SCRUG 5/2017

5/25/2017 SCRUG was held at the offices of LPA. Thanks for hosting.

We had a smaller group this month ~18 people. The dinner from Super Mex was provided by our sponsors. Dessert was donuts - sorry I missed the brand. Thank you Microdesk, US CAD, & Keller Pacific.

Introductions were short with only a couple of new people. Welcome to the group. Once again, A. Jay Holland, Chair of SCRUG led the discussion and introduced Brent Ramos from Assemble.

Here is the summary of what Assemble does:

• It makes your Revit model accessible by people without the full software.
• They can view the model, sort the items, examine the parameters, group objects, save views, change display colors of objects, make limited changes to parameters that will be saved in Assemble, changes can be exported and pushed into Revit 
• Versioning: Assemble assigns version numbers to each upload, can do comparisons, show and list what has changed.
• 100% Cloud based.

Brent had a user, Connor Burke, a senior estimator/project manager from McCarthy, explain how they are using the website/software in the design/build and IDP part of their business. 

1. McCarthy tested many software packages and web services before choosing Assemble.
2. They add data to the model, like pricing, RFIs, 
3. "If the model is built correctly, it cuts estimating time from two weeks to two days."
4. They use it for coordination, QTO, QC, daily trending of changes to the model, 
5. The saved views become a template for future projects. 
6. It is a different work flow from Navisworks.
7. Models can be assembled in Revit then exported as a single model to Assemble or Assemble can combine the exported models. McCarty prefers the first method. 

The market for Assemble is General Contractors, Building Managers, and Building Owners. For design teams it seems like another layer of work and yet it can be  a communication tool. Designers can see what the contractors see, they can use it for quality reviews and tracking of comments in an online solution. 

SCRUG 4/2017

The local Revit User Group met on a day that I could attend this month! Here is the summary...
A J Holland is the current chairman of SCRUG.
He arranges the food and the guests. Thanks Jay!

Thank you to our re-seller Sponsors: 

• https://uscad.com/
• https://kelarpacific.com/
• http://www.microdesk.com/

The dinner was street tacos. Your choice of Beef, Pork or Chicken.
Attendance was  ±50. There were about five first time attendees.

Scott Davis presented. He joined Autodesk ten years ago. First off, he described the development strategy going forward. Autodesk will roll out new features on a quarterly basis. The file format will remain the same. If I understand correctly it will be a huge improvement. Users may have different releases like, 2018, 2018.1, 2018.2, or 2018.3 and still be able to open the other 2018 releases!

The presentation consisted of showing the official Autodesk Revit 2018 new features videos. You may find them here...

Scott showed a few additional videos that are not posted on youtube.com.

Here is the new features list.

Autodesk has been incrementally working on the font rendering. The goal was to get fonts to have consistent heights between Autocad & Revit. Revit 2017 received many font complaints on revitforums.org. With the 2018 release, there is only one gap - fonts in dimensions. Once they update dimensions, the font rendering will be consistent across all text entities (schedules, symbols, labels, text, dimensions).

Last but not least, Scott showed some "coming soon" features:

1. Schedules Browser - allows filters and sorting of schedules in the Project Browser.
2. Collaboration 4 Revit - allows linking of DWG files.
3. Formit - quick material creation and improt to Revit.
4. Multi Monitor Support - tabbed views, drag & drop to second monitor, better manual window arranging.

Want to influence future Revit releases? Try these websites...

http://blogs.autodesk.com/revit/revit-official-blog/
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/idb-p/302/tab/most-recent

FYI:There is contact information for some of the actual developers.

Revit Tip: use etransmit to upgrade a Revit file with all its links at the same time.

Chat afterwards... Now is a great time to join a firm. There are many looking for talent.

SCRUG

The Southern California Revit Users Group meets monthly around Orange County California. Often this means a cheap dinner and conversations & presentations about Revit - a design and documentation software by Autodesk.

January 2013 the meeting had presentations by Louis Navarrete of Brookfield Homes and A. Jay Holland of KTGY.

Louis is Brookfield Homes's BIM (Building Information Modeling)Manager. He recounted the history of the firm's BIM experience and why he came on board and what he has implemented. Portions of the presentation focused on different softwares that assist their work flow. Specifically:

●BIM Link (exports/imports between Revit & Excel)
●Autodesk's Quantity Take Off (Estimating tool)
●Metal Wood Framer (Revit plug-in creates framing members)
●Sladia (Visualization tool)
●Autodesk's Navisworks (Visualization & clash detection tool)
●BH Export (Custom tool for Brookfield Homes)
The presentation included both descriptions and live demonstrations.

A. Jay Holland provided images of recent KTGY projects and recounted their struggles complying with Brookfield's requirements.

Some news items to take away form the meeting are:

●Consistency is King - when information resides in a specific spot from project to project it smooths the process of design, estimating, plan check, and construction
●When using design options in Revit always include "off" as the default or primary option
●Linking is more efficient than groups when documenting design options