Home

An Owner`s Guide to BIM Civil 3D API Shared

1. 16 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 PY BJP s AAA 7 Zh Ypi aes IA IAS ARMED WITH DYNAMIC POF MARKUP EDITING AN TAKEOFF TOOLS I HAVE THE POWER TO IMPLEMENT PAPERLESS RFX ANU SUBIWTTAL PROCESSES EASILY CREATE PUNGA LISTS ON MY TABLET PC AND COMPARE PDF DRAWINGS WITH THE CLICK OF A BUTTON lt I AM THE NS MORTY SLUEEEAM I AM THE WORLD S GREATEST PAPER f ELIMINATOR JON MY FIGHT AT WWWSTATIONSZ ECOM CS ff Melersler t leac 2010 Bluebeam Software Inc Four Essential Resources for Design Professionals Using Autodesk Applications Autodesk Autodesk Partner Solutions j Partner Solutions Visit www autodeskcatalog com to stay current on news product announcements and information on Autodesk compatible applications Compare product research and read complete feature articles and case studies Time saving answers for design professionals using Autodesk applications www autodeskcatalog com contributed white paper Windows Life without Walls HP recommends Windows Y W TAr x w f TT x wy pt I gt Te g mom E y J p 4 Dp S 4 a F 4 f Aniy ae Gq f g oigz _ N af Sets re tld y E A a y E d 4 ae E US d E ADEN a LS j S W D M AJ E 2e i L A gt ae Offering the solutions excellence and support you need to fuel your success TLL wiii d In a marketplace where eff
2. He has also taught ATP classes for Autodesk User Group Interna tional AUGI Robert has been a speaker at AUGI s CAD Camps Robert served on AUGI s Board of Directors for three years winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 69 Four Essential Resources for Design Professionals Using Autodesk Applications E GARHI Bl an Purchasing guides for CAD professionals Autodesk Serer D f Partner Soluti eee Pa Aute AUGIJAEC EDGE Making an Impression with Expressions www a Bae ae ae og com AECEdge autodesk Meee ee meee Visit www autodeskcatalog com to stay current on news product announcements and information on Autodesk compatible applications Compare product research and read complete feature articles and case studies Time saving answers for design professionals using Autodesk applications www autodeskcatalog com AUGI AUGI CAD Camp will bolster your skills in one day Take your career to the next level by attending AUGI CAD Camp 2010 During one day of intense training and invaluable networking you ll discover how to instantly impact your productivity Learn from the industry s best Autodesk instructors Receive serious educational instruction Get a closer look at innovative new technology And take your career from the trailhead to the summit Join us for AUGI CAD Camp 2010 For more information visit www augicadcamp com Windows Life without Walls
3. There are many external tools to perform analysis on various sys tems for a building This is good as long as the required information from the building can be easily and reliably exported to the exter nal applications and the data from the analysis can be imported back into the BIM Both applications utilize spaces to describe the features of rooms and large areas Creating spaces can be done automatically but there is a distinct advantage for Revit rooms are far more easily discovered since rooms are an element in the architects model However when the architect is not careful enclosing rooms Revit can create many sliver spaces when automatically creating spaces So the process is not perfect in either application Round tripping the data can be an issue in either application but there is an advantage to AutoCAD simply due to the maturity of the product Many vendors have had AutoCAD based applications for years whereas Revit is relatively new to these same vendors Scheduling the data in the model is available in both applications There are advantages and disadvantages in both applications due to their approach AutoCAD s PSD offer a way to attach data to most parts of the model that can also be used in schedules but this means that PSD must be attached to objects within the model see Figure 2 for a sampling of AutoCAD s parameters MEP Preset elevation Extended Data E ae Design eae amps oO Paneltype AN
4. r COU AUGI ipo Ler Group winter 2010 CIVIL CROSS DISCIPLINE ARCHITECTURE STRUCTURE MEP ENGINEERING L 00 Workstation A l l o Q T N Windows Life without Walls HP recommends Windows 7 With its revolutionary new architecture and power that will redefine application performance the HP Z400 Workstation helps you accomplish more with every minute of your time and every dollar of your investment e Take on bigger challenges run more tasks and applications with new Intel Xeon processors featuring Intel QuickPath Technology Intel Turbo Boost and Intel Hyper Threading With a smart new easy to service chassis optional liquid cooling ENERGY STAR qualified configurations and quiet operation that blends unobtrusively into your work environment the HP Z400 Workstation showcases HP innovation inside and out a powertul new architecture that helps you accomplish more with every minute Leverage HP s unique Personal Productivity Tools e Built in HP SkyRoom collaboration and video conferencing solution e HP Performance Tuning Framework Partner relationships meticulous testing and unparalleled lifecycle support e Professional graphics from NVIDIA and ATI e Close relationships with Autodesk ensures that HP Workstations are fully certified and optimized e In depth testing and quality assurance keep you productive Windows 7 systems may require upgraded
5. Clipped Unclipped Project Survey Point Moving an unclipped survey point moves only the survey point relative to the shared coordinate and the project coordinate systems Moving a clipped survey point repositions the shared coordinate system relative to the model geometry and the project co ordinate system E Project coordinates donot change for Project coordinates do not change for the model elements the model elements E Shared coordinates change for the E Shared coordinates do not change for model elements the model elements E Only the shared coordinates of the survey point itself change Figure 12 Help file contents for Survey Point clipping DOWNLOAD THE DATASET This article is meant to stand on its own You can download the class material to do the tutorial apart from the AU Online session Use this web address to download the content for this article http www augiaecedge com Downloads AUTODESK UNIVERSITY 2009 ONLINE CONTENT Autodesk University website address is http au autodesk com The address for my session at AU Online is http au autodesk com nd class amp session_id 5337 The class description and number are AB9114 1 Autodesk Revit Collaboration Shared Coordinates for Projects Big and Small You can download the watch the video online or download it de pending on your access to AU Online You have to register first and may have to able to prove that you are a subscription
6. d I T j i E z w 7 a z T E E g J I J Figure 4 Acoustic Simulation with Autodesk Ecotect Not only do these examples lessen the redundant tasks but the owner receives more value by allowing different analyses to be per formed by transferring the data This can be especially true where multiple iterations ofan analysis are repeated and refined at various stages of the BIM lifecycle BIM BENEFITS Here are some of the benefts that an owner can realize from a BIM project Afford a high degree of analysis of building systems alterna tive materials equipment and technologies which leads to more informed decision making Compress the time required to respond to owner s questions with a high degree of confidence in the response Catch and resolve constructability issues Reduce contractor uncertainty which leads to a more accurate cost picture and more consistent bids Help the project team develop a practical and cohesive phasing plan Reduce overall project delivery time during the design phase as well as the construction phase Increase overall accuracy of project documentation Facilitate the analysis of sustainable design alternatives and cost comparisons Make accurate and timely information readily accessible to team members at multiple locations including the construction site Provides a pathway to improved asset management Provides a mechanism for improved building and
7. users is more and better site tools Eagle Point hopes to be that more and better Here s a snippet from their website that describes its intentions LANDCADD for Revit is designed to offer Architects Landscape Architects or Designers functionality within Autodesk Revit Architecture to produce a landscape design fully integrated into the project By accessing a wide range of searchable plants you are able to customize planting families and then use the LANDCADD tools to locate trees shrubs flowers or ground covers into the model You are also able to layout other landscaping features such as paths or patios and not only obtain areas but also a takeoff of the material Learn More URL http www eaglepoint com solutions work flow office landscape landcaddforrevit asp LANDCADD for Revit from Eagle Point 52 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 AUTODESK LABS ALIAS SKETCH FOR AUTOCAD PLUG IN The folks at Autodesk Labs introduce something just about every week and sometimes every day They recently made sketching easy in Auto CAD They built a free plug in based on the Alias product s technology The formal product descrip Dressing up a drawing in AutoCAD tion is Alias Sketch for using the new Sketch Add in available AutoCAD Here sa sneak at Autodesk Labs peak of the finished sketch Alias Sketch for AutoCAD at Autodesk Labs URL http labs autodesk com utilities alias_ske
8. I take a breath and start my final points To be honest BIM has changed the game You don t just need a bigger stick in this fight you need a whole new arsenal Revit can be that secret weapon it s time to pick it up and use it Point one made I walk across the room taking in people s reaction The tool is pointless without the people you know this The true difficulty is convincing people to use the tool Nods and huffs of approval tell me I ve struck a chord I took team members to lunch and while eating I listened to them I make quotation marks in the air I finish Because I listened to them I knew their pain I addressed their pain and provided a solution Find what ails the heart and fix it everything else is simple after that I didn t expound anymore I just left it at that and we all went home I will close with a recap of the BBQ on an August afternoon The BBQ was amazing the project was moving along nicely The team was happy with the implementation process I d like to think they were sad to see me go It took months of lunches and conversations to get to this level of relationship I lived a lesson during this project how to connect I heard what their problems were with the project office politics the process and every other thing we could talk about There were conversations of family there was sharing of dreams and hopes and there was talk of weekends and leisure In the end th
9. ditch the trainer Seek out an implementation strategy that is best suited to your firms needs Buy your product at the best price but negotiate your training implementation proposal s If they cannot offer a service that is suited to your needs then reconsider your reseller or investigate other training avenues IMPLEMENTATION IMPLEMENTATION IM PLEMENTATION You may spend a few more project fees on this exercise but it will be well worth it in the end If you can tie a professional BIM implementer into your project from the beginning you will be able to plan that long overdue family vacation In the case of smaller firms you could at the least quadruple your intake of work DO NOT over complicate the program It is written the way Architects amp Engineers think I have been con fronted by multitudes of practices that always say the same thing In our office we do things differently REALLY Think about that statement A wall is a wall a window is a window explore these in BIM and you will be surprised Be open willing to adapt and consider change This is the best time to realise that your title block contained notes that are out dated irrelevant and full of spelling mistakes If the section head looks slightly different yes you can change it but maybe think about a new standard Keep current with program updates Don t go back The easiest way to forget learning a new language is not to pract
10. feet of overall elevation there are nine 9 distinct finish floor elevations between these two existing buildings 28 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 A E Gos Disapline The addition doubles the existing footprint of the church adding a classroom wing a huge worship space and an atrium At least for our new addition we are sticking to 15 floor to floor heights Later I ll explain how this created shall we say a learning opportunity The nightmare gets worse The new addition will have to match the existing limestone weight is sues fa ade and have a central stair elevator core to provide access to all three buildings and their disparate floors Put another way the original church has a beautiful bell tower and we re building a matching one with an elevator in it THE TEAM The project team was a ten person Revit team as well as en gineers overseeing the Structure and MEP disciplines The two Architects assigned to the project already had Revit knowledge and they were responsible for moving the project though preliminary design using Revit Although there were two structural drafters who are supposed to be on the proj ect we lost one to another project One gentleman did all the mechanical another all the plumbing and lastly we had a young hotshot for electrical Everyone except the electrical hotshot on the project is both well established in this office and their careers There were also three inte
11. 2010 Update 1 http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 137605206linkID 9240618 Regapp ID Cleanup Utility for AutoCAD 2010 http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13723477 amp linkID 9240618 Scale List Cleanup Utility for AutoCAD 2010 http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13723349 amp linkID 9240618 FLEXnet Licensing Hotfix for 64 bit Windows http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13401936 amp linkID 9240618 Register Today Proxy Licensing Hotfix http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13589717 amp linkID 9240618 Startup Error and Text Editing Hotfix http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13465367 amp linkID 9240618 Raster Design 2010 Hotfix for Licensing and Civil 3D Feature Update http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13435443 amp linkID 9240618 CIVIL 3D TOP KNOWLEDGE BASE ISSUES Displaying Contours Causes a Crash http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp d 14436259 amp GlinkID 9240697 Metric Points Show in Feet http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 144365896linkID 9240697 Linetype Scale MSLTSCALE and PSLTSCALE http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 14437056 amp linkID 9240697 Labels Rotated Only in Viewport http usa
12. AEC for redlining PDF drawings and other project documents LASTING IMPRESSIONS While Bluebeam PDF Revu CAD Edition certainly isnt new to AEC it IS new to Revit I look forward to taking my test drive of Revu 8 to full speed and getting to use it throughout an entire project My overall impression is that it is definitely a good value especially given Bluebeam s eight year track record for providing high quality PDFs from AutoCAD Now they are bringing their experience and quality to Revit 2010 users Bluebeam PDF Revu CAD Edition sells for 199 per seat as of this writing Considering how it is custom tailored for CAD and Revit it is priced competitively against other PDF options I encourage you to take advantage of their free 30 day trial It is available at their website www bluebeam com David received his Bachelor s of Architecture degree from the California State Polytechnic University Pomona in 1990 Since then he has been working for various firms specializing in the design and con struction of high tech research and manufacturing facilities as well as upper educational facilities He currently works in the upper education division of Gkkworks in Irvine California winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 37 Civil Engineering by Christopher Fugitt Civil 3D API Where to Look to Get Started oe 3D comes with an Application Pro C semmis Interface API for short allowing for the customization of
13. CONTENT AND REVIT MEP 66 CLASH OF THE MEP TITANS DEPARTMENTS 13 CONTRIBUTED WHITE PAPER How to Help Simplify Sustainable Design Analysis with BIM Philip Membreno Technical Marketing Manager for Architecture and Sustainable Design Autodesk Inc 18 CONTRIBUTED WHITE PAPER HP and Autodesk Offering the solutions excellence and support you need to fuel your success Autodesk Inc 36 PRODUCT REVIEW Bluebeam PDF Revu Plug in for Revit 2010 40 AUGI LOCAL CHAPTER FOCUS Focus 2010 52 INSIDE TRACK AUGI AEC EDGE brings you recent developments in Autodesk and AEC related software items 59 HEAD S UP HEAD S UP Updates Service Packs and Top Known Issues obtained from product pages at Autodesk com Cover image The future Malibu High School California designed by HMC Architects rendered using 3DS Max Design Autodesk AutoCAD Autodesk VIZ Autodesk Architectural Desktop Autodesk Revit Autodesk Building Systems Autodesk MapGuide Autodesk Civil Design Autodesk Inventor and DWF are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk Inc in the U S A and or in certain other countries All other brand names product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders AUGI AEC EDGE www augiaecedge com www autodeskcatalog com aecedge Publisher Karen Popp kpopp extensionmedia com Editor Stephen Stafford steve stafford augi com Contributing Writers Paul Aubin Bob Bell Sean Burke Er
14. Civil 3D If you are starting out with customization it can be a bit daunting on finding where to start With the available resources available you can learn to harness the Civil 3D API to become more efficient and reduce repetitive work VISUAL BASIC FOR APPLICATIONS VBA While VBA is being deprecated an appropriation of the word by software developers to characterize it as obsolete or soon to be obsolete it does have the most examples available The examples that come with Civil 3D are located in this folder C Program Files x86 AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Sam ple Civil 3D API COM Vba Included in this location are examples for most of the ma jor objects in Civil 3D Alignment Corridor Parcel Pipes Profiles Sections Surface Op erations Surface Points Surface Working Planes and Survey While not every method or prop erty has an example it does show the basics in working with the Civil 3D API Ain CAD Crd 30 User s Guide AutoCAD Crd J Workdiow Guide The Help documentation see MagLAD Ona 30 Tutoriais Figure 1 provides a listing of the methods and properties of the various Civil 3D objects in the AutoCAD Civil 3D ActiveX API Reference Additional help is in cluded in the AutoCAD Civil 3D Developer s Guide Arieh Vaud Hap NET NET appears to be the wave of the future for AutoCAD prod ucts Civil 3D is no exception Ive read and heard from more than one person that if you are starting out cu
15. DIscl pl INe by Mike Hardy Brown You bought your BIM software NOW WHAT THE DEAL More than likely to sweeten the deal the re seller that sold you the software offered some free training sessions Sorry but you ll need more than a free session or two because the shift from 2d to BIM is a lot bigger than the common sales pitch portrays You may have been promised that at the click of a mouse you can convert your 3d model into final construction documentation Guaranteed as part of your free training session s you were probably given step by step tutorials that seem extremely easy they just work Unfortunately this is a further market ing exercise or over simplification intended to convert you to BIM At the end of the day the person that needs to bid and then build your project may not be amused by just get ting a multitude of schedules or 3d perspectives They still need easy to read construction documentation Having been in this situation before while working in several architectural firms it is easy to see how the sales pitch can encourage you to believe that it is easy to convert your entire office to using BIM This is the problem It is NOT that easy Significant change rarely is A LITTLE STORY We all know the hammer is quite useful Consider though that used incorrectly the hammer could be quite a counter productive tool Imagine a guy introducing a hammer to his friend Unfortunately this guy doesn t u
16. Ee ka e Lra a EE ee ie ee Be i eb oe Pes m F e i M LE e i Ai LE idies bharg Eten Lar EE Pr epp uon 7 ee r Emms ad r Ff ia i Je a eet d mn Bee j Ss hommes hanes Parma h fee nen Ferer of Maen ional See u SG aj om gt 2 os ee eee a a imm imm mm L a __ ee See oe meee m oe ce ee bee d B i I _ i ij m Ga ram di prar I T ra 5 a ar ii H Fa 1 z namn aE i m E il a ae 1 See a E ih hk a a e ih ry Le Gi F as FHE Figure 2 Architects and engineers use the Green Building Studio web based service to perform whole building energy water and carbon analysis winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 13 contributed white paper Design decisions made early in the process can deliver sig nificant results when it comes to a building s performance Developing and evaluating multiple early design alternatives help you make comparisons and as a result better sustain able design decisions NORTH OFFICES NW OFFICE ml SORRIDOR PN OS i Figure 3 Keep your model as simple as possible by focusing only on major spaces and combining smaller spaces that represent key programmatic requirements of the project Energy analysis requires spatialinformation to simulate energy movement in out and through the rooms and volumes within a building Which surfaces are on the outside and exposed to sunlight What are the size an
17. Go down to Structural Framing Here are many many category slots for framing The difference is that we are not looking at the beam in a coarse detail level The main Structural Framing Projection line weight is the one we need change it to pen 4 and black as well But we do see 2 beams here and one is in section Ihe Cut line weight needs bumping up as well to pen 7 0 45mm Figure 4 The corrected section components are clear now As you can see in Figure 4 the various components that make up the steel and deck are significantly more pronounced Are we done for sections Not really in fact more can be done now for this model itself And we do have another section in this model and Figure 5 shows the problem We modified the Object Style for floors but in the section we looked at the parallel condition was not visible In Figure 5 we have other layers in the floor system to correct Back to the Object Styles dialog and expand Floors Now depending on your graphic winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 55 structure standard you might run into software control limitations you can t always do everything you want I know the magenta line is incorrect and I know from experience that it is the Common Edge Cut between the deck and the slab So we will bump that to pen 4 and black I would prefer that the thin line just below the common edge be hidden I have yet to find a way to do that m hes hy Fig
18. It is important to keep in mind though when taking the route of multiple templates a strategy is re quired on how to keep all of them in sync An alternate solution to creating multiple project templates is to create Source files Source files are created on top of the base project template but are filled with information families views etc that are focused on a specific market sector or build ing system For instance a Health Care focused source file or a Partition Types and Details source file Underlying information native to the project template does not need to be updated text types title blocks shared parameters what not rather only the market system information need be kept updated Revit tools Transfer Project standards and Insert View From File can be used to move the data from the source file into a new project There are a couple of caveats and limitations to this approach the biggest of which is the inability to transfer Legend views from file to file MAKE YOUR USER S LIVES EASIER One of the key things a person can do when customizing devel oping a Revit project template is to leave good defaults Good default settings make it seamless and easy for users to quickly begin their project and move forward with the development of the design and documentation For instance in your template create a Grid line depending on how much testing you have done in the process of making the template the gird line may auto number
19. Sample Regen BD View BI Ble os ela dor Messen melem eee ae e 5 g g Y G ire Dg a G Wr Eh g Figure 1 Relocating a Plan Symbol Without Disturbing the 3D Mode 66 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Tagging parts in Revit is limited compared to AutoCAD which is ironic given the promise of BIM Revit s current downfall is that only shared parameters may be tagged and or scheduled Any pa rameters for a part should be able to be shown in a schedule since the data exists in the model 3D MODELS AND PARAMETRICS Creating 3D models of objects in either application can be called a tie but manipulating a placed instance of a part with 3D elements is easier in Revit he tools to create 3D primitives are similar in each application However Revit offers a direct link between a primitive s dimensions and parameters This is what makes creat ing 3D models in Revit easier than in AutoCAD AutoCAD 2010 s Constraint feature offers hope that future releases of AutoCAD MEP will also provide such a direct link between the model and its Property Set Data PSD Parametrics are better in Revit AutoCAD s PSD can use VB Script to change data based on other parameters but PSD cannot directly alter the model itself Revit directly supports formulas in its parameters and can affect the representation of the model Grade Card AutoCAD MEP Revit MEP BIM IS ALSO ABOUT ANALYSIS
20. a view is activated One event that I have found invaluable is the DialogBox Showing event When using the Revit API to update a beam or column size using a family that is already loaded i e W Wide Flange but a size that is not already loaded in the model i e W8X13 Revit displays the dialog box shown in Figure 3 to the user Family Already Exists You are trying to load the tamily W Wide Flange which already exists in this project What do you want to do Overwrite the existing version Overwrite the existing version and its parameter values Cancel Click here to learn more Figure 3 Dialog for Error Handling For an application like SI Xchange which updates element sizes in Revit from a STAAD Pro model this message could come up numerous times if sizes are not pre loaded meaning the import process is suspended until the dialog is dismissed To make the process go more smoothly I created an option in SI Xchange to have this dialog automatically dismissed Then I subscribed to the DialogBoxShowing event with the code snippet as shown in Figure 4 Figure 4 Code Snippet for Dialog Event Management First the code checks to see that the option to automatically dismiss the dialog has been selected and that this is during an Import since this isn t an issue when exporting from Revit Then it checks if the dialog is a Task Dialog by ensuring that its HelpId is 1 Lastly it tests that the dialog is
21. a whole lot more I m no stranger to Bluebeam and their PDF solutions for the archi tecture engineering and construction AEC industry In fact I was an early beta tester of Bluebeam back in 2002 when the company first released a PDF plug in for converting AutoCAD drawings to PDF Although many designers have migrated from 2D AutoCAD drawings to 3D Revit files PDF s value has not declined After all almost everyone has a PDF reader This makes it an ideal file for mat when distributing design data to project partners who do not have access to BIM and CAD applications and viewers These days it certainly makes better economic and environmental sense to ex change PDF documents whenever possible than it does to print and ship large format drawings Having used Revit for many years I was excited to hear that Bluebeam was releasing a PDF plug in for Autodesk s BIM software When I was presented with the opportunity to not only get an early glimpse at the new version but to also share my thoughts in this article I gladly said yes What follows are the first three impressions I had about their integration into Revit and the other features that Bluebeam PDF Revu provides for an entire project team from design to bid to build IMPRESSION 1 IT S SMART TO TRUST A PLUG IN INSTEAD OF USING A PRINTER DRIVER Creating a PDF document with Revit via a printer driver works but has drawbacks For example Revit s Print to PDF option will creat
22. administrative tasks include providing a consistent user interface and supporting roaming us 68 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 a ers Any application installed in a corporate environment should be able to work in a limited user rights situation AutoCAD s maturity shines in this area AutoCAD can be config ured to pull 100 of its content from the network without issue AutoCAD follows Microsoft s guidelines for software installations that work when a user is a limited user rather than a power user Sadly the same thing cannot be said about Revit Revit also utilizes an INI file to store application related data To be blunt this file must die The INI file mixes application specific data with user specific data making it nearly impossible to deploy updates to the corporate items without stomping on the uset related data Updates to applications should be easy for a network administrator to deploy Both applications update current installations in similar ways but AutoCAD has a distinct advantage in applying updates to the deployment package for new installations AutoCAD s up dates can be merged in the deployment whereas Revit s must be appended to the deployment Grade Card CONCLUSION AutoCAD s maturity is both its strength and its weakness Auto CAD has an edge in most categories due to its being around long enough to have worked out many of the kinks Revit suffers for the same rea
23. civil 3D reminders bttp blog civil3dreminders com winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 39 AT AUGI Local Focus 2010 Editors Note This section will be dedicated to introducing our readers to a Local Chapter Local Chapters are the physical side of the organization Many members carry on real friendships and relationships via the website but they may never actual meet each other face to face or shake one anothers hands Our Lo cal Chapters on the other hand are real face to face and every bit as important to the organization as a web site In contrast many of the members of a Local Chapter may rarely interact with each other on the web The ideal situation we believe is when our members find a balance between our real and virtual presence as a resource Some members dont have an option to attend a Local Chapter meeting because one doesnt exist near them This is an opportunity to start one and the AUGI web site is the place to find some resources and to ask for help We hope you can connect with a Local Chapter and if not maybe you are the right person to start one If youd like your chapter included in an article like this one in the future just send me an email steve stafford augi com Chapters COMMUNITY As expressed in the Annual Meeting in De cember AUGI will be devoting a significant amount of effort in reconnecting with the Local Chapters The physical community is a vital part of the AUGI c
24. col umn and then click the Delete button Click OK to confirm Click the Add Column button and choose the new FireRating property you created Edit the Heading as desired and use the Column Position controls at the bottom to locate it relative to the other columns To see the result of this you have to edit you Wall styles and be sure that the WallStyles Property Set is as signed on the General tab Input a value for the FireRating property in each Wall style Want to combine both tips No problem return to Style Manager and create a List Definition for Fire Ratings Input several default values in the list Then assign it to the WallStyles FireRating Property Finally if you want to add more nuance to the solution you can create a formula that assigns a 90 minute Door to a 2 Hour Wall This re quires the use a Formula Property Definition another very useful type of property which is sadly out of the scope of this article LOCATION PROPERTIES Anchor Properties provide a nice way for one object to query and report the values of the properties of another objet like our Door asking the Wall it s fire rating above There are other ways that objects can ask one another about their properties The Location Property is another such example With the Location property an object can query a nearby Space object about its properties The best example of this is found in the out of the box Door Schedule Project Based In th
25. customer otherwise you might have to consider paying to have access to this class and many others Steve Stafford has been a returning speaker at Autodesk University since 2004 as well as the Australian Revit Technology Conference in 2006 and 2009 RTC He started using Autodesk Revit in 2002 He is a well established Revit con sultant and is currently the CEO of his frm AEC Advantage Inc He is very active in the Revit com munity at large He was an early member of the Revit community forum at Zoogdesign and he now serves as the Revit forum manager for the Autodesk User Group International AUGI Revit Community as well as serving on the AUGI board of directors from 2006 08 He created writes and manages three Revit blogs www Revitoped com www revitinside com and www revitjobs com He cur rently lives in Southern California with his wife and two children You can reach Steve via email steve aecadvantage com DEPT OF ERRORS ASSERT YOURSELF Have you seen this message I ve been seeing it lately in conjunction with middle mouse use and having my computer connected to a projector I don t recall seeing it in other circumstances Abort Retry Ignore clear Failed line 0 If you have I d be curious what the circumstances have been post a comment I find that if I click Retry that Pean at ledst saye the file Ultimately l nave to chick Abort and accept that RAC RST or RME will have to close At least I
26. design print was difficult winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 29 Cress Disdotire Pe Without linked files Plan Regions and clear guidelines we wouldn t have been able to produce a decent set of plans LESSON LEARNED LINKED FILES AND TAGGING In Revit you can link files What I ll point out is this you cannot Tag though linked files Our project has the existing buildings as one Revit model and the new addition is another model The existing building s project is linked into the new addition file We print from the new addition project There are rooms in both project these rooms needed to be tagged Understanding and managing the process of tagging with linked files was critical for us to clear a major hurdle In the linked Existing project we created views to be used for printing in the New Addition file These views for printing would be annotated completely in the Existing proj ect Set this up correctly and voila reload the link and the annotation appears in the New Addition LESSON LEARNED PLANNED REGIONS Without this tool overall floor plans and reflected ceiling plans for this project could not have been printed Once youve learned Planned Regions consider the following situation There are thirteen 13 levels over forty five 45 feet Our overall sheets were destined to have problems Re vit sees Floor plans and RCPs like this Top of the view is at one height 7 6 the botto
27. entertainment industries More than nine million users e Innovation Enjoy next generation technology rely on Autodesk tools to help them design visualize including a new line of 2D and 3D graphics cards and simulate real world performance early in the to help you create and visualize even the most design process saving time and money enhancing complex designs Energy efficient solutions like quality and speeding innovation HP WattSaver when activated help lower energy we HP works with Autodesk as its top hardware partner consumption in off mode to offer our combined customers a comprehensive e Performance Get maximum compute and portfolio of solutions that address their needs with visualization power to help speed your work and innovative hardware and software that is tuned and beat deadlines and expectations At the heart of HP integrated Our close relationship and engineering Z Workstations are the new Intel Xeon processors expertise help ensure solutions that perform not only with Intel QuickPath Technology with integrated today but into the future memory controller Intel Hyper Threading3 Technology and Intel Turbo Boost Technology The HP Z Workstation cooling design enhances this performance 18 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Windows Life without Walls HP recommends Windows Autodesk and HP have partnered to provide unparalleled design solutions to our customers in the
28. equipment maintenance TEAMING METHODOLOGY The use of BIM is dramatically changing the way consultants are ex ecuting work When utilizing BIM detailed collaboration happens sooner in the project life than it would with traditional CAD A significant amount of each team member s work plan is shifting into the schematic design phase A growing number of projects utilize some form of design build project delivery such as integrated project delivery Integrated Project Delivery IPD is a reinitialized method of project partnering that utilizes the talent experience and input of all team members to obtain the best results This method increases value for the owner by reducing waste and optimizing efficiency Case Study Structural Analysis and Assembly Evaluation Structural Design and Analysis When properly implemented and utilized IPD for structural engineers is a valuable tool The owner engineer contractor and fabricator recognize immediate returns when utilizing IPD When all of the various team members on a project work together as a team even if they are from different companies and share information electronically everyone benefits The most notable benefits are that the information exists only once and the potential time savings that can be realized during the con struction phase The time savings is a direct result of sharing the structural model see Figure 5 with the fabricator The shop draw ings are then started earl
29. information contained herein The AUGI AEC Edge Magazine is Copyright 2009 AUGI No information in this magazine may be reproduced without expressed written permission from AUGI All registered trademarks and trademarks included in this magazine are held by their respective companies Every attempt was made to include all trademarks and registered trademarks where indicated by their companies www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Four Essential Resources for Design Professionals Using Autodesk Applications E GARHI Bl an Purchasing guides for CAD professionals Autodesk Serer D f Partner Soluti eee Pa Aute AUGIJAEC EDGE Making an Impression with Expressions www a Bae ae ae og com AECEdge autodesk Meee ee meee Visit www autodeskcatalog com to stay current on news product announcements and information on Autodesk compatible applications Compare product research and read complete feature articles and case studies Time saving answers for design professionals using Autodesk applications www autodeskcatalog com Editor s Note WELCOME BACK Welcome to our third issue for January Febru ary March 2010 the Winter Issue The New Year has brought a new level of scrambling to get things accomplished The authors that con tribute to this magazine are all getting very busy again heir employers are securing more work and they don t have as much time to write fo
30. is still using a previous release or is lucky enough to use the metric system Keep in mind that even though you may still have to use an earlier release for your current projects you can still use Revit 2010 to run through these exercises The full session at AU Online has two sections Small Project and Big Projects This article is focused on the more complex approach for big projects GET STARTED For the sake of this session let s define a large project as one that in volves more than one building on the same site It has little to do with size as much as complexity More buildings on the site will require more coordination and a good chance for even more volatility when it comes to changes It does not mean that you must have more than one building to document to use this technique This would work just as well for a single building project In fact I preferred using this approach for all the projects I ve worked on This tutorial will use a separate file for the site and separate files for each building model Step One Examine the Survey File Step Two Create and Prepare the Site Project File Step Three Import the Survey File and Define Coordinates Step Four Import and Position a Building File Step Five Check the Results Look at the Building File Step Six Change the Building Location Step Seven Place a Copy of the Building STEP ONE EXAMINE THE SURVEY FILE This is important because you must fi
31. level where you want to add rooms select the room object from the Home tab and click in the center of the area where you want to define a room Revit Architecture then highlights all the bounding walls that make up the room boundaries for that new room Properly position the room object in the model and make sure that the room is high enough to touch a bounding surface If your room object is not touching the entire roof or ceiling in the room then not all of that roof or ceiling is exported to gbXML To check a room object s height enable the Interior Fill for Rooms to be visible and then view the room object in section If the room object isn t high enough select the room object and then the Properties menu item Change the Upper Limit to the level of the roof or ceiling and add a Limit Offset Add Remove Finish Cancel Space Space Properties Editing Zone Editing Zone Edit Zone Edit Zone dit Zone contributed white paper if necessary to increase the room object height and enclose the entire roof REVIT MEP MODEL DEVELOPMENT Unlike Revit Architecture Revit MEP software does not require the definition of rooms for successful analysis with Ecotect Analysis However Revit MEP models must have space and HVAC Zone objects defined You must manually add space objects to your model and only surfaces in contact with the space object are exported to gbXML By default Revit MEP will automatically create one HVAC Zone f
32. multi disciplinary try extending the interviews to other offices or departments To make the first gathering of information as non confronta tional as possible you can try using a survey or a form letter In this way everyone will understand that all the questions have been distributed equally and are not concentrated on them The responses you get will allow you to refine the ques tions and ask new ones when it is time to do the next round of interviews and to help guide the lab and exam work THE EXTERNAL EXAM In a forensic autopsy the medical examiner uses the external exam to collect evidence from the clothing and body and to record abnormalities in the outward appearance The evi dence is carefully documented with photos then bagged and tagged for future reference Similarly the BIM external exam does not review just the model itself rather the deliverables used to bid the project The deliverables could be in the form of printed drawings or electronic format such as pdf or dwf There are a few major points that should be on this review Did the contractor have adequate and correct information to bid and or construct the project Did the drawings match the expectations set forth by the office s drawing standards Are there any printing or line weight issues Do the components adequately display in the various views plan elevation section The review should be done by an experienced and impartial reviewer o
33. need the detail that Inventor needs Please be advised there was a known issue with the ADSK file that Inventor exports and the ability for Revit to import data Recently a Hotfix for Inventor around this issue was released Once the Hotfix is installed Inventor users will be able to export an ADSK file from Inventor and Revit users will be able to import it directly into Revit without problems The hotfix can be downloaded from http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteI D 123112 amp id 131058 18GlinkID 9242019 A building component ADSK file provides the following in formation to aid in the design process Physical appearance of the component in views such as 3D which lets you determine clearance for accurate placement Connectors and their placement Note Although conduit and cable tray connectors are displayed in the Autodesk Inventor Translation report they are not imported into Revit Architecture Data about the component such as its identity data Opening or loading an ADSK file automatically creates a family from the category that is based on the OmniClass assignment made on export You can also save the ADSK file as an RFA file Click the Revit icon gt Save As gt Family which lets you create a family that can be used in multiple projects Workflow for using an ADSK file in Revit 1 Download the building component ADSK file from the manufacturer s website 2 To open the ADSK file in Revit A
34. nic State University San Luis Obispo Christopher maintains and authors the Civil 3D Reminders blog at http blog civil3dr eminders com Gradings for small commercial lots is primarily used to grade the parking portion of commercial lots Temporary gradings are used to derive elevations for feature lines Once the elevations are found they are modified to finalize the design Additionally if the site lends itself a temporary grading will be used from the building pad to derive el evations for sidewalk elevations For large subdivisions gradings are primarily used for daylight grading Feature lines or polylines with elevation are used for the lot pads For the roadways Corridors are used and then pasted into the composite finish grade surface On top of that has civil 3d saved you money or caused you to increase the cost of projects What has been the positive and negatives points about Civil 3d This is really a question about how well a person knows Civil 3D and how to apply the tools available to reach the end goal Take for instance a task to add points along an alignment at 50 feet intervals and at horizontal geometry points The person started the task by manually adding points at the intervals Civil 3D did have tools to ac complish the task in a matter of minutes rather than longer amount of time it would have taken to do it manually It was a matter of knowing the tools where available and how to apply them Subscribe to
35. number of people the heating and cooling loads the lighting levels and so on In fact the lines representing the walls themselves have a composition of building materials with R values and perhaps fire ratings BIM is much more than just a three dimensional model 3D is only one method of graphically displaying a portion of the model s physical information Although it is common in the construction industry to acknowledge a 3D model as BIM without the embedded intelligence information 3D alone falls far short of BIM Case Study Analysis At early conceptual and schematic design stages the designer uti lized the volumetric and system assembly data from the BIM to analyze building envelope concepts This integral step allows the project team to assess Building Enclosure Performance goals build ing orientation and building system operational goal concepts eer bame er i H E O a a i e a o aa r o fore bite ii h aoe l Wie D e s Se i H Ap Tee Ce ian j eg a Fi Cee i Ae fae 6 bee a eo ae i H WF amr E M Te Eriam lrei E Cos hey Certon hesr ad Fortean kpm p T 7 ries This Fos ETLE pes mite Ea p Lee pg me Foal E Wma maaa fae i Fu m Tm Bn m DTE in a L Pir m a P ai m Fm Sei Li eee To io as a Lage Pd i qe WIF fF k aia i mii Mami o ee eee ei _ s ees 2g pi e FP r ee ed ee ee de a a damon Peat Die I Pii Erp ay LE a i n iE ee ae ari 2 em pe ae m ee EE eS
36. or view name However Bluebeam takes it one step further by allowing you to add uniform revision numbers or dates to each file name as it is being created IMPRESSION 3 MORE THAN JUST PDF CREATION While my impressions of this new Bluebeam PDF Revu have been heavily influenced by the great plotting control found in its new Revit plug in I should point out that Revu offers AEC firms much product review more than just PDF creation Bluebeam PDF Revu is a complete PDF editing and markup tool optimized for viewing large for mat drawings This includes features that are already familiar to AutoCAD users like the ability to password protect PDFs apply text stamps and create bookmarks upon PDF creation that can be configured to jump to specific views in a PDF a website and more Among its compelling markup redlining tools are callouts CAD symbols shapes and takeoffs Coupled with these features are its Tool Chest for storing custom markup tools its Markups list for tracking sorting filtering and summarizing all comments its new File Access tab for managing PDF files and integration into popu lar document management systems such as Microsoft SharePoint Together these tools provide firms with a solid platform for taking a variety of workflows to digital and paperless from design reviews to bid to RFIs and submittals to punch lists and more Figure 4 In addition to PDF creation Revu includes a complete PDF editor built for
37. particularly important if you want to leverage schedules or View Filters Taking the time to think through what you need also makes it much easier to do something like customize the project browser Additional parameters also make it possible for your sched ules to become more then just a report about your model with them you can start to use schedules to calculate values from your model for instance occupancy calculations egress width or gross budget pricing Keep your shared param eters organized one tip is to name the parameter first with the category of element it will be assigned to for instance Room_Target Area this keeps the list of Project Param eters clean neat and organized 4 VIEWS Views are where everything starts in Revit In some cases and in some firms it might be possible to create many views in advance while in other cases you may only be able to create a few views in advance Either way if the views are set up in such a way to define an organized system it will be much easier for teams to build on top of the system add more views and keep the project browser organized all at the same time Some items to give consideration to Naming scheme how will views be named Sorting how will views be sorted and organized in the Project Browser Types of views sections and elevations both support multiple types this can be used to your advantage Add information views detail views meant
38. power with I O performance while helping to lower your total cost of ownership This workstation is ideal for high end Autodesk power users who want the AMD advantage HP Elitebook 8730w Mobile Workstation The HP Elitebook 8730w Mobile Workstation redefines power on the move combining the best in visualization and computational power with 17 inch diagonal HP Dreamcolor displays for HP s highest performing mobile workstation This mobile worksta tion has passed most Mil Std testing for ruggedness making it a great tool for professionals on the go Tight deadlines and ferocious competition require you to be more innovative more efficient and more solutions driven HP and Autodesk provide you with the innovative and efficient solutions you need to compete and excel in this environment Contact HP and find out more 20 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Windows Life without Walls HP recommends Windows For more information about HP and Autodesk solutions please visit www hp com go autodesk Screen image courtesy of Autodesk Inc Page 1 images courtesy of Peter Basso Associates Inc and The Neenan Company and Everitt MacMillan Development WAM V image courtesy of Marine Advanced Research Inc 2009 by Marine Advanced Research Inc All rights reserved Page 2 WAM V images courtesy of Marine Advanced Research Inc 2009 by Marine Advanced Research Inc All rights reserved Pages 3 and 4 imag
39. reliable regardless of survey coordinates Survey Files larger than One 1 Mile size limitation Refer to the Step One section for Small Projects for details Architecture Error Message Changes have occurred in more than shared co ordinates see Figure 9 et oma hae ee bec ee ae Ce I ee a et ered ree aid chet Lsi Fils Fi eee a Se eed er oe E Figure 9 Linked files and shared coordinates error This involves linked dwg files and their host Revit projects When you have linked Revit project files that are hosting linked dwg files that are changing Revit detects this when you save your project file see Figure 10 FRROR MESAGE OCCURS IN THIS PROJECT FILE Figure 10 Error message relationship To fix the issue you need to either Open the Linked Revit proj ect and just save it OR put the Linked DWG file into a new container dwg file and the container is linked into the Revit project in the middle instead Revit never detects the change in the xref inside the container and eliminates the error Workflow Revit Architecture to Structure MEP relationship Revit Architecture sets precedent and defines coordinate system from survey Revit Structure MEP Import Architecture model Auto Origin to Origin All models coordinated easily because only architectural model was troubled with determining the coordinates Revit Structure MEP use Acquire Coordinates from their copy of the Arch
40. rooms and roofs in addition to walls and windows These are essential items when it comes to whole building energy analysis and more detailed thermal simulations And be sure to connect all walls roofs slabs and ceilings Think of your building in the context of space uses and place ment For example create rooms that are on the perimeter of the building approximately 15 feet deep then add core rooms and only partition the interior if the core becomes very large or is influenced by the nearby perimeter Adding more interior partitions will slow the simulation without sig nificantly improving the accuracy of the results Your Revit Architecture model must have room objects defined for all rooms or groups of rooms that you want to analyze Adding room objects is fairly easy but may be a new concept for some of you The paragraphs below pro Figure 4 Room objects should touch the entire roof or ceiling of that room The image on the left shows the height of an incorrectly defined room object The image on the right shows the room objects correctly defined 14 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 vide an overview of how to add room objects to your Revit Architecture model Refer to the Autodesk whitepaper Us ing Autodesk Ecotect Analysis and Building Information Modeling available at www autodesk com ecotect for more detailed information To add a room object open a plan view of the
41. sandbox file too and then linked into the site to define their relationship Once they are positioned their loca tion information is published from the site file Changes are very easy to make thereafter Just return to the site project file and adjust the buildings in the same way you would with a physical scale mockup of the buildings and site just move them around Once the changes are done re publish the location information and the individual building project files are updated accordingly If you have avoided using this powerful set of tools thus far then the time has come to avoid them no more Take full advantage of what Revit has to offer you APPENDIX ADVICE TROUBLESHOOTING Use ONE file as THE master source for position Make all changes relative to this one master file Only publish changes from the site master file technically possible to do the reverse too but it gets confusing when you don t maintain a ONE way relationship Forget about True North at first Revit assumes that you ll get this data and sort it out eventually Start working in your Revit building project file so that it is easy to put on paper print etc When the sur vey gets sorted out you can use either of these techniques to properly define the True North orientation of the project Acquire Coordinates Only use for small coordinate values AL WAYS check the coordinate results to verify they are correct Specify Coordinates at Point Very
42. successful projects that sustain consistent and improving output Some additional resources to help you wind through the de velopment of a template can be found here Provide Hyperlink address for description Survey Results hbttp www surveymonkey com sr aspx sm KD ucAmutfcItNC_2bz0mNb_2bZEB7T P0dOaCV4_2fjqt P8qkc_3d Provide Hyperlink for description Autodesk University Online Session AB314 4 Good Autodesk Revit Project Templates Keys to Efficiency http au autodesk com nd class amp session_id 5076 Provide hyperlink for description AU Online http au autodesk com 2nd class amp session_id 5076 Provide hyperlink for description Revit at krarchde sign http revit krarchdesign net Provide hyperlink to blog description Arch Tech http www architecture tech com The Survey Results are from the surveys I conducted prior to AU 2009 You can download course content for my Tem plates class using the Session link AU Online is a great resource where you can download content from many years of Autodesk University sessions subscription accounts are typi cally required to access but there may be other options The krarchdesign link is for my Revit website where I m keeping this data The upcoming book mentioned may have some draft chapters posted up until the book is finalized and published Robert Manna attended Rensselaer Poly technic Institute and graduated in 2003 with a Professional Bache
43. the Manage Links dialog FI Show More Into Expand gt gt Figure 7 Responding to the Shared Location Warning This will allow you to continue to adjust the building If you click Save Now then Revit will publish the new location immediately If you aren t done we aren t you ll be prompted again as soon as you adjust it The OK choice leaves it up to you to choose when to publish the changes later 3 Rotate Align Move it until it is parallel to the West prop erty boundary and the intersection of the Reference plane and the building s concrete pad are aligned with the ALT BLDG Mark block 4 Rename the Location Manage Ribbon gt Location Se lect North Boundary current Click Rename Enter West Boundary Click OK 5 Save the file Revit will prompt you to Save the new location information to the Building Model project file Click Save Close the File 6 Using Revit Architecture 2010 Open the file Large Project Building rvt and Open the floor plan view Site You should see that the building is already oriented correctly based on what we did in the Site project Hopefully it is obvious that any change we made to the building file s location in the site file would be represented here now as well as in creasing or decreasing the elevation of the building It reduces the task of repositioning a building to simple use of the move drag align tools Once finished just saving the file passes the information back to the buil
44. to the video game Supercross where you are able to create your own layout of a track on a blank canvass Here are my responses to hatCivil3 DGuy s questions What point do you decide if a certain project will or will not use the civil3d grading features If it helps meet the end goal of the design the grading tools are going to be used From creating a temporary grading to help grade a parking lot to tying the design into existing ground through the use of daylight grading If it can help get the job done gradings are going to be used l 3D reminders blog spot I would like get your feed back on your end on how grading is done for small commercial lots and large subdivision projects ClV1 Civil Engineering C ProgramData Autodesk C3D2010 enu Data Re ports vba The code for the NET version may be found here C ProgramData Autodesk C3D2010 enu Data Re ports Net CONCLUSION While customizing Civil 3D utilizing the API may seem daunting utilizing the resources available can unlock its full potential Don t be afraid to dig in and check it out pun intended Christopher is a Civil Engineer and has spent the last eight years designing government projects as well as residential subdivisions Before working as a Civil Engineer Chris topher worked for a General Engineering Contractor on subdivision and mining proj ects Christopher earned his B S degree in Civil Engineering from California Polytech
45. 0 product Revit redundant licensing no longer functions http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteI D 123112Gi d 14326872 amp linkID 9243099 REVIT ARCHITECTURE STRUCTURE MEP UPDATES AND SERVICE PACKS Hotfix Revit subscription advantage pack structural settings dialog http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteI D 123112Gi d 14243967 amp linkID 9273944 Hotfix Crash when modifying walls update 2 amp subscription advantage pack release http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteI D 123112Gi d 14215234G6linkID 9273944 Revit 2010 Hungarian Hotfix IFC Megnyitasa http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112Gi d 14221135 amp linkID 9273944 FLEXnet Licensing Side by Side Hotfix http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteI D 123112Gi d 14003392 amp linkID 9273944 Register Today Proxy Licensing Hotfix http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13589717 amp linkID 12828318 REVIT STRUCTURE UPDATES AND SERVICE PACKS Revit 2010 Hotfix Tragwerkseinstellungen http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112Gi d 14220846 amp linkID 9280927 winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 61 MEP by Damon Ranieri Manufacturer Created Content and Revit MEP FREE CONTENT Many more manufacturers are creating Revit families of their equipment for use in projects While this is quite helpful you can expect that additional editi
46. 5 Compare Views Site and Level 1 with each other to see the orientation changes that take place The project orientation has the front facing due east while the shared orientation has the front facing north and slightly west 6 Save the File using the original name so that we can adjust its location in the next exercise winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 45 Ardhiitecture STEP SIX CHANGE THE BUILDING LOCATION As mentioned earlier changing the building position and orienta tion can happen for many reasons This section will apply the same change to the building that we did at the end of the previous section for small projects By comparison I believe you ll begin to appreci ate the elegance of using a separate site project file EXERCISE 6 CHANGE THE BUILDING LOCATION 1 Using Revit Architecture 2010 Open the file Large Project Master Site E04 rvt and Open the floor plan view Site 2 Zoom in Region Around the North West corner of the site Select the Linked Building Model Drag Move it over to the ALT BLDG Mark block in the survey file as soon as you do a Warning dialog appears see Figure 7 Click OK Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 Warning can be ignored Shared Locations in the Linked Model Large Project Building rvt have been modified but not saved back to the Linked File Upon reopening instances of the Linked Model will return to their last Saved Positions You can Save the Linked Model later via
47. 78a2b9h when attempting to open Options http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item site ID 123112 amp id 14487632 amp linkID 9240617 winter_2010 When you launch the application a temporary files error displays http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp id 14473628 amp linkID 9240617 Linetype Scale MSLTSCALE and PSLTSCALE http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp id 14437056GlinkID 9240617 No license found after launching new install of Raster De sign 2010 http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item site ID 123112 amp id 14090269G amp linkID 9240617 59 head s up Guide to FLEXIm documentation and supplemental infor mation http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps item siteID 123112 amp id 3067283 GlinkID 9240617 Single server network license manager quick start guide http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps item site ID 123112 amp id 14379546 amp linkID 9240617 Network License Finder dialog box is always displayed at startup http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps item site ID 123112 amp id 14371507 amp linkID 9240617 UPDATES AND SERVICES PACKS FLEXnet Licensing Side by Side Hotfix http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 14003392 amp linkID 9240618 Certified Hardware XML Database Update http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp d 7440746 amp linkID 9240618 AutoCAD
48. A take full advantage of AutoCAD I ve never experienced that with another vendor Case says From time to time we ve gone to HP to help us understand how to improve performance with AutoCAD It s not HP s job but they re willing to intervene to get questions answered and make AutoCAD even more effective for us That kind of support is one of the main things that pushed us to make the switch to HP in the first place HP hardware is terrific but the real benefit is the support Case continues I have more confidence in my purchases because I m making more informed decisions No matter what need get quick profes sional assistance and brilliant solutions winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 19 contributed white paper Windows Life without Walls HP recommends Windows The impressive performance of the new HP Z Workstations will enable increased productivity and efficiency for designers and engineers using our design software including AutoCAD 3ds Max the Autodesk Inventor family for Digital Prototyping and the Revit platform tor Building Information Modeling BIM Lisa Campbell Vice President of Marketing Autodesk Platform Solutions amp Emerging Businesses The HP Workstation family Combining bold design best in class engineering ro bust tools and visual collaboration solutions the HP Workstation family takes innovation performance and
49. HP recommends Windows 7 Professional quality H P Roo j Enjoy a virtual reality meeting experience that is as good as live e Communicate live over your network with HP SkyRoom is your boarding pass to super fast real time sub 100 millisecond latency visual collaboration direct from your desktop Combining seamless hi fi audio HD capable video and high performance 3D application sharing HP SkyRoom allows e Share content at 15 frames per second or greater and simultaneously interact with your colleagues via video you to interact live with up to three others in your own virtual conference meeting space within your corporate network all from the e Keep your meeting and data more secure with AES256 comfort of your own desktop advanced encryption e Use a VPN connection when outside your corporate Instant collaboration i network to connect with colleagues in remote locations Skip the travel and its toll e Enjoy a face to face meeting with seamless natural Affordable simplicity collaboration Engineered for ease of use at an affordable price e Share live media like 3D engineering models or feature film e Intuitive and easy to manage interface dailies with colleagues across the globe i l e Business class performance consumer price e Speed decision making while avoiding the cost of business fave e Transform the way you work 1 HD content required to view HD images Internet access required Performanc
50. IM process based on the Autodesk Revit platform and how to create Revit models that help streamline that analysis workflow Figure 1 Early stage Revit models can be analyzed with Ecotect Analysis to help determine the optimal location shape and orientation of a building design based on basic environmental factors such as the overshadowing of a particular building highlighted in red shown here INTEROPERABLE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS SOFTWARE Both Autodesk Revit Architecture and Autodesk Revit MEP software are interoperable with Ecotect Analysis You can export Revit based models to green building extensible markup gbXML and analyze them using Ecotect Analysis Ecotect Analysis green building software is a comprehensive concept to detail sustainable analysis tool that delivers a wide range of functionality through desktop and web service platforms These desktop tools help you conduct detailed environmen tal analysis functions with a highly visual and interactive display that presents analytical results in the context of the building model Customers who purchase a Subscription for their Ecotect Analysis license can also access the Autodesk Green Building Studio web based service to perform whole building energy water and carbon analysis t amp fe j _ ee m Li immi ta Fs See on Pum Ca rs a a ay 5 a a RES fee Coes rE om ee na BEF isp an Sth ee Be n H an i ele besa en Ee imi a E
51. Ins tab But the Revit API also allows developers to create their own custom ribbon panels on the Add Ins tab This is especially useful for group ing several related commands Home Insert Annotate Modify Analyze Architect amp Site o i ae Append Selection i Select at Level External Tools 7 Changes R Select All External Tools Settings T HP All Columns pols All Beams Framing test clean rv E E All Walls Views fall oT Advance Structural Plans All Walls Level 1 Level 1 Anah Select all walls in the model Figure 1 A Custom Ribbon Panel example Developers can add large buttons such as the Settings but ton in the example above or smaller stacked buttons These buttons can be simple push buttons such as the Append Selection button or can be drop down buttons i e Select All The ability to associate a bitmap with both large and small buttons enhances the user interface further And just like all Revit commands these buttons can have tooltips that provide additional information to the user as shown above for the All Walls command ELEMENT SELECTION The Revit API provides all external commands with ac cess to the elements currently selected highlighted in the active document This set of selected elements can be modified programmatically using the Document Selection property But developers can also let the user add to the cur rent selection using the Select
52. M m m i Ehecttic Power Fleet Sources rim i foal as E mpi rri ee ee ee reme See oo wth zm ee Hi i i i am pima gt Ere gy Erel Ea bma jg i g i Be o ep Figure 1 Green Building Studio Report Annual Fuel End Use Hot Water 24 9 Space Heating 75 1 Figure 2 Annual Fuel Use Annual Electric End Use Heat Rejection 0 37 Space Heating 6 4 Fans 6 Pumps amp Aux 13 6 Lights 17 2 Mise Equip 31 1 Space Cooling 22 2 Extenor Loads 2 5 Figure 3 Annual Electric End Use winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com Cross Discipline WHY IS BIM IMPORTANT It allows relevant information to be stored and accessed for analysis and decision making while also allowing continual updating and re finement of the information throughout the life cycle of the model Additionally unified storage of information allows revisions to be made at a single location regardless of how many times the data is displayed or shared Unification of data storage significantly re duces the errors of manual data transfer compared with traditional CAD and its inherent repetitive manual methodologies When ef fectively utilized BIM can increase the efficiency of the design and construction process and can accelerate the project schedule which can result in cost savings for the owner The BIM can reflect many aspects of the actual lifecycle of a build ing BIM can start at pre design and extend throughou
53. Other examples are the engineer can review duct sizing criteria see Figure 7 pressure drops in duct systems or check for compliance with air change rates COTEUREOERE OES So a aes a E EEEE EE Figure 7 Reviewing HVAC Plan and Duct Schedule simultaneously To help assure that an owner gets the expected BIM results they should choose a project team that has adequate experience technical ability and an implementation philosophy which includes their objectives WHAT QUESTIONS SHOULD WE BE ASKING The following series of questions can be used by an owner to better understand the capabilities of the project team members These ques tions can be used to level the playing field between service providers Ask yourself what is your definition of BIM winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com Cross Discipline Ask each prospective team member to define BIM this will help set apart those that understand and truly utilize BIM and those who do not Which team members will utilize BIM What portions systems of the project will be modeled will existing systems be modeled What systems will or will not have intelligence Will the project team utilize out of the box content or will they create custom content to adequately represent building com ponents and equipment How recently has each team member implemented BIM How many projects has each team member completed in BIM What are some project e
54. S Encosweype Oooo Mounting Recessed Aeting Faton o Nes Figure 2 AutoCAD s Property Set Data Revit naturally stores the data within the model see Figure 2 for a sample without the addition of a PSD but not all data is available to be scheduled iruri bilai F Pike Dakik ery Bert Bre be aari Tmj Pami Cmui Pa ape Cm Pfa Lise e esi thos Caru Patong Fangi Fhe Figure 3 Revit s Parameters winter _2010 www AUGlaecedge com 67 MEP Therefore some of the data within the Revit model must be need lessly duplicated as shared parameters leading to a violation of the BIM ideal model once Revit s schedules are not as customizable as AutoCAD s Sadly Revit s scheduling approach falls short Grade Card AutoCAD MEP Revit MEP PRESENTATION The paper less office has been promised for decades Some offices are close to approaching that ideal but the majority of offices are not And to be blunt until Authorities Having Jurisdiction AHJ and the person installing the item are not using paper printed documents are the deliverable AutoCAD hasan advantage when it comes to making the important items on a plot stand out on paper Revit s layer less implementa tion is welcome in many ways but this approach surrenders some control of the final product For example many elements in a Revit model wind up being lumped under generic categories A serious issue with Revit is its incon
55. View Template dialog select Export to Civil Engineering from the Names list as shown Figure 2 SI i x Ahbar Fiera tuchtecheal Hichbecbir al meio Ii a Chnettur al Pree aon Pie Heddon Lire hace Fii Shes All fuchbecheal T11711949 1494 oe ee a Figure 2 Export to Civil Engineering View Template is available in stock templates Note If Export to Civil Engineering is not in the list you need to update your project to the new template by transferring project standards In the Apply View Template dialog apply addition vis ibility and graphic overrides by clicking Edit under View Properties Click OK The categories listed below are visible when the Export to Civil 3D view template is applied to the 3D model All other categories are not visible including categories from other disciplines Areas Columns Curtain systems Doors Floors Generic models Mass Parking Plantings Ramps Roads Roofs Site Stairs Structural columns Structural foundations Structural framing Walls winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 23 Cross Disipline Pe Remember to use Shrinkwrap Substitute see Figure 3 when exchanging data between AutoCAD MEP or Inventor and Revit to simplify your data Figure 3 Shrinkwrap Substitute tool in Autodesk Inventor 2010 This allows for smaller file sizes and the Revit applications typically don t
56. WIF a i Doors and the default Door 5 EE A Dmae h Schedule Tee tems Tate Open Style Manager Multi par Pape aaran Dew an Ce L Ting Amg iE 0 Ert crt inr Far iM Py Pamtim jh athe bert m hih 7 sii Tmt kapalna D his ajaaa oe FS partien a Seyi ager ff PS vein ley Ca Vie a pE Zine iei Deb B05 s Ee Tene Tiree m erit E bi fpem Dhi m iibri i FI kredda Tabh Purpose Objects and select List Definitions Create a new List Definition name it and then on the Applies To tab check the Manual Prop erty Definition box Click the Items tab and the click the Add button Type in a Name PEDADMAHHRF pd Gd Ba arme fia ekb hi a Ty eae H ia Se a i er san j EE Maal Pegi Cle da and optionally a Description p Cr AAC Plier tote EREE Repeat for as many items as you m i a E E e need i Figure 1 SetNumber Property changed to use Hardware sets winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 49 Architecture Close Style Manager and refresh your Schedule to test it out Figure 1 shows the default ACA Door Schedule with the SetNumber property changed to use a common list of hardware sets ANCHOR PROPERTIES Anchors are powerful objects in ACA that establish a physical relationship between two objects For example the relation ship between a Wall and Door is governed by an anchor The Anchor is responsible for keeping the Door attached to its host Wall and cutting the hole in t
57. a B S in Architecture from University of Detroit He has developed and implemented several CAD BIM plat forms for large A amp E firms He is a member of a local BIM user group DABUG and a director of a newly formed Greater Detroit BEC Building Enclosure Council Brett Gatti is the CAD BIM manager with Harley Ellis Devereaux He has been using and supporting multiple CAD software packages since 1990 His titles have ranged from CAD designer to CAD IT manager Mr Gatti has been focused on CAD management since 1994 In this capacity he has been responsible for standards development and CAD training and support for firms of varying sizes He is a member of and contributor to many CAD user support groups and industry focus groups He is a past speaker at AutoDesk University 12 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 I oertribuieadl white papei How to Help Simplify Sustainable Design Analysis with BIM Philip Membreno Technical Marketing Manager for Architecture and Sustainable Design Autodesk Inc Building information modeling BIM makes sustainable design easier by giving you better insight into building performance earlier in the process helping you achieve more sustain able designs faster time to market and lower project costs This article describes how to help simplify sustainable design by using Autodesk Ecotect Analysis software to analyze early building designs emerging from a B
58. a project at a time It is NOT possible to assign a specific location to a specific view It would be excellent if it was possible but it is not at this time A couple items to consider now that youve completed this technique Link Site into the Building Now that youve defined the re lationship of the building to site you can link the Site model into your building model using Auto By Shared Coordinates naturally This will allow you to show a portion or the entire site inside the building project file if desired Link Building into another Building Assuming you have more than one building not just one copied as in this series of exer cises you can link buildings into each other using Auto By Shared Coordinates This allows you to show adjacent buildings when necessary as much or as little of them as required CONCLUSION In this session we described one technique that allows us to define the real world coordinate values that our projects will need to relate to This approach is focused on multiple buildings on the site but it will work just as well for a single building project The essential difference be tween this approach and the other that is part of the online Autodesk University session is that the other method combines the site and sur vey data in the same model project file with the building This example used a separate project file for the survey data and site conditions Each building is modeled in its own
59. and click the Symbolic Line command see Figure 5 re A F W Ff lg a ere a i ate a sala t 1 5 a iii q a A ma TUT fade i ioe L Create Insert Detail Modify CAI Symi Deta f 4 Wack Group Figure 5 Choose to Sketch Symbolic Lines MEP From the Symbolic Line context ribbon click the drawing tool best suited for the annotation you wish to end up with Be sure that Ref Level is set to the Placement Plane see Figure 6 Also from the type selector make sure you switch to the sub category for the trade you are about to draw annotation for Figure 6 Assigning the work plane If the part s size is controlled parametrically as symbol lines are drawn around the 3D parts locks will appear Click once on the lock in order to lock the symbol line to the 3D part see Figure 7 the padlock should look closed Figure 7 Locking sketched symbolic lines ADD NESTED GENERIC ANNOTATION SYMBOLS We use a separate annotation family for the trade specific sym bols the engineers want to see We need to load the appropriate family to be used in the mechanical equipment family In this example we ll use the electrical engineer s symbol for a motor If you arent sure what it looks like you can refer to Figure 15 at the end of this article When you make this annotation family it will need a subcategory for the electrical trade like mentioned earlier If you didnt make the family you ll want to v
60. and or separately purchased hardware and or a DVD drive to install the Windows 7 software and take full advantage of Windows 7 functionality See http www microsoft com windows windows for details 1 Dual Core and Quad Core technologies are designed to improve performance of multithreaded software products and hardware aware multitasking operating systems and may require appropriate operating system software for full benefits check with software provider to determine suitability Not all customers or software applications will necessarily benefit from use of these technologies Intel Turbo Boost technology requires a PC with a processor with Intel Turbo Boost capability Intel Turbo Boost performance varies depending on hardware software and overall system configuration See www intel com technology turboboost for more information Intel HT Technology HT is designed to improve performance of multi threaded software products and requires a computer system with a processor supporting HT and an HT enabled chipset BIOS and OS Please contact your software provider to determine compatibility Not all customers or software applications will benefit from the use of HT See http www intel com info hyperthreading for more information 2010 Hewlett Packard Development Company L P The information contained herein is subject to change without notice The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty state
61. anges the culture of project teams Organizations that are embracing BIM will need to rethink and retool their project delivery methods ASSESSING YOUR BIM TEAM Committing a project to BIM does not necessarily mean that all team members are at the same level The make up of a project team can range from multiple consultants each utilizing different or the same BIM or non BIM software packages to a single full service firm where all disciplines are utilizing the same platform The contractor or con struction manager is a vital team member for leveraging the BIM especially on projects where design build or IPD is being used Due to this high degree of variability an owner should inquire about a team s BIM capabilities and the makeup of the project team An owner should ask about BIM implementation strategies used or being proposed by the project team This will allow the owner to understand how the team will utilize BIM to maximize the sharing and coordination of data Case Study Mechanical HVAC Design Process Harley Ellis Devereaux delivers better engineering solutions by providing better spatial allocation and data analysis When infor mation is entered once by a project team member the engineering team can review and use the real time data for analysis of each system For example the mechanical engineer can review the building performance data inputted by the architect to analyze the building heating cooling loads
62. are selected the 3D solids will list as Other in the filter dialog box see Figure 2 Unfortunately the command used to define the solid ex trusion revolve sweep etc groups the solids within the category other see Figure 3 so you will only be able to change the visibility of groups of similar solids In practice Flement Mowe Copy i Create Properties OO Armay 3 Delete Group Modify Create Element this usually leads to picking each solid and changing its vis A ibility settings individually Figure 3 Filter Dialog choices 62 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 a ADD SYMBOLIC LINES Revit spends additional time resolving 3D information in or thographic views Rather than wasting your time and Revit s you will want to trace over the areas of 3D solids that you wish to show in your sheets with symbolic lines I suggest that you create an Object Style for each trade like we do that will help them later when showing the part in their con struction documents For example the names we use related to this article are Display Mech and Display Elec Switch to an orthographic view In the family editor these will be listed in the Project Browser under Views in either Floor Plans or Elevations see Figure 4 El 0 Views all E Aoor Plans fay Sheets all Figure 4 Switching to an orthographic view Switch to the Detail ribbon tab
63. ast half of their staff or double their income Mike Hardy Brown Is moving to BIM the way to go Im biased but I think so You made the correct decision CONCLUSION Firms are rapidly moving towards BIM Well trained and implemented firms which do not look back and push though the learning curve are reaping the rewards Smaller firms are able to compete against much larger firms that have not yet made the move to BIM If you have not made the move yet just ask yourself two simple questions Why not When Mike Hardy Brown is a registered Architec tural Technologist He is currently working on several projects with his firm MHB De signs Mike was an early adopter of Revit Zoogdesign forum days He also provides independent training and implementation services in Africa Johannesburg Cape Town Namibia Botswana and Mauritius to resellers and private practices on Revit Architecture Struc ture and MEP Mike s Blog Revit Implementation http reviteer blogspot com Contact Mike at mike mbbdesigns com winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 35 by David Kataoka product review Bluebeam PDF Revu Plug in for Revit 2010 INTRODUCTION This February Bluebeam Software is offering a whole new world of PDF creation functionality to Revit 2010 users With the launch of Bluebeam PDF Revu CAD Edition 8 they are integrating directly into Revit with a plug in that provides one button PDF creation and
64. autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item site ID 123112 amp i d 144367066linkID 9240697 Triangle Lines Always the Same Color http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 14436946 amp linkID 9240697 Missing Contextual Ribbons http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 14396492 amp linkID 9240697 How to Delete Individual Code Labels In Section View http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 14436212GlinkID 9240697 Alignment Created from Closed Polyline Creates Parcel http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 14436149 amp linkID 9240697 UPDATES AND SERVICE PACKS Prior Version Alignment Spiral Hotfix http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp d 14404551 amp linkID 9240698 FLEXnet Licensing Side by Side Hotfix http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 14003392 amp linkID 9240698 Certified Hardware XML Database Update http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 7440746 amp linkID 9240698 AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Update 2 http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13921667 amp linkID 9240698 AutoCAD Civil 3D and AutoCAD Civil Vault Performance Hotfix http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13922196 amp linkID 9240698 60 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Regapp ID Cleanup Uti
65. building manufacturing and media amp entertainment industries In the increasingly global economy design innovation has become even more critical and together we are uniquely positioned to give our customers the solutions they need to compete Chris Bradshaw Chief Marketing Officer Autodesk Don t take our word for it Peter Basso Associates PBA is known for producing innovative mechanical and electrical engineering designs with plenty of value added features and has collaborated with prestigious architectural firms to design noteworthy structures in Michigan and elsewhere Still winning new projects is always a challenge Solid engineering alone won t suffice says Bill Case manager of Technical Support More and more we re finding that we have to set ourselves apart by coming up with better more innovative solutions faster than our competitors can Facing the need to upgrade both its Autodesk applications to take advantage of the latest upgrades and its workstation platforms to take full advantage of the new applications PBA began searching for a hardware vendor that would be just as committed and capable as PBA s own engineers Case and PBA selected HP and they worked together to develop a multi year workstation strategy that matched his performance requirements and his budget Case was not only impressed by the HP hardware but also by HP s superior relationship with and
66. can save L fo T iJ O gt D Subscribe to Revit OpEd at http revitoped blogspot com 48 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Architecture by Paul Aubin Turbo charge your ACA Schedules INTRODUCTION In this article we will discuss techniques you can use to add more power and capability to your AutoCAD Architecture schedule tables Schedule Tables are AEC objects that report the values of the properties assigned to the objects within your drawing files in tabular format If you have been using AutoCAD Architecture for a while then you have likely experienced Schedules and their most common manual and automatic Property Sets before Automatic proper ties report common values of the geometry automatically like the width and height of a Door and update immediately when the geometry changes size Manual properties are text fields If you want to allow users to type in a value that is not on the list you can check the Allow individual property values to vary from this list checkbox However doing so will poten tially introduce inconsistencies in input from user to user Once you have the List Definition defined you can assign it to a Manual Property Set Definition Property Set Defini tions are also in the Style Manager They are located in the Documentation Objects folder Both object based and style based Property Sets can use List Definitions When you create a Ma
67. ccredited profes sional He has achieved EDAC accreditation for evidence based design through The Center of Health Design He is a licensed professional engineer in multiple states Mr Pesta is the BIM leader for the mechanical engineering discipline at Harley Ellis Devereaux Timothy B Reamer PE LEED AP is an As sociate with Harley Ellis Devereaux He has 20 years of experience in the electrical industry Mr Reamer holds a BS in electrical engineer ing from the University of Michigan and is a licensed professional engineer in 5 states Tim also participates in the Harley Ellis Devereaux Service Standard Task Force and 3D BIM De velopment Committees Jim Corsiglia P E S E LEED AP is a prin cipal and structural engineer with Harley Ellis Devereaux With more than 14 years of experi ence in structural engineering Jim has designed complex structural buildings and systems Jim is a graduate of Michigan Technological University and a member of SEAMi Jim is registered in 17 states and is a certified Model Law Structural Engineer He was recently awarded top 40 engineers under 40 Jim was part of the CAD vision group that researches recommends and implements the BIM process Shaun Ribacek LEED A P is an Associate with Harley Ellis Devereaux He has 14 years experience in the design development and management of intensely complicated projects several of which are a minimum of LEED Sil ver Mr Rihacek holds
68. cripting language within your Property Set Definitions Classifications are a way of filtering Schedules based on predefined lists The out of the box content includes the Uniformat II Classification system or you can build your own When you have Classification Definitions in your drawing you can also create Classifica tion Property Definitions that query objects of a particular classification Materials are seen on many objects in Auto CAD Architecture You have no doubt seen brick or concrete appear on your Wall styles for example Using a Material Property Definition you can query the material for its Prop erty Sets In our Door Schedule example this could be used to have the Door Schedule fill in the MATL and GLAZ ING columns automatically from the Material Definitions assigned to the Door styles Now that s bound to boost your power and productivity ake some time to explore further You are sure to like the P possibilities Paul F Aubin is the author of many CAD and BIM titles including the widely acclaimed Mastering AutoCAD Architec ture and Paul F Aubin s Mastering Revit Architecture Paul is an independent archi tectural consultant who travels the country lecturing and providing Revit Architecture and AutoCAD Architecture implementa tion training and support services Paul s involvement in the architectural profession spans nearly 20 years with experience that includes design production CAD management m
69. cture and Revit MEP and supporting other Autodesk products Bruce is active in the Revit community in the RUGB user group He is an AU presenter and a past moderator for the Autodesk User Group International AUGI Revit Community a presenter at Revit Conferences in Australia and used to write a blog on Revit topics called Revitalise 24 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 BIM Autopsy GRUESOME MAYBE BUT NECESSARY The Revit Undead You know the project A project that suffers all the way from schematic design through construction documents because it was forever stricken with disease Now that it is done do we sweep the project under the carpet since the team was able to complete the documents and hope that the name of the project is never spoken again Instead a proactive approach is to begin a search for the truth Why did this project have difficulties This search for the truth is what I call a BIM Autopsy An autopsy of the model can help us understand what went wrong and avoid similar mistakes on future projects Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it George Santayana Nobody wants a repeat of past difficulties Therefore a docu mented autopsy will provide the framework to help inform future project teams and let us learn from past mistakes What follows is our investigation process This includes how to examine the Revit model and how to interview the proj
70. d by the owner s internal team as well as among the project team bidders and contractors through the use of these tools In the past a picture was worth a thousand words Today the views and information that is available in a BIM is exponentially more valuable Case Study Custom Content and Visual Coordination Case Study Content Customization During implementation of Revit Harley Ellis Devereaux identified opportunities to increase quality and productivity by customizing their component library Working clearances were added for clash detection Device elevation graphics were developed to eliminate redundant notation on architectural elevations see Figure 8 Components were developed with adjustable parameters to mini mize the content library necessary to execute a project Customization can also be key in maximizing an owner s utiliza tion of a BIM model For example asset identification parameters could be provided to allow an owner to schedule and track assets for depreciation Figure 8 Coordination of Electrical Devices Graphically there are a host of other enhanced deliverables which can be furnished during design bidding and construction Examples include but are not limited to photo quality renderings fly through views isometric views sections and elevations anywhere that it is necessary to clarify design intent and color enhanced views It is even becoming more common place to create scaled 3D
71. d orientation of openings in each space How much heat is generated by internal lighting and equipment In the past this information was manually calculated 2 a LiL using building plans LIL tr elevations and details Oto to evaluate spaces m surfaces and shading The work was time intensive and therefore done infrequently or not at all All this information is latent in a Revit model The ability to use the Revit based design models in Ecotect Analysis means that you can realistically repeat analyses multiple times right from the beginning of your design process when change is still possible To get more out of using Revit based designs with Ecotect Analysis here are some important modeling practices to note To begin with create a Revit model very early in your design process Even at the earliest massing stages of design you can do many different types of surface and exterior urban design studies Keep your model as simple as possible by fo cusing only on major spaces and combining smaller spaces that represent key programmatic requirements of the project As your design progresses create forms with approximately the right glass area on each facade but don t worry about the details of window sizes For schematic purposes a con tinuous ribbon of glass that has the same area as a series of punched windows provides enough detail to make decisions about glass area Model floors ceilings
72. detail should be pre sented from building project files not the site project file because it is more difficult to get all the links to look exactly the way you want As far as the position of buildings and coordination with the civil survey is concerned this site file is our MASTER It should rule over all our others All site positioning of building files should be derived from this file because it will be defining the site coordinate system once weve acquired that information from the civil engineers file EXERCISE 2 CREATE AND PREPARE THE SITE PROJECT FILE 1 Using Revit Architecture 2010 Create a NEW project using the template Default rte Note This template is included in the Dataset if you don t have it already 2 Save the new project file as Large Project Master Site E02 rvt 3 Open the Elevation View South Select and Delete Level 2 Click OK to accept the message regarding deleting the cor responding view s 4 Select Level 1 Rename it Sea Level Click Yes when asked about renaming corresponding view names 5 Select and Delete ceiling plan view Sea Level 6 Select and Delete the Elevation Views South North East and West If these views are needed at some point it will make more sense to create them adjacent to the building files that we import later 7 Open the floor plan view Site note the project and survey points are visible and in the same location already 8 Right Click in the View and Click View Properti
73. ding Now let s create a second instance of the building in the site STEP SEVEN PLACE A COPY OF THE BUILDING This too is a very simple process Select and copy the building Move the copy to where it needs to go and adjust its elevation Once done it is only necessary to publish the location information again tak ing care to define a second location to refer to later Imagine a large development project where a considerable number of unit designs are repeated Revit will allow you to place copies of these units and store specific location information that can be shown in the unit project file later if necessary Let s see how this works now EXERCISE 7 PLACE A COPY OF THE BUILDING 1 Using Revit Architecture 2010 Open the file Large Project Master Site E06 rvt and then Open the floor plan view Site 2 Right Click in the view Zoom Region into the North West corner of the site Select the building model Copy it and place it near the original BLDG Mark block in the survey As before Rotate Move Drag Align it with the BLDG Mark block and the North property boundary 3 Create a new Section through the building at the West prop erty boundary This building is now located where contours are at a higher elevation so it should be raised to 1286 feet Open the Section view Section 2 Adjust the crop boundary of the view to make it easier to see what you are doing Move it up by 11 feet original 1275 11 1286 4 Define the new L
74. ding examples using AutoCAD and occasionally Civil 3D Occasionally Joshua Modglin provides programming re lated posts at http www civil3d com Additionally I ve posted examples on my blog http blog civil3dreminders com AUTODESK DEVELOPER NETWORK ADN ADN provides resources for software developers While it does cost money to join ADN they do provide some free classes covering the Civil 3D API The free classes they offer may be found on their website under the API Training amp Consulting section The classes can usually be attended live or viewed at any time by downloading a recording of them Additionally ADN occasionally offers DevLabs where you can get help while you work on your code best of all DevLabs are free LISP While you can accomplish some customization in LISP it generally isn t suggested There is a limited amount of exam ples available and if you are just starting out you are probably better off learning another programming language REPORTS The reports that come with Civil 3D can be customized in either VBA or NET The code for the VBA version of the reports may be found here IS USING CIVIL 3D COST EFFICIENT ThatCivil3 Guy blogged a post asking some questions regard ing Civil 3D Rather than post my response in the comments I thought I d make a post about it Further down are my answers to his questions I was talking to a coworker today about Civil 3D and I liked his take on Civil 3D as similar
75. ditional deliverables might be available to an owner from their project team the following questions should be asked What deliverables will be furnished by the team under basic services How will these deliverables be made available during each phase of the project How will they be utilized to benefit the owner and the project What additional items are available at the option of the owner and what are the associated costs Radio Frequency Equip ment Tagging associated Facilities Management Data etc To what extent will BIM data be utilized for analysis What automated processes will the team utilize for analysis of BIM data INTEROPERABILITY Regardless of whether the information is graphical or non graphical or whether it is being shared between the project team the owner or other parties the method and format of the information needs to be coordinated for composition and compatibility The owner may also inquire about issues related to compatibility and interoperability to determine if the project team will meet the owners expectations winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 11 Crass Disipline Pe What software will be utilized by each member of the project team What BIM data will be shared between the project team members contractor and owner CONCLUSION As the construction industry continues to evolve toward a more ef ficient and more highly coordinated method of project delivery an ow
76. e At this point it is not as imperative to be sensitive about blame but revealing personal errors should still be done cautiously and good naturedly Explain your findings in a way that focuses on the future and processes Finally record the findings in detail so that they can be referenced by other teams I hope this wasn t too gruesome and that if you find yourself confronted with a troubled project you ll know what to do a BIM Autopsy The search for truth implies a duty One must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true Albert Einstein Jason Grant is the BIM Specialist at Payette in Boston MA His experience includes over thirteen years in architecture five years of Autodesk Revit project work on sixty two projects while at Colin Smith Architecture and two years managing Revit implementa tion daily support training standards API and content development at Payette With seven years of Revit experience including healthcare labs commercial mixed use and residential he understands the chal lenges that both small and large projects face while utilizing and implementing Revit Jason is also a Co Founder and Advisor to the Boston Revit Users Group with 350 members Co Founder and Co Leader of the Boston BLUR group BIM Leaders Uti lizing Revit and an avid blogger on BIM and architecture found at http jasongrant squarespace com If you have any questions or comments email Jason at contactjaso
77. e Test to see if without modification or overrides the component works correctly and matches the standards for printed display Also test what information already populates the template schedules based on the data in the component Since teams often do Cross Discipline this themselves borrow components from other projects this process tells you whether the disease in this project will continue to infect projects in the future Alternatively if the component passes with flying colors then one may decide to add it to the company s standard library POST EXAM INTERVIEW After all the facts have been compiled from the Pre Exam Interview External and Internal Exams and lab work sched ule the post exam interviews to review the results with a few key individuals from the project team The goal is to let them know what your findings are Depending on the find ings you may need to first interview members of the team individually again in person to get a deeper understanding of the findings Focus on discovery of why non standard ap proaches were used rather than on defending the standard itself Keep an open mind you may discover there was a flaw in the training process and or the standards Using the autopsy process we will permit us to have a much improved understanding of the source of a project s prob lems Use a final interview meeting to explain to the team what was learned and how to avoid the same problems in the futur
78. e 2 this forced them as much as they did not like it to place some value on what they could change even though everyone feels that when building a custom project template you should edit manipulate as much as possible Pe Raed es em pua et jad pe pipe Lima Ete PR Bs Ssh hi get ea Ae eee bpem j Tea PAm a omer Se Trimis ae Lepeeets T Comoe biam 11 h hraa R hia abih fered H Prep ed Pi ees Posie bime jT khm k lhak brija Famn jil j Eei Nb a 7 m A m 1 ry ls Mi a T FE PS h E By rey yp Figure 2 Survey results What have you customized 1 SCHEDULES UnConference attendees and survey respondents all indicated that Schedules were one of the top choices for cus tomization in a Project Template If you are interested in low hanging fruit schedules are pretty easy If you regularly do the same or similar projects repeatedly there are likely a fair number of schedules that can be preset so that as us ers start modeling they just start filling out If your project types are more wide ranging there are still some basic sched ules to provide room drawing list door but you might also consider providing some sample schedules for tallying up furniture or specialty equipment Another important use of schedules to consider is to use them to manipulate the model it makes sense to populate the projec
79. e PDF files of individual sheets in the same order as they are listed in the project browser Wouldnt it be nice to be able to print sheets into a PDF file in any order that you wanted Especially without having to resort to cre ating a custom sorting parameter for your project browser Revu now that it is tightly integrated into Revit via a plug in allows you to select the order that your sheets will be added to your final PDF in advance Opening files and manually sorting sheets is a thing of the past There are also times when you want added security in a PDF through the use of digital signatures The majority of PDF printer drivers do not allow for the use of digital signatures However Revu allows you to easily add digital signature fields and sign PDFs ei ther by entering in X and Y coordinates upon PDF conversion or adding them after PDF creation in the programs PDF editor Digital signatures will become increasingly important as electronic submittal gains acceptance by plan check agencies ee Home Insert Annotate ow 8 Modify Create Change Help PDF Settings we Bluebeam Figure 1 Bluebeam PDF Revu CAD Edition now provides a direct plug in to Revit for one button PDF creation Terpal Sens Page Setup POF Secunty Boonman Tet Stamps F s Atacnments Signahues Caren Mhm i Fio Prove for File Hirra Cyne Verdiheet z ei Coheed eae 2 Pte ils i eae Aj Sees A Dii amip Heg Fei Catan POF pa
80. e Structural Columns gt Stick Symbols Cut line weight to 9 as well Lastly I changed the Floors gt Projection to line weight 6 That dealt with all the model objects in this plan view Next annotation The grid line weight is controlled is the Type Properties for the Grid The default is 1 I changed it to 2 But the circle is controlled back in Object Styles on the Annotation Objects tab I changed it from 1 to 6 Next is the section marks Again we have to go in multiple places to complete the cus tomization The section cut line is controlled by Object Styles Annotation Tab Section Line make the Projection line weight 54 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 8 The outside edge of the section tail is controlled by Section Marks gt Thin Lines Change it from 1 to 8 as well This should take care of the back end of the section time for the head While editing Object Styles change Section Marks Projection line weight to 8 to match the others When you click OK to close the dialog all lines in the section mark should now be 0 5mm wide Lastly we have the dimension style Pick on a dimension ele ment and open the Type Properties First in the Graphics area change the Tick Mark to Diagonal 3 32 and right below that change the Line Weight to 3 0 18mm Now bump the Tick Mark Line Weight to 6 Then modify the Dimension Line Ex tension to 1 16 _ Level 2 10 g Figure 3 A typical defau
81. e dependent on network latency and image frame content 2 Sub 100 millisecond latency is limited to the latency within the HP SkyRoom code itself and does not include network latency 2010 Hewlett Packard Development Company L P The information contained herein is subject to change without notice The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services Nothing herein should beconstrued as constituting an additional warranty HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein Microsoft Windows and Windows Vista are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies To learn more visit www hp com
82. ect team in a non confrontational way WHAT S NECESSARY Investigations and autopsies have been used extensively in film and television as a way to provide scientific proof in an investigation If you have watched a crime show then most likely you are already familiar with the process A BIM au topsy should consist of four parts An external exam An internal exam Lab testing Interviews While some initial ideas and suspicions begin at the scene of the crime they cannot fully understand what has happened to the victim BIM victims are the project and its team until they conduct these exams lab testing and user interviews Exams and lab testing are about finding facts but the inter views are more subjective and prone to evasion mistruths and defensiveness Nobody wants the blame for the crime placed on them Survival instincts kick in to defend against being at fault Investigators begin interviewing witnesses and people of interest before the autopsy exam then revisit key individuals once the exam and testing reveal the facts The first interview gives a general sense of the situation based on Cross Discipline by Jason Grant the memory of the individual The second interview reviews the facts with the individuals uncovering their motives and establishing the official record The result of the autopsy exams lab testing and the interviews is the climax or ah ha moment of the investigation So what does this
83. eet Set a First Floor Reflected Ceiling Plan Sheet A 0 Roof Plan a Sheet 4 3 0 Ecterior Elevations Dimensions Sheet A t 0 Building Sections Sheet A 4 1 Building Sections Sheet 4 5 0 Wall Sections Sheet 4 5 1 Wall Sections Sheet 4 8 0 Schedules Sheet A 2 1 Details Sheet 4 1 0 Site Plan Sheet 4 0 Cover Sheet Sheet A 6 2 Second Foor Reflected Ceiling Plan Sheet A 2 0 Floor Plan Sheet 4 2 1 Enlarged Plans Sheet A 2 2 Enlarged Plans Sheet A 2 3 Enlarged Plans Sheet 4 3 1 Exterior Elevations Finishes Area Plan TO Slab Ceiling Plan LEVEL 1 Ceiling Plan LEVEL 2 Hame Rename Delete Check all Elevation Engineering Plan Report Floor Plan Schedule Legend Section Loads Report 3D Panel Schedule Drafting View Presure Loss Report Rendering Figure 3 The ability to order your sheets before converting to PDF is a great time saving feature MEMORY LANE I must digress for a moment do you remember back to the days be fore Revit 2010 and what an enjoyable experience it was to batch plot individual PDFs from Revit You probably do but if you don t recall it was a fun guessing game called Name that File sarcasm intended Revit would be happily creating PDF files in the background while you had the daunting task of determining which sheet was being printed and how to name the resulting PDF Thankfully Revit 2010 now au tomatically names individual PDFs by sheet
84. en from the model for HVAC load and energy analysis LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS It should be noted that although this information may already be contained within the model and be readily available the legal issues regarding liability for its completeness and accuracy will depend on the contractual relationship of the parties involved The AIA has released a document named E202 BIM Protocol Exhibit and the AGC has co drafted ConsensusDOCS 301 BIM Addendum to help guide this contractual relationship Additionally there is no accepted industry standard way to compile the information Schemas are available IFC GBXML etc but they are not fully supported in all software pack ages and have their own versioning issues Hence full interoperability and cross platform data exchange is still a work in progress Overall certain aspects of the construction and A E industries are proceeding with caution with respect to sharing of information between separate entities while others are openly embracing it The traditional methods of project delivery are evolving into meth odologies of BIM and IPD When an owner requires a consultant to provide non traditional deliverables they may be expected to provide some level of release of liability or indemnification in order for the consultant to meet the requirement without voiding their professional liability and errors and omissions policies DIFFERENT DELIVERABLES WHAT S POSSIBLE To understand what non tra
85. entor ing coaching and training He currently serves as Moderator for Cadalyst magazine s online CAD Questions forum is an active member of the Autodesk user community and has been a top rated speaker at Autodesk University Autodesk s annual user convention for many years His diverse experience in archi tectural firms as a CAD manager and as an educator gives his writing and his classroom instruction a fresh and credible focus Paul is an associate member of the American Institute of Archi tects He lives in Chicago with his wife and three children Website www paulaubin com Blog paulfaubin blogspot com Email paubin paulaubin com winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 51 This new release features a new plug in to for Revit Us i ers of AutoCAD and other Revit plug in cad software have long en ff joyed the features that this companys product has Now Revit users can too Check out the Revit Plug in for Bluebeam PDF Revu 8 CAD Edition review by David Kataoka in this issue of AUGI AEC EDGE You can check out the company website for more details You can also download a 30 day trial More Information URL http www bluebeam com web07 us products revu CAD Edition 30 Day Trail URL http www bluebeam com web07 us downloads cad This product became available just before Autodesk University 2009 and was on display in their booth A frequent wish list item from Revit
86. equire appropriate operating system software for full benefits check with software provider to determine suitability Not all customers or software applications will necessarily benefit from use of these technologies 3 The hyperthreading feature is designed to improve performance of multithreaded software products please contact your software provider to determine software compatibility Not all customers or software applications will benefit from the use of hyperthreading Go to http www intel com info hyperthreading for more information including which processors support HT Technology 2010 Hewlett Packard Development Company L P The information contained herein is subject to change without notice The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein Intel Xeon Core and QuickPath are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U S and other countries Microsoft Windows and Windows Vista are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies Autodesk AutoCAD Alias AutoCAD LT Autodesk Inventor Autodesk MapGuide Autodesk Streamline Civil 3D Combustion FMDesktop Inventor Maya Moldflow Navisworks Productstream Revit Stitcher Topobase and 3ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autod
87. ere were people The software would take care of itself I focused on easing people s troubles and frustrations When a change was needed they trusted that it was for the best and they acted As a Revit Specialist Will provides train ing technical support and implementation services for Revit both onsite and online With almost a decade of CAD support experience and numerous Autodesk Certi fications he has a well rounded knowledge of both the industry and solution platforms Prior to founding Will2Play he worked for Autodesk software resellers where he provided training and technical support to clients using Autodesk software Will has trained hundreds of professionals in the architectural industry and believes that education emphasized on the student while fo cused on the practical nature of learning is what training and teaching is all about While all his professional experience is in the AECO industry he holds a degree in International Business from Cal State University Long Beach Will has also taught at both Long Beach City College and Cuyamaca Collage 30 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 by Robert Manna Cross Discipline AU UnConference Recap Project Templates INTRODUCTION At Autodesk University 2009 I led an Un Conference session discussion about Project Templates with about 20 people I followed that session with a ninety 90 minute class reviewing Project Templates The goal
88. erify whether or not this has been done by either opening the annotation family for editing from the mechanical part or opening the family from the library before importing it as a nested component into the mechanical family Once open take a look at the Visibility Graphics Overrides dia log box by typing VV and switch to the Annotation Categories tab Under Generic Annotations you should see the subcategory for the trade see Figure 8 If it hasn t been done you ll need to fix that first Again if you need to alter it be sure to save the annotation family in your project winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 63 MEP fF Shon ancien categonen 9 Be eee ff a category is unchecked it mil not be wiabie Figure 8 Checking for your custom Sub Category for Object Styles Figure 9 Load the Annotation Famil Revit Library and then load the annotation family into the me chanical part Create Inet Be Mody View Manage Add Ins B fl ar a Line Component Group fF Arc Length Detal Dimension Annotate Figure 9 Load the Annotation Famil Once the annotation family is loaded switch to the Detail ribbon in the family editor and on the Detail panel click the Symbol but ton see Figure 10 to place it 2 ESE EEE o El Symbolic Detadl Detail Masking Region Aligned Line Component Group irg Detal Figure 10 The Symbol tool on the Ribbon Click at an intersection of two
89. es 9 Assign the Orientation Parameter to True North as shown eat lier in Figure 01 10 In the same dialog Scroll down to the View Range parameter and Click Edit change the Primary Range Top Offset value to 2000 Change Primary Range Cut Plane Offset to 2000 refer to Figure 02 for the dialogs you should be working in Click OK to close the View Range dialog Click OK to close the View Properties dialog Keep in mind that nothing visible changes at this time 11 Optional Purge Unused if unlikely to use this project file to create significant documentation 12 Save the file and Close the file winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 43 Architecture STEP THREE IMPORT THE SURVEY FILE AND DEFINE COORDINATES Once the site project file is prepared we can deal with getting our civil engineering file s data organized in the project file Similar to our earlier exercise we need to import the data but it is actually a bit easier No struggles with moving it around or rotating it Just minor adjustments and we ll be ready for setting the shared coordinates EXERCISE 3 IMPORT THE SURVEY FILE AND DEFINE COORDINATES 1 Using Revit Architecture 2010 Open the file Large Project Site Master E02 rvt and Open the floor plan view Site Note with nothing in the view even though you can just see the project base and survey point icons in the upper left corner of the drawing area canvas you wont be able to pan scroll zoom until we im
90. es courtesy of The Neenan Company and Everitt MacMillan Development Page 6 images courtesy of Autodesk Inc The Neenan Company and Everitt MacMillan Development and Peter Basso Associates Inc Page 7 WAM V image courtesy of Marine Advanced Research Inc 2009 by Marine Advanced Research Inc All rights reserved Images courtesy of Autodesk Inc and The Neenan Company and Everitt MacMillan Development Windows Vista Business disk may also be included for future upgrade if desired To qualify for this downgrade an end user must be a business including governmental or educational institutions and is expected to order at least 25 customer systems with the same custom image Certain Windows Vista product features require advanced or additional hardware See www microsoft com windowsvista getready hardwarereqs mspx and www microsoft com windowsvista getready capable mspx for details Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor can help you determine which features of Windows Vista will run on your computer To download the tool visit www windowsvista com upgradeadvisor This system may require upgraded and or separately purchased hardware and or a DVD drive to install the Windows 7 software and take full advantage of Windows 7 functionality See http www microsoft com windows windows 7 for details 2 Quad Core technologies are designed to improve performance of multithreaded software products and hardware aware multitasking operating systems and may r
91. esk Inc in the USA and other countries contributed white paper Contact Hewlett Packard USA 1 281 370 0670 20555 SH 249 Houston TX 77070 USA HP Small and Medium Business Store 1 800 888 9909 www hp com qo store Buy Direct from HP By phone 1 800 888 0262 8am 9pm ET 5am 6pm PT Monday Friday Closed weekends and holidays www hp com sbso buspurchase_info html Buy from an HP Partner www hp com sbso buspurchase_info html Hewlett Packard Canada Lid 905 206 4725 5150 Spectrum Way Mississauga Ontario LAW 5G Canada Hewlett Packard Latin America 1 305 267 4220 Waterford Building 9th Floor 5200 Blue Lagoon Drive Miami Florida 33126 USA Hewlett Packard Asia Pacific Pte Ltd 65 6275 3888 138 Depot Road Singapore 109683 Hewlett Packard Japan 81 3 6416 6444 7 Gobancho Chiyoda ku Tokyo 102 0076 Japan Hewlett Packard Europe Middle East Africa 41 22 780 8111 150 Route du Nantd Avril 1217 Meyrin 2 Geneva Switzerland EMEA workstation country homepages www hp com eur workstations Autodesk I winter _2010 www AUGlaecedge com 21 Cross Discipline by Bruce Gow Come Together File Formats INTRODUCTION We are going to look at how Revit relates to other file types Let s assume that the Architect has produced a BIM model So have the Me chanical Electrical Plumbing Structural Civil Surveying Landscaping Interio
92. etry in a Revit Project IMPORTING ACIS OBJECTS SAT file formats later than version 7 0 do not import into Revit Architecture You should determine which version your solid modelling program is creating Some solid model ling products such as form Z create SAT file formats later than version 7 0 by default 22 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 A E Coss Discipline EXPORTING ACIS OBJECTS Revit Architecture can export 3D shapes as ACIS solids This option is available only when you are exporting a 3D view You can define Solids 3D Views Only when exporting to DXF or DWG When exporting to SAT geometry always exports as ACIS solids Export as ACIS solids This option exports all visible Re vit geometry as ACIS 3D solids Any elements that are already polymeshes remain as polymeshes such as topo surfaces and import symbols that contain polymeshes Be Aware when creating SAT files Curves drawn to create surfaces should contain the minimum number of control points that will accurately describe the intended shape Consider rebuilding surfaces after their initial creation to reduce control point count Experiment with the number of control points and use the Preview and Max Deviation buttons to arrive at the preferred balance between point reduction and deviation from the original surface Avoid three sided surfaces and singularities ACIS SAT does not support this type of surface For exam
93. fort SUMMARY The consistent computable information that comes from Revit based design models combined with the breadth of performance analysis and meaningful feedback of Ecotect Analysis work in combination to help reduce the cost and time of energy modeling and analysis This feedback helps you optimize the energy efficiency of your designs and work toward carbon neutrality earlier in the design process a key ingredient for incorporating energy efficiency into standard building design practices and mitigating the carbon footprint of our built environment Autodesk Ecotect Green Building Studio and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk Inc and or its subsidiaries and or affiliates in the USA and or other coun tries All other brand names product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document 2010 Autodesk Inc All rights reserved Philip Chico Membreno is a LEEP AP certified professional with over 15 years of experience in the AEC Industry Currently Chico is Autodesk s Technical Marketing Manager for Architecture and Sustainable Design where his primary focus is build ing information modeling BIM Prior to joining Autodesk Chico practiced as an ar chitect for 10 years in the Boston area
94. gs that can generate an error even if upon cursory inspection it looks okay Here are some things to check for Layers are frozen off and elements are on them that are too far away Z Axis relationships of elements in the file The scale of the drawing is too large units are wrong Blocks contain nested blocks or elements that are very far from their origin AutoCAD elements are near the origin while the survey data is at the correct coordinate location If you encounter one or more of these you can Turn on Thaw Lay ers Explode blocks Purge and if nothing else works you can use AutoCAD s wblock command to create a new file with just the survey elements you really need to use in Revit Another technique that Revit will tolerate is to nest the survey file in a container file as an external reference Align it with the same origin and import the container file into Revit instead Revit only examines the container file for the one 1 mile limitation not the nested external reference and it doesnt consider the nested file as too large or too far away within the container file Lets examine the survey file in the dataset it has large coordinate values but it is not too far or too large to use in Revit however EXERCISE 01 EXAMINE THE SURVEY FILE 1 Using AutoCAD Open file Project Survey dwg saved in Auto CAD 2000 dwg format 2 Find and select our chosen baseline reference BL 6 it can be found at the s
95. he Wall With such a pow erful physical relationship providing such useful benefits it might be nice if the Door could use the Anchor as a conduit for communicating with the Wall This is the purpose of an Anchor Property An Anchor Property essentially enables the anchored object Door in this case to ask the host object Wall in this case a question about one of its properties How about an example Suppose you have a series of fire rated Walls in your project You can use the Anchor Property to have Doors that penetrate fire rated Walls to ask the host Walls what their fire rating is and thereby choose an appropriate fire rating themselves Doing so is simple The out of the box Door Schedule uses a manual text field for a Door s fire rating Start by deleting this Open Style Manager and edit the DoorObjects Property Set On the Definition tab delete the FireRating Property On the right side of the dialog click the Add Anchor Property Definition icon hover your mouse over the icons for tooltips this one looks like a boat anchor Name the new property and then in the Property Defi nition list Expand WallStyles and check FireRating Since we deleted the original FireRating property and cre ated this new one we also have to edit the Door Schedule Style This is also done right here in Style Manager Beneath Schedule Table Styles locate the Door Sched ule and click the Columns tab Select the FIRE RATING
96. he building location vary from 1270 to 1280 feet and the contours at 1274 1276 and 1278 feet pass through the building location Moving the building up to 1275 feet will allow us to show the true elevation in the building project file later Note You can adjust the crop boundary so that it shows only the relevant area around the building 7 Open the floor plan view Site Publish the Coordinates Man age Ribbon gt Coordinates gt Publish Coordinates Revit expects you to select the building project file Select the Building File the Manage Place and Locations dialog appears You can rename the default name for this position Internal current to something more meaningful like North Boundary as shown in Figure 5 nae Pie and Locations Locations Led foe oriei pior and position of Gis protect om bhis pie arad im relatio br z Wier hiin Thee rere bee marry Mey A L oe bel h ee projet PROPES a aa APPROXIMATE Select a rana location im Large Project Diakding ret rehire w Joa Figure 5 Publishing and Renaming the Location 8 Save the project file as Large Master Site E04 rvt A dialog ap pears before we are able to assign a new file name however as shown in Figure 6 This dialog can be a bit confusing we need to Click Save The other two options will undo what we have done Once this dialog closes we can provide the name of the file LA Location Position Changed You have changed the position of a location i
97. he components that we get from manufac turers will just work for us do what we want The reality is that a manufacturer is hard pressed to make content that will satisfy all of us Naturally their priority is that a family faithfully rep resents their product with the hope that it also makes the use of it in our projects as effective as possible Ultimately it is up to us to make sure that it does Often this means that we will have to tweak and adjust content so it supports our own needs This article describes the basics of the process we go through to adjust the way equipment looks so that our various engineers get the documentation they expect We hope it helps gives you some ideas for your own content is an applications specialist at OWP P focusing primarily on the MEP Department Damon has been heavily involved in the migration of MEP design to BIM since 2004 at this and his previous firm Currently he is developing in house Revit training and documentation and is studying the current strengths and limitations of interoperability between the trades preferred software He can be reached at damonranieri comcast net winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 65 MEP by Robert Bell Clash of the MEP Titans s Revit MEP better than AutoCAD MEP This question arises time after time in the MEP industry However the answer is not clear cut Just as there is not one tool in a toolbox that does all things neither applica
98. hin and outside AUGI Country Chapters As you can see from the last bullet item Local Chapters are not just a North American phenomenon AUGI has Local Chapters in Japan Great Britain India Brazil Germany Russia and dozens of other countries around the world The AUGI local chapters value of face to face networking especially in a down economy cannot be overestimated I know that my Local Chapter in Richmond Virginia is a primary source of employment op portunities in the region for prospective CAD employees AUGI believes in and supports the physical community of Local Chapters You should too Look up your Local Chapter on AUGI com and find out when the next meeting is taking place Start a Local Chapter if there is not one in your area Let AUGI know how we can help Experience the strength in AUGI Local Chapters John Morgan is the CAD Manager for Gree ley and Hansen a water wastewater firm based out of Chicago He has been working with AutoCAD since 1986 as a draftsman technician designer programmer consul tant and manager John has been a member of RAM Richmond AutoCAD Manifest since 19990 and was a member of NAAUG in the late 1980 s before becoming a member of AUGI He is currently on the AUGI Board of Directors winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 41 Architecture by Steve Stafford Shared Coordinates A Tutorial INTRODUCTION Revit has a sophisticated sys
99. how More Into Delete Ghecked To highlight an element in the graphics window select it in this tree Most standard view commands work without exiting this dialog Figure 2 Review Warnings Dialog and the Export Button Following this them we can define the BIM internal exam has having four parts Errors Components Parameters Settings 26 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Were there any of these parts that were damaged or poisoned and caused issues with the project The internal exam can be a difficult and time consuming process but will usually provide the most beneficial information Errors exist in ev ery project but the quantity and type can provide insight into the modeling quality The list of errors should be exported before continuing the internal exam since they will disappear as you dissect the project This list will help you establish a baseline for your Components amp Parameters Exam Save all the components outside the project to be examined individually Delete all the components and their instances from the project so that you can determine what is left Remaining items could include imported AutoCAD files in place components or one of many other imported elements Inspect the file size of each component to determine a starting point in the component exam The Largest files often the most complex too but not always should be examined first Can the
100. ice it If you keep on modelling in Revit and export your construction documentation back to CAD you will never fully learn the program Prepare for your training Never go into a training ses sion unprepared Ask the right questions at the right time Do not be afraid to ask He who asks is a fool for five minutes but he who does not ask remains a fool forever Chinese Proverb Don t outpace the trainer You will be very excited to explore the new functionality of the program but you will frustrate the class by possibly getting lost while 34 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 exploring Explore these functions and prepare a list of questions for your Q amp A sessions with the trainer Your trainer will be more than happy to answer these at the correct times as well as appreciating your enthusiasm Keep learning keep reading and current The only way to gain the edge is to do all of these There are so many Revit blogs and forums to read on a daily basis choose your favourites and read them with your cup of coffee before you start your day Read blogs join forums and discuss findings with your peers You will soon be answering questions on forums and the author of a new Revit blog Share information Whenever I implement I insist the company keeps a Revit black book This can contain questions findings or new ways to do things in Revit Bring this to your local user group or hold a weekl
101. iciency and speed are e Reliability Achieve maximum productivity with HP critical to competitiveness the HP commitment to through product testing that includes application innovation and solutions excellence along with performance graphics and comprehensive ISV Autodesk s 3D design software and the HP Autodesk certification relationship provide you with a significant engineer ing edge It starts with the HP family of revolutionary next generation Z Workstations designed to make complex 3D design and rendering easier and faster than ever before and ends with unsurpassed support throughout the solution lifecycle and beyond e Relationships HP helps our customers create a long lasting competitive edge by leveraging our technical resources and relationships with Autodesk graphics vendors chip suppliers and Microsoft to provide a consistent technical direction and broader more dependable 3D application oriented technology choices HP innovation performance reliability and relationships HP and Autodesk HP Z Workstations are engineered to optimize the way processor memory graphics system computa tional power that helps you accomplish more with every minute of your time This delivers advantages in four key areas The hardware is just the beginning though HP has a unique relationship with Autodesk Inc the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manu facturing building and construction and media and
102. iding product reviews in AUGI World THANKS AND RECRUITMENT As always we want to thank the authors who contributed their time and expertise to this issue some new and some returning Paul Aubin Robert Bell Chris Fugitt Bruce Gow Jason Grant Mike Hardy Brown David Harrington Will Harris David Kata oka Robert Manna John Morgan Damon Ranieri Elizabeth Shulok Steve Stafford me and alphabetically last but not least Elizabeth Wiggins and her crew from Harley Ellis Devereaux If you really like a particular author s work please let us know so we can apply pressure friendly loving pressure to ensure they return often As always if you want to be a part of this magazine as an author or as an advertiser please let us know Steve Stafford Editor steve stafford augi com Karen Popp Sales kpopp extensionmedia com Thanks for reading Steve Sta fford AUGI AEC Edge Editor Member AUGI Board of Directors 2006 08 AUGI Revit Community Forum Manager www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Cross Discipline by Margaret Wiggins An Owner s Guide to BIM SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION Everyone in the construction industry is talking about Building Information Modeling BIM Most archi tecture and engineering firms indicate that they are utilizing BIM to some degree on a percentage of their projects A recent report from McGraw Hill Con struction indicates that 62 of BIM users will use i
103. ier and at an advanced stage Electronic www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 mill orders can be generated and quicker estimates are generated for budget control as well Figure 5 Steel Framing Model The last phase is to review see Figure 6 the structural shop drawings electronically The engineer and fabricator transfer models electroni cally back and forth Additional time savings is achieved here with the elimination of the mail drop off pick up and making copies 72h SEPA gs 3 Figure 6 Steel Framing Assembly Evaluation When assembling a team for a specific project it is important to consider the entire process to ensure that the best product is being provided to the owner The IPD process can be applied throughout the life cycle of the project from design and fabrication to completion of construction Utilization of IPD results in shorter delivery times and overall project cost savings When a project utilizes IPD the contractor or construction manager should also be considered as part of the project team Considering the potential of BIM it s plausible to see BIM being coupled together with IPD to further increase each other s value and effectiveness Implementation of BIM software is a long term commitment and should involve much more planning than merely loading out of the box software and arranging training for the users The use of BIM Cross Discipline ch
104. ik Egbertson Tannar Frampton Chris Fugitt Ted Goulet Erin Rae Hoffer David Harrington Debasish Karmakar Karen Kensek Jonathan Landeros Anthony Ma son Phillip Miller John Morgan Michael Parten heimer Todd Shackleford Chad Smith Stephen Stafford Scott Womack amp Jay B Zallan Production Keith Kelly 415 255 0390 x13 kkelly extensionmedia com Production Coordinator Spryte Heithecker trafficaextensionmedia com Advertising Reprint Sales Karen Popp 415 255 0390 x19 kpopp extensionmedia com Extension MEDIA Extension Media LLC Corporate Office President Vince Ridley vridley extensionmedia com Vice President Marketing and Product Development Karen Murray kmurray extensionmedia com Vice President Business Development Melissa Sterling msterling extensionmedia com Vice President Sales Embedded Electronics Media Group Clair Bright cbright extensionmedia com PAUGI AUGI Board of Directors President Mark W Kiker Senior Vice President Richard Binning Vice President Peter Jamtgaard Secretary Bill Adams Treasurer John Morgan Members at Large Dario Passariello Published by Pay G Extension MEDIA The AUGI AEC Edge Magazine is published by Extension Media LLC and AUGI Extension Media LLC and AUGI makes no war ranty for the use of its products and assumes no responsibility for any errors which may appear in this publication nor does it make a commitment to update the
105. ine and has served AUGI as Local User Group Representative AEC Industry Chair Board of Director and Presi dent David has written several CAD related books most recently Mastering Revit Structure 2010 He currently works for Walter P Moore a consulting engineering firm based in Hous ton Texas and in addition to his role as CAD Designer provides in house Revit training and customization David is teaching a class on standards at Autodesk University 2009 and his blog can be found at http caddhelp blogspot com 56 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 by Elizabeth Shulok structure The API and the User Interface provides powerful functionality to access Revit model data both to read informa tion about a Revit model as well as to modify it But the Revit API also provides increasingly robust access to the Revit user interface as well Not only can Revit add in developers create Revit style ribbon panels for their commands they can interact with the set of selected ele ments in the model and respond to numerous program events such as the display of a Revit dialog or the closing of a docu ment This set of functionality allows developers to create rich simple to use Revit add in applications V are probably aware that the Revit API RIBBON PANELS There are two ways a developer can add commands to the Revit interface The simplest is to add them to the External Tools drop down button on the Add
106. ion PickOne and Selection WindowSelect methods These methods allow the user to select a single element or multiple elements without ending the external command Any elements selected by the user are added to the active set of selected elements By default the status bar at the bottom of the screen will display the text Select at most one element or press ESC to exit for the PickOne method and the text Select multi elements or press ESC to exit for the WindowSelect method However the Selection StatusbarTip property can be used to customize the message displayed to the user The following code example see Figure 02 will display a dialog which lets the user enter some text to be used as a comment for beams They are then prompted to select one or more beams to which the comment will be assigned The code then only applies the comment to structural beams in the selection since there is no way to enforce that only a cer tain type of element is selected Erupe Ayai ei erst e et Bors Stee Bees St pest er bee F rE Figure 2 Code Snippet for User Data Entry Dialog winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 57 structure EVENT HANDLING Another way to interact with the user is by subscribing to events Revit provides numerous events that may be of inter est to a Revit add in programmer For example events are triggered when the user closes or saves a document when the application is closing or when
107. is Schedule the Doors ask the nearby Space objects what their Room Number is This number is joined to a suf fix to generate the Door Mark This is a common use for the Location property but they can also be used to have furniture and equipment report which room they are in or staying with our Door Schedule example the KEYSIDE RM NO column in the Schedule can easily be input by means of a Location property see Figure 2 Return to Style Manager Edit DoorObjects again Delete the KeySideRoomNumber property Add a Location property Name it and then expand Space and SpaceObjects Select Number and then click OK Like above edit the Door Schedule to delete the existing KeySideRoomNumber property and replace it with the new one When you update the Schedule some of the values might re port SPACE NOT FOUND Click on the Doors and you Figure 2 Defining the KEYSIDE RM NO in a Schedule 50 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 SaaS Architecture will see a small star shaped grip This is the location grip Simply drag this grip to the room that you wish to associate with the Door The Schedule will update to reflect the value of the Space under this grip GOING FURTHER There is plenty more you can try with each of the properties discussed here and there are several other kinds of properties available as well Formula properties were already mentioned and offer the full power of the VB S
108. is easy but if your default printer is a small format printer every time you attempt to use the print dialog when the large page format is selected you will get a warning that the sheet size wont work on your default printer Grade Card AutoCAD MEP Revit MEP COLLABORATION Revit has a clear advantage in collaboration Elements in the MEP model know what faces they have been placed on even across a linked architectural model This means that when a wall is moved by the architect that the engineer s objects will move along with the wall This is a vast improvement over AutoCAD However this implies great responsibility on the part of the entire design team Deleting an element that is hosting other elements is something that must be done only when absolutely required and only after informing the other team members that are using that element as a host Sections and elevations are the other great collaboration tool in Revit Sections are so easy to create that MEP designers will create many more sections then they ever will in AutoCAD even if the majority of those sections never make it to a sheet The designer has a much better understanding of the building thanks to Revit s approach to sections and elevations Grade Card AutoCAD MEP Revit MEP ADMINISTRATION It is not enough to install either application on a workstation and walk away Each application needs to be configured to utilize corporate standard content Other
109. it templates are assigned to Project North orientation as a default setting Right Click in the view Click View Proper ties Look at the Orientation parameter to verify that it is set to Project North Click OK 2 Open floor plan view Site Note that the Project Base and Survey Points are NOT on top of each other AND that you cannot see the building anymore Right Click in the view Click View Prop erties Change the Orientation parameter to True North Click OK Right Click in the view Choose Zoom to Fit Notice that the Project Base and Survey points change their orientation 3 Select the Survey Point Right Click and Choose Hide in View Choose Category Right Click in the view Zoom to Fit You should now see the building The large distance between the Survey Point and the Project Base Point made it difficult to see the building because it was very small in proportion 4 Display the True Elevation Open the elevation view South Select the Level Level 1 Right Click and Choose Element Properties Click the Edit Type button in the Instance Prop erties dialog Change the Elevation Base parameter to Shared Click OK to close the Type Properties dialog Click OK to close the Instance Properties dialog You should now see the site elevation values at each Level Tf you don t want all of them to show this you can make a new Level Type that shows Elevation Base Shared and leave the original set to Elevation Base Project instead
110. itecture Model this works regardless of coor dinate value size Exports to CAD use Shared Coordinates The Paper Clip What Does the help file have to say about this icon First the Project Base Point Next the Survey Point The coordinate features I want to use seem to be disabled Someone probably pinned the survey or project base point From Revit help documentation You cannot move a pinned project base point or survey point Pinning the project base point disables the Relocate Project and the Rotate Project North tools Pinning the survey point disables the Rotate True North Acquire Coordinates and Specify Coordinates tools winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 47 Architecture Unclipped Moving a clipped project base point is the same as using the Relocate Project tool see Relocating a Project on page 1300 Project coordinates do not change for the model elements Moving an unclipped project base point repositions the project coordinate system relative to both the model geometry and shared coordinate system E Project coordinates change for the Shared coordinates change for the model elements model elements E The shared coordinates of the project base point change in the shared co ordinate system The project coordin ates of the project base point never change Shared coordinates do not change for the model elements Figure 11 Help file contents for Project Base Point clipping
111. large components be condensed by reducing the complexity of modeling or by generally purging clean ing them of unnecessary parts If parametric does the component adjust correctly with out error Do the components have the correct assignment of type vs instance parameters so that the schedules can be used effectively Are materials parameterized efficiently to allow the end user to modify easily Are the components categorized correctly Reviewing settings within a project provides a solution for drawing standard issues or the possibility to discover elements that should be in the office template s Examine everything by comparing them with the current template items like ob ject styles visibility graphics view overrides filters materials fill patterns and the many other settings If the settings do not match can one imagine why the team chose to deviate from the standards Changing a setting within Revit is a deliberate act that will have a reason behind it Follow up on specific modifications in the post exam interviews Try to find the reason for the change before simply blaming the entire team because they did not follow the standard IN THE LAB Forensic identification is accomplished through lab testing to identify specific objects from the trace evidence In the case of BIM lab testing the components which were reviewed during the internal exam are then placed in a new project started with the current templat
112. lity for AutoCAD 2010 http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13723477 amp linkID 9240698 Scale List Cleanup Utility for AutoCAD 2010 http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 13723349 amp linkID 9240698 REVIT ARCHITECTURE TOP KNOWLEDGE BASE ISSUES Revit button does not open http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112Gi d 14507478 GlinkID 9243099 Electrical file symbols for switches and outlets display as boxes http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112Gi d 14507458 amp linkID 9243099 Crop an imported DWG file http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112Gi d 14507384GlinkID 9243099 In a perspective view the option to insert an image is grayed out http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112Gi d 14507365 amp linkID 9243099 Location for Revit 2010 Subscription Advantage Pack Key boardShortcuts xml file http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112Gi d 14465055 amp linkID 9243099 When opening a Revit local project file after a crash an unre coverable error occurs http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112Gi d 14447376 amp linkID 9243099 Revit 2010 License Timeout Workaround Update 2 and Subscription Advantage Pack Build http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp i d 14309812GlinkID 9243099 head s up After reinstalling an Autodesk 201
113. lor of Architecture degree and a Bachelor of Science in Building Sciences Since graduation he has worked for Burt Hill in Philadelphia and now Boston He has been a key team member on four ma jor projects including a 450 bed dormitory a multi use development project and two university classroom lab buildings The third project was also Burt Hill s first BIM pilot project to complete construction documents and begin con struction Robert has been an integral part of the team strategizing and planning Burt Hill s transition from the historical 2D docu ment based workflow to a fully coordinated BIM process He has taught internally and helped outline the curriculum for training new project teams as well as working to develop long term goals and plans for the entire firm s use of BIM and representing Burt Hill on the AIA LFRT BIM committee His day to day activities include helping to manage the devel opment and continuing implementation of new tools software testing as needed team assistance and content development Most recently he taught at Autodesk University 2009 and has presented at BIM events hosted by the AIA ACEC Autodesk and CAD vendors he also wrote an article about BIM Revit adoption at Burt Hill for AEC Edge s inaugural edition Robert also enjoys when he has time writing his Revit BIM blog con tributing to AUGI and every so often he skis and bikes winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 33 Cross
114. lt section view s appearance That will wrap up the changes to get this plan looking they way we prefer Next is dealing with a section view At the north edge of the plan is a section mark In figure 3 this section view is shown Now it doesn t look like much even after all the work we have been doing largely because the lines in this view generally belong to cut elements and other than columns we have not addressed any cut line weights yet So once again we open the Object Styles dialog You certainly don t want to go through this effort at the view level via the Visibility Graphics dialog or you will have to repeat the edits with every section From the Object Styles dialog find the Floors category and change what Well this is where the previous work described in the Fall issue s article is beginning to pay off because structure it is easier to see what is wrong here From the section view we can see that the floor is black not magenta And only one floor category is black so the Cut line weight is the spot to edit Change that to pen 8 Once you return to the section view the profile of the deck and concrete is now nice and heavy Again back to the Object Styles dialog this time slide on down to Structural Column Now the column we see is not black and it is not a stick symbol so the slot to change is probably going to be the main Project line weight Change that to pen 4 and make it black After the column on to the beam
115. m of the view is at the finish floor height and then the model is cut between them 4 The problem was that we have different first floor heights for both existing building To make matters worse the new addition s first floor is at grade This project was a dream fulfilled for The Architect The bell tower of his alma mater inspired him throughout the project Ever since attending the school he had wanted to design a tower of his own He had spent hours staring at levels working out how to make an elevator fit in the new tower So familiar with the problem by now he could just rattle off what each building s finish floor height was without hesitation Since he knew all the levels intimately he setup all the plan regions Sometimes you just fall into job responsibilities naturally Three plan regions for each overall floor plan Four floors in the project with reflected ceiling plans as well as Structural and MEP overall plans quickly turns a simple plan region solution into a management nightmare One set of views were created as a template for new overall views A quick copy and paste assign a view template then name the view and you have another Overall floor plan WRAP UP Recently the South Coast Revit User Group SCRUG meeting attendees sat for a little over an hour listening to me tell this tale Most of them laughing along enjoying my presentation I closed with Perhaps I m a dreamer but this is how I feel
116. mean to a BIM project We can use the autopsy process to understand why a project struggled and what we can do to prevent BIM tragedies in the future BIM failures are seldom about one component one individual or misunderstanding one process The failure is made up of multiple situations that when combined turn a project sour BIM Autopsies will help us fully understand the situation in a way even the team itself may not comprehend or at least put into words Once the causes are determined you can modify training components or processes to give future teams a better chance for success Why don t you have a seat we d like to ask you a few questions nervous Figure 1 Have a seat we d like to ask you some questions PRE EXAM INTERVIEWS Pre exam interviews give the investigators an initial under standing of what those involved in the project thought about the process This interview can provide the mindset of the team and what those involved believe was and was not suc cessful Design the interview to be non confrontational If questions are posed that put an individual s on the spot you will not get honest answers Therefore the design of the interview should use leading and open ended questions in tended to let their answers reveal more than asking pointed winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 25 Cross Discipline yes no answered questions would The investigator may have some idea why the model turned sour b
117. ments accompanying such products and services Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein Intel and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U S and other countries Microsoft Windows and Windows Vista are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies THE NEWEST MEMBER OF OUR WIDE FORMAT SCANNER FAMILY THE CONTEX XD2490 A low cost way to Scan Copy and Communicate from your office or in the field REVISE EMAIL UPLOAD COLLABORATE FAX SHARE DISTRIBUTE TRACK COPY MODIFY CONTEX HAS A WIDE FORMAT SCANNING SOLUTION TO MEET YOUR NEEDS SD Series Exceptional value for your money Easy to use solution for capturing or printing CAD and technical drawings with professional grade performance HD Series World class images with the perfect blend of speed and precision Flatbed versatility now available in large format Merging the flexibility of flatbed scanners with the best of wide format imaging technology Contex Americas Inc www contex com p N i X Toll Free 877 226 6839 877 2 CONTEX F FN Phone 1 240 399 5600 WHEN IMAGING MATTERS AUGI AEC edge contents features Autodesk Revit Architecture 7010 Warning can be ignored Shared Locations in the Linked Model Large Project Building ryt have been modified but not saved back to the Linked File Upon
118. models with a new class of solid printers as they get more and more affordable Case Study Visualization Realistic renderings see Figure 9 and 10 allow owners to under stand the approximate quality level achieved by the intended design prior to any construction document activity Figure 9 Exterior Building Rendering 10 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Ee Gos Disapline Figure 10 Interior Building Rendering Quick interactive models see Figure 11 allow user to understand the designs implications and refine designs to better coincide with internal processes Figure 11 Quick shaded 3D views Extending beyond the available graphical deliverables BIM also provides the opportunity for sharing of non graphical data from the model This could include specific items such as area take offs quantity take offs fixture schedules panel schedules air change rates load summaries or other system analytical summaries For example wouldn t it be better and more efficient for the sheet metal contractor to utilize the BIM for final construction coordina tion and fabrication instead of redrawing the systems BIM allows the opportunity to reduce redundant tasks During design it could also encompass a more broad based exchange of data like exporta tion of analytical data inter discipline linking of models or transfer of the model itself For example the building envelope performance can be tak
119. mpactness and not for human readability Revit Architecture supports the import of ACIS objects con tained in DWG DXF and SAT files You can create ACIS objects using the AutoCAD commands Draw Solids and Draw Region You can also use Microstation SmartSolids The following surface types are supported when importing into Revit Plane Sphere Torus Cylinder Cone Elliptical cylinder Elliptical cone Extruded surface Revolved surface NURB surfaces You can import NURB non uniform rational B splines sur faces on ACIS objects in DWG or SAT files into Revit mass or generic model families while you are creating the family You can then use the Roof by Face and Curtain System by Face tools to create roofs and curtain systems on these imported surfaces To use ACIS imports for face based host tools import ge ometry into an in place family of category Mass or Generic Model Face based tools work best on ACIS solids For ex ample if you create walls by face on a cube the walls join and miter correctly If you create a curtain system by face on a solid you can add corner mullions onto the joins between faces of the curtain system To create elements from faces of imported solids they must be imported into the conceptual design environment while you are creating a mass family or into the Family Editor while you are creating a generic model as depicted in Figure 1 Figure 1 Imported SAT file geom
120. n Large Project Building rvt What do you want to do Save Saves the new position back to the linked file Do Not save Retuphiss g the previously saved position when the file is reloaded or reopened Disable shared positioning Retaiggane current position of the link and changes the Shared Location paramete to lt Not Shared gt Figure 6 Saving the new location of the Building file Keep in mind that the building file must not already be opened by another person when you attempt to save this new location data to the building file When working with central files there is usually no conflict because as a rule we dont work in central files directly 9 Close the project STEP FIVE CHECK THE RESULTS LOOK AT THE BUILDING FILE When you publish the location orientation and elevation infor mation to a building model it is now using Shared Coordinates There is now an inherent understanding between the Site file and the building file Any other buildings that join this one in the Site file can share this relationship This means that any file that shares in this coordinate relationship can be linked into one another using Shared Coordinates We need to verify that the building has been altered correctly on to the exercise EXERCISE 5 CHECK THE RESULTS LOOK AT THE BUILDING FILE 1 Using Revit Architecture 2010 Open the file Large Project Building rvt Open the floor plan view Level 1 All plan views in Rev
121. nd out if the coordinate data is very large and if the contours and other site information are very far away from the origin of the file These two items are usually inextricably linked together Revit has a design requirement that you will model your building within a one 1 mile radius of the project origin In previous re leases of Revit it is not at all obvious where the project origin is located just a casual It s roughly in the middle between the eleva tion symbols you see in plan One technique to find it exactly is to import a dwg file that has a marker at its origin and use the Auto Origin to Origin positioning option Revit 2010 introduced two icons shown in Figure 1 to display where the Project Base Point is as well as a Survey Point Project Base Point Shared Location MS 0 0 Survey Point Internal Shared Location iia ae p EAM a5 0 Eley 0 0 Evy O o Eley O o ngle to True North 0 000 Figure 1 New Project Base and Survey Point icons These are not visible by default except in the floor plan called Site You can turn them on in other floor plan views using Visibility Graphics Overrides They are defined as sub category elements of the Site cat egory Dont bother looking for them in a ceiling plan view however you can turn them on in those views but you still won t see them There area variety of methods you can use to determine how large the coordinates are in your file For a nice vis
122. nderstand how the hammer is supposed to be used because he missed his training session Relying solely on what he saw the other day and from a distance at that he tells his friend you swing it like this and bash things His friend tries it out and finds he can do some serious damage quickly His friend is mesmerized by his new tool of choice as he is able to bash everything he wants to dis mantle The supervisor isn t impressed however when he sees the hammer being used this way instead of being used to drive nails to create something It is far too easy and even common to blame this destruction on the hammer and the guy that did the training for the rest of the crew A hammer is a simple tool yet it can be used to create or destroy Software isn t simple As a Revit trainer this has been the case far too often when arriving at a site where the staff has been let loose without ad equate instruction and preparation If planning goes forward based on those free session alone you might just be better off using the free online self help tutorials or not using the hammer at all Instruction education and planning are nec essary You need to understand the problems and figure out how to adapt to fit your current office standards Some Insider Secrets a Revit trainer s advice Seek training knowledge by an industry professional If your trainer has not been involved in projects similar to the types you are currently involved with
123. ner can and should take advantage of today s BIM capabilities and benefits Through the use of BIM more efficient processes can be developed better coordination can be achieved project sched ules can be shortened and overall project costs can be reduced Although there are many factors involved in successful BIM uti lization the owner can proactively assess and select a project team which operates at a performance level that meets their technical ex pectations and project requirements In addition an owner should become knowledgeable regarding BIM capabilities to ensure that the project goals are attainable Finally an owner should be flexible fair and respect the opinions of their project team regarding issues which will present themselves while the industry continues on the path to complete integration Margaret Wiggins has been with Harley Ellis Devereaux for 10 years She has over 20 years of experience in Computer Aided Design Mrs Wiggins continues to assist in the development of discipline specific CAD software She is a member of and contributor to several CAD user support groups and industry focus groups She is an active member of Harley Ellis Devereaux 3D BIM development committee Kirk G Pesta PE is a Principal with Harley Ellis Devereaux He has 16 years of experi ence in the design of mechanical systems for healthcare campuses Mr Pesta holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Oakland University He is a LEED A
124. ng will be necessary to success fully use the family as part of your model and ultimately the construction documents The family may need the company standard annotation annotation for assist another trade and or its visibility simplified to maximize model performance Our engineers have specific symbols they want to see in their documentation when other engineer s objects are visible What follows is an overview of the steps we typically take to make it ready for us to use This is part tutorial part over view and it does assume that you are at least familiar enough with Revit to fill in some blanks Here we go PREPARATION Naturally you ll need to download the family or set of fami lies from the manufacturer s website or sales representative s data disc You ll take these steps next Load the parts you wish to use into your project Open a family for editing Using Save As save a copy of the part to your project library Change the name of the file to differentiate between the unaltered version of the part and to facilitate data harvesting from your family library after the project has been closed out PROCESS THE 3D INFORMATION Typically the 3D view of the part will open first We ll want to select the 3D solids and change their visibility so that the part does not show in plan or RCP views We also want to manage the level of detail used to issue CD s for mechanical documentation see Figure 1 If all objects
125. ngrant gmail com winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 27 Gassini EEE BIM Boot Camp INTROSPECTION He laughed to himself the quiet self reflective kind I had just explained Nine weeks and the project is going great the people are amazing it seems like everyone is onboard Often IIl call my father for the simple pleasure of listening and sharing This particular phone call had in that moment transformed from a quick hello into something more Of course I asked him to share his insight Boot Camp is nine weeks he stated This was followed with a quick explana tion of how Boot Camp changes a person preparing them for a new kind of life I stood in the office listening wondering if we had actually succeeded THE TASK I d been contracted to implement all three verticals of Revit Architecture Structure and MEP This included maintain the project train staff and build the standards amp process all at the same time Ninety days should work just fine right Alone it would be impossible With some luck help from friends hours of hard work and a group of wonderful people to work with it nothing is impossible THE FIRM The Firm provides architectural engineering and civil design services This multi discipline firms IT CAD support depart ment has been assessing the transition to BIM for quite some time Up till now they ve been using AutoCAD for production work Any firm this
126. not be happy seeing their oval ductwork modeled as rectangular ductwork or not as a system family A deeper comparison of the two applications reveals interesting parallels Plan Representation 3D Models Parametrics PLAN REPRESENTATIONS Representing objects in plan in either application has plusses and minuses with one important advantage in Revit The following table describes certain features of plan representations and how each application stacks up Description AutoCAD Revit Multiple lineweights Fully capable Fully capable Text based Missing readable Text based annotation must representations text be in a nested annotation family and such families can not be consistently applied to all model family categones Fully capable Only available in annotation a families Indicating clearances clearances Fully capable capable Fully capable sd capable Stacking wall mounted Limited Fully capable when using plan eo nested annotation eee Tagging sd Fully capable capable Limited Fill patterns The important advantage for Revit is that it is easy to create a part that is wall based and yet move the plan symbol of such a part off the wall without disturbing its 3D model as shown in Figure 1 The downside to this approach is that there is no grip to edit the offset The elements parameters need to be edited in a dialog box rather than visually relocating the plan symbol bea i
127. ns and applied the combination into object styles If this didn t whet your appetite I don t know what will Now this article continues from instruc tion given in the previous edition of AEC Edge If you are just starting here you might want to go review that first Editor s Note Read the article in the Fall 2009 issue called Revit Fundaments Standards Control by David Harrington In this segment we look at elements in the Object Styles dialog and then uncover their relationship with family content The Ob ject Styles dialog is the largest dialog in Revit but don t let that scare you Working with it just requires lots of time and a good deal of patience It is here in the Object Styles dialog that you set the default look of all your views and subsequent drawings Figure 1 Sample model plan standards per the default template In Figure 1 we have a small sample plan for a steel framing plan with the out of the box settings Now reproducing images in a magazine isnt a perfect science I have no idea how big my figure will be but you should be able to notice the line weights Now compare that to Figure 2 and what changed The beams are a bit thicker and much of everything else for that matter 2 Figure 2 Sample model plan standards customized So what did I change The very minimum of course I changed the projection line weight for Structural Framing gt Girder to line weight 10 and Joist to 9 I changed th
128. nual property in a Property Set it will default to a Type of text Once you have defined at least one List Definition you will be able to change this and choose the Type List that allow the input of common data like Door Number Room Number and Hardware Set They are added directly on the ob Expand Documentation Objects and select a Property ject which then reports them on the Schedule as well Set Definition on the left On the right side click the Definition tab As useful as both of these properties are they are only the Locate a Property that currently reads Text in the tip of the iceberg In this article we will explore some of the Type column less common but no less powerful Property Sets Change this item to List In the Source column a new pop up list will appear with each of your available List LIST DEFINITIONS Definitions Choose the one you created above Want to reduce tedious data input ensure consistency among You can choose a default from your list in the Default users and speed data entry all at the same time List Defini column tions are a simple way to achieve all three A List Definition is simply a list of common values that can E itre egr be assigned to a manual text field To a a ee 2 SS SS create and use one do the following ASS Sieh ere ia Cy Schrduteteg pT Schecter PO Demen Ober T Create a drawing add some Walls ba a i fak
129. obody enjoys having to guess which family is supposed to be used when faced with a list of possible choices Line styles are part of the basis of how your documentation is going to look In all likelihood you ll want to replicate some of what was available in CAD However it is perhaps more important to provide a clear set of line styles that makes it easy to use Revit s drafting tools In which case you want to make sure there are a set of line styles that match with the Object Style settings for your views or view templates This will make it easy for users to start detailing the model and integrate model geometry with their details CONCLUSION A good project template will get your teams started off in the right direction without heartache and angst either at the beginning or later on in a project s life Good templates also make for efficient users who employ company standards and best practices A project template should include clear systems and organization that a team can use and build upon as their project develops This contributes to efficiency and avoids teams needing to re invent the wheel or go find something they did in a previous project to move forward Therefore a template CANNOT be a static document it has to grow evolve with your firm and your user s experi ence level s You should make sure to track the changes to a template and track new requests or features that need to be added this way you will have
130. ocation Manage Ribbon gt Coordinates gt Pub lish Coordinates Select the copied building at the North property boundary When the Manage Place and Locations dialog appears as shown in Figure 8 Rename the existing named location to West Boundary Duplicate the West Boundary and use the new name North Boundary Click OK to close the dialog Fu Liej fur ordi ered pan a ther prot on tee aie waj ie brite i Sher Gumi Thera ever bo Sary Sheed Licata chef rh ore crane Tai oa eis Lage eee Bal Figure 8 Defining the new Location and naming 5 Save the file as a new file Large Project Master Site EO7 rvt When the Location Position Changed dialog appears Click Save Close the project file 6 Using Revit Architecture 2010 Open the project file Large Project Building rvt and Open the floor plan view Site 7 Examine the locations that are available Manage Ribbon gt Loca tion Click North Boundary Click Make Current Click OK The building will change its orientation accordingly Open the elevation view South notice the elevation is 1275 0 Change the location Manage Ribbon gt Location Click West Boundary Click Make Current Click OK Level annotation values change to reflect the elevation for this building location 1286 0 Open the floor plan view Site The orientation has reverted to the previous location 46 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Only ONE location can be displayed in
131. of the class was to identify the broad scope of families settings and miscellaneous stuff that could and should be customized to make a good solid project template A well customized template helps to make your project teams more efficient by eliminating the need to recreate the wheel every time It also helps to automate rote tasks that would otherwise be time consuming and tedious This short article highlights some of the salient points from both sessions A key part of both of the seminars was the use of web survey data collected prior to AU I created surveys that asked a series of questions about how they have custom ized their templates and what they felt was most important when they developed their Project Template s HOW MANY One question was How many project templates does your com pany have or how many are you considering see Figure 1 How many project templates does your company have or how many are you considering mi m2 5 15 10 Oii or more Figure 1 Survey results How many project templates does your company have Interestingly the predominant response was anywhere from two to five project templates The top few reasons cited for needing more then one template were multiple Market Sectors or Disciplines within a single firm closely related to Market Sectors would be client demand for specific standards something seen particularly when dealing with government clients
132. ommunity and those that attend Local Chapter meetings are very pas sionate about their value I recently attended the RevitDC meeting in Arlington VA and despite snowy conditions we had about 90 people in attendance If you knew what snow can do to Washington DC traffic you would know what a sacrifice the attendees made GOALS AUGI Local Chapters are the foundation of the organization It will be a cornerstone of AUGI s success moving forward to reconnect with the Local Chapters and provide additional support and services of which these groups can take advan tage To this end AUGI has key goals to achieve this 40 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Updating the Local Chapter database This will entail merging existing databases and verifying the content of the combined database Connecting with vendors to provide resources for Local Chapters including speakers and giveaways Connecting members with their Local Chapters through an awareness campaign Updating the Local Chapter Handbook AUGI Local Chapter Management Team connecting directly with Local Chapter Presidents to provide hands on support Direct support for new Local Chapters by connecting them with resources in their area including other Local Chapters and vendors Provide improved web support including a revamped Local Chapter web page on AUGI com Reach across the globe to connect with Local Chap ters operating both wit
133. or the entire building and assign all of your spaces to that HVAC Zone If your project contains a combination of conditioned and unconditioned zones manually create additional HVAC Zones and assign spaces of similar condition type to each HVAC Zone ADDING REVIT MEP SPACE OBJECTS The process for defining space objects in Revit MEP is similar to defining room objects in Revit Architecture The whitepaper referenced earlier provides detailed information for adding and manipulating space objects but here is an overview of the process Open a plan view of the level where you want to add spaces select the space object from the Analyze tab and then click in the center of the area where you want a space to be defined The Revit MEP software will highlight all the bounding walls that make up the boundaries for that space Like the room objects described earlier the space object must touch the entire roof or ceiling in the room The procedure to check and correct a space object s height is the same for a room object described earlier Figure 5 Revit MEP will automatically create one HVAC Zone for the entire building and assign all of your spaces to that zone If your project contains a combination of conditioned and unconditioned zones manually create additional HVAC Zones and assign spaces of similar condition type to each HVAC Zone Figure 6 Once you have established your fundamental design parameters use Ecotect Anal
134. outh west corner of the site A special layer called _Shared Coordinates was added to this file to make it easier to find them if necessary he reference marks are assigned to this layer 3 Use List to see the coordinates of this block Make a note of these coordinate values It is this reference that we need to tell our civil consultant that we intend to use Alternatively we could should ask them which one to use 4 If you keep this file open while working in Revit you can use copy and paste to quickly enter the exact values into Revit in later steps If you prefer to close AutoCAD then you can write down the co ordinate values using the full four decimal places indicated You will also be able to see the coordinate values in Revit later because there is a text string that displays what the coordinates are 5 There are no changes to save Close the file unless you prefer to keep it open STEP TWO CREATE AND PREPARE THE SITE PROJECT FILE This time around we will start from a blank Revit template file There is a little maintenance to do since this file is a bit simpler than a real building model file First of all we don t need a lot of levels just one for Sea Level can suffice We also dont really need a lot of views Composite views of the site and all the buildings can be generated and printed from this site proj ect file but they can also be created from one of the other primary building files Documents that show significant
135. ple when creating a planar surface from three open surface edges use Cap Planar Holes this will cre ate a trimmed rectangular surface ACIS SAT recognizes only solids Make sure you have closed polysurfaces and check for open edges ADSK ADSK Autodesk Exchange File ADSK isa data exchange format defined by Autodesk available since versions 2010 based on XML It is used for transferring data between Inventor Revit AutoCAD Civil 3D and Auto CAD Architecture It presents possible future broader usage as a universal media for exchanging design data between CAD applications or at least between Autodesk s products A simple double click on an adsk file displays the documen tation report created by the authoring application ADSK format is self documenting To create an efficient ADSK file for opening in a civil engi neering application such as Civil 3D export only the relevant parts of the model such as exterior walls and doors and hide the rest Do this by applying the Export to Civil Engineering view template to the 3D view as follows Set the Function parameter to Interior for non essential walls doors stairs floor ramps and curtain walls Note The Function parameter must be set to interior for the Export to Civil Engineering view template to work correctly In the 3D view click View tab gt Graphics panel gt View Templates drop down gt Apply new template to current view Inthe Apply
136. port the survey 2 Import the Survey Insert Ribbon gt Link CAD gt Browse to file Property Survey dwg Use the settings as shown in Figure 2 Click Open Once the file appears you ll be able to navigate in the view again Right Click in the view Zoom to Fit Figure 2 Import settings for the survey file 3 Select the Survey Point icon Un Clip the icon Click the Paper Clip icon Move Drag it to the Baseline BL 6 marker located in the southwest corner of the site survey Remember you can use the Tab key to help select the icon or use Visibil ity Graphics to turn off the Project Base Point icon for now 4 Define coordinates Manage Ribbon gt Coordinates gt Specify Coordinates at Point Pick the origin of the Survey Point En ter the following values 5 x East West 675654 2820 6 y North South 776130 7180 7 z Elevation 0 8 Rotation 0 East 9 Click OK to apply the changes note in this case that the sur vey does not move or disappear as it did in the previous section for Small Projects 10 Save the file as Large Project Master Site E03 rvt and Close the project STEP FOUR IMPORT AND POSITION A BUILDING FILE Importing a Revit project is a little simpler process than a CAD file because there are fewer settings to worry about We just need to select a file and choose a positioning method The building model needs to be placed on the site immediately so it makes some sense to choo
137. r Pupa Geete Wewiihests Foki Opis Tranpa Cats Pta Guik Ling E Priv Orat 2 Fide Pipirit Irig ma Gp Reduce Iconator 98 2 sa Laroui Heme ag Page Lira Line Wenge Antvarcad Figure 2 Bluebeam provides Revit users with a lot of control in configuring PDF conversion options IMPRESSION 2 MORE FLEXIBILITY THAN REVIT USERS HAVE SEEN BEFORE Everyone likes to use software in different ways Some people like to have a lot of options the more buttons and toolbars the better Other people are intimidated when faced with too many choices Revu caters to everyone by making it incredibly easy to create a perfectly usable PDF with the touch of a single button but still providing enough op tions and advanced features to satisfy even the most diehard techie As I mentioned before you can imagine how excited I was when I saw that Revu allows you to sort your sheet or view order before ever 36 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 making the final PDF By doing this I can place all of the sheets in the set did I mention that I can do this in the order I want and make sure that everything is exactly how I want it before sending the file to our reprographics company for printing to hard copy It is so much quicker than opening up a large PDF waiting for the previews to generate and then manually dragging each sheet into position In my opinion this feature alone is worth the cost of the software View Sh
138. r small team who understand what a drawing set should look like Review the entire drawing set sheet by sheet so that a full understanding of the project is obtained Record and document any issues BIM or otherwise to as sist the team during the construction phase of the project Finally keep the results of the external exam in mind while performing the internal exam THE INTERNAL EXAM Forensic autopsies use the internal exam to gain more insight into pathological processes and determine what factors con tributed to a patient s death They then categorize the death of the individual into one of five categories Natural Ac cident Homicide Suicide or Undetermined They achieve this understanding by removing organs components so that they can be examined outside the body project and investi gating other internal damage error list At least with a BIM Autopsy we aren t working with a dead project hopefully Autodesk Revit Architecture 7010 i S Warnings Multiple Rooms are in the same enclosed region The corect area and perimeter Will be assigned to one Room and the others will display Redundant Room ou a should separate the regions delete the extra Rooms or move them into different regions Highlighted walls overlap One of them may be ignored when Revit finde room boundaries Use Cut Geometry to embed one wall within the other H Insert conflicts with joined wall 4 nis notin a properly enclose S
139. r this was really just topping on the cake I continue As you can see I m not your typical instructor I took the 1500 page Revit User Manual skimmed though it and made a 30 page reference guide The guide focused on the truly critical things How Revit thinks how to communicate with it and how to flip the CAD mindset to a Revit mindset Everything else was to be addressed after the initial training Training went well We ran the architectural side of training in the morning then the engineering side in the afternoon Day one four hours was UI and some basics I made them model a simple house Day two we addressed core tools and how Revit is the same and different than AutoCAD They have to model another simple house this time I only allow them twenty minutes Day three we moved onto specific tools for each discipline What Yes all the Revit verticals are the same Tools and process may differ between verticals however the fundamentals are same Here is where things get complicated I m a Revit expert who specializes in architecture and management I know enough about Revit MEP and Structure to teach the basics as well as how systems are supposed to work So how did I train them I did and didn t I made sure that everyone knew the basics of Revit I made sure that each person had a Wow moment I explained that we would get them more advanced web training from other experts in a few weeks right now they jus
140. r us As hard as this makes get ting this magazine done this is a good sign I believe A sign that the economy is on the mend or at least that confidence is returning in many ways This means that this editor has been stressed and stretched a bit more than by the previous issues while securing articles and getting things done As many folks say It s all good NEW DEPARTMENT While I was part of the AUGI board we discussed the notion of providing product reviews in AUGI World this magazine or on AUGI com or all of them perhaps I m pleased that this issue has a new department called Product Reviews This issue features an article by AUGI member David Kataoka reviewing a new release from Bluebeam which is boasting a brand new plug in for Revit 2010 products among other new features We hope that this department proves useful to our readers If you d like to provide a review of a product that you really like or are impressed with please let me know This helps fill a void in this issue because our Autodesk Insider s department is without an insider The people I ap proached this time around were just too busy as their fiscal year comes to a close and the preparations for new releases of products begins to hit a frenzied pace If all goes well the next issue will feature a nice article from a recently reduced hair member of Autodesk is that vague enough While I was part of the AUGI board we discussed the notion of prov
141. rchitecture click the Revit Icon gt Open gt Building Component 3 Load the ADSK file into the project from the Family Editor Note You can load the ADSK file directly into the project 4 Click Home tab gt Build panel gt Component drop down gt Place a Component 5 Click Place Component tab gt Model panel gt Load Family select the ADSK file and place it in the project 6 Place the component in the project 7 Display the component as a bounding box at a coarse level of detail 8 Display the full geometry at medium and fine levels of detail 9 View the component in any view 10 Run an interference check to ensure proper clearance 11 Tag and schedule the component using its parameters 12 Dimension the component to its reference planes and to some of its geometry Create any extra connectors on the component in the Family Editor When they are connected to building ser vices in Revit MEP the connectors can be used in flow analysis We will pick up next time with DGN DWG and more Bruce Gow is a registered architect with extensive practice experience His architec tural background includes work on a wide range of project types including High Rise Hospitality Health Care and Residential Commercial developments He is a Revit Implementation Architect Applications Engineer with KarelCAD working in Aus tralia New Zealand demonstrating Autodesk products training and implementing Revit Architecture Revit Stru
142. reference planes see Figure 11 to place the annotation family or wherever the symbol should be located You do need to constrain it to something so it stays where you want it Figure 11 Placing the Symbol Family WORKING WITH THE ADJUSTED FAMILY IN THE PROJECT For this example in mechanical views turn off the visibility of the electrical subcategory Display Elec in the mechanical equip ment s nested annotation family see Figure 12 Figure 12 Testing for the Sub Category Control 64 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 Once you turn off the category you should see the following result see Figure 13 Figure 13 The result of the change In electrical views the subcategory of Mechanical Equipment Display Mech would be turned off instead see Figure 14 Mode Categories Annotation Categories Imported Categories Fiters Worksets Revit Links Design Opti I Show model categones in this wen Ifa cal Override Host Layers Cut Line Stes Show categories from all dscplines to Object Style settings Object Styles Figure 14 Adjusting the View for Electrical Display MEP After turning off the Display Mechanical Object Style sub cat egory you see just the electrical symbol the electrical engineers want see Figure 15 Figure 15 The Electrical Symbol only CONCLUSION In a perfect world t
143. reliability to the next level to give you and your business a competitive edge HP Z400 Workstation The HP Z400 Workstation delivers enhanced work station performance in a very affordable package to transform the way engineering and design profes sionals work This workstation is ideal for AutoCAD users users with 3D vertical solutions that leverage AutoCAD and 2D and 3D users who need the most affordable solution HP Z600 Workstation The HP Z600 Workstation packs compute and visualization power to help you work faster and beat deadlines into our smallest quietest dual processor eightcore design when every inch watt and decibel make a difference This workstation is ideal for 3D users who want to take advantage of the multiple cores needed for applications that use rendering animation and simulation such as Autodesk Inventor Revit Civil 3D and AutoCAD Map 3D HP Z800 Workstation The HP Z800 Workstation delivers the ultimate per formance in a revolutionary next generation design that combines extreme speed massive expandability and maximum productivity to accelerate even the big gest most complex engineering and design projects This high end workstation is ideal for power users of Autodesk 3ds Max and other visualization applica tions HP xw9400 Workstation The HP xw9400 Workstation delivers uncompro mised graphics performance and maximum expand ability combining computational and visualization
144. reopening instances of the Linked Model will return to their last Saved Positions You can Save the Linked Model later via the Manage Links dialog Show More Info Expand gt gt 6 EDITORS MESSAGE 28 BIM BOOT CAMP CROSS DISCIPLINE 31 AU UNCONFERENCE RECAP PROJECT 7 AN OWNER S GUIDE TO BIM TEMPLATES 22 COME TOGETHER FILE FORMATS 34 YOU BOUGHT YOUR BIM SOFTWARE NOW WHAT 25 BIM AUTOPSY CIVIL ENGINEERING e 38 CIVIL 3D API WHERE TO LOOK TO GET STARTED You are trying to load the family W Wide Flange which already exists in this project What do you want to do ARCHITECTURE 42 SHARED COORDINATES A TUTORIAL fe venerit ee exisang version 57 49 TURBO CHARGE YOUR ACA SCHEDULES Overwrite the existing version and its parameter STRUCTURE values 54 REVIT FUNDAMENTALS PART 2 57 THE API AND THE USER INTERFACE Click here to learn more www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 for Revit Design Landscape Plans Directly Inside Revit Architecture LANDCADD for Revit offers Architects Landscape Architects and Designers functionality embedded inside Autodesk Revit Architecture to produce a landscape design that is truly integrated within the building model Improve your team collaboration by integrating the landscape design group with your architecture group workflow Reduce the number of revisions designing directly in the Revit model while avoiding costly AutoCAD to Revit conversion
145. rns working on the project The interns were absolutely critical The project could not have been pulled off without their willingness to learn work and laugh at the grunt work involved One other person should be mentioned though never actually on the project but constantly dragged into miscellaneous tasks was the go to guy who somehow managed to juggle all his proj ects and someone else s TRAINING I remember the week I trained fifteen people on three different verticals in three days well Professional stuntmen were used in this production DO NOT try this at home The intern mistakenly walked past my desk at 7 30 I d been in the office for over an hour finishing up the reference guide Poor kid now he s got to print and bind a bunch of manuals 8 00AM attacks with usual fury and there I stand tie and all a clean cut professional Before me nine people ready or dreading the dive into Revit I have their Revit Model a projector a PowerPoint and almost a decade of experience training Most people in the room have met me in the last two weeks some have not Scanning the room I make eye contact with each of them and begin All of you have had that monotone boring in structor whose melancholy voice makes not falling asleep your goal for the day As the next slide appears the room busts into laughter Pointing at the room from the slideshow stands a man with a truly Red Neck mullet The goatee I d grown fo
146. rs and all the other consultant groups The Builder has also produced a model to use for sequencing the construction work as well as costing The major suppliers use a 3D environment to detail and fabricate building components The problem is many of these applications do not communicate with one another The file types we will deal with are in alphabetical order ACIS SAT ADSK dgn dwg dxf dwf FBX skp IFC gbxml amp ODBC We will not deal with raster file formats in this article We ll start with ACIS SAT and ADSK file types ACIS SAT SAT Standard ACIS Text SAT and SAB are the file formats used by the ACIS engine owned by Spatial Corporation ACIS integrates wireframe model surface and solid mod eling functionality with both manifold and non manifold topology and a rich set of geometric operations Manifold and non manifold topologies are mathematical concepts used to describe spaces ACIS supports two kinds of files Standard ACIS Text SAT and Standard ACIS Binary SAB The two formats store identical information so the term SAT file is generally used to refer to either when no distinction is needed SAT files are ASCII text files that may be viewed with a simple text editor A SAT file contains carriage returns white space and other formatting that makes it readable to the human eye A SAT file has a sat file extension SAB files cannot be viewed with a simple text editor and are meant for co
147. s e Facilitate the transition of your landscape design group to Revit by using the Task Navigator predefined workflows to get started or as on demand training COMING SOON Site Tools for Revit provides functionality within Revit Architecture that allows you to shape the terrain enabling the accurate placement of Revit components onto the proposed site model For special pricing and more information visit http www eaglepoint com Ic4raugi Improve the Adoption of BIM in Your Organization The defined workflows within Eagle Point Pinnacle Series enable you to immediately start taking advantage of the design and analysis workflows within Autodesk products like the Revit Suites Additionally the Pinnacle Series helps your company document and distribute best practices ensuring that people are following new BIM standards and using the right tools at the right time Provides for a quick transition when updating or adopting new BIM workflows Onboard new employees or transition current employees to new tools A y lt Supplement conventional training and eliminate blank screen syndrome f 7 by using the Pinnacle Series as an real time refresher course PINNACLE S ERIES Autodesk Autodesk Ruled ewe kH 4131 Westmark Drive e Dubuque IA 52002 800 678 6565 www eaglepoint com sales eaglepoint com Autodesk Laeret Farin contents special sections amp departments MEP 62 MANUFACTURER CREATED
148. s not today s tale It s the whirlwind of implementation that will keep your attention Implementation Mission Train Staff and create or update Best Practices amp Standards documentation that ensures the painless integration of Revit into their design process You can either complete a job or not for me for them there was no option other than to complete it The only way to achieve this was action action action Over the summer I provided onsite consulting project support and project work While working hands on as a member of the Revit project team I also trained the staff and helped setup their Revit Standards amp Documentation I did not do this alone though a network of friends and colleges along the way we provided web training for specific processes There was no way I could have done this without their help THE PROJECT The project was comprised of tenant improvement work and an addition to a Church The original building was built early last century A few decades later an addition was slammed onto one side of the building This addition had completely different finish floor heights than the original building The original construction was unique the first floor was 5 0 be low grade and the second 7 1 above grade In all there are four levels none of which had similar floor to floor heights The first addition s first floor was 3 6 Below grade and the second 7 11 above grade In forty five 45
149. s to edit and collaborate on AutoCAD drawings through a Web browser With Project Butterfly AutoCAD users can share and work on DWGTM files with colleagues and clients from any computer with an Internet connection inside track Share drawings with other people View and edit DWGs without downloading any software using just a Web browser Invite your project team to an online meeting where all sides can discuss and co edit a drawing in real time Or browse through comments and changes on your own time Use Project Butterfly to collaborate with colleagues and clients Any one can access Project Butterfly even if they dont have AutoCAD installed and even if they don t have a Project Butterfly account You can check out five videos to get a sense of what it s all about PDF Version URL for Video http www youtube com watch v S09Z05PeFeE PDF Version URL for Video http www youtube com watch v 83NMAdNp_JOQ4 PDF Version URL for Video http www youtube com watch v kWOyq2icngA PDF Version URL for Video http www youtube com watch gt v gocBBKSdpCs PDE Version URL for Video http www youtube com watch gt v m jzMFZndHQ GOBIM goBIM is a new tool to browse BIM models on your iPhone It was created by Ian Keough Ian also happens to work for the prominent engineering firm Buro Happold To use this you need to install a Revit exporter on your computer You also need to get the App from the iPhone app store It onl
150. se from the Manual options This will put the building at our cursor which will permit us to decide where the building ought to go at first We ll still need to fine tune its position but we can get close As in the earlier exercises the building is going to start out in the North West corner of the site We need to remember that in the site file the contours of the survey file are at their true elevation above sea level Our building model will be considerably lower than this at Sea Level Once the build ing is positioned correctly in plan it will still be necessary to move it up to the correct finished floor elevation or at least guess at what it should be A section or elevation view will make it easier to move the building accurately so we will need to create one of these views Once we ve settled on the location orientation and elevation of our building model we ll be ready to think about making sure the build ing file understands its new surroundings and the next exercise EXERCISE 04 IMPORT AND POSITION A BUILDING FILE 1 Using Revit Architecture 2010 Open file Large Project Master Site E03 rvt and Open the floor plan view Site 2 Import a Building File Insert Ribbon gt Link Revit Browse to file Large Project Building rvt Choose Positioning setting Manual Origin as shown in Figure 3 The file will appear at your cursor Place it in the North West corner of the site near the BLDG MARK block in the survey file Fera
151. sistency in forcing background models to remain in the background There are times where por tions of the architectural model will plot on top of the MEP model This leads to unclear plots This is a serious shortcoming that should be a priority fix from Autodesk amp c Figure 4 Revit s Backgrounds Cannot Be Forced to the Back Text handling is better in AutoCAD Revit s text feature is woe fully lacking Revit s text formatting is well shy of AutoCAD s capabilities Precise placement of text in Revit is impossible since there is no way to lock the text box both vertically and horizon tally Text within Revit families that maintain readability cannot be positioned in such a way that the text is positioned consistently within enclosing linework thru all orientations However Auto CAD does not provide a way to keep text within a device or part in a readable orientation Plotting setups themselves are better in AutoCAD once again showing its maturity AutoCAD s approach to plotting setups both page setups and hardware control itself can be confusing but ultimately lead to near total control of the plotting process In contrast Revit s approach is to use the system printers directly This makes it easy to get a plot without a lot of configuration The disadvantage is that the process of utilizing defined page setups is a two pronged approach in frustration For example creating page setups for large sheets
152. size about to change mission critical soft ware faces a daunting task It s a task that cannot be ignored the time to leap from CAD to BIM is here The Architect on the project convinced the firms owner to let them use Revit Architecture for preliminary design Now that the project is approved for Design Development they re going to move all disciplines to Revit The Engineering de partment is new to Revit The engineering drawings for this project have been produced in AutoCAD Luckily the Archi tect has also added a majority of the structural components to the architectural model The CAD Manager completely swamped supporting their existing AutoCAD production has knowledge of Revit but he has had little time to devote to learn and implement it The firms owner made this whole thing possible He knows what BIM is and believes it s the future His main concerns are Is NOW the time for BIM What will it truthfully cost to transition Every owner worries about this Every conversation with him was enlightening there was never a question about What the future was only How to get there This was a man who listened to advice on software on people on process and change In the case of this project he was willing to take the leap of faith most of the time This company was moving to BIM awesome THE HOW The journey that started with me walking into their office in May 2009 is interesting but that
153. son It is raw around the edges in many areas However it is undeniable that Revit better for helping the designer understand the impact of their decisions The picture for contractors is clear at the moment AutoCAD is better for construction but only because Revit is missing some parts MEP Ultimately both tools deserve to be in your toolbox Robert is the Design Technology Manager for Sparling the largest specialty electrical engi neering and technology consulting firm in the United States headquartered in Seattle Wash ington He provides strategic direction technical oversight and high level support for Sparling s enterprise design and production technology systems He is instrumental in positioning Sparling as an industry and client leader in leveraging technology in virtual building and design Robert has been writing code for customizing AutoCAD since the release of AutoCAD v2 5 For most of those years he worked at an MEP firm He developed a series of applications for use with Auto CAD similar to AutoCAD MEP years before Autodesk released that product These in house applications gave that firm a distinct competi tive advantage over other firms in that market Robert is one of the more popular speakers at Autodesk University He has been speaking at that event every year since 2002 He has spo ken on topics such as AutoLISP Visual LISP VBA the CUI and customizing AutoCAD from the perspective of CAD Management
154. stomizing Civil 3D you should learn NET Unfortu nately NET has the least amount AutoCAD Chd 30 Best Pretices Guide AutoCAD Chl 2D Subsssembly Relee Moving from Land Desktop to AutoCAD Chal 3D AutoCAD Chal 30 Cortert Browser Heip i ad aime Abney Hig of samples available is not completely finished and requires a separate program NET requires a separate programming environment one such product is Microsoft Visual Studio It comes in a free version called Express and other pay versions NET covers a variety of languages including C and vb NET AUTODESK UNIVERSITY The Autodesk University web portal is always a wealth of in formation and with the Civil 3D API is no exception This year there were two introductory classes related to Civil 3D programming Jerry Winters presented NET Programming for Civil Engineers and Surveyors CP104 4 Peter Funk presented Getting Started with AutoCAD Civil 3D Application Programming Using NET CP9114 1 Both classes are available as screencasts AutoCAD Civil 3D Developer Help euwtoCAD Creal 30 prowdes documental for the Actrvex and NET interfaces ee ee i Pa bbid ui youi ESE hhauk Mii Ce Figure 1 Civil 3D Help Documentation API section 38 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 BLOGS There are some blogs that provide sample code One is http through the interface typepad com where Kean Walmsley pro vides co
155. sup port for Autodesk Case learned that HP performs thousands of tests and certifies each HP Personal Workstation for AutoCAD Autodesk Inventor Mechanical Desktop Autodesk Revit and Autodesk Architectural Studio He also heard that Autodesk tests its applications exclusively on HP Workstations prior to each software release The HP Workstations are extremely stable and reliable says Case We ve had wonderful success with running the Autodesk Building Systems software on them and we ve been very very pleased with the way the hardware performs with AutoCAD Our engineers are getting more done contributed white paper HP provides more to Autodesk customers e HP thoroughly tests and certifies each HP Workstation model for Autodesk applications HP submits workstations to Autodesk for complete testing Autodesk uses HP Workstations internally to develop and test their applications HP Workstation graphics are thoroughly tested to support Autodesk products HP Remote Graphics Software enables users to share 3D screen images with others as well as remotely access their own workstation HP Performance Advisor offers special features to optimize the performance of Autodesk applications HP technical experts who work with Autodesk are available to support customers and provide recommended configurations for specific Autodesk appli cations based upon HP application testing HP support even includes helping PB
156. t brought with it new found bravery as each step forward was made daring to do more with the computer each time The move to BIM further improves your firms accuracy and speed while you have the added ability to see if your building design can actually work prior to construction By testing for any clashes that might be missed otherwise you elimi nate the resulting added work cost and time spent on site to manually find solutions You can test various solutions and scenarios applicable to your building Cross Discipline Revit only requires a change to happen once You can change a door type in a schedule or for that matter the quantity surveyor can make the change to the drawing in a schedule Your plan section detail and schedule will be updated Once you have a working model of the building final construc tion documentation is a seamless process To accomplish the same thing takes considerably more time and effort when working in CAD With Revit documentation coordination is at its core This transition is more radical than with the introduction of com puter drafting but you ll find that the transition will be similar Just have faith in your decision be supportive and encourage your staff to push the envelope Make sure you have adequate resources to support them when things get difficult How does the following claim work for motivation to proceed Tt is my opinion that a well implemented firm could either ditch at le
157. t needed time in the software Teaching Revit is simple You talk about the painful parts of drafting in CAD those things that make you want to hit your computer your boss or your dog it s not your dog s fault You show how Revit relieves those pains Then explain how to get there No one likes pain for pains sake Let BIM relieve the pain Or be in an economy with over 10 unemployment and have the boss explain they have two options learn this or Either method of encouragement works REPLACED Only a few weeks after talking with my father I stood there flipping burgers The patio of one of the local spots was all ours Only a stone s throw from the office the project team enjoyed the goodbye party All smiles and laughter it was a family gathering on a beautiful day Although the marathon was far from over we were chasing a hope and had been suc ceeding thus far During that initial training I had told them My job is to replace myself as quickly as I can That time had come and I was leaving it had been a summer of long days and office Saturdays Along the way it was the people that drove me the project was just a bonus LOOKING BACK The Architect smiled at me With this new addition there are now thirteen 13 levels in forty five 45 feet We did it We finally have the elevator and stairs all worked out The engineering and architecture on the stair elevator core wasnt easy to design Making that
158. t on more than 30 of their projects in 2009 But what is BIM Does BIM mean the same thing to an architect as it does to an engineer to a construction manager to an owner to facility maintenance personnel Many factors are involved in determining the appropriate level of BIM utilization ona project Expertise and experience among team members can vary greatly The functionality of BIM software var ies due to differences in product development even within a single software platform Therefore it can be difficult for an owner to understand an Architecture and Engineering A E firm s capabili ties and know what to expect in terms of BIM deliverables Where can the construction industry turn to understand how each project should be approached in regards to BIM This article will help define some of the benefits of BIM for the owner and how to maximize those benefits along with some Q amp A to assist an owner in evaluating an A E firm s BIM capabilities WHY THE I INFORMATION INTELLIGENCE For this article let s agree that BIM is a building model that is pop ulated with the associated intelligence of the components within it This intelligence includes physical and functional characteris tics which are stored in a unified format to allow sharing of model information between all project team members For example four walls shown on a plan are not just a room in the building Rather the room has data that can define the
159. t template with door window room etc sched ules not intended to go on sheets but for users to use while modeling Schedules with their filtering capabilities can bea great means to select and edit a large number of items based on a particular common value and manipulate data usually instance in those objects simultaneously saving the time of having to select the elements graphically in other views 2 VIEW TEMPLATES View templates are not low hanging fruit by any means they take a substantial amount of effort to get right par ticularly if you are working with MEP However the pay off can be huge especially if your users are trained to leverage them by adopting and adapting them to their projects View templates are also key to making sure your firm produces consistent graphic output that is legible and matches what you used to do back in the ugly old CAD days View templates combined with View Filters one of my per sonal favorites but not shared by the crowd can make views into a powerful tool for analyzing the model and perhaps more importantly the design The combination of Templates and Filters can make it very easy to quickly visually evalu ate door fire ratings versus wall fire ratings whether or not furniture and equipment are correctly identified as owner installed or contractor installed or easily manipulate the ap pearance of linked files 3 PROJECT SHARED PARAMETERS Project and shared parameters are
160. t the design bidding construction occupancy and finally decommissioning of the building One of the greatest values of BIM is the retention of information the opportunity for continual evolution and communication of that data Under this premise the repetition of requesting parsing as sembling and transmitting information between team members at the various stages of a model s life can be greatly reduced or elimi nated This results in better communication among team members and more timely responses to owner concerns or suggestions Sharing data for analysis and simulation is the foundation of BIM The potential for expanding the amount and types of project analysis is huge Examples of this can range from early analysis of building energy efficiency during conceptual massing structural mechanical electrical load analysis during design quantity take ofts during the project bidding shop drawing review fabrication during construc tion or even to facility asset management during occupancy Case Study When designing an auditorium the team captured room wall floor ceiling and furniture properties from the BIM This data as sisted in the acoustic simulation as depicted in Figure 4 allowing the project team to balance shape materials performance and cost early in schematics E Eas le ii a Se Fi Teh fe Fae F fh gt i ae q i g L Ma T s 2 js E j boa i ET a z T paa B
161. tch_for_autocad There are four videos available at the Labs to get a sense of what this is about If you don t decide to download it for yourself after watching one well we will be surprised PDF Version URL for Video 1 http www youtube com watch v FgPmorbhTpl PDF Version URL for Video 2 http www youtube com watch v Ak_HnOAIkiY PDF Version URL for Video 3 http www youtube com watch gt v j7DuMSd7KxA PDF Version URL for Video 4 http www youtube com watch v 00xX UVS WeLk lt object width 425 height 344 gt lt param name movie value http www youtube com v Re4iT37F1I08 amp color1 0xb1b1b1 amp color2 Oxcfcfcf amp hl en_US amp feature player_ embedded amp fs 1 gt lt param gt lt param name allowFullScreen value true gt lt param gt lt param name allowScriptAccess value always gt lt param gt lt embed src http www youtube com v Re4iT37F108 amp color1 0xb1b1b1 amp color2 Oxcfcfcf amp hl en_US amp feature player_embedded amp fs 1 type application x shockwave flash allowfullscreen true allowScriptAccess a lways width 425 height 344 gt lt embed gt lt object gt AUTODESK LABS PROJECT BUTTERFLY Another fairly recent initiative at the Labs is Project Butterfly Ciia PROJECT BUTTERFLY Project Butterfly banner at Autodesk Labs Here s their overview at the Labs site Project Butterfly is an Autodesk Technology Preview that enables AutoCAD user
162. tem that allows us to manage a project s true elevation position and location and share this with our project partners The purpose of this article is to explain how acces sible this feature really is BEFORE WE BEGIN This tutorial is an excerpt from the AU Virtual Session I recorded for Autodesk University 2009 Instructions to watch the original session will appear at the end of this article Each step listed in this document begins with a general explanation of the topic what is required and ends with an exercise The exercises are written assuming that you may need to stop at the end of each exercise At the beginning of each exercise you are instructed to open the file that you saved at the end of the previous exercise The dataset see instructions at the end of the article for downloading the files includes files that have been saved at the end of each exercise for your use if necessary If you do not stop working at the end of an exercise you can continue working with the file you are already using just disregard the instructions for closing opening a file Recommendation Be sure to download and review the docu mentation for another Autodesk University class on this subject AB118 3 Finding Your Way Around Shared Coordinates by Theresa Martin with Ideate Inc Last item before getting started all the files are using the latest Au todesk Revit 2010 file format and based on imperial units I apologize to anyone who
163. the Family Already Exists dialog and if it is it dismisses it by selecting the first option in the dialog Default buttons such as OK and Cancel correspond to standard Message Box Ids such as IDOK and IDCANCEL but buttons with custom text have Ids starting with 1001 for the first option listed Revit add in developers can create robust applications that are practically seamlessly integrated into Revit Architecture Revit Structure or Revit MEP by combining the model data access capabilities of the Revit API with the ability to inter act with the Revit user interface Elizabeth Shulok is the founder and President of Structural Integrators LLC a software company based in Southern California that provides integration tools for the structural en gineering industry Prior to starting Structural Integrators in 2007 she spent nearly 9 years as a software engineer at RAM International and Bentley Systems specializing in interoperability issues She has worked extensively with the Revit API over the last 4 years She can be reached atShulok structuralintegrators com 58 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 ai Sit Tu a7 S amp 2 k Ga E R N Arl A TATA YS es FAL TAD V N ENNA A E D la A NINA V A GJ Error 123 when requesting a network license http usa autodesk com adsk servlet ps dl item siteID 123112 amp id 11760456GlinkID 9240617 Error Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x0000 Excep tion at
164. tion does all things well The answer to the question also depends on if the person asking is a designer or a contractor The following article describes the strengths and weaknesses of both applications in several categories IT S ABOUT THE PARTS When parts are difficult to work with the application will be perceived in a negative light The differences between the two applications become most apparent in this area The maturity of AutoCAD provides a richer set of objects However Revit s built in approach to parametric modeling is important A shallow comparison of AutoCAD and Revit will immediately re veal that Revit does not yet provide some crucial system families oval ductwork cable trays and less important for engineers compared to contractors conduit Granted these items can be misrepresented us ing other system families that exist in Revit However using kludges to do this cannot be called BIM A duct or pipe knows it is a duct or pipe regardless of the modeler using it as cable tray or conduit At tempts to use loadable families to accurately model these parts quickly reveal that this approach is unwieldy when editing the system These crucial system families will likely be developed someday and should not prevent an engineering firm from implementing Revit Contractors are advised to wait for these families to be provided before beginning a full Revit implementation The owner of the facility s as built BIM will
165. to convey information to the end user company standards updates to central files best practices updates to the template 5 WALLS LOADED FAMILIES LINE STYLES There was a tie for fifth place between the three catego ries mentioned so in reality this is a top seven list Walls are critical because we use them so much as architects the equivalent for MEP might be ducts pipe or conduit systems pipe works great with some custom families In any case preparing these in your template means you need some type of system for your user s to operate by In the case of MEP this is a probably a little easier than wall types For walls or any system family the clear goal should be to define a naming 32 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 A E Gos Disapline convention and provide the most commonly used types by default For something like partitions you may also consider creating a partition type source file like mentioned before that defines not only a whole library of partition types but also typical details and a printable handbook for the Parti tion Type System Loaded families are not much different you should avoid overloading a template but if the company specializes in a particular market sector it may make sense to at least put the most commonly used needed families into the template Naming conventions are critical here as well so that when users build new families they have some built in guidance N
166. ual example you can draw a line from 0 0 0 to a spot within the survey contour lines to determine where it is relative to your survey data Use can use AutoCAD s List command to see how long it is which is how far away the origin is from the site Surveyors and civil engineers are required to reference a variety of real world coordinate data systems so it is not uncom mon to see distances in the millions of feet This means that the 42 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 aS Architecture coordinates you find can look something like this 1 204 256 045 3 403 555 055 251 01 x y z When this occurs you must define what spot coordinates on the sur vey you will use as a common reference point or benchmark to define what coordinates Revit should use It is a good idea to choose an agreed upon civil benchmark survey noted iron pipe property marking item or some other easily selected spot that isn t affected by the changes you need to make to get your project built This means don t pick the corner of an existing building that wont be there for long It is also necessary to check to see if the file is larger than Revit s one 1 mile radius limit If the file is larger you won t be able to import the file Revit won t allow it You need to check the vertical z axis too because a file may look fine in plan but in elevation there are lines at great lengths or lurking in the distance There are a variety of thin
167. ure 5 Additional components of a floor need adjustment Deck Metal Wem EE TE EE RE EE Cr Figure 6 Layers area of the Edit Assembly dialog So now the section looks pretty good If I had to complain it would be that technically the concrete should be in the deck area because of section looks to be cutting through a low flute location Can I get hatch there Yes but it is in another area If we edit the Floor Type properties and go into the Structure we can assign a material for the deck itself As shown in Figure 6 in the Layers portion of the Edit Assembly dialog is a edit slot that opens up the Material dialog I know it seems like an odd way to control this but it gets the job done Now as shown in Figure 7 the floor in section looks presentable pent Mn Figure 7 The completed changes to the Object Styles Now of course this is not the end of this effort We have taken care of a small percentage of the things to customize in Revit The cool part is that we are addressing things in a one at a time process It does take more time but it lets you discover much more about the software You will learn all the little bits that control how your model and drawings look As long as you have a solid skeleton in which to build on this method is certainly an option to the do it all in one sitting Who really has time for that Until next time David J Harrington is the technical editor for AUGI World magaz
168. urp Peet Piney rot Figure 3 Link Revit dialog settings Positioning Manual Origin 3 Rotate and or Align the front of the building so that it is aligned with the North Property boundary Move the building so that the intersection of the front edge of the concrete and the center reference plane of the building is on top of the center of the circle contained in the BLDG MARK block as indicated in Figure 04 Aico Che makie H abe witli ihe BLD MARE Hock B LDG Figure 4 Moving the building into position on the BLDG MARK block 4 Create a Section View through the middle of the building from the North side to the South side Expand the Far Cut Plane boundary so that it is deep enough to be past where the Project Base Point icon is This will ensure that the Level an notation is visible in the view Note It isn t particularly important that the section is perfectly parallel to the building for this step If you want it to be you can add a Reference Plane first and a section will snap to the Reference Plane in the project It doesnt recognize the one in the link 44 www autodeskcatalog com AECEdge winter_2010 aS Architecture 5 Open the Section view Section 1 Select and Expand the crop boundary so that it is possible to see the building at the bottom of the view and the site contours above This will make it easier to do the next step 6 Select and Move the building vertically 1275 feet The con tours near t
169. ut the answers people involved give may point the investigation in another direc tion entirely Keep an open mind Below are two different ways to ask the same question One is accusatory putting the individual on the spot while the other is a leading question that allows the individual to re spond honestly in more detail Accusatory Why didnt you follow process A when creating components Should I have another Advanced Components training course Leading What process did you use to create components for the project Would you use the same process again Accusatory questions cause individuals to point fingers at other team members or anyone but themselves The accusa tory question implies that there is a definite problem and maybe that you think they are the problem The person re sponding will sure try to make you think it isn t them With the leading question approach the individual will be more likely to be honest and may actually point out their own flaws or things they could have done better The leading question does not state that there is an issue at all but merely suggests that improvement is possible It opens to door to con versation Accusatory tends to close the door We have to work with these people after all and they may be your friends too The purpose of the pre interview is to gain a general under standing of the positives and negatives of the project from the individuals involved If the project was
170. with a letter or number besides A or 1 The trick then is to change the value to 0 delete and save When a user creates a new project and creates a new grid line it will Auto Number to 1 go Revit Unfortunately if you prefer to start numbering grids by letter versus number you re out of luck no characters come before A You can use the same approach for anything else that you might want to make sure is numbered sequentially from a specific starting point rooms are another good example and depending on your project types and work you do doors and windows could be good candidates Other defaults to remem ber to leave default Types for the different tools Wall Floor Ceiling Text Dimension etc Lastly when it comes to Viewports when you start a new template from scratch there is one default Viewport that must exist It is not pos sible to remove or delete this default Viewport but you can customize it It is also impossible to set another Viewport winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 31 Cross Discipline that is added to be the default So this built in Viewport should be customized to be the one that will should be used most often by projects THE TOP FIVE LIST The UnConference session attendees were asked to verbally vote on what items would be most important to customize in a template They were only allowed to vote for five items out of a substantially longer list see figur
171. xamples of BIM and lessons learned What type of standards has the team developed for delivering projects in BIM Have any or all of the team members previously worked together using BIM Will the project utilize single or multiple models How often will they share models for coordination purposes Does the team s process address the needs of facilities manage ment Will the team be utilizing Design Build or Integrated Project Delivery Each of these questions can also be asked from the Who What When Why perspective It is very important to understand Why someone has gone down the path of BIM How they have chosen their specific direction When they started their imple mentation and Who has influenced assisted them in finding this path and direction DELIVERING THE BENEFITS When we started this article we defined BIM It can also be described as the virtual construction of a building or a digital building prototype Traditional construction documents are only one output which can be derived from a BIM Non traditional deliverables such as 3D coordination views are visual aids which can dramatically improve communication and un derstanding of the proposed building and integrated systems This is particularly true during design if the owner s internal team consists of individuals who are not familiar with reading traditional 2D draw ings Furthermore coordination and review can be accelerate
172. y 30 minute internal user group to share knowledge but remember to always update a question with an answer New users will be able to refer back to your black book and see that their questions are similar to yours Allow time for the initial learning curve in your project planning Accept that there will be a learning curve This may be frustrating at times but worth it in the end WHAT HAVE WE DONE Avoid second guessing your decision though it is a natural impulse With the right attitude and with some qualified as sistance you can minimize how often you and your teams feel this way Just to reassure you consider the following With the introduction of CAD firms were faced with simi lar reservations as they underwent the shift from a drawing board environment to a computerized environment While this process improved their ability to work more accurately and in most cases at a faster pace essentially they were just using the computer to do what they had always done with hand drafting methods This process was not revolutionary but rather evolutionary You may or may not remember it but one of the earliest ways that computer generated drawings were used was to just create a consistent plan that could be used as an underlay for all the hand drafting that went on for each trade Does the phrase Pin Bar drafting mean anything to you If so we are dating ourselves The transition to CAD was of gradual introduction and adoption tha
173. y supports Revit 2010 versions he app will set you back just 5 99 Be sure to check out their site and read through the instructions and FAQ s to help you get it all working It is youthful but promising Check it out and if you really like it pitch an article for a future issue of our magazine goBIM iPhone web site graphic Instructions URL http go bim iankeough com wordpress page_id 69 Download PageURL http go bim iankeough com wordpress page_id 23 Homepage http go bim iankeough com wordpress This is an image from the website that shows what a demo model looks like Until next issue BIM model on the iPhone If you d have some news to share with smpe us for future issues please let us know Likewise if you are a user of a featured product or news item and would like to write a review we want to know Contact the editor steve stafford augi com winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com 53 structure by David J Harrington Revit Fundamentals Part 2 STANDARDS IMPLEMENTATION Welcome to part 2 of a discussion about de veloping and using standards in the Revit BIM platform Previously our intrepid CADD opera tor delved into researching their AutoCAD and manual drafting standards for line weights He then customized the Line Weights dialog in Revit to improve on the line varia tion that is shipped with the software Following that he got rid of unneeded plot scales created line patter
174. ysis for more detailed analysis such as the visibility analysis displayed here showing the amount and quality of views to the outside mapped over the floor area of an office winter_2010 www AUGlaecedge com contributed white paper ADDING AND ASSIGNING REVIT MEP HVAC ZONE OBJECTS To create anew HVAC Zone go to the Analyze tab and choose Zone To add a space to that HVAC Zone move your cursor over the appropriate space left click then click Finish in the Zone window To add multiple spaces to one HVAC Zone continue clicking on the desired spaces before clicking Finish ANALYZING A DESIGN IN THE CONTEXT OF BIM Once your Revit based design model is ready export it to gbXML and import it into Ecotect Analysis Use early stage Revit massing models in combination with site analysis func tionality in Ecotect Analysis to help determine the optimal location shape and orientation of your building design based on environmental factors such as daylight overshadowing solar access and visual impact As your conceptual design evolves perform whole build ing energy water and carbon analysis using the integrated access to Green Building Studio in order to benchmark energy use and find areas of potential savings Once you have established your fundamental design parameters use Ecotect Analysis again for more detailed analysis based on factors such as daylight availability glare protection out side views and acoustic com

An Owner`s Guide to BIM Civil 3D API Shared

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents