Wednesday, October 27, 2010

AT-AT fun for 2011

Some people will remember me as the freaky guy who modelled an AT-AT in Revit 7….updated and looking funky using RAC 2011 graphics.

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However, be sure to check this out if you love a bit of Star Wars. :-)

http://vimeo.com/12892083

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Calculating Pi in Revit 2011

Now I’m not going to take credit for this, but some bright spark over at the AUGI forums worked out that you can get Revit to use Pi in formulas..the credit goes to Alfredo Medina for finding this. I am currently working on a panel with a circular aperture.

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I wanted to calculate the percentage of the hole, compared to the size of the overall Panel, so as part of this exercise I needed to work out the area of the aperture. So Alfredo says that if you put the following formula in

pi() this will give you 3.14159265 automatically.

He wasn’t wrong….

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In knowing this I could then use the following formula to work out the area of the circular aperture.

pi() * Radius ^ 2

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So I am not sure when this one sneaked in through the back door, but it sure isn’t documented in the help file. : – )

And the race is on….

When I was in Boston, Steve Stafford pointed me in the direction of Google Reader. He explained that this can be useful as it gives you some idea of how many people subscribe to your blog. Now Steve is a regular blogger as we all know and his approach to blogging is to provide an article which takes up no longer than 5 minutes a day of somebodies time. This I believe is a great approach, the average person has the attention span of about 15 to 20 minutes. So short sharp to the point articles are a great idea and is probably the way most people learn. Anyway…..Steve stats for his blog currently are….

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What was a complete amazement to me was that I’m not far behind the Revit Blogger Master,  however Steve is the original and is more prolific in his articles, where he leads, others follow. ; – )

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Anyway, I’m glade those that read my blog find it useful????

Windows Live Writer 2011

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Do you blog? Well I have just been fortunate enough to get a new laptop, a Dell Precision M4500! So in the process of downloading and installing some of my regular web apps….I realised that Microsoft have introduced LIve Writer 2011. Well worth installing from what I have seen so far, it can be downloaded from here.

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-writer?os=other

Friday, October 01, 2010

Autodesk Wiki

Be sure to check out the Autodesk Wiki Beta site for more information on Revit Server.

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Product_Help/Revit_Architecture

Revit 2011 – sketch on non planar surface

One little gem that has appeared in Revit 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack AS WELL as SP2 I believe, is the ability to sketch model lines on non planar surface within the concept design environment. You can sketch on a surface with a line, a spline or a rectangle. This has been introduced to assist in the ability to sketch openings when using the CEA (Conceptual Energy Analysis) tool. However, it has many potential uses over and above this.  There are three possible parameter options available to you:-
  1. Top Down
  2. Parallel to Level
  3. Follow Surface UV
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So let me quickly explain what three parameters seem to do.
Top Down
The Top down parameter seems a little bit of a mystery to me, but having experimented with it a little, when you draw rectangle it seems to deform to the surface following the UV lines, but at the same time the points snap to the edges. I actually don’t think I have fully understood this and I know my Autodesk friends read this blog, so I am sure they will pipe up and hopefully provide true explanation for this parameter. Ladies and Gents?

EDIT:- Heres Zach Kronz reply to what this particular parameter does 

Hi David,
The "top down" option makes a bit more sense when you use something that has a less steep slope. When using this setting, your rectangle will resolve into a right angle rectangle when seen in plan. It gets a little whacky in situations like you are showing, but it is essential a vertical projection of a rectangle.

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Parallel to Level
If you draw a rectangle on a surface, the rectangle will always remain parallel to a level it references. Notice in the image below that the rectangle is a true rectangle, the top and bottom edges are parallel to the level and the side edges are perpendicular to the level, @ 90 degrees.
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Follow Surface UV
Now do the same exercise as above, but this time change Follow Surface UV and draw a rectangle. This time you will notice that the rectangle will follow the natural UV flow of the surface.
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It becomes clearer, once you divide your surface and enable the UV lines, as in the example below.
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Revit 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack Videos

Following the formal release of the Subscription Advantage Pack for Revit 2011, which is now available for download from the Subscription Centre, additional information and videos have been released by Autodesk to explain in detail the functionality. Take a look at these if you want an in-depth look.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=15731389&linkID=9243099