Hey Gordon, I forget if I've had a chance to welcome you to the forums, but I'm so glad to see you here.

(sorry to be long-winded, I ramble a bit in this post, so feel free to skim it)

Regardless of how the particulars work out, I think this is a great idea! It is easier said than done of course, only because it's hard to take the time and make the effort for something that most of us here already know or have written extensively about. I posted the North tutorial for the very reason you suggested, but it's one I already had written, so it was pretty easy. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I'm all for accelerating the process - everyone should feel to contribute stuff that they feel like delving into, or maybe something they just have on hand. But I would like to hear what others would suggest of course.

What's tricky, and I'm going to be completely frank about this, and I don't want to sound Machiavellian or anything, but having too much info already available in the beginning is a double-edged sword. You could have a library of all the best material, very few questions would be asked, particularly those who have answers don't really have a reason to visit, then there are very few users around to answer a question when it does get asked, and then there's even less reason to visit, etc. As annoying as it could be that the same questions would get asked again and again on AUGI, it's what kept the site vital... there was a constant replenishment of users moving through the 6 phases of revit (I think I have that around here somewhere, someone will have to post it). So, we want to show new visitors that there are answers to be had here and great info and tutorials, etc., but we also want to encourage questions to keep the cycle moving upward. That's a tricky balance. So, how much do you let this all work out naturally, and how much do you force it?

BTW, the graphics card list would be great, I'd definitely be up to working with you on that, and we could make it a sticky. I'm already working on a more general "Revit Hardware Recommendations" that I should finish up later this weekend.

the 6 phases of a Revit user posted separately.

As a new user of Revit it would be nice to have ALL of the info that I needed at my fingertips when ever I needed it but to me half of the learning experience is seeing the different viewpoints about how to accomplish different tasks. As in that other program there are many ways to skin a cat. Plus I enjoy the relationships that are gained here. I work alone all day. You guys (and gals) are the only ones that keep me company

quantum

Hi Gordon,
this is not a bad idea.
I would be up to help somehow..probably start with rendering area do some research etc. Also, Like may of you, I have a lot of back AUGI stuff saved out as pdfs and am happy to share it with anyone who is interested.
regards
trombe

Trombe, so glad to see you here ! But working on a saturday ? :coffee:

Trombe, I for one would be glad to see any of your stuff here, as your posts always made interesting reading. I think rendering is becoming more and more an industry requirement and to me is one of the hardest disciplines to learn in Revit as everything is trial and error. There is very little literature, tutorials or text on this subject. I am gearing up to putting a lot of time and effort into learning the finer side of rendering in the coming year, so bring it on !!

Hi Munkholm (when you are self employed, everyday can be a work day - lol !) and Mark B - great to see you here Mark, your membership is good to have here too mate no doubt about that. Munkholm, you my friend, have big ones. This is a fantastic way to start again and to see iru69, twiceroadsfool/Aaron, Alfredo, Chadwick17, Dave Jones, eric piotrowicz, Gordon Price and all the other original AUGI community et all here is a really great start.
I wish this venture the 100% success.
I will try harder to help here, here than I did elsewhere.
best
trombe

Iru69, good to see you here too. And Trombe now, and Jeffrey, and Muttlieb and it just keeps getting better!

As for the potential down side of too much info, I totally agree. I think any FAQ should clearly state if something is "new user" oriented or not. Or perhaps ONLY include New User stuff, maybe with nothing more than a mention of the more powerful technique to look into/ask about later. If nothing else, I think having a good FAQ Forum, where one can go to learn that "no, x64 and x32 are not like different builds, but while putting an x64 person on a small project with x32 is fine, the reverse might not be true" might be just the thing. If it is something EVERYONE trips over, we try to address it. The subtleties of approach as you refine your workflow is better addressed in Q&A. Perhaps we need that in a FAQ FAQ.

A Rendering FAQ seems way overdue. Almost everyone I know has burned hundreds of hours rendering at High without any understanding of what variables affect appearance, and at what cost in time. The few who haven't are those who burned all that time years ago learning the ins and outs in Max, but I think the majority of future Revit renders will be done by non specialists, with zero experience, and some basics up front will be huge for them. Just the stuff in the last 2 days about indirect illumination has been very enlightening.

My guess is that six months from now we will have a read only FAQ Forum, with a couple of topics curated by those here who are knowledgeable/passionate, and which have been built (and continue to grow) based on the regular discussion threads that everyone is a part of. In the long run this may actually be better than the history/stickies that we used to have.

Anyway, I am NOT self employed currently, but the weekend is the only time to do the standards review and documentation that must be done by end of year, so off to that. :beer: at 8:00 I hope.

G

Hi Trombe, great to see you here!

I also would like to see people really tackle the rendering issues... for instance, I can get a pretty good exterior rendering, but I struggle a lot to get good interior renderings. Look forward to seeing the collective brain trust at work. Along with having great member forums, revitforum.org could also be known for having a great library of tutorials, guides, FAQ, etc.

When I went to retrieve the "6 phases" doc yesterday, I started looking at my archives of "tutorials" stuff... I have dozens and dozens of of this kind of stuff that I collected from all over the web - much of it now too outdated to be re-posted as-is (not to mention I'd feel a little weird about doing that in mass), but it sure would be great to have something like that here... 

There ar ea lot of topics id be more than happy to handle, since ive written a LOT abotu them before. But, its a very busy few weeks for me. If we get the old data back, ill be able to contribute immediately through copy and paste of my old posts, but regardless.... Topics id love to champion:

Building a Good Template
File Links, By Linked View, Large projects, Annotating through file links etc.
Links versus Groups
Filters and view templates versus Worksets for Visibility