Freeform and organic modelling from MeshMixer to 3ds Max to Revit

Luke Johnson

I’ll admit it – I’m a bit excited about MeshMixer.  I downloaded it today and was very pleased at how easy it is to sculpt things.  A few years back, we worked on an aquarium project with another architect, and it was suggested that it would be great if Revit could generate freeform rock formations that looked realistic.  At the time, I played with Blender and a little add-on called ‘Blender World Forge’.

However, I think MeshMixer can also do the job.  After installing the program I was very surprised that it is actually called Autodesk meshmixer – anyone tell me what is going on here?

Anyway, to see me create some organic-looking rocks and bring them into Revit, check out the video:

Basically, this was my workflow:

  1. Install MeshMixer
  2. Open it, grab a Sphere, do some sculpting.
    (EDIT: You can probably skip steps 3,4 and 6 if you use the built-in Export feature on the File menu… let me know if it works for you.)
  3. Create a part out of the sculpted form you made
  4. Save the project, and find the part OBJ file at
    C:UsersusernameDocumentsmeshmixerlibrariesdefault
  5. Import that into 3D Max
  6. Cap the holes in the mesh
  7. Export to SAT
  8. Import into Revit family, adjust materials.
  9. Load into Project.

Here is the download link again:
MeshMixer

Heads-up via http://labs.blogs.com/its_alive_in_the_lab/2012/03/software-makes-me-look-20-years-younger.html

Getting RGB value of a color under the mouse cursor for use in Revit

Luke Johnson

I previously posted about how to get the average RGB colour of a sample and put it into Revit.   Revit Learning Club Blog today shows a nice, simple way to obtain the RGB values of any color on your screen (under the mouse cursor):

Someone has shared a very nice color picker utility called Colorette, which was written in AutoHotKey. The app description is at http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/topic69559.html and the EXE itself is http://www.autohotkey.net/~sumon/apps/colorette/Colorette.exe .


For an example of how to use Colorette with Revit, save the EXE to your Desktop and run it. Find a web page with the color you want to find, like http://www.jameshardie.com/homeowner/colorplus-palette.shtml , hover your mouse over the color on the screen and press Space on your keyboard.

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Revit Learning Club Blog: How to Get a Color From Your Screen into a Revit Material

Using RDB Link to Tag Wall Volume

Luke Johnson

Revit doesn’t let you tag Wall Volume by default, so Avisotskiy puts RDBLink to good use – he uses Microsoft Access to update a Shared Parameter with the wall Volume data, and then simply uses a tag to grab the manually updated and manually created Volume data.

This is not a ‘live’ link, but it shouldn’t take too long to round trip the project to update the Volume information prior to document transmission or printing.

From his blog:
Revit does not allow to directly make a mark in the volume of the object.
…

4. Unload in Access, using the Query Designer update the “_Obem”, taking data from the parameter “Volume”.

Image from http://avisotskiy.blogspot.com.au/

 

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http://avisotskiy.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/revit-db-link.html

Hotfix – Revit 2012 – Point Clouds

Luke Johnson

This hotfix addresses issues with meters to feet conversions indexing FARO point clouds and improves product stability when manipulating large or complex point clouds.

Make sure that Update Release 2 has been applied prior to adding the hotfix. Verify that the build number of Revit 2012 is 20110916_2132.

The Readme contains the latest information regarding the installation and use of this update. It is strongly recommended that you read the entire document before you apply the update to your product. For your reference, you should save the Readme to your hard drive or print a copy.

Readme (htm – 97Kb)
Revit2012_Point_Cloud_Hotfix.zip (zip – 3810Kb)

 via
Autodesk – Autodesk Revit Architecture Services & Support – Hotfix – Autodesk Revit 2012 – Point Clouds

Allplan vs Revit – Revit "demanding but consistent … requires but rewards"

Luke Johnson

Over at blog.gayarre.eu, there is a post that compares some of the main features of Allplan and Revit.  Judging by the review, it seems that Allplan has better PDF integration than Revit (which isn’t very hard).

I think some of his description of Revit is quite good:
Revit, Autodesk, is American.
After Archicad and Allplan, Revit was the last to arrive. Is a product of Autodesk and that, in principle, gives confidence. We can imagine that if we use AutoCAD, BIM from the same company it will be easier to learn. There will be many surprises. And it is. The learning curve is very fast. It’s very intuitive.

I like your work philosophy: everything is done in 3d and then generates the planes. This is not to make a BIM or so and then end up drawing in 2D as if we were in Autocad. It is demanding but more consistent. It requires but rewards.

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http://blog.gayarre.eu/2011/03/16/allplan-vs-revit

More Free Revit Applications – Family Loader and Materials deleter

Luke Johnson

It must be hard to make money as a Revit application developer – because there are some cool free add-ins getting around.  From revit-app.com, check out these three free utilities:

Easy Family Loader
It will filter the path name, then the file name, and it’s quite easy to use.

Materials batch delete tool
This little tool will help you a lot when you want to delete multiple materials.

Auto Dimension

Download them all, for both Revit 2012 and Revit 2011, at:
Revit Applications – download center

Real Revit users have good manners like @davewlight and @Twiceroadsfool

Luke Johnson

Interesting little Twitter exchange between Aaron Maller and David Light shows that we don’t need to be rude to exchange our Revit-opinions:


davewlight
@Twiceroadsfool hey just read ya post on a certain site, certainly not offended, u make valid points, it’s obviously a big headache 4 u ;-(

Twiceroadsfool
@davewlight Its a part of life. But i didnt realize the way i phrased that sentence. Was totally sincere, not snarky. Hehe! All good =)

davewlight
@twiceroadsfool Really no apology needed mate! I value #revit passion! 🙂

Twiceroadsfool
@davewlight Its come to my attention i might have a reputation for bluntness, so i have to be sure! =)

Hotfix UPDATE – Improves stability when working with large datasets (64-bit only)

Luke Johnson

I previously posted about this hotfix here, but now Autodesk has updated a few things.  The mem_hotfix zip file now only includes a 64-bit version of Utility.dll, where the original also included a 32-bit version. 

Also, this update now includes an associated Cloud Rendering hotfix (see below):

Hotfix – Autodesk Revit 2012 – Improves stability when working with large datasets (64-bit only)

This hotfix improves product stability when working with large datasets.

Make sure that Update Release 2 has been applied prior to adding the hotfix. Verify that the build number of Revit 2012 is 20110916_2132.

NOTE: This hotfix applies to the 64-Bit release of Autodesk Revit 2012 only.
The Readme contains the latest information regarding the installation and use of this update. It is strongly recommended that you read the entire document before you apply the update to your product. For your reference, you should save the Readme to your hard drive or print a copy.

readme-Revit (htm – 84Kb)
Revit2012_Mem_hotfix_x64.zip (zip – 6005Kb)

The above hotfix when applied will impact anyone whom uses the Autodesk Cloud Rendering add-in for Autodesk Revit 2012 products.  The below hotfix will need to be applied to ensure that the Autodesk Cloud Rendering add-in remains functional.

The Readme contains the latest information regarding the installation and use of this update. It is strongly recommended that you read the entire document before you apply the update to your product. For your reference, you should save the Readme to your hard drive or print a copy.

readme-CloudRendering (htm – 84Kb)
Revit2012_CloudRendering_hotfix_x64.zip (zip – 65Kb)

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Autodesk – Autodesk Revit Architecture Services & Support – Hotfix – Autodesk Revit 2012 – Improves stability when working with large datasets (64-bit only)

Revit and Navisworks offline file viewer for Ipad – sign up for Beta

Luke Johnson
For all you Ipad users out there:

Field BIM-Interactive™ enables BIM viewing and interactivity on the iPad. Key features include:

  • A simple interface that will allow a user to put themselves “inside” the model while in the field
  • Online or offline access to interact with model files
  • Support for both Navisworks® and Revit® files (with other model types to follow)
  • Viewpoints are transferred from your model file into Field BIM-Interactive so you can quickly navigate to a specific location

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Field BIM-Interactive: Construction BIM viewing on the iPad| Vela Systems