QP: List of Navisworks Formats for Laser Scan and Point Clouds

Current Supported File Formats for Navisworks 2011:


FORMAT                     File Type Extension
ASCII Laser File          .asc .txt
Faro                              .fls .fws iQscan .iQmod .iQwsp
Leica                             .pts .ptx
Riegl                              .3dd
Trimble                          Native file NOT supported. Need to convert to an ASCII laser File (or other)
Z&F                               .zfc .zfs

#YearinReview What did you ship/complete in 2010?

Seth brought up a good exercise on writing out the items you shipped in 2010.  This recognizes in one spot the different items that I am proud to be a part of.  For my adaptation, shipping will be projects (software and business development, writing, speaking or life events that stand out or related):

My 2010 List:

1. Event Switch to MAC platform (had been straddling the fence prior)
2. Launch Scan to BIM, point cloud integration with Autodesk Revit 2011 (Laser Scan to BIM)
3. Launch 100 Percent, 4-in-1 Percentages Calculator for iPhone and iPod devices.
4. Launch Fun for Kids: Activities for Your Family, Activities, crafts, games and entertainment ideas for kids of all ages for iPhone and iPod devices.
5. Launch Avatech Utilities for Revit 2011, includes 11 utilities in the full package for Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and Revit MEP with 3 entirely new tools and user interface adjustments to each to streamline usage.
6. Event Revit in the cloud, private Revit clouds and working with hosted solutions. The Autodesk University presentation brought lots of great questions and showed a rapidly growing interest.  From the mainstage to sidebar conversations the discussion of "cloud" technology was everywhere. More on this in the future...
7. Co-Author Introducing Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011 with Pat Davis, Charlie Busa, Steve Stafford and Beau Turner.

I did not do all of this myself... far from it. Thanks to everyone involved in these projects and for readers, users, volunteers, beta testers, colleagues, marketing, paying customers and more that made these projects happen. There were additional private development items that cannot be mentioned :\ and another twelve to fifteen projects that were started and underway but were not launched in 2010 and as Seth said "If it doesn't ship, it does not count".

The other reason I bring this up is that when I am involved in launching or development of projects this blog goes quiet. This space has not gone dormant, it means that I do not want to spill the beans/excitement pre-maturely and I am working out how to get past this flaw. ;)

Onwards and upwards for 2011...

Revit Model Review - Sharing Checks Quick Tip

Got a nice check file that you have created and now want to share with others in the office?  Maybe you have one you want to share with the world?  Either way if you have a check file and want to share it, others will need this quick tip to use it.

Check Files themselves use the .bcf file as their extension and by default are stored locally (default path: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Model Review 2010 for Revit 2010 and C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Model Review 2009 for Revit 2009.

The file that controls and shows this is the drop-downs and pre-defined flyouts is the .config file located in same directory as the default Check Files.  Actual filename is: ModelReview.config).  To add to this, use the Manage->Profile->Edit option.

Read more »

Revit 2010 - Wall Split With Gap

In 2009 and below with the help of a .ini hack we had access to an extra command called "Split Wall with Gap" and since 2010 was released this has no longer worked.  With the release of the Subscription Advantage Pack it is back and built right into the core tools now, albeight a bit hidden.

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Autodesk Revit Model Review - Check file?

In this post we are going to talk about what exactly is a check file

When you first install Model Review there are some example check files that ship with the product to help you get started.  For Revit 2009 users there are 4:

• Revit Modeling and Energy Standards (checks built around the premise in this whitepaper)
  
• GSA Template Standards (based around using the Autodesk provided GSA Revit template)
  
• Firm/Project Standards-Minimal (some of the common items people asked about checking for)
  
• Firm/Project Standards-Extended (some items people had asked about checking for)
  

For Revit 2010 there is an additional one called:

• Content Standards (based around some of the things that people are concerned with in their .rfa family files)

Understanding the Terminology

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Autodesk Revit Model Review - Whats New

Today marks the release of Autodesk Revit Model Review, formerly Avatech BIMreview and it is packed with extra goodies making this into an even stronger product.  This post is focused on what is new inside of this release or changes from the prior BIMreview product.  For starters Model Review is not sold separately, it is only available as part of the Subscription Advantage pack, to get this login to the subscription center and download.  There are two versions available for use with all flavors of Revit (Architecture, Structure & MEP); one for 2009 and the other for 2010 (both support 32 & 64 bit).

What are some of the new features that this release offers?

Read more »

Sketchbook Mobile - v1.1

Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile has a new version released today (version 1.1).  Some nice improvements to make this even better.  The list of new features includes the following:

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iPhone Apps Abound - Autodesk SketchBook Mobile

The past few months we have been diving more into the iPhone (Dev, Design and more) and just uploaded a little gem to the Apple Store for review and more details here... :)

In keeping on track with the iPhone, Autodesk has put out their first iPhone app, launched yesterday, and is based on SketchBook (which you may remember from Alias).

A video of the app below:


I have not had the chance to use SketchBook Pro (though i really want to) and the mobile app being $2.99 (current price) its a pretty small investment for such a powerfully small app. To try before you buy there is a free 'lite' version with a few items removed (ex. layers). Our quick review: the overall UI and design controls are GOLD; bridging power with easy to access and use controls. Within minutes of purchasing last night we were off and creating:

Read more »

Revit 2010 - Update 1 (Service Pack 1)

For Revit 2010, updates for all three flavors can be found below:

Revit Architecture 2010 Update Release 1

Revit Structure 2010 Update Release 1

Revit MEP 2010 Update Release 1

The Update Enhancement lists that are available for each product shows what has been fixed or updated in this Service Pack can be found using the links below:

Update Enhancements for Revit Architecture 2010 Update Release 1

Update Enhancements for Revit Structure 2010 Update Release 1

Update Enhancements for Revit MEP 2010 Update Release 1

Revit Development - Autodesk BIMreview

The last few years have been a great learning experience as I have had the desire and opportunity to get more involved in software add-ons. This has been primarily through the Revit platform and taking advantage of the ever expanding API. The first being the launch of the Avatech Revit Utilities, part of an ongoing collection of tools, numerous private Revit applications for firms and the creation and launch of a larger application called BIMreview.

I tend to think of working with Revit add-ins in two ways:

• Utility - Small tools that either automates a process (done in less time) or addresses a short coming within the core program. These tend to get added to the core application in given time and have a relatively short shelf life (in most but not all cases).
• Application - A larger, typically more complex tool that does a specific action outside of what the core application does by itself. This could be a bi-directional link to another application (ex. Sharepoint) or something like BIMreview above that has its own interface for checking and correction standards within your Revit model.

With the utilities, these are typically much shorter from concept to creation (hours to days and occassionally weeks). In the case of BIMreview being able to start with a previous idea from the manufacturing space helped to start this. Some key differences and timing played a large part to this as there are multiple emerging BIM standards that exist. Some of these are formal (ex. GSA Spatial Validation, others are less defined and vary based on what is important to the modelers, designers at each firm. The next few years are going to continue to be exciting from a technology perspective as these requirements and standards start to become better defined and the technology to automate checking and validating them to be more commonplace.

A couple of personal highlights in being involved BIMreview:

• Initial Revit Standards creation and discussion with many people/firms (hopefully a future AU class that I will get to be part of)
• UI Design (working to make it as intuitive as possible). Garr Reynolds has been a huge inspiration for me, and I continue to work to be better at this in presentations, design and UI's.
  

This journey has helped to expand my own thinking and interaction with Revit. At the same time getting deeply involved in development without letting the "cat out of the bag" too early on the larger projects has kept me from writing here (aka the Cathederal). As of June 09, 2009 BIMreview is now an Autodesk product, short overview of details here. I am looking forward to this moving forward and the team that is coming together around it. As soon as there are more public details that can be shared I will let you know.

In the meantime I am glad to get the blog here dusted off and back to being more active and if you are looking for more Revit Utilities and custom development, lets talk. :)

Cheers...

Autodesk Green Building Studio Aquisition

It looks like the Sustainable design tools from Green Building Studio will soon become part of the autodesk product line of products.

http://pressreleases.autodesk.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=385%3C%2Ftd%3E

New Build of Revit for the leap year bug

In this post we mentioned an issue with the month of January 2008 and that Autodesk is aware and working on a fix. As it turns out it seems to be a leap year issue and fixes are available for Revit Architecture, Revit Structure & Revit MEP in the form of new builds (technically this is SP4 but the website lists them as SP3 for all products). You can install these if you are affected or wait until February where this will no longer be a problem... :)

The updates seem to be similar for each product line with a few minor additions for each product line. The snapshot below is taken from the web enhancement update list of fixes for Revit Architecture: Web Update SP3 build (20080101_2345):

• Improves stability when editing groups, saving views/groups to the library or creating a new project withtemplate set to “None”.
• Improves stability when upgrading or linking a project from Autodesk Revit Building 8.1/Revit Structure 2or older.
• Allows the ability to array face-based families placed on a vertical face.
• Allows the ability to maintain face-based instances on curved surfaces of a Revit link when the link isunloaded.
• Improves stability when selecting sections.
• Allows the ability to insert an electrical receptacle into a legend view.• Improves stability when accessing the Help menu in Revit Architecture on a computer with the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system.
• Improves stability when applying a view template to a sheet.
• Improve the performance of a view when it contains many objects with overridden graphics by element.

Thanks Chuck for the notification and eyes on the build updates. :)

Maya export to .dwg

In a technology preview from Autodesk released yesterday we now have access to exporting to the .dwg file format from Maya courtesy of Autodesk Labs.

From the site:
The DWG Plug-in for Maya 2008 enables users to export complex conceptual building designs from Maya for further design development and documentation in Autodesk Revit Architecture 2008. For additional information including a how-to overview of the technology, please see BIM: Maya 2008 for Complex Conceptual Design.pdf which accompanies the install file in the ZIP download

The workflow mentioned to go from Maya to Revit Architecture is the following:
• Create initial design expression in Maya
• Export file from Maya to the DWG file format
• Convert DWG™ files to SAT file format (ACIS® Solid) in AutoCAD® 2008 software via export.
• Import SAT file to Revit Architecture 2008 for documentation via massing.


The Negative:
First, the pitch about bringing this into Revit Architecture is a bit misleading as I modified the steps above slightly to show what is really occuring. The way it is written up makes it sound like a seamless 4 step transition to getting your model from Maya to Revit. This is not seamless, first AutoCAD is used as a "translator" to take the geometry and make it readable by other packages via the .sat file format. To get this into Revit it then takes additional work to clean this up and you have to work from massings, not exactly a smart family to begin with so if you have any experience with family editing you may be better off doing it that way. Ex. a known issue mentioned in the .pdf is that the model may need to be rotated in the massing to get the model in the right orientation.

Second, we can export to .stl directly in Max. Why can we not get that in Maya and skip the whole AutoCAD step?

The Positive:
Great job on the tool as we are now able to share this with other Autodesk users not on Maya.

happy exporting...
beau turner

Primavera and Autodesk Interoperability

From the Development side we (Avatech) have had several inquiries from users over the last few months to look into developing some tools to allow users to go from Autodesk Design Products to Primavera.

On a related note to that and with Autodesks aquirement of Navisworks this past year in a press release this morning both parties have agreed to continue working together to keep the existing link between Primavera and Navisworks functioning as well as work on interoperability to the Autodesk AEC line of products.

This will be interesting as we move forward and should improve the 4D & 5D process that we go through currently. In the meantime I plan to continue paid development in this niche. To quote Big Weld: "See a need, fill a need"

Autodesk Labs - Content Search

Autodesk just released a new Labs product called Content Search, still listed as Alpha at this stage, entirely web based, searchable and available from the main page here.

Content Source quantities (as of 10/2/07):
Autodesk - AutoCAD Architecture 2008 (60)
Autodesk - AutoCAD MEP 2008 (3019)
Autodesk - Revit Architecture 2008 (2150)
Autodesk - Revit MEP 2008 (2312)
Autodesk - Revit Structure 2008 (1916)
McGraw Hill Sweets (9292)
Reed FirstSource (445)

Items with:
dwf (1583)
dwg (5192)
dxf (1570)
pdf (1991)
rfa (6378)

Item Type:
Generic (9457)
Manufactured (9737)


URL: http://cs.labs.autodesk.com
Added: October 1, 2007

Recommended Browsers:
Firefox 2.0 or higher (yeah!!!)
IE 7 or higher

AutoCAD Architecture 2008 - Service Pack 1

The Service Pack for AutoCAD Architecture 2008 (Formerly ADT) was released on 9/18 and is available here.

The readme lists the fixes, etc...

I am installing now, the first thing that caught me was that it was trying to install using the default installation to the M://. Since this is not a drive I have ever had on this machine I had to repoint this. Anyone else get something similar?

* Update - this seems to be the path it is downloading from visible from Vista.

** Update - If you do not have access to the original installation .msi location your installation update will need to be aborted.

Happy cadding...

AIA San Antonio

I have been at the AIA convention in San Antonio this week for some meetings and classes. Yesterday was a great day of sessions about Integrated Design Practices.

From the show floor a couple of technology items that stood out:

1. Tectonic Objects Collection - a good library of information that helps you organize, find and file your families. You can start with their existing library (looks like a decent start) or add your own. Another good item was the ability to add a "tag" to your content that would show your "optimized" families vs. downloaded ones or those from Tectonic. Also included is a general guideline for family naming conventions, for those who do not have one yet this can help you get started. Thanks Dennis and Charlie

2. Green Building Studio - In addition to the great product they have been developing/expanding the last few years, another set of new features coming out are Carbon Footprint and Energy Analysis tools. Another that is not yet released, but looks promising, is the detailed "Climate Server", listed as a high resolution climate server, this provides detailed weather analysis for 65,000 locations will provide a pretty detailed report for your project locations including: Dry Bulb Temperature, Dew Point Temperature, Relative Humidity, Wind Speed and Direction, Direct Normal Radiation, Precipitation Rate, Total Sky cover and more for energy analysis. Thanks John.