Tag: A360

Last Chance to Access Files from BIM360 Team on Autodesk Desktop Connector

Luke Johnson

Sometimes you have to say goodbye to old technology to welcome in new ways of doing things. This is the case as BIM 360 Team basically almost dies in 2 weeks…

The key message here is:

A360 and BIM 360 Team will no longer be available in Desktop Connector after August 15, 2024.

What does this mean? To easily backup files now, while you can, you should:

  1. login to Autodesk Desktop Connector,
  2. browse to BIM 360 Team, and
  3. drag-drop any files you would like to save onto your local PC somewhere.

 

The dialog should pop up as each file copies over:

So this is the end of era… Long live ACC Docs (I guess ?)

Access Backups for A360 Collaboration for Revit Models using "Manage A360 Models"

Luke Johnson

From microsolresources:
Select your project, and you will get a list of cloud-enabled models. Please note you will not see other data, such as Word documents or non-cloud enabled models. capture9-1972819

When you click on the icon that resembles a floppy drive, you will have an option to View Versions.

capture11-5805882

Each of these Versions refers to an instance of Sync to Central.

On the far right column, we see Actions. If you click on the clock icon, you can roll back to a previous STC. You should exercise caution whenever rolling back to an earlier version. ALL NEWER VERSIONS WILL BE DELETED WHEN YOU ROLL BACK. In addition, anyone currently working on that model will lose their work, and any changes will be orphaned.

Read the whole post at:
Backing Up A360 Collaboration for Revit Models | microsolresources

Get a headstart with these Revit Rendering Tips from André Aksetøy

Luke Johnson

Rendering in Revit can be a somewhat fiddly process. André Aksetøy shared some great Revit rendering advice via the autodesk360rendering blog recently.

Here is a sample of it:
“I also like it when the crop region aligns with lines in the scene (fig 6).
Fig. 6 – Crop alignments
Figure 6
When it comes to lighting I always render with both sun and artificial lighting to get some contrast, I try however to avoid direct sunlight through the windows to avoid too much contrast. 

Fig.7 – lighting scheme


Figure 7
I take several test renders to make sure I’m on the right track.

Fig.8 - Test renders


I think the ability to adjust exposure online is a great feature. Usually I enhance the contrast and reduce the colors before I bring the picture into photoshop for post-processing. In fig.9 you see the raw render and in fig.10 the same picture after the adjustments.

Fig.9 - raw render


Read more at the original post:
http://autodesk360rendering.typepad.com/blog/2015/03/rendering-pro-spotlight-andr%C3%A9-akset%C3%B8y.html

The Difference between A360 Drive and A360 (Project or Team) including direct links

Luke Johnson

A360 Drive (previously known as Autodesk 360 Sync) is a file storage tool that syncs with your Desktop and makes your files accessible on the web, you can access your files here:
https://360.autodesk.com

A360 (or A360 Team, or A360 Project) is a project and team collaboration tool, you can access it here:
http://autodesk360.com/
and your project ‘hub’ is here:
https://myhub.autodesk360.com/portal/

You can copy something from your A360 Drive to A360 by using this drop down list option:

You will then be allowed to choose an A360 project. This creates a copy, there is no real link between the A360 Drive version and A360 version of that file. Obviously, the viewing and discussion capabilities are more collaborative in A360, so you may wish to take advantage of that feature if you are an A360 subscriber.

Collaboration for Revit is coming, Multi-firm concurrent authoring without complicated IT and LAN setup

Luke Johnson

I’m pretty sure this is what Revit Skyscraper is going to look like when it gets released, and I’m guessing it will be called “Collaboration for Revit” or “Revit Collaboration” (sounds like an addin, yeah?). Check out the image:

Those features again:

  • Multi-firm concurrent authoring
  • No IT setup required
  • BIM directly accessible to other Cloud Services

I’m not breaking NDA as this was a mailout from CTC, and you can register for the webinar here.

A360 Team officially launched

Luke Johnson

A360 refers to a suite of products for cloud based file sharing and team collaboration, just like BIM360 refers to the more AEC-focused cloud collaboration services. The A360 moniker currently covers products including A360, A360 Drive, A360 Rendering, and now A360 Team.

Initial pricing:

Personally, I’m interested to see if this can become a central point for collaboration across all Autodesk products and services. On a wider scale, I’m keen to investigate any collaboration tools that allow quick and easy discussion of “issues” – when I say issues, I mean “anything that needs to be discussed and solved.” AEC teams have these kinds of discussions throughout the entire building design and delivery process… but there isn’t a nice, clean, easy solution to manage all of those issues and conversations (yet). I can picture it in my mind, I just haven’t seen one in real life (yet).

You can start a trial of A360 Team here:
A360 Team

The A360 forums:
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/a360-products/ct-p/200

You might be interested in my previous post about the Autodesk 360 Viewer.

More info:
Autodesk A360 Team Now Available in North America, Continues to Advance Design and Engineering Project Collaboration

How to Install Autodesk 360 Sync for Desktop as a Standalone Package (without AutoCAD)

Luke Johnson

You probably won’t find Autodesk 360 Desktop sync install package for download online, but you can install it “standalone”.

  1. Find some Autodesk install media
  2. Look for a subfolder named Cloudsync (make sure it is beneath x64 or x86 as appropriate for your system)
  3. Copy this folder to USB or a network location
  4. Run the file AdSync.msi on the PC you want to install Autodesk 360 on
  5. After install, you will need to restart
  6. After restarting, you may need to sign in using your Autodesk ID

I have previously described how to use Autodesk 360 as a cloud storage location for Revit (and any application) here:
Access Autodesk 360 files in any application, including Revit

Some paths that may assist – these were from BDSU2015:
Building_Design_Suite_Ultimate_2015_English_Win_64-32bit_dlmx64ComponentsCloudsync

Building_Design_Suite_Ultimate_2015_English_Win_64-32bit_dlmx64ComponentsCloudsyncAdSync.msi