IFC 2x4 - Early Details

The next version of IFC (IFC 2x4) is currently available as an alpha spec review.

Quick details (courtesy of IAI Tech International):

• 
  The IFC 2x edition 4 release is available now. The buildingSMART community is strongly encouraged to review the current alpha release and to provide feedback using the MSG issue resolution database. The deadline for comments is 20.08.2008.
  The IFC 2x edition 4 release (IFC2x4), combines a number of feature increases with some major rework and improvements of the existing IFC specification. It has been developed as the next basis for IFC enabled interoperability of Building Information Models. It is also intended that the IFC2x4 release will be submitted to the International Standardization Organization (ISO) for approval as a full International Standard ISO16739.
  
  

The spec is available for download here: http://ifc.buildingsmart.com

Note: You will need to register for free to be able to download the file and provide feedback. It looks like new registrations are currently down and should be back up soon.

Get Smart - With a new version of Maxwell Render v1.7

Next Limit announces the upcoming v1.7 release of Maxwell Render. Hot on the heels of v1.6 released 7 months ago, existing customers will get a notification in the next few days, the general public will get access within the following week.

Still looking for the list of new and improved features. In the meantime you can always watch these clips featuring Maxwell tests here or a clip of another Maxwell....

For anyone interested, the title is loosely connected to the movie and tv show where the lead character is called Maxwell Smart. ;)

Autodesk Revit 2009 - New Build #1

For all flavors of Revit 2009 a new build is now available for download from the autodesk website.

Revit Utilities Update

As you probably saw there has been a short hiatus from writing, mostly to avoid spilling the beans on the upcoming projects. That said one of those projects has just released an update for compatibility and new features within Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and Revit MEP 2009 available here.

New features include:

	Room Renumber Easily renumber existing rooms into an order defined by selection. Insert rooms into an existing series of rooms with the subsequent room numbers “shifted” to make space for the inserted one. NEW: Handle increments between room numbers. * Version 1.1.3066 Click here to download
	Change Case Instantly match your company’s or client’s standards on naming with either UPPER CASE, Title Case, or lower case. This tool scans your model and automatically fixes “case issues” to whatever standard you specify. NEW: Support for new element/parameter combinations (Text Note Text, View Title on Sheet) * Version 1.0.3032 Click here to download
	Door Mark Update Make door marks refer to the room that the door swings into. Interrogates all doors and rooms to determine the proper mark for each door. Enables you to inspect and override the suggested marks and updates the marks. NEW: Provides user-specified suffixes where a room has more than one door (works with Revit 2009 only). NEW: Swap the door TO/FROM definition to match the door swing. * Version 1.0.3062 Click here to download
	RevitCity.com Content Browser Gives you a Web browser inside of Revit that connects you to the popular RevitCity.com site. All in one step, you can download the content, store it in the proper library, rename it, and load it into the current model. * Version 1.1.3066 Click here to download
	Earth Connector for Revit Enables you to watch your building come together, phase by phase, within Google Earth. Works with all the other Avatech Revit Utilities. Supports Windows Vista. Supports Revit Phases working with Google Earth Timespans. NEW: Provides an alternative mechanism for showing the Revit model origin. NEW: Another way to specify an alternate model origin for use in Google Earth. NEW: Resolved non-English locale issues. * Version 1.1.3054 Click here to download

We are also working on tweaks to a few more features within these (thanks to great user feedback). We are interested if you are hosting content on an intranet (for multiple offices) to work within our content browser above. Drop me an e-mail if you are interested in helping get this going.

Shortly we will be unveiling another Revit application project that we think is different from anything else out there at moment.... :)

Cheers and more writing soon, in the meantime feel free to follow my micro-blog on twitter.
Beau