Month: September 2013

Render Settings for Revit

Luke Johnson

Great render settings to use a starting point – see below.

Render Settings – good quality but much faster to render

Image Precision = 4
Reflections = 2
Refractions = 4
Blurred Reflections = 1
Blurred Refractions = 1
Soft Shadows = OFF
Indirect Illumination = 1
Indirect Smoothness = 1
Indirect Bounces =4
Daylight Portals = OFF

Soft Shadows
Custom
Lighting = 2am
Sky = No Clouds
Exposure = 2-2.5

Clay Render
Custom
New Phase Filter
Materials = Clay
Lighting = 2am
Sky = No Clouds
Background Style = Colour – White
Exposure = 2-2.5

Exposure Settings – realistic and impressive
Custom
Exposure Value = 12.5
Highlights = 0.06
Mid Tones = 0.5
Shadows = 0.2
White Point = 7500
Saturation = 1.1 – Variable

via
BIM Day Out // Tom de Plater

EDIT
More detailed info at:
Revit Rendering – Revit Tutorials Online

Switching Navisworks from Standalone to Networked License

Luke Johnson

Let’s say you installed a standalone trial using BDSU media, and you are trying to switch to Networked license of Navisworks.  Can it be done?

One possible method:
If you did it by making a Deployment you can modify the deployment and then running the setup again will modify your installation
If you have a manual trial install. it might that placing a LICPATH.LIC file in C:Program FilesAutodeskNavisworks Manage 2013 might do the trick
This file is nothing but an ASCII file that points to your license server

SERVER yourserver.domain 27000
USE_SERVER
via
How to convert Standalone to Network – Autodesk Discussion Groups

Do you have a better suggestion?  Feel free to comment…

Other ideas for switching standalone to network licenses for AutoCAD products can be derived from:
http://blog.microsolresources.com/2014/04/29/how-to-change-license-type-in-autocad-2015

Some reading:
Solution for Inventor
Prior to the 2012 release we did not provide license switching at runtime. You had to uninstall the product and reinstall it with the appropriate license.
For the 2012 release products, the solution described here has only an effect on the licensing method for the individual Inventor product. If Inventor is installed as part of a suite (Factory Design Suite or Product Design suite), the other products in the suite, except AutoCAD, do not have a mechanism for runtime license switching and will continue using the license method used at install time. Below are three example scenarios.
For the 2013 release products and beyond, this solution is both valid for the individual Inventor and Inventor LT product and for Inventor and Inventor LT installed as part of a suite.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREAutodeskNavisworks Manage x6410.0AdLM]
“Type”=dword:00000002

Other info:

Aligning Point Clouds without known coordinates

Luke Johnson

Not a great position to be in (having point clouds with different coordinate systems and no known common point), but here is some code that may help:
andymiller/FeatureBasedAlignment · GitHub

From GibHub:
The goal is to accurately register two point clouds created from different image spectrums (e.g. visual to infrared), in different coordinate systems of different scales.
…
Current approach is: 
– Take two point clouds 
 – Estimate normals for each point 
– Find FPFH Features for each point 
– Find likely correspondences between two models (based on FPFH) 
– Use top features to estimate scale, 
 – Run RANSAC to estimate transformation, and eliminate correspondences 
– Use remaining correspondences to run ICP for finer alignment

Making Shared Parameters hidden in Projects

Luke Johnson

In the Shared Parameter .txt file (the one in use in your office or project, as per Revit parameter settings), there is a visibility switch at the end of the line for each parameter.

Set it as follows:
1 for visible
0 for invisible

Make sure you don’t load this parameter into Family or Project until after you have set the desired parameter to 0 for invisible and saved the text file.

In other words:

  1. Create the new SP
  2. Edit the text file and change the switch to 0
  3. Add the Parameter to the applicable Family, Project or both

These hidden SPs can still be scheduled and tagged in the Project, you just can’t “see” the parameter entry.

This method could be useful for simplifying the presentation or “interface” of families, or perhaps even for concealing calculations and formulas that never require user input.

Nice, Smooth Fonts

Luke Johnson

If Cleartype is not really working for you (perhaps you are having compatibility issues with Google Chrome and Windows XP 64 bit), then you could try replacing the font renderer with free MacType.

Download from here:
MacTypeInstaller_2012_1022_0.exe – mactype – MacType 1.2012.1022.0 – Ultimate font Rasterizer for Windows – Google Project Hosting

It has lots of different modes and options – but you can use it to selectively replace the font renderer for a single process in “standalone loading” mode.

The result is quite impressive…

SpacePilot Pro – Walk and Fly in 3D orthographic views!

Luke Johnson

Just had a great meeting with Andy Parnell-Hopkinson of 3Dconnexion GmbH.

In the course of our discussion, Andy solved a problem that had bothered me with the SPP – how to use Fly mode in a 3D orthographic view (the option is greyed out).  The solution is so easy, just reverse a few axis:

By reversing these axis, the Fly mode is basically simulated – instead of moving the objects toward you when pulling back on the SPP, it pushes them away etc.

As you know, 3D orthographic views are probably the most useful view for modelling in Revit, so this tip should make some of you very happy 🙂

Do you ever need to view and print Inventor files? Parts, Assemblies or Drawings…

Luke Johnson

Then you can download Autodesk Inventor View 2014.

Share native Autodesk® Inventor® software data with non-Autodesk Inventor users with this freely distributable viewer that delivers high-fidelity viewing and printing of parts, assemblies and drawings.

Important: Ensure you download and install the version of Inventor View 2014 appropriate for your operating system. Additionally, you should not install this software on a computer that already has Autodesk Inventor 2014 software installed.

Autodesk Inventor View 2014 (32bit) (exe – 672610Kb)

Autodesk Inventor View 2014 (64bit) (exe – 774802Kb)

Readme (htm – 24Kb) 

via Autodesk – Autodesk Inventor View 2014

Using the Roads Category in Revit

Luke Johnson

Following this tweet from Sean:

(which was in response to my post about the Revit Category Guide.)

I was tempted to use the IFC roundtrip method to make some Road families in Revit.  So, here they are for download:

You can’t Schedule or Tag them normally, but you can use Material Tags, modify the Category and Subcategories using Object Styles, and view them in the Project Browser.

As always, use these “unsupported” methods with care…

Here are some similar posts:
Convert All Masses (including in-place Mass) to Generic Models via IFC

You can break Revit by making Room families

In-place and Component families of Stair and Railing Category

Autodesk Process Analysis

Luke Johnson

Interesting new addition to the Labs site.  I think it is intended for Factory workflows, but theoretically could be adapted for BIM productivity analysis.  You basically define Sources, Processors and Buffers to visually analyse the flow of “stuff” through the Process.

In BIM terms, I’m thinking you could visualise “Sources” of content creators into a BIM buffer, which then has outputs in terms of project milestones or deliverables.  Just an idea…

Download and try it out over at Autodesk Labs