BIM & BEAM

Autodesk LABS: 3D/2D ShareNow

The free 3D/2D ShareNow add-in has been updated to work with AutoCAD-based vertical solutions. This applies to the 2008 product line that is available now and the 2009 product line that will be available soon.

The 3D/2D ShareNow add-in allows you to share your design with others with one easy click. While in AutoCAD, Inventor (or Inventor LT), or Revit, you click on a ShareNow icon and see your design in Project Freewheel. The ShareNow team created some YouTube videos that show ShareNow in action:

1. INVENTOR: Publish to Project Freewheel from Inventor video (2:05 minutes)
2. AUTOCAD: Publish to Project Freewheel from AutoCAD video (0:49 minutes)
3. REVIT: Publish to Project Freewheel from Revit video (2:20 minutes)

So download ShareNow, give it a try, and let the ShareNow team know what you think: Labs.Freewheel@autodesk.com. Is it easy to use or what?

Wai

Do you want your project images to be shown in the upcoming Revit Structure 2009 installer?

Dear Revit Structure user,

Is your company interested to have some of your nice Revit Structure 3D model images of your projects to be included in our Revit Structure 2009 installer-infotainment (i.e. while user is waiting during the installation, there will be a slideshow showing all those nice Revit Structure 3D model project images from different worldwide customers).

Our upcoming Revit Structure 2009 will be released soon and our product team is in the process of selecting some images to be included in the final commercial release version.

If your company is interested, please send the images (in .jpg format) to wai.chu@autodesk.com by March 3^rd, 2008. When submitting those images, please give me the name of the project. If the name is confidential, please tell me at least what type of project is it (commercial, residential, hotel, school, mixed-used, stadium, etc.).

P.S. Please don't forget to obtain the approval from your client/architect/owner, etc. that you can use and show those images publicly.

Wai

Area Calculation – Is it possible in Revit Structure?

The answer is YES!

In the past, Nicolas and I have received a few emails from some Europe or Australia/New Zealand structural users saying that they need to calculate Area in their project and asking how can they achieve that in Revit Structure?

It is possible to achieve, but users need to know how to find the Area tool UI as they can access the Area tool in Revit Structure ONLY from the top horizontal Menu Bar.

Here are the steps:

1- First user needs to go to View > New > Area Plan.

2- Choose the Level that you would like to calculate the Area.

3- In the following screen, for demo purpose, I will choose "No" so that I can show you how to manually sketch the Area Boundary.

4- Once you click Yes or No, if you take a look on the Project Browser, you will see a new category called Area Plans (Rentable) and you can simply double click on the Level 1 Area plan which you've just created.

Important to know: Unlike a regular Structural Plan view where user can go to View Properties > Edit/New and adjust the View Direction to "Down" or "Up". There is a limitation for Area Plan that its View Direction can only be looking "Down" and user cannot really change it.

5- In the Area Plan (Rentable) – Level 1, go to View > Visibility/Graphics to turn on the Annotation Categories for Area Tags.

6- Go to Drafting > Area Boundary in order to define your areas.

7- Using the Pen/Draw option, start drawing and defining the area boundary that you would like to insert and calculate the area.

8- Go to Drafting > Area in order to insert the Area element and find out the square footage.

9- Revit Structure will ask you to Load an Area Tags family and you can say Yes.

10- Select the Area Tag.rfa under Annotations.

11- With the mouse curser, click inside the Area Boundary in order to insert the Area element and its associated Area Tag.

12- You can rename each Area by clicking on the Area element which is the invisible "X" (not the Tag!). Go to Element Properties and rename it.

13- Once everything is done, you can then create an Area Schedule (Rentable) by using your Schedule knowledge :-)

Wai

New structural .rfa content available in the Subscription Center

Dear Revit Structure users,

Our product team has just uploaded some new structural .rfa content in the Subscription Center for you to download.

New content includes some AISC 13th Editions steel sections, Joist Girders, many UK Metric families and Finland ones, etc.

Once log into the Subscription Center, scroll down to "Product Information & Downloads" section and click on "Building Solutions: Product Modules & Add-Ons". Under "Structural Engineering Solutions" click on "Subscription Structural Library".

Please feel free to try it out and give us some feedback.

Thanks

Wai

New Build 20080101_2345 to address the Y2K8 issue

We just posted a new build (20080101_2345) of Revit Architecture 2008, Revit Structure 2008 and Revit MEP 2008 that fixes this problem: http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS1079766.

It is still considered Web Update #3 because replacing the existing file was the fastest method of delivering it to the public. Therefore, the executable file names are the same as the previous SP3 builds (20071109_2345 or 20071209_1300).

We have updated the Web Update Enhancement Lists to add the following items:

·       Improves stability when editing groups, saving views/groups to the library or creating a new project with template set to “None”.

·       Improves stability when upgrading or linking a project from Autodesk Revit Building 8.1/Revit Structure 2 or older.

I would also like to inform everyone that we are only releasing this fix in the English version. Because of the time necessary to localize the update for the other languages, it would not be ready before February 1st, 2008 when the problem will go away.

The Web Updates can be downloaded by going to:

RAC: www.autodesk.com/revitarchitecture-download
RST: www.autodesk.com/revitstructure-downloads
RME: www.autodesk.com/revitmep-download

Thanks to everyone for their patience while we work through this problem.

Wai

Revit Structure 2008 Updated SP3 (20071209_1300)

Dear Revit Structure users,

For your information, some of our Revit Structure 3^rd party developer partners have reported an API issue (beams creation with NewFamilyInstance) in the Revit Structure 2008 previous SP3 build (20071109_2345) which affects them to develop their API tool to integrate properly with Revit Structure.

Our Revit Structure development team has addressed this particular API change request for our partners by re-releasing the Revit Structure 2008 Updated SP3 new build (20071209_1300) currently available on the Revit Structure 2008 product download page:www.autodesk.com/revitstructure-downloads. 

P.S. If you are NOT developing or using any API tool with this “beams creation with NewFamilyInstance” with Revit Structure, you don’t need to download this Updated SP3 new build (20071209_1300) and you can keep using the previous SP3.

Thanks

Wai

Please join Scott Hammond for his Revit Structure Webcast: Analysis & Design Integration (Part 2)

	You're invited to experience Revit Structure!
	Dear Revit Structure Customer, Hi, I'm Scott Hammond, Autodesk Technical Marketing Manager for Revit® Structure. I'd like to invite you to join me on December 18 for a special webcast presentation. In this presentation, you'll see firsthand how Revit Structure integrates its analytical model with industry leading structural analysis and design programs RISA FLoor, RISA 3D and ADAPT Floor. Through this informative webcast, I hope to show you how Revit Structure software integrates a physical model with an analytical model for more efficient analysis, design, and documentation. Register today > Revit Structure Analysis and Design Integration: Part 2 Tuesday, December 18, 2007 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. PST Extensions for Revit Structure Tuesday, January 29, 2008 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. PST Don't miss your chance to learn more about Revit Structure — register today! Attendance is FREE. Learn more about these webcasts Register today > Forward this email to a colleague I hope you'll join me. Sincerely, Scott		Register today > Learn more Revit Structure

New build of Revit Structure 2008 (20071109_2345) is available on the Web

Dear Revit Structure users,

I would like to inform you that the new English build of Revit Structure 2008 (20071109_2345) was released earlier today in the Autodesk website for customers to download. It can be found under the RST2008 English product download page:

www.autodesk.com/revitstructure-downloads

This new build has improved several platform and structural specific issues which are documented in the new Web Update Enhancement List.pdf. In any case, I am including the list in this blog:

Improvements made in the current Web Update SP3 build (20071109_2345):

• Improves API for element coping.
• Improves API for instance creation of cellular beam.
• Improves API for rebar group distribution.
• Improves File > Open performance time when opening some project files in Revit Structure software.
• Allows the ability to array face-based families placed on a vertical face.
• Allows the ability to maintain face-based instances on curved surfaces of a Revit file linked into Revit Structure when the link is unloaded.
• Improves stability when selecting sections.
• Improves stability when accessing the Help menu in Revit Structure on a computer with the Microsoft Windows Vista™ operating system.
• Improves stability when applying a view template to a sheet.
• Improves performance when views contain many objects with overridden graphics by element.

How to adjust the temporary dimension text font size through Revit.ini file?

In the new build 20070810_1700 Web Update Enhancement List, there is a point mentioning: "When temporary dimension text too small to read, user can adjust the size of the font through Revit.ini"

Our Autodesk Support team is currently in the process of creating a Knowledge Base solution that explains how to modify the Revit.ini to adjust the size of the temporary dimensions. However, the following are the steps to do so:

1. Open Revit.ini file in Notepad. The file is typically located in C:\Program Files\Revit Structure 2008\Program.
2. Add the following line to Revit.ini in [Graphics] section:

   TempDimFontSizeInPoints=N

   Where N is a number larger than 8 (default hardcoded value). Good starting point is twice the default size (i.e. 16-17).
3. Save Revit.ini.
4. Restart Revit. If the size of temporary dimensions is still small, repeat from step 1 with larger number.

Please note, the [Graphics] section may not exist. If this is the case add a line that contains [Graphics].

Thanks

Wai

New build of Revit Structure 2008 (20070810_1700) is available on the Web

Dear Revit Structure users,

I would like to inform you that the new English build of Revit Structure 2008 (20070810_1700) was released earlier today in the Autodesk website for customers to download. It can be found under the RST2008 English product download page:

www.autodesk.com/revitstructure-downloads

This new build has improved several platform and structural specific issues which are documented in the new Web Update Enhancement List.pdf. In any case, I am including the list in this blog:

Improvements made in the current RST2008 Web Update SP2 build (20070810_1700):

· Straight beam joins and cuts back properly when supported by vertical curved beams.

· Improves stability after receiving a corrupt element warning when opening a project.

· Improves stability when saving a Project with a linked DWG™ file that contains an image.

· Improves stability when applying a view template to a sheet view.

· In Windows Vista™ operating system, allows the ability to write to revit.ini, licpath.lic, KeyboardShortcuts.txt, and the Journals folder.

· Line based families contained in a group are no longer flipped when the group is mirrored.

· Improves stability when importing group into Titleblock family.

· Allows the ability to export renderings to TIFF format.

· When temporary dimension text too small to read, user can adjust the size of the font through Revit.ini.

· Linked DWG added by another user will now show up in Manage Links after reload latest.

· “Relative” spot elevation updates automatically with the change in Level elevation.

· When exporting to DWG file, overlapping lines that share a point are no longer missing in the resulting DWG.