RobiNZ CAD Blog

Autodesk Ecotect?!

The Green Building Studio announcement was expected but I was surprised to see* news of the Ecotect acquisition. Apart from a couple of sessions at AU2007 I haven’t seen much of Ecotect. I haven’t used it but those I know who have are struck by it’s impressive visualisation.

To date my role in building energy studies has been as a modeller (using Revit MEP) with the analysis left to those best qualified to interpret the data. However the audience for all this was a building owner/operator. With the sophisticated modelling available communicating the results seemed more of a challenge than generating them.

Since the whole business of building performance modelling is new to many anything that helps create better solutions AND communicate them is welcomed. It will be interesting to see these develop as they are merged into the Autodesk BIM family. A “green post” to match my current, coincidental, green banner image.

Autodesk Enhances Sustainable Design Capabilities With Acquisitions of Ecotect and Green Building Studio Analysis Tools - Autodesk - Press Releases

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., June 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of its on-going commitment to support the practice of sustainable design and green building in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries, Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced two acquisitions to improve building performance analysis in the building information modeling (BIM) process.

Autodesk announced that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets related to the Ecotect software tools for conceptual building performance analysis from both Square One Research Ltd. and Dr. Andrew Marsh. Autodesk also announced that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Green Building Studio, Inc., a provider of web-based whole building energy, water and carbon-emission analysis software…

Related Links: 

• Sid Thoo’s introduction to Ecotect at AECbytes
• Autodesk Green Building Studio - www.autodesk.com/greenbuildingstudio
• Autodesk Ecotect is currently at www.squ1.com
• GreenBuild New Zealand – www.greenbuild.co.nz/

* I read this first at TenLinks.com

Tags: ecotect

Revit Technology Conference 2008 - Revit User Group Sydney

The Revit Technology Conference is happening in Sydney, late June. I attended the NZ event last year & it was a great Revit focused “Mini Autodesk University”. It’s a chance to hear about the latest in BIM technology, see how others are applying it (in real projects), learn new techniques and meet fellow Revit users. I know several from the Revit User Group of New Zealand are attending. See the link below for more information on the event & registration:

Revit User Group Sydney :: RTC 2008 - www.rugsyd.com.au/rtc2008
Following the success of our Roadshow in 2007 (Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland, Melbourne, and Perth), the RTC Committee have pleasure in inviting you and your team to attend the Annual Conference to be held in Brighton Beach, Sydney. The Conference aims to draw attendees from throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as other Asia Pacific regions.
The 2008 Annual Conference is to be held Thursday 26 June – Saturday 28 June at the Novotel Brighton Beach, Sydney.

Tags: rugsyd

Breaking barriers with Salesoft CAD Solutions - Autodesk 2009 Launch

UPDATE 2008–04–2: Picture added

Salesoft CAD Solutions had their “Autodesk 2009” launch today and the theme was “Breaking the Barriers”.

After a brief introduction from Rich Sales, yes it’s really his name, there were sessions which focused on a tour of the new features in Revit Architecture, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, AutoCAD and Max. Although this was handled by splitting into application focused groups there was a lot of material to cover in the time available.

For his AutoCAD session Gary adopted the cunning plan (which I’ve also used) of using Camtasia recordings rather than live demos. This allows you to see the software in action - as if live - but lets the presenter concentrate on presentation, rather than operation. It was great for showing the extensive user interface changes in AutoCAD 2009.

Then after a lunch break there was an impressive customer presentation by Auckland’s Morrison Architects. This showcased their use of Revit it all kinds of projects from a small bathroom renovation to large commercial building fit-outs and everything in between. You can see some of the work shown in their web gallery.

Guest Speaker Brian Wilson, from the School of Philosophy, followed with a great talk on breaking mental barriers. He mentioned a lecture by Andy Pausch whose lessons on life were delivered in “His last Lecture” (see video summary below or full transcript). I first stumbled upon this last September but it’s such a powerful message it deserves a repeat showing here.

We were then split into two groups for some barrier breaking activities;

Downstairs, Segway NZ had a variety of machines to test drive. Luckily this was inside the hotel convention space, avoiding a torrential downpour, but there was plenty of room to zoom around and the columns were ideal for those wanting a slalom. Riding a Segway for the first time is strange, especially if used to a bicycle. You have to learn not to balance and trust the Segway will do it for you, which it does!

Upstairs, everyone attending got to literally “break a barrier” after a quick Karate lesson. We were issued with a plank to break, which everyone did, with Rich delivering the final chop (below) *.

It was an interesting format, breaking the barriers of the typical software launch. Thanks to the Salesoft team for an enjoyable event but maybe, for 2010, I’d consider having slightly longer product sessions.

UPDATE 2008–04–2: Julia sent me this image today with the line “A reminder that you too have strong powers of focus and intent!” to which I’d add “and a sore hand!” **

* The YouTube video above is by me. Eboss were recording the sessions, with better cameras than my old 300 pixel movie Canon Ixus, to be posted mid-April.
** Just kidding, no CAD Bloggers were harmed in the making of this post!

Tags: Salesoft+CAD+Solutions, Autodesk, Hilton

Revit and AutoCAD's Visual Styles - A SketchUp alternative?

I heard of Revit users experimenting with Google SketchUp for presentations in an attempt to get a more natural “conceptual look” than Revit allows. Many Revit users also have AutoCAD available so I though it’s conceptual visual styles were worth trying. This sample is just a play Revit model but has a mix of default Revit walls, curtain wall and site elements.

The screenshot below shows that Revit model imported into AutoCAD (Click on the thumbnail for a larger view).

1. Viewport 1 shows the raw import. The rather garish colours are from the default Revit layer settings but the concept styles ignore these colours so there is no need to change them..
2. Viewport 2 has a conceptual style applied with a “Gooch” face style.  The visual styles allow slider adjustment of edge weights, line overhang, “roughness” and outline thickness. These can be combined to get many looks within a style setting.
3. Viewport 3 has a sepia face style with the transparency button enabled. It allows some vision through even solid objects to see the form.
4. Viewport 4 is a plan view with no face style and heavy use of the line effects. It’s a reasonable look to simulate a pen drawing.

AutoCAD Visual styles, like Revit shaded views, are quick and easy to edit. They can be output directly to paper, DWF or image formats using the normal AutoCAD Plot Command. It’s a pity Revit doesn’t have this sort of display effect built in but, until it does, give AutoCAD a go.

"Inside the System" with perfect timing - The Revit MEP Blog

I’ve spent today, and tomorrow, sitting in with our “Energy Team”  who are training on Revit MEP Series. We currently use AutoCAD MEP but there is interest in the building analysis aspects of Revit MEP. I got home and while catching up with email and feeds found The Mistress’ post: “Woohoo! A new Revit MEP blog!”

Woohoo indeed! The Revit MEP community in New Zealand is rather tiny but by the end of tomorrow there will be another three users! We are all at the beginning of a very steep learning curve so it’s great to have a shiny new Revit MEP blog to help answer the questions. I’ve seen “Kyle B” all over the MEP Discussion Groups and it’s great to see him blogging.

Part of the challenge we have is learning a system while creating the content & standards needed to use it. New Zealand can use some of the U.K. resources/standards but lots has to be generated from scratch. We faced a similar challenge with Autodesk Building Systems years ago but it’s proved to be worthwhile.

For me it’s been interesting to watch a mix of CAD users and Engineers learning BIM. Some are picking up totally new concepts from scratch while others struggle to forget old ones. I’m supporting them with the added challenge of not being a Building Services person. I can now generate a room analysis, apply the results to a ducted system, resize it and document it all but have no idea what that really means. But it’s all good fun!

One bit of good news is someone will be able to learn from best, by doing Revit MEP sessions at Autodesk University 2007!

Inside the System - The Revit MEP Blog

“It’s been a long time coming, and after much planning and effort I am launching my Autodesk Blog, Inside the System. This blog will focus on the MEP industry, Sustainability, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and how new technologies help to meet the demands of today’s MEP projects.”

“Many of you already know me as Kyle B on both the Autodesk and AUGI discussion forums, where I frequently post. You can find me there helping customers with technical issues, discussing larger industry issues, and soliciting customer feedback.”

“As a Product Manager for Revit MEP, I am tasked with setting the year-to-year direction of Revit MEP, and working with others at Autodesk and our Reseller channel; ultimately making sure that our customers succeed with our MEP solutions. A critical component of that success is having the right information to succeed.

With that in mind, I set out on this journey through the blogosphere.”

PS: Where are the rest of the Revit Team blogs?

Trigonometry, Revit Parameters and Lynn [last name withheld]

Aaron's post on math, trig and Revit reminded me of a recent conversation. I’d been working with Parameter formulas which meant stretching the memory back to fundamental math like trigonometry. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there…

I warned a friend, who’s a math teacher, she may get a phone call one day if things got too complex for my mathematical abilities*. Lynn [last name withheld] read Aaron’s post in preparation for that call. You may have to earn the next load of Butterfingers!**

Malleristic Revitation: Trigonometry, Revit Parameters, and Scheduling...
I couldn't wrap my head around how i multiplied degrees and Length, to come up with a mathematical unit (besides degree-inch, lol). So i called in a favour:

My good friend Brian (last name withheld) is a Math Specialist at a local school district….

* I liked Math but always did far better at Physics, which often required the same math. This frustrated my Math & Physics tutors. I think it was because Math was abstract while Physics just made sense!

** For reasons only Nestlé can explain Butterfingers are not sold in New Zealand. Guess who has to bring them from the US to satisfy Lynn [last name withheld]’s addiction to peanut buttery junk food. Last time I forgot and saying it was for her own good wasn’t appreciated! She’ll thank me for it on the hills of the ‘Round Taupo.***

*** The Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge (Round Taupo) is New Zealand's largest cycle event. It covers a scenic course on 160 km (100 miles) of sealed road around beautiful Lake Taupo. The official website omits mentioning that for a ride around a lake it has lots of hills. This includes a long cruel one towards the end, right where you don’t want it. It’s held at the same time as AU and I have been accused of attending AU just to avoid it. There is some truth to this…

Autodesk Patch Wednesday?

Microsoft have their “Patch Tuesday” but seems this Wednesday it was Autodesk’s turn.

Guess who was about to build a new master CAD deployment but got distracted and ran out of time. Then he arrived at work the next day to find nearly every CAD product had been patched overnight! Procrastination is sometimes a good thing.

Keep up to date with Autodesk Product Support, Updates & Service Packs via RSS Feed at:

http://rss-support.autodesk.com/subscription

Tick the products you want to watch and add the feed created to your reader. Revit MEP isn’t listed but the AutoCAD MEP selection seems to get it as well.

 

See you at the Auckland Revit Technology Conference 2007?

The Revit Technology Conference is coming to Auckland on Monday (27/08). If any readers are attending say hello to the fellow in the Warehouse (blue store development) shirt!

Revit Technology Conference 2007
The Revit Technology Conference is an annual event designed to cater to the needs of the Revit-based CAD community. Founded and run by users of the software, RTC is the pre-eminent educational and networking event for users throughout the region.

This year the team is coming to you!

We are embarking on a series of one day seminars designed to entice, enrich, and enliven your worklife (FDA approval pending...)

HOK Blog!

HOK have a couple of new(ish) blogs looking at buildingSMART (Building Information Model) and Green design. It’s great to see companies sharing their experience & knowledge!

HOK CAD Solutions - Welcome to this HOK CAD Support blog
“This is the idea: let’s use this blog as a communication track to gather knowledge and share; we hope that you will be willing to author posts and share opinions to make this work. Postings will be by HOK and invited guests, viewing is by anybody inside and outside HOK….”

http://hokcadsolutions.blogspot.com/

HOK GREEN BIM - Welcome to my new Green Blog - Miles Walker
I plan to capture my path into green design in architecture…

http://greenbim.blogspot.com/

Also check out Miles' other website on BIM:

4BIM – A web site exclusively for Building Information Modelling

http://www.4bim.com/

Via autodesk-revit.blogspot.com

Tags: HOK, buildingSMART, BIM

A Tablet PC for CAD/BIM?

As it’s an evolution from “the drawing board” combining CAD/BIM software and Tablet PC seems natural. I wonder why it hasn’t been done by the major market players? In the early days hardware was a real limitation but newer tablets like the Lenovo X61 or Toshiba M400 have reasonable performance for portable use. I don’t see them as workstation replacements, rather an ideal way to take your design on-site or to a meeting where using a mouse isn’t practical.

I’ve tried mark-up with Autodesk Design Review (ADR) on a Tablet and liked it in-spite of the application’s User Interface (UI) not being very Tablet friendly. That was with ADR 2007 but, sadly, the newer free ADR 2008 makes more use of fly-out tools for mark-up formatting which are harder to use on a tablet. Even with the current UI the speed & ease of pen input for non-precision sketch/mark-up leaves a mouse/keyboard combo for dead, especially in the field where you can’t use them at all.

I’ve also played with AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture and Revit on a Tablet PC and all were usable, if not really viable full-time. There’s no perfect UI but for many environments & tasks the pen/tablet is far more natural, dare I say fluent, than the mouse & keyboard. I was surprised to find AutoCAD’s UI and command “logic” (selection/command sequence) worked better than the smarter object based applications.

Revit’s dialog heavy UI was the least accommodating which is a pity given the power of it’s engine to assist design. I’d love to see that Building Information Model manipulated with a Tablet friendly UI as a conceptual design tool. You wouldn’t want to do detail design work – lots of text or precision dimension entry – but for knocking around a concept the tablet & pen is the most natural human interface, at least until those surface displays with direct manipulation become affordable.

Thanks to “GottabeMobile” I found an application from Evodia which shows what “concept sketches” become with some smart software and a tablet. It’s software for Electrical Schematic design and looks brilliant. I can only say “looks” because the website is in French (my ignorance prevents me reading that) and I don’t have a machine to try it on as the Tablet PC’s I’ve used were loan machines. Donations to the “Tablet for Robin” fund accepted in the tip-jar  

I’ve seen all sorts of software used for this – Excel, Visio, AutoCAD/Revit MEP – but none an Electrical Engineer, who can drive a pen faster than a mouse, could use so fluently. You get the speed of a scribble with the power of software assisted design & layout. Imagine that with a conceptual Building Information Model. The pen may not be the ultimate design tool but it’s mightier than the… mouse.

Via GottaBeMobile.com - Using a Tablet PC for Electrical Sketching
“When you see how quickly someone can sketch out the schematics for a house, you have to wonder why electricians would ever choose to go back to paper.”

Tags: Evodia, GottabeMobile

Real world tales of Revit BIM’plementation

These articles share tips from the front line where BIM theory meets production reality: 

BIM Do's and Don'ts – Cadalyst
Beau Turner* & Joe Eichenseer (Avatech Solutions) offer some real-world insights for success implementing BIM…

As I’ve recently been investigating Revit Architecture/MEP collaboration this AECBytes article was brilliantly timed. Thanks Lachmi & Bill!

Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration in Revit - AECbytes "Tips and Tricks"
Bill Knittle’ s (Synergis Design) tutorial on “Collaborating in an all-Revit environment” has recommendations & techniques for sharing Architectural, Structural & MEP models using Revit’s linking, collaboration & monitor tools.

* Just this week I was reminded of Beau zooming around on a Segway at Autodesk University 2004 as I had another “CAD + Segway” close encounter. More on that in a future post…

Building Solutions 2008 Launch - AEC Systems New Zealand

Just got home from the AEC Systems NZ Building Solutions 2008 Launch. I’d not seen any 2008 Revit in action, got the disc not yet installed it(!), so was good to get an overview of what is new this year.

After an introduction from Marcel van Oosterom (AEC Systems Regional Manager), Michael Beer (Autodesk Australia) talked about the shift to BIM – “Experience it Before it is Real" – and how it’s changing the industry. He mentioned that NZ/AU was well ahead of the USA in terms of Revit adoption. I suspect this is because of our generally smaller offices makes adoption easier plus a genuine interest in the technology.

Then it was on to the product specific demos. It’s interesting to see some AutoCAD Architecture (ACA) style functionality appearing in “Revitised” form in addition to new and refined Revit features. Some highlights for me:

• Revit Architecture 2008 – Wesley Benn:
• Updated Groups with object override to hide objects in an instance of a group. Big change is that groups can now be edited in-place within the project with other objects “greying out” while the edit is in progress. You can add/remove objects from the group while in edit mode (similar to ACA Refedit a block).
• Better object visibility and UI feedback. The display viewport gains a coloured outline to warn of hidden/isolated object overrides.
• View Specific Object Display Settings: Override visibility per view. Example might be to make a wall transparent in a 3D view but have it appear solid in another. (Similar to ACA Object Display Override).
• Improved presentation: masking regions, dimensions and colour fill legends refined. New “dependent views” for splitting a large view across several sheets.
• Improved Linked Projects;
• Show in Project Browser
• Nested Linked Projects (ACA nested Xref)
• In-place edit linked projects (ACA Refedit Xref)
• Refined API – More potential for 3rd party developers to extend Revit.
• Revit MEP 2008 – Simon Whitbread:
• Showed system auto-routing and clash detection for ducting & circuit tools for electrical.
• Mentioned IES (Integrated Environmental Solutions) Link
• Revit Structure 2008 – Damien Legrand:
• Export/Import & coordination with external analysis tools (Robobat)
• Curved Splined Elements (beams etc)
• Integrated Parametric Truss Tool
• Better re-bar tools

It was great to meet Aussie “Revit guru” Wesley Benn. I’d seen him at AU several times, speaking about Revit and at the Revit Mixers, but was the first opportunity I’ve had to speak to him. It was also good to meet the Neil Allen, the new Autodesk NZ Territory Manager. I also caught up with a few industry colleagues from closer to home, one I’d only ever previously met in Las Vegas!

That’s a quick overview, because now it’s time for me to pack!

PS: Some of The Warehouse Group team will be at the Autodesk/Salesoft CAD Solutions 2008 Launch tomorrow (24–04–2007), say hello if you see them!

Category Management for new 2008 names

Using product names on your blog means re-branding presents some challenges. Do you change to the new name or keep the one most people know. Luckily it doesn’t impact my Blog title or URL but I’ve revised some blog categories (indexes) to reflect recent name changes:

• Architectural Desktop changes to AutoCAD Architecture
• Revit changes to Revit Architecture
• Building Systems changes to AutoCAD MEP
• Auckland AutoCAD User Group now Auckland Autodesk User Group
• I’ve added Revit Structure and Revit MEP but will need to re-index some posts into these categories.

It won’t alter post permalinks and TypePad retains the old category URL. It might say AutoCAD Architecture but TypePad will always know it as ../architectural_desktop/index.html. Seems like some names will never die  

These changes shouldn't break anything but if you have any problems let me know.