MasterGraphics Weblog
Archive for May, 2008
BIM: More than a Buzzword
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
If you keep up with CAD industry publications you’ve seen the term BIM thrown around with abandon. Often BIM (Building Information Modeling) is mentioned in the same sentence as 3D modeling. However, just because a software package creates a 3D object, doesn’t mean BIM is involved. At the heart of BIM is data linked to an object. The object “knows” what it is and can react with other objects with programmatic intelligence. Most likely, if you are reading this blog you are already using BIM without realizing it.
Take for instance a base Autocad rectangle. Even if we extrude it into a rectangular prism, it is still just a “dumb” object. Take that same prism into Revit, convert it into part of a door and now you’ve got BIM.
As the concept of BIM becomes more widely understood, users naturally want to take it to the next level. “OK,” they are thinking, “If my door ‘knows’ there’s a wall, and the wall ‘knows’ its part of the building - can my building ‘know’ it is sitting on the ground?” Well, we are getting there. In this case, now we have to jump to a different application - and this is where the concept of BIM can dim.
The attached document explains how to make the jump from Revit to Civil and vice versa.
Keep in mind that when the civil surface is imported to Revit, it must be converted before it is back in the BIM world. On the flip-side, a Revit building in Civil 3D is just a block - no BIM in sight.
As future releases of AutoDesk products evolve - conversions and loss of intelligence will be a thing of the past.
Until then we still need to share data. I hope this document narrows the gap.
Revit 2009 and Civil 3D interoperability 2009
Civil 3D 2009 and Mass Haul Diagrams
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
As I mentioned in the PDF attached to my last post, Civil 3D 2009 now automatically generates mass haul diagrams for you!
This is a fantastic time-savings compared to the method previously needed by Civil 3D 2008 and prior.
The Best of What’s New in Civil 3D 2009
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
This is by no means a complete list, but it is far more comprehensive than what you will find in the New Features Workshop.
At long last, I give you: Whats New in Civil 3D 2009
Civil 3D training in 2009 will begin after June 2nd.
See our calendar for a list of upcoming classes!
How to Get Multiple Intervals in a Sample Line Group
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Q: With the project you have assisted me with in the past, I need to supply cross sections at 100 foot intervals in rural areas, and 50 foot intervals in urban areas. I currently have 50 foot cross sections the length of the project. Can separate sections of an alignment be sampled at different intervals? I also need to add cross sections at culverts and driveways.
A: There are several ways to accomplish what you are looking for. You could just delete the sections you don’t need from the sample line listing in Prospector, but that can get time consuming. The easiest method is to create a new sample line group. Go to Sections > Create Sample Lines and select the alignment.
On that toolbar, click the New Sample line group icon. It looks like an alignment with a snowflake next to it.
Give the new group a name. In my example I called it 50s&100s.
Click OK.
Back on the Sample Line toolbar, click the down-arrow on the sample line creation button and select By Range of Stations.
When the range dialog pops up, set the “From Alignment start” and “from Alignment end” both to false. For example, say you need 50’ stations from 410+00 to 500+00, set these as your Start station and end station, respectively.
Then set your increment to 50 or 100, depending on where you are in the station range. In my example, I set this to 50’.
Click OK.
Repeat the process for the next station range. Set your start and end stations. Set your increment in this range. Click OK. If it pops up with a box telling you that you already have station 500+00 accounted for, just click OK to recreate it. (In my opinion, this is easier than remembering to add 100 or 50 to the start station each time.)
Keep going until the full length of the alignment is taken care of.
Now, for oddball stations such as driveways and culverts, use the “At a Station’ option in the sample line creation tools. You can type in the station values or click to create the stations. The command line will prompt you to specify the width of the sample line on each side.
Autodesk Impression
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Subscription customers can download Autodesk Impression for free from their Autodesk Subscription website.
Impress your colleagues and clients with compelling presentation-ready graphics created directly from your DWG™ and DWF™ files. Autodesk Impression software is easy to use, saves you time, and recognizes data from your CAD files. Autodesk Impression 2 software is available to AutoCAD®, AutoCAD® Architecture, AutoCAD® Civil 3D®, AutoCAD® Map 3D, AutoCAD® MEP and AutoCAD® Revit Architecture Suite software products’ subscription customers.
Benefits of Impression include:
- Generate Great-Looking Images—Fast. Presentation graphics are about winning business. Your images have to sell your projects. With Impression you can easily apply graphical styles to your CAD files using prebuilt styles or customized styles that you create—from pencil styles to watercolor fills.
- CAD Compatible - Because Impression understands CAD data, the illustration process is much faster than with general-purpose graphics applications. Open any DWG or DWF file in Impression. Impression recognizes blocks, layers, hatches and other CAD-specific data.
- Easy to Learn and Use - Impression is designed so that anyone in the office can learn the application in minutes and can get great results right away.
- Quickly Create Multiple Design Iterations - Quickly update your presentation graphics when designs change or apply your signature style to all the drawings that you produce.
- Integrate Into Existing Workflow - Impression fits easily into your existing workflow and is interoperable with many popular graphics applications.
Posted by Scott Brisk
Drawing Compare Subscription Module for AutoCAD Architecture/MEP 2009
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Drawing Compare is available exclusively for AutoCAD Architecture/MEP 2009 customers participating in the Autodesk Subscription program. Download this module now to get the Drawing Compare feature. The Drawing Compare feature enhances collaboration by using color-coded displays to show items on a drawing that have been changed, added, or deleted by other members of the design team. Changes to items such as styles, fire ratings, or other non-graphical properties are also tracked. Combined with redlining features, such as revision clouds, the Drawing Compare features help make communication across the design team clearer than ever.
The comparison process is like how drawings were compared when they were received on tracing paper or Mylar sheets and then overlaid on the original project drawings using a light table. Drawing Compare displays informational data about the objects in your drawing as well as displaying the graphical changes on the drawing screen.
You select the review drawings and compare each to its corresponding project drawing on the Setup tab of the Drawing Compare palette. After the comparison, you view the results on the Review tab of the Drawing Compare palette and in the drawing area.
Drawing Compare identifies objects that have been modified, added, or removed in the review drawings. Based on the status of the objects (modified, new, or missing), colors are assigned, and a list of the changes is generated.
In the following example, a simple floor plan was modified to show what information Drawing Compare displays during a comparison session. The review drawing shows that changes to the project drawing include moving the lower vertical interior wall segment to the left (resulting in a shorter horizontal interior wall segment), adding an exterior door to the right exterior wall segment, and removing a window from the upper exterior wall segment.
When the drawings are compared, color-coded changes are displayed, based on the type of change.
Information about changes is also displayed in the Object Report List on the Review tab.
Posted by Scott Brisk
AutoCAD MEP 2009 Compatibility with Earlier Releases
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Because of the new enhancements to the software, for example electrical panel database files, in 2009, if you open that 2009 drawing in an earlier release, the older program doesn’t understand the new features, and will give you errors. This will continue with every new version of AutoCAD MEP in the future, so it will be important to stay up to date with the latest release, and make sure everyone is using it.
Revit doesn’t allow you to open a newer project in an older release at all. That eliminates these types of issues of backwards compatibility, or lack thereof.
In 2009, you will not see any warnings or messages when you open a 2009 drawing in an earlier version program. But as soon as you get to a new feature that it doesn’t recognize, you will then get a warning that the drawing is a newer version and might not be compatible. I don’t understand that. It should be displayed just as you open the drawing like in previous years, but it isn’t this year. So be aware if you do work in a prior release program.
Posted by Scott Brisk
AutoCAD MEP 2009 Using Multiple Catalogs
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
In 2009, you can now specify multiple part catalogs for a category. For example, you can specify the MvPart catalog provided with the software and a custom MvPart catalog for the MvPart category. However, if 2 parts in different catalogs have the same ID or the same name, only the part in the catalog that is higher in the list will be displayed during part selection.
I was messing around with this more tonight, and I found out that in order to facilitate two catalogs in the new version of AutoCAD MEP, you need to add all of your custom parts to a new custom catalog; do not add custom parts to the catalogs provided with the software and delete the out of the box content. My custom catalog started from the default catalog, and I deleted the default content and the second catalog didn’t appear in the tool palette. I created a new Catalog, and dragged my custom content into the new catalog, and mapped that new custom catalog to the options catalog path, and now in the tool palette, under add Mechanical Equipment, I can see both catalogs.
Posted by Scott Brisk
Showing Pipe Below a Slab in Revit MEP
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
The issue of hiding pipe that is running under walls and/or slab is a little tricky. At this point, there are two ways that you can show piping as hidden, when it is running under slab. Unfortunately, neither one is really “automatic”.
The following images shows a method of creating a filter using the pipe elevation. So if you go to Visibilty/Graphics, and look at the filter tab, you’ll see a filter created, which shows any pipe as dashed if it is below the elevation of 0′-0″. To create that filter you have to click on the Edit/New… button to create the filter.
Inside the filter tab, you can click ADD, and choose the catagory that your filter is going to apply to, then choose the rule you want to apply to those catagories or objects.
The image below shows the alternate way of displaying “buried” pipe, and that is much more of a manual process. Simply highlight the segment you want to show as hidden, right-click, and select Override by Element. Then you can override the line property of each segment that you want to show as hidden.
As you can see, neither one of these options may be what you were specifically looking for, but these are the workarounds for now.
Posted by Scott Brisk
Revit MEP Coordination Views
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
When you are using either a Mechanical or Electrical view disipline, the view will display those objects darker than the architectural objects or other MEP objects. You can see from this Mechanical 3D view below, the walls are light, and you can see the piping going through it.
If you change the view properties so it is displaying using a coordination disipline instead, the walls will become darker, and the piping will be hidden behind the wall objects. But it will not display the piping with hidden lines.
If you create plan views using Coordination disipline, you can see the pipe that goes through the wall or under a light fixture or another pipe as disappearing.
When in plan mode, and the view set to a mechanical disipline, you can see those pipes passing below other MEP objects as hidden lines, but not shown hidden through the wall objects as shown below.
To do this, you’d probably need to use a basic line tool for this. Perhaps there will be more control provided for this feature in the future. For now the above workaround may help.
Posted by Scott Brisk
