I just got my hands on “Instant Autodesk Revit 2013 Customization with .NET How-to“. As a designer, I am always looking on ways to improve efficiencies and workflow. A lot of the work I do in Environmental Graphic Design utilizes sign location plans and message schedules using Adobe Illustrator and Filemaker Pro. As more and more architecture firms transition to Revit, consultants need to do the same to keep up and better collaborate. I am hoping this eBook will help me better understand Revit and how its customization of elements can change my everyday workflow. Enjoy!

As written in the Architect Magazine blog posting: The Designated Sketcher reports that its next competition, the Extrusion Competition: From 2 to 3D, has opened for registration. “The jury will be looking for the project that best represents a sketch that transitions into a form, while maintaining the original essence of the raw idea,” the organizers write. “There will be an emphasis on both the graphic and informative nature of the 2D sketch and how well it translates into 3D.” Submittals are due July 22 and the jury includes Lucas Gray, Dan Brown, Jeffrey Pastva, and Jesse Widtfeldt. The 2nd place winner will receive a 2 hour online SketchUp webinar that I am offering as part of the prize. Here’s a link for more details on the competition.

A video comparison of the designs for the first 3 exhibits of the 2012 Philadelphia Flower Show to the actual exhibits. I created the animation/renderings. Exhibit design by GMR Design.

I was asked a few weeks ago to be a volunteer for one of the  Community Design Collaborative’s latest projects.  My role was to create a rendering for the layout of the revised office space / call center. The process involves creating the sketchup model from the existing cad file, adding the furniture specs, people, lighting etc.   Then using a layering technique, I mesh together the exported images into 1 final rendering. In all, this was about 10-12 hours of total work from start to finish.

So I’m planning to run the Philadelphia Half Marathon in November. Living in Philly, I wanted to plan the run and do portions of it as a train. To make it easier for myself, I created a map in Google Earth with mile markers of the actually course path used for the race.

SketchUp has been used mostly by Architects as a way to convey designs and ideas. Recently, with the integration of importing/exporting capabilities of SketchUp and Google Earth, SketchUp is being used as a way to model building quickly with phototexturing techniques. The workflow is quite different then typical architectural examples. Usually I will import the CAD geometry as a reference and develop a detailed model of the facades, windows, doorways, roof pitches, etc. However for Geomodeling, it is more about creating a massing model with less detail and allow the phototextures to convey realism in the model. To my disappointment, most of the work for geomodeling is done in Photoshop creating the textures. My personal workflow tends to lag depending on the quality of photos taken. Below is a video time lapse of the process. It is best to limit the amount of Photoshop work that is needed by creating generic textures for repeatable facades. The challenge is making these NOT look like a