When I was a young architect, only a few years out of school, I became interested in 3D rendering. This was back in the mid-nineties so the technology was primitive compared to today. 3D Studio Max had just come out and my firm had a copy. After work, I would play around with the software. I did a […]
Want to Learn Dynamo? Here’s How.
I learned to automate Revit the hard way. I was tired of wasting time doing tedious stuff like renaming views and creating sheets. I wanted Revit to work for me. Back then, the only way to automate Revit was to learn to program. So I poured through programming books and Internet forums. After hundreds of […]
Getting Started With Dynamo – Webinar Recording
More than 550 ArchSmarter readers registered for today’s Getting Started With Dynamo webinar and over 300 attended the live event. A big thanks for all the support and feedback. In case you missed all or part of the webinar, you can view the entire recording below. Download the presentation and sample files Click the link below to download […]
How Architects Can Partner with BIM Savvy Clients
I recently wrote an article for ARCHITECT magazine on how savvy clients are using BIM for facilities management. BIM’s data-rich environment helps these owners make informed decisions and improve facilities management. This is particularly helpful for large organizations that manage multiple facilities and campuses, such as the three organizations I describe in the article. For architects […]
How to Better Manage Your Revit Content – Part 1
This is the first article of a three-part series. You can find the second article here. As Leo Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Though he wrote those words almost 150 years ago, well before the advent of BIM, it’s not a stretch […]
Getting Started with Revit Automation
As much as I enjoy using Revit, sometimes it can be a real chore. Let’s face it, there are certain things we need to do on a daily basis that are super tedious. Creating sheets, changing parameters, loading linked files – all these tasks eat up a lot of time, and as we all know, time is a […]
7 Steps to BIM Better
Want to BIM better? I recently published an article for ARCHITECT magazine’s online edition outlining seven ways you can maximize your use of BIM. The steps feature longtime themes here on ArchSmarter, including proper planning, standardization, and automation. Check out the article and start BIMing better! Click here to read the article.
4 Easy Ways to Link Revit to Excel
A couple of weeks ago, I was reorganizing all the rooms in my Revit model. The room numbers and departments were shifting around and I needed to update all the rooms to reflect the new organization. I’d been putting this off for a few days. It’s not an exciting task but it had to get […]
How to Drastically Improve your Architectural Renderings
This is the first installment of the “Pro Smarts” series here on ArchSmarter. In this series, seasoned professionals share their best tips for working smarter. In today’s post, Jonn Kutyla from PiXate Creative shares the 7-step process he uses to create amazingly realistic architectural renderings. Creating photo-realistic architectural renderings requires careful planning and attention to detail. Adding minor details to your renderings can […]
12 Excel Formulas Every Architect Should Know
Excel is more than just digital graph paper. It’s a serious tool for analyzing and computing data. In order to access this power, however, you need to understand formulas. This post is part of ArchSmarter’s Excel for Architects series. You can find all of the previous posts in the series here. If you’re like me, you started using […]