Get Paid to Test Revit!

Autodesk is looking for Architects and architectural technologists who are current users of Revit to help us with a new study we will be doing during the week of August 13 to 17 in Toronto.

For this study, we will ask you to come into our office (at King and Sherbourne) some time during the day or in the evening. You'll try out prototypes of new software features while we watch and ask you questions. The sessions will take no more than 2 hours, and you will be paid for your participation. (Payment is $100 in the form of a gift card from your choice of major retailers.)

To participate in this study, you must have completed a degree in architecture, and have at least three months experience using Autodesk Revit.

If you are interested in participating, please reply to this email with contact information, or call Kelly Ellis at 416-874-8536. We will contact you to book a mutually convenient time for you to come in.

Thanks,

John Schrag

July 11 Meeting - Learning From the Best

One summer evening...
Our Revit experts really provided us with some valuable tips and tricks, thank you first to them but also to everyone who attended. Above is the winning logo and website address orug.ca. Thanks to all who participated in the logo competition and to Phil Marjeram for the winning design. Here's what was on the agenda...

EXCERPT FROM ORUG.CA April 07, 2006
'This users group is also a long time in coming. Revit is so revolutionary and fun to use that it creates a very loyal following. The purpose of this site is to connect the Revit users in Ontario who would like to have their say. We will be discussing issues that range from general Revit use to specific topics that only affect us in this part of the world.'

Who are the best? You are. This group has world-class talent in both Architecture and Revit.

Introduce people in their roles:

ORUG Organizers
Jay Polding – ORUG Moderator
Yogi Ishwar B.Arch
Brian Griffiths

ORUG Board Members
Richard Ziegler
Paul F. Loreto
John Peterson
Ramon Janer
Sheena Sharp
Domenic Serravite
Caesar Ruest

News:

Detailed reports stating statistics from real users. Join up at revitcc.com
Autodesk is asking us to choose our top suppliers that we want Revit Families from. Make lists
Jeld-Wen windows and doors available.

Topic Tables:

Families and Content

Andre Carvalho from Richard Ziegler Architect was the resident expert. He shared some tricks and tips on parametric families in practice.

Presentations and Rendering

Domenic Serravite, Ramon Janer, Mike Starr were all resident experts on Revit and 3D Studio MAX. Domenic and Ramon brought in some stunning prints of renderings that they have done. The connection between Revit and MAX was discussed.

Sections and Detailing

‘Revit Guru’ Richard Ziegler provided some insight into the above topic. He showed some examples of how he has handled some difficult detailing issues.

Misc. What’s new in 2008, Hardware questions, Revit Structure

Phil Marjeram, John Peterson, Derek Gauer talked shop on high-end hardware and network issues. We also welcomed Revit Structure users to discuss issues at this table.

Two Autodesk gift bags were given away. Maybe next time those giftbags will contain ORUG branded swag? See you next time.

Ontario Revit Users Group Meeting

Wednesday, July 11th 6:30
Alice Fazooli's, 294 Adelaide St.W. Toronto

Agenda

Reception: Join us for hors d'oeuvres and drinks at 6:30.

Introduction: Latest News of Revit Use in Ontario and Canada.
The new ORUG logo will be unveiled and Web address announced.
Manufacturer content available and most requested for Revit

ORUG Member Presentation: Discuss specific topics in-depth with experienced Ontario Revit users at four Topic Stations. At least one Revit expert with a computer will be stationed at each table.

The Topics discussed will be:
Families and Content
Presentations and Rendering
Sections and Detailing
What's New in Revit Architecture 2008 (and how to make best use it!)

Registration: Please email your interest in attending to Jay Polding

Free Lunch

All ORUG members are invited for lunch sponsored by CAD Microsolutions at the ‘Autodesk Experience the Possibilities’ event May 9th. We will have a chance to discuss the new features of Revit Architecture 2008 as well as topics for the next meeting. Please register with Autodesk for the event and email me to confirm your attendance. Hope to see you there!

To register: Autodesk.com/live or call 1-800-234-0074

jpoldingATcadmicro.com

Logo Competition Heats Up

A

B

C

D

E


F.



Here are the logos so far...
Email jpolding@cadmicro.com to submit yours or vote on your favorite.

ORUG Members in the Globe and Mail

There is an article in the Globe and Mail Real Estate Section today about a Solares' Design Build project. Christine and Tom are both active members of ORUG.

You can read it on-line at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story
/RTGAM.20070323.re-construction-0323/REStory/RealEstate/

If you are an ORUG member with some interesting press we'll be happy to post it for fellow members and others to enjoy.

February Bash

Thanks to the over 50 people who attended and volunteered at our first meeting of 2007. Here's a little review of our meeting...

7:00
Brian Griffiths, MC
Welcome to new and veteran users to our first meeting of 2007
Intention to create a network of users who can help each other succeed. Having a group also gives us more say when presenting suggestions to improve Revit to Autodesk. Tonight we will highlight ways to incorporate ‘green’ design into Revit use. We will also discuss ‘construction documentation’ related questions and future topics in our panel discussion.

7:15
Revit in Production
Richard Ziegler Architect

While we continue to use Autodesk Revit as our main platform we have also maintained a commitment to review developments in the BIM world both within Autodesk and with other manufacturer’s such as BOA, ArchiCad and Bentley Architecture.

Projects:

Westario, Ontario

MGM City Center is a 66-acre mixed use development project proposed (currently under construction) by MGM Mirage on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“The Shard London Bridge, also known as London Bridge Tower, will not only redefine London’s skyline, it will become a symbol for the capital that is recognizable throughout the world.”

BIM there, done that – what have we learned?

1. On large projects – concern for scalability (constraints of a single database model)
2. Visual Representation of Complex 3D forms in 2D output
3. Documentation Tools for Complex 3D forms.
4. Modelling vs. Drawing – Where to draw the line
5. Accuracy of the Model relative to Data Extraction
6. Hardware Requirements

What we love about BIM!

1. Fully coordinated Construction Documents
2. Fun
3. Speed
4. Consistency and Coordination of Views
5. Untapped Potential of Database
6. Multidisciplinary Revit Model
7. Platform for Sustainable Design

Revit Content

Official Autodesk Revit Content Library:
http://revit.autodesk.com/library/html/index.html
AUGI:www.augi.com/revit.exchange/
Revit City: www.revitcity.com
Bimworld: www.bimworld.com
Formfonts: www.formfonts.com
Select Steel: www.selectsteel.com
AWMAC (Architectural Woodwork Manufacturers Association of Canada): www.awmac.com
e-Interiors: www.e-interiors.net
Got3d: www.got3d.com
Symbolmachine: www.symbolmachine.com
Accustudio: www.accustudio.com

3rd Party Vendors:
Leveraging the Database

• Especs
• ADSymphony
• Innovaya Virtual Estimating
• Lamina
• Autodesk FM Desktop
• Avatech Earth Connector
• Navisworks
• Geopraxis
• Ecotect
• IES


8:00
Making a Sustainable City Happen: The Toronto Green Development Standard
Mike Mulqueen (M.U.P.)
Assistant Planner - Environmental Policy
City Planning Division - Policy and Research

WHY do we need a
GREEN DEVELOPMENT STANDARD?

Impact of Development on the Environment
• Escalating energy use and air emissions
• Water quality problems in the lake and rivers
• Production and disposal of solid waste
• Stressed urban ecology

- 50% reduction of fossil fuel use in all new buildings NOW
- 60% in 2010
- 70% in 2015
- 80% in 2020
- 90% in 2025
- Carbon-neutral by 2030 (using no fossil fuel GHG emitting energy to operate)

WHAT is the TORONTO
GREEN DEVELOPMENT STANDARD?

• Focused on components of site and building design that can be made more sustainable

• Provides a set of performance targets to be applied to various development features

• Mandatory for City-owned properties

• Encourages private sector green development

BETTER BUILDINGS New Construction Program
How it Works

• Energy Modeller on Design Team

• Building Energy Use Simulation

• Report Submitted

• Verified Savings when Constructed

• Electricity Savings Incentive

• over 50 buildings enrolled
• Average energy savings of 30%
• Maximum of 63.7%
• Typical payback of 4 years

RELATIONSHIP with the LEED Rating System
[Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design]

• The GDS and LEED are complementary and share many performance targets

• LEED responds to some but not all of Toronto’s local environmental pressures and policies

• The GDS reflects Toronto’s priorities

HOW to apply the GREEN DEVELOPMENT STANDARD

• Opportunities to Implement Green

• The Green Development Checklist

• LEED Comparison Table

• Green Contacts / Support


GREEN Contacts / Support


CITY PLANNING, Policy and Research:sustainablecity@toronto.ca

Jane Welsh Lisa King
416.392.9709 416.392.9698
jwelsh@toronto.ca lking4@toronto.ca

Liora Zion Burton Mike Mulqueen
416.392.0171 416.392.8788
lzion@toronto.ca mmulqu@toronto.ca


ENERGY Efficiency Office
Eleanor McAteer
416-392-7003
emcatee@toronto.ca
www.toronto.ca/energy


www.toronto.ca/environment/greendevelopment.htm

8:30
Open Panel Discussion
During this open forum, members of the audience will be invited to direct Revit questions to our panel of experts:
Richard Ziegler, John Peterson, Mike MulQueen, Phil Marjeram, Pierre Hoppener and Jay Polding.

Questions:

Q: Is Revit good for construction documents? What tools are used?

A: You can get good quality. Use repeating details. Tweak lineweights
A: Especs and Revit Structure tie-in important

Q: We find 3D AutoCAD files are huge, how big are Revit files? What about big projects? What kind of hardware is needed?

A: RZA We’ve worked successfully on 90 storey buildings as well as small projects.
A: Phil from KPMB: Hardware is an issue. Dell seems to be working well. No need for expensive video cards. Fast Ethernet is important.Switching views can be slow.

Q: Will Revit use DirectX?

A: Pierre from Autodesk, not now but we’ll see in the next release.

Q: Does Revit support Multithreading?

A: Yes, when rendering. Revit 9.1 will also work with 64bit processors with a noticeable spped increase.

Q: Has collaboration been difficult?

A: RZA, it has worked well.
A: KPMB-Dumping to 2D dwg has been useful.

Welcome to 2007 ORUG Members

Our first meeting of the year is scheduled for Feb.21, 2007, starting at 6:30pm

Please email your confirmation to jpolding@cadmicro.com

Location: Alice Fazooli’s

Toronto

294 Adelaide St. W.
(At John Street)
M5V 1P6
Tel. (416) 979-1910

Topics:

Revit in Production

A local architect will reveal techniques used to create a full set of construction documents within Revit. This will be followed by a Q+A discussion.

Toronto the Green- Advances in Sustainable Design in Ontario

There is an opening for this presentation. If you would like to present or would like to make a suggestion please email Jay Polding-jpolding@cadmicro.com.

Revit Implementation Techniques

The Autodesk recommended steps for a successful Revit implementation. This will be followed by a Q+A discussion.

The winner of the Revit Building NFR is Rosario Tan. The software will be presented at the next ORUG meeting. Thanks to those of you who sent in your input sheets!

Logo Design Competition Update: So far, we have only one entry. Unless we get more we will have to plaster our lone entry all over our website and t-shirts (you might want to see attached).

Inaugural Bash Success!

Thanks to the over 60 people who participated and attended our first Ontario Revit User’s Group meeting, it was a success! Here are a few highlights from the evening.

Roberta Lum from CAD MicroSolutions opened the ceremonies with an inviting welcome to participate in this forum for sharing ideas. The suggestions to improve Revit that we submit to Autodesk carry weight.
Jay Polding introduced the distinguished group of ORUG organizers (one pictured below; Richard Ziegler in white shirt). Contact info was on memory sticks and is posted to our FTP site (email jpolding@cadmicro.com for login and password)

Caesar Ruest welcomed us and took us on a cross-Canada tour of Revit use. As a special treat the Revit development team in Waltham, Mass sent us an assuring video welcome. This is posted to our FTP site (email jpolding@cadmicro.com for login and password).

John, Phil and Ramon from KPMB were interviewed by Jay regarding their Manitoba Hydro Revit project. Their challenges were discussed along with some realistic input on how to improve the software.

Phil Read from Autodesk (pictured with a bearded Paul Loreto) blew our minds! His “Design Intent” presentation was full of amazing techniques that we are sure to use! His examples are posted on our FTP site. (email jpolding@cadmicro.com for login and password)

Pierre Hoppener (standing) from Autodesk Canada generously brought some giveaways. There were some shirts, calculators, pens, all good stuff, but the meeting went quiet when we announced 3 Revit NFR’s would be given away! Those we saved until the end.

Thanks for the fast response on the input sheets. I will be compiling the input from them as they come in. Once they’re in I’ll post the results along with the winner of the next Revit NFR. Don’t forget the ORUG logo competition.

A big thanks to CAD MicroSolutions for sponsoring the evening and Alice Fazooli’s for hosting us. Also, John Peterson, Ramon Janer and Phil Marjoram from KPMB, Phil Read from Autodesk and Caesar Ruest and Pierre Hoppener from Autodesk Canada. Thank you to Tania Polding for your registration help. See you all next time!

Ontario Revit User's Group

Here's more information on the inaugural Ontario Revit Users Group Meeting with guest speakers from KPMB Architects and Phil Read from Autodesk.

When: Wednesday, October 25th 6:30pm to 9:00pm.

Location: Alice Fazooli's, 294 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, ON

Agenda

Reception: Join us for hors d'oeuvres and drinks at 6:30.

Introduction: Meet the Ontario Revit User's Group Organizers and dedicated volunteers who are leading the Revit wave in Ontario.

Revit - Cross Country Checkup: This year has shown tremendous gains in the adoption
of Revit. Caesar Ruest from Autodesk Canada will report on who, where and how Revit is being used across Canada.

ORUG Member Presentation: The Revit team from KPMB Architects will discuss their experience with using Revit on the Manitoba Hydro tower project.

Guest Speaker - Phil Read Speaks on Design Iteration in Revit: Phil is a Revit implementation architect with Autodesk and works directly with firms in training, project implementation, and establishing best practices. Phil holds Bachelor of Science degrees
in Communications and Architecture, as well a Master of Architecture degree from the University of North Carolina and has over 13 years combined experience in the engineering and architecture fields.

Q & A: Use this great opportunity to ask questions about your use of Revit.

Registration: Please email your interest in attending to Jay Polding at jpolding@cadmicro.com.

The Next ORUG Meeting

Revit Ontario Users Group Meeting

Plan to attend the inaugural Ontario Revit Users Group Meeting on Wednesday October 25th from 7:00PM to 9:00PM.

Location: Alice Fazooli's, 294 Adelaide Street West, Toronto, ON

Agenda: Introduction to the ORUG organizers, report on Revit usage across Canada, update on Revit development, guest speaker, Q+A, networking, food and drink.

Registration: Please email your interest in attending to Jay Polding at jpolding@cadmicro.com

Aug.30 Revit Lunch

Thanks to all who attended the Revit lunch!

We discussed future topics and organizational matters for the group.
Christina had a question about Revit shadow colour which Jay was going to look into.
Of course Phil was a great source of hardware information nuggets as usual.
Future speakers were discussed and it was agreed that an interesting building project done in Revit would be a great topic to speak around. Of course, all of our members have done these so we should have lots of great examples.
Rendering is always a great topic.
Revit use across Canada will also be discussed at the next meeting.

We will be making a concerted effort to invite many more people to our next meeting and expand our group. Please contact me jpolding@cadmicro.com if you wish to attend.

Revit Content Wishlist

Calling all Reviteers! Please post or send your "MOST WANTED" items for Revit content. Some examples may be specific content to Ontario like beam sizes, pipe sections, furniture, people, you name it!

Initial Planning Meeting - 14-June-06

Thanks to all who attended the preliminary planning meeting! Here are some topics we discussed:

12:00-12:10
After quick introductions the Revit tips start flying. Here's one; Use the section tool for elevations instead of the typical elevation tool. This may help performance.
12:10-12:20
How do you get rid of imported dwgs? It was recommended to use link instead because you can purge them.
Try to keep the entire project in Revit as long as possible.
12:20-12:40
Ideas for the group; LEED topic- Ecotech was recommended. A sponsored website-Ashley Gilbert? Meetings every quarter at a downtown location. Lunch hour is good. Use email for posting to blog. (I will send the address out to all in attendance and to anyone who requests this via email.)
12:40-1:00
Speakers from Autodesk. Using the Autodesk/Alias conference room. NFR copies of software possibility. Concern for small firms access to resources was voiced.
Secret handshake not decided upon:-)

The next meeting is tentatively planned for mid-August. It will most likely be at Alice Fazooli's downtown. Please email me if you would like to attend.

Revit Builds

Revit is in ongoing development. The developers read the forums at AUGI.com and respond to bug reports etc. These builds are not advertised as thoroughly as they should be. That means that as users we should keep an eye on the Revit forum at AUGI.com because that is usually where it's posted first. The builds are coded so we know which one is the latest. You can find out what version you have by going to Help-About Autodesk Revit. Build 20060518_2300 has just come out and addresses mainly area plan calculations; there is a full discussion of this topic here

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=38578.

Rendering Survey

I just saw a link to a rendering with Revit survey on Steve Stafford's blog. http://revitoped.blogspot.com/
This will help Autodesk decide on what rendering engine people want inside Revit. It's only good for 2 more days, May 26

Revit 9 Build

Hold off on installing Revit 9 until this Thursday. Autodesk has found a few bugs and is making a build. They said that they will be complete by sometime on Wednesday, May 3. I'll repost if this date changes.

Diary of a Revit User

We would like to welcome Paul Loreto to the Ontario Revit Users Group.
If you are a member of the Autodesk Users Group International please check out his informative feature on the augi.com website:

http://www.augi.com/publications/hotnews.asp?page=1113

Paul F. Loreto is marketing director of ANO Architects/Architectes Inc., a 30-person, full-service architectural firm with offices in London, Sudbury and Timmins, Ontario Canada. Paul has been an Autodesk Authorized Contractor since 2002 and has provided 34 Autodesk Revit training, implementation, and mentoring sessions throughout North America on behalf of Autodesk Inc. Paul taught Revit classes at Autodesk University in 2003 and 2004 and is currently providing Revit consultation through his company. You can contact him at paul.loreto@anoarchitects.com and visit his website at www.anoarchitects.com.

First Meeting Topics

There are so many to choose from! Here are a couple ideas, please add your own comments.

What's new in Revit 9 - This would be an examination of the new tools, how we'll use them. Plus we could look and see if they addressed our wish list items.

Rendering in Revit - We could share techniques and examples, since there's not much written info out there on this topic. And incidentally there are a number of awesome rendering artists in Ontario who are using Revit.

Stay tuned, we'll keep adding to this...

Why We Exist

Deep question? No not really. The mission of this blog is to create a community of people who use Revit in Ontario. Ultimately this blog will facilitate:

-online discussions
-planning meetings and events
-networking with other users locally and around the world. (notice the link to the South Australian Revit Users Group, maybe would could do a work exchange in February!)

If anyone who has joined would like to add anything, please do so.