary mouse button rename the view.(ex: 3D Axonometric View)
4. Go to a plan view to create a new Section for a particular part of the model. (ie: Building  Section, Wall section)
5. Rename the section (ie: Axonometric Section) in the same manner that the 3D view was renamed.
6. Make the 3D Axonometric view in the project browser active by double clicking the name in the project browser.
7. Go to the View pull down menu and select “Orient” → ”To Other View” tool.
8. Select the name of the section that was just created from the “Orient to Other View” dialogue box.
9. The new active view will look just like the section view that was created before; the biggest difference will be when you select the “Dynamically Modify View tool” and select the Shift Key and hold down the scroll wheel on your mouse.
10. This will activate the rotate command and now you will see the section created from an axonometric view perspective.

Many thanks goes out to Luis Navarette for writing the contents of this entry.

Using the project browser, a user can duplicate views and use a combination of section views and 3D perspectives to create the axonometric view for any part of the model.  This helpful trick will not only create a more detailed view of a particular section of the model  but will impress any new user or person that still may not be convinced of the power of the BIM in Revit.

Excellent MEP Blog

Credit goes out to William "Billy" Wright for starting a much needed AutoCAD and Revit MEP (Mechanical Electrical Plumbing) blog. I encourage people that are not familiar with AutoCAD and Revit MEP to take a look.

In my opinion, BIM (Building Information Modelling) is the future of design and drafting for the MEP industry and Revit MEP is a great application to do so.

Blog: duct duct pipe

Top 3 free apps from Autodesk that every CAD Manager must have.

As a Application Specialist for SolidCAD (www.solidcad.ca) I deal with CAD Managers from many different firms. It has come to my attention that most CAD managers are so engulfed in maintenance and troubleshooting of the CAD systems, they do not take the time to investigate what applications are out there that can help them coup.

There are 3 free applications from Autodesk that a CAD manager will find very handy and resourceful. Below I have listed the must haves:

1 -DWG TrueView

For those employs that want to view and plot only and not make any changes, Autodesk offers a free DWG viewer called DWG TrueView .

2 - Autodesk Design Review

To reduce paper markups, this innovative tool from Autodesk allows a user to import a DWG or DWF, redline the drawing and then produce a DWF file that can imported into any Autodesk software like AutoCAD. The Autodesk Design Review is the old Volo View or DWF Viewer.

3 - DWG TrueConvert

Because there are many firms out there that are still running R14 or 2000 format of AutoCAD, Autodesk has created a DWG batch converter called DWG TrueConvert. This smart little app can be used to determine the current version of any DWG or convert any DWG to previous versions.

Name changes and future decisions.

Autodesk has finally decided to go with a proper naming convention for the software products that are directly marketed to Architects, Building Mechanical Engineers, Building Electrical Engineers, Building Structural Engineers, Interior Designers,etc....  These types of industries are commonly known as the AEC (Architectural, Engineering, Construction) segment.

All the new product names are of version 2008. The list below decibels the old and new name of the product as of March 2007:

2007 Name                                                          2008 Name

AutoCAD 2007                                                    AutoCAD 2008

Autodesk Architectural Desktop 2007                  AutoCAD Architecture 2008

Autodesk Building Systems 2007                         AutoCAD MEP 2008

Revit Building 9.1                                              Revit Architecture 2008

Revit Structure 4                                               Revit Structure 2008

Revit Systems 2                                                Revit MEP 2008

As you can see by the naming convention above, Autodesk has now made a big distinction between the AutoCAD and Revit based products.

If you would like to stick to the norm, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP have a common look and feel as in the past, but now they are clearly marked as AutoCAD based applications.

If you are willing to make the bold and smart step to BIM (Building Information Modelling), your best bet is to use one or all of the Revit based applications.

In the end it's your decision on what your firm will use in the future. Just keep in mind that AutoCAD is 25 years old this year.

Happy B-DAY ACAD!

Rotate a single view in Revit

In Revit, the structure is designed in the direction of either project north or true north. Many requests have been made to rotate a single view 90 degrees for placement on a sheet. This can be a very dangerous if you do not know what you are doing because rotating a view will change the entire direction of the project, which is WRONG.

To rotate a single view:

1. Duplicate the view.

2. Turn on the crop region.

3. Choose MODIFY and select the crop region.

4. Use the ROTATE command to turn the crop region, which will turn the view.

Change multiple wall orientations in Revit

In Revit Building or Revit Structure, a user can flip the wall orientation to adjust what is exterior or interior. To do this, a user must select the existing wall and choose the blue double arrows to change the orientation. There are times when the entire set of walls is drawn "backwards". To flip all of the walls in one command, the user must:

1. Select or highlight all the walls that need to be flipped.
2. Press the SPACE bar on the keyboard.

By pressing the SPACE bar, all the walls will flip simultaneously.

Where is the ACAD.PGP file?

Many CAD users change the aliases of common commands in the ACAD.PGP file. The location of this file has been moved around over the years and finding it has always been a problem.

The quickest way to access the PGP file is within AutoCAD.

1. Tools pull-down menu
2. Customize
3. Edit Program Parameters (acad.pgp)

This will open the file within Notepad. All you have to do is make modification to the command aliases.

For example, many people change the COPY alias from CO to just C.

Note:
1. You cannot have two alias with the same letters. For example, you cannot use C for the COPY and for    the CIRCLE commands.
2. Any changes made to the PGP file will only take affect aftere restarting AutoCAD.

The Old Zoom

Many users of AutoCAD 2006 and 2007 do not like the new dynamic zoom effect in the application. When using the zoom window or zoom extents command, the drawing area zooms in or out very smoothly. It almost looks like a guided missile going in for the kill. If you do not like this new zoom look, there is a system variable that controls this "VTENABLE".

The VTENABLE system variable is set to 3 by default. Setting this to 0 will have the zoom command act as it did in past releases.

Lock the display of a Viewport Part II

There is another way to lock the display of the viewport:

1. Select the viewport.

2. Right-click, choose Display Lock --> Yes

I would like to thank Donna Stelzer for this tip.

Lock the display of a Viewport

One of my biggest pet peeves is an AutoCAD operator that does not lock the display of a viewport in Layout (paperspace). It is very annoying when another user double-clicks the middle of a viewport to make a change in model space but zooms and changes the scale.

To prevent a user from changing the scale of a viewport use the Display Lock option in the Properties of the Viewport:

1. Select the viewport.
2. Open the Properties.
3. Scroll down to find Display Lock (default is NO)
4. Change the NO to YES.

Now, if you were to double-click inside the viewport and zoom, you are still zooming the paperspace, not the model space. This prevents a user from messing-up the scale.