Revit 2011 Blogger Webcast

Here are some bullet-point highlights I took from the Blogger Webcast today for Revit Architecture 2011…

• Design Options and Worksets accessible via the Status Bar
• Workset visibility updates
• Box option around Text
• Select All Instances in View
• Decals show in the new Realistic View
• 1 Mile radius from Origin limit has been extended to 10 miles
• Consistent Material Library between 2011 products – Revit has new materials
• 4 Core limit removed for Rendering in Revit
• Background images for Rendering
• Last Command is remembered, accessed via right-click or the Enter key
• Filters through Links
• Tagging elements though links
• Editing base sketch when working with Massing (this was missing in 2010)
• (some) Structural Tools are core in Revit Arch, not part of a subscription pack.  Things like sloped columns, enhanced beam system tools, curved beams, floor decking (sorry, no roof deck), etc.
• NWC Exporter will now have the ability to kick out Room info and objects
• Interactive Sun Path

And I know I don’t talk much about MEP, but WOW…2011 looks nice!  They really went to town with Revit MEP 2011 and have some very nice new features.

Want to see some videos from 2011, check out the YouTube channel from Autodesk - http://www.youtube.com/AutodeskBuilding

Revit Architecture 2011 System Recommendations

Ah, a new release and a new set of system requirements (recommendations) for your pc’s to run Revit 2011.  Actually, looking at the list the only thing that really stands out is they are actually support Windows 7…which really isn’t a surprise since many have been using 2010 without an issue for a while.  Here’s the information from the Autodesk website…filtered slightly.  If you want to see the full list, check out this PAGE.

Operating Systems
32-Bit
Microsoft® Windows® 7 32-bit Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium edition; Microsoft® Windows Vista ® 32-bit (SP2 or later) Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium; or Microsoft® Windows® XP (SP2 or later) Professional or Home edition

64-Bit
Microsoft® Windows® 7 64-bit Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium edition; Microsoft® Windows Vista ® 64-bit (SP2 or later)(recommended), including Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium edition; or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64 SP2

CPU Type
32-Bit
Windows 7 or Vista processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® dual-core processor, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology

64-Bit
Windows 7 or Vista processor: Pentium 4, AMD Athlon dual-core, 3.0 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology, or Quad Core Intel® Xeon® W3570 3.20GHz, 8M L3, 6.4GT/s Turbo or equivalent AMD processor (recommended)

Memory
32-Bit
3 GB RAM

64-Bit
3 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended) NOTE: If you are running a 64bit OS, get a minimum of 4GB, but definitely recommend a minimum of 8GB…especially if you work on larger/complex projects.

Display Card
Display adapter capable of 24-bit color for basic graphics or 256 MB DirectX® 9-capable graphics card with Shader Model 3 (recommended) NOTE: Try to get a dedicated graphics card…saw too many issues with shared cards in 2010.

What’s New in Revit Architecture 2011 and Availability

Well, the day has come where Autodesk 2011 information is all over the place.  Instead of just reposting a bunch of stuff that you’ve probably already seen, I’m going to instead point you to a great post that David Light put together on his blog - http://autodesk-revit.blogspot.com/2010/03/whats-new-in-revt-architecture-2011.html - about the new features in Revit Architecture 2011.  Great post David!

I’ll be posting more as the new release hits the “streets”, or in the Subscription Center site anyway.  And, the preliminary date for Revit Architecture to be available is April 8.  Take this lightly, as it could very well change.  I’ll post though when I get the official word.

Oh, and Autodesk has updated their website with the new information for 2011…

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=8479263#channels_What’sNew

This release looks to be one of the better releases, so I look forward to this year in Revit!

Splitting Walls with Sweeps and Reveals

Interesting thing came up today while working the support line.  Had a customer call in and say that he had split a wall to pull the ends apart for something, but now he needed to take the gap away and make the wall one again.  Problem was that when he dragged the end back together, it cleaned up but didn’t join the walls together to make one wall.  Since the wall was cleaning up the join, Disallow Join wasn’t turned on, so it was kind of a mystery.  When I grabbed the wall though, I noticed in the Ribbon the Edit Returns for sweeps was an option.  So as a test, we took the wall and edited the structure to remove the sweep and then tried the same thing…bingo, dragging the ends back together joined the walls into one again.

So, if you have a wall that has a sweep or reveal in/on the wall and you split it, it won’t go back to one wall if you try and drag the ends together.  It doesn’t matter if it’s an integral (within the wall type) or an applied (outside the wall type) sweep or reveal…it will act the same.  From the looks of it, Revit won’t join two sweeps or reveals back together into one continuous piece.  Yes, it’s still one sweep or reveal in/on the wall, but you will have a joint where the wall was split.