BIM and Beam

---

Rebar Constraints Management in Revit 2017 Posted: 14 Jul 2016 02:00 AM PDT Graphical Rebar Constraints Management Rebar constraints are part of an internal mechanism used to set and lock the geometry of each rebar instance with respect to its concrete host element. Revit attempts to automatically set the position and geometry of each reinforcement element in a manner that is meaningful to the structural designer, by considering the geometry of its host, as well as the presence of other rebar. Once the rebar’s geometry is set, Revit then automatically assigns constraints to the rebar so that it moves and flexes appropriately in response to changes that occur in the model.These constraints are designed specifically for reinforcement and are different than standard Revit locked dimensions. In Revit 2017 you can experience an improved reinforcement workflow with new in-canvas tools that replace the Rebar Constraints dialog box. You can place reinforcement elements more precisely with the graphical constraints manager. You can place standard rebar shapes that snap to adjacent standard rebar or constrain them to host faces. The user interface highlights each rebar segment that can be constrained, along with available targets. The snap constraint maintains its relationship when you place, move, drag, or copy rebar. This functionality increases productivity and provides faster model definition completeness helping to keep designs coordinated and accurate. Revit software provides tools for modeling 3D concrete reinforcement in an advanced Building Information Modeling (BIM) environment. Structural engineers and detailers can use these tools for creating complete, detailed, and accurate reinforcement designs. Revit is a single software application that supports a BIM workflow from concept to construction. Use Revit to model designs with precision, optimize performance, and collaborate more effectively. The post Rebar Constraints Management in Revit 2017 appeared first on BIM and Beam.

You are subscribed to email updates from BIM and Beam. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States

BIM and Beam

---

Webinar: Connect Insight with Advance Steel Posted: 12 Jul 2016 06:40 PM PDT Structural engineers, detailers, and fabricators are seeing new opportunities to collaborate and share insight into the steel design. The detailing and fabrication team’s involvement earlier in the project can help bridge knowledge gaps around constructability and factors that impact cost and schedule. Join Steelway Building Systems as they share best practices and processes for working more collaboratively across project teams during the upcoming Connected Insight with Advance Steel webinar. In this webinar, you will learn: Best practices that maximize collaboration between engineers, detailers and fabricators How technology plays a role in improving team communication Future trends in how steel teams can improve their steel delivered product When: July 21, 2016 Time: 11pm PT Speakers: Mike Vance, PE, Steelway Building Systems; Michael Gustafson, PE, Autodesk Register for the webcast now! The post Webinar: Connect Insight with Advance Steel appeared first on BIM and Beam.

You are subscribed to email updates from BIM and Beam. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States

Repost: BIM & Beam: Using Structural Analysis for Autodesk Revit to more quickly test your design concept

From BIM & BEAM

If you are an Autodesk Subscription customer with a seat of either the Premium or Ultimate edition of Building Design Suite, Plant Design Suite, or Infrastructure Design Suite, or a seat of Revit Structure, you get the benefit of using the Structural Analysis for Revit cloud service.

Structural Analysis for Revit uses the power of Autodesk 360 to conduct the computationally-heavy task of structural analysis directly from your Revit software but without locking out your system while it processes. The service consumes two cloud credits each time you use it. In case you are still learning about Autodesk’s cloud credits, each seat of Subscription on one of the software packages outlined above gets 100 cloud credits per year and if you run out of allocated cloud credits they are available for purchase for 100USD for 100. You can find out more about cloud credits and metered usage here.

The service is powered by the industry leading Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis engine, giving you access to leading edge structural solvers, without the need to purchase and learn complex analysis software.  Structural Analysis for Revit is purpose built for engineers and architects looking to gain more insight to the structures they are designing and how they will respond to loading conditions.

This feature is a great way to test your designs early and often and iterate based on the results.

You can use these videos to learn how to get started with the service:
Preparing and submitting a model for Structural Analysis for Revit
Download and interpreting Structural Analysis for Revit results

Revit Structure Survey

Autodesk is conducting some user research to improve Autodesk Revit Structure.  The goal is to understand your needs and your workflow better.  Specifically, we are focusing on building elements that you might represent in concrete formwork drawings for cast-in-place monolithic construction.

This survey will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. The link to the online survey is:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RevitStructureJoinGeometry

The information from this survey will be used only by the Revit product team. Your involvement helps make our products better fit your needs.  Please complete the survey by the end of Monday, October 1, 2011.

Thank you,
David Aurelio
david.aurelio@autodesk.com
Autodesk User Researcher

Beta tester needed - Worksets App

RevitIt.com is looking for some beta testers for a new app related to worksets. If you are interested and work with worksets on a daily basis please contact us at info@revitit.com

Revit OpEd: Revit Content Standards - ANZRS

Revit OpEd: Revit Content Standards - ANZRS: "The Australia New Zealand Revit Standards (ANZRS) has been formally released. In March this year I wrote that they were drawing close to r..."

Re-post - Revitit.com

Re-post Revitit.com - Parking

Parking in Revit?

By Blogger, on June 30th, 2011

You are probably wondering why we will be talking about Parking? This Parking is a Windows 7 features that (we believe) only happens on Intel i5 & i7 CPU Quad Core. It basically is a way for Windows to control power. It will put some CPU in “parking” mode if they are not needed. Thus reducing the power consumption but also… the power itself. What’s the point of having a Quad Core if Windows doesn’t use it to the fullest?
Since the 2012 platform now supports multi-threading on some tasks it would be nice to harness all the power of our machines for those tasks.
Here are the results of a non-scientific test conducted today (Open with audit a 2011 file and resave it. The file is fairly large and has several linked file in it)

With Parking enabled	With Parking disabled
20:52 mins	17:47 mins

Basically on those features alone we seem to get close to a 15% gain in performance.
Now… how do I disable the Parking feature.(Use at your own risk and make sure you backup the registry before)

• Open the Registry Editor
  • 
• Run a search for that key : 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583
  • 
• Once you found one you want to make both ValueMax & ValueMin to 0
  • 
• To do so, double-click the value and set it to 0 then click ok
  • 
• Then go to Edit – Find Next and set the value to 0 again
  • 
  • Repeat until you get the following message
    • 
    • Click OK, Close the registry editor and restart Windows

To make sure it’s deactivated open the Windows Task Manager and click on Resource Monitor. Go to the CPU tab to see if any are “parked”
We would love to hear any feedback from you guys.

Re-post - evit OpEd: Autodesk Labs - eTransmit for Revit

Revit OpEd: Autodesk Labs - eTransmit for Revit: "Anyone who has to share their Revit project files with another entity knows that it can be a little tricky if you want them to have all the ..."

Re-post - Revit OpEd: Model Medic 2012

Revit OpEd: Model Medic 2012: "I wrote about this diagnostic tool when it first appeared. The 2012 compatible version is now available. You can download the new features ..."

Re-post - Revit OpEd: Revit 2012 Update Available

Revit OpEd: Revit 2012 Update Available: "I was able to download web updates to Revit 2012 products via Communication Center this morning (well when I turned on Revit anyway). I also..."

3 Revit Server 2012 Installation Tips - Repost

From the Revit Clinic

Here are 3 quick tips when installing Revit Server 2012; you can view the entire upgrade process from our previous post here if needed:
1.  Don’t Install from the RevitServer.msi
The standard Revit 2012 installer contains the Revit Server 2012 installer under Install Tools & Utilities.  This is the required method to properly install Revit Server 2012.
This main installer also uses a second .msi , which is stored on the media under x64\Tools\RevitServer\RevitServer.msi.
Under no circumstances should Revit Server 2012 be installed simply by launching the RevitServer.msi.  If you do so the installation will not complete successfully and will be missing necessary configuration components.
2.  To Configure Folders Click the Down Arrow
To configure the folder paths, click the triangle under Revit Server to expand the list:

This is also where you would toggle between a Local server and Central server.
3.  To Continue After Configuration Collapse the List
You may notice Install grayed-out after configuring the folders; in order to continue simply collapse the list [click on the triangle again]:

What Revit Wants: Create selection for future use - Revit Structure ...

What Revit Wants: Create selection for future use - Revit Structure ...: "Unfortunately, the Selection panel on the Manage tab is not enabled in Revit Architecture 2012! It would certainly be nice to have this fe..."

BIMForum Summer 2011 New Dates: Call For Presentations

When Does Design End and Construction Begin?
New Dates: July 19-21, 2011   |   Chicago, IL

A consensus is emerging about the benefits of tapping the expertise of consultants, contractors, and facility managers during the early phases of a BIM-enabled project. The intent is to achieve design decisions that are both early and well informed to avoid costly later revisions. But does this necessarily imply that all design effort should be concentrated exclusively at the start of a project? Are late design decisions necessarily detrimental to budget, schedule, and quality? Are changing client requirements and construction volatility such that early decisions are not only impractical but also to be avoided?

If you have direct experience related to the impact of early or late design decisions, we are very much interested in hearing from you. To provide additional clarity, submitted presentations should consider addressing some of the following design related topics:

• Is the idea of good early decisions pragmatically an oxymoron and not possible?
• Is a good decision once made always a good decision?
• Is it reasonable to expect a fixed functional program from a client?
• Can all factors that affect design and cost be known early in a project?
• Do late design decisions always adversely affect a project budget and schedule?
• How does BIM technology affect the cost and schedule implications of late decisions?
• Can design realistically progress in an efficient and linear way without iteratively searching for an optimum solution?
• Are legacy project phases applicable in integrated design and construction?
• What are valid contractual relationships related to consultant, contractor, subcontractor, and facility manager design input?
• How can consultants, contractors, subcontractors, and fabricators be engaged in evaluating multiple designs when they have monetary incentives to consider the fewest schemes possible?
• Are clients willing to pay for additional early design effort by “non-designers”?
• Are consultants and contractors assuming more the role of the designer in early phases while simultaneously ceding much of their legacy documentation and management roles to subcontractors and fabricators?
• Where does traditional design leave off and spatial coordination begin?
• When does spatial coordination morph into design?
• How can contractors and designers find common ground for design and coordination?

Submissions are due by Friday, May 6, 2011. To submit a proposal, click here.

Workset Visibility in Revit 2011 - Inside the System

Workset Visibility in Revit 2011

From Inside the System

Has this ever happened to you?

"Frankly, I’m annoyed by having to turn on my workset every time I create a new view. "

When a workset is created, there is an option to make it not visible by default. If you've run into the scenario above, this box was unchecked when the workset was created.

One work-around is to create a new workset that is 'Visible in all views', and then delete the original workset. When you delete a workset that contains elements, you have to option to move those elements to another workset, so you can move them to the newly created workset. However, be aware that when you do this, those elements may be visible in views where they weren't previously visible (assuming their category is visible in those views). So, you may need to 'clean up' after yourself, to turn off the worksets where they're not needed.

New in 2011 is the ability to change your mind about the workset visibility default. In the worksets dialow, there is a new column titled 'Visible in all views' where you can toggle this setting.

This setting is then tied to the 'Use Global Setting' option in a view's visibility graphic overrides settings. The Global Setting will indicate Visible or Not Visible as appropriate. You also have the options of Show and Hide as in previous releases.

I have advised against unchecking the 'Visible in all views' option prior to 2011, because if a file had worksets marked as such, there was no way to turn on the worksets when linked into a host model. However, now with 2011, you have the ability to control the visiblity of worksets in linked files.

However, I would still advise to exercise judgement when making something not visible by default. Consider a scenario where roof drains are on a workset marked not visible in all views in the architectural model. The plumbing designer, not knowing any better, doesn't go looking for roof drains in toggled off worksets.. he just expects to see them if they exist in the project. IMO, it is better to have things visible, then turned off by the 'view owner' if/when not needed.

Better control of workset visibility, especially for linked files, is a great enhancement in Revit 2011.

Silenting installing Revit Add-ons

Working for an organization with multi offices, installing software can be a time consuming. I'm not IT, don't want to be IT, but making sure that everyone has functioning software is more often than not something a BIM or CAD Manager needs to attend to.

To minimize time someone has to spend installing software, I wanted to create a batch file to install Revit and then the add-ons. The only interaction I want to have to do for the install if to double click on a single file and walk away. Working with some of the talented people at Autodesk I have been able to create a batch file to install the main product and several add-ons for Revit. The add-ons, like worksharing monitor are the tricky ones to silently (no user interaction) to install.

To automate the install process, the first thing I did was create a network deployment. Autodesk's Help file provides some basic information on completing that task. For add-ons that are a standard .msi file, I used one of the following command lines to install the software in silent mode (thank you Anthony).

msiexec /i /quiet
msiexec /i /passive
msiexec /i /qn (No UI)
msiexec /i /qb (Basic UI)
msiexec /i /qr (Reduced UI)

I now could then make my batch file to install Revit. The following is the basic syntax for installing:

pushd \\network folder install location
RevitVersion.lnk (name of the network deployment shortcut)
msiexec /i addonname.msi /quiet

Below is the batch file that I created for our Revit Architecture 2011 64-bit install. Note that we store our add-ons in a different folder location so we don't need to have duplicate copies for 64 and 32-bit versions as well as Revit flavors. Comments are shown in itlaic

pushd \\adclic03\bim\Installs\RAC2011\64-bit\
RAC2011-64.lnk
popd (This resets the folder location)
pushd \\adclic03\bim\Installs\RAC2011\Additional add-ons\ (location for 2011 add-ons)
msiexec /i worksharingmonitor.msi /quiet (installs worksharing monitor)
msiexec /i globelink2011.msi /quiet (installs globe link)
msiexec /i 2011dblinksetup.msi /quiet (installs DB Link)

This has simplified the install procedures, but we must still install any add-ons that are an .EXE separately like the Revit Extensions. I'm sure there is a way to do that, just haven't found it yet.

There are of course other methods to install apps, like pushing thru Group Policy, but I don't have a means to perform that. If you have any suggestions or comments, let me know.

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Subtle - Moving Fields in a Schedule

Revit OpEd: Dept. of Subtle - Moving Fields in a Schedule: "As you probably already know, moving schedule fields around is limited to a Move Up and Move Down button in the Schedule properties dialog. ..."

Multiple Layer Slabs and Slab Edges - From The Revit Clinic

Multiple Layer Slabs and Slab Edges

From The Revit Clinic

When a substrate layer is added to a floor's structure, it will cut the slab edge, rather than the edge cutting through and directly attaching to the slab. While some of you may be aware of possible ways to work around this, I wanted to relay a method as I still see the question float around.

The following screenshot shows the default behavior when you add an edge to a slab with a substrate layer:

To have the edge cut through that layer, first Unjoin the geometry:

Then Join it, making sure to select the edge first and then the slab:

I hope this helps!

Worksharing Monitor does not show any worksharing enabled projects open

Very Helpful article from the Revit Clinic on troubleshooting the Worksharing Monitor.

Revit Add-ons - DotSoft

I thought I would start a running list of add-on tools that I have used, come across or have been recommended to me by friends and colleagues.

DotSoft - Never used the tools and would be interested in any feedback anyone has who has used these tools.

DotSoft Welcomes You

Thank you for visiting our web site. DotSoft has began started porting our industry leading CAD productivity products to Revit. Our mission is to provide low cost solutions in the form of high quality software.

Excel2Revit

Overcomes the limits and problems associated with placement of Excel spreadsheets inside Revit. It creates and maintains DWG/DXF files of named ranges in Excel that are linked in Revit. The results are lines, fills and mtext that can plot without problems and are highly portable to others.

Word2Revit

Place Word documents into Revit projects. It creates and maintains DWG/DXF files of Word documents that are linked in Revit. You simply select your area of interest and click an icon to create the DWG file. The best part is that as changes are made in Word the DWG files are updated when the document is saved or closed.

Pdf2Revit

Converts PDF files to DWG/DXF which can be placed or linked in Revit. Using our conversion tool, if the PDF file contains vector geometry, it will result in highly usable polylines in CAD. Text annotations become text objects.