Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Revit 2010 - Family Standards and Best Practices (Paperback) by Shawn Zirbes

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HDDWG2003

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Lee or "HDDWG2003" -

Your response is an incomplete sentence that is unintelligible.  Please respond in a manner that would allow me to understand your intent.  Thank you.

My intent:  To get legitimate responses from members who have had real experience with the paperback book, "Revit 2010 - Family Standards and Best Practices" authored by Shawn Zirbes.  "Real experience":  Having read and/or actually used the book in the creation of families. 

Suggestion to members:  Do not waste other members' time, or more importantly your time, with illiterate responses.

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HDDWG2003

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Lee or "HDDWG2003" -

I offer the following quotation from Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemons) for you to reflect upon:

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." 

Did it not occur to you that if I had the book I would have read it, thus being able to make a determination of its quality on my own?  The reason I am asking for opinions from RevitCity members is in anticipation of purchasing the book.

-OR-

Send me $85.00 and I will purchase the book, read it by " OPEN THE FRONT PAGE AND START READING" and when I am "DONE LET THE REST OF US (you) KNOW HOW MUCH YOU (I) HAVE LEARNED." 

SUGGESTION:  You might just want to cut down on the Frosted Flakes and take a break from Revit.  Were you aware that refined (simple) sugar can cause an increase in delta, alpha and theta brain waves, which can alter the mind's ability to think clearly?

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HDDWG2003

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Thanks for the concern tho.

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mbsteve

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Steve,

 I wholeheartedly agree with you, a good book or tutorial on families in depth is much needed.  Inasmuch as I have not received any reviews of "Revit 2010 - Family Standards and Best Practices" (Paperback) by Shawn Zirbes, I have just gone and ordered it; it should arrive at the end of the month.  At that time I will read it and post a review on this thread.

On another thread at a different site, someone highly recommended the tutorials by Paul Aubin.  I am familiar with Aubin because of his books on various Autodesk programs.  I happen to have Mr. Aubin's "Mastering Revit Architecture 2010" sitting here next to me.  Unfortunately this book does not go into the level of detail on "families" that I would have hoped for, but in defense of Mr. Aubin, "families" would take a book in and of itself to explain.  He is a good author and based upon his books, his tutorials should also be very informative.

Thank you for your response.

John

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mbsteve

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Looking forward to your posting, regarding Shawn Zirbes book on families. I have Mastering Revit Structure by Thomas Weir, it's pretty good but weak in the area of families.

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brettgoodchild

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I have not read the book, but I used to worked with Shawn. He was my supervisor while I worked at the local reseller and I can say that he is one of the best Application Engineers out there. I have nothing to say bad about him at all.

Shawn has done a lot for Revit in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area and most people around here have heard of him or worked with him in some fashion or another.

I plan on getting a copy of the book when I have some spare time to actually read it, but I would imagine that the book will be an excellent source of information.

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SUGGESTION: layoff HDDWG2003.

Why do people get so uptight in these forums? It's just a turn off to posting.

Though his statement was incomplete...I understood what he was saying and I think your reaction was completely uncalled for.

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Brett -

Thank you for your character witness of Mr. Zirbes, he sounds like a quality individual.  As you may have noted, I have already pruchased the book and it is on its way.  I did have a chance to read a few pages and look at the index on Amazon.  Mr. Zirbes strikes me as a very intelligent person and a good writer.  This falls in line with your experience of him.

As to your comment on HDDWG2003 I certainly respect your right to your opinion, but I respectfully disagree.  I read the comment by HDDWG2003 at least six times, having a hard time believing what he was trying to say, and then went to the trouble of having six of my associates, all with university degrees, read the comment and give me their interpretation; all this before responding on this thread.  Unanimously they all said the comment was unintelligible.  When pressed for at least an interpretation of what was being said, it was again unanimous that the interpretation would be: "If you want to know about the book, go read it!"  The overall concensus was the remark was rude, insolent and disrespectful.  You claim to understand what this person was trying to say and I would sincerely like to hear your interpretation.

You and I are in full agreement with the prevalence of insolence on forums throughout the internet.  In fact, I don't usually get involved in forums for this very reason.  However,  I thought that this particular site would have a more intelligent, professionally respectful, and involved base that would refrain from such behavior; I was wrong!  If I could have deleted HDDWG2003's remark, I would have done so in a heartbeat, because it does taint this particular thread.  Inasmuch as it was the first response, I even looked into deleting the thread in its entirety.  One can ruin it for everyone, for as you will note, everyone else on this thread is very sincere, helpful and respectful.  When asked by this Nation to defend the precious liberties it affords its citizens during the time when we were at war in a place called Vietnam, I said yes.  I missed my five year professional degree in architecture graduation from the University of Southern California (USC) because I was being inducted into the armed forces on that day in the Federal Building.  It was an extremely tough decision; my friends were dying in that war, and those that did not die physically, many died mentally, this happened to my best friend.  The reasons given for the war by the leaders of our Nation were unraveling daily, revealing untruths perpetrated on the American public by those in places of responsibility (read In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert McNamara and Brian Van DeMark, McNamara was the architect of the Vietnam War as Secretary of Defense who said in the end,  "None of our allies supported us. Not Japan, not Germany, not Britain or France. If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning."  We were quite literally asked to enter the Gates of Hell on behalf of our Nation.  Now, it breaks my heart that for all of the sacrifice, we have a Nation on the brink of failure due to the tolerance of its citizenry of the ignorance and insolence of its leaders, both public and private.  It is time to unite and speak out against such behavior.  Hopefully it will not be too late.  And no...I will not be treated disrespectfully due to the ignorance or insolence of another; and be assured that I will continue to speak out against it wherever it may arise!

Respectfully,

John

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I DID NOT PUT THAT RIDICULOUS SMILEY FACE IN THE PRIOR RESPONSE.  I THINK I KNOW HOW IT MAY HAVE HAPPENED:  WHEN I PUT THE CLOSE PAREN IN PLACE.  HOWEVER, IT IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF OUR TOLERANCE FOR IGNORANCE!

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brettgoodchild

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Please do not forget that a large majority of us ARE educated...with fancy degrees similar to what you mentioned in your statement.

However, just because we are educated does not mean that we have to we have the right to condemn, demean and belittle, and hold ourselves above ANYONE. If you are so educated, should it not be your responsibility to educate the, as you say, ignorant and better this dilapidated society that you seem to despise so much? Or is it better to just sit there and cut down people, hold them beneath us, ensuring that they remain ignorant so that we may appear as their superior in every way?

If you want an example of this, look in your post where you state that you had 6 of your "associates, all with university degrees, read the comment and give me their interpretation; all this before responding on this thread."I think most people would have simply asked Lee to expand on his comment, which you did, but you sought advice and then deemed him an idiot and stopped just shy of calling him so.And the part that I am confused about is you stated that you stated "When pressed for at least an interpretation of what was being said, it was again unanimous that the interpretation would be: "If you want to know about the book, go read it!"   

So...you are admitting to the fact that you actually DID comprehend what Lee was stating but that you just wanted to call him out, belittle him and publicly make him look like fool...only showing your real intent...that you are smarter than him. Proof of this would be in the sentence immediately following that last statement in which you said "The overall concensus was the remark was rude, insolent and disrespectful." By the way, it is consensus... with an "S"

Seriously?! Please do us all a favor and write a script that notifies RC the next time you are online so we can all pay homage to you.

And please, do NOT speak for me. "You and I are in full agreement with the prevalence of insolence on forums throughout the internet.” I can think for myself, thank you. 

Also, this is more of an FYI kind of thing but I just wanted to let you know that though I appreciate the support for our troops, there is an off topic forum for this kind of thing. Don't get me wrong, I will support our troops to no end, this is just simply a subject not for this forum.

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