Top 5 Most Popular Posts Of 2020
Dec 16, 2020
Another year is done. As usual, we’ll start with the most popular posts of the year. Then, you will get the highlights of the year, including my favorite TV show and video game of 2020. Here are the 5 posts written this year that got the most attention:
1- 10 Amazing pyRevit Features to Save Insane Amounts of Time
I am glad this is the #1 post because pyRevit is amazing and it is free. Props to @eirannejad for creating such a mind-blowing tool. The title of the post might seem like clickbait, but you will actually save insane amounts of time :)
2- Top 10 Best New Features In Revit 2021
As always, our recap of the best features in Revit 2021 got a lot of hits. Slanted walls are a cool addition! Although the most helpful feature might actually be the ability to link PDF and raster images.
3- Top 5 Free Add-Ins For Revit
So many great free plugins! Shoutout to DiRoots for creating so many amazing plugins, including SheetLink and FamilyReviser.
4- How To Quickly Create A Pattern In Revit Using pyRevit
The second post about pyRevit in the top 5, you learn how to use the most helpful tool of pyRevit: The Pattern Maker. If you ever lost time using .pat file to create hatches and pattern, this will blow you away.
5- 14 Beginners Tip To Create A Plan View In Revit
Beginners deserve some love! This post is made for them. It includes a free residential template optimized for plan views. Draft a house, no experience required.
Fun fact: the house in the tutorial is actually my new house and new Revit Pure office :)
These are the most popular posts released this year, but the most visited posts are actually from the back catalog. Check out the most popular posts of the year, including posts from any year.
1- 13 Tips To Understand Revit Base Points And Coordinate System
The success of this post underscore how complex the coordinate system in Revit can be. I think this post succeeded in making the topic extremely simple to understand. Good luck.
2- 13 Beginner Mistakes To Avoid In Revit
This post explore the most common mistakes made by beginners, including the infamous “CAD EXPLODE” tool.
3- Comparing 6 Revit Rendering Plugins
To be honest, this post needs an update. But most of the content still stands. You might be surprised whom is the king of rendering plugins :)
4- 14 Tips To Understand Revit Railings
Railings made simple: that’s the goal of this blog post made for beginners. Released in 2017, still among the stars of the blog.
5- 13 Tips To Understand Revit Stairs
The little sister to the post about railings, this guide breaks down stairs for newbies.
General 2020 Stats
Who doesn’t love stats? Check out the numbers for the year:
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435k unique visitors
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863k page views
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389k views on YouTube
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15.9k YouTube subscribers
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488 learning packages sold
It seems Revit Pure is the world most popular Revit blog. Isn’t that amazing?
Teaching at local college
Early in 2020, I had the chance to teach a course at the Cégep de Limoilou, our local college here in Quebec City with a BIM program. They just built a state-of-the-art specialized BIM room to teach and collaborate. It was an amazing experience and I’ll be back in 2021 for a second round.
Livestreams
I’ve been wanting to do livestreams for a while, and this is the year it finally happened. I was part of 2 livestreams with Jeff aka The Revit Kid on his “BIM After Dark Live” series. The first session was about coordinates, the second one was about railings. Check it out:
This week, I finally started my own live show, called BIM Pure Live. It was also about railings, digging deep in the secret options and properties of balusters. Check it out:
Green Friday
Once again this year, we decided to ditch boring black friday and replace it with Green Friday. 25% of the sale profits went to Eden Reforestation Projects. This non-profit hires local villagers in countries facing extreme poverty and deforestation to plant trees. With a donation of $1,269, that’s enough to plant 12700 trees!
To offset the yearly carbon emissions of an average american, you need ±1000 trees. That means this donation is enough to offset the carbon emissions of 12 americans! At the very least, my family is carbon-neutral this year :)
Favorite Game Of The Year
Hades
These days, I don’t get much time to play video games. When I stumbled upon Hades, I was instantly blown away and addicted. You are playing as prince Zagreus, the son of Hades, the god of death. You are trying to escape from the underworld to find your mother. Among the way, you are helped by gods from the greek mythology. The game is considered to be in the "rogue-like” genre, which means every time you die, you start all over again.
The art direction of the game is absolutely gorgeous, and the music has been on my playlist for deep work sessions. Kudos to Supergiant Games!
Click here to learn more about this game.
Favorite TV Show of the Year
The Knick
Ok, this show was actually released in 2014, but I first found about it this year. It is about an hospital in New York City in 1900. It is directed by Steven Soderbergh. We follow a coke addicted surgeon played brilliantly by Clive Owen. The cinematography is gorgeous. I am usually not much interested in medical shows, but the historical aspect clashing with the minimal techno music kept me hooked. You will find the show on HBO.
Click here to learn more about the show
Favorite Book of the Year
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
If you are a casual WW2 nerd like I am, you will love this book. It is about the London bombing raids of 1940 and 1941. It focus on a very specific timeline, with the main protagonist being Winston Churchill. There are certainly links to be made with what unfolded this year with COVID and what the poor Londoners had to endure.
Click here to buy the book on Amazon
Favorite Random Product of 2020
Baffin Cush Boot
The new Revit Pure offices are located just above a garage, meaning the floor tend to be cold-ish during our harsh canadian winters. I spent weeks trying to find a product to warm my eternally cold feet. I found these Baffin cush boots, which are made for winter camping in theory, but are perfectly suitable to chill at home. These are ugly, but incredibly warm and comfortable. They are also waterproof, which means you can keep them to take out the garbage in the winter time :)
Click here to buy the Baffin cush boot on Amazon
What’s coming in 2021?
The Manage package should be released next year. Building new packages is a long and slow process, but I should get there.
I am also working on a “BIM for Dummies” type book with a friend of mine. You should hear about it early next year.
I hope to keep working on new sessions of Revit Pure Live and to bring in interesting guests.
That’s it for now!
Thanks to everybody for the support! Hopefully, 2021 will be an amazing year to all of you.
