Worksets: how and why in any flavor of Revit

WORKSETS.  Has any word caused more fear and dread in the heart of man?   

Probably.  But worksets and the whole concept is one area that people have an honest fear of within the Revit product line.  We are going exploring down the workset path in this weeks Professional Development Hour.   You will see the methods to incorporate worksets in a project so multiple people can work on a single project within Revit.  We will explore what worksets are, how to workshare, new tools for worksharing, and best practices based on discipline.  Prepare to be amazed at how easy worksets are once you understand the concept.  click here to sign up:  PDH Signup

Max-imize your Revit Architecture

Visualization with Revit Architecture to 3ds Max 2008

In this web-session we will show how to take a existing developed building model in Revit Architecture with applied materials and other model settings into 3ds Max for final rendering. We will develop the scene for rendering by creating camera and environments. Improve your overall quality of your renderings by using the Mental Ray rendering engine and produce realistic images with the use of these customized tools. Learn how to save time by effective use of both Revit Architecture and 3ds Max.  Please note that this is a general overview session not intended to be used as in-depth training.

Redefining the Initial Sketch Plane in Inventor 2008

One question I sometimes receive from clients is controlling the orientation of our views after our part has already been modeled. One of the ways we can harness this capability in Inventor 2008 is the process of redefining our initial sketch plane.

By default all of your initial sketches are created on the XY plane (unless we choose otherwise). When we reach the point of placing our initial views in our drawing, one of our options for placement is the Front View, labeled XY, meaning if we use our ‘Look At’ tool in our model and choose the XY plane from our origin folder, we will see our corresponding view from our drawing.

By viewing my model below, you will get a clearer picture about what I mean:

NOTE: As we change the orientation of our initial sketch plane, any & all views in our drawing will update. For this example, I use a drawing with a Front view already placed.

Here is an isometric view of a part below. Keep note of my 3-D indicator in the bottom left corner referencing the XYZ planes (Red=X, Green=Y, Blue=Z)

Next I’ll use my ‘Look At’ Tool and choose the XY plane.

Again, notice the orientation of my 3D Indicator. You can see as I hover my cursor over the initial sketch, all of the sketch geometry becomes highlighted and is Normal to my default sketch plane, being the XY plane.

The corresponding ‘Front’ view in my drawing is shown below.

However, sometimes after our model has been created, we may need to manipulate the orientation of the views in our model and our drawing. We can do this by redefining our initial sketch plane. This is done by simply performing a Right Mouse Click on our initial sketch (In my example, the initial sketch creating my Revolution), and selecting ‘Redefine’.

Then simply choose the new plane we would like our sketch geometry to be placed upon. In this example, I chose the YZ plane. Notice the corresponding directions of my 3D indicator.

If we use our ‘Look At’ tool once more, and again choose our ‘XY’ plane now we get the corresponding view.

Finally, notice how the view in our drawing automatically recognizes our change and makes the corresponding update.

Thank you for visiting our website and accessing our tips and tricks. I hope this will benefit you in the future and allow you to make any necessary orientation changes seamlessly & effectively.

Paul Cetnar
Application Engineer, Manufacturing Solutions Division