What Revit Wants + Black Grid AI

Multi Unit Residential Project documentation in Revit

May 28, 2013May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Recent post by Jay Holland demonstrates the methodology they adopted to create the Revit model for a multilevel residential project. As it had lots of repeatable elements, its interesting to hear how Massing and Groups were used to limit the impact of changes and reduce rework.

Image from BIM Aficionado

Read the whole article:
BIM Aficionado: The End to CADdiction?

Converting Grasshopper model to actual Revit elements

May 28, 2013May 8, 2017 Luke Johnson

I have many times posted about the work of Jon Mirtschin / Geometry Gym (here for example).

Along similar lines, check out this project:
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/grasshopper-to-native-revit-elements

With Mario Guttman involved, it must be taken seriously…

Heads-up:
http://revitturkiye.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/grasshopper-to-native-revit-elements_28.html

The BIM Maturity Model

May 28, 2013May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

See, if you put another word between BIM and Model, no-one will speak of animal cruelty…

If you are ever looking for a diagram of the maturity model:

Image via http://revitstickynotes.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/revit-ifc-plugin-by-geometry-gym.html
where credit for the image is given to UK Government BIM strategy document

Natspec and NZ BIM

May 28, 2013May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Glenn Jowett posted some insight into BIM standards development in New Zealand:
Natspec have been commissioned to author the NZ BIM Handbook
The aim is to create a guide that will clarify BIM (on a national level) for all project stakeholders.
…
The Australian National BIM Guide produced by Natspec will be used as a starting point http://bim.natspec.org/index.php/natspec-bim-documents/national-bim-guide this decision was made after reviewing a number of countries BIM Handbooks, the Australian one seemed to be the most comprehensive and didn’t have hundreds of pages like some of the others.
(insert joke about NZ copying Australia here… 🙂

Read the whole post:
http://revitst.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/bim-in-new-zealand.html

Revit Journal Cleaner updated for 2014 (download)

May 27, 2013May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

via Email:
It seems that the Revit Journal Cleaner 2013 stopped working as soon as Revit 2014 was installed a the computer.
I update the Revit Journal Cleaner to now support 2014 (and lower).
Download link: http://www.aqua-page.nl/1869clansite/download.php?fileID=37
It does not remove/update the 2013 version, so the user will need to remove this one manually.

Kind regards,
Dante van Wettum

I previously posted about this tool back in January 2013:
Free Revit Journal file Cleaner tool from Dante van Wettum

Have you heard of GreenSpider? The Revit point cloud importer?

May 27, 2013May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

It is an interesting add-in for Revit that can import point data into the conceptual environment. It was written to “narrow the gap between computational concept design, terrestrial laser scanning and Building Information Modeling.”

Video:

Download page
Version 2.1 has just been released (25 May 2013)

Introductory page

Some info:
GreenSpider conveniently parses ASCII text files representing 3D vertexes, whether generated by computational modeling software or terrestrial laser scanning equipment.

Once installed through this installer package on Windows-based pc’s, GreenSpider 2.1 can be accessed in Revit mass modeling environment.
…
GSpoints and GScurves. The first one simply imports vertex point cloud as reference points in mass modeling environment, while the second traces a spline interpolation among imported points sorted through a TSP process, in order to build surfaces after recursive .GSP imports.

…
Decimated laser scanner point clouds are imported this way in Revit as many times as needed (using a reset function every time in Translator module), and generated curves can be used to originate surfaces very close to their real geometry.

via
GreenSpider – The Autodesk Revit point clouds plugin – TC Project

Heads-up:

#GreenSpider 2.1 for #Revit almost ready to launch. Still some work on Eclipse installer!
— Simone Garagnani (@SiliconSimon) May 25, 2013

Ramp surface Model Pattern in Plan Views – workarounds

May 26, 2013May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Here are some ideas:

Use a Filter with a Drafting Pattern and match the Hatch Scale to the View Scale. Link: Model pattern not visible on ramps in plan views?
Use Floors with slope arrows instead (to simulate a Ramp)
Make a 4 point Adaptive Component that has a surface with a slight vertical offset, and place it on “top” of the Ramp surface. Apply your Model Pattern to this “skin”.
Orient a 3D view to Plan, Lock it and annotate (instead of using a Floor Plan)

All of these have problems that make them less than desirable. But hey, maybe one of them will get you out of trouble on your current project…

The "sooner you get on board" with Revit, the better

May 22, 2013May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

A very interesting Case Study written by Doug Andresen (principal architect at Andresen Architecture, Inc) was posted to AUGI last week. He describes how his firm transitioned from AutoCAD to Revit.

Here are a few quotes I liked:
we purchased the product and only used Revit for renderings for the first 3 to 4 years. We were so pleased with just that portion of the program that it was fine with us to sell a project with colored renderings and continue to deliver the project in AutoCad. However, the beauty of Revit is its seamless integration from preliminaries to construction documents and the time savings are phenomenal.
…
the more experienced people in AutoCad seemed to have the hardest time learning Revit because it was such a different paradigm and it took a great deal of effort to re-learn everything.
[Different paradigm? Its called What Revit Wants]
…
the set-up time is significant and not for the faint-of-heart. What we finally ended up doing is simply taking the plunge into construction documents after completing the Revit tutorial.
…
We had to install an in-house “virtual cloud” that would run up to 5 seats simultaneously
…
all of the good things you have heard are all true! Don’t be afraid of the challenges that the program presents. Revit is the future and the sooner you get on-board, the better.

Read the whole article:
Industry Spotlight: The Revit Revolution | AUGI

Revit 2014 – a post not by David Light

May 22, 2013May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Rather than get lost in the flood of Revit 2014 information, I thought I would wait until closer to the time that most people will actually start installing and using it. The post below is just a collection of my notes and things that I find particularly interesting or exciting about the 2014 release – oh, and there are some pretty cool tips included too 🙂

Non-rectangular crops can be locked
You can lock the edges of multiple Plan view non rectangular Crop Regions to a set of model lines. Nudging the lines will adjust the sketch in all ‘locked’ views.

Client based DWF review will probably die slowly and be replaced by web methods
Autodesk Design Review development is slowly stalling, and being replaced by cloud-based collaboration methods. Nothing really new here, but one day we will probably say goodbye to standalone DWF viewers in lieu of web viewing and markup tools.

Exploding ACIS
For this to work, the source import should be a 3D ACIS solid from AutoCAD or a SAT file from Inventor, Rhino or similar.

Note: 3D DXF isn’t really a “solid” model (probably depending on version), it’s likely a surface model.

Double-click to edit anything
Be sure to turn off Drag Elements on Selection to prevent accidental moving of elements

New Selection controls in the Status Bar
Don’t forget to try these out

Vault integration
Finally starting to become something useful for everyday Revit users…

Inventor to Revit conversion / BIM Exchange Environment and Inventor simplification
A combination of these tools allow you to simplify Inventor models and export them to RFA files for use in Revit.

File size gains can be pretty convincing:

From CADline Community

You can read more about this at:
Inventor 2014 to Revit 2014 – Blog – CADline Community

Schedule Formatting
Click the column top (letter) to select the whole column and change font for that column.

Dockable Palettes
Can be docked at top of screen.

Non-rectangular crop regions – limitation
Annotation crops are still rectangular only

Slow install?
Could be because content is being downloaded during install. Un-tick content packs to try to speed up the install.

Tabbed Browser Panel
For example, drag Properties on top of Project Browser. Tabs are at bottom.

Project Browser Organization
Can now have more (up to 6) ‘levels’ of grouping.

Displacement set tips
How to set up nested levels of displacement:

Select a wall with a window & Displace both of these
Tab select the Window and Displace it again
If you reset the window it will go back to its original location, to get it back in the wall you need to select the wall’s displacement set, Edit and Add the Window to that Set.

You may find it easier to displace a single element first, and then use the Edit / Add functionality to put other elements into that Displacement set.

Citrix Licensing
BDSP version of Revit 2014 (Onebox) will now be supported in Citrix environment
(removed the need for special licensing to be used for either Citrix virtualization methods, no concerns about obtaining Citrix certification and QA support for all products in a Suite)

As per the System Requirements / Citrix:
Dedicated Autodesk license server for session-specific licenses

Revit 2014 will “fix” duplicated lower and uppercase parameters in Families (link)

The oft-reposted 2014 Schedule Tips (link)
Shows how formatting can be added to a template file (even if there is no real data in the model)

Here comes Trimble's Sketchup strategy – going for more BIM market?

May 21, 2013May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Image:

Link:
Download SketchUp | SketchUp

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