Get the hosted point?

This post comes from experimenting with hosted points on lines and arcs and attempting to create a helical form in the massing environment similar to Zach Kron’s recent post. I guessed that you could do something similar using lines connected to hosted points on circles.

So let go back to basics. Points can be hosted to lines, arcs, splines, circles and ellipses (either reference line or lines). Just draw a line or reference line then choose the point tool and place the point on the line. It will snap to the line and  you will  notice it will change in size and will now include a work plane.

If you select the point and choose properties, you will discover that there is now a hosted parameter. This parameter drives the position of the point and it goes from 0 to 1. “0” being one end and “1” the other end. If you wanted to place the point half way along the line, plug in 0.5, voila the point is position half way along the line.

So lines are straight forward, what about circles or even ellipses? Hmmmmm Ok, go ahead do the same thing, but this time draw a circle as a line or reference line and place a point on the circle. Go check the properties of the Hosted Parameter…. No 0 to 1???? some other weird combination of figures????!!!

So what’s going on here? Well I’m no mathematician, so after a bit of investigation I discovered that points are managed differently on closed elements such as circles. You need to go back to do some math…

So the hosted parameter value for a circle is 2pi

(where pi is 3.1415926535897932384626433832795)

therefore  2 x 3.141593 is equal to 6.283186 radians

So the hosted point can have a value between 0 to 6.28318 depending on where it is on the circle.

So to split the circle into degrees

1 degree=2pi/360=0.017453 radians

With this logic in mind try this, create a circle in the massing environment and host a point on the circle. Go the the hosted parameters, then plug in the following figures and watch the position of the points change.

1. 0 degrees - 0 x 0.017453 = 0
2. 90 degrees – 90 x 0.017453 = 1.570796
3. 180 degrees – 180 x 0.017453 = 3.141593
4. 270 degrees – 270 x 0.017453 = 4.712389
5. 360 degrees – 360 x 0.017453 = 6.28308

This opens up to interesting opportunities and allowed me to create the helix using points and lines along with nested families. I’ll show you how I did this in another post……

Sun VirtualBox

I found this little gem before Christmas. I have been running Virtual PC for Windows for the last 12 months using it to test and try alpha and beta software. It was OK, but I found it a little slow especially in relationship to graphics. I could have gone down the route of Virtual Machine such as Parallels, but then it would required me to get my credit card out and its not something I use all the time on my works laptop.So a bit of Googling and I came up with Sun’s VirtualBox, although I am sure there are others out there as well. This is a free VM, details can be found here;

 http://www.virtualbox.org/.

I found it very easy to setup and within an hour or so I had it working with Windows 7 (64bit) with a Windows Vista (32bit) VM running.

The VM supports Direct X and OpenGL as well as the ability to connect USB devices.It seems to offer many of the features that Parrallels has to offer and it is supported on Windows, Mac and Linux. How bizarre would that be…to run Linux as your, host with a Windows VM running Revit???? So if you are looking for a free VM, its certainly worth trying out.

Challenges with Revit 2010 massing environment !!

Many of you will know that I am very passionate about Revit and you will have noticed over the last 9 months, since the release of 2010, I have been a big fan of the new conceptual massing tools. However, these new tools are not without their challenges! I have watched long term Revit users in our office try to grapple with the new concepts; some have been successful, others have failed. In most cases the overriding complaint is the lack of sketch mode. Long term Revit users fell in love with this approach; the ability to create a sketch and then extrude, with the added bonus of going back to the sketch to change it when required…it became the fundamental to the way you worked with Revit. Now the in 2010 we have lines or reference lines, whilst reference lines go some way to match the sketch mode process, they still fall short. Lets hope Autodesk see fit to reintroduce this powerful approach in a future release.

So if you to hunger for the “old” sketch mode in 2010, what to do in the meantime?

One possible solution is to create a series of mass families in 2009 and then use these in 2010. This will retain the sketch mode facility but editing will have to be done in the family editor and then the family reloaded back into the project. This can be problematic when trying to align buildings with site context.

An alternative solution is to start in Revit 2009, create a series of inplace masses. Then migrate the project over to Revit 2010. Copy these masses around and you will find that you can edit the sketch in 2010 as you would have done in Revit 2009.

A more complicated solution if you have already started your project in Revit 2010 is to do the following; start another project in Revit 2009 create a series of inplace masses and then save the project. Then migrate this project up to Revit 2010. Next link this upgraded project into the project you originally started. Then bind the linked file, which will turn the link into a group; ungroup the bound masses and then you will be able to use the inplace masses in your project where you will once again be able to use the sketch mode on these masses.

Please don’t think that I am criticising this new way of working, far from it. I have always consider these new tools a first step and it will take a couple of releases before we get them working exactly how we need them to……over to you Autodesk. :-)

A Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

I would just like to wish those of you that follow my blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It been an interesting yet difficult year. The downturn has introduced new challenges; Revit 2010 has excited some, disappointed others, yet its popularity seems to go from strength to strength. I look forward to 2010 and the next release of the Revit story, it looks set to be another exciting rollercoaster year! :-)

AU2009 – Tuesday the 1st

Class starts in a few hours, but before that we will have the AU2009 keynote speech……

However, for me, the cut and paste design slam will be the highlight of the day. William Lopez Campo (winner of the Berlin design slam) will go head to head with two other Revit contestants, in a slam entitled Dangerous Liaisons. They will be required to create a design on an existing 18th French neoclassicism site….and I have a good feeling about this one.

AU 2009 – Monday the 30th

Got up early to attend the second Design Symposium events hosted by Robert Aish. To be honest, it was a little slow in the morning, but the afternoon session was better. The guy who showed the Maya plugin development and the principles absolutely rocked! Algorithmic design is the future, without doubt, trust me….

Went to the AEC mixer in the evening and saw so many faces who I communicate with virtually, but only get to see once a year when I attend AU. Steve S was on form; spent time with Jeffrey McGrew and his wife Jillian Northrup plus his “whole” company discussing allsorts… discussions ranged from Ian Flemming to the state of French sewers.:-)

Off to bed early…..big day Tuesday, first time assisting in a class…….