Getting ready for 2010 in the Autodesk world

acad2010_shortcuts

Now that the Autodesk 2010 versions are finally available, it is time to get familiar with them. I am particularly looking forward to the new Revit functionality (3D modeling and paneling tools), but there’s far more than that in the Autodesk software roster. Maybe the main change to grapple with is the ribbon menu UI. To help you along with the transition, here are a  few resources that looked useful:

  • Ralph Grabowski from WorldCAD Access just posted a tip on the Acad 2010 Alt-Shortcuts.
  • nichitecture has a great Flash-based visual reference for Revit 2010 called “Where’s my Tool“. You click on a tool in the old interface and it shows you where it is in the new one.
  • David Fano of design.reform has posted several tutorials on Revit 2010. These are mainly about 3D geometry creation and curtain wall panels.
  • Another new and interesting blog is buildz by Zach Kron. His posts (so far) are mainly about modeling, curtain panels and rendering. One of his posts shared a great tip for rendering in Revit: Set the time to midnight, let Revit render the scene and then crank up the exposure. This yields great ambient occlusion renders in Revit.
  • If you want to know more about the background for the new Autodesk UI, read the “Inside the Factory” blog. It explains the thinking behind the recent changes and (as of their latest post) also offers a forum for feedback on UI-related decisions.Here is their video on the new ribbon UI:

  • Finally, if you are a student and haven’t downloaded the 2010 versions yet, then you can do so at students.autodesk.com. It might be a good idea to finish your final projects off first, though. You never know…

Comments and Reactions