Model In-Place: Prefabricated Non-Planar Building Modules

A Component Model in-Place workflow is typically touted as a one-off solution for when you have a custom situation in a project, not addressed by system or loadable families, such as a curved roof or ceiling or a serpentine wall – but what if the built-in solution repeats?

The scenario covered here is for a repeatable prefabricated, modular unit, as initially explored by Eileen Gray in her Maison Elliptique (1936), where three or four prefabricated modules are combined to make a home. 

Revit lets you create an in-place family for the required categories (Roof with Ceiling) but editing them can be problematic because each copied in-place family – unlike normal Revit families – is unique. Objects created belong to the datum objects (reference plane) they are created on. This makes it difficult to edit a copied in-place family. 

A solution is to create a Group from the in-place family for copying and then to ungroup them for unique editing. 

Two Modules With Opening

The in-place families can be grouped, copied, ungrouped and edited to add more modules. 

Four Modules With Opening

For more detail on how to group and upgroup families for editing, watch my video Model In-Place: Prefabricated non-planar building modules.

For information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website. Also check our blog for continued solutions as we encounter them.

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Jim Cowan

AEC Senior Application Specialist

Jim Cowan’s extensive AEC design industry experience, Autodesk design solutions expertise and status as an Autodesk Certified Instructor have made him a sought after University Curriculum developer, instructor and presenter. Jim’s areas of expertise include eLearning, interoperability between solutions and overcoming barriers to the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM). Educated in Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot–Watt University and in Landscape Architecture at the University of Manitoba, Jim has a special focus on sustainability issues: daylight analysis, sun studies, lighting analysis, modeling buildings and conceptual energy modeling (models with shading devices). You can learn more from Jim on his YouTube Channel.

Am I in The Cloud or Not?

The better question is, “How much of what I do with my Autodesk solution is in the Cloud?”

Today everyone throws around the word “cloud” and assumes it always means the same thing. When it comes to your Autodesk solution, the answer is, “It depends on which license you have, which product you use, and the type of subscriber you are with Autodesk.” See my previous blog post, What’s up with Autodesk Licensing? for an explanation about the different licensing types.

Today there are three types of cloud functionality from Autodesk:

1. License Management - Autodesk Desktop products use a license manager in the Cloud.

2. Data Storage and Collaboration - Autodesk360 products offer cloud-based data storage and sharing. This enables designers, clients, engineers, architects, and contractors to review, share, and comment on 2D and 3D models, floor plan markups, and budget spreadsheets from their desktops and mobile devices. The viewer supports more than 50 2D and 3D design file formats, including those from Autodesk, Solidworks, CATIA, Pro-E, Rhino, and NX.

3. Cloud Services - By adding Autodesk Cloud Services to your subscription, you get virtually infinite computing power and, for select products and suites, exclusive access to cloud-based services, such as rendering, energy analysis, design optimization, and robust collaboration. By performing computer-intensive functions in the Cloud, you can explore and visualize more design options, streamline collaboration, and optimize your designs without investing in expensive hardware.

Contact me if you’d like to discuss the options and determine which is the most cost-effective for you. And keep an eye out for my next blog post, “How Suite It Was.”

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John Souza

Director of Sales

John Souza started on the ground floor with Autodesk CAD, selling solutions since release 10. In the nearly 30 years since, he's worked to grow his expertise with each Autodesk solution, weaving a career around cutting-edge 3D design software sales.

He has proven success in building high-performing sales teams in the Civil Engineering and Government sectors, he's managed and led business development and sales teams for Autodesk and Advanced Solutions. Joining Ideate, Inc. in 2003, he was initially the Manufacturing Solutions Director then worked to expand reach within the AEC community as Director of Business Development. Today, as Sales Director, he leads a dedicated team working to connect architects and designers with best-fit design technology education and implementation solutions.

View Templates: Shortcut to Productivity

Rendering, if done in a working project, can be time-consuming. The shortcut offered here, removes rendering from the documentation model and uses a separate project with linked views, managed with the View Template* feature in Revit. 

The scenario I'm think of is: you might have 25 project models needing daily review of rendered images, in order to validate the design. The 'View Templates' option offers one way of managing exactly which linked file is visible within a view – so one Revit project can act as a central location for copies of all the active projects.

If working on a collection of historic buildings, say, which are all currently being modeled, this workflow technique will allow production of multiple 3D views, from multiple projects; offering you a chance to increase your productivity on the job. 

Watch this video workflow to better understand how to use View Templates to increase productivity

Multiple projects linked to one "Rendering Scene" project.

Simultaneously render a variety of 3D views in the Cloud

Thank you for reading. For more information on Revit and other Autodesk products, and information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website.

*Worksets and Design Options are alternative approaches. 

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Jim Cowan

AEC Senior Application Specialist

Jim Cowan’s extensive AEC design industry experience, Autodesk design solutions expertise and status as an Autodesk Certified Instructor have made him a sought after University Curriculum developer, instructor and presenter. Jim’s areas of expertise include eLearning, interoperability between solutions and overcoming barriers to the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM). Educated in Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot–Watt University and in Landscape Architecture at the University of Manitoba, Jim has a special focus on sustainability issues: daylight analysis, sun studies, lighting analysis, modeling buildings and conceptual energy modeling (models with shading devices). You can learn more from Jim on his YouTube Channel.

4.20 | BIM 360 Docs Webinar

At Ideate, we know. You want to minimize your risk, keep the right information at the fingers tips of your whole construction team and deliver better projects, faster. We have the answer: BIM 360 Docs. It’s the one app that manages all your project documents – from any device, anywhere.

You take control of your construction projects with Autodesk BIM 360 Docs, which provides full view, redline and markup capability of 2D PDFs, drawings and 3D models, and is built on an Integrated Version Control platform. This platform automatically propagates redlines, markups and issues, ensuring that field personnel are always in-sync and working off the latest versions.
BIM 360 Docs is the foundation of the comprehensive BIM 360 Platform which spans from design handover, through preconstruction and coordination to field execution. 

Step in to the future with us on April 20, 2016 to learn how BIM 360 Docs can help you:

• Stay connected 
• Maintain a single source of project truth
• Manage documents with an integrated version control 
• Handle 2D and 3D documents with connected workflows and processes 
• Leverage a cloud platform that is built to grow with you and your business

You’ll walk away confident about success because you’re using BIM 360 Docs; keeping everyone on your team informed and up to date, from this point forward.

Register for the BIM 360 Docs Webinar today.

Lean Construction Case Study: From Paper to Cloud

As a contractor, making the step to deploying Lean for your production planning process is a major undertaking. And once you have made the transition to leveraging the Last Planner methodology to manage the tasks, commitments and dependencies during your planning meetings, you need an efficient way to capture, manage, visualize and collaborate against the data you collect. While spreadsheets and sticky notes are the current standard, cloud and mobile technology like BIM 360 Plan reduce the manual data entry process while automatically collecting and articulating productivity reports for process improvement.

Join us to learn how Autodesk BIM 360 Plan can help you better manage the production planning process by:

• Exposing critical short-term planning data to the entire project team

• Adding/updating tasks, dependencies and roadblocks in-real time and sharing with mobile users

• Reviewing PPC reporting metrics in aggregate to drive change and process improvements or future projects
 

Date: Thursday August 20, 2015
Time: From 8:00 am to 9:00 am (Pacific Standard Time)

Register Now!

For more information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com

Navisworks 2015: Autodesk 360 Rendering

Autodesk 360 rendering is now available for Navsiworks 2015, as shown in this sample file from Ideate Inc. Rendering options in the cloud are faster and offer new types of output – interactive panoramas and color-coded illuminance (lux or foot-candles).

Viewpoints, with daylight or interior lights, can be rendered “on the cloud” and files stored and reviewed on the Render Gallery. You no longer have to wait for Navisworks to complete a rendering. Submit a view and continue to work. Images can also be downloaded if you need local copies.

This image was processed in two minutes. All materials and lights in the Navisworks file were imported with a Revit model. It took 7 minutes to produce the same view as an interactive panorama, where you can interactively look around in room.

This image was processed in seven minutes. All surfaces are color-coded to show lighting levels.

Check out the video: Navisworks 2015: Autodesk 360 Rendering

Also, for information on training and consulting for the various products Ideate services, visit our website at www.ideateinc.com

Don’t forget to look through other great features our Ideate Technical Team has found in the new 2015 releases for Navisworks, Revit MEP, Revit Structure, Revit Architecture, AutoCAD and more: ideateinc.com/2015

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Jim Cowan
Ideate AEC Application Specialist
Jim Cowan’s extensive AEC design industry experience and Autodesk design solutions expertise have made him a sought after university curriculum developer, instructor and presenter. Jim’s areas of expertise include interoperability between solutions and overcoming barriers to the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM). Educated in Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt University and in Landscape Architecture at University of Manitoba, Jim has special focus on sustainability issues: daylight analysis, sun studies, lighting analysis, modeling buildings and conceptual energy modeling (models with shading devices). YouTube Channel: MrJimCowan

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Cloud Computing - An Inevitable Force

As part of my work, helping AEC firms adapt to technology change, I am often asked about “The Cloud.” First, let us start with a definition:

“Cloud computing is the use computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet).” (Wikipedia).

Often professionals say “I will never have my work ‘in the cloud.’” First, never is a long time, and technology is ever-changing. The AEC industry moved from hand drawn drawings in the 1990s and many firms moved to Building Information Modeling in the past decade. Technology marches on.

What are the business benefits of a move to the cloud for designs/documentation, etc.?

• Information can be obtained while at client offices, jobsites, work from home.
• Computer intensive activities (rendering, computation, simulations) can be done ‘in the cloud’ while design/documentation work can continue to be done (freeing up computer resources and productive time).
• Maintain a 99+% uptime of information accessibility.

Here are the perceived cons of cloud computing:

• My client will not allow it.
• This is the reason I hear the most. If this is correct, a conversation with the client is necessary to explain the limitation the restriction plays. 
• I fear my work being stolen by the cloud host (usually Microsoft, Amazon, or Google).
• This seems unlikely. The amount of data passing through the cloud service providers is so huge, it is unlikely that any one file is reviewed.
• Data being collected by the cloud host.
• This is the most logical. Google has always gathered information about your web-search activities. So, is it possible that data collection might be done to determine if your project has the word “masonry” in it – yes – but should you be concerned?

Projects require the ability to be nimble and agile – fast moving and democratized in the access to project information + data. That is the hallmark of ‘cloud’ services.

Cloud services are here to stay, and will grow in usage and functionality.  “Staying on the sidelines” is not a viable option for long.

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David Haynes, NCARB, PMP, LEED AP
Ideate Director of Consulting

David is a Registered Architect, Project Management Certified Professional, who previously had his own architectural practice and was President of a commercial design-build construction company for 15 years. A graduate of University of Arizona, he has worked as an Architect, contractor, developer and as a national construction manager for a national retailer. David currently provides business process analysis, virtualization and change management solutions for AEC clients across the United States involved in the design and building industry. Follow David on Twitter: @dhaynestech

Get it. Know it. Use it.

Ideate BIMLink: Collaborate with Simultaneous Access to BIM Data - Workflow Using a Google Sheet

Ideate, Inc. is pleased to show a greatly improved workflow for data management with Ideate BIMLink. In addition to being able to push and pull data from a Revit® Building Information Model (BIM) to a regular Excel® spreadsheet, you can host the sheet on Google Docs and use Google Sheet to provide worldwide simultaneous access to the sheet BIM data. Anyone can use the Google Doc App or a link to access the sheet collaboratively and simultaneously and then with the use of Ideate BIMLink, can publish that same information back to the Revit model.



The benefits of this realtime collaboration in the cloud include a security and notification system, so that you can control who has access to the sheet and whether they can review, comment or edit. The version control features allow for historic rollbacks to previous versions.

Take your Revit data to the cloud with Ideate BIMLink and Google Sheet.

Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission.      

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Jim Cowan
Ideate AEC Application Specialist
Jim Cowan’s extensive AEC design industry experience and Autodesk design solutions expertise have made him a sought after university curriculum developer, instructor and presenter. Jim’s areas of expertise include interoperability between solutions and overcoming barriers to the adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM). Educated in Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt University and in Landscape Architecture at University of Manitoba, Jim has special focus on sustainability issues: daylight analysis, sun studies, lighting analysis, modeling buildings and conceptual energy modeling (models with shading devices). YouTube Channel: MrJimCowan

Get it. Know it. Use it.