Autodesk University 2017 Class Proposal Voting Now Open

Vote to Shape Autodesk University 2017

Autodesk University isn’t until November, but planning for the event is well underway. The annual Call for Proposals closed last week, and with nearly 2,200 proposals in hand, now comes the hard part – selecting 600+ classes for this year’s conference. To help in the selection process, Autodesk is giving you a chance to vote, and let them know which classes you would like to see.

Voting is currently open and will remain open until June 16^th, 2017. Among the 2,200 proposals you can choose from are the fourteen submitted by our very own team of experts here at CADD Microsystems. Those proposals include:

1. 2D in a 3D World: Using Revit and AutoCAD Symbiotically [Purvi Gandhi Irwin]
2. A Match Made in Coordinates: Bringing Revit, Civil 3D, & InfraWorks Together At Last [Donnie Gladfelter & Purvi Gandhi Irwin]
3. COBie and Classification Systems in Revit [T.J. Meehan & Jason Kunkel]
4. Dynamo for Revit basics: BIM standards [Nick Sipes]
5. Enhance Your BIM Workflow with the Autodesk BIM Interoperability Tools [Jason Kunkel & T.J. Meehan]
6. Finding Your Way: Using Revit to Create the Best Signage Package EVER [Purvi Gandhi Irwin]
7. How NOT to be a CAD Manager: Battle-Tested Secrets for Success [Jason Kunkel & Donnie Gladfelter]
8. Maintaining Revit Model Standards: Autodesk Model Checker for Revit and Configurator [Jason Kunkel & T.J. Meehan]
9. Managing your Facilities: Revit and FM Systems [Chris Lindo]
10. Modeling in the “Real World”: Understanding the triple zero coordinates within Revit [Nick Sipes]
11. Overcoming The 7 Deadly Sins of Corporate Training Programs [Donnie Gladfelter & Jason Kunkel]
12. Reinforced Learning: Secrets to Making Effective Training Videos [Donnie Gladfelter]
13. The Secrets of Revit for Schematic Design [Purvi Gandhi Irwin]
14. Warrior Canine Connection Case Study: Capturing Hearts and Current Conditions [Chris Lindo]

2D in a 3D World: Using Revit and AutoCAD Symbiotically [Purvi]

Instructor: Purvi Gandhi Irwin

This course is designed to show you how to use the best of both worlds to create professional documents that harness the parametric powers of Revit while saving time by using existing CAD drawings. This course will focus on:

• Best practices for setting up CAD files to be linked in Revit.
• Settings in your Revit model to work best with CAD links.
• Inserting in CAD files into the correct orientations in your model and setting up view templates
• Creating custom, parametric detail components to add information to your drawings.
• Using element keynotes with detail components.
• The various applications for this approach – demolition drawings, restoration projects, interiors projects...and more!

Learning Objectives

• Understand best practices for setting up a combination Revit/CAD project.
• Learn how to create and use custom detail components and element keynotes to streamline drawing annotation.
• Use keynotes effectively to streamline annotation.
• Learn about using this approach for a variety of applications.

A Match Made in Coordinates: Bringing Revit, Civil 3D, & InfraWorks Together At Last

Instructors: Donnie Gladfelter & Purvi Gandhi Irwin

Many building site projects live in two worlds; everything inside the building, and everything outside the building. The two worlds only come together after an excessive amount of swearing, and hours of unnecessary time spent. But does it have to be that way? Absolutely not! Coordinating Revit and Civil 3D doesn’t have to require a degree in nuclear physics, and this session will show you how. Co-presented by a Revit and a Civil 3D specialist, you will gain an understanding of the expectations for each platform and how to configure it. With coordinated model locations in place, we will define effective practices for exchanging data between Revit software and AutoCAD Civil 3D software. Leveraging the full potential of each coordinated design model, you will learn how to assemble your project in the context of its surroundings using InfraWorks software, and generate a virtual reality scene.

Learning Objectives

• Establish shared coordinates between Revit and AutoCAD Civil 3D.
• Incorporate Revit model data in AutoCAD Civil 3D and AutoCAD Civil 3D model data in Revit.
• Assemble design model data into an immersive InfraWorks model.
• Generate virtual reality scenes of your complete project model.

COBie and Classification Systems in Revit

Instructors: T.J. Meehan & Jason Kunkel

Are you required to submit a COBie deliverable from your Revit model? Do you need to be able to apply classification data to Revit elements from systems such as UniFormat, MasterFormat, OmniClass, Uniclass, or even a custom database? This session will provide a deep dive into the two free tools to help you do this: the Autodesk COBie Extension for Revit and the Autodesk Classification Manager for Revit. Learn how to get them, how they work, and how you can configure them to meet your needs. Walk away with the expertise necessary to manage and track COBie and classification system data in your Revit models.

Learning Objectives

• Learn what COBie data can be generated by the Revit model and how to collect that data quickly and efficiently
• Understand how to leverage the connectivity between COBie and major classification systems within your model
• Find out how easy it is to create your own classification system and apply the data directly to Revit elements
• See how to export COBie compliant worksheets directly from your Revit model

Dynamo for Revit basics: BIM standards

Instructor: Nick Sipes

Dynamo is the big buzzword in Revit these days, but you never looked at it because you have no need to design organic skyscrapers or adaptive geometric facades. No problem! Dynamo is also an outstanding tool to help keep your Revit models in order and maintain consistency and alignment with your firm’s standards. This class will focus on deploying Dynamo for Revit to assist supporting BIM standards. We will review Dynamo Player which lets non-Dynamo users run Dynamo scripts. This will include covering how to deploy Dynamo Package within a corporate network. We will then review Dynamo for Revit’s ability to conducting basic model cleanup by creating a simple script. We will also examine using Dynamo for Revit to automatically place sheets on views and rename views based off a defined company standard.

Learning Objectives

• Configure Dynamo player to allow non-Dynamo users to access and run company scripts.
• Install Dynamo packages into a common network folder for all users to access
• Create a simple script to delete all unplace rooms and spaces.
• Reduce time spent cleaning Revit models, by using automated process.

Enhance Your BIM Workflow with the Autodesk BIM Interoperability Tools

Instructor: Jason Kunkel & T.J. Meehan

Do you provide BIM deliverables for your projects? Do you work with project BIM Requirements or COBie? Then this session is ideal for you. Learn about free Autodesk utilities to allow you to automatically check your Revit models for compliance with BIM requirements, apply robust classification data to elements, and effectively work with COBie data. Many BIM projects are required to follow strict modeling standards for submissions. Whether you're trying to meet owner requirements or performing internal QC'ing, this session will show you how to use the Autodesk Model Checker to automatically check your models against any number of criteria. In addition, learn how to use the Autodesk Model Checker Configurator to build your own checks. This session will finish with two other tools to help you apply classification data from multiple systems at once as well as manage and output accurate COBie data from a Revit model.

Learning Objectives

• Discover ways to automatically check all your models for compliance with BIM requirements and see how to build your own model checks
• See how you can quickly apply classification data from multiple systems such as OmniClass, UniFormat, MasterFormat, and Uniclass
• Learn how models can be setup to work with and export COBie data
• See how you can get free utilities for Revit to help you with all of these BIM deliverable requirements

Finding Your Way: Using Revit to Create the Best Signage Package EVER

Instructor: Purvi Gandhi Irwin

Documenting the signage for a building can be extremely time consuming and tedious. By using various features in Autodesk Revit, you can create a signage package that will be envy of all your friends! This lecture will walk you through the steps to creating a cohesive, accurate signage package. We will begin by creating a sign family and placing at every room, making sure to configure the family so that it reads the correct room. From here that information will be compiled in a schedule and an associated key schedule, to streamline population of repetitive information. Next a smart tag will be added that can pull any information from the sign that is required, and finally we will configure worksets, views and view templates to display the required elements on the correct sheets.

Learning Objectives

• Create a parametric family for your sign element.
• Create and format schedules to streamline input and revision of repetitive data.
• Configure drawing sheets to effectively illustrate signage locations and details.
• Insure that your signage portion of the project works cohesively with the rest of your Revit model.

How NOT to be a CAD Manager: Battle-Tested Secrets for Success [Kunkel & Donnie]

Instructors: Jason Kunkel & Donnie Gladfelter

Many sessions share excellent techniques and strategies for being a great CAD Manager, and rightfully so. This session flips that on its head and will pull back the curtain a bit and let you know what NOT to do as a CAD Manager. Combining years over two decades of CAD, BIM, and IT support and management experience plus years of working with numerous companies to help support their technical managers and staff, this session talks about the things nobody likes to talk about: the bad ways that CAD and BIM managers do their jobs. Despite best intentions, even the most well-meaning CAD Manager could be sending the wrong messages to end users and management. Learn some of the common pitfalls, missteps, and misconceptions that come with the job and the how and why to avoid them.

Learning Objectives

• Learn some of the common missteps that CAD Managers often take
• Understand the importance of looking at the CAD Manager job from multiple points of view
• Discover strategies to avoid falling into tradition traps
• Find out how not to be “that” support guy

Maintaining Revit Model Standards: Autodesk Model Checker for Revit and Configurator

Instructors: Jason Kunkel & T.J. Meehan

Keeping your Revit model in compliance with production and submittal standards has never been more essential. The free Autodesk Model Checker for Revit was built from the ground up with the single goal of accessing and confirming information within Revit parameters and the model overall. As a companion, the free Autodesk Model Checker Configurator for Revit lets you build your own checks with ease. This session will show you how to leverage the Configurator to structure, organize, and build your model checks to be the most effective method of running checks on your Revit models. From using the easy to use Wizard workflow to building an elaborate series of checks from scratch, you will know the ins and outs of making checks that can streamline your requirement checking process.

Learning Objectives

• What the Autodesk Revit Model Checker for Revit and the Autodesk Model Checker for Configurator are and what issues in the industry they address.
• How to effectively use the Model Checker and Model Checker Configurator to monitor and maintain standards in Revit models
• Where to find extra resources for the tools and make the most of them
• Techniques for making advanced checks

Managing your Facilities: Revit and FM Systems [Chris]

Instructor: Chris Lindo

Connecting content developed during the design and build phases of a project to an operations and management system can be tedious. The management of operations of a facility is, by far, the largest phase of a buildings’ lifecycle. Using BIM data along with 3D model visualization is the next step in truly leveraging a BIM data-model. In this class, users will gain the knowledge in how to utilize a Revit model for space and facility management, prepare it and connect to FM Systems using the FM Interact addon, and us FM Systems to manage your facility. Use Autodesk Revit to build the space information, area plans, and area calculations while using FM Systems to manage spaces, assets, people, tasks, and other critical data.

Learning Objectives

• Learn how to create Area Schemes and Plans within Autodesk Revit which can be used in FM Systems
• Use Revit's build-in area calculations and BIM data to build a model representative of the facility
• Use FM Systems' Revit Addon, FM Interact, to connect the BIM model to FM Systems for space and asset management
• Leverage BIM data, visual floor plans, and area data within the FM Systems web-based application to manage operations of your facility

Modeling in the “Real World”: Understanding the triple zero coordinates within Revit

Instructor: Nick Sipes

Are you an architect or civil engineer and have pulled your hair out trying to get a Revit model and civil DWG to play nice together? Do you see that crazy small triangle and circle in your Revit site plan and wonder what they are? Are you a campus owner and want to make sure all your consultants get their Revit models and DWGs in the right place? This class will cover setting up the world coordinate system within Revit to work with other Revit models as well as AutoCAD and Civil 3D drawings. We will examine the three different origin points and explain their purpose within the coordinate system. We will demonstrate how these points relate to the infamous 20-mile radius limitation within Revit. We will review best practices for working on a building and a campus of buildings and review examples of properly coordinate documents. Finally, we will discuss the importance that Building Owners and Operators specify these points within their BIM requirements.

Learning Objectives

• Describe best practices for setting up the world coordinate system within Revit.
• Understand the differences between the Project Base Point, Survey Point, and Initial Origin.
• Coordinate Revit models with AutoCAD and Civil 3D files.
• Setup the world coordinate system within Revit to work for both buildings and campuses.

Overcoming The 7 Deadly Sins of Corporate Training Programs [Donnie & Kunkel]

Instructors: Donnie Gladfelter & Jason Kunkel

Are you a glutton for good training? Do you lust over other company's effective education technology? Bad training programs can leave your employees full of wrath, so don't be slothful—come check out this session that will outline the issues many companies see when building up or overhauling their own training programs. Your competitors will be green with envy when you show off your skilled employees—just don't get greedy.

This session will focus on overcoming the seven deadly sins of training and put your program on a righteous path. We’ll explore the process of defining education mission statements, align curriculum with student learning styles, and methods to reinforce learning at every corner. You will benefit from the unique experience and knowledge shared by two instructors who have built successful training programs in firms of more than 350 people, designed Autodesk Official Press curriculum, and who continue to build training programs for firms across the nation today.

Learning Objectives

• Identify the internal and external factors affecting professional development.
• Overcome common mistakes that limit the success of corporate training programs.
• Establish a training mission statement, and methods for program reinforcement.
• Build a training roadmap based on a proven framework.

Reinforced Learning: Secrets to Making Effective Training Videos

Instructor: Donnie Gladfelter

No matter how great the curriculum or instructor, without reinforcement teams will forget up to 90% of what they learn in just a month. Video offers an efficient way to close this gap, but where do you even start to record a video, much less a video your users will watch? In this session, you will learn the secrets used to produce AutoCAD training videos seen nearly 1,000,000 times on YouTube, plus strategies for applying that experience to corporate training programs. Beyond understanding how to pick the right microphone, recording software, and other technical elements, details such as video structure, format, and distribution are equally important for success. This session will connect the dots between each of these with experience-based recording, production, and distribution strategies you can take back to your office.

Learning Objectives

• Plan and structure video content based on data-driven insights.
• Build a recording studio with the proper hardware and software.
• Edit and produce video with simple effects, branding, and more.
• Implement strategies to distribute final videos to your company.

The Secrets of Revit for Schematic Design

Instructor: Purvi Gandhi Irwin

The beginning phases of design are always fast-paced where you need to generate drawings that can be quickly manipulated. Autodesk Revit can be used to quickly determine gross square footages (GSF) and floor area ratio (FAR) in a dynamic way to help you quickly mass a building and maximize your footprint. Within Revit, I will demonstrate linking in an AutoCAD file for a site plan, using floor slabs to GSF, creating simple walls and roofs, configuring schedules to calculate total areas and areas by programmatic category, and utilizing phasing to test various scenarios. I will also touch on using Formit as part of this phase of a project and it can integrate into Revit. We will continue with a discussion of recommendations for a schematic design Revit template. Finally, we will talk about how you can take this Schematic model and move it forward into the Design Development phase.

Learning Objectives

• Create a streamlined Revit template specific for the Schematic Design Phase
• Utilize best practices for using Revit during the SD phase of a project.
• Use model elements creatively to report the information that is important.
• Create simple graphics that clearly show your design and associated information.

Warrior Canine Connection Case Study: Capturing Hearts and Current Conditions

Instructor: Chris Lindo

Capturing current conditions is imperative in understanding and developing renovation projects, facility management, and new construction to existing facilities. A lot of times in a renovation project, what we have are old paper drawings, a site drawing, and, if we are lucky, some form of design data files. Partnering with Pete Kelsey of Autodesk, CADD Microsystems was able to scan a site for a new construction project. The site contained fields, maintenance sheds, and a very old barn. More importantly, the site contained no pre-existing drawings. Pete Kelsey scanned the site, created a point cloud model, and CADD Microsystems was able to create an As-Built Revit model of the current conditions. In this case-study, you will see how a complex renovation project uses Reality Capture technology, BIM modeling, and coordination workflows usingBIM 360services. The site will be home to a new training facility for the Warrior Canine Connection.

Learning Objectives

• Learn how the team captured a site with no pre-existing documents in order to prepare it for new construction
• Learn how the team generated a point cloud utilizing reality capture technology
• Discover ways with which a point cloud model can be leveraged to create a BIM-Ready Revit model
• How the project team is usingBIM 360Docs to manage submittals, project data, and more