Revit Architecture Book

Recently, I had the urge to get back into learning Revit, and decided I would grab a book and review the basics. So I decided to purchase "Commercial Design Using Revit Architecture 2010" by Daniel John Stine.

I have had some positive experience using a similar book he wrote in a Beginners AutoCAD course for Architects, so I thought it would be interesting to see his approach to Revit.

Overall, I would give the book about a 7/10. I like the project approach of his books, basically stepping you though one project from start to finish. There were a few gaps that would have been good to adress, and it would have been good to have chosen a building that may have added a few twists and turns.

I know Revit fairly well and I'd like to get more indepth with the software so the book did leave me feeling a bit disappointed. I think though this book is more meant for raw beginners where the book serves the audience quite well.

Arch Viz book now available

Well it seems like I've been waiting for this moment for a long time.. :-). The 2nd Edition of the book "Realistic Architectural Visualization with 3ds Max and mental ray" is now available.

The book was co-authored by myself and Jamie Cardoso. It features sections on the basics of mental ray, and project based sections where you develop materials and lighting for real scenes. These scenes include; an interior of a living room, a photomontage of an exterior of a building, an interior atrium, and a harbor.

You can order the book in the US on online sites like Amazon.

Here are a few more images from the book, which are based on the projects you work through in the chapters.

New Arch Viz Book

The 2nd Edition of the Realistic Architectural Visualization with 3ds Max and mental ray is now in production at Focal Press. The book has been rewritten almost from the ground up, with 2 entirely new scenes depicting renderings of an atrium, and a building exterior photomontaged into a photo of the building site.

Plenty of new techniques are depicted in the scenes which were carried over from the 1st edition.

There is also an entirely new Introductory section which explains concepts of using mental ray with 3ds Max & 3ds Max Design.

You can preorder the book at several online retailers including amazon.com

I'll post more images in the next few weeks.

cheers
rec

Project Dragonfly

I stumbled upon something new from Autodesk in all places, Facebook. The Autodesk group pointed me to the Project Dragonfly site. It's a Web based residential design modeller where you can create a plan and 3D model of a house or apartment. Sort of remins me of a cross between those 99$ 3D Home style products and creating a house in "The Sims".

You work based on a room basis, starting with basic shaped rooms and then modifying them with new room elements, Then add door and windows and then built-in elements furnishings, and materials.

It's really a toy at this point at this point, and there are plenty of features missing, but I like it's simplicity, reasonable intuitiveness and the direction of being able to model a design online. You could very easily share this design with others. Then there is the ability to output to .DWG and .RVT formats, interesting. I'd like to see where Project Dragonfly goes...

Revit Market Contest Deadline

Revit Market Contest Deadline Coming Up! March 31

If you have original Revit families (ones you’ve created yourself), you can put them up for sale at Revit Market, then use them in a project and enter the contest. Not only do you get a chance to win $2500, but you can get cash from ongoing sales of your families.

Revit Contest: www.turbosquid.com/Revit-Contest
Revit Market: www.turbosquid.com/Revit
Press Release about the contest: http://www.turbosquid.com/revit-family-contest

Revit Family - Online course

Recently, I jumped into creating Revit families. Unfortunately, throughout my use of the program thus far, creating families was this "do I really want to go there" kind of issue. I've never seen a family created live in a demonstration. Sensing complexity, I avoided creating them completely.

Finally, I dug into them and what I found was amazingly easy. So I thought I would help people get started, and I created my own online course in creating Revit families.


With the urging of my friend at TurboSquid, I've made this available on their site. Go to the Revit Market on their site and search for "Roger Cusson" and you should find it easily.