Month: October 2014

Some Mobile apps that might be useful for Construction

Luke Johnson

Its possible you are already using one or more of these… This list comes from Revit Modelling India:

Aconex Mobile Aconex App
As Aconex Mobile app is used for iPads, you can capture photos, audio and videos on project site and access and manage existing project document. It also helps to review the images and drawings as well as view and edit project information offline. Therefore, you are able to sync with the platform, when a connection is available.
BIMxBIMx
BIMx is a free construction app and with this we can turn gadgets into 3D communication as well as presentation tools for the architectural designs.
smartnetbidSmartBidNet
This iPhone construction app makes you able to create and track the bidding procedure with your subcontractors. The accessible info that this app offers make it easier and timelier to bid projects.
construction appWheatland EMT Calc
Wheatland EMT Calc, which helps contractors and engineers, is available for Androids and iPads. For example, with this app, they can canculate the amount they can save on twenty feet of conduit
construction appiBlueprint
iBlueprint is highly useful for real estate agents and contractors, as it has an access to blueprints on job sites. Users can create as well as export custom floor plans with this iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad app.
construction appsArchitect’s Formulator
Architect;s Formulator with over 200 formulas for plumbing, carpentry and electrical calculations goes for $9.99. Besides the excavation and concrete formulas for calculating the bricks and concrete required for a job, this app also have formulas for steel design, parking areas and even swimming pools.
construction appGreen Pro
Green Pro helps engineers, contractors, owners and architects access and follow up leadership in Energy & Design credits for major renovations and new construction projects. With this app, users can access credit requirements and also can find out when a particular requirement has been met.
construction appProcore 
This free construction app makes the users able to create and control punch-list items, access contacts and log time card entries and share and store project pictures. In short, It can make the construction management very easy.
construction appiQuick Contract Maker
This app, which costs $2.99, makes the users able to create and email contracts to customers from iPads, iPhones, or the iPod Touch. With this, the users can also customize contracts for a particular industry or trade.
construction appPlanGrid 
PlanGrid is a free app and it allows the users to put all their project plans, specs and photos on their iPad. Moreover, cloud-founded annotations that instantaneously sync with colleagues is also allowed with this.
construction appUstream Broadcaster
Even though Ustream Broad caster is not a necessary app, it can help the construction industry in many ways. For example, It allows users stream alive from their device, while they are on a job site or looking at properties for future development.
construction appCarpenter’s Helper
As the name indicates, this free app helps the users calculate the stair length, roof pitch and rafter lengths etc.
construction appJobTrac
With this app, you can set up email alert, track jobs, get the advanced bidding news and vies from all over the state.

via
Useful Mobile apps for Construction Professionals

Modelling Mullions in Two Mirrored Pieces for Parametric Corner Joins

Luke Johnson

Revit Wants you to use a good, clean, consistent technique when setting up Curtain Wall mullions for high quality detailing. Here is one way to set these up for nice corner joins – the advantage is that the curtain wall can be properly ‘joined’, you do not need to Disallow Joins and hack the glazing position:

When finished, and the endpoints share a common location, the corner looks like the figure below.



Why is this preferable to assigning a single mullion to one curtain wall and leaving the adjacent curtain wall without a mullion?  That would require that the edge handle of the CW without the mullion to be manually aligned to the edge of the mullion where it crosses the panel’s path; a feature that should be automatic in Revit.  Changes to the mullion profile won’t necessarily be reflected in the open-ended CW and is an opening for errors.
via Jon McFarland at
CurtainwallBIM: Mullion Halves

Free Navisworks Manage with your Glue subscription

Luke Johnson

I’m looking forward to tighter BIM 360 Glue and Navisworks integration moving forward…

Quote:

All project and enterprise BIM 360 Glue subscriptions now include access to Autodesk® Navisworks® Manage and Autodesk® Point Layout for use by the purchasing company.

Navisworks Manage 2015 and Autodesk Point Layout 2015

With this new entitlement, connected office and field teams can more easily collaborate using streamlined BIM workflows on everything from multidiscipline coordination and material takeoff to component staking and installation. By removing access barriers, teams can improve information accuracy at the point of construction and help accelerate project delivery.

Navisworks Manage and Point Layout may only be used by the purchasing company’s employees who have access to a BIM 360 Glue Project. These products may be used in conjunction with BIM 360 Glue in order to do work on that specific BIM 360 Glue Project.

In order to grant access to a user to either of Navisworks Manage or Point Layout, the employee will need to be a Host or Project Administrator on the BIM 360 Glue project.

Read more:
New in BIM 360 Glue | BIM 360 Glue | Autodesk Knowledge Network

Array in a Revit Family that allows Count of 1 (without IF)

Luke Johnson

Typically when editing Revit families, if you want to deal with arrays and stop them breaking when the count is 1, you set up some IF() formulas in Revit. However, a recent comment by David over on Revit Beginners describes another possible method:
Thank you Luke. Another possible solution is to nest the element into an adaptive component family, then nest the adaptive onto a conceptual mass family surface and use the repeater tool which can have an array count of 1. 

I posted about this method a while back:

Download the example file here

Send Site Photos, Comments and Questions directly to Revit using Mobile app

Luke Johnson

Moustafa Khalil has freely released an Android app and a Revit listener addin that essentially accomplishes a site-to-Revit connection for RFI input into Revit. Essentially, you install the Revit addin, setup the FTP connection, login on the Android app and then take some pictures of RFIs from site. You then add some comments and data to the photo submission, and this is automatically captured into Revit through the FTP site and Revit addin.

Its an interesting approach to this problem. Amazing what someone can accomplish when they think a little outside the box and connect a few different technologies. Nice work.

connecting-to-server3-8900198

Download links from Moustafa:
I have uploaded the two applications Mobile and Revit on these 2 sites:
Mobile app: http://a360.co/1yZfNDb
Revit APP: http://a360.co/1vWKFhW

2014-10-11-07-16-05-33777692014-10-11-07-17-04-78177842014-10-11-07-17-43-4617660
via SUPER RFI | Architecture For Humanity

How to Share and Sync Your Google Tasks with other BIM Team Members

Luke Johnson

There are lots of ways to share and track tasks among teams, and this is probably one of the most rudimentary (ie. least feature packed). But I have tested it, and it does actually work. Basically, you install a script from the instructions below, and it allows you to share a given Google task list with selected people.

Scroll down to How to Create a Shared Google Task List? and follow the steps after clicking below:
Shared Google Tasks: How to Share and Sync your Task List with Others

Don't Forget about the Discipline of the View in Revit, especially when it comes to Hidden Lines

Luke Johnson

The View “Discipline” setting in Revit is a high level visibility control that can have some significant consequences on how a view actually looks. Amongst other things, it works as a high level switch for Hidden Lines.

As the online Help demonstrates:
In view properties for 2D views and 3D views, set the Show Hidden Lines parameter to By Discipline to display hidden lines based on the assigned discipline of the view.

For all views, the default value for Show Hidden Lines is By Discipline, with the following results:

  • If Discipline is set to Architectural or Coordination, do not display hidden lines.
  • If Discipline is set to Structural, show hidden lines.
  • If Discipline is set to Mechanical, Electrical, or Plumbing, show hidden lines.

The By Discipline value also ensures that the view displays hidden lines specified using the Show Hidden Lines by Element tool of the View tab.
Help: About Hidden Lines and View Discipline

Here is part of a recent discussion in the BIM + Revit MEP group on LinkedIn, where we see David is trying to hide Hidden Lines in a Section View in Revit MEP:

Some more pieces of the View Discipline puzzle:
Determines how discipline-specific elements display in the view. You can also use this parameter to organize views in the Project Browser.
…

  • Architectural: Displays all model geometry from all disciplines.

  • Structural: Hides non-load-bearing walls in the view and shows elements whose Structural parameter is enabled.

  • Mechanical: Displays architectural and structural elements in half-tone, and displays mechanical elements on top for easier selection.

  • Electrical: Displays architectural and structural elements in half-tone, and displays electrical elements on top for easier selection.

  • Plumbing: Displays architectural and structural elements in half-tone, and displays plumbing elements on top for easier selection.

  • Coordination: Displays all model geometry from all disciplines.

Help: View Properties

and
If you see an entire category of halftoned objects that are not set to display as halftoned (see About the Visibility and Graphic Display Dialog), try changing the view discipline. The Discipline setting determines how different object categories display in discipline-specific views. Also, select Coordination to show all object lines as solid without halftones. See View Properties.
Help: Common Issues with Visibility and Graphic Display

For more detail on View Discipline implications, check out:
REVIT Rocks !: REVIT View Discipline Explained – Kind of
Revit OpEd: View Discipline

(I found the above posts using my custom Revit Master Search engine) 

Installing Fusion 360 using the command line only

Luke Johnson
  1. Open an elevated command prompt (Start – type cmd – right click Run as Administrator)
  2. @powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command “iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString(‘https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1’))” && SET PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%chocolateybin
  3. choco install autodesk-fusion360
  4. It will be installed somewhere like this:
    “C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataLocalAutodeskwebdeployproduction4b49a77e39afe2cab455d9514bab154658321859Fusion360.exe”
  5. If any problems (missing shortcuts etc), you can go here and directly re-run the installer:
    “C:Chocolateylibautodesk-fusion360.2.0.1149toolsautodesk-fusion360.exe”
  6. Upon opening, it should login to your Autodesk account and give you access to your files on Autodesk 360

You might also try
choco install CADConverter(to easily convert DWG to PDF and more)
or
choco install freecad

    Free Explorer Extension that lists Revit version and Worksharing information for RVT and RFA files

    Luke Johnson

    The latest version of CTC BIM Project Suite installs an Explorer extension that can list the following without even opening Revit:

    • Saved with Revit version
    • Saved with Revit build
    • Last saved path
    • Is Revit LT file
    • Worksharing mode
    • Is central file
    • Preview image

    All you need to do is install the trial, and the Explorer extension will become available when you right click an RVT or RFA. The trial includes free tools that do not expire (see image below):

    Here is a direct download link

    More info on “Revit Properties”


    Revit Properties is now available within the CTC BIM Project Suite download, and runs outside of Revit. This user interface provides access to basic data about Revit project files, family files, project template files and family template files.

    • See the version of Revit that last saved the file
    • View worksharing information about project files

    This is a free tool that does not have licensing requirements

    Main page:
    BIM Project Suite – CAD Technology Center