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Revit & steel fabrication models... |
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Written by John
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Thursday, 04 February 2010 10:01 |
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As part of my never-ending challenge of producing better 3D backgrounds for MEP coordination I've been trying to export a quadrant based Steel fabrication model.
Here's why:
1) Our Revit Structure model doesn't have all the small connections, angles and slab edge reinforcement modeled. Our steel fabrication model does.
I got it working, but blew up a couple times in the process... and kept me in the office until 8PM last night (despite the fact I was working on my new Revit monster with 36 GB of RAM and 6 simultaneous sessions of Revit when importing my IFCs)
1) Revit 2009 + IFC import. Geometry isn't cleanly imported. Geometry gets unjoined (or can't be created at all!) ultimately, I get columns that disconnect from beams like so:
2) Revit Structure 2009 + Structure extensions + CIS/2 Import
Random small pieces of geometry aren't created. Others are created with problems identified in the images below:
In orange: Original DWG from steel fabricator
In Grey: CIS/2 STP of same model from steel fabricator. Imported into Revit, exported as an NWC.
As you can see, the CIS2 RVT is missing the edge of slab & precast embeds.
This is far more troubling -- the slope and attachment points of angle bracing has changed. I'm actually dealing with some sloped roof drains in this bay, so the CIS2 imported model is useless for this reason alone.
same issue, different location. All of my small diagonal bracing & kickers are off w/ the CIS/2 RVT model.
The final straw is the large connections for our W14x211 brace frames.
Bottom line? Way too much detail is lost in CIS/2 --> RVT and IFC --> RVT.
The only geometrically accurate option (even though I lose edge of slab reinforcing bar):
Blank Revit project, import all the DWGs, and deal with the artifacts and "space junk" that happen when Revit attempts to cut a DWG, when I export it along with all of the designers models (which are all native Revit files, and cut rather cleanly... except for Revit MEP, which is another story).
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Last Updated on Thursday, 04 February 2010 10:36 |
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Thanks for a great BIMForum! |
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Written by John
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Thursday, 21 January 2010 08:54 |
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Although some people may not know, the Phoenix BIMForum was put on by the Emerging Leaders subforum, a group I co-chair within the BIMForum along with Sarah Vekasy. Sarah’s help and leadership was instrumental, along with other members of the conference leadership team – Carl Roberts from Ballard Spahr LLP and Chris Fischer from Schuff Steel. David Epps from Holder gets an honorary mention, but Holder keeps David too busy!
Anyhow, it was a great event, from a fantastic Gensler presentation by Shawn Gehle and Ken Sanders on LA Live and the Shanghai Tower, to a blow-your-hair-back presentation from Jeff McGrew with Because We Can/10 Miles Wide… the entire event was a blast.
One item of note was on Wednesday (1/13) before the BIMForum, we hosted tours of some sophisticated trade contractors from around the Metro-Phoenix area. I organized this, so I’m a little hesitant to pass judgment on it, but if you float on over to Laura Handler’s blog, you’ll find some discussion there on it.
Without further ado, some eye candy…
CNC Pipe Cutter @ Schuff
More Photos after the Jump -- Read on!
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Last Updated on Thursday, 21 January 2010 09:31 |
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Read more...
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Greetings Earthlings, I'm Hollywood BIM! |
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Written by John
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Wednesday, 11 November 2009 09:46 |
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…and I’m here to blind you with my razzle-dazzle!
One of the dangerous trends I’ve seen over the past 2-3 years in the construction industry is fake-BIM.
These posers typically are guilty of:
· Create pretty, pretty renderings that don’t help construction (but look really good)
· Taking credit for their trade contractors’ 3D MEP coordination work
· Fail to adopt VDC as an integral part of their daily preconstruction & construction operations.
But why call it Hollywood BIM? Simple, really.
1) Most builders who use pretty pictures to sell their capabilities use a fancy rendering engine.
2) …and most of those think “Hollywood BIM” is a compliment, which appeals to my dry sense of humor.
So don’t be a Hollywood BIMer -- turn it into an operational tool that your field staff don’t want to work without.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 12 November 2009 21:54 |
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Not quite a netbook... |
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Written by John
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Sunday, 08 November 2009 16:54 |
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...but perfect for VDC!
As much as I love my Dell Precision M6400 Covet (which is to say, I love it dearly!) I've been looking for a smaller machine that can function as an ultra-portable compadre to my Portable Workstation, Dell's classification for the M6400.
Here's the kicker: my ideal netbook type machine is well, not a netbook, since netbooks by their very nature are only designed for email and web browsing. I'm looking for something small and cheap like a netbook, but powerful enough to run a serious Navisworks session & also do some basic work in Revit.
So, it needs to:
- Have a decent Video Card (no integrated intel GPUs)
- Have a reasonable CPU (the Atom is... meh, Navisworks + 100+ MB NWD = CPU DOA)
- 4+ GB of RAM (yes, I'm crazy, yes 4GB of RAM isn't a netbook)
- Capable of a 64-bit operating system (yeah, I belong in a padded cell)
Well, until I saw the press release for the MSI Wind U230 , I thought I was crazy too.
Key figures:
- AMD Neo X2 MV40 CPU at 1.6GHz
- Windows 7 Home Premium
- AMD Radeon HD3200
- Up to 4GB of RAM
- 12.1-inch LCD at 1366×768
- 160GB/250GB/320GB hard drive options
- 1.3-megapixel webcam
- Card reader, Ethernet, b/g/n Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth
- VGA and HDMI output
- Three- or six-cell battery options
- Weighs 2.86 pounds with three-cell battery
- Up to four hours battery life (with three-cell battery)
Needless to say, I've found my next purchase... now I'm just considering the merits of upgrading to a SSD (because I know I'll have an absolutely massive page file if I tempt fate and run Revit on this little guy)
...I'll keep you all posted as I find out more information about this über Netbook.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 12 November 2009 16:32 |
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Let me break it down for you... |
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Written by John
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Friday, 06 November 2009 13:51 |
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Recently I had our general superintendant drop in and ask for all the floor plans color coded by floor.
Piece of cake. I cranked them out, included a schedule with it and he was happy... for about an hour.
Later he came back and asked "well, can I see all the floors as seperate 3D plans?"
Okay, so this time it was a little more work, but I cranked them out... but this time I had to tag the floors using text boxes, since Revit won't let you "tag all" in the 3D view (gah!)
Well, it took about 8 hours (gimme a break, I've got a 16-story 700,000 SF building I'm working with here), and my super was happy...
For a three whole days.
The latest? He'd like 3D gridlines. For a guy who's been in the industry for 35 years, he certainly does like this "BIM stuff" ...and I'm paying dearly.
Well, I just finished printing it to PDF. Hopefully he likes it, and maybe you guys will too!
A big shout out to David Kingham for his sweet purple 3D gridline family (tweaked by Laura Handler & Company
...but the parameters I'm using for those tokens, now I've got a little secret sauce of my own in there that really helps when setting up a new project and exporting to ACAD. :-)
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Last Updated on Thursday, 12 November 2009 16:57 |
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Navisworks Coordinates from RVT files |
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Written by John
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Friday, 06 November 2009 13:23 |
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Every once in a while some small setting thing will pop up -- either I'll get confused about which floor I'm on, I'll be looking at an older version of the composite model and forget. ...when that happens I give my ticker a little impromptu stress test. One such occurrence happened recently kudos to Navisworks handling of the NWCs created from Revit via the API module (I call it NWC OUT, since thats what it was called in ACAD back in the day). Anyhow the problem is specifically related to a new feature in 2010: The ability to use (and in my case abuse) shared coordinates. The problem goes something like so:  As you can see, the green export, prepared via a lengthy (like, 24 hours of processing on a 3.0 GHz box w/ 8GB of RAM) Revit to DWG ripping process. The solid is the fast NWC out from Revit (Tools --> External Tools) option. As you can see, both files, appended with no additional steps for some reason are off in both the X & Y direction. Since my trade contractors were well on their way modeling for the purpose of MEP coordination (and doing epic battles with the laws of physics), I felt my stomach drop to somewhere around my shoes. 
I quickly discovered that I couldn't move the revit-created NWC file (the solid one). It was locked and simply wouldn't move After looking through the various options, I discovered the fix: switch the NWC export tool from it's default setting of using shared coordinates to using project internal... Apparently the navisworks team assumed that most Revit teams don't bother to make sure they all start of the same base model in the same location. I guess my motley band of characters is an exception to that rule. An important note: if you're using shared coordinates, your NWC will be locked -- you can't bump it around at all... a huge pain. And if a designer has true north set different from project north, well that'll be a headache too. Not fun. So, to fix that setting, follow along: 1) Open your project in revit. Click Tools --> external options --> Navisworks 2010 2)click on this box: 
3) ...and change it to project internal. 
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Last Updated on Friday, 06 November 2009 13:38 |
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