It's the end of AU 2010 and I'm sitting at the Vegas airport sipping on a strawberry smoothie from Starbucks. I'm completely exhausted and my foot is throbbing from a blister I got last night, time to relax and reflect on the experience.
The good:
- Free food and drinks everywhere - you seriously could gain a lot of weight here - I'm balancing the laptop on top of my mountianous belly right now and not my lap.
- Getting to know my other DIALOG colleagues, which probably wouldn't happen otherwise.
- I'm amazed how Autodesk can manage 6000+ attendees - breakfast, lunch, dinner, all the sessions. It's quite the organizational feat!
The bad:
- Meeting up at 6:30 every morning.
- Going to bed at midnight - not a bad thing, but see above.
- Filling out surveys by hand - chisel and stone anyone?... seriously, everyone should have scanners.
- I seriously can't think of anything else.
Thank you DIALOG, thank you Autodesk, good-bye Vegas.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
It's Over
Exhausting.
Some super cool stuff. When they said complex per instance data, I wasn't expecting being able to embed an entire file structure of files within a Revit element. I don't know we would use it directly, but it does give me some good ideas.
The session on SharePoint integration was exactly what I expected. The technology is still in it's infancy, but, given time, it could develop into something really quite useful.
It was good meeting people from the other studios. I had a ton of fun. Too much walking. And I can't believe it is all over.
Some super cool stuff. When they said complex per instance data, I wasn't expecting being able to embed an entire file structure of files within a Revit element. I don't know we would use it directly, but it does give me some good ideas.
The session on SharePoint integration was exactly what I expected. The technology is still in it's infancy, but, given time, it could develop into something really quite useful.
It was good meeting people from the other studios. I had a ton of fun. Too much walking. And I can't believe it is all over.
Contrary to popular belief no I have not gotten married, yet...
Today was the last day of AU, it went by fast and I will miss the free mystery food(fajitas?) and drink. My first session today was by far the best, it was about design efficiency. The class involved using basic and complex REVIT models to do load calcs and had alot of tips for matching our room/space names to the Architectural model. All that should work out to a pretty decent how to/class by me.
I just got back from Freemont ave which was amazing, now its time for some food and Vegas novelties... Wish me luck!
Andrew
Today was the last day of AU, it went by fast and I will miss the free mystery food(fajitas?) and drink. My first session today was by far the best, it was about design efficiency. The class involved using basic and complex REVIT models to do load calcs and had alot of tips for matching our room/space names to the Architectural model. All that should work out to a pretty decent how to/class by me.
I just got back from Freemont ave which was amazing, now its time for some food and Vegas novelties... Wish me luck!
Andrew
No tiger, no wedding bells, no energy!
I just finished my last class of Autodesk University 2010 and i can honestly say that i am exhausted! Waking up at 5:45 am and having classes from 8:30 t0 5:30 every day really takes a toll on you! I'm looking forward to relaxing and going to sleep. Yes, this is Vegas and there a million things i could be doing here, but i honestly don't have the energy to even walk! All in all though, AU 2010 was a great experience. I managed to learn some things and i also got a chance to get to know some of my fellow coworkers from the other studios.
Things i will miss at AU2010:
1) All the good free food.
2) All the good free drink
3) My amazing hotel room
4) Chuck Norris
5) Andrew saying, "that's gnarly"
6) Andrew's quest for the definitive Vegas tourist T-shirt
7) Mike sending me a BBM message saying, "where are you guys" when we're standing right behind him.
Things i will not miss about AU2010:
1) All the good free food (i ate waaaaaay too much at every meal and snack time)
2) All the walking (seriously, your feet are killing at the end of each day and i'm wearing super comfortable sneakers)
3) Having to wear your conference ID badge around your neck
4) Filling out forms at the display booths in the exhibit hall just to get free stuff
5) Chuck Norris
So with that, i say good by to Las Vegas and AU2010. It was a great experience!
"Reggie has left the building" Vivaaaaaaa Las Vegas!
For those of you too young to remember that, it's an Elvis reference.
Day 3 Update
The last day of classes started off quite well. The first class, on handling finish plans in Revit, was quite interesting. The instructor came up with the idea of using areas to create floor finish plans. Quite interesting really...all the power of splitting faces and painting. Materials, but with none of the hassle of nesting your split lines.
The second class was fantastic. At Perkins + Will, they use server class machines with terminal server plus to provide high powered Revit capabilities for thei users. A 12 processor, each processor either dual or quad core, server with 64 gigs of RAM can host, according to their testing, up to 12-14 users. The benefit, the RAM is dynamically allocated to the processes, users, which need it. So if you are doing something RAM intensive in Revit, if you need 16 or more gigs of RAM to do it efficiently, you get it.
They also came up with a way of evaluating the potential size and complexity of a model and of determining how many people are needed on the project. Interesting stuff. They are also actively studying the impact of what they call lonely BIM, some involvement of stakeholders, and social BIM, heavy active involvement of all stakeholders throughout the process, on key portions of the design process. The findings are quite staggering.
My next class is starting...time to go.
The second class was fantastic. At Perkins + Will, they use server class machines with terminal server plus to provide high powered Revit capabilities for thei users. A 12 processor, each processor either dual or quad core, server with 64 gigs of RAM can host, according to their testing, up to 12-14 users. The benefit, the RAM is dynamically allocated to the processes, users, which need it. So if you are doing something RAM intensive in Revit, if you need 16 or more gigs of RAM to do it efficiently, you get it.
They also came up with a way of evaluating the potential size and complexity of a model and of determining how many people are needed on the project. Interesting stuff. They are also actively studying the impact of what they call lonely BIM, some involvement of stakeholders, and social BIM, heavy active involvement of all stakeholders throughout the process, on key portions of the design process. The findings are quite staggering.
My next class is starting...time to go.
Day 2 Review
My afternoon sessions were pretty good, with one exception. The presenter crashed and burned. It has happened to me, so I know, first of all, how easily it can happen, and secondly, just how much it sucks to be "that guy".
The presentation on level of detail was particularly good. I think Reggie and I will have some interesting discussions around how we can put that information to good use.
At the evening event, I ran into several people I have not seen in almost 10 years. People who have been around the Calgary and Edmonton offices for some time would be interested to hear that Stephen Jabs is a presenter this year.
I also ran into some of the top rated AU instructors, many of whom I have had the opportunity to meet at other events, like Destination Desktop. Dave Espinosa Aguilar is always interesting to talk to, as is Matt Murphy.
All in all, a good day.
The presentation on level of detail was particularly good. I think Reggie and I will have some interesting discussions around how we can put that information to good use.
At the evening event, I ran into several people I have not seen in almost 10 years. People who have been around the Calgary and Edmonton offices for some time would be interested to hear that Stephen Jabs is a presenter this year.
I also ran into some of the top rated AU instructors, many of whom I have had the opportunity to meet at other events, like Destination Desktop. Dave Espinosa Aguilar is always interesting to talk to, as is Matt Murphy.
All in all, a good day.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
AU 2010 - Day 2
Alright, so I bet you guys back home are getting tired of some of the technical writings, our adventures in finding a tiger and blogging from the strangest of locations. Oh just wait Bruce, we came up with a few new spots... untapped.
Tuesday night we found a kick-ass artist doing caricatures using an Autodesk product called sketchbook pro. Sad part is, we were 3 people away from getting our "likeness" done before the exhibit closed. Our goal for Wednesday was to get the entire group done. Reggie had a bit more time in the morning and he got his done (click on the image to enlarge). Since the rest of the group got it done Wednesday night, our images won't be ready till tomorrow sometime.
[edit: he posted to facebook before he posted to his website]
Tuesday night we found a kick-ass artist doing caricatures using an Autodesk product called sketchbook pro. Sad part is, we were 3 people away from getting our "likeness" done before the exhibit closed. Our goal for Wednesday was to get the entire group done. Reggie had a bit more time in the morning and he got his done (click on the image to enlarge). Since the rest of the group got it done Wednesday night, our images won't be ready till tomorrow sometime.
[edit: he posted to facebook before he posted to his website]
End of Day 2
Well I finally figured out how to blog, god forbid...
I will keep this short. So far AU has been pretty good and beyond my expectation. The classes have been 50-50 hit and miss, however the mechanical folks should prepare themselves for a savage lunch and learn on families and nested families.
Stay tuned.
I will keep this short. So far AU has been pretty good and beyond my expectation. The classes have been 50-50 hit and miss, however the mechanical folks should prepare themselves for a savage lunch and learn on families and nested families.
Stay tuned.
Day 2 Checking In
So far, for me, day 2 has been pretty good. It started early, like all days at AU, with breakfast. The first class was from one of my favorite instructors, Tench Tlighman. His classes always get you thinking about what you can do to work with your team better.
The second class was taught by Matt Dillon. Anyone who has ever been on the Autodesk support forums should have seen his name at least a few times. In his class we talked about detailing in Revit. One of his main points, you can spend a ton of extra time in your Revit model making things look as good as they did in CAD or even as good as when you drew things by hand, but if the information is clearly presented,is this time really required. Controversial, I know, but definitely a valid question.
The next class is starting...so that is it for now...
The second class was taught by Matt Dillon. Anyone who has ever been on the Autodesk support forums should have seen his name at least a few times. In his class we talked about detailing in Revit. One of his main points, you can spend a ton of extra time in your Revit model making things look as good as they did in CAD or even as good as when you drew things by hand, but if the information is clearly presented,is this time really required. Controversial, I know, but definitely a valid question.
The next class is starting...so that is it for now...
AU day 2...still no tiger or missing teeth.
I just finished the "Connect the Dots: Creating the Skeleton" Revit class. It is the structural portion of the Connect the Dots series. Chris and Andrew are taking the Arch and MEP portions of the series. I have to say that i am pretty disappointed with the class. I thought that the class would give me an in depth look at "connecting the dots" between ASME or even open my eyes to something new in regards to our workflow. Instead, my speaker spoke about general guide lines about Revit. Things like roles, what to model, what not to model, etc. Nothing really new or eye opening. In fact, Bruce (our DIALOG bim manager) has spoken to me about most of what my speaker was talking about!
Anyway, the class was scheduled for 1 hour, but ended up being 25 minutes with a 10 min. Q&A. I asked the speaker if he could comment on the all disciplines working on one model format since i was working on 3 projects using that format (thanks Bruce!). I'm not joking when i say that as soon as i finished asking the question, 3/4 of the room mumbled "hmmmm?" followed by the whispering of, "Why would anyone do that??!?!" and "baaaad idea". The speaker looked at me and said that he did a small project to try out that format, but realized halfway through production that it wasn't working out. He then said to me, "So...my advice to you about that format? ....DON'T!". I"m still on the fence about it so we'll see what happens from here!
Heading out to my next class. My advice to next year's AU attendees: wear comfortable shoes because you will be walking alot!
Oh, and i tried blogging while riding the escalator... (Bruce mentioned in an email that we will be blogging everywhere, like on an escalator) "Baaaaad idea!"
Day 1 Review
My sessions for day 1 included, Conceptual Massing, Integrated Design, and Commercial Interios.
The class on Conceptual Massing also included demonstrations on using Revit Architecture to evaluate multiple options for a phased campus Master Plan. Interesting stuff. I am convinced once people get familiar with the modeling tools in Revit, so much is possible. We also learned how to attach constraints and formulae to a conceptual mass, this makes fine tuning the model so much easier.
The class on Integrated Design was presented by a Mechanical Engineer from Australia. He works for a global, integrated design firm which uses Revit, and several other pieces of software, to work on a wide range of design projects. His main point, BIM is not simply more than CAD. It is a quantum leap beyond it. If you think of BIM the way you think of CAD, you are limiting your potential to succeed. He also talked about the importance of integrated teams, the surprising efficiency which can be achieved when people truly work together, and how working across studios is such a challenge.
Some other interesting points from this presentation... People who create Revit families should not be the same people working on projects. People working on projects often get the family only as completed as is necessary for the project. Also, on larger projects, someone on the team is tasked with managing integration, making sure that work is being done by the people who can do the work in the least amount of time or that additional work is done by people if it saves the rest of the team, and the project, more time.
The last class yesterday was on using Revit Architecture for interiors. The most surprising thing, for me, in this lecture was the instructor's support for using scanned, hand drawn information in Revit. As a tool for preliminary design, I can see how this process could be useful. Most useful was his take on detail. Don't go overboard modeling a 5 Mb family when a 300 Kb family will convey just as much meaningful information. Use 2.5D to keep model size reasonable.
It was a good day with lots of informant. We will see hoe today compares.
The class on Conceptual Massing also included demonstrations on using Revit Architecture to evaluate multiple options for a phased campus Master Plan. Interesting stuff. I am convinced once people get familiar with the modeling tools in Revit, so much is possible. We also learned how to attach constraints and formulae to a conceptual mass, this makes fine tuning the model so much easier.
The class on Integrated Design was presented by a Mechanical Engineer from Australia. He works for a global, integrated design firm which uses Revit, and several other pieces of software, to work on a wide range of design projects. His main point, BIM is not simply more than CAD. It is a quantum leap beyond it. If you think of BIM the way you think of CAD, you are limiting your potential to succeed. He also talked about the importance of integrated teams, the surprising efficiency which can be achieved when people truly work together, and how working across studios is such a challenge.
Some other interesting points from this presentation... People who create Revit families should not be the same people working on projects. People working on projects often get the family only as completed as is necessary for the project. Also, on larger projects, someone on the team is tasked with managing integration, making sure that work is being done by the people who can do the work in the least amount of time or that additional work is done by people if it saves the rest of the team, and the project, more time.
The last class yesterday was on using Revit Architecture for interiors. The most surprising thing, for me, in this lecture was the instructor's support for using scanned, hand drawn information in Revit. As a tool for preliminary design, I can see how this process could be useful. Most useful was his take on detail. Don't go overboard modeling a 5 Mb family when a 300 Kb family will convey just as much meaningful information. Use 2.5D to keep model size reasonable.
It was a good day with lots of informant. We will see hoe today compares.
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