Guru-G

As Quoted in the Microsoft Imagine's website - "Microsoft Imagine connects students with the tools, resources, and experiences they need to elevate their skills for today's working world. Whether it's building a game, designing an app or launching a project, Microsoft Imagine helps students develop their ideas and boldly bring them to life." Microsoft provides Free Software and Operating Systems to certified schools and institutions to help the students with their skills and career. You head to the My School's Webstore  page to search and find your school and the software available for your school. Once you find your school and click on the link for your school's webstore, it'll redirect you to a separate page with all the tools, software and operating systems available for your school. The following is an example link  for the webstore of  Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT). As you can see in the following image, the webstore provides var

Microsoft Outlook is by far the best email service provider which provides lots of customizations for the user. One of such features is to view similar/related emails/tasks in groups. We can use Outlook tasks windows to create, assign and have a track of all the tasks that you need for a project. But if you're involved in too many projects or are the manager of too many projects, having a track & identifying all the different tasks based on different criteria can be difficult. To help with this, Outlook has a feature called  "Group by box" when your view is set to "list view".  Open Outlook task pane and change the view settings to your desired view. Then right-click on one of the columns headers to select an option "Group by box (1)". The drag and drop the desired column header(2) to sort the view 

Gmail is currently the most basic email provider that almost everyone uses. So how can one organize their basic email provider so that it'll be easy to search and find emails? To help with this, Gmail has features like tabs & categories , labels to organize emails into different sections/tabs with custom categories and labels. But even with this manually moving emails into tabs or manually assigning categories and labels can be tiresome. So, here is where " filters " come to rescue. In Gmail, you can create rules to automatically move/assign emails to specific folder/labels using filters. But even this can be over-used if you don't know how to organize all you filters. So here is a video that shows you how you can combine multiple filters into a single rule.

Autodesk has created a website separately for users to upload and play with customizable dynamo scripts called Project Fractal . This tool lets you upload & view your parametric dynamo scripts/design . You can even see multiple iterations of a specific design to choose which iteration best suits your need. Unfortunately this website needs WebGL to run, lately, I'm getting an error while trying to view the example files in project fractal in chrome & I'm being presented with an error saying "Requires WebGL". Using Firefox would be the best option that worked well for me. Here is a getting started video that shows the capabilities of Project fractal and Dynamo

Grasshopper is an awesome plugin for rhino which lets us customize the design using programmatic nodes. It is the best design conceptualization tool that I've found. There are few other similar software's like dynamo for Revit, Para 3d for 3ds max, but they all have their own limitations. But grasshopper is limited to your imagination and a little bit of understanding the plugin itself. Once you get the hand of the user interface and the nodes, you can almost design anything you want. But, often times we might want to compare between alternative options of our own design. So going through each node and changing the values is time taking. So Grasshopper allows you to save the values/state of the nodes  so that you can revert back to them with just a single click. In the following example, I've got a simplistic script for a twisting tower where I want to compare between to alternatives. So I set the values of the 1st alternate and save it at Solution> Save state ,

In my previous post, I have explained how we can use the Visibility/Graphics Override window to customize the graphics and visibility settings of all the objects and categories. So using those methods we can change the colors, thickness, line types of grid lines(or any other) to our necessity. To change the color of the grid line, select one of the grid lines and click edit type in the properties window and change the " End Segment color ". This will change the colors of all the grid lines. To change the color of the Grid heads(bubbles), go to object styles from visibility graphics)shortcut VG) Visibility/Graphics window In the Object Styles window go to, annotation categories and find Grid head &change the line color Object Styles window This only changes the color of the lines, to change the color of the text, go to project browser > Families and find Grid Head - circle . (M is just a suffix for metric family).  Right-click and select edit

At times we might want to change the colors of various lines, categories with the model. The well known and easily foundable way for this is using the properties window. But, selecting each and every object and changing their properties can be ver tedious. So Autodesk has provided us with a  single window called " Visibility/Graphics Override " which can be found in View > Graphics > Visibility/Graphics or can simply be accessed using "VG or VV" shortcut key. This post focuses on model & annotation categories. Head to the following post to change the graphics of Object Styles . Visibility/Graphics Location Visibility/Graphics window Once you have made the necessary changes to the visibility/graphics of the view, you can save it as a view template, so that you can apply the same settings to multiple other views. The VG window can be used to change the visibility/graphics settings of any type of elements that exists in the Revit project. Y

Autodesk has given us many new updates with the new Revit 2018 release. One of the very useful updates of such is the " Multi-storey " settings of the stairs. If you have used Revit (2015 and later) for a while, you must be familiar with the multi-storey option available to simply create a single stair(core) for all the floors. But it had an issue if the floors are of different heights. So the new 2018 update solves this issue and provides us the multi-storey stair for all the floors irrespective of the individual floor height . The best part of this is, it's parametric, i.e., you can change the parameters like height, width, landing length etc., and see all the stairs update along with it. The  information in the help website gives a detailed explanation of the update. The following video tutorial show how to use the feature.

Revit doesn't have a feature that allows us to edit the profile of a curved wall. so if we want to edit the profile of a curved wall, it's very difficult. There are few tricks that can help you with it like attaching the base of wall to a curved roof etc.., But if you ever want to intersect a curved wall with another curved wall, there is only one way possible i.e., creating a straight wall with minimum length beside the existing curved wall, so that it can be perceived as a curved wall. Then we can use the "Edit Profile" option on the straight wall. The following video (at the bottom of post) shows a technique to edit profile of a curved wall in a mass form. The exterior walls of the mass are created using "wall by face" tool. Mass form But the problem with this comes while working on the plan. As seen the curved opening is not straight. So the curved vertical walls in the building tend to project out into the opening. Intersection of cur

If you've ever noticed the options under Massing & Site > Show mass , you might have wondered what the " Show Mass Surface Types & Show Mass Shades & Zones " option are for. Energy Analysis These are used when you are doing the energy analysis of the model. Those options are usually grayed out unless you use the " conceptual mass mode " which is available under Analyze > Energy Analysis > Use conceptual mass mode.  Energy Analysis The following video  from youtube explains how this is done. and this video what's the use of the surface type and zones in the energy model using Schedules & Quantities.

The following post from Addictive tips shows how to enable preview pane in Gmail. Open Gmail in your browser. Click the cog wheel button under your profile picture and select ‘Settings’ from the menu. Go to the ‘Labs’ tab on the Settings page. Look for the Preview Pane experimental feature and enable it. Click ‘Save Changes’ at the bottom of the page and return to your inbox. Preview Pane in Gmail

When you select any object in Revit, it displays temporary dimensions to adjust the distance of the object from its surrounding elements. But by default, the temporary dimensions snap to the centers of the elements But we might need the temporary dimensions to snap to the external faces of the surrounding elements. So to the change the default settings from centers of elements to face, Go to Manage>Additional Setting> Temporary dimensions Temporary Dimensions The following window pops-up where you can adjust the settings Temporary Dimension Properties

There are many softwares for free form modeling or conceptual modeling in architecture like Rhino 3D, Revit, 3ds Max etc..,. But one of the software that is not designed for architects, but can be used in architecture is Fusion-360 . Fusion 360 is mostly used in the field of mechanical & Product Design fields. The fluid modeling tools in Fusion 360 help in modeling cool forms for product designs like cars, furniture etc.., The most prominent feature of Fusion 360 is that it comes with T-Splines by default. For those who don't know T-splines, it is famously used as a plugin for Rhino 3d for converting polygon modeling forms to fluid forms. The Following series from Karam Baki shows how to use Revit, dynamo, Fusion to develop Fluid Forms The following  Playlist  from Omar Mohmoud shows us how to model "Heydar Aliyev Centre" using Fusion 360 & Revit. But the video is in  Arabic The following is a  video  showing the use of T-splines in Rhino

Autodesk Design academy is a website for students interested in learning any Autodesk software. It stores your progress information and ranks you as an expert, Ambassador, or alumni based on your level. The website is mainly tailored fo students. It contains tutorials and assets to download. Becoming a member of Autodesk Design Academy also give you permission to go through the tutorials in Cad-Learning website . Autodesk Design Academy

In Revit massing environment, when the object you selected is not parallel to either of the axis, the gizmo handle will usually be parallel to the objects' local coordinates. So, if you want to toggle from local to world coordinates you just need to press spacebar . Massing- Local v/s World Coordinates The following video  from Lynda shows various ways to manipulate forms in massing environment.  

The Building Performance Analysis Certificate (BPAC) Program is a free, online, self-paced, and on-demand educational program. BPAC uses the latest Autodesk building performance design software tools, integrating performance feedback directly into the design process. It is made up of a series of quizzes and exercises with readily accessible online reference materials. For more details, check out  Introduction to BPAC Video To register for this certification, please go through this link . Once you've registered, you can go to this link  to access the course. Autodesk Building Performance Analysis Certification Website. And this video gives you an overview of what completing the Autodesk BPAC certification could do for you.

One of the best free alternatives to the portfolio publishing website " ISSUU " is " YUMPU ". I switched from Issuu to Yumpu when I found that Issuu no longer supported the flipbook view of the Magazines/Portfolios. It's just a personal preference to be able to view the published portfolio similar to a flip book or magazine format. The best thing I like in Yumpu is that you can even add videos to your portfolios to be viewed or linked to an external source. To do this Hover over your name on any page and go to " My Magazines " which opens the following page My Magazine Click on edit pages, which opens the " hotspot editor " of Yumpu  In the hotspot editor, to your left, you can find various options to  Create internal or external web links, Link to a specific page in a document, Embed youtube, Vimeo or Yumpu video, Embed Audio File, Add a slide show area. Hotspot Editor

Photoshop is a widely used tool for almost all types of design industry. There are lots of people using it who have gained immense knowledge in using it. Some of them are generous enough to offer few library photo packs & cut-outs for free. You can get those in the following links 200 Pople cut-outs for free by Case-3D  can be downloaded from the following link  by Ronen Bekerman Arqui 9  also provides few free photo-packs. This website also has paid cut-outs for interested individuals.

The Speckle website(which is still in beta stage) has few examples of how we can use a grasshopper between multiple desktops for collaboration. Note: this website only works in Mozilla firefox properly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKd0t1SehFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPhiMiivWtM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDbnBnEloI0

Similar to Section & Elevation tags in Revit, you can insert jump node in grasshopper at 2 locations to switch between those 2 views. In the video, if you jump to " 5:53 " in the timeline, you can view the use of jump node.

DesignScript is a software developed by Autodesk that uses programming language for exploratory design and analysis. It is similar to Grasshopper, except it doesn't have any visual coding (nodes), it's totally a programming based application. The following are the introduction tutorials of Design Script Introduction to DesignScript Editor (IDE) DesignScript tutorial The following Webinar by Autodesk Research gives a brief explanation of  Design Script. DesignScript Webinar

If you ever had a need to use points in AutoCAD or had to divide a line, you would've have found there was no change in the viewport, bu the issue is that the points are not visible. You can change the point style in AutoCAD so that they are displayed in a different format. To do that you just have to type DDPTYPE or PTYPE in AutoCAD which pops up the following window of preset point styles, you ca choose from the list of styles. Point style

To create a sectoral cylinder in 3ds max, do the following steps, posted in the AutoDesk forum  post . Create a Primitive Cylinder with Slice On. Set "Slice From" value to 0, and "Slice To" value to 180. for half cylinder & customize these values for your requirement Sectoral Cylinder

3ds Max is one of the most used software for 3d modeling & animation. It has a lot of commands and is very hard to keep track of every command and its use. Gaincr  provides us with a list  of images showing the use of commands for specific purposes. Keyboard Shortcuts for Vertices  Keyboard shortcuts for edges Keyboard Shortcuts for Borders    Keyboard Shortcuts for Polygons Keyboard Shortcuts for the Element Keyboard Shortcuts for Geometry Editing    Keyboard Shortcuts for the Main Toolbar 1 Keyboard Shortcuts for the Main Toolbar 2    Keyboard Shortcuts for the Animation and Navigation Bar    Mouse Shortcuts    Keyboard Shortcuts in the Viewport   Keyboard Shortcuts in the Viewport 2

Autocad is one of the oldest and the most used software in the field of architecture. Autocad has been around since 1982 and has undergone many updates and many commands have been added, according to users suggestions. One of such commands, that is most used in AutoCAD is "OFFSET" Offset command has many added subcommands that can reduce the number of repetitive tasks performed by the users. When you activate the offset command, you can see the list of possible subcommands that can be executed with the offset, in the command line such as multiple, layer. The following link  from Autodesk help website gives us all the possible options that can be executed using offset command Lynn Allen is one of the expert AutoCAD user, who provides tutorials and also speaks in Autodesk university to share her knowledge of AutoCAD. She explains in detail the perks of offset command in her blog .

If you ever want to check what the dimension of an object is going to be when it's printed on a particular scale you set(in layout/paper space), you have to set DIMASSOC values to either 0 or 1. If the value is set to 2, the dimensions display the real scale dimensions of the object in paper space. Please refer the following link from cad-notes for a detailed explanation.

If you're a grasshopper user and are also familiar with 3ds Max or an expert in 3ds Max, you might have wondered at least once if there's a plugin for 3ds max that I similar to grasshopper for rhino. I've been wondering the same and have recently been introduced to a plugin called  Para 3d  by one of my colleagues. Though this is not exactly the same, the features are pretty much similar to grasshopper with few restriction. Parametric array with Para-3d The problem I found with this plugin is that the interface of the windows is not so user-friendly, and the nodes are very confusing, one might easily get lost within the large number of nodes if entire model is built using para-3d You can find an example video below.

Powerpoint provides us with many possible shapes to create and many smart shapes too. We can utilize the smart shapes and customize those to our needs. the following method provides architects with an easy method of creating a bubble diagram for their pre-design stage. This method is very interactive and useful because you can add multiple bubbles that prefer not to overlap and the text automatically changes the size while the shapes and connectors adjust themselves. Bubble Diagram Create a blank page and go to insert tab. Horizontal Hierarchy Click on smart shapes and the select " Horizontal Hierarchy " shape from the "Hierarchy" list You'll page will be filled with the following shapes  Horizontal Hierarchy Click on each of the shapes and right-click for the context menu. Select change shape > oval. Then change the oval shape into a circle by dragging the corners of the shape, like the image below  Bubble diagram If you want to