Revit 2012 – massing & voids

This may seem rather obvious to the seasoned Revit user; but for the new kids on the block, when using voids to cut massing geometry in Revit, sometimes you need to think a little differently. The process of using voids to cut geometry can be a bit confusing. This is especially so, since the way voids cut in the conceptual massing tools is a little different compared with voids in say the in-place editor or family editor.. For instance, take a look at the image below. This was created by generating a freeform surface using the massing tools….then roof by face to generate the actual geometry for the roof.…it looks reasonably straight forward to achieve, but you need more then two voids to cut the initial massing surface.

Let me explain in more detail…..

So the surface was created using the massing tool, which consisted of a series of spline reference lines, then a surface generated between the reference lines. As indicated below.

Next up, a inner boundary & a outer boundary of reference lines where sketched. These will be used to form the voids which will cut the surface.

Now the natural logic here is to also create a large rectangle to go beyond the surface, like this…..

However, this is not going to work for us, because if you try & build the void, from the rectangle & trimming reference lines you are going to get the dreaded “Unable to create form element error”.

Instead, you need to create two voids from reference lines to cut away the excess surface. With a reference lines configuration like this.

The image below, hopefully explains it a little better.

All we then need is to create a void from the inner reference lines to cut the opening & we are good to go.

You may need to use the Cut Geometry tool to force the cutting.

I hope the above makes sense, I guess I should really do a youtube video to explain it in more detail, but this should at least give you some useful guidance.

Revit 2012 - Reporting Parameters in CW Panels

I must admit, I don’t why I hadn’t picked up on this one before, but at RTC USA there was an interesting discussion that took place as well as being highlighted by Harlan Brumms in his class on solving common Autodesk Revit Architecture problems on using reporting parameters in curtain wall panel families.
This got me thinking, if reporting parameters can indeed be used in curtain wall panel families, they should be able to drive the depth of panels. If you can report the width & height of a panel, this will provide you with an area value. This could then be used in conditional formula which will parametrically alter the overall depth of individual panels.
For this exercise I started with a curtain wall panel.rft

Next I drew a very simple extrusion in the front elevation plan & locked the extrusion sketch to the reference planes.

I then dimensioned the vertical & horizontal reference plans. Its important you dimensions the reference plans & not the level embedded in the family.

Then select the horizontal dimension you just created & pick the label feature to turn the dimension into a parameter. Name the parameter to something like “width”, set it to an instance parameter & ensure you check the Report Parameter radio button.

Repeat what you did for the width parameter, turning the vertical dimension into a reporting parameter labelled as “height”.
Go to the Ref. Level view, select the extrusion; in the Properties Palette, locate the Extrusion End parameter, hit the Associate Family Parameter button.

This will open up the Associate Family Parameter dialogue box. Hit the Add parameter button & create a new instance parameter called “depth”. This doesn’t need to be a reporting parameter.
Go to the Family Types dialogue & create a new Area parameter as a instance.
Go back to the Family Types dialogue box & do the following; in the formula for the Area parameter we will multiply the width X height to give us our Area.

Next we will add a conditional formula to the depth parameter. So we will use this formula as a test example.
if(area < 4 m², 1200 mm, if(area < 6 m², 600 mm, 100 mm))
What this conditional parameter will do formula is allow the depth of the panel to change based on the resulting area value of the panel. If is less the 4m squared it will be 1200mm thick, less the 6m & it will be 600mm, else it will be 100mm thick,

Next save your panel family with a suitable name. Start a new project, load your newly created panel family into the new project. Using the wall tool draw a straight segment of curtain wall. With the curtain wall selected, go to the Properties Palette, pick the Edit Type button, this will open up the Types Dialogue box for the Curtain Wall.

Set the Curtain Panel to your new loaded curtain wall panel. The cw system will automatically file with the new panel. Finally, using the Curtain Grid tool, start to divide up the curtain wall.

As you divide the curtain wall, depending on the panel size, the area of the panel will be calculated in turn informing the depth of the panels.


The values I added to the conditional formula are not cast in stone, you can easily modify them to get different results or even make a more complex  conditional formula. I have quickly knocked up a youTube Video which supports the above workflow, although I don’t follow it from start to finish, but it should reinforce what I did.

Lock profiles in Revit / Vasari conceptual massing

This came up a couple of times during RTC USA, but it seems that some people, whilst they are aware that the sketch profile feature got re-introduced in Revit 2011, they are not aware that you could lock the top & bottom sketches. This concept will only work with forms created from model lines; take a look at the attached youTube for more details. Sadly no audio, but you should get the general concept.

Nesting Generic models into Curtain Pattern Based Families

This comes from a query I received recently and also extends back a few years ago; since I came up with a similar challenge creating a curtain wall system for a proof of concept project I had to do when I worked for Excitech. This really will scare the BIM purist, but it may be useful. :-)

In the example above I have used a generic model family and nested this into a curtain wall pattern based family, which in turn is loaded into a divided surface. If you build the generic model in Revit, this principle will work in Vasari as well.

What is interesting about this is you can pull points and edges of the divided surface and the panels will cut back.

This may be useful when you having to quickly produce a concept study and find it quick to build old school geometry rather than work with points and reference lines to build the panel.

generic model nested into a pattern based cw panel

Vasari – louvered façade

Ok, apologies, but it has been a number of few weeks since I have posted anything! Things are picking up here in London so I have been really busy, but this is really not an excuse! Anyway, I thought I’d pass this little modelling tip on to you. Somebody in the office asked me a a few weeks back whether it was possible to create a parametric louver system which could be used on a facade for a freeform building they where working on.

The louvers needed to be parametric so that they could adjust the angle of the louvers as and when required, to meet the environmental conditions.

So I knocked this solution up with the user sat at my desk inside 10 minutes using a combination of points, nested adaptive components and curtain wall pattern based families. The original example was completed in Revit Architecture 2011, but the youtube video was done in Vasari 1.1. Sorry, there is no sound / voice over, but hopefully I have done the exercise slow enough for you to follow along!

AU2010 – adaptive component exercise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought I’d run through the adaptive component exercise that James Van and I planned to show at AU2010. This exercise can be completed in either Revit 2011 or Vasari. The 60 minute class really didn’t provide enough time for us to go through this particular example, which I am sure was very annoying for the audience. Lets hope that the AU organisers listen to the feedback and return the class schedules back to 90 minutes for AU2011. However, in the meantime I hope you find this useful.

designbymany

The guys over at Design Reform / Case Inc have come up with a novel new site, called Design By Many, its a community base site where you can post design challenges. The site is currently running a competition to design a parametric version of  Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House.

If you are into parametric design, make sure you throw you hat into the ring; they are offering a HP Design Jet 111 printer as a prize! This is my rather scrawny effort…:-)

Anyway be sure to check the site out at http://www.designbymany.com/

Revit 2011 – Room Book Extension

Be sure to check out Simon Gillis post about the Revit Room book extension being made widely available from the Autodesk Subscription Center.

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.

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

http://vimeo.com/12892083

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.

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….

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

pi() * Radius ^ 2

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

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

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.

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.

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.

It becomes clearer, once you divide your surface and enable the UV lines, as in the example below.

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

Acadia 2010

Got an email from Matt Jezyk and Lira Nikolovska from Autodesk today about a forthcoming event you may be interested in. It a series of  workshops at the upcoming ACADIA conference in New York City, scheduled October 18-20th 2010. The Summary of the event is below:-

The 3-day Conceptual Design workshop will explore the new Revit conceptual design workflows, specifically parametric modelling and performative design using Autodesk® Revit®. The first two days of the workshop will focus on the ins and outs of the new form making and manipulation tools including creation of parametric rigs to drive and modify form, surface panelization, reporting parameters and adaptive components. The second part of the workshop will focus on analysis applied early into the design process (conceptual energy analysis, solar radiation, use of structural analysis plug-ins), and will also provide overview of API features such as Analysis Visualization Framework and Dynamic Updating.

More details can be found here…

http://www.acadia.org/acadia2010/

If you are in and around New York at that time, you may want to consider signing up, especially if you want to understand Revits conceptual tools much better.

Revit 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack

 

So what goodies does the Revit 2011 Subscription Advantage Release have for us?

Revit Server

Many users and firms who have deployed Revit are using worksharing,this is the ability to allow multiply users to work on the same model. By enabling worksharing and sub-dividing the central model into worksets, users can take a copy of the central file, this becomes there local copy. Any changes that they make to the local copy can be published to the central model. At the same time changes made by others can also be sync’d between the central file and their local file. Whilst the initial concept is daunting, once you have the appropriate standards and protocols in place, you have your staff trained, worksharing works well.

Now over the last couple of years, how firms do business has changed and this is largely due to the internet. So rather than working in the same office, these days it’s come place for designs team to be disbursed between two offices in the same geographical location or even across different geographical locations. Lots of different solutions have been employed to try and solve this headache, such as using remote desktop, blade servers, high speed WAN connections, Riverbed, model exchanging etc.

Therefore, with the ever increasing requirement it was only a matter of time before we saw Autodesk extend Revits worksharing functionality from a LAN setup to WAN based. Revit 2011 subscription extension finally makes this concept possible, with the introduction of Revit Server.

So what is Revit server and how does it actually work? Revit Server is basically an extension of the typical worksharing setup. In a server setup the central model resides on a central server which then communicates with a local server across a WAN. Users still take locally copies of the central model which exist on the local server. The big difference is that the local server copy is silently requesting updates from the central server. Updates are stored on the local server so that they are immediately available when the user requires them. When a Reload Latest is performed, the local model is automatically updated with the data stored on the local server. At the same time the local server connects with the central server and requests any additional updates. As updates reside on the local server, the transparent movement of data in the background means that updates are quicker. It is certainly not the case that users have to wait for updates, as data is transferred across the WAN.

If a user decides to Sync with Central; first a Reload Latest updates the local model with changes made by other team members; the central model is also updated to reflect changes made to the local copy. Once the changes and updates have been made to the central file residing on the local server, the local server then sends the updates to the central server.

You can also make the local server and central server reside in one location, as in the example below, it is not the case that you would need a separate Central Server.

• You connect to your server via the Connect to Revit Server icon.

• This opens this dialogue and allows you to connect to the server.

• On the open dialogue, you will see your servers listed.

 

Administration

To administer the Server setup, the Revit Server Administration tool provides model management and review capabilities. The server configuration should be setup by an IT administrator or BIM manager, certainly careful planning is required before embarking on a server setup. Once again, ensuring robust standards and processes are in place, is essential. The Server Administrator tool is a browser-based tool and this allows the BIM manager to manage a server based projects. Projects can be renamed, deleted, folders and central models moved on the central server. Revit server comprises of two main components, your regular copy of Revit and the server component. The server component can act as a local server or a central server. Server component must be installed on a Windows server with the following specifications.

• Microsoft Windows Server® 2008, 64 bit (not 2008 R2)
• Microsoft Internet Information Server 7.0
• Web Services
• Microsoft .NET 3.5 SP1
• Prefer a project server doesn’t have office email exchange and other web heavy applications

Revit Server Administrator tool requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or newer. The Silverlight plug-in will also be installed as a by product of using this application.It should also be noted that the connection needs to be behind the firewall so if you want remote firms to connect, they would need to do this via a VPN access or remote desktop.

A couple of points to note, users can’t delete, rename or move central files. Editing request feature has been disabled. You can’t rollback, as this feature has been disabled. It is also no longer possible to work at “risk”. Finally, the Work sharing Monitor does not function with a Revit Server, but this will be replaced by a BlueStreak add-in monitoring tool, but this is due out in the next few months. Also, if you do have Riverbed enabled you will see some benefits from your investment, because you will see some acceleration.

Process

So will this finally start to connect dispersed teams together and bring together true multi-collaboration? For sure, this is what many firms have been striving to achieve and for version 1, this is a great step forward. I am well aware that this project has been a number of years in development. I remember speaking with an Autodesk guy ( under NDA obviously! ) at AU over 3 years ago about the vision and finally this subscription release turns vision into reality.

Conceptual Energy Analysis (CEA)

With the continued focus and requirements for Sustainable design, a few years back Autodesk started to ask questions of the Revit user base. What did they actually need to allow them to understand the sustainable requirements of a building, particularly at the conceptual stage of design? Architects felt that they needed tools that would allow them to have sensible conversations with Engineers, be proactive in the sustainable without being too heavy weight in software terms. Obviously there are tools like IES and Ecotect, but to be honest they are not integrated within the Revit environment. Whilst gbXML can be exported out from a Revit model to other applications, it meant that a designer would have to go outside his or her comfort zone and start to learn additional tools. To top that, gbXML export has never been that great.

So Autodesk have come up with CEA, technically referred to as the Conceptual Energy Analysis, which is focused around energy analysis of conceptual designs.To engage in the sustainable discussion, it makes obvious sense to start early.

So the basic workflow is as follows:-

1. You start by building a conceptual mass

1. You next create an analytical model from the massing model

1. You then define data and apply this to the the model such as generic materials, location and operating hours of the building etc

1. You can also make adjustments to the analytical model and apply items like shading.
2. You can also sketch on surface of the mass and add custom glazing apertures.

1. This data is then pushed to the cloud and calculations are performed. You can submit multiply calculations at once and as the cloud is doing the number crunching you can continue working.

1. Calculations are reported back in an html style reports and compare comparison dialogue. These results can be emailed, exported or printed.

Results

The whole process allows for true iterative sustainable design, as you can easily go back go back to your original mass, make modifications and run the calculation again. Whilst you will have to make assumptions about the design, but iterative integrated process should really assist the designer at early stages of design. What these tools are doing is giving you a comparative results between different design options. At present the data behind the analysis can’t be altered; the reality is that the results value given back may not necessarily meet your exact local cost of energy for instance, but this really doesn’t matter. What the results able you to do is to compare difference, what performs better or worse allowing you to make good decisions.

Revit Structure 2011 Extensions

The extensions for Revit Structure users will include Revit Server as well as the following extensions.