CAD addict

New IFC Exporters for Revit Available for Download

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 09:32:00 +0000

New IFC exporters for Revit available
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
New versions of the IFC Exporters for Revit have been published and are available for download. They seem to improve the IFC export for some types of elements, haven't tested them though. Here are the links

2013:

IFC Exporter for Revit 2013 (v2.11)

IFC Export Alternate UI for Revit 2013 (v1.11)

2014

IFC Exporter for Revit 2014 (v3.3)

IFC Export Alternate UI for Revit 2014 (v2.3)

via What Revit Wants

SketchUp 2013 is now Available

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:53:00 +0000

SketchUp 2013 is now available with many new features
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
About a year ago, Trimble acquired SketchUp. Yesterday, Trimble announced that the new version SketchUp 2013 is now available for download.

Many new features are available, you can read in more detail about them here, but this is the list:

Extension Warehouse: Find SketchUp Pluigns in a single location from SketchUp
Pattern Fills: Better documentation tools to fill section cuts with patterns
Copy Array in Layout: The same way you copy multiple times in Sketchup you can now do it in Layout.
Faster Screen Redraw when panning or zooming.
Speedier Vector Rendering.
Numbered Pages in the Pages panel: LayOut’s Pages panel now displays page numbers.
Curved Label Leader Lines
Dashes in Dimensions
Smarter Toolbars in Windows
Exporting a movie from your SketchUp model
Zoom In More in layout.

It seem like Trimble is switching the focus on the documentation part, with many new features for Layout. It seems that those saying you can do construction documents with SketchUp actually saw something the bunch of us missed, but Trimble didn't. This is great news, SketchUp is by far the easiest to learn, easiest to use 3D Modeling tool out there IMHO, awesome that it is getting more and more options. let's just hope that it doesn't get many more $ added to the license.

Revit 2014 Books

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:41:00 +0000

Revit 2014 Books are now available
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
If you already updated to Revit 2014 or if you are starting your BIM modelling path using 2014 Revit Software, you might want to consider some of these books that have been recently published. All of them focus on Revit 2014. Some are more intended for beginners, others for more advanced users. The focus of the books is also split by Specialty. If you know of some more good Revit 2014 books, please do share in the comments and I'l add them to the table.

TITLE	LEVEL	SPECIALTY	BUY FROM
Autodesk REVIT Architecture 2014 Essentials	Begginer	ARCH	.
			AMAZON US
			AMAZON UK
			AMAZON DE
			AMAZON ES
			.
Mastering Autodesk REVIT Architecture 2014	Advanced	ARCH	.
			AMAZON US
			AMAZON UK
			AMAZON DE
			AMAZON ES
			.
Autodesk Revit Architecture 2014: No Experience Required	Beginner	ARCH	.
			AMAZON US
			AMAZON UK
			AMAZON DE
			.
			.
Mastering Autodesk Revit MEP 2014	Advanced	MEP	.
			AMAZON US
			AMAZON UK
			AMAZON DE
			.
			.

Let's not overstate BIM benefits, let's not hide the difficulties

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:08:00 +0000

Is BIM paying off or are we exaggerating results?
Català - Castellano
Yesterday I read an article at BIMetica named BIM Rinde Beneficios, that was a re-post and translation of this one "BIM finally starting to pay off for AEC firms" by Building Design + Construction. My first reaction was to believe what the headline said, and I though, wow, let's see, will they have doen an exhaustive study and do they have good data about BIM ROI. Once I read it all, my thoughts were completely oposite, I think the article (let's ee if the study behind it shows more) says nothing to support its headline. If we forget the headline "BIM finally starting to pay off for AEC firms" the quotes from different executive memebers of the companies interviewed actually contradict in most of the cases the headline. What they actually say is that after several years of investment and effort implementing, training and learning, some of them are finding an improvement in drawing production time or taking the same time as before, and most of the benefits quoted, are non quatifiable ones. Here are some of the negative quotes:

“BIM implementation has been a long-term effort and a considerable one,” says Phil Harrison, FAIA, LEED AP, CEO of Perkins+Will.
According to Graef CEO John Kissinger, “We were early adopters. It was more difficult than we thought, but it is ingrained in all areas of our practice now.”
President Steven Straus says Glumac made “an enormous investment” in BIM training and software development. “BIM is a new technology that is improving coordination,” he says, “but the software is not ready for prime time.”
“Not all contractors we work with are leveraging BIM. This means we have to spend more time preparing drawings in BIM than we normally would,” says BRPH President/CEO Brad Harmsen, AIA.

Of course, some positive feedback is also quoted, although see they type:

“Allowing owners to better visualize the project has become an influencing factor during the presentation process,” says Doug Davidson, President, New South Construction
“There’s no question that BIM has paid off in our role as engineer of record producing construction drawings and as detailing engineer,” says Robert Otani, PE, LEED AP, Vice President of Thornton Tomasetti.
“Now we are completing projects in close to the same time frame as previously with 3D, and in some cases faster,” says KJWW Engineering President Paul VanDuyne, PE.
Finally at EYP Architecture & Engineering, they say that “BIM integration has created more opportunities for younger tech-savvy staff to collaborate with senior technical team members,”

I think this is all the positive feedback quoted on this article. As you can see, only at Thornton Tomasetti seem to be sure the numbers add up, although not much more is explained on how they do. The difficulties found equal at least the positive feedback, and the benefits in € or $ are not mentioned anywhere

Finally, the list of companies by there BIM Revenue seems to me close to a joke. Are this company making this amount of money for "doing BIM?" Not at all, if we check online, we can see that Turner's revenue for 2011 was around US$ 9 billion, the list from the article says they got aroun US$5 billion from BIM. Goodness, did they model the entire earth? It makes no sense. What I assume this list shows is the revenue of the projects in which in a way or another BIM was part of the workflow. That explains why "BIM revenue" for GCs is much bigger than for Architecture firms.

I thin to not mislead anyone, the headline of these rankings should be "Total revenue on projects that used BIM" But I can see how that doesn't bring visits to your website. Like the saying goes: "don't let reality ruin a headline". I am a strong believer in BIM, but I also think the ones encouraging others to used should be the ones who are more careful on overstating benefits and hading difficulties. Let's be careful retwitting and reposting just by headlines without checking what the article actually say and what they do not say. We are at risk of ridiculing ourselves and of misleading others into impossible goals they will not achieve. I was having a very interesting conversation yesterday on how some countries, as early adopters and frustrated by the difficulties found, actually sort of Stop the BIM wagon. Over optimistic promises can do that, let's not make the wagon crash.

Level of Development Specification (LOD) Released by BIMForum

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:51:00 +0000

BIMForum has published a LOD Specification Document that aims to clarify the level of Development of each model element according to the LOD 100-200-300-350-400 scale.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
A DRAFT of the Level of Development Specification has been published here at the BIMForum website. The Specification has been developed under supervision of people from the AIA and the AGC, and consultants from General Contractors, Architecture offices, Structural Engineering firms have been part of it too (see the aknowledgement on page 6). One of the main points that the document wants to clarify is that "there is no such a thing as a LOD XXX Model" but there are LOD for each element or assembly.

It will definitely be a good reference document to have in hand when modeling.

EGLC Meeting - Our Experience aplying the Last Planner System

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:22:00 +0000

The EGLC Meeting took place last Wednesday May 8th and I was there presenting. A great event, a pity not more people showed up.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
The Universitat Politècnica de Valencia and the Spanish Group for Lean Construction, hosted last Wednesday, May 8th the Industry Day of the 16th Meeting of the European Group for Lean Construction in Valencia. Me and my colleague Xavier Pallàs were asked to come and talk about our experience applying the Last Planner System at two of the projects we've been managing. Xavi is the one who has led this process on the biggest of the two projects, a 9M€ renovation project in Tarragona. I am trying to share the Prezi presentation that Xavi prepared for our lecture, but I am having some problem uploading it to the cloud, so for now, I'll just share the brief intro I did to his presentation.

Xavier is the one that has done more on this Lean journey we started back in 2011. I have supported him on the initial stages of the implementation of the Last Planner System, and applied it myself in a smaller project in Vic. Nevertheless the true potential has been seen on this later stages of Fase II of the Tarragona project, with a reduction of the construction time and a construction site that has worked much smoother, more stable and with a much better relationship amongst the different trades on site.

Next week I'll share some more pictures and insight about the meeting.

Revit 2014 Download Links

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:07:00 +0000

Revit 2014 is finally available for download
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
I posted recently about the new features of Revit 2014. Tried to download a trial, but it seem that Revit 2014 was not available for download. Now (as of April 18th) it is. So hurry up and go to the download page to get your trial and test the new features.

What's new and enhanced in Revit 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:34:00 +0000

Introduction to the new features of Revit 2014
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Revit 2014 was released last March 25th. A great review was written the day after by David Light. Read that post if you are interested and check the Autodesk video below expleining new features. Oh! And check the cool new design of the Autodesk website and logos, starting by the Revit one itself!

Embedding an Editable Google Drive / Docs Spreadsheet

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 10:28:00 +0000

How to insert on your page an embedded and editable Google Drive / Docs Spreadsheet
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
First of all and before you wonder if this is another place were they tell you how to do it and it doesn't work, this is testet, and here is the proof, play with is as much as you like.

So now that you know that it works, let's go step by step.

Create a Spreadsheet in Google Drive
Share it with those you want to be able to access it (the one on this post is shared to the entire www)
Make sure the other users can edit, not just see
Insert the following code on your site:
<iframe width='800' height='600' frameborder='0' src='THE URL OF YOUR SPREADHSEET AS IT SHOWS ON THE WEB BROWSER WHEN YOU SEE IT FROM GOOGLE DRIVE'></iframe>
Publish your post/page, and that's it.

If you need any help, ask in the comments below.

EGLC 16 :: European Group for Lean Construction Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:14:00 +0000

The Meeting of the European Group for Lean Construction will take place in Valencia, Spain, next May
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
The coming 8th, 9th and 10th of May, 2013, the European Group for Lean construction will hold its meeting in Valencia, Spain. Top Lean Construction Experts like Prof. Glenn Ballard (creator of the Last Planner System), Paulo Napolitano and Alan Mossman will be there sharing their experience.

To register, access this page.

Book Review: Instant Autodesk Revit 2013 Customization with .NET How-to

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:34:00 +0000

A brief review on this book that introduces you to .NET programming to create Revit Add-ins
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
The people at Packt Publishing have published a book about customizing Revit using the Revit API and .NET programming language. The title of the book is Instant Autodesk Revit 2013 Customization with .NET How-to by Don Rudder.

The book is a very packed guide to creating your first Revit Add-ins. It is actually the type of book that is a bit hard to follow, but in a good sense. It does not waste time explaining you basic stuff you would already know (or that you can easily find online) if you want to create Revit Add-Ins. So from the first lines you have to pay attention to what you are reading or you get lost after two pages.

I have not had the time to try the code samples provided but the book (many), but overall it seems to me as a good introduction to the basics of Add-in programming, its logic, language and basic steps. If I had a say on the book editing, I must confess I would have given it a bit of a more refined look and a bit less intense pace, for it seems a bit intense to me, jumping from one example to the next one without much time to assimilate what you are learning.

If I end up finding the time to actually program something, then I'll update this post with that experience.

Book is very affordable, selling for $11.99 at the Publishers Page for the Ebook version. Yo can also buy hard copies of the book at Amazon (links below).

or or

IFC4 officially released

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:33:00 +0000

The last version of the Industry Foundation Classes, IFC4 was oficially released last tuesday, and it is ready for download.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Just read through BIMnova about the launch of the latest release of the IFC exchange standard. For those new to the topic, the IFC, or Industry Foundation Classes, are a standard format developed by Building Smart that can be used to exchange and share BIM data between applications developed by different software vendors without the software having to support numerous native formats [1]. In other words, it is the common format for exchanging BIM data bwtween different applications.

The Release reads:

After over 6 years of development and over 1100 issues being resolved, on 12. March 2013 buildingSMART international has finally released the new generation of IFC schemas - IFC4. It will now be the basis of future work of establishing new open BIM enabled work flows by defining new IFC4 based model view definitions. The official IFC4 release includes both the IFC4 EXPRESS schema to support current STEP-based IFC exchanges, and the ifcXML4 XSD schema to support new simple ifcXML transactions.

Detailed documentation on the new IFC4 can be found here.

via BIMnova.

Updated List of BIM Stanrdards

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 13:08:00 +0000

The list has been updated and reformated for a better user experience
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Just a short post to let you know that I have updated the list of BIM Standards. The major update is that I have turned the list into a sortable table so you can organize the list however you want by clicking on the table headers. I still have some standards missing that I will ad during this coming week, but now that the table is life you can start using it and of course sharing any missing standards so you will appear on the credits of the post!

Cheers! Here is the link to the table.

UK's NBS - RIBA National BIM Report 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:55:00 +0000

The 2013 National BIM Report about UKs AEC Industry is available online.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Just got the news via Construction Code and Stephen Hamil that the newest NBS UK National BIM Report is available for download here. It has the latest survey info on the status of BIM adoption and opinions of the AEC professionals of the UK about it's current and future use. Let me quote couple of paragraphs that I think are a very good summary of it's contents:

The good news is that progress continues to be made in BIM adoption. The 2012 survey shows the percentage of the industry actually using BIM has grown to 39%, up from 13% in 2010. (...)
(...)BIM adopters can see that BIM is more than just ‘seductive graphics’ and ‘sexy 3D’. They can demonstrate that effective information management leads to business efficiency and profitability.(...)
(...)It will be the cultural and behavioural changes that many will find most difficult, and yet I believe these will prove to be the most important if we are to be successful.(...)

OK, so here you have it, plenty of useful insights. Congratulations to the #UKBBIMCrew involved on this!.

PD: You can also access past years' reports here.

BIM Standards & Guidelines

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:58:00 +0000

A living list of the latest BIM standards available online. A list that will be updated regulary
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
I've been trying to find as many BIM standards as possible for what is the seed of my next paper. I thought I'd share them here. In no way this means there are no other BIM Standards available, it simply means I haven't found them, so please share in the comments if you know another set of published BIM standards that are available online and that I haven't added to the list.

UPDATE: I have turned the list into a table that can be sorted clicking on the headers. THis way it is easy to sort the standards by country,or date or name, etc.

COUNTRY	INSTITUTION	TYPE	DOCUMENT	DATE
Finland	Building SMART Finland	Public	Common BIM Requirements	201203Mar 2012
Norway	Statsbygg	Public	Statsbygg - BIM Manual 1.21	201110Oct 2011
UK	AEC (UK) Committee	Private	AEC (UK) BIM Protocol v2.0	201209Sep 2012
UK	The British Standards Institution	Private	PAS 1192-2:2013	201302Feb 2013
Australia	Natspec	Public	NATSPEC National BIM Guide	201109Sep 2011
Australia	CRC for Construction Innovation	Public	National Guidelines for Digital Modeling	201109Sep 2011
Australia & NZ	ANZRS	Private	ANZRS v.3	2012002012
USA	NIBS	Private	NBIMS-US™ V2	201205May 2012
USA	Air Force	Public	BIM Requirements	201104Apr 2011
USA	Tricare	Public	DoD MHS Minimum BIM Requirements	201106Jun 2011
USA	USACE	Public	BIM Requirements	201104Apr 2011
USA	Georgia GSFIC	Public	GSFIC BIM Guide	201106Jun 2011
USA	Federal Aviation Administration	Public	Minimum BIM Requirements	201202Feb 2012
USA	NY SCA	Public	BIM Guidelines and Standards	201301Jan 2013
USA	SDCCD	High-Ed	BIM Standards for Arch. Eng. & Contr.	201301Jan 2013
USA	Georgia Tech	High-Ed	GT BIM Requirements for Arch. Eng. & Contr.	201109Sep 2011
Spain	FIDE	Gov	FIDE (Spanish)	2011002011
Singapore	BCA/CORENET	Gov	Singapore BIM Guide Version 1.0	201205May 2012
Hong Kong	HKIBIM	Private	HKIBIM_Specification-Rev3-0	201106Jun 2011
Denmark	Digital Construction	Gov	ICT Demands (Danish) - English Intro	2010002010
USA	GSA	Gov	BIM Guide Series	2012002012
USA	Department of VA	Gov	The VA BIM Guide	201004Apr 2010
USA	NYC DDC	Public	DDC BIM Guidelines	201207Jul 2012
USA	PA of NY Eng. Dept.	Public	EAD BIM Standard Manual	201209Sep 2012
USA	City of San Antonio	Public	CoSA BIM Standards	201107Jul 2011
USA	Ohio DAS	Public	Ohio BIM Protocol	2010002010
USA	Texas Facilities Comission	Public	Guidelines - Standards (pp 48-72)	200802Feb 2008
USA	Wisconsin DOA	Public	BIM Guidelines and Standards	201207Jul 2012
USA	MIT Dept. of Facilities	High-Ed	MIT CAD and BIM Guidelines	201204Apr 2012
USA	LA Community College	High-Ed	BIM Standards	200909Sep 2009
USA	LA Community College	High-Ed	DB BIM Standards	201006Jun 2010
USA	LA Community College	High-Ed	DBB BIM Standards	201106Jun 2011
USA	Penn State Univ.	High-Ed	BIM Project Execution Planning Guide v2.1	201007Jul 2010
USA	Penn State Univ.	High-Ed	BIM Plannign Guide for Facility Owners	201207Jul 2012
USA	USC	High-Ed	BIM Guidelines 1.6	201206Jun 2012
USA	AIA	Private	BIM Protocol Exhibit	2008002008
UK	CIC	Private	The BIM Protocol	201302Feb 2013
USA	AGC	Private	Contractor's Guide to BIM 2nd Ed ($75)	200901Jan 2009
USA	AGC	Private	Contractor's Guide to BIM 1st Ed	200607Jul 2006
Norway	Boligprodusentene	Private	BIM Manual	201111Nov 2011
Netherlands	RGD	Gov	Rgd BIM Norm (Dutch)	201302Feb 2013
USA	Indiana University	High-Ed	IU BIM Guidelines and Standards	201207Jul 2012

Credits for some Standards I didn't have in the original post go to:

Credits for the HTML and Javascript to create the sortable table all thanks to Expression Web-L

Do you know of any more BIM Standards? Share please!

Autodesk seems to [not?] like people promoting Revit

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:34:00 +0000

Audoesk seems to be suing Revitforum. Don't they have any sense of bad online campaings?
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Got the message I am quoting below from RevitForum. Apparently, Autodesk wants to take over their domain because it uses the word Revit. Look, I am no expert on copyright laws and domain names, but it seems kind of stupid to ban a community of users to talk about your product. Are the guys at Revit Forum making money because of the use of the Revit name? Not sure, but even if they do, isn't it logical that a Forum where people talk about revit should be called "something with revit + something with Forum"?

Dear revitforum.org members, colleagues and friends,

Our apologies for the mass email - we try to avoid these as much as possible, but we feel it's very important that we share this news with all of our members as soon as possible.

As some of you may be aware, Autodesk, Inc., makers of Revit, have retained the law firm of Donahue Gallagher Woods to notify all domain holders that have the word REVIT contained in their top-level domain name, that they are infringing on the Autodesk REVIT trademark. They have requested that we change the domain name of revitforum.org to one that doesn't contain the the word REVIT.

We refute these claims of infringement. The use of the trademark "REVIT" in the domain name "revitforum.org" is protected by the "Nominative Fair Use" legal doctrine that provides an affirmative defense to trademark infringement as enunciated by the United States Ninth Circuit, by which a person may use the trademark of another as reference to describe the product.

The administrators of revitforum.org will formally respond to Autodesk. However, if all else fails, we want to assure you that we are prepared to move revitforum.org to a new domain if that is required.

Whether or not there is a domain name change, rest assured that the forums will continue to operate just as they do now. We retain all the data on revitforum.org - that is not in any way at risk.

We will notify you via email and on the revitforum.org website of any required domain name change ahead of time.

Also, keep updated, and feel free to comment in this thread: http://www.revitforum.org/out-there/12753-revitforum-org-domain.html

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,
Gordon, Ian & Klaus

p.s. if you know an attorney with the appropriate expertise who is willing to donate their time for this good cause, please feel free to contact a forum administrator privately.

Hate this type of Goliat attitudes big companies have sometimes. What do you think?
UPDATE: Apparently, Autodesk has replied and seems to be willing to not force a change of domain name if the forum changes some stuff and adds a disclaimer about not being affiliated at all with Autodesk. Well, that seems fair. Not sure if it is a response to the fact that the news about this have spread quick or of really good-hearted company behavior but the result will be the same so I guess things are not as bad as they seemed at the beginning.

3D Printing Buildings on the Moon? Let's do it First on Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:47:00 +0000

A lot of fuzz about Foster's plans to print buildings on the moon, but shouldn't we work harder to develop something like this on earth?
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Ok, so Foster and Partners have been working for the European Space Agency to develop a system to print buildings on the moon. I read the same news like 25 times in different blogs, and magazines since Jan 31st. Yes, it is the type of short news that travels the web at lightning speed, but I think that considering the last time the man was on the moon was in 1972 maybe it's just that, a short article intended to give a lot of publicity to Foster, the ESA and Monolite UK, (the company that have envisioned the large scale 3D printer system called D-Shape) because they added the "one the moon" ending.

image source

Although there are rumors of plans from China to go to the moon, not much of it is known to be really true. So as I see it, the "moon" part of the news is not very relevant on the short term (although it is the reason why everyone is talking about it). What makes an interesting read is what's behind the technology to do that. The guys at Monolite UK have developed the D-Shape printer, a 3D printer that can actual print things as big as 6 by 6 meters, not bad at all.

image source

What is even more interesting is the materials used as a building substance. According to the sources, the D.-Shape printer: "returns any type of sand, dust or gravel back to its original Compact Stone state. The Stone is very similar to Marble (...) and with a resistance and traction much superior to Portland Cement (sic), so much so that there is no need to use iron to reinforce the structure". Well, if that is true, I think the real innovation is that, much more than the fact that they have built a 3D model to show structures on the moon.

Why this is not being used already in real buildings if it is cheaper, faster, stronger and allows all kind of shapes like the inventors claim? No idea, something might still not be 100% proof ready, but anyways its an interesting experiment.

Related to this, I remembered a video I saw some months ago about a research going on at a research group at the University of Southern California. The research is called Contour Crafting, and it aims to something very similar, to be able to sort of print parts of the building and to actually use a sort of huge crane to automate construction. Here is a video about it.

This research from USC, although it has some points I think they need rethinking, seems more developed than the "print on the moon" experiment. It is based on using some standard construction procedures combined with the automation of a big part of the construction of the structure. Is this the (near?) future?

So let's think about it, printing on the moon when we don't know exactly how to do it on earth seems a bit of a far shot, but these too experiments show a trend that I think will slowly evolve and that has huge repercussion, the slow replacement of construction man-labor by machine automated work. Let's review in a couple of years how much of this is actually on the real world!

image source

Free Revit Family Manager Add-in

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 12:08:00 +0000

A new add-in to manage your families in revit. And it is free.
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Got the heads up from Luke Johnson about this new, and free, add-in for Revit available at the Autodesk Exchange app page. I haven't tried it but it looks promising.Quoting the app developers HTSSIndia:

The purpose of this tool is to directly load families from one Revit project to another i.e., this tool enables the users to easily look in to the views, types, parameters of the families in a Revit project file and directly load the selected families in to the current Revit project or save them as ‘rfa’ files in the given PC path.

So now it is easy to transfer families from project to project knowing exactly what you are transferring. Excellent.

Without this add in, you can transfer families from one project to another using the Transfer Project Standards tool in revit. But then you would be transfering without so much control of which families you actually copy, so this add-in is worth it.

To install it, download the add-in from here, then run the installer.

Via What Revit Wants

OOPS Let me recover that object! (AutoCAD Command)

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 23:18:00 +0000

Did you delete an object by mistake and kept workin? OOPS! No worries, you can have it back!
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
If you delete an object in AutoCAD, keep working, and then you realize you shouldn't have deleted it and want it back, there is a command in AutoCAD that allows you to get that object back.

The OOPS command in AutoCAD will bring back the last deleted object, even after you kept working and doing more stuff. It has its limitations as you can imagine (for instance if during that "kept workin" you deleted something else) but still can save you from having to redo stuff.

This and more good stuff via How to undo almost anything in AutoCAD by Ellen Finkelstein

SketchUp Plugin to Import Art Pieces to your Models

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:12:00 +0000

Creating a Slum from scratch in 5 minutes thanks to this plugin and a bit of smart thinking
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
The people of ARTmine just got in touch with me to share their SketchUp plugin ARTmineSKP. I think it is pretty cool so thought I'd share it here despite not posting much about SketchUp lately. What this plugin does is that it makes available a database of artworks and allows you to add them directly to your model. This way you can decorate your interior design projects with some original artwork. See the video below that explains how it works.

You can get the Plugin here for free.

Remember to check the List of SketchUp Plugins, you might find something useful.

AutoCAD on your Mobile Device

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 21:49:00 +0000

You can visualize your DWG files also on your mobile device now
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
I wrote back in 2011 about the official launch of AutoCAD WS (what had been called on Autodesk Labs Project Butterfly). At that time I actually had no smartphone and the Ipad and similar tablets where not as common as they are right now. So when I talked about the use I was giving to it and the potential I saw, I have to admit I didn't foresee that the main use could be to view files on site with your mobile devices. ANd I think this is actually one of it main uses today.

I was asked today at a lunch party by a friend who also works in the AEC Industry: How can I see AutoCAD files on my IPad when I go on site? The answer was simple, download the AutoCAD WS app for iPad, create an account, go to the AutoCAD WS web page from a computer where you have those files and upload them to your account on the cloud, then simply access the app on your iPad and you will be able to see those files. Simple it doesn't get in life.Here the links to the apps, choose the one that fits your device:

- AutoCAD WS for Ipad, Ipod and Iphone
- AutoCAD WS for Android

This is actually the best use I see for this app, but don't forget another one that I also talked about back in 2011. It can actually work as a free AutoCAD version converter. See the image below

If you get a file and you are not updating your AutoCAD software regularly you can use AutoCAD WS to upload the file to the cloud and then download it saved in any version from R.14 to the latest one. So this is another great use of this tool I guess.

As far as I know, so far only iOS and Android have apps, something to consider if you have to buy phones for your field staff.

Any other great uses you guys know about and that you wish to share? Please Comment!!

Revit: Adding, Removing and Exporting keyboard Shortchuts

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:57:00 +0000

Modyfying Revit keyboard Shortcuts
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
On a previous post I collected the latest (2013) Revit Keyboard shortcuts. This list is made of the default shortcuts for Revit. Of course, as we also saw about AutoCAD, you can actually change those shortcuts to fit your preferences. Some people love to personalize these shortcuts to work even faster (one cool trick is to have the shortcuts you use the most to be made of 2 equal letters so you can type that much faster). See this comment on twitter by user @Jrostar.

@cadaddict I changed mine to 'AA'. Best shortcut change ever
— Jason Rostar (@jrostar) January 29, 2013

So now that we know that it is very useful to personalize the Revit shortcuts, how do we do it? Well two ways. Either use the shortcut to access them, that is type 'KS' or go to the 'View' tab in the Ribbon --> Windows Section: User interface --> Keyboard Shortcuts. See the image below.

Either way you access it, you will get this window with all the existing shortcuts, and all the actions in Revit that can be shortcut.

One thing to consider, if you get used to non-standard Revit shortcuts you will not enjoy changing computers, so remember to Export and store your shortcuts in an XML file and have it available in case one day you move to a new company or new computer or you reinstall revit.

List of Revit Keyboard Shortcuts

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:33:00 +0000

List of Revit keyboard Shortcuts
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
A list of Keyboard Shortcuts for Revit, updated to Revit 2013 (see that there are up to 3 letter shortcuts)

// - Divide Surface
32 - 2D Mode
3F - Fly Mode
3O - Object Mode
3W - Walk Mode
AA - Adjust Analytical Model
AD - Attach Detail Group
AL - Align
AP - Add to Group
AR - Array
AT - Air Terminal
BM - Structural Framing: Beam
BR - Structural Framing: Brace
BS - Structural Beam System; Automatic Beam System
BS - MEP Settings:Building/Space Type Settings
CG - Cancel
CL - Column; Structural Column
CM - Place a Component
CN - Conduit
CO#CC - Copy
CP - Cope; Apply Coping
CS - Create Similar
CT - Cable Tray
Ctrl+` - Activate the first contextual tab
CV - Convert to Flex Duct
DA - Duct Accessory
DC - Check Duct Systems
DE - Delete
DF - Duct Fitting
DI - Aligned Dimension
DL - Detail Line
DM - Mirror - Draw Axis
DR - Door
DT - Duct
EC - Check Circuits
EE - Electrical Equipment
EG - Edit Group
EH - Hide in View:Hide Elements
EL - Spot Elevation
EOD - Override Graphics in View:Override by Element
EOH - Graphic Override by Element in View: toggle halftone
EOT - Graphic Override by Element in View: toggle transparency
ER - Editing Requests
ES - MEP Settings:Electrical Settings
EU - - Unhide Element
EW - Arc Wire
EW - Edit Witness Lines
EX - Exclude
FD -Flex Duct
FG - Finish
F9 - System Browser
FP - Flex Pipe
FR - Find / Replace
FT - Structural Foundation: Wall
GD - Graphic Display Options
GP - Model Group:Create Group; Detail Group:Create Group
GR - Grid
HC - Hide Category
HH - Hide Element
HI - Isolate Elemente
HL - Hidden Line
HR - Reset Temporary Hide/Isolate
IC - Isolate Category
KS - Keyboard Shortcuts
LD - Loads
LF - Lighting Fixture
LG - Link
LI - Model Line; Model Line; Boundary Line; Rebar Line; Draw Lines
LL - Level
LO - Heating and Cooling Loads
LW - Linework
MA - Match Type Properties
MD - Modify
ME - Mechanical Equipment
MM - Mirror - Pick Axis
MP - Move to Project
MS - MEP Settings:Mechanical Setting
MV - Move
NF - Conduit Fitting
OF - Offset
PA - Pipe Accessory
PC - Check Pipe Systems
PC - Snap to point Clouds
PF - Pipe Fitting
PI - Pipe
PN - Pin
PP#Ctrl+1#VP - Properties
PS - Panel Schedules
PT - Paint
PX - Plumbing Fixture
R3 - Define a new center of rotation
RA - Reset Analytical Model
RA - Restore All Excluded
RB - Restore Excluded Member
RC - Cope:Remove Coping
RC - Repeat Last Command
RE - Scale (Resize)
RH - Toggle Reveal Hidden Elements Mode
RL#RW - Reload Latest
RM - Room
RO - Rotate
RP - Reference Plane
RR - Render
RT - Tag Room
RY - Raytrace
SA - Select All Instances: In Entire Project
SB - Floor: Structural (Slab)
SC - Centers
SD - Shaded with Edges
SE - Snap Endpoints
SF - Split Face
SI - Snap Intersections
SK - Sprinklers
SL - Split Element
SM - Snap Midpoints
SN - Snap Nearest
SO - Snap Off
SP - Snap Perpendicular
SQ - Snap Quadrants
SR - Snap to remove Objects
SS - Turn Override Off
ST - Snap Tangents
SU - Sun Settings
SW - Work plane Grid
SX - Points
SZ - Close
TF - Cable Tray Fitting
TG - Tag by Category; Tag by Category
TL - Thin Lines Toggle
TR - Trim / Extend to Corner
TX - Text
UG - Ungroup
UN - Project Units
UP - Unpin
VG#VV - Visibility/Graphics
VH - Hide in View:Hide Category
VOG - Graphic Override by Category in View: toggle ghost surface
VOH - Graphic Override by Category in View: toggle halftone
VOT - Graphic Override by Category in View: toggle transparency
VU - Unhide Category
WA - Wall: Architectural
WC - Cascade Windows
WF - Wireframe
WN - Window
WT - Tile Windows
ZA - Zoom All to Fit
ZE#ZF#ZX - Zoom to Fit
ZO - Zoom Out
ZP#ZC - Previous Pan/Zoom
ZR#ZZ - Zoom in region
ZS - Zoom Sheet Size

Hope this is useful

Excel: Automatic "Last Save Date and Time" Stamp

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:02:00 +0000

Show the last save date and time in a cell automatically with VB code
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
We have a standard excel file at work where we track the bidding process of each project with subs. It basically shows who was sent what and when, have we received anything back, etc. One of the points to fill is when was the document last updated to check how recent the file really is.

I wanted to get that "last modified" to be automatic. The idea was, that a cell would show the date of the last time someone saved the file. So I searched for how to do that, and I found this here. The code there described allows you to get a cell in excel that shows your last saved date (and time with a few tweeks)

The process to get that is as follows:

First of all we have to create a macro. Press Alt+F11 and you will get the Visual Basic Editor. When it opens double click on This Workbook and paste the code on the right. I have added a new line to the code to show also the time on a different cell. See the image, the code is after it.

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, Cancel As Boolean)
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("F4").Value = Date
Sheets("Sheet1").Range("G4").Value = Time
End Sub

Once you have entered the code, just close the VB Editor and save your file. The cells specified as Range in the sheet specified after Sheets will fill with the Save (F4 in my code) and TIme (g4 in my code). If the code doesn't work be sure the Sheet name is spelled exactly as the name of the sheet in your workbook.

You will probably get a message like this when you save. Just do as you think best.

The final result should be something like this.

My First Published Paper

noreply@blogger.com (Martí Broquetas) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 13:17:00 +0000

My first scientific paper has just been published online
Català - Castellano - Deutsch
Some of you might remember that a couple of years ago, I talked about my Master Thesis here. Since I was told the Thesis was quite good, I started publishing parts of it here. While I was doing that, one of my Thesis tutor's, Jürgen M. Volm put me in touch with DDavid Bryde who told me there was potential to turn part of the thesis into a scientific paper. So me and David started to work together to turn my MT into a paper. Now this is done and the paper is available online on the January at ScienceDirect.com. You can access it here (if you have access to ScienceDirect, or paying the price...).
The paper is called "The Project Benefits of Building Information Modelling" and analyzes the benefits and challenges of using BIM in 35 case studies. It was a lot of work but I have to say it is very rewarding to have it up there in the scientific sphera. Hopefully there will be more coming.