eLearning – Upcoming Open Classes

Join the Ideate Tech Experts for eLearning – live online classes that provide your entire organization with easy access to premium education.

Upcoming classes include: 

7.3.12::Revit 201:
Revit Architectural Mode for Consultants
7.12.12::Revit 201:
Revit Import into 3ds Max
7.24.12::Civil 3D 201:
Using the Intersection Design Tool

Each class is designed to give you specific, improved results in a particular topic. You can interact with the instructor right from your own office, while eliminating travel time. Because the class schedule rotates, you can easily select your topics of interest and choose the day which best meets your schedule.

Click here for class descriptions, times and registration link. Questions? Contact education@ideateinc.com

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Classroom Training – Open Classes

Know It. Ideate Training.

Position yourself to land dream projects. Tap the full potential of your software solutions. Increase your facility, fluidity and capability to maximize the value of your precision software tools.

Here are a few of the training opportunities Ideate has to offer in the coming weeks:

6.27-29::San Jose
AutoCAD Fundamentals
7.11-13::Seattle
Civil 3D Fundamentals
7.24-26::Seattle
Revit Architecture Fundamentals

Know your software. Sign up now!

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eLearning – Upcoming Open Classes

Join the Ideate Tech Experts for eLearning – live online classes that provide your entire organization with easy access to premium education.

Upcoming classes include: 

6.26.12::Revit 201:Revit Server
6.28.12::Navisworks 101:
Introduction to Navisworks Manage
7.3.12::Revit 201:
Revit Architectural Mode for Consultants

Each class is designed to give you specific, improved results in a particular topic. You can interact with the instructor right from your own office, while eliminating travel time. Because the class schedule rotates, you can easily select your topics of interest and choose the day which best meets your schedule.

Click here for class descriptions, times and registration link. Questions? Contact education@ideateinc.com

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Classroom Training – Open AutoCAD Classes

Know It. Ideate Training.

Position yourself to land dream projects. Tap the full potential of your software solutions. Increase your facility, fluidity and capability to maximize the value of your precision software tools.

Here are a few of the training opportunities Ideate has to offer in the coming weeks:

6.25-26::Seattle
AutoCAD Beyond the Basics
6.27-29::San Jose
AutoCAD Fundamentals

Know your software. Sign up now!

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Ideate BIMLink at RTC-USA

RTC Australia has wrapped up and is on its way here to the States. In case you weren’t able to catch her presentation “Iterative Design with Ideate BIMLink” at RTC Australia, do not despair because Michelle Leonard of Jasmax, Ltd. will also be presenting at RTC-USA. Michelle will be covering some of the techniques behind the modeling of a complex sunscreened-facade using both Autodesk Revit and Ideate BIMLink.

You can read about the project or you can head to RTC-USA and learn about it directly from Michelle. 

While you’re at RTC-USA you should also sign-up for classes by our own Ideate staff. Shruti Harve will be presenting “Concrete Modeling using Revit Structure”. This Intermediate level session will cover tips for modeling concrete, precast concrete, reinforcement, tilt-up panels, expansion joints, control joints and more. Bill Johnson will be moderating “Working with the Frenemy” which is an advanced level discussion on the struggles and benefits of collaborative workflow within a Revit modeling environment. 

We’ll also be hosting a booth so stop by to learn more about Ideate BIMLink and Ideate Explorer for Revit.

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AutoCAD 2013 Tip: Change XRef Path from Full Path to Relative Path

Recently in an AutoCAD training an age old question came up - how do I change the path of XRef from Full Path to Relative Path? The answer has always been to open XRef Manager and type in some combination of “..\” in the text string under Saved Path. This pathing concept has become easily digestible in recent times, but still remains a challenge overall.

In the screen shots below the file Wall Base.dwg is shown as XRefed with Full Path as is evident from the Saved Path. Under the historical method I would have to type “.\Res\Wall Base.dwg” in the Saved path.

This was the case until now. Not anymore!

AutoCAD 2013 makes it really easy by introducing the graphical way of achieving the same result - right click on the XRef and chose Make Relative from Path cascade. Refer to the following screen shot:

Isn’t that simple! Now go ahead and change your existing XRefs from Full Path to Relative Path. And use Relative Path from now on.

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Gaurav Bagga
Ideate Infrastructure Solutions Application Specialist


Gaurav is a well rounded Application Engineer and Project Manager for Infrastructure Solutions at Ideate based out of San Francisco. He has over 15 years experience in construction industry and has been helping numerous small, medium and ENR 500 firms maximize their CAD investment for the last ten years. Gaurav is an Autodesk Certified Instructor and Autodesk Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert. He has taught at several conferences, CAD Camps and Autodesk University. He has taught AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Land Desktop and Map 3D to thousands of students and helps Ideate develop the Infrastructure Services curriculum and courses. With his extensive CAD technology background he helps Bay Area engineering and surveying firms analyze and improve their design and drawing production process thereby improving productivity and the bottom line. Follow Gaurav on Twitter: @BeGeez

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eLearning – Upcoming Revit Classes

Join the Ideate Tech Experts for eLearning – live online classes that provide your entire organization with easy access to premium education.

Upcoming classes include: 

6.19.12::Revit 201:
Phasing A-Z
6.26.12::Revit 201:
Revit Server
7.3.12::Revit 201:
Revit Architectural Mode for Consultants

Each class is designed to give you specific, improved results in a particular topic. You can interact with the instructor right from your own office, while eliminating travel time. Because the class schedule rotates, you can easily select your topics of interest and choose the day which best meets your schedule.

Click here for class descriptions, times and registration link. Questions? Contact education@ideateinc.com

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Civil 3D 2013: 2D and 3D Polyline Conversion

While working on a grading I needed to change grades along a path that had been defined as a 2D polyline. Well, it is a fact that a 2D polyline cannot hold different elevations at different vertices. This is a property of a 3D polyline. So, is there a way convert the 2D polyline to a 3D polyline? Yes, there is!

I was reminded of two fantastic and very old tools that would let you do just that – Convert 2D polyline to 3D polylines and Convert 3D polyline to 2D polylines.

They are both found under Ribbon tab “Modify” > Expand “Design” Panel Title

After you convert the 2D polyline to a 3D polyline you can then assign different elevations to the vertices per your design.

And if you need to work with grades instead of vertex elevations, you can also convert the 2D polyline to a Civil 3D Feature line using the command Create Feature Line from Objects found under Ribbon tab Home > Design panel > Feature Line flyout.

However, there is one important thing to note when you convert a 3D polyline to a 2D polyline. The new 2D polyline takes the elevation of the start point. Which means you would lose individual vertex elevations of a 3D polyline. This is very similar to the flatten command, except the elevation of the first vertex is maintained instead of pushing everything down to “0” elevation.

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Gaurav Bagga
Ideate Infrastructure Solutions Application Specialist


Gaurav is a well rounded Application Engineer and Project Manager for Infrastructure Solutions at Ideate based out of San Francisco. He has over 15 years experience in construction industry and has been helping numerous small, medium and ENR 500 firms maximize their CAD investment for the last ten years. Gaurav is an Autodesk Certified Instructor and Autodesk Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert. He has taught at several conferences, CAD Camps and Autodesk University. He has taught AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Land Desktop and Map 3D to thousands of students and helps Ideate develop the Infrastructure Services curriculum and courses. With his extensive CAD technology background he helps Bay Area engineering and surveying firms analyze and improve their design and drawing production process thereby improving productivity and the bottom line. Follow Gaurav on Twitter: @BeGeez

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Classroom Training – Open Classes

Know It. Ideate Training.

Position yourself to land dream projects. Tap the full potential of your software solutions. Increase your facility, fluidity and capability to maximize the value of your precision software tools.

Here are a few of the training opportunities Ideate has to offer in the coming weeks:

6.18-20::San Francisco
Revit Architecture Fundamentals
6.25-26::Seattle
AutoCAD Beyond the Basics
6.27-29::San Jose
AutoCAD Fundamentals

Know your software. Sign up now!

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Share/View/Edit Your Design Simultaneously With All Project Stakeholders – All From Within AutoCAD

Here is how you collaborate a design with a remote project team member: first, open your favorite browser, then create an online meeting and then share your screen. What if you could do all that from within AutoCAD? Yes, that’s right! You can now create that online meeting, share your screen and chat all from within AutoCAD – use the Collaborate Now button from the newly revamped Online tab in AutoCAD 2013.

You can also save and access your drawings via AutoCAD in cloud. Autodesk 360 integrates AutoCAD WS and lets you share, view, edit any drawing online or on your mobile application.

The connection between this online interface and desktop AutoCAD is the “Online” tab in AutoCAD 2013. Online tab appeared for the first time in the ribbon in AutoCAD 2012 and has been revamped to integrate the desktop application with web interface. Autodesk is dedicated to giving the AutoCAD users a complete web experience right from within AutoCAD interface including AutoCAD on Facebook and Twitter.

Here is a Summary of the Power of the Online Tab:

Autodesk 360 lets you access your Autodesk 360 cloud account

Online Options lets you change your Autodesk 360 options from within AutoCAD

Open on Mobile sends the drawing to AutoCAD WS online

Upload Multiple will let you upload multiple files to your Autodesk 360 account

Sync My Settings start/stop to sync your AutoCAD settings with your Autodesk 360 account

Choose Settings lets you choose which settings are synced with Autodesk 360 account

Share Document uploads a saved file to your Autodesk 360 account and lets you email the link to the file.

Collaborate Now is icing on the cake – my favorite. It uploads and opens your file in AutoCAD WS session in which you and your client/sub can simultaneously view and edit your file.

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2013 releases for Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, Civil 3D, Navisworks and more: ideateinc.com/2013

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Gaurav Bagga
Ideate Infrastructure Solutions Application Specialist


Gaurav is a well rounded Application Engineer and Project Manager for Infrastructure Solutions at Ideate based out of San Francisco. He has over 15 years experience in construction industry and has been helping numerous small, medium and ENR 500 firms maximize their CAD investment for the last ten years. Gaurav is an Autodesk Certified Instructor and Autodesk Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert. He has taught at several conferences, CAD Camps and Autodesk University. He has taught AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Land Desktop and Map 3D to thousands of students and helps Ideate develop the Infrastructure Services curriculum and courses. With his extensive CAD technology background he helps Bay Area engineering and surveying firms analyze and improve their design and drawing production process thereby improving productivity and the bottom line. Follow Gaurav on Twitter: @BeGeez

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Grayed Out/Unavailable Parameters in Revit Families

Working as the Ideate Support Tech the other day, I ran into a question where a user wanted to change a value of a parameter within a family. This was a family created by a manufacturer and the user wanted to change the default description. Problem was the description was grayed out, and the value could not be edited.

After editing the family we went to the Family Types dialog box and expanded the Identity Data Section. Note that in the Identity Data section press the down arrow in the heading. This is often collapsed making it difficult for users to locate and edit. Figure 1.

Figure 1

With Identity Data expanded, you may see grayed out parameters. Basically parameters that have formulas become non-editable parameters and are hence grayed out. Note here in Figure 2 that the Description does not have a formula, but the has the Value of the description in quotes. To make the parameter editable, remove the characters in the Formula for the parameter you would like to make editable. This will make the parameter’s value available for editing.

Figure 2

On a similar note, if you are creating families and want to gray out parameter values from being editable, in the Formula column, enter two quotes “” to gray out the parameter value. If you want to have a grayed out value such as the creator/manufacturer name place the parameter value inside of quotes. i.e.: “Created by Ron copyright 2012” The value within the quotes will be grayed out within the parameter value column. Have fun locking/unlocking your parameters!

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Ron Palma
Ideate AEC Solutions Application Specialist
Ron has 23+ years of experience in the AEC industry as a designer, lead project designer, trainer and CAD manager. His instructional background includes Autodesk Certified Instructor, trainer, support technician, educator at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College, and a U.S. Army certified instructor. Follow Ron @RonPalmaAEC.

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eLearning – Upcoming Revit Classes

Join the Ideate Tech Experts for eLearning – live online classes that provide your entire organization with easy access to premium education.

Upcoming classes include: 

6.12.12::Revit 201:
View Properties – Controlling Visibility
6.19.12::Revit 201:
Phasing A-Z
6.26.12::Revit 201:
Revit Server

Each class is designed to give you specific, improved results in a particular topic. You can interact with the instructor right from your own office, while eliminating travel time. Because the class schedule rotates, you can easily select your topics of interest and choose the day which best meets your schedule.

Click here for class descriptions, times and registration link. Questions? Contact education@ideateinc.com

Get It. Know It. Use It.

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New Railing Functionality in Revit Architecture 2013

In coordination with the Ideate Inc. YouTube video on Autodesk Revit Architecture 2013 – Component-based Stairs, this blog describes how the Revit Architecture 2013 Railing tool has undergone a few improvements along with the new Component Stair tool.

Railing enhancements have been made to make the creation of railing elements more accurately. These new enhancements include a new handrail and top rail sub-category that can include the addition of extensions to these two elements. Extension options include a wall, post, and floor extension. Figure 1.

Figure 1

Top Rails and Hand Rails are selected for editing by using the [Tab] key to cycle through the elements within the railing. Once selected, the rails are pinned in place and must be unpinned in order to make modifications to the railing. In addition to using the built in railing extensions, custom extensions can be created through the use of sketching.

Another improvement made to stairs includes adjusting the transitions of railings between landings and runs. Figure 2. Transitions used can be defined through the use of pre-established settings such as simple and gooseneck. Figure 2.

Figure 2

When modifying the handrail elements, handrail supports may be added, and manipulated allowing control of their placement along the rail. Figure 3. Like other elements within Revit, edit the supports by first using the [Tab] key to select these new features. 

Figure 3

These are only a few of the things that can be accomplished with the Revit Architecture 2013 Railing tools. Remember to review the instance and type properties of these elements as you are reviewing them as there are many properties that can be adjusted to create your custom railing elements. Good Luck!

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2013 releases for Revit MEP, Revit Structure, Civil 3D, AutoCAD, Navisworks, 3ds Max Design and more: ideateinc.com/2013

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Ron Palma
AEC Solutions Application Specialist
Ron has 23+ years of experience in the AEC industry as a designer, lead project designer, trainer and CAD manager. His instructional background includes Autodesk Certified Instructor, trainer, support technician, educator at Portland Community College and Clackamas Community College, and a U.S. Army certified instructor. Follow Ron @RonPalmaAEC.

Get it. Know it. Use it.

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Classroom Training – Open Classes

Know It. Ideate Training.

Position yourself to land dream projects. Tap the full potential of your software solutions. Increase your facility, fluidity and capability to maximize the value of your precision software tools.

Here are a few of the training opportunities Ideate has to offer in the coming weeks:

6.6-8::Portland
Revit Architecture Fundamentals
6.6-8::San Jose
Revit Architecture Fundamentals
6.11-13::San Jose
Revit MEP – Mechanical and Plumbing Fundamentals
6.18-20::San Francisco
AutoCAD Fundamentals

Know your software. Sign up now!

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Who Moved My Duplex?

One of the benefits of Building Information Modeling is the automatic coordination associated with having a single element being represented throughout the project documentation in many ways. A duplex outlet, for example, can display itself as a 2D symbol while in Plan View, a 2D cover plate within Elevation View, and as a load component within an Electrical Panel Schedule, and as part of a Quantity Takeoff Schedule for Electrical Devices. Any change to this single element is managed properly within each of these “views.”  The challenge, of course, is remembering that this is true! 

One of the simplest strategies for dealing with this issue is to work in a split view. The image below shows the same three duplexes in both plan and section views. Working in plan view only may cause us to miss the GFCI that’s at the wrong height, while working only in Section may cause us to assume that two of the duplexes are placed too close together.

Using the Revit Filter tool can help us make sure that changes are only being made to Electrical Fixture Objects, but often that level of information is not sufficient to ensure that we’re making the right changes to the right fixtures.

With Ideate Explorer for Revit, the same selection set can be reviewed with a much finer level of precision.  We can view the selection by Category and realize there is a GFCI involved…

…OR we can review the selection set by Space and realize that we are only interested in the duplexes that are located within the hallway (WF51).

Working in a 3D world can bring amazing efficiencies to your engineering or architectural projects. Make sure that your team has the right tools to make the best decisions so that no one ends up asking “Who moved my duplex?”

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Glynnis Patterson is a registered architect and the Director of Software Development at Ideate, Inc. In a previous life Glynnis spent many hours looking at blueprints with a scale, highlighters, and a scratch pad to develop detailed cost estimates.

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AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 – Under Pressure: More on Pressure Pipe Networks

AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013 has some great additions that save you time by making mundane tasks simpler and faster. Gaurav Bagga, Application Specialist at Ideate, Inc. reviews some of those productivity improvements.

Perhaps one of the most sought after features in Civil 3D has been pressure pipes. People had to jump hoops; make the best use of existing features of Civil 3D to create a water line.

With Civil 3D 2013 it is now very easy to create a pressure pipe network in plan and display it in profile.

The workflow is similar to the gravity flow as before – specify the parts list, surface and alignment to get started and then layout the network in plan.

Create the pressure pipe layout including the:

• Pipes
• Bends, tees, and other fittings
• And valves, fire hydrants and other appurtenances

Display the pipes, fittings and appurtenances in profile with a relative ease.

The figure below shows the pressure pipe and a gate valve in plan, profile and model view.

Check out the YouTube Video that describes this advancement.

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2013 releases for Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, AutoCAD, Navisworks and more: ideateinc.com/2013

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Gaurav Bagga
Infrastructure Solutions Application Specialist


Gaurav is a well rounded Application Engineer and Project Manager for Infrastructure Solutions at Ideate based out of San Francisco. He has over 15 years experience in construction industry and has been helping numerous small, medium and ENR 500 firms maximize their CAD investment for the last ten years. Gaurav is an Autodesk Certified Instructor and Autodesk Civil 3D Implementation Certified Expert. He has taught at several conferences, CAD Camps and Autodesk University. He has taught AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Land Desktop and Map 3D to thousands of students and helps Ideate develop the Infrastructure Services curriculum and courses. With his extensive CAD technology background he helps Bay Area engineering and surveying firms analyze and improve their design and drawing production process thereby improving productivity and the bottom line. Follow Gaurav on Twitter: @BeGeez

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Riding The Rails: Rail Design Enhancements in Civil 3D 2013

In this post, Ideate Application Specialist Matt Miyamoto provides some insight on the new Rail enhancements for AutoCAD Civil 3D 2013.

In this release of Civil 3D, Autodesk is raising the bar once again by including new Rail Design features and enhancements.

Included in this version are: a new Rail Alignment type, automatic Cant calculations, and added rail-specific parameters, making rail design in Civil 3d easier and more user friendly.

One of the bigger changes to Rail design functionality is the new Rail Alignment type.  This alignment is now included along with the Centerline, Offset, and Miscellaneous alignment types of past releases.

When this alignment is used, an additional Rail Parameters tab is included and the Design Criteria defaults to Cant Design tables for passenger and freight trains.  Rail alignments can also be measured along chord base lengths rather than only along centerlines.

The new Cant design wizard provides users with an interactive Cant calculation tool similar to the Superelevation calculator tool included for road design. 

Cant calculations are done automatically, and the results appear in the Cant Tabular Editor when complete. The old Rail Sub-assembly has also been enhanced to support Cant design.

To see some of these new features in action, be sure to check out the What’s New Videos now posted on YouTube.

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2013 releases for Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, 3ds Max Design, AutoCAD, Navisworks and more: ideateinc.com/2013

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Matt Miyamoto, P.E.
Infrastructure Solutions Application Specialist
Matt is a licensed Civil Engineer in the state of Hawaii. Matt obtained a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and has 7 years of private sector design experience which he applies in his role as an application specialist with Ideate, Inc. His project experience includes residential and commercial site development, private and public sewer, water and drainage systems, harbors improvements, and roadway improvements. While in Hawaii, Matt was involved in multidisciplinary projects for City and County agencies, State Departments, the Army COE and private developers. @MattM_PE

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