Articles and resources to help pass the ARE and thrive in your career

spectacular

A Letter from our CEO & Founder on Building upon the Black Spectacles Mission

A letter from CEO & Founder Marc Teer, FAIA on Black Spectacles' bigger mission: introducing an architecture job board and Spectacular, the...

Pass Practice Management in 30 Days with our Free Day-By-Day Study Guide | PM 30 Day

Master Practice Management with our free 30 day study guide. Including tips from recently licensed architects.

Pass the PDD Exam in 30 Days with our Free Day-By-Day Guide | PDD 30 Day

Pass PDD using our free 30-day study guide. Includes tips from licensed architect and structural engineer.

ARE 5.0

Pass the PPD exam in 25 days with our free day-by-day guide

Download our free ARE 5.0 PPD study guide. This day-by-day guide has links to our PPD video lectures, practice exams, and flashcards.

The Secret to Becoming an Architect Faster

4 tips for becoming an architect faster through your Architectural Experience Program AXP (formerly the IDP) & the Architect Registration Exam (ARE).

The Top 5 Books & Resources Architects Need to Pass the ARE

Resources to pass 7 sections the Architecture Registration Exam- Mechanical Electrical Equipment for Buildings, AIA Handbook for Professional...

Building a Room Tag with Separate Labels – Revit 2016 Free Tutorial

Learn how to build a room tag with separate labels in Revit 2016 in this free Black Spectacles tutorial.

Make Your Renderings Camera Ready

Learn about setting the Camera and Environment Options in Rhino 5 for Vray 3.2 in this free tutorial.

How to Smooth Out Jagged Edges on Diagonals in Vray for SketchUp

Learn about the image sampler and antialiasing settings in Vray 3.2 Sketchup 2016 and Rhino 5 in this free tutorial.

ARE Live: Case Studies on ARE 5.0

This is part 7 of an episode of Black Spectacles' ARE Live podcast on the Architect Registration Exam – case studies, a new question type on ARE 5.0

The Easiest Way to Turn a Surface Into a Solid in Dynamo

Learn about creating a surface by patch, and turning that surface into a solid in Dynamo in this free Black Spectacles tutorial.

Create Polycurves Like a Pro in Dynamo

Learn how to create polycurves and put points on them in Dynamo in this free Black Spectacles tutorial.

Learn a Super Simple Way of Translating Geometry in Dynamo

Learn about number and integer sliders in Dynamo in this Black Spectacles free tutorial.

ARE Live: How Much Does it Cost to Become a Licensed Architect?

In this episode of the ARE Live podcast, Mike Newman walks listeners through the cost of becoming a licensed architect.

Learn How to Use the FilletEdge Command

In this free tutorial you will learn how to use the FilletEdge command. It is part of Black Spectacles’ Architectural Prototyping with Rhino 5 and...

How to Add Realistic Lighting and Shadows to Your 3D Rendering

Learn about creating a daylight system in Vray 3.2 for 3ds Max in this free tutorial.

What Can a Teapot Teach You About Rendering?

Learn how to use VRay Proxy to import geometry from an external mesh through this teapot example in Vray 3.2 for 3ds Max in this free tutorial.

Where can I download free Architecture Software?

Answers to where to download free Autodesk, Adobe, Trimble, McNeel Software for Architecture. Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit, Photoshop, 3ds Max, AutoCAD.