Workshare in 2009

Revit users, are you on subscription? If you are on subscription, Revit has a new tool for monitoring worksharing in 2009. The Workshare monitor is avalible to suscription users to display instant inforation on project team members in the current project.

Have you ever wanted to know quickly; who was in the project, is my local copy up to date, when is my save to central going to finish, has my request to borrow elements been granted? The new Worksharing monitor does just that. Once you are ready start sharing projects in your office and you are subscrption member, you can go out to the Autodesk customer subscripton web page and download and install this exernal tool. Once installed you can open a Revit project, and select Tools menu -> External Tools -> Workshare Monitor.

The Workshare monitor will displays notifications when editing requests are made by other team members. When a user saves to the central file, a progress bar displays. A list of other users also displays, showing when they have last saved to central.

Dimensions in Revit 2009

I have to admit the guys over at Autodesk do listen to us. I was browsing the new features to Revit Architecture 2009 and found they finally implemented some of the wish list items we have been asking for.

First off, I know that we all need to override a dimension and place just text in locations, such as "varies." That is just one of many items you can do to the dimensions in 2009. Check out this dialog box;

As you can see we can modify our dimensions in several ways; from prefix to suffix, above and below and replace with text. Okay, now how do I get to that? That is simple select a dimension, and yes it can be a string or single dimension, then select the dimension number "text" that is now blue, then modify as needed. I will say that Revit does not want you to over ride a dimension with a different dimension that is incorrect. In this dialog box, I have a dimension reading 65'-4". I can change it to read "Varies" or "place bolts every 6" o.c." I know my first question with this override was "Can I change it to read "63'-10" now?" No, Revit will not allow you to do this you will receive a warning, as you see below:

AutoCAD 2009

Yes I know my blog says "BIMview" and my focus is going to be Revit and BIM ideas, but we can not pass up the release of AutoCAD 2009.

We have been anticipating the release of AutoCAD 2009 since AU 2007. Those who were there may have had the opportunity to see the software others just heard bits and pieces. Well the what is over or just about. The first shipments should be anytime now.

I had some time to Beta test the '09 product and get a feel for what was to come. I can say that the initial look as it launched for the first time was one of "shock and aw".



My Second thought was Microsoft Office 2007. Yes, the Ribbon Gui from Microsoft migrated to AutoCAD.

I had the opportunity to poll a large group of users on the new interface and talk about, thank you JAG User Group. I showed Word 2007 first and asked if anyone ahas used the new 2007 Office product line, about a third of the group now uses it or has used it. Their opinion was "I can not find anything." I asked was there any other opinions, several people spoke up and said that once they got use to using it it was easier to use and quick to find things.

In closing this post, I think that you need try new technology and give it a chance, before you jump to criticize it.

A New Blog

Welcome to a new log spot that will focus on Revit BIM technology along with some AutoCAD tips and tricks. My name is Rick Ross, I am out of Jacksonville, FL. I have been working with Autodesk products since 1991. Through my career I have seen many different products and ideas to achieve better building practices. My focus is to explore those ideas through Revit and still throw out some good AutoCAD tips and tricks for my readers.