To BIM or Not to BIM?

This is an extract from Architects Journal from the 15/12/11, this article looked at trends in design & construction for the UK going into 2012…hopefully AJ won’t mind me highlighting the comment about Revit. :-)

Dude! Where’s my Nodes?

Spotted this one yesterday. In Vasari, if you divide a surface & select the divided surface with a view to changing the Surface Representation, there is no arrow to the Surface Representation options dialogue.This is Vasari…. see..no arrow? No dialogue…no Nodes… :-(

This is the same thing in Revit 2012….arrow to access the Surface Representation options.

I thought I was going mad! Fortunately Zach K. put my mind at rest & confirmed it as an interface bug. The arrow is there, see the image below, but its hidden at the end!

Rebuilding forms in Vasari or Revit 2012

This issue came up yesterday, a reasonable straight request…”I have built this surface in “PRODUCT”…….. (insert Rhino or AutoCAD). Can I rebuild it in Vasari or Revit as a water tight closed object, so I can do that I do that create floors by mass thingy?”

So here goes; this is what I was able to achieve. It should be noted that this may not work for all surfaces, but it certainly worked for this form. I started by creating a new mass family in Vasari / Revit. Next I imported the Rhino surface.

I then choose divide surface & picked the imported Rhino surface, you may need to tab select until you get to the surface, but you will be able to subdivide the surface.

I then altered the UV grid parameters to something sensible, in this case 4 x 10.

The UV grid would act as a template to trace. Then, under Surface Representation I enabled Nodes.

Using model lines > spline through points, I was able snap to the nodes to generate a profile following the surface.

I repeated this a couple of times to build a series of closed profiles.

Next I deleted the imported surface. I half expected everything to disappear, but fortunately I the model lines remained! I then converted these lines to reference lines & closed the gap at the base with another reference line.

Then selected all the model lines & chose create form to build the form.

As I suggested, it should work for simple forms & is a relatively quick way to rebuild in Revit or Vasari….but don’t assume it will work for all. 

More colour stairs ;-)

Like a lamb to the slaughter, I knew my stair post would get my ass kicked! So I would like to extend my thanks to all those that took the time to respond; as they say “there is more than one way to skin a cat”. So lets go through all the options….

tchuffart & unknown suggested……

You could turn the ghost surface on for the stairs, and it will match all the underlying colour you need.

Steve, Andy H , AFriend, Carlos Vav suggested similar approaches….

If you tick the transparent box in the views visibility / graphic override you will get the same effect but have the benefit that if the colour fill changes you don't have to amend each element. In 2012 this will not appear correct in the view but will print out correct (the ghosted one appears correct but doesn’t appear correct).

jojo1579 suggested….

There is a simple way to do this. In your Floor Plan properties change Colour Scheme Location from 'background' to 'foreground' on. (note the issue this is that the colour extends into the wall).

So there you are, take your pick!

Colour a stair

This query has come up twice recently. “Is there any way you can stop a stair from masking out in a room colour fill, so that the stair itself is the same colour as the room fill?” In essence, what is not required is this……

Instead this is actually what is required…..

There is no automatic way to do this unless you setup some smart filters, but if you assign a colour override to the stair the same as the colour fill of the room, it works fine, not ideal, but it solves the problem quickly & promptly. 

Remember the stair is not included within the room calculation & you can’t do much about the railing!

BIM in Small-Scale Sustainable Design

At the beginning of last year I was contacted by Francois Levy, a registered Texas architect & researcher. He explained he was writing a book focused on BIM strategies for sustainable design in small & medium sized architectural projects. On further discussions he wanted to include a case study from this very blog; my parameterized Hauer Curtain Wall example.

As ever, I was honoured to get the opportunity to get my work published. So this morning I received a copy of Francois fruits of labour & on initial inspection the result looks excellent. I have heard it said many times, how does a small firm get into BIM? Isn’t BIM just for large firms? I would actually argue that with the right mindset, a clear strategy & willingness to make it succeed, then in many ways a small firm will find it easier to implement BIM than a large multi-national. Whilst I have yet to read the book from cover to cover, this looks to be a great read for any small firm who wants to understand how BIM & sustainability & tightly connected. Check it out from the Wiley website.

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470590890.html

Once again I would like to extend my thanks to Francois for including my work in his book.

Scan to BIM

This sneaked it way up onto labs at the end of last week. This is a preview technology for Revit 2012….be sure to check it out….

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/scan_to_bim/

“Point Cloud Feature Extraction for Autodesk^® Revit^® 2012 software is a free* technology preview that allows you to work with point cloud more easily in Revit. This plug-in automatically extracts useful geometry features from point cloud of buildings and creates basic Revit elements to aid the building modeling in Revit.”

 

 

Revit history–back in the day

If you are as passionate about the Revit technology as I am, be sure to read Jeremy Tammiks blog post on the Genesis of Revit & its API.

http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2012/01/the-genesis-of-revit-and-its-api.html

VEO™ Video Preview

 

So you may have probably heard the buzz? I am guilty as most for banging on about VEO™, although I am under NDA, so I can’t be too specific. But if you really want to know more, go to this Linked in page!

http://www.linkedin.com/company/m-six/566626/product?report%2Esuccess=7ZNxzQ7qwKSLnUwPzMlc0NSwfaJl1iZvsHylsflisatINkcSHID5jnVaftJXqvclHlCVHE

After working for more than 4 years in stealth mode, M-SIX will soon launch VEO™, a cloud-based platform for use in the design, construction, and operation of buildings and other structures.

• VEO™ Lux - Navigate and Visualize
• VEO™ Logic - Coordination and Validation
• VEO™ Time - Scheduling and Sequencing
• VEO™ Track - Asset tracking
• VEO™ Archive - Model-linked document library
• VEO™ Pulse - Real-time sensor data

http://www.m-six.com/Video/li/VEO-Preview.html

I have had a couple of people ask me already what VEO™ is. So I will attempt to put in my typical plain English fashion.  VEO™ is not a modeller, Revit can do that & it can do it very well, that is not the market that M-Six are after. VEO™ instead is a BIM aggregator, a lifecycle platform; in my humble opinion, the piece of the BIM pie which is truly missing; true BIM 360.

I have said it before & I will say it again, the last time I got this excited about a software product was when I first saw Revit & if my memory serves me correctly most out there didn’t get it & saw it as an annoyance. Now what is the preferred BIM platform of choice? ;-)